"Yes, Captain Blair." The athletic man behind the desk kept his calm expression far better than his visitor. "I received your message. Please tell me why the Earth Security Force needs to call upon a civilian, such as myself, to deal with a military prisoner."

The captain briefly gave the impression of a man biting into an apple and finding only part of a worm. "Your ... specialized knowledge," he managed to say, then rushed into his next words. "We know you began as a doctor, specializing in neurology and psychology, then you moved on to exobiology, and somewhere along the line you picked up an interest in ... in..." He fell silent.

"In the BDSM phenomenon." Master Zane remained as calm as before. "Yes, it does appear in nonhuman species. How does this relate to your prisoner?"

"He's an Althori!" the captain spat out, giving up all pretensions to disinterest. "You know how they are: Death Before Dishonor, never betray a client, all that. We caught this one when we finally got Boss Prendergast. It--he was Prendergast's bodyguard, went with him everywhere, and saw everything he did. That alien's a goldmine of information if we could just..." Captain Blair was definitely blushing now.

"I see." Master Zane leaned back in his chair and steepled his fingers. "'Ke', you mean."

"What?"

"The Althori are hermaphrodites. The proper personal pronouns for an individual would be 'ke', 'kir' and 'kim'."

"Fine, fine. The problem is ... getting the information."

"I understand completely," said Master Zane. "The usual police and military methods of interrogation have a record of failing with Althori, so you need the help of--to be blunt--an expert in the nature of torture, particularly a form of torture which does the victim no permanent harm and won't look bad at trial. Yes?"

The captain blushed as red as a turkey's wattles. "We've got to get the information soon," he managed. "The civilian cops are nagging us to hand Prendergast over to them, saying he's a civilian crook, even though we caught him in open space, and you know how the civilian courts are. Without the Althori's information, that bastard might get off again."

Master Zane interlaced his fingers, and smiled: a slow, powerful smile. It made Blair squirm.

"Yes," the Master said decisively, "I'll take your case. There's a good holding-room in the basement; I'll give you the coordinates. Please transfer the prisoner there."

The captain let out a breath that he didn't seem to have been aware of holding.

"I'll also need a complete file on the prisoner, another file containing everything not available on MediNet concerning the neurophysiology and psychology of Althori, and a list of the precise questions you wish to ask kim. I'll send you one of my contract forms in return. How soon can you have all that delivered?"

"Uh ... Noon tomorrow! Everything," Captain Blair almost gushed. "Tomorrow, then."

He did a quick about-face and strode rapidly out of the office.

Master Zane waited until the monitor on his desk showed that the front door had closed behind his visitor, then asked the computer's microphone: "Nell, did you get all that?"

"Oh yes," a mellow voice replied from the speaker, adding a brief giggle. "Wouldn't it be fun to get that one on the rack!"

Master Zane smiled again, a much softer smile. "Fun indeed, my dear, but right now we have work to do: researching Althori. I think this will be an interesting challenge."

The moment Reshayn-Lareth opened kir eyes, ke remembered that ke'd been stunned by a guard. Ke saw that ke was now transferred to a different cell--possibly in a different prison. This room had four solid walls, an enclosed washroom, a plain food-replicator slot, a simple table and chair, and a likewise simple but comfortable iron-framed bed. But for the lack of a viewscreen and communicator, it might have been any cheap room for visiting spacers on any of a dozen different space stations.

Don't raise your hopes, ke reminded kimself as ke looked more carefully.

Oh yes: kir cage-pot of sapphire-mice, feed-grass and the little idol of Larashath were absent. So were all kir weapons, including kir ritual knife. Kir clothes had been replaced by the standard gray prisoner's jumpsuit, and even kir translator was gone. Ke was definitely still a prisoner. Ke had nothing left but kimself and kir honor, and in situations like this one's honor quite often led to death. That was not a comforting thought.

As soon as the buzzing faded from kir head, Reshayn got up and tried the door. No, it was firmly locked, and kir best efforts couldn't break it. Ke went back to the bed and sat down with a sigh.

"Why didn't I wait?" ke asked the walls, as if ke hadn't asked the same question a hundred times before. As always, ke knew the answer. Ke'd been desperate for an off-planet job, anything that could get kim off overcrowded Althor and into space, and ke'd made the classic mistake of taking the first offer that came up--without doing thorough research on kir prospective master. Ke'd learned soon enough that Prendergast was a crook, wanted by security forces from Earth to Rigel for a dozen different interplanetary crimes, and he'd be caught sooner or later, but by then the contract was signed and registered.

