His purple eyes got wider and he pushed me to Lay on my back. The nket covering us was moved


    so he could examine me. All attention focused on Master Christof, who was focusing on my rotund


    belly.


    “Why is this bigger? What have the others done to you?” he asked.


    “Is this illness the reason they did not bring you to us at the cabin?”


    Probably, I thought. The men that kept me probably didn’t want my real owners to see my stomach.


    The collective in my head roared at what they thought must be a sign of sickness.


    Iy still and watched Master Christof’s eyes. This was not how I nned to tell them. I felt they would


    be angry when they found out, so perhaps chained to a wall was better.


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    “One of you put a baby inside of me,” I told him simply, although speaking the words seemed


    unnecessary.


    “There is no word I know to call it in your Language. In my world the word is pregnant.”


    Nu-reeh entered then and the men all sat up.


    “There is a word in ournguage also, ve. The men do not have need to use it, so they do not know


    it. I will permit them to use your word,” she told me simply.


    I recognized the two other women that followed her in. The one to her right had been leaking venom


    when they took me from thepound, her name was Dinah, I knew now. As she stared at me the


    amber Liquid seeped from her fangs again. The men gasped watching it hit the floor.


    “Dinah,” Nu-reeh said harshly turning to her, “out, if you cannot control yourself.”


    “We take precautions,” she said.


    “It should not happen. Make them tell you why they did not follow the rules.”


    Ang’s Library


    She turned and strode back outside. I heard the tter of her talons as she walked across the floor.


    Master Damien spoke then, “Nu-reeh, we have angered your sister, Dinah, and we are very sorry.”


    Nu-reeh ignored him and got back to the point.


    “The ve is going to have a child, Damien,” Nu-reeh said.


    “We know you left it with Rue and his Brothers. We wish to know who stopped giving the ve the


    health tonic.”


    “ves cannot bear us children,” Master Damien said sounding confused.


    “The ves are not female, Mistress.”


    The men murmured agreement and Nu-reeh growled.


    “You buy female ves. They are built for your pleasure. Human ves are Like us in some limited


    ways. They are injected at the auction to prevent this and you give a tonic every day to prevent it. Who


    stopped giving the ve the tonic? Answer me now.”


    “We paid for the tonic, Mistress,” Master Damien said as the woman Dinah stepped back in the room.


    “When the ve was with us we gave the tonic to it ourselves.”