Chapter Twenty Two

Marks for Loyalty

As they traveled down the tunnel, Sardius made arrangements with Irid for Jenna to meet Ixy and Ivy. Apparently, she would have to go directly to Conrad’s room to meet him. Irid was extremely uncomfortable moving him around the prison. She had tried to keep it a secret from the prisoners that he was even there. Otherwise, it was completely cool for Jenna to meet Ixy and Ivy in an interrogation room that offered more privacy than other places in the jail.

Jenna walked through the prison, looking at exposed bars, bricks that looked like they’d been built to brick in prisoners, and other unfriendly sights.

“Was your prison like this?” Jenna asked as they walked.

“It had tighter security and it was uglier,” Sardius offered. He walked in a way that warned anyone who would come up to Jenna that they should stay the frick away. He did it mostly with his eyes.

“Your blue eyes are powerful,” she said, teasing him under her breath.

His gaze scraped the length of her body. “You’d know more about it than anybody.”

Irid was walking a bit ahead of them, but on that exchange, she turned around and hissed softly, “Sardius, do I need to put a bag over your head? We’re crossing the prison during a lights-out period. That’s why these halls aren’t full of prisoners licking the bars and throwing you their panties. If you don’t shut that masculine mouth of yours, you’ll cause a prison riot at the only other prison in the Xypher Zone.”

Sardius clenched his jaw to show he’d shut up.

“Good,” Irid said as she took them into the interrogation room.

Jenna touched the seat behind a desk to pull it out for herself and then realized that if she was going to keep Ixy and Ivy away from her, she had to take the seat intended for the prisoner instead of the interrogator. She slapped away the straps that were used for restraining the prisoner and sat down.

Sardius kept his mouth shut. He circled the room a time or two, obviously doing his chief of security thing. He was examining the room looking for weaknesses, and traps. He even crouched beside Jenna to look for bombs under her chair.

Finally, he whispered. “I don’t like to be too hopeful, but so far, it does look like you were right to trust these people rather than wait around in that castle. This place looks like what it is supposed to be. Are you excited to meet your girls?”

“Absolutely,” Jenna admitted.

Ixy and Ivy were woken from whatever sleep they got as prisoners in the Xypher Zone and escorted to the interrogation room.

When they came in, Jenna’s first thought was that it was obvious they were able to seduce pilots so immediately that they gave the girls the controls.

They were wearing prison uniforms. Not the prison orange that was common in movies back home, but gray jumpsuits made of T-shirt material. It didn’t do enough to hide their perfect muscle groupings.

Jenna smacked her cheek with the back of her hand. Of course, their muscles looked perfect. They weren’t muscles. They were bones.

At first, Jenna wasn’t sure which one of them was Ixy and which one was Ivy. They both had long black hair that curled at the ends, making them look soft and loveable. But then, one had green eyes that were too light. The contrast made her look like a lantern that was lit internally with ghostlight. The other girl had pink eyes that were a shade darker than her skin. It was the black rings around her irises that provided the necessary contrast to give her beauty. Neither of them had bones protruding from their knuckles. Both of them had their bone protrusions coming from the overly angular bones in their wrists.

“Well, aren’t you two gorgeous!” Jenna exclaimed.

“Jenna, you bitch! What are you doing here?” the girls with the pink eyes exclaimed.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

“So you’re Ixy?”

“I wouldn’t be Ivy with pink eyes now, would I? She’s Ivy,” Ixy said, pointing at the girl with green eyes with her chin. “Can I hug you?”

“Do you want to lose your nose?” Sardius threatened.

“Oh, so you guys haven’t got her force field problem sorted,” Ixy said with a disappointed shrug. “I thought you were more resourceful than that, Boneman.”

Sardius rolled his eyes and entered the space around Jenna to take his guardian position behind her. “I worked it out for me, just not for you.”

Ixy looked appropriately impressed. “Well, aren’t you a cool glass of water?”

Ivy was standing staring at Sardius like she’d never seen a man before. In all her life, Jenna realized she’d never seen a person more starstruck. It wasn’t natural. It was just the result of prison life. At least, that was what Jenna told herself.

“Gotta say,” Ixy continued. “Jenna, you are way prettier in person. The camera is not your friend. Well, at least the security cameras we use are not your friends. Do you know who looked good through the security feed? Fallcet. He looked amazing.”