"A contract is a pledge of honor," Reshayn repeated to the silently accusing walls, as ke'd likewise done a hundred times before. And honor required that ke follow kir pledged master down to defeat, capture, and probable death. The Earth Force captors wanted kim to talk--talk, talk, talk, as that fool Captain Blair had shouted at kim for hours--and honor demanded that ke refuse them. "Loyal unto death" was not just the motto of the Lareth clan; it was demanded by Larashath, kir patron god. Break faith, and ke'd be reborn as some lowly creature, which didn't bear thinking upon.

Though the gods know you were fool enough to merit rebirth as a teegh-goat.

Reshayn quashed the treacherous thought and stiffened kir resolve.

So, let the Humans do what they would. Their drugs, ke knew, either didn't work on Althori or killed them outright. Their laws restricted what they could do as torture, and simple beatings ke could endure handily. They might send kim off to some prison planet to eke out kir days battling the elements, which couldn't be that much worse than struggling for survival on crowded Althor. More likely, they'd kill kim in their frustrated attempts to get information about kir pledged master; in that case, ke'd be reborn on Althor--possibly, ke formed a treacherous hope, as a higher-ranked child in a much higher-ranked clan, rich in lands and livestock, free to choose a life-mate, Bond and Change and mature, and have children of kir own...

Seeing that there was nothing else to do, Reshayn closed kir eyes and let kimself daydream about kir next life.

Nell was just rubbing oil into the last of the leather cuffs when she heard Master Zane's laugh come echoing from his office. It wasn't his usual quiet professional laugh, but an honestly light-hearted guffaw. That was curious enough to make her place the cuff hastily in its cabinet and go see what it was that amused the Master so.

She found him chuckling over the computer's screen, and he gave her a distinctly merry smile as she came in. "Pull up a chair and look," he said, pointing to the screen.

"This is a fascinating example of convergent evolution."

Nell tugged a chair out from a corner, placed it where she could see the screen, shoved a wayward lock of blonde hair out of her eyes and looked at the monitor. It displayed a nice image of a nude Althori, accompanied by several lines of small print.

"They're remarkably like humans in structure," Master Zane explained, "Particularly in their nervous systems--which are exquisitely sensitive, by the way. Their bones are thicker and muscles denser, enough to give them remarkable strength along with that deceptively tall and slender build, but not to a superhuman degree. They're pure carnivores, eating vegetable matter only for bulk and flavorings--they do drink alcohol and enjoy it--and their metabolisms make much more use of cobalt, which explains their lovely purple-blue skins and blue-silver hair. No one knows what caused them to develop those tall pointed ears, but that's a trivial difference. The exceptional difference is in their reproductive systems, which are something unique in this part of the galaxy."

"I've heard it said," Nell ventured, "That the sex of an Althori is of interest only to another Althori."

"And for good reason." Zane thoughtfully rubbed his hands together. "Althori are true hermaphrodites. Each individual possesses a penis and a vagina--the testicles are tucked safely up in the abdomen, not far from the ovaries--and can use either at any time. The uterus can, and usually does, accommodate a litter of from two to six young, which also explains those six nipples running from chest to abdomen. This offers some interesting possibilities..."

"I've heard that Althor is overcrowded, which is why the Althori are always looking for off-planet work and new planets to colonize. I suppose that habit of bearing litters explains it, but don't they have any sort of effective birth-control?"

"Indeed, they have a built-in form of it." Master Zane steepled his fingers and studied the screen. "They're semi-telepathic--empathic, to be precise; they can pick up emotions and physical states, if not precise thoughts--and this features heavily in their breeding process. You've noticed that our subject, like most of the Althori one encounters in the usual space-trade, has nipples but no breasts?"

Nell glanced at a monitor screen to one side of the desk, which displayed the Althori prisoner seated in a meditative pose on kir bed. "I was wondering about that," she murmured.

"The reason is that Althori enter a form of puberty at roughly the age of twelve, after which they're quite able to mate--and enjoy it--but they don't grow breasts and become fertile until after they bond with their chosen mates."

"Bond telepathically?"

