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eyes bored into hers. "Those are pretty deep fingernail marks
on your neck."
A chill of panic swept through her stomach. "I-I guess I
must have."
He looked anything but convinced.
"I wondered about those," Master Doctor Moulton said as
he came back to the table. He handed Shipe her corset. "No
tight bonds for a while, and you'll want to take care when
tying her down or taking her over your knee. At least for a
week and possibly two."
Mercy fidgeted with her fingers.
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"I don't need to take her over my lap to blister her ass,"
Shipe said, glaring hard into her eyes. He took hold of the
lobe of her ear and pulled her down off the table. Then he led
her right out the door.
Did he know? How could he know? Mercy hurried after him
on the verge of tears.
"Are you lying to me?" he snapped, as he marched her
down the hall.
She began to cry. "No, sir," she lied again.
He took her back to the common library and her stool
behind her desk. "This the stool you fell from?"
There was blood all over the floor, and she couldn't help
but nod. "Yes."
Still holding her by the lobe of the ear, he marched her
over to the fireplace, where the books she'd dropped still lay
scattered across the floor. One had skidded into the fireplace
and it lay with its leather cover slowly burning, the blackened