The Delegation Read online

“May I touch her,” I asked.

  “Ask her,” Olivia said.

  “Ya-ya, do you mind if I touch you?”

  In response, she took my hand and pressed it against her cheek, then laid her head more completely against my hand, holding it there. I stepped a tiny bit closer and fingered her clothing. It felt very similar to what Bee and Dee wore, but it was built like regular clothing.

  “Are you happy?” At that, she kissed my palm.

  I stared at her for a while then slowly withdrew my hand. She didn’t try to fight me. I caressed once more then moved down to Dee. “May I touch you?”

  “You don’t have to ask,” she said. “Always.”

  “That’s a special rule,” Olivia said. “It’s actually normally rude to even ask, but you have a relationship with me and with them.”

  “Have I offended anyone?”

  “No. I am only saying, outside this room.”

  “You may always touch me,” Dee said. She grinned. “Wife.”

  I smiled. It felt ragged, but I stepped into her, and we hugged tightly. “Dee,” I whispered to her. “I don’t know what to do.”

  “Are you going to run away?”

  “No.”

  “So it’s time to talk about who you will belong to.”

  “Yes.”

  She withdrew from me, but she caressed my cheek and gave me a little kiss. Then she said, “Lady Olivia, I believe Bee and I should stay.”

  “Are Tess and Ya-ya doing okay?”

  “Yes. They were letting Shi-shi and Ky take care of them.”

  “I want you to help return them where they were waiting, then come back. We’ll pause the rest of the conversation until you get here.”

  “Thank you, Olivia.”

  I watched the slaves file out. The tender nature nearly broke my heart. I waited until they were well out of hearing range, the door closed, before I said, “Olivia, I’m not sure you fight fairly.”

  “I’m not trying to fight at all. Are you?”

  “Maybe that’s the wrong word.” I turned around. She was smiling.

  “Are you angry?” she asked.

  “No. You’re looking pleased with yourself.”

  “Perhaps I am.”

  We looked at each other for a while, and then I slowly walked back to my sofa and plopped down. We had to wait another few minutes, but then Bee and Dee slipped back into the room. They came to a stop at the edge of the circle, then Dee stepped over and knelt in front of me. “You’ve decided.”

  “I’ve half decided,” I admitted.

  “Did you tell them yet?”

  “From Olivia’s smug expression, I’m pretty sure she already knows.”

  “Tell her anyway,” Dee said. “Say it out loud.”

  “I’m not sure I can.”

  “You can,” she said. “You’re strong.”

  “I’ll be… helpless,” I said. “Barely functional.”

  “Turn to Olivia and ask her help in deciding to whom you will offer yourself.”

  I looked into her eyes, her big, beautiful, trusting eyes. “Lady Olivia, I need to know. How many of those slaves are yours?”

  “That isn’t relevant, Allium.”

  “Yes, it is,” I said. “How many?”

  “Allium, it’s going to color your decision.”

  I spun to look at her. “Of course it is!” I said practically a wail. “Answer me.”

  Before me, Dee leaned closer, reaching up to touch my cheek. I didn’t resist as she turned me back to face her. “Allium,” she said very gently. “Ask Olivia to help you decide to whom you will offer yourself.”

  “I can’t,” I told her.

  “Yes, you can.”

  “Once I say that, I have no leverage left to get her to answer my question.”

  “She’ll answer you.”

  “No, she won’t. I’ve never met anyone who is as capable of being as evasive as she is.”

  “She’ll answer,” Dee said. “Do you know why?”

  “She won’t.”

  “She’ll answer because she trusts me. Do you trust me, Allium?”

  I stared into her eyes. No one rushed me, but finally I turned and looked at Olivia. In a somewhat dull voice, I told her, “I intend to experience my first time. Will you help me determine to whom I should offer myself?”

  “Of course I will, Allium,” she said. “We will take very, very good care of you. I promise.”

  I looked back at Dee. She looked up at me then said, “Olivia, I believe you should answer her question.”

