Free Fade by Viola Grace Page A

changed her mind.
    Two weeks had passed, and while she hated her tiny cell and the hostile environment, she wasn’t going to give in. Amy had worked out where to sit, where to stand and she had even begun to stand up for a few of the newer women who were dropped.
    Amy shivered as she watched the drop beam power up with a hot-pink glow. Someone was being dumped in with them. Amy moved away from the wall where she kept her post and watched a figure descend with regal bearing.
    It was female, tall and wearing a mask, boots, tight trousers and a kimono-like jacket. Her sleek gold hair was up in a high ponytail, and it swung to her buttocks. The woman settled and looked around at the other inmates.
    “Amethyst Decker of Terra.”
    Amy stepped forward. “That’s me.”
    “Come with me. You are being transferred.” The woman held out her hand and beckoned imperiously. Behind her mask, Amy noticed the wide catlike eyes in a dark bronze.
    “Where?” She wasn’t sure that this wasn’t a trick of the earl’s.
    “Confidential. Do you want out of here or not?” The woman’s hand remained outstretched.
    Amy stepped toward her and took her hand. The woman’s height was over six inches greater than her own, and she felt like a child when the woman tucked her against her body and moved back into the beam space.
    The colour switched to blue, and they lifted far more rapidly than the descent. Amy felt her ears pop.
    Guards ringed the hole and aimed weapons down below as the strange woman simply lifted Amy off the transport plate.
    “Guardian, this prisoner—”
    The woman raised her left hand and a glowing blade of energy extended from it. “How much were you paid to keep her?”
    The guard swallowed. “Please sign for her, Guardian.”
    The woman grimaced and pressed her thumb to the plate he extended with shaking hands.
    With Amy still held tight to her body, the woman walked through the halls to a shuttle bay. After being checked over for weapons and registering her removal of Amy once again, they stepped into a shuttle, and as the door closed behind them, someone piloted the ship away from the prison.
    Amy looked around her and shivered again. The interior of the shuttle was sparse and tidy. Everything was in its place, and nothing indicated that it had been the earl who had sent them.
    “Um, not that I am not grateful, but why did you extract me from Janial?”
    The woman smiled under her mask and settled in the navigator station. The pilot was a male wearing a similar mask and a huge grin.
    “Well?”
    The woman chuckled, “Amethyst Decker, you have a destiny and he is going to be a handful.”
     
     

 
     
     
    Chapter Two
     
     
    “Lady Blade, welcome. Lord Akutan is out visiting the provinces.” The servant greeted them in the front receiving room of the gorgeous wooden palace on the cliffs.
    “It is of no matter, Teriki. I have brought this woman here to have her remain in a safe place. I could think of no safer place than the home of the Lord of Rai.” Blade bowed slightly, and her sleeves swung gracefully as she moved.
    Amethyst stood and felt awkward and gauche in her paper-thin bodysuit.
    Teriki looked her over, and Amy tried to stand straight and hunch in on herself at the same time. “I see. What capacity is she to occupy?”
    “Honoured guest until his lordship decides otherwise.”
    Teriki nodded. “We will need to get her some proper clothing. Does she speak?”
    Amy blushed and felt like a teen once again. “I do. I can appreciate anywhere that is not related to my previous location. I will try not to be any trouble.”
    “Come with me, child. Lady Blade, Sossi will get you some tea.”
    Amy felt an arm around her shoulders, and she was ushered into the palace and up a set of stairs before she could say anything else.
    Teriki muttered some words to the maids, and the women scuttled off to do her bidding. “A bath first, lady.”
    Amy looked around at the room and thought that this was what