and done was clever, but a moment later they were taught better.
"Get to your feet and walk over to stand in front of me," the man barked out to the girls, the words a clear order. Casi could see that the girl expected to be able to ignore him, and the horde member was more outraged than shocked when she began to obey. She was also furiously confused, and when she stopped to stand in front of the man he smiled faintly.
"Those bands you're wearing are an aid to proper behavior," he explained to the angry girl. "By the time we're finished with you the bands won't be needed, but right now they are. We'll start by giving all of you names, but not ones that will interfere with the ones you'll eventually be given by the savages. Who you were before no longer matters. Forget that life."
He then turned and pointed to Casi as he said, "One," then he designated Linira as, "Two." The next horde girls were named Three and Four, and the girl standing in front of him became Five.
"If you forget the name you were given or fail to respond to it, you'll be punished," the man concluded. "Now, Five, get on your knees in front of me."
"My name isn't Five!" the blonde girl snarled, her fists clenched as she glared up at the man. "My name is Five."
It took a moment for the girl to realize what she'd said, and then she became furious.
"I gave you an order and you failed to obey," the man observed, still calm and unruffled. "It's time you learned what kind of punishment you've earned. Turn to your right and bend over with your hands on your knees."
As the girl turned in the direction Casi was sitting and bent over, it was perfectly obvious that another buried order had been found. The girl was even angrier now, but the man she stood near wasn't paying attention to her anger. Instead he was taking what looked like a thin branch from one of the other men, and when he had the branch, he used it to strike the girl across her seat. The girl gasped as her eyes widened in shock, but she didn't scream, and she certainly didn't straighten up again.
"All of us who train you will be carrying switches like this one," the man said as the girl he'd struck bounced a little where she stood. "If you do something wrong you'll be given a single taste of the switch. If you disobey, you get three strokes. If you do something that's completely unacceptable, you'll find five strokes going across your pretty bottoms even if you were given other strokes earlier. From time to time one of us may use a hand rather than the switch, but don't expect that to be any easier to take."
The next stroke of the switch across Five's bottom made her gasp again and widen her eyes even more, and after a short delay she was given a third stroke. That one made her bounce harder where she stood, even more shock to be seen in her light eyes.
"You can straighten up now," the man told her, making no effort to give the switch back to the man he'd gotten it from. "As you can probably tell, you aren't being allowed to rub at the ache in your bottom. That's part of the punishment, of course, the punishment for disobeying. Go to your knees in front of me."
The girl called Five looked up at him and the switch he still held, her expression telling Casi that she was still angry but now worry was crowding in. The girl wasn't so far out of touch with reality that she didn't know she would be switched again if she disobeyed again, a punishment she wasn't likely to have ever experienced before. She didn't want to do what she'd been ordered to, but if she refused it would be far worse for her.
Just as the man seemed about to say something, the girl went to her knees. She moved rather carefully, but she did kneel before she was ordered to bend over again. Casi found the situation intriguing in a weird way. They'd been conditioned to bend over when told to, but not to kneel. It took a moment, but then Casi thought she understood. They wanted certain actions to be trained into their captives rather than programmed, and the aim of the training could well provide a clue about the ultimate aim of these men. Was this a game to them? Did they intend to sell the girls to the savages as they claimed? She could not trust anything spoken by the men. After all, they had kidnapped them and were holding them against their will.
"Very good, Five," the man said, clear approval in his voice. "Keep your head down just the way it is right now, and lean back on your heels. You don't have to come in contact with your heels, not when that would be rather painful right now, but I do want you leaning back."
The girl shifted around on the carpeting Casi had only noticed in passing earlier, and then she settled back between her heels rather than against them. It wasn't possible for Casi to see the girl's bottom, but the chances were good that the three strokes of the switch were clearly marked on her flesh. She didn't wish to experience the same form of punishment, though the thought did elicit a response as a warmth trickled through her body. Casi did not dare admit such glee to anyone, not even herself.
"If one of us calls to one of you girls, that girl is to take this position at the man's feet," the man said to all of them. "Your hands are to be put flat on your thighs and not moved until or unless you're told otherwise, and your head is to be kept modestly down. If you have to address one of us, you'll call us 'Master.' But you won't say even a single word unless you're answering a question or acknowledging an order. You'll be given a short while each evening to speak to one another, but that privilege will be revoked if it produces unacceptable behavior. All right, Five, get back to your feet."
The kneeling girl stood up carefully, then followed when the man gestured her after him. She looked sullen and very unhappy, but she still limped after him to the hanging he walked to, then through the hanging. When the two had disappeared, one of the other men stepped forward. He held a switch very visibly in his hand, he and the others no longer hiding the things as they'd done at first.
Great, Casi thought. The show does go on.
Chapter 3
It had started as an off-world adventure to Verena. He had been anxious to leave home, experience what the new planet had to offer. He'd never left his home world of Cosimia until he had applied for the position on Verena. Given the chance to discipline ripe young ladies seemed promising. What part wouldn't he enjoy? Although, in truth, he hadn't known exactly what the position would entail until after he had arrived.
Haldin had been anxious to leave home after his girlfriend had broken his heart. He'd walked into their new apartment to discover that she was sleeping with another man. They hadn't even been living together for a month. She'd been cruel to him and unjust.
It had sickened him to no end, made him nauseous at the thought of ever loving again, and so he had decided to respond to the help wanted ad for a disciplinarian on the planet of Verena, to work and live among natives, barbarians, and his own people.
How bad could the work be? He was a quick study. He'd done well with his own professional schooling but hadn't figured out what he wanted to do with his life.
Sighing, he realized he was mixed up in some pretty nasty stuff that he hadn't seen coming. Maybe he should have paid more attention and read the fine print a little more thoroughly.
They were given numbers and he was assigned to One. Casi was her given name but he wasn't supposed to have that knowledge. It wasn't supposed to matter who she was in her previous life because now it was over for her. All of it would forever be changed.
She would be changed. That was the plan.
She was gorgeous, and as Haldin stared at her, he realized his mistake. She wasn't a brat, a wealthy elite who had been sent to the resort to be sold into slavery. She was a woman who might actually be missed, maybe. At least that's what the information he'd gathered had told him. He'd yet to hear her voice and experience
