Sarai

the strange doctor, his “master,” thepain as the doctor probed his private bits.
Fuck. Shit.Fuck. He didn’t want to think about those things or, he shivered,the breeding those cat-bastards had talked about. He opened hiseyes slowly, letting his eyelids flicker tremulously as though hewas still sleep. He didn’t want to move too obviously until he knewwhether he was alone. He waited for seconds that felt like hours,feeling his heart race, but he couldn’t see any catmen.
What he didsee, however, was that he was no longer in that stark hospitalroom.
This roomwas large and airy; stone walls, carved and fretted ornately, roseto a round skylight far above the bed on which he lay; along onewall, a series of tall arched windows allowed in light and a breezethat lifted filmy indigo-colored drapes gently up and allowed themto flow slowly down.
Wall sconceswith patterned metal covers tossed intricate patterns of dim lightand pale shadow in the farther corners of the room. Colors weremuted, soothing — purples, blues, deep greens, a splash of crimsonhere and there. It managed to be warm but secluded; a comfortable,calming place, or it would have been had he not been aprisoner.
He laystill, regulating his breathing. He was naked, which he founddisturbing but he wasn’t restrained, which he foundreassuring.
The bracelets he discovered around hiswrists shortly afterwards reignited his anxiety.
What theheck? He blinked, but they were still there — finely made solidbands of some silvery metal inset with white and green stones, snugfitting and comfortable, but why were they on him? He held a wristup, the stones catching the light and sparkling like diamonds andthe palest shade of peridot against his pale flesh. He tugged atthe band on his left wrist, trying to get it off, but to no avail.He couldn’t find a catch to unhook. It was puzzling and somewhatannoying, but, hell, it wasn’t the worst of his problems. He’d getthe bloody things off later, once he’d gotten away from wherever itwas he’d been put. He shuffled his legs across what he noticed nowwas a frickin’ enormous bed. How much room did one of these catmenneed? And what the hell did it matter so long as he wasn’t init?
He stood upwarily. He had no idea how long he’d been kept drugged, and thelast thing he wanted was to keel over and plant his face in thefloor. Besides, his bladder was suggesting strongly that he neededto find a bathroom. If the catmen had such a thing, he broodedresentfully.
He lookedaround for something to cover himself with, deciding in the endthat one of the soft sheets on the bed would have to do. As hewrapped it round himself toga-style, he noticed more bands fittedabove his ankles. More bloody man-jewelry. It would have to wait aswell.
There weretwo doors in the room — one was set deep in the stone walls; madeof a metal that gleamed like polished copper, it had an ornatehandle, three times the size of any he’d ever seen. Impressive, hethought, but unlikely to be what he wanted.
The otherdoor looked more promising for his needs. Feeling a bit likeGoldilocks — would this one be just right? — he reached forits handle, then jumped in amazement as the door simply vanished.Cautiously he waved his hand through the space it had occupied.Nope, nothing there. He moved forward, wondering at the technologythat could create virtual doors.
Luckily theroom beyond the disappearing door was indeed a bathroom. Even moreluckily, the facilities he needed were, unlike the door, morepermanent. He grinned at the thought of a virtual toilet, thenpulled himself up — this really was no joke and definitely not thetime for toilet humor. He was here, in a place definitely not hishome and seemingly in a world that was not Earth. If all this wasreal and not the product of a psychotic break, he was up shitcreek. Totally deep, deep shit creek, and without apaddle.
He rewrappedhis sheet toga and made his way back into the bedroom. The viewfrom the windows showed him a vista remarkably like Earth, withwhat looked like evergreen trees stretching hundreds of feetupwards. In the distance snow-capped mountains dwarfed the worldbelow them. A few clouds drifted lazily across a sky more intenselyblue than any he’d known. And, he leaned forward, his hands bracedon the stone window casement, and gaped in amazement — two largemoons were cresting pale and mysterious in the skies above thefaraway mountains.
Two moons.Jamie’s knees sagged slightly. Two moons — he really wasn’t inKansas anymore, he thought. Any second now it would be rainingfarmhouses and flying monkeys…right on cue, a musical ping soundedbehind him. He turned slowly, knowing what he’d see.
The catmanfrom the hospital was there. Alekyn, the name dropped into hisconsciousness — Alekyn, who claimed that Jamie belonged to him, washis…sarai, was it?
For a longmoment they simply looked at each other. Behind Jamie, through theopen windows, came the sound of birds singing, sweet and piercing.Just like home. God, if only.
“You…Iremember you from that place, the hospital place,” another memoryteased his brain, “and the house — it was burning, those things…Ithink you saved me from those things —”
“The Zill,”responded Alekyn, his blue gaze steady on Jamie’s face. “Yes, mymen and I drove them off.”
“Zill.”Jamie repeated the word slowly. “What about the other things? Thewolf-things?”
“Keinyn,half-shifted. We think they were captured and enslaved by theZill.”
The wordsrang clear as a bell in Jamie’s head but he didn’t have clue whatAlekyn meant. “Half-shifted — what is that?”
“They werecaught between their humanoid form and their animalform.”
Which madeprecisely no sense to Jamie, but then what else was new?
“Okaaay — sothe wolf things were not…not their normal selves,” he suggesteddiplomatically. “And the insect things…?”
“The Zill,”Alekyn supplied helpfully.
“The Zillwere attacking me — why?”
Alekyn movedtowards him but stopped abruptly as Jamie instinctively steppedbackwards, his back pressing against the window casement. He waveda hand at the chairs clustered in front of the room’sfireplace.
“Let us sitdown, Jamie, and talk. I know you are confused and there is muchyou need to know —
Startingwith what he was doing here, Jamie thought. Aloud he said, “Iagree, but first you need to know that I have to get home — mybrothers…the