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  “Why does she need protection?” Lisbon asked.

  “Because I’m still likely to do what I’m told,” I said. “Olivia spent half the afternoon giving me a pep talk for this evening, and I’ve had Bee or Dee with me non-stop all day. It’s just comfort, like this.”

  “How long does that last?”

  “It varies,” Olivia said. “I’ll start taking her in public in a few more days, cautiously at first. If she had been raised to this, she’d be fine after that. But with all of you, this is more shocking. We’ve found that people who aren’t raised in our society require the sort of attention someone might need who has been enslaved for about twice as long. So I’m treating her as if this had been four months, and not two.”

  “I’m fine,” I said. “But I turn emotional at the drop of a hat, and even Bee and Dee can order me about, and I probably will do what they tell me to do.”

  “The slaves,” Mom said.

  “Yes. If I think about it, I can resist it. If I think about it very hard, I can even resist Olivia, and I’ve started talking back to her, but no way do I want to face a room of rowdy patrons.”

  “We don’t really have rowdy patrons anymore,” Mom said.

  “What happened?”

  “We have patrons, but they aren’t rowdy.”

  “Oh. Right,” I said. “I don’t mind that part at all.”

  “I’m not letting you face that, either,” Olivia said. “Everyone in the city knows you just finished your two months, and while I hate to admit it, there are people who would take advantage of you. And you would let them.”

  I nodded. I knew this, and I think she was telling Mother and Lisbon more than me. But I reached over and took her hand then hugged it to me. I could tell it made Mother uncomfortable. “Do you mind that Lisbon is holding Deenie’s hand?” Mother stared at me then looked over at Lisbon. “That didn’t even register with you. There’s nothing wrong with this. We were already lovers, and while I didn’t flat out tell you, I can’t believe you didn’t guess.”

  Mother pursed her lips but looked away.

  “Sis, are you really all right?” Lisbon asked.

  “I’m really all right,” I said. “Let’s be clear. It was wonderful. I wouldn’t have expected this, but letting go of everything for a while was like a vacation. I’m sorry about abandoning you at the inn.”

  “We made do,” Mother said.

  “We made do,” Lisbon said. “Because Deenie has been working there.”

  “Really?”

  “My time wasn’t as a pleasure slave,” Deenie. “I offered myself to a family that runs an inn, as long as they promised to teach me everything I was capable of learning. Afterwards, they gave me a job. I’ve thought about opening my own inn, but Ressaline doesn’t need another, and I haven’t liked the looks of any other places I’ve been.”

  “I thought you were a soldier,” Mother said. “I didn’t know any of that.”

  “We don’t keep a standing army when we don’t have to,” Olivia said. “Most of the forces here will return to civilian life as soon as we are able. Some are wondering if they want to stay here.”

  “I love cooking breakfasts,” Deenie said. “Kathareet, I’d love to stay on, at least for breakfasts, even once Claary is back full time.”

  “I’ve seen the way you’ve been looking at Lisbon,” Mother said. “You want her the way Lady Olivia wanted Claary.”

  “Lisbon will make her own decisions,” Deenie said. “She may offer herself to me, but she could just as easily offer elsewhere. I’ve told her we’re not even discussing it until Claary has been back and is fully her old self.”

  Mother nodded but didn’t make a commitment. I decided to leave it alone, at least for now. But I clung more tightly to Olivia’s hand.

  We finished our drinks, and then Olivia said, “Dinner is simple tonight.”

  “Bee and Dee helped me make stew,” I said. “And there’s bread from the bakery.”

  “Girls, please check on things,” Olivia ordered. “We’ll meet you in the dining room. You will serve and then join us.”

  They both fluidly rose to their feet, and we watched them exit the room. I stared at their asses, and I didn’t think I was the only one.

  “I saw you a few times,” Lisbon said. “You didn’t look quite like that, but you looked damned hot.”

  I laughed. “Good.”

  “So. Four of you at once?”

  “Why do you keep asking questions like that?” Mother asked harshly.