"More like empathically. Althori find True Love, bond empathically with their soul-mates, become fertile and then settle down to a long life of guarding their lands, raising their livestock, and reliably breeding two to six children--apiece--every year. Until that point, they're infertile. It's in the hope of someday finding a true mate and maturing that Althori neuters always carry with them a cage-covered flowerpot filled with their native soil, feed-grass, a small colony of native animals--sapphire-mice, at least--and a little idol of their tribal god. That's symbolic of land, crops, livestock and a family altar, all the more precious since most Althori never gain more land than that."

"And they need land to feed the livestock that feed their armies of children," Nell guessed. "But Althor is overcrowded already..."

"They can't conceive while still nursing a litter, so they often nurse their young as long as possible--about to the age of two. But it's also not surprising that most of the population of Althor remains in, hmm, neuter phase all their lives; it's the one form of birth-control that reliably works for them.

"Must be frustrating," Nell considered.

"Not sexually frustrating, anyway," Master Zane smiled. "Althori are notorious for 'sporting'--which is their term for infertile mating--with anything or anyone that will hold still for them, all over the known galaxy. They have very few sexual taboos, and those deal only with rape, incest and child abuse. The 'sporting' of neuters is considered inconsequential, and bonded pairs are incapable of ... hmm, voluntarily mating with anyone else."

"So we shouldn't have any taboos to deal with: just a simple dissolving of the will." Now it was Nell's turn to smile.

"And all that exquisitely sensitive sexual tissue to work with," Zane grinned back.

Despite kir best efforts, Reshayn's imagination kept sliding away from the hopes of kir future incarnation and back to memories of the better times of kir life, like that last ten-day layover at Marsport...

Ten days' carousing and Sporting with Linneth and Tashannel ... Reshayn smiled, remembering. Ke'd never done a Triad before then, and ke'd been frightened and clumsy at first, but once they were all linked and thrusting together ... Ah, dear gods! The climax had been so fierce that ke'd fainted afterwards, and awakened thirsty, ravenous, and eager to try it again.

Small chance of that now, ke reminded kimself sourly. Humans were notorious for not allowing prisoners to Sport with each other. Even if ke were exiled to some prison planet, it was anyone's guess if ke'd find another Althori there, let alone two.

The thought that ke might never have a chance to Sport, ever again, didn't bear thinking about either.

What in the worlds can I do? Reshayn wondered, clutching kir ears until they hurt. This is where stupidity and honor have brought me.

Well, countless legends told of a solution. When faced with the choice of a miserable existence or death with honor, choose the honorable death. It guaranteed a better next life.

Reshayn heaved a vast sigh, turned to face the doorway and cocked kir ears toward it as well. Ke could hear anyone approaching the door, and when the door next opened ke could spring out at his captors. If Larashath smiled on kim, ke might surprise them thoroughly enough that ke could fight kir way to freedom--possibly even get to the nearest spaceport, and talk kir way onto a ship and away into free space.

At worst, kir captors would kill kim and send kim on to kir next life.

It was, as kir master Prendergast often said, a win-win situation.

The gurney caught on the corner as Nell and Master Zane started into the end hallway. Nell swore and pulled it loose, and was about to proceed when Zane stopped her.

"Turn off your translator," he said, "And draw your stunner."

Nell complied, giving him a questioning look.

"Now stand two steps behind me, and one step to my left. I expect our guest will try something heroic and desperate. Be prepared to stun kim quickly, and take care not to injure kim."

"Right." Nell aimed carefully at the closed door and stood ready.

Master Zane, stunner in one hand, reached out with the other and pushed the door button.

Reshayn heard the voices in the hallway outside, but couldn't make out what they were saying. No matter: that door was about to open, and ke'd have kir one chance for escape. Ke darted to the doorway and crouched, poised to leap.

There! Open!

Even as ke leaped, Reshayn got a fleeting impression of two Humans: a male, large and muscular and wearing close-fitting black clothes, with dark hair and light eyes, and a female, likewise in black, likewise muscular but slightly smaller than the male, with pale gold hair and almost-Althori blue eyes. Ke dived straight between them, hoping to knock them aside.

At the last split second ke saw the stunners in their hands and the sudden burst of light from both of them.

Then darkness.

"Did we both hit him?" Nell panted, still holding her stunner aimed at the body on the floor.

"'Kim', remember." Zane bent down and pulled open the top of the Althori's jumpsuit. Yes, there were two blush-purple marks, quite close together, on Subject Reshayn's chest. "Yes, both," he commented. "That means ke'll be unconscious for roughly an hour, which gives us time to arrange kim completely. Come help me put kim on the gurney."