  “Dee…”

  “You always say you trust me.”

  “She’s half in love with you,” Olivia replied. I wasn’t sure why, but apparently Dee did.

  “She’s half in love with most of the people in this room,” she replied. She looked over at Olivia. “We were supposed to talk about something she said earlier. Her heart is breaking because she doesn’t know what happens to her when she goes home.”

  “We’ll take care of you, Allium!”

  “It’s not that,” I whispered. “It’s all of this. All of it.” I felt tears in my eyes when I turned to her. “No one has ever treated me like all of you do. No one. Ever.” I brushed the tears away. “I’m going to go home. And in the spring, the man who gave me every decent opportunity in my life is going to retire. His replacement was my recommendation, but he won’t have the political strength to make the same choices. I won’t lose my job, but it will be years, if ever, before I receive another important project. The king can’t interfere. It would undermine authority. But I like my job, and I don’t know what to do.”

  “That sounds like something we should discuss at length,” Olivia said. “In about two and a half months.”

  “I’m not asking to immigrate,” I said.

  “I know you’re not.”

  “Olivia, please answer her question.”

  Olivia sighed. “Ya-ya is mine.”

  I slumped. “I guessed Tess.”

  “That was a little misdirection,” Olivia said.

  I turned to Claary. “Shi-shi is yours.”

  She inclined her head but then said, “You shouldn’t let that color your decision.”

  “Ky is also yours.”

  “Yes.”

  “For how long?”

  “We have an unusual arrangement this time,” she said. “For as long as you need her to help me help you, or through your first month, whichever comes first. If you choose someone else, we’ll have a few more days of fun, but then I have to let her go.”

  I turned to look at Lisolte. “Tess isn’t yours. You were down south with me. You wouldn’t have left her here.”

  “You’re right.”

  Something clicked. “You were a farm slave, weren’t you!”

  “Yes.” She smiled. “I enjoyed it, and I learned a lot. It’s part of the magic.”

  “Do you have any slaves?”

  “Several household slaves. My pleasure slaves come from challenges.”

  “So once someone is a particular type of slave, it’s permanent?”

  “No, but it’s very difficult for me to switch them, so I don’t do it.” She smiled. “Claary, on the other hand, is more capable.”

  I shifted my gaze, but it was Olivia who said, “There are different ways to do it. Jessla does it one way, which is to nearly entirely free them, but then she redresses them, and that changes their nature. I can do something similar, and I can give them two colors.”

  “Like Claary can.”

  “Yes. Except Claary can do something I can’t. Two somethings, actually. Claary, show her. Bee, do you mind?”

  “Of course not, Olivia.” Claary stood up. Bee stepped over to stand before her, but Claary turned her to face me.

  “Claary, you already have permission to dress my slaves,” Olivia said.

  Claary nodded. Then she reached up and slowly moved her finger along Bee’s arm from her shoulder to her wrist. Behind, purple piping appeared.
<
br />   “Does purple mean something?”

  “Any sort of artist. It’s not completely correct for Bee, but it’s pretty.” She finished with the piping on one arm, then the other. Then she traced patterns down Bee’s legs.

  She giggled. “Tickles. Please do more, Claary. Swirls. I love the swirls.”

  “Orange?”

  “Please,” Bee said.

  Claary used her hands, brushing Bee, making swirls about her body, swirls of orange and red. Bee squirmed, smiling.

  Then she was done. “Thank you, Claary. Is it pretty, Dee?”

  “It’s lovely.”

  “It won’t last,” Olivia said. “I can’t do that. I can do piping when I dress them, but I can’t do what Claary just did. I know other people who can do it with their own slaves, but Claary and the queen are the only two I’ve ever seen do anything like that to someone else’s slave.”

  “So it wears off?”

  “When she changes,” Olivia clarified. “For bathing. It’s the same resin, but it switches to a neutral color, and when I put it back, it’ll be all red, unless I add piping.”

  “Claary,” said Dee. “Show her the other thing you can do.”

