Seventy-seven: Brown stripe, silver stripe

Brown eyes grunted over me with reluctant satisfaction.

"Concussion, multiple rib fractures, pelvic fracture. The extended pressure reduced the bleeding and we caught it in time before she bled out after she was freed. She's one lucky girl. Nothing major with the rib fractures and time heals concussions. I'd say you've more or less, got your girl back in one piece, Kiran," Dr Eisor said, staring back at me, while I looked up at him. I didn't blink. He grinned at me. "At least it looks like her brain is still working in there, more or less," he gave up first and I blinked only after he turned away. "You can keep her in your apartment if you wish. I don't see any harm in that. She can walk if she can tolerate the pain. In fact, the sooner she's on her feet, the better for the bones to heal."

"Good to know," Kiran said with great relief. "You're not going to go try drugging her, are you?"

"Not enough drugs to go around anymore," the doctor grunted. "She's going drug free this time. She's not in mortal danger. She'll have to make do without painkillers. The painkillers are for our soldiers and then, I don't know how long they'll last."

"Hopefully Supply arrives and Support secures our supply route soon," Kiran said, brushing my hair away off my face. His warm eyes smiled at me, although I didn't smile back. "Get her sent to my apartment as soon as she's stable."

"I'll send her over this afternoon then," Dr Eisor said. "I need to free up as much space in here as I can. They're still bringing people in. They don't have as many supplies in here as I thought they would and I think your girl has lost some weight again."

"We'll just have to fatten her up again, once Supply catches up with us," Kiran glanced elsewhere and made a disgusted sound. "Doc, have you been tinkering and making slaves again?"

"Just in my spare time."

I turned my head to see Dr Eisor help a naked girl stand up from a bed. There was a silver stripe on her lower abdomen and she'd been dehaired everywhere but her head. Come to think of it, my hairs had never grown back since Dr Eisor had dehaired me. I wondered what he had done. Laser treatment?

Dr Eisor ran his finger up the silver line and the girl made an alluring sound that made Kiran's ears turn red.

"How may I serve?" she asked.

"Isn't she lovely?" Dr Eisor asked and Kiran looked away.

"Put her away," he readjusted his trousers and saw me watching. His face and ears glowed a deeper red and he readjusted his trousers again. Twice. "Don't waste our resources. Your priority is to help our men as best you can. Not play with prisoners and turn them into toys."

"She'll sell well in the mountains and just needs to be conditioned to her new master. A little fine tuning," he stroked the silver stripe on the girl's lower abdomen and she practically writhed under his touch, making happy noises. "It's just a pity she's not still a virgin. Jean is, by the way, I think, although her hymen is broken from the trauma," Dr Eisor added. "From what I know of her, she'd undergo treatment to make a perfect slave for you."

"She will be my wife," Kiran snapped. "My queen. Don't you dare touch her or I'll kill you."

"I wonder what Aylissa, your betrothed, would say to that," Dr Eisor said. "How will you resolve that particular problem, hmm? This girl may be of nobler blood, but she does not know our ways or how to run a proper household. What do you think the Council will say when they hear your declaration? What will your father do when he hears you plan to break the betrothal?"

"If you dare tell them," Kiran said through gritted teeth, "I will tear your limbs from your body. Let me think of a way to solve the problem myself."

"Well, the Council, you father and your betrothed will be coming as soon as the path is said to be safe. I suppose you can deal with it then."

"You've already told them," hissed Kiran.

"No, no. Nothing so blatant as that. I may have hinted that you would like some company and have been showing great interest in a prisoner who has twice royal blood in her. Your father might take her for himself."

Kiran slammed a fist on a table, making everyone within hearing jump and look around. Then he strode out of the room.

"What he doesn't know won't hurt him," the doctor shrugged, putting his latest sex slave model back on the table. Stopping beside me, he pulled back the blanket to run his fingers along my brown stripe. I let loose an involuntary murmur at the sudden strange and wonderful sensation that was released, warming me. My eyes widened when I realised what the doctor had already done without Kiran's knowledge. "That's right," he told me, stroking me gently and rhythmically, while the sensation grew enough that I began to wriggle beneath him. "It's not as strong as the silvers, but you are my newest prototype. Made to serve the noblest of our nobles and in your case, to keep you in check. So that you can be shamed by even the lowliest slave, if he knows how to strum your rhythm. I'll let Kiran pick it out for you. What you don't know," the Doctor told me, while I shivered under his touch, despite my other pains, wishing he would do more than just stroke the stripe that made a growing need and heat in me grow. At the same time, I felt appalled and ashamed by it, finding that this was near uncontrollable. "What you don't know is that slaves get shamed in front of their masters by other men if they do something wrong," his fingers gradually crept lower and I began to lift to try and meet him, while the other part of my brain desperately tried to regain control of my muscles. "By the way," he pointed at another blanket dress hanging on a hanger in the middle of the room. "I made you a new dress."

The doctor covered me up and whistled on his way out the door. I wiped my tears away angrily, determined not to let the doctor's sick games get to me. Live, survive and escape for freedom. That's what I was going to do. In that order. Nobody needed to know what the doctor had done to me and I felt it unlikely he would be telling anyone. At least, not yet. I supposed Kiran would be furious when he found out. I hoped he wouldn't be furious with me. If he rejected me, I'd have no protector left among the Boskies. If they turned me into a slave, I preferred to die.