Nell obliged, noting that the tall slender body was remarkably heavy for its size. She also noticed, with approval, the sharp clear musculature; apparently Althori--at least working mercenaries--didn't put on body-fat very easily. The smooth skin was a beautiful shade of purple-blue, and that unconscious slender strong-jawed face was quite handsome, even by human standards. Subject Reshayn was a lovely creature, really.

She helped fasten the tie-down straps, taking care not to pinch the skin, then pushed the gurney after Master Zane, toward the main workroom. It would, she reflected, be quite pleasurable to work on a subject as exquisite as this.

Reshayn wakened slowly, feeling the familiar ringing echoes of a stun-blast echoing through kir nerves and hearing droning alien music somewhere nearby. Ke'd been beam-stunned before, when the Earth Forcers took down kir client and kimself, and the feel of the blast was quite distinctive. Not truly painful, no, but definitely unpleasant.

It could have been worse, ke consoled kimself, as ke began feeling out kir body and trying to determine where ke was, aside from lying on a smooth padded surface. Ke'd lost one chance for escape, but there could always be another...

Then ke noticed that ke was naked. The feel of a slight breeze playing over kir bare skin was quite distinctive. Ke could also hear soft voices--Human, not using translators, unintelligible--somewhere close.

More, ke was gagged as well. A firm U-shaped form clasped kir teeth but left kir tongue free, allowing kim to swallow but not speak. Shoving at the gag with kir tongue did nothing to loosen it, but only put pressure on a strap that wrapped around kir head to hold the gag in place.

But they wanted me to talk...

This made no sense. Why in the worlds had they gagged kim? And why was ke stripped? Humans tended to regard nudity as shameful, at least in public; were they trying to shame kim into compliance? That wouldn't work with an Althori, to whom nudity was simply a lack of armor.

Ke tried to open kir eyes and sit up, and thereby discovered two more facts; ke was blindfolded and bound, spread-eagled, by soft but firm cuffs around kir wrists and ankles.

There was also a soft-but-firm strap around kir waist, attached to some sort of bar under kir back. Ke could move neither kir limbs nor kir body. A newborn cub couldn't have been more helpless.

Torture?! ke wondered, suppressing a shiver. Their own law forbids ... They can't do me any permanent harm ... Not physical harm, anyway ... Reshayn tried to remember if ke'd ever heard of Humans having any skill at mental torture, and couldn't recall anything. There might be cases of individuals having some rare skill at it--like Mad Allareth in the folk-tale of Allareth's Vengeance--but if so, ke'd never heard of any. I'm safe, ke told kimself. I'm safe...

But ke couldn't help remembering Grandy Marthellen's voice solemnly reciting the story.

"Now this is the tale as my grandbearer told it to me. Allareth and kir bondmate Reeshatha held lands bordering the fields of Vinnath and Loshennan, who were greedy. Instead of making honorable warfare, Vinnath made most foul plans to seize Allareth's land, and Loshennan complied. They plotted, waited, and then dishonorably assassinated Reeshatha as ke made kir way home from inspecting the herds. This threw Allareth into Disbonding Shock, and kir children--already grieving for the death of their other parent--feared for kir life. But this did not prevent them from preserving Allareth's lands against Vinnath and Loshennan's attacks, so the plot failed in that quarter.

"After nearly a small-moon of delirium, Allareth recovered--but kir mind was bent solely upon vengeance. Even as kir children took oath to assist kim, they feared to think what that vengeance might be.

"Allareth sent spies, disguised as wandering mercenaries, into Vinnath's and Loshennan's land; they soon reported that Vinnath had planned the murder, and Loshennan only agreed to it. Allareth then commanded a peculiar rack to be built, like unto two upturned tables set upon two other upright tables, made of very sturdy larth-wood. Then ke sent out kir old-enough children to watch and ambush Vinnath and Loshennan, and take them captive. Within a large-moon, the children were successful; they brought the captives to Allareth, who had them close confined and then summoned all kir household to attend a feast and what ke called a 'celebration' the next day."

That, Reshayn remembered, was the point where Grandy had always paused for a mouthful of ale, and all the children had shivered in anticipation.

