Piara stormed off, and Xavix moved forward.
“Our first item this morning, my friends, is a female Joy Vessel,” he announced.
Two shadow fae yanked me to my feet. Several more, who I assumed served as a security force for this bizarre version of an auction house, controlled the crowd, keeping the onlookers away from the crate where I stood.
“She’s young,” Xavix listed my attributes. “Of childbearing age. Capable of experiencing all kinds of pleasures, including sexual.”
Sexual?
The word cut through my hearing, sending a stab of alarm through me. But it made no sense. Shadow fae didn’t care about sex. Why would they? They lacked the organs for it. Even their mating fever couldn’t start without shared affection between the partners. And I certainly wasn’t going to share my affection with anyone who bought or sold me like this.
“Fifty gold coins,” a deep voice sounded from the crowd.
I looked up, turning toward the voice.
The auction guards had organized the audience, pushing most of the onlookers back and away from me. A tall fae man stepped into the cleared space around my crate. He was dressed in a long red robe open in the front and a floor-length skirt from the same silky red material.
His straight, long hair was shaved on the sides and braided into a long pleat in the middle. The bald scalp over his long pointy ears glistened with gold. I couldn’t make out the painted designs without my glasses, just as I couldn’t see his face clearly enough to read his expression, but I didn’t miss the bright yellow cluster pinned to the lapel of his red robe.
Was it the golden hyacinth? Or whatever the traders call that fucking flower?
Dread gripped my muscles, sending a chill down my spine. Now I remembered that shadow fae didn’t need sexual organs to enjoy sex through humans. They didn’t even need affection from us when they had the juice of that flower at their disposal. The scene of the sex frenzy into which it had sent Peter and Maria back at our camp in the desert had burned into my brain. After ingesting the juice or the tea brewed with it, humans lost all control over their minds and their bodies.
Was that what waited for me in this place? Being stripped of my free will, of my dignity…
“Fifty coins from the esteemed Ray, the Master of the Wall!” Xavix pointed with his rolled scroll at the bidder in the red robe.
Was that it? Had I been sold? Did I no longer belong to myself?
I took a step back in horror, as if I could jump from this crate and run away.
A finger poked me from behind, jammed between my shoulder blades.
“Easy, Sweet One,” Piara’s voice hissed in my ear.
There was nowhere to run, no escaping this tent.
“Sixty coins!” a woman offered.
I darted a look in the direction of her voice.
The sun rose outside of the tent, but its light only partially filtered in through the dark fabric of the patchwork ceiling above our heads. Save for the small cleared area immediately around me, the entire space in the tent was densely packed with shadow fae. Their glowing ink-black bodies merged with the shadows in the tent, making it hard for me to make out individual shapes or faces.
“Sixty from the admirable Mazra, the Mistress of the Beach!” Xavix extended his scroll in the direction of the female bidder.
The fae woman wore a skirt of pale-yellow fabric tied with a belt of large shells strung together around her waist. Two long braids were draped over her shoulders, each ended with a bright red tassel. I squinted my eyes, examining the woman’s chest as closely as my sight allowed it. She wore a mesh of black strings over her torso, with shells, beads, and small trinkets attached to it. As far as I could tell, none were the dreaded yellow flower.
“Seventy coins!” came from someone behind her.
“Seventy, from the—” but Xavix got no chance to name this new bidder.
“I’ll pay a hundred,” sounded in a deep, quiet voice from a dark corner near the entrance.
The newest bidder hadn’t come forward into the open space by the crate. Unlike the other potential buyers, he remained in the shadows. All I could see was a black blot of his shape. It was considerably shorter than any other fae present and at least twice as wide. I squinted, straining my eyes, but couldn’t see much more than the bizarre dark shape in the corner.
“A hundred coins!” Xavix exclaimed with satisfaction. “From…um… What is your name, good man?”
Good man?