Slaves of Elysium by W. S. Antony Page B

had been in transit, from one world to another.
    Narvok Tem said something impatiently and the girl translated quickly. ‘My master wants to know how you got here, and if there are any more of you. It’s a matter of national security. You must tell them the truth, or else they will make you.’
    â€˜Our boat went down in a storm,’ Jeni said quickly. ‘There were two men with us. They might still be out at sea or washed up along the shore somewhere. Please can you ask Mr Tem to have a search made for them.’
    â€˜Tem is what you would call his Christian name,’ the girl said. ‘It’s how people are introduced here. But I’ll tell him.’
    She spoke rapidly to Narvok Tem, who nodded and said something back.
    â€˜The military are already searching the beaches,’ she reported. ‘A warning will be sent to ocean-going vessels to keep a lookout for your friends.’ She hesitated, then added quickly, ‘You understand, if they’re found they’ll be made slaves as well. That’s how they do thing’s around here.’
    Rebecca groaned in despair.
    â€˜At least they’ll be alive,’ Jeni said.
    â€˜Where did you and your boat come from?’ Narvok Tem asked through his slave. ‘What was your objective?’
    Jeni explained about the race from Bermuda to Nassau, the first storm, and the days they spent in the fog before being wrecked. The girl relayed this to Narvok Tem, who nodded gravely.
    â€˜He believes you,’ she said. ‘If the remains of your boat are consistent with your story, they won’t need to interrogate you any further. This sort of thing has happened before.’
    â€˜Is it to do with the Bermuda Triangle?’ Jeni asked. ‘Is that how you got here?’
    â€˜Yes,’ the girl answered, and then spoke to her master again, who conferred with the scientist, and after a minute the two seemed to reach a consensus. Narvok Tem told the girl something, hung the end of her leash on a convenient hook set into the side of a stack of shelving and he and the scientist moved off to the other side of the chamber, with Noni at their heels. They gathered before what must have been the local equivalent of a computer terminal and a map appeared on the screen.
    Jeni thought what a strange and bizarre sight the three of them must make: two naked women spread and bound against a wall with another tied like a dog kneeling before them. Yet two men who seemed to represent the ruling class in this strange new land evidently thought it so commonplace that for the moment they had left them untended in a corner while they dealt with more pressing matters. But of course, Jeni realised, they could afford to do so with absolute confidence, knowing that when they resumed interest in them their captives would still be exactly where they had been left. Slaves, she supposed, must at all times wait on their masters’ convenience. The thought made her shiver with dark excitement.
    Some of the stiffness went out of the American girl’s spine as she relaxed slightly. ‘They’re working out where the wreckage from your yacht may have come ashore and talking to the city council,’ she explained. ‘Meanwhile, I’m to tell you what they’re going to do to you next. They think it might stop you kicking up too much of a fuss if you know in advance.’
    â€˜I don’t want to hear it, I just want to go home,’ Rebecca said desperately.
    â€˜Get this into your head,’ the girl said firmly. ‘Even if they let you, you can’t go home. This is another world. Call it a parallel universe or alternate dimension if you like. I don’t know the science and it doesn’t matter. You came here on a one-way ticket. There’s no going back, ever.’
    â€˜Well, thanks for being honest with us,’ Jeni said, as Rebecca slumped miserably in her bonds once again.
    For the first time the girl