"When the household assembled for the feast in the great-hall, they found the peculiar rack standing in the center, surrounded by the seating-cushions. All through the feast they studied the rack and wondered what Allareth had planned. At last, when the dishes were cleared away, Allareth signaled to kir sturdiest mercenaries to 'proceed with the celebration'. They saluted, left, and returned dragging Vinnath and Loshennan, who had been stripped naked, bound at wrist and ankle, and also gagged: Loshennan with a simple knotted cloth, but Vinnath with a wide metal ring that held kir mouth open. Also, the servants brought two wooden boxes, one of which rustled ominously."

Reshayn shuddered again, wondering if there was any chance that Humans had ever heard this tale, and planned to reenact it. No, no, that wasn't possible; this was a back-country folktale, and there was no account of anyone ever recording it--certainly not Humans. No, kir captors wouldn't know it. No.

"At Allareth's command, the servants bound Vinnath and Loshennan to the rack, on their backs, held there with broad straps across the chest and hips, with their limbs pulled upward and tied to the upright legs of the rack, so that their trenches were utterly exposed."

Reshayn remembered suppressing a giggle at the thought of grownups being tied in such an embarrassing position. Later, ke was very glad ke hadn't laughed aloud.

"Then Allareth went to the larger box, the silent one, and opened it. From it ke took out a jug of theesha oil and a painting-brush. With the brush, ke slowly and thoroughly painted the oil into their trenches: into their bungholes, into their tunnels, and onto their shafts. Well before ke was done, they were both squirming madly and their shafts were full-stiffened."

Even now, Reshayn couldn't help twitching at the thought. Theesha oil was famed for its antiseptic properties--and also for making any flesh it touched heat and itch. Ke remembered the time ke'd let Marathill paint it on kir shaft; it had kept kim. Sporting frantically for hours, not only for the pleasure but also for the desperate relief of scratching that frantic itch. They were both exhausted by the time the itching faded.

"Allareth returned to the box, put back the brush and jug, and took out a hand-pump of the sort commonly used to give enemas to nilga-steeds--save that the intake hose had been removed so it could draw nothing but air. Then ke took the outflow hose and thrust it into Vinnath's bunghole, as far as it would go, and began to work the pump. Vinnath howled like a mad thing as the air slowly filled and swelled kir entrails until ke looked ready to birth a full litter. Ke could not contain the feeling but Sent it helplessly, so it spread to Loshennan, too, who also howled and struggled. Allareth did not stop until Vinnath began belching monstrously, proving that kir belly was filled with air from end to end."

Even as a child, Reshayn had groaned at the thought. Ke'd eaten kir share of raw totha fruit kimself, and had learned well the feel of gas-pains as a result.

"When Allareth removed the hose and put the pump back in the box, many wondered if this was all the vengeance ke planned to take, but they soon learned otherwise. From the box ke took out a large funnel and a flint-steel lighter, and handed them to kir foremost child. The youth thrust the nozzle of the funnel into Vinnath's bunghole--loosing a great blat of air--and stood by, waiting, with the lighter. Allareth then went to the other box, opened it, and pulled out that which had rustled so fearsomely..."

Here Grandy had always paused dramatically, and the children never failed to shiver with anticipation.

"Ke held it up, and everyone could see that it was a shazz-baht--as long as kir forearm, and more than half as thick."

Reshayn had been one of the children who squealed in terror at that description. The shazz-baht--the Great Centipede, the Devil Wyrm--was a creature of instinctive horror to all Althori: a carnivore that hunted by sensing body-heat. It was the reason that no Althori ever slept on the open ground without covering kimself from head to foot in thick cloth, leather or armor. The modern beast was fearsome enough, but its prehistoric cousin--a monster the size of four ground-cars strung together--had contested with the ancestors of the Althori to be the dominant species on the planet. The Althori had triumphed by learning to surround the beast with fire, and the ancient giant was now extinct, but it had stamped the Althori with inborn horror of the shazz-baht and all its kin forever after.

"At first the onlookers thought that Allareth meant to loose the wyrm upon Vinnath, so that it would chew through kir body and thus kill kim slowly, and many there were who thought this was vengeance too much, but as Allareth held the wyrm high the onlookers saw that its fangs had been pulled and the claws of its feet had been filed away. The shazz-baht had been rendered harmless, though it lived.

"Then they saw the true furious genius of Allareth's vengeance, for ke took the wyrm to the wide mouth of the funnel and pressed it inside. Then ke took the flint-steel lighter, sparked it to flame, and thrust it against the shazz-baht's tail. The wyrm, fleeing the heat, could go nowhere except into the funnel's neck--and thus into Vinnath's belly."