“Too bad he wasn’t great in person,” Jenna puffed.

“Yeah. You think that because you didn’t watch him shower. He was a treat,” she said with a wicked smile.

Jenna gave her a smile in response instead of a laugh because she thought something along the lines was required, though she, personally, could not think of anything less desirable than the sight of Fallcet naked.

“Sorry for losing contact,” Jenna said when the joviality of the mood had passed. “My earpiece broke. What contact have you had with Sardius’ army since we disappeared?”

Ixy took a seat at the table and put her feet up on the desk immediately. “Well, for starters, you should know that we have no idea who arranged for you to be transported to a different dimension. Celestina took charge when we reported what happened. She was hesitant to contact Rold or admit that anything had gone wrong. She said that no matter what had happened to you, crapping our pants was not the way to go. So, no one panicked. Instead of letting anyone know what had happened, she got in Scion’s face as hard as she could and started investigating Harlee to see what intel she could get from her.”

“What did Celestina find out?” Jenna questioned.

“She got so little that she was very doubtful that Scion or his father were connected to your disappearance. With that in mind, she wondered if it wasn’t more AAMC tricks, except she had never heard that the AAMC had much to do with the Xypher Zone. As far as she knew, it was just a place for physicists to go nuts. That was when Excelyn said that the Octavians had connections in the Xypher Zone,” Ixy admitted reluctantly.

“How’s Favel, upon hearing those suspicions?” Jenna was eager to know.

“He’s fine,” Ixy snorted. “No one has told him anything. Celestina has been keeping her cards close to her chest. For now, she’s been in contact with Nevin from Sardius’ team. He’s the pilot for Don Leo’s ship. They renamed it The Vortex King. He’s on his way. If he can collect you and return you to the Crescent Bell Palace, then Celestina can see no reason not to let it bounce off the diplomatic team and resume business as usual.”

“Hmmm….” Jenna hummed. She knew that was how they handled things when Fallcet kidnapped her, but she was feeling less tolerant than she had been feeling on that occasion. Ryatt coming out as Sardius during that incident had really softened the blow. She glanced at him over her shoulder. Maybe he was still cushioning her fall.

“The reason dude isn’t here yet is that he has to fly to a blindspot in the solar system to a place that will be less obvious before he portals out. Then he’ll be here in two shakes of a tentacle,” Ixy continued.

“When will Nevin be here?” Sardius asked.

“Tomorrow… Maybe. Maybe the next day. I don’t know. He left. He’s on his way. I’m sure he’ll be as snappy as he can be… Unless it was his portal that was used when you two were zapped into the Xypher Zone. Which reminds me, how are you holding up, Jenna?” Ixy peered at her.

Jenna let her PA look at her face.

Ixy scoffed. “You do seem like you’re tolerating the radiation better than most Adamis with your body design. I suppose that’s due to Sardius.”

“I don’t get credit for everything,” he grunted. “Her force field is doing the heavy lifting.”

Ixy whistled. “That’s handy.”

Jenna leaned forward. “Hey Ixy, do you know the details of the arrangement the Octavians have with these prisons to get PAs to work for us?”

Ixy leaned further back in her chair. “I don’t know anything about that. From where I’m sitting, I don’t get paid in money. My job working for you is more entertaining than letting the Crying Sun burn my skin off. Did you see Irid? How long has she been here that her skin looks like that? Yuck. When I get out of here, I’m never…” she trailed off.

“Dearest Ixy? Were you about to say that you’d never crash another starship again?” Jenna prompted.

Ixy shrugged her elegant shoulders. “I guess. I have three years left to my sentence. Same for Ivy and when we leave here, I think I might be able to think of something else to do that I find equally amusing. Did you know that the friend we broke in here to rescue has already been released? Talk about ass for brains.”

“Three years isn’t that much,” Jenna said, consoling her.

“I’m sure it will breeze by,” Ixy said with a little acid in her tone. “Try to make it entertaining for me, won’t you, Jenna?”

“As you wish,” Jenna said. “Have you met Conrad?”

Ixy giggled. “No. They keep him under lock and key like a national treasure. I hear they’re going to let you meet him, but they’re not going to let us. Will you tell me what he’s like?”

Jenna raised her eyebrows playfully. “Maybe.”