Page 20 of Lich's Mate

The unfairness of the situation makes my skin crawl. My hunger, thirst, anger, and every other emotion I’ve been suppressing so far bubble up and I swirl around.

“Don’t you ever touch me like that again.” I hold his glare, not afraid of how he may react.

The guard responds by growling and shoving me onto the stage. Quick to recover, the auctioneer grabs me by the wrist. Shocked by the brutal strength behind such a simple act, I’m not even able to try and resist.

I see Abigail’s scared face for only a second before the curtain falls, isolating me from her and the other women.

Unceremoniously pulled to the center of the stage, I feel my face heat up under the scrutinizing gazes on me. I try to adjust the scraps I’m wearing so less of my body shows.

The auctioneer notices and grabs my shirt, lifting it enough to show the lower part of my breasts. “A healthy specimen on the stage right now! If I were one of you, I’d put my money where my mouth is!”

I try to cover myself with my arms, and the demon quickly grabs them, yanking me by my wrists so my arms are above my head.

“Oooh, and strong too…for a human girl.”

He effortlessly twirls me around to give the gawking demons a good look at my body from every angle.

Scowling, I study his expression. He really is having fun bidding off stolen women to who knows what kind of terrible fate.

Loathsome shithead.

My glare travels from the auctioneer to the crowd of delighted demons and xaphans. I face the shouting bidders, my fate unknown but my resolve to never show weakness is as strong as ever.

8

KAVIAN

Clearly, they’ve moved it since I was here last.

I shuffle behind the caravan, still careful not to attract attention. My old look was a bit too obvious, so I took the opportunity to sneak into one of the shopfronts and pilfer a decrepit old cloak. Underneath the old brown cloth, I can hide my horns, though my figure is a bit more imposing than any xaphan I’ve ever seen.

The streets are fairly busy considering it’s the morning. As I move, careful not to step over the long, traipsing cloth, I have to shuffle through crowds of people, surely not just here to witness the auctions, but for some other event.

I still remember, on one of the few occasions I visited New Solas, that they made a big showing of their slave auctions. While they’d claim the selling of humans was technically illegal, they still barked out their numbers on street corners, making it quite the spectacle.

Not like anybody really cared though. The selling of humans brings quite a bit of income for the city, behind the scenes. Gets the tourists fired up.

Instead, I watch as the caravan stops outside a large building, and the humans are quietly handed off and guided inside. Almost none of them put up a fight as they’re led into the building, save for one girl, whose appearance still puzzles me.

She’s clearly seen some of the worst experiences a living entity in the realm can see, yet she maintains an incredible beauty, even from afar. And as she quietly asserts herself before being pried from her cage and pulled inside, I see a strange dignity.

Doesn’t she know it’s not getting any better? That she’ll probably be killed off at some point if she doesn’t simply take her own life?

I ruminate on it, before realizing that I’m attracting undue attention and that the door is closing. If I want to sneak into the crowd without making a spectacle, I need to move fast.

Rushing from the shadows of an alley and sticking my foot forward to catch the door, I stumble into the large, dark auction hall.

That’s when I realize that I failed and that several xaphan saw me enter. Their eyebrows are cocked, clearly sizing up the sight of my tattered brown cloak. Perhaps, in my attempt to be discrete, I overcompensated.

“Just didn’t want to miss out on any good deals,” I mumble under my breath, walking to the crowd and away from the guards.

I can see now that most have been waiting in the pit already, and from the looks of it, for quite a while.

“You’re lucky we’re letting you in,” one of them calls out. “This is a closed auction! You need to get here on time.”

As I join the crowd, pushing my way through near the front, I try to detach myself from the inquisition at the entrance.

“The nerve of some people,” one of the guards says in the distance, over the quiet murmur of the crowd. “Think they can just show up minutes before the show and we’ll let them in.”

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