All these years later, Reshayn still winced when ke thought of it. At the time, ke'd screamed and clutched kir ears, right along with the other children.

"Allareth pulled away the funnel, so that all could see the wrym's tail disappear into Vinnath's bunghole. Now they saw, also, the true reason that Allareth had pumped kir enemy's belly full of air, for the wyrm--now fleeing suffocation--followed the air ever deeper into Vinnath's entrails. All could see the shazz-baht moving under kir skin, pushing the air ahead of it, and all could see kir wild struggles and hear kir insane shrieking--and Loshennan's as well.

"But Allareth's vengeance was not yet done."

That phrase had reduced the children to wide-eyed fearful silence, wondering what in all the world could be added to a vengeance like that.

"Then Allareth gestured to kir servants, for no sound could have been heard over those mad screams, and they led in two teegh and tied their halters to the rack. Allareth reached into the larger box once more, and this time drew out a jar of powdered salt. Ke took a handful of the salt and rubbed it thoroughly into the oiled skin of Vinnath's shaft, and Loshennan's also, until the organs looked frosted-white as the peaks of the Star-Reach Mountains. Then ke took each teegh in turn and pressed their noses against the whitened flesh so that they could taste the salt. The teegh, true to their natures, began to vigorously suck and lick the shafts to gain the salt."

There Grandy had paused dramatically again, and the older children had groaned in understanding. Reshayn still squirmed with embarrassment to remember how ke had spoken up, innocently asking: "Why did ke do that, Grandy?" And oh, how knowingly the older children--the ones over twelve--had laughed, especially after Grandy explained.

"Ke did that, child, to force kir enemies to feel unendurable pleasure--even as they both felt the horror crawling through Vinnath's body. The collision of feelings was more than anyone's sanity could endure. And indeed, Vinnath and Loshennan shrieked and struggled so deliriously that all the onlookers could see their minds breaking. They screamed until their throats were so raw that they could no longer make a sound.

"Then Allareth returned to kir cushion, lifted kir cup to be refilled, and said to kir dinner-guests: 'Now let us finish the wine'."

That, Reshayn decided, was one of the most chilling phrases ke'd ever heard in kir life--but only to someone who knew the story.

"From first to second moonrise the shazz-baht crawled through Vinnath's entrails while the teegh licked and sucked eagerly. At last--just as the last of the wine was being poured--Vinnath, who could no longer scream, began making ghastly belching sounds as if air were being forced up from kir stomach. Allareth rose and went to the rack near Vinnath's head and watched closely, waiting. At length the onlookers saw Vinnath toss kir head frantically--and then the wyrm emerged from kir mouth, through the hoop of the gag.

"Allareth caught it neatly, not letting it escape, but did not pull it out any faster than it willingly crept. When the last of the wyrm crawled clear, ke signaled to kir servants, who untied the teegh and led them out of the hall. Vinnath and Loshennan lay like dead things in their bindings, and one had to look closely to see that they still breathed.

"Allareth shut the wyrm back in its box, then took the box to the hearth and threw it into the heart of the fire, saying: 'That is a fitting end for the shazz-baht,' to which everyone agreed.

"Ke then gave orders to kir servants to unbind Vinnath and Loshennan, wrap them in their cloaks and carry them onto their own lands, and leave them where their children or servants could find them, which was dutifully done.

"Ke also kept watch, through kir spies, and learned what became of kir defeated enemies. Yes, their servants found them and took them home, where they lay feverish for a full cycle of moons.

"Loshennan eventually regained kir sanity, but Vinnath never did."

Reshayn turned away from the epilogue to the tale, where Grandy had expounded the moral of the story--about the importance of honor and honorable combat--at great length. Yes, yes, ke'd been honorable to a fault, all kir life. If only ke'd been smart, too, ke wouldn't be here now--bound and gagged, as well as blindfolded, every bit as helpless as Vinnath and Loshennan...

But no, Humans had never heard that story. Nothing they could think to do to kim could possibly be as horrendous as Allareth's Vengeance.

I could be in worse condition, ke told kimself. Be brave, whatever they do. Endure honorably. Endure with dignity. I won't thrash madly, and I won't scream. Honor unto death, and a better rebirth...

Reshayn relaxed in the cuffs and waited, trying to fix kir mind on kir next life.