Sapient Salvation 1: The Selection (Sapient Salvation Series) by Jayne Faith, Christine Castle Page B

implants for communication. My eyes widened in apprehension. Could the Calistans read our thoughts through our implants?
    I turned to Orion and our eyes met. I raised my brows, and he responded with a slight dazed shake of his head.
    “You will be allowed a brief meal and break to use the facilities, and then Lord Toric will receive you at your formal introductions,” Akantha said.
    Finally, a clue about what to expect. I looked down at my rumpled black dress and tried to smooth the creases across my stomach. Would we at least get fresh clothes to go before the alien Lord?
    Back in the hallway, Akantha opened the cabinet and nodded at it. “Retrieve your vessels.”
    A curvy Obligate with waves of golden-blonde hair pinned up behind her ears appeared to be trying to get Orion’s attention. She moved close to him and bumped him with her elbow a couple of times. When Akantha’s back was turned to secure the door of the room we’d just exited, the girl stood on tiptoe to whisper in his ear. Kalindi was her name, if my memory was correct.
    Orion looked down at her in question, and then cast a furtive glance at Akantha. He seemed about to respond to Kalindi when Akantha finished with the door and looked down, reaching for something in her pocket.
    Another female Obligate, a lithe young woman with a sprinkling of freckles across her button nose and stylish bobbed hair the color of sherry wine, had also been trying to catch the eye of one of the male Obligates. That young man had the same muscular build as Orion. Perhaps they’d both come from machinery.
    Others had also been shifting and jockeying while Akantha’s attention was elsewhere, I realized.
    Unease crept through me like a chilly morning mist. I wasn’t quite sure what was going on among some of the Obligates, but I got the distinct impression that it was something I needed to decipher.
    The freckled Obligate didn’t seem to notice that Akantha had turned her attention toward us. The girl pulled at the young man’s arm and gave him an imploring look. The first part of what she said was lost in the rustle of shoes and clothing, but I distinctly heard, “. . . to work together as a pair.”
    She might have gotten away with it if the hallway had not gone silent just as she’d finished whispering.
    Akantha narrowed her eyes as she stalked to the girl. When the Calistan whipped out her hand, I thought it was to strike the Obligate. Instead, she grabbed the girl’s wrist and pressed her short wand against the girl’s arm.
    The Obligate screamed and writhed, trying to yank her arm away. Akantha held the wand to the girl’s arm for a couple of seconds and then let go, and the Obligate stumbled backward, crashed into the wall, and fell in a heap to the floor. She moaned in agony, holding her arm.
    “Let the others see,” Akantha commanded.
    Gasping, the girl stared at Akantha as if she didn’t understand.
    “You.” Akantha turned her gaze on me. “Make her stand and hold out her arm.”
    I gulped, hurried to the wall, and hauled the girl to her feet. Her chest was heaving, though she managed to hold back tears. I gently peeled her fingers away and unfolded the arm she had clutched to her stomach.
    When I saw the angry wound, I inhaled sharply through my nose. Obligates around me gasped and shifted their feet. The injury was circular, about the size of a medium coin. The edge was dark with burnt blood, as if Akantha’s device had singed the skin. The center was a blistered and bloody oozing mess.
    “We have the technology to heal such a wound and leave no scar or trace,” Akantha said, her tone almost nonchalant. “But you will wear this wound as a reminder, for the whole lot of you, that there are consequences for disobedience.”
    I winced, trying to imagine how the girl could keep from screaming in pain. Her arm needed to be dressed or it would get infected. The poor girl needed painkillers right away.
    “Line up,” Akantha said, flicking her fingers at