  Lisbon turned to look at her. “Because it frustrates you, and you’ve been a shit for the last two months.” I thought Mother would yell at her. Instead, she clamped her mouth shut. There was a pause, and then Lisbon said, “I’m sorry. I didn't mean to say that. You didn’t deserve it.”

  “Yes, I probably did,” Mother said. “I’m sorry, Lisbon.”

  “I know you are. You were worried about Claary. She’s fine. She’s happy. She’d do it again. I want to know. Will you please calm down?” She didn’t wait for an answer. “The four of you.”

  “Sometimes,” I said. “More than sometimes. And a wide variety of other combinations.”

  “Anyone else?”

  “If so, I don’t remember.”

  “No,” Olivia said. “Some people do that, but I didn’t want to share her. I must admit: different people treat their slaves differently. This is one reason I wanted Claary for myself, and it’s a reason I’ve warned some people away from you, Lisbon.”

  Lisbon turned to Deenie. “You don’t have your own Bee and Dee.”

  “No, I’m afraid not. Is that a requirement?”

  “Maybe I should ask Olivia to take me,” Lisbon said. I could tell she was teasing, but I didn’t think anyone else would realize it. “She’s had one sister. Maybe she wants the other.”

  “I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Olivia said.

  “Why not? They’re really cute, and I can see how they could make it easier.” At that, I leaned over to whisper that Lisbon was teasing, but my sister stopped me with a finger. “Not one word from you.”

  And I shut up. I could have fought off the order, but it was said with such authority, and I didn’t want to.

  Olivia looked at me and said, “And that is why she’s staying with me a while longer.” She looked back at my sister. “Did you expect that to work?”

  “I wasn’t sure.”

  “Don’t do it again.” Lisbon dropped her eyes. “This time, it’s funny. The next time, it might not be.” Lisbon nodded understanding. “I believe you are teasing Deenie, or possibly me, or possibly just your mother, but I think there’s a part of you that is serious. If so, and if you ask very, very nicely, and if Deenie wishes, then I would loan Bee and Dee to her.”

  Lisbon looked up. “You would?” she asked. And that was when I realized Olivia got it more right than I did.

  “If you asked very nicely,” Olivia repeated. “And you spread it around you’re looking forward to your chance.”

  “To be a sex doll,” Mother muttered.

  “You’re just jealous,” Lisbon said to her. Where did this backtalk come from? Had I ever talked to Mother that way?

  Oh, wait. Yeah, and I started when I was fifteen. Lisbon was late.

  “Claary had choices, and to be a domestic slave was one of them,” Olivia said. “Although I didn’t want her in that capacity and would have made other arrangements for her. She made her choices. Lisbon has the same choices. Bee and Dee had choices, and they offered themselves to me as a pair, knowing full well what that meant.”

  “They’re sisters, aren’t they?”

  “Twins,” Olivia confirmed. “Claary, your sister’s order has expired. What do you think about your experience having Bee and Dee here?”

  “I think if Lisbon is smart, she’ll ask you very, very nicely,” I said. “But I don’t know if Deenie is interested.”

  Olivia laughed. “Deenie is interested.”

  “I didn’
t say a word,” said the woman in question.

  “Right,” Olivia said. “Kathareet, was your daughter partially correct? Are you jealous?”

  “Don’t be ridiculous.”

  “I don’t believe it’s at all ridiculous. If you ask me, I will find someone to accept you as a pleasure slave.”

  “Why would I ask that?”

  “Maybe you won’t. I know of several women who would be pleased to take you.”

  “I know a dozen that would take a mother-daughter pair,” Bess said.

  “I’m not doing that!” Mother said firmly.

  “You barely protested when I suggested I could find someone who would take you,” Olivia said. “I think Lisbon knows you well.”

  Mother turned away. When finally she spoke, it was a whisper. “It is difficult when time passes you by.”

  “You’re still an attractive woman, Kathareet. I imagine this is a difficult topic in front of your daughters, although in Ressaline, this would be a casual conversation. You may come see me at work any time you like.”

