Chapter 12

I will give Natalie her due: she did not bat an eyelid when both Meryl and I presented herself at the door of her apartment. I had expected a cry of disbelief on seeing me as I was or better still, a display of emotional thankfulness that the female she loved was alive and well, even if she was now shaved bald and wearing a rather ill-fitting and unflattering dress along with shoes a size too large. We visitors both had scarves wrapped around our necks to hide our slave collars. Natalie herself looked resplendent in an ice-blue one-piece that clung to her shape as if painted on.

There was however no display of anything much in terms of affection from the expensively Natalie. A raised eyebrow and an attendant flick of her long black hair was all we were getting.

Natalie didn’t look a day older than when she used to dominate me though if she was a mage that might be expected. I did wonder if she too was centuries old like Ruben, but then as I have said I had not seen evidence of any powers from this woman, other than the ability to get me to do exactly what she wanted at her feet no matter how humiliating or painful. The woman regarded us both rather dispassionately with arms folded, and then she said to me: “You took your time getting here.” Only then did she relax her pose and that was to stand aside so she could wave us into her flat. Perhaps she was worried a neighbour might see us, standing like two ageing orphans on her doorstep.

The apartment was exactly how I remember it with the same air of luxury—some would say decadence— though the sight of a framed picture of a young woman on the shelf brought it home how much Natalie had moved on while I had been away, toiling as a humanhorse on Sevir.

Perhaps not to our surprise she did not invite Meryl and I to sit, but she did. Somewhat imperiously, I noted, surveying us with a slight distaste as she settled back on the large sofa. The very place she had first bound me and ordered me to lick her out when we began our intense bondage-led affair.

“I know you. You were my old cleaner,” Natalie looked at Meryl now, and again without any emotion. “I suppose you have come to beg for your old job back.”

Meryl, who had been chatty enough and confident with me since taking me under her wing, seemed subdued and did not reply. She just looked down at the carpet.

Natalie gave a shake of her head. “I presume with you two being together this is not a casual visit to see how I am doing. Something serious, I suppose. Would you, Isabella, like to tell me what’s going on as Meryl the cleaner seems to have lost her tongue.”

“Natalie,” I began. “I’m sorry for being away, but I haven’t been on Earth—”

“Of course you haven’t,” laughed Natalie. “The evidence of you somehow leaving my locked apartment while cuffed to the bed and with none of your clothes having gone suggested you had been whisked off somewhere. Certainly not in London and even if you’d walked back from the other side of the planet you’d have got here earlier than this. No, I had concluded you were off world.”

I was astonished that Natalie was so relaxed over this. “Don’t you want to know where I went?”

“Not really. Wherever it was you ended up, you obviously came back. Though I have to say your complexion is somewhat darker than when you amused me. Too much sun and easy living, perhaps?” Natalie smirked at this. She was enjoying our discomfort. For me, the word ‘amused’ cut deep through me and I felt terrible.

“Perhaps we should go,” said Meryl, speaking for the first time.

“If you wish,” responded Natalie, airily. “I am sure you two have somewhere better to go.” At this Natalie laughed, as if understanding dressed like we were neither of us would almost certainly have nowhere nice to go.

“Very well!” I got angry. This wasn’t the re-union I wanted or imagined. I’d even thought she would have some interest to where I had disappeared. Off-world suggested a whole universe, but I could see this woman was absorbed in her own small world. “We are both here to warn you. You are in danger!”

Natalie shook her head. “I don’t think so,” she began. “I don’t see any trouble round me, do you? And what, pray, does a former cleaning woman and a rag-a-muffin know about threats?”

“It isn’t what you think.” Meryl and I had decided we would only carefully introduce the subject of mages and inter-planetary travel if a hint or two stirred Natalie. I was well past that now. Indeed, I even wondered why I had ever loved this woman in the first place. Had I really been so blind to her lack of feelings and off-hand ways? Was this what I had missed when I was so besotted by her charms?

“Then, Isabella the wannabe C-list actress, what can you possibly warn me about? The price of theatre tickets?” Another smirk.

I felt myself blaze with anger and I felt Meryl’s hand on my arm to try to stop me blundering on. “Leave it, Isabella,” she said. I hesitated.

“Leave what? Me and my home? Yes please,” chuckled Natalie and started to get up. “I have a very special guest arriving soon and I would really like to not have two undesirables here—”

“Root, Branch and Seed, bitch!” I yelled as this was the last straw. Natalie would be screwing some woman in the bed she and I shared once. I hated her.

The change in Natalie was astonishing. The colour drained from her face, like a switch had been thrown. She had started to get up but now fell back on the sofa, eyes wide open. “What did you say?”

“You heard,” I growled. “You are Seed and the fucking mage bastards at Root and Branch are coming for you.”

Meryl stopped me, but only to take up the story, now everything was out in the open. “I was taken and made a humanhorse under the control of the Root. Isabella was a humanhorse where the Branch are in charge. On another planet. But they want you, because they hate the Seed.” She didn’t add that they feared her, which I think was wise as it would only have got Natalie acting the superior again.

“How do you know ... No, this is not possible. It isn’t real.” Natalie had suddenly lost her assurance. “I think you two ... you’d better go before I call the police.”

“Fat lot of good they will do for you,” I shouted. I yanked my scarf off from a round my neck. “See this?” I tapped the dull gold collar with one finger if it wasn’t obvious. “It’s somehow magic and gets me back to Sevir and the shitty Branch mages with you in tow. Fuck knows what they will do to you but I don’t care. At least they won’t hurt Cerys then.”

“Who,” gasped Natalie.

“Cerys, that’s who. She’s worth far more than you—”

“No,” Natalie was getting hold of herself. “Not her. I mean ... which mage?”