The hand on her head grew slightly heavier. “A purpose of Trothplight,” Mozok said quietly in English, “is to… What is the word? …Create a sense of trust between the masters and their subject. You will learn to entrust your safety to us.”
Mina knew that she should want to roll her eyes, or laugh at Mozok, and that she should be infuriated by such a barbaric, chauvinist ritual. Not surprised, for it was well-known that the Draquun and Herstrakaa races conferred very traditional roles on males and females, roles that seemed centuries outdated to the inhabitants of Earth.
But instead of feeling the disdain she would have expected, Mina felt a flutter of sexual arousal, and a temporary rush of gratitude, almost causing her to feel some tenderness for Mozok.
It was short-lived, but nonetheless, it happened.
What was wrong with her?
CHAPTER6
Voso observed the Human woman watchfully as the tsunami enveloped the fortress. He could sense her fear and admired that she maintained her calm as the fortress was submerged in the ocean that had been so distant only minutes before. He himself had experienced a feeling—perhaps not fear, because the Herstrakaa were a race of warriors whose tendencies to fear had been edged out of the gene pool many generations past—the first time he had watched a storm come in from the ocean.
Still, it was not Mozok’s interest to truly find a mate, and Mozok’s interests were Voso’s interests. Voso was a willing servant to the Draquun; specifically, to the most powerful Draquun, because it was the tradition of the two races at the end of great battles. The conquered warriors entered into a Troth, a shared life with a strict hierarchy. The trothen pair shared a female mate, which was the ostensible purpose of Trothplight.
But Voso knew Mozok well: he did not truly want a mate. He thought only of business and accruing wealth, and he had only proposed the Trothplight because he felt confident that the weak Human would be unable to complete the sexual and physical trials of the ritual, and that she would surely quit.
Voso himself had believed she would quit long before they arrived at the fortress, in fact, as soon as she was examined before the parliament. But she had not only endured the examination, she had seemed, in fact, aroused by it.
Voso himself had not been able to dislodge the memory of the Human’s pert bottom in the palm of his hand, nor the scent of her arousal. She was weak and fragile—much tinier than a Herstrakaa female or even a Draquun. It was a wonder that this race had been successful in evolving on their own planet, let alone traveling in space.
And yet, the examination, which was conducted in order to determine the extent of the physical and sexual trials that the trothplighted female could endure without damage, had given Mozok and Voso a very wide berth. He had not expected, for example, that either one of them would be able to penetrate her, and certainly not at the same time, and yet they were, according to the law, permitted to do so. They could spank her, inflict temperatures within a certain range on her, use almost all of the traditional Trothplight artifacts on her, and make her endure a great deal of endurance training.
If she did not stop the Trothplight. Which, of course, Mozok expected her to do.
Mozok ultimately decided how quickly they should push her to her limits, and Voso had expected him to do so rapidly so that he could conclude the Trothplight victorious and secure the land he so dearly loved.
Voso had been pleasantly surprised when Mozok had spoken to him quietly, in Herstrakaa, as an aside.
“I wish for you not to worry, my loyal troth, but I wish to entertain myself with the Human for a few nights before we break her spirit completely. After all, we have much time and very little to amuse us as the storm passes.”
Voso had agreed without comment or emotion. He was surprised by his own sentiments, however.
Now, as he looked at the Human, kneeling beneath Mozok’s firm hand, he felt a similar throb of an unfamiliar sensation, pulsing in his groin and his chest:
He was looking forward to something.
* * *
Mozok made the Human kneel for a long time, until she began to shift her body weight in a sign of discomfort, and then even longer. But she did not complain, and she took pains to hide her discomfort.
At last, as the dark water began to recede, and the black sky replaced it—something only Voso could likely see, as both the Human and the Draquun had abysmal vision—Mozok spoke. “Rise.”
The Human rose to her feet and stood, stonily, awaiting Mozok’s further instruction. Voso could feel his arousal growing, and he looked at the Human hungrily, knowing it was very unlikely that he would ever get to truly enjoy her.
Many, many laborious trials must come first, he reminded himself, before they would be permitted to attempt plight’rahzh, or consummation.
And the Human would almost certainly break down before that time.
Still, a beast of desire was growing inside of him, and he half-hoped that the Human would endure the Trothplight.
But no. Such a silly idea.
Still, Mozok was very clever, for he had managed to trap the Human in a game she could not win: For if she did endure Trothplight, the lands would be awarded to her, just as the agreement stated.
But Mina Groza would also be Mozok and Voso’s mate then, and so the land would ultimately revert to Mozok’s control.
Voso had dared to ask Mozok if he had considered that the Human would survive to enter into their Troth.