  “I don’t want you to leave her that way,” Olivia said. “But you may demonstrate.”

  Claary nodded and moved behind Bee. Then she brushed Bee’s neck and face, I watched as the resin climbed higher, eventually covering her entire face except her eyes, mouth, and nose. She kept at it, encasing her eyes and then even her hair, all the way to the tips.

  It was stunning. Bee lifted her hand and felt her face and hair.

  “Bee,” said Dee. “Let Allium feel.”

  Bee nodded and moved over to kneel on the sofa, facing me. I brushed at her face and then her hair. I didn’t know what to say, but then I asked, “Is it scary?”

  “No. It feels weird, especially my ears.” She turned to Claary. “Please take it off.”

  A minute later, with her face and hair back to normal, Bee plopped down on the sofa beside me. Dee took the other side. And they each took one of my hands.

  And I realized something. They had distracted me, which had also served to calm me down. But I looked up at Claary, who was watching me carefully. “Tess is yours.”

  “Yes.”

  I nodded. I looked at Lisolte, then at each of the others. I looked back and forth between Bee and Dee. And that was when Dee said, “Olivia, would you let us help Lisolte prepare Allium?”

  “Of course. Is that what you want, Allium?”

  I nodded, but then I said, “I want to ask something else.” I looked up. “I want the resin.”

  “No.”

  “I get it. Why can’t we do this? Do my first time, but only for two weeks. I didn’t have the choice of making this offer when I was sixteen, after all. Help me recover, then enter me into a challenge for the remaining six weeks.”

  “No,” Olivia said. “The chance you would be able to walk away after that is low.”

  “And I will challenge you,” I continued.

  She paused, flicking her eyes to Dee. For their part, neither slave said a word, although Bee cuddled a little closer. “Even lower,” she said finally. “Unless I treat you poorly, which I refuse to do.”

  “If I tell you I’m leaving, are you going to stop me, or am I committed?”

  “You don’t want to leave, and you shouldn’t bluff,” Olivia said.

  “Would you stop me from leaving?”

  “No, but we both know you’re bluffing, and I am telling you: you are attempting to make a mistake.”

  “What if it’s a mistake I want to make.”

  “That is also a mistake.”

  “It should be my decision.”

  “You are free to return to Flarvor and make all the mistakes you want,” she said. “But this particular mistake requires my approval as well as Judge Jessla’s.”

  “Are you denying me?”

  “Yes.”

  “And if I get up and walk out.”

  “Bluffing.”

  “You haven’t answered me. Dee, I told you she was good at evasion.”

  “Fine,” Olivia said, and she sounded angry. “I will be quite clear. I will not allow you or anyone else to make this mistake. Unless you decide to leave, you will undergo your first time as we have discussed. We will then see you through until it’s safe to send you home. After that, plus a suitable break, you will be allowed to reenter Ressaline freely. Unless you establish a permanent residence here, you will be under no further obligation to undergo this tradition, although you may do so if you desire. You will not be free to request permanent or long-term challenges without my approval, and that will only be after you state a desire for permanent residency here, forsaking any ties in Flarvor.”

  I stared at her then dropped my gaze. “How long is a suitable break?”

  “When you stop craving it,” she said. “It varies. But we use six months as a guideline. It’s only a guideline. You’re free to come and go, but I want you to wait six months before you invite a challenge.”

  “Six months from?”

  “From when we free you,” she said. “We can shorten that if everyone is convinced it’s healthy for you, especially if you are asking for a short term challenge.”

  “What is short term?”

  “Three days or less.”

  “I do a lot of overnight challenges,” Claary said. “My last was with Bess. She won. We didn’t sleep a wink. Sometimes we do two hours, so basically an evening of play. I think the last time I lost, it was to Dee.”

  “Really?”

  “Bee and I ganged up on her,” Dee said. “Which she knew was going to happen.”

  “Slaves can own slaves? Or did Olivia free you?”

  “Technically,” Olivia said. “She won on my behalf, but I simply told Cee that she belonged to Dee.”