  Mother nodded, and it didn’t come up again.

  * * * *

  After dinner, Bess turned to me. “When you begin doing practice challenges, I hope you’ll see me.”

  I looked at Olivia. She caressed my cheek and said, “You will need practice challenges, or you will surely lose.”

  “I could have them with you.”

  “If you invite that, then your first will be with me, but if I am your only practice partner, then you will certainly lose the real one.”

  “Why?”

  “Because you won’t ever beat her,” Bess said. “And you’ll come to expect losing. You would need a huge handicap to even have a chance to win, and I bet even Dee could beat you unless she’s ordered to lose.”

  “And I can beat you?”

  “I like losing,” she said. “Oh, I like winning, too. I don’t know if you can beat me in an even challenge, but we would adjust the odds. You’d win some; you would lose some. If you can beat me a portion of the time without a handicap, you’ll be able to beat anyone with weaker experience.” She grinned. “But I don't do fun challenges. When you lose, you’re mine for at least 24 hours.”

  “And if I win?”

  “Then I’m yours for 48, if you want me.”

  “Ah, so you give more odds?”

  “I’m going to win more than you are,” she said. “But I like losing.”

  “Why would you like losing?” Mother asked.

  “Are you kidding? It’s like a little vacation.” She paused. “Not everyone does this. I take two-week challenges. It’s my way of taking a vacation.” She laughed. “Or hers, when I win. But sometimes it gets serious. Sometimes people just want to check out of life and stay that way. I tried to do that two years ago.”

  “Why?”

  “My grandmother had died. We were very close, and I was devastated. At the funeral, I turned to a woman I respected very, very much and asked her to take me for six months.”

  “Did it help?”

  “She turned me down and then told me what a terrible idea it was. She pointed out at the end, I’d be suffering withdrawal while also reliving the grief of losing Grandmother. She told me to come back at the end of a year, and she’d keep me for as long as I wanted.” She smiled and turned to Olivia. “Your mother is a very wise woman.”

  Olivia nodded. “She likes you, too.”

  I turned to Olivia. “You haven’t explained what a challenge is like.”

  “I’m not ready to do so, but we have three women in holding.”

  “In holding?”

  “For looting,” she said. “All three were caught with significant evidence.”

  “My team caught one of them exiting a shop through a broken window,” Deenie said, “a backpack full of pewter on her back.”

  “All three were given the same choice,” Olivia continued. “One wasn’t interested in listening and kept screaming at the judge, and so she was returned to her cell. I believe the guards told her what was going to happen to her, and so she begged to see me.”

  “Did you let her?”

  “I did, and she was as polite as can be. The other two talked to the judge. In each of the cases, the prosecutor laid out the assembled evidence. And then they were offered a deal. They could insist on a lawyer and go to trial. If so, because the evidence was so crystal clear, if they were convicted, then they would suffer one punishment. If they instead confessed, they were offered a similar but significantly different punishment. All three took the offered deal. The one facing me took it on the spot. The other two asked for 24 hours to consider it.”

  Then she waited, and I sighed. “You’re dying to tell us.”

  “In all three cases, they would be enslaved as some sort of laborer with a minimum sentence of six months. They wouldn’t be freed, but it is possible to break the enslavement.”

  “I don’t think so,” I said.

  “Pleasure slaves who accept willingly never break the enslavement,” Bess said with a smile. “Unwilling laborers can.”

  “But it is rare,” Olivia said. “So this is probably a permanent situation for them.”

  “If that’s the case, why would any of them confess?”

  “Because,” Olivia said. “We don’t have to make obedience pleasurable. They would be just as subservient and obedient, but they wouldn’t enjoy it.” She smiled. “Do you remember what I did to you?”

  “I don’t know what you used.”

  “You have a good enough idea,” she said.

  “I suppose I do.”

  “Well, when the spell is triggered, it is tied to what is happening to you at the time. Because you were receiving pleasure-”

  “Then the entire spell was wrapped in pleasure for me.”

