You have spears and reach on anything that comes out.’ They were more afraid of him than anything else and so formed up. He noted that the volunteer... stuck together, the man on his right, the woman on the man’s right. The draftee stuck next to him on the left put too much space between himself and Thurlith to be safe. A hand yanked the scrawny youth into line and the others, reluctantly followed suit. Thurlith tossed one of the branches forward and spoke the activation word. Smoke poured from. That lunchtime as everybody enjoyed a well-earned meal, I casually offered the pirate prisoners some thick untreated gruel. The gang of manacled thugs were suspicious at first but they were also starving. Cautiously they tested the food and watched each other for any ill effects. After seeing and feeling nothing they relaxed. This reduced their suspicion that we might be poisoning them. After I had fed them lunch, they had concluded I was not poisoning them. At supper they ate whatever we. I enjoy being Mistress' good girl."Seeger's stomach turned. Even as Heather spoke in breathy tones of blissful obedience, he saw a plea for help in her shimmering eyes. He had a knack for seeing the truth there, and he hoped the instinct worked here as well, or it would be just so much wishful thinking.His hands clenched into fists, but he resisted the urge to pound them on the table in frustration. Even with everything that he had witnessed over the past two months and the trust Jason had. “Yeah. You know it. Tara and Kara both sent cards, though. You too?”“Darn! Max didn’t think of that, but then he’s a guy. He didn’t even buy me any candy, or cook me a candlelit dinner. I’ll have to remind him next year.”She laughed, a genuine expression that she found my comment funny, and then she shot back a riposte. “And I guess, as you’re a guy too, you didn’t get him anything either?”I held my hands up in acknowledgment of the hit. “Guilty as charged. Sorry, Max, that was kinda selfish of.