Free A Bait of Dreams by Jo Clayton Page A

his head began to jerk erratically. He looked puzzled, then he straightened his narrow shoulders and turned back to Korl. “The collars you wear limit you three ways.” He tapped the table-top with the nail of his forefinger. In the silence the small click seemed disproportionately loud, making several of the captives twitch; Gleia started, scraped a foot across the floor tiles. The Keeper’s eyes turned briefly toward her then slid away. “One: You may not approach any thissik closer than one body-length.” The nail tapped again, twice. “Two: You may not go farther than one hundred body-lengths from this house. Three: you may not seek to remove the collars without the key that is kept on my person.”
    Once again he paused and moved his eyes down the line, stopping briefly on each face though he skipped rapidly over Gleia and paused longer on Shounach. “It is to be hoped you are less stupid than that man,” he told them. “One: If any of you seeks to approach a thissik, you will feel pain that increases as you move closer. A demonstration.” He waved a guard forward.
    As the small gray figure came up to them, the pain was like a minor burn at first but increased in intensity until it became unbearable. Gleia backed away then screamed as she passed the limit of the thissik behind her. She crouched, arms crossed tight against her breasts, rocking and moaning.
    Then the pain was gone. The guard was back beside the Keeper who waited until the captives had recovered then went on. “Two: If you attempt to go beyond the tether limit, the same thing will happen. If you endure the pain and press farther, at one hundred fifty body-lengths the collar will explode, neatly removing your head.”
    Gleia glanced sharply at the alien face, thinking she heard a touch of grim humor behind the even words. For a second he reminded her of Temokeuu. She put the idea aside for later consideration and continued listening.
    â€œThree: If you attempt to remove the collar whether by torch, saw or lock pick, the collar will explode.” He fitted fingertip to fingertip with neat precision and contemplated them. “Once the houses are ready and the contents retrieved from our … from where they are, there will be no more need for your services. You will then be freed from the collars.”
    He didn’t look at us, Gleia thought. He would not mention the word ship in connection with freeing us. She felt a chill. There were a lot of ways to read his last statement, most of them not comforting to think about. She rubbed at her arm as she watched the Keeper lean back, some of the stiffness passing from his small body. He looks so terribly tired, she thought.
    The guards herded them out of the Endhouse into a red dusk. Horli-set. Overhead, the two moons Aab and Zeb were on the point of kissing, their pale ghosts gradually beginning to glow as the sky darkened. A number of small boats were tied to the pier, dwarfed by the black silhouette of the dhoura. Gleia touched the cold metal at her throat. Without that.… She sighed and trudged along behind the Captain’s broad back.
    The new captives were taken into the second house, moved through dusty airless corridors then directed through a wide doorway into the long narrow room with grilled windows marching down one side. A number of men lay about on the floor, bone-weary from a long day’s hard labor. Most of them were already asleep. At the base of the unpierced sidewall a long trench was half-full of water. The trench passed under the far wall but a grill had been fitted over the opening so that the men inside could not get out. The heavy door slammed shut behind them. Gleia looked around and shivered, the hairs lifting along her spine. She was the only woman in the room.
    â€œTake this.” Shounach’s voice was a thread of sound as he pressed a hard object against her back. She reached around and found the hilt of a knife