“You got anything against black people?”
“No.” The guard shrugged. “Why should I?”
“Thought maybe it went against something the Prince taught you people.”
“When I first heard about you,” the guard said, “I thought you were a mutie. You know, on account of your skin color.”
“Not hardly.”
He nodded. “I see that now.”
Mildred studied the youthful face before her. “Still, you’re curious. Aren’t you?” She recognized the look now, having seen it through much of her college years. “Wondering what it might be like to have sex with a black woman?”
“No.” But he said it too hurriedly for it not to have been on his mind.
Tossing the blanket off, Mildred sat up, wondering if there was some way she could manipulate the weakness within the sec man. “Sure you are. I can see it in your eyes.”
He looked at her more reluctantly. “Are you some kind of mind reader?”
Mildred laughed, and only part of it was forced. “Not me. I just know lust when I see it.”
“The Prince would kill any man that raised a hand to you,” the guard told her. “Unless you were about to somehow make your escape.”
“I don’t think that’s going to happen any time soon,” Mildred said. “Do you?”
“No.” He shook his head adamantly.
“What’s your name?”
“Clove.”
“Clove,” Mildred said, “before the Prince could do anything to anybody, he’d have to know somebody touched me. Right?”
“I guess so.”
“So, if I don’t tell, that presents us with possibilities.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You aren’t the only one been looking,” Mildred said, lying. “I’ve been getting hot just looking at you this last hour. Bet you’re a real killer with the girls, huh?”
“No. The Prince forbids unassigned fornication.”
“Unassigned fornication?”
“Yes.”
“Then what,” Mildred asked, “is assigned fornication?”
The sec man shrugged. “Every year the Prince has the ceremony of the gathering, to spite the long reach of Ivory Ginnifer.”
Mildred already didn’t like the sound of it. “What’s that?”
“Twelve females from the populace are plucked by the Prince when they come of age. Usually somewhere between their thirteenth and sixteenth year. Their eggs are removed and placed in frozen storage, so that there may always be seeds to carry on the Celtic peoples in spite of Ivory Ginnifer’s touch of death through aging.”
Mildred had difficulty restraining herself from commenting.
“After they’re harvested,” Clove went on, evidently not reading her expression through the shadows stringing across the cell, “the women are given to the guards to use as we wish. They’re barren, of no use to anyone, really, even if children were allowed that weren’t initiated through artificial insemination.”
“You like women, Clove?”
“A lot. At first. Not so much when they kick and scream. But when they talk, I like that. They always try to convince me to help them get away. I tell them that I will, but after a while they know I’m not going to, and they get just like the other women that have been there for a while.”
“Just lay back and take it, right?” Mildred asked. She made herself hard, knowing she could do what she’d set before herself.
“Yes.”
“That’s no fun, is it?”
“Not much. Still, it beats masturbation.”
“Anything does,” Mildred agreed with enthusiasm. Then she pulled the blanket from around her and started unbuttoning her blouse, her eyes locked on those of the young man, watching them widen.
RYAN WAS IN THE LEAD, Krysty right behind him, followed by Jak and Doc. J.B. brought up the rear. He climbed the terrain, sure-footed, and carried the SIG-Sauer in one hand. The Steyr was slung barrel down over his back.
The wind was more vicious now, bringing a razor-edged chill with it that whipped through the surrounding trees and brush. More snow was starting to fall, dropping in big, fat flakes that coasted across the landscape.
Finding the gnarled, lightning-blasted oak that Basil had described, Ryan went to it. According to the information they’d gotten from Basil and Cardamom, the trench twelve paces to the northeast of the gnarled oak had a section of the roots that contained the fortress only a few inches below the ground. They should be able to cut their way in with ease.