  “Allium,” Dee said. “It’s time. Go lay your head in Lisolte’s lap and ask to be hers for your first time. She’ll take very good care of you.”

  I turned to her. “You’ll help?”

  “Of course,” she replied. “We love helping.”

  I looked into her eyes then leaned over and offered a small kiss. I did the same with Bee, then looked at Olivia. “Am I breaking rules when I do that?”

  “You have permission,” she said. “Don’t do it with any other slaves without clear permission.”

  I nodded. “I understand.” I paused then stood. I walked to Lisolte, although I had a hard time looking her in the eyes. Partway to her, I dropped to my knees and crawled the last few feet, laying my head in her lap. She gave a little gasp, but she set her hand on my head and stroked my hair. “Lisolte,” I said. “We have become friends. Good friends, I hope.”

  “Good friends,” she agreed.

  That was when I looked up at her. “Will that change after this?”

  “It will bring us closer.”

  “I think I was foolish,” I said. “You’re going to do that to me. And…”

  “Shh,” she said. She leaned over and kissed my head, then whispered into my ear, “I will take very good care of you, Darling. You have to officially ask.”

  In her lap, I nodded, but I managed to say, “Lisolte, will you take me for my first time.”

  “Yes, Darling,” she said.

  “Do you have to drug me?”

  “It makes it easier, if you’re scared, but we can try without it. If you become more frightened, I can take your fear away. I promise I will never hurt you.”

  “I know.” I burrowed in a little deeper and wrapped my arms around her waist.

  “All right, My Darling,” she said gently. “Are you ready for me to start making your decisions for you?”

  “Can it be slow?”

  “That is exactly what I had in mind. My first time was fast, but I’ve had it done very slowly since, and I like that far, far more.”

  “That way,” I said.

  “Are you ready, My Darling?”
<
br />   “Yes,” I whispered.

  “Bee,” she said. “I want the headpiece. We won’t need the locks. Olivia, may I take liberties?”

  “Of course,” Olivia said. “I want you to worry only about making this a good experience for Allium. What will her name be?”

  “We have a Li-li,” she said. “And I am not fond of Al. It is not the Ressaline way to carry two names, but in this case, it is useful. I think I will call her Coo, from her family name. How do you feel about that, My Darling?”

  I nodded. “I like it,” I whispered.

  “During challenges, it is a form of trash talk to begin calling your opponent by her slave name, even before the event begins. But it is my way to wait until the magic begins to take you. For now, you are Allium, or My Darling. Or perhaps My Sweet. Dee is right, isn’t she? You’re half in love with some of us.”

  “Yes, Lisolte.”

  “Including both Bee and Dee.”

  “Yes,” I whispered.

  “And you enjoyed the night you were Dee’s wife.”

  I clutched more tightly. “Yes.”

  “Then for now, until I begin to call you Coo, you are again her wife, and she is yours, but it is a very, very strange marriage, because she is helping to give you to me.”

  I laughed a little then whispered, “Thank you.” I don't know if anyone heard.

  I felt a hand on my back. “My wife,” Dee said. “Lift your head now.” I obeyed. Dee and Bee, working together, gently pulled the blindfold back into place, then did the buckles. Sweet kisses were exchanged, and then they encouraged me to stand.

  Together, the three of them undressed me, and then they pulled a shift over me, straightening it carefully. “My Darling,” Lisolte said. “For us, this is a momentous, joyous moment, and we share this with our dear friends. And so, the people here will share this with us.”

  “Okay,” I said. “Lisolte?”

  “Yes, My Darling?”

  “Could the others come, too? Ky and Tess and Ya-ya and Shi-shi?”

  There was a brief pause, and then she said, “Of course, My Darling. Olivia and Claary will collect them. We’re moving to another room now, and that is where we truly begin.” I felt hands on each arm, and then in front of me, Lisolte took my hands.

  There were other noises: chairs, footsteps, the door opening. But I followed Lisolte, Bee and Dee holding my arms, and all three of them speaking in slow, gentle tones.