  “Exactly. Well, we don’t have to make it pleasurable. We can be neutral. Or we can even do something quite uncomfortable. We don’t go to outright pain, but imagine if what I used was rough rather than smooth.”

  “Oh, no,” I said. “So they confessed.”

  “We’re holding them,” Olivia said. “I don’t like doing that, but I want to use them for a demonstration. We’ll wait another week, and then we’ll assemble as many of you that are ready to see it. They accept challenge, but they’ll lose.”

  “Because they haven’t practiced?”

  “Because we pacify them first.”

  “No one can win a challenge if she’s pacified first,” Bess said. “Every year, there’s a big event, and if you win, there’s a significant prize. You’re given the drug, and fifteen minutes later, the event starts.”

  “No one has ever won,” Deenie said. “But people still try. I don’t understand why.”

  “Because you can pick your challenger,” Bess said. “I’ve done it twice.”

  I snorted.

  “The second time, I asked her to use her most docile slave, although if I won, I’d still have to beat her to win the prize. The slave won easily.”

  “It is possible I could beat a particularly docile slave,” Olivia said. “I wouldn’t beat either Bee or Dee, and they would love taking me.”

  “So, they’ll be pacified,” I said.

  “And then you will see what one form of a challenge looks like,” Olivia said. “It’s not a particularly good example, but that’s the problem with going first.”

  “Challenges can take many, many forms,” Deenie said. “And people are always thinking up new ways.”

  “With common elements,” Oliva added.

  “Is this event going to be open to the public?” Lisbon asked.

  “No. Frankly, it’s going to be a little shocking, largely because it’s going to be completely one-sided, and because while we aren’t going to be cruel, we aren’t going out of our way to make it fun, either.”

  “I want to be there,” Lisbon declared.

  There was a pause, and then Olivia looked at Deenie. The woman nodded and said, “You may come with me, and th
en we’ll go to my home and talk about it after. I think you’re going to be shocked and a little frightened.”

  I looked down and then said, “I think we should come here, and the four of us talk, and then you take her home with you.”

  “All right,” Deenie said. “We can do it that way.”

  * * * *

  Later, as it was time to go, Lisbon looked at Dee. “Would it be rude to touch her?”

  “Not at all,” Olivia said. “But ask her if she minds.”

  “Dee? May I touch you?”

  The woman smiled. “I’d like that.”

  Lisbon moved closer and stroked Dee’s arm. I thought of myself two and a half months ago, and I understood completely. “So, she wants to have sex around the clock?”

  “She wants to share pleasure around the clock,” Olivia explained. “Sex is one form. I have to set rules for them, or they wear themselves out and can even harm themselves.”

  “Too much friction.”

  “Yes,” Olivia confirmed. “If I ask them, they would say they don’t want to be loaned away from me. But I would do it differently, and they would be quite pleased about it. Dee, do you realize what we’re talking about?”

  “Helping Lisbon.” She turned to Olivia. “You should take her. You like sisters.”

  “I don’t think Claary would be pleased if I did that,” Olivia replied.

  Dee turned back and looked at my sister. “Not permanently.” She turned back. “You promised us you would keep us.”

  “Not permanently,” Olivia said.

  Dee turned to look at Deenie. “Would you teach her how to play with us?”

  “Yes, Dee.”

  “May I kiss Lisbon?”

  “If she asks you to kiss her, you may.”

  Dee turned back to my sister again and held her hands up in supplication. Lisbon glanced at Deenie, who shrugged, so she turned back to Dee and said, “Would you kiss me, Dee?”

  Dee didn’t need more encouragement than that, and the kiss looked like a real scorcher. When it was over, Lisbon fanned herself dramatically. Dee grinned, clearly pleased.

  No one else spoke, but hugs were exchanged. Mother was last out the door, and once the door closed, Dee stepped to my side and set her head on my shoulder. Bee did the same on Olivia’s shoulder. “You should take the sister,” Bee said. “She’d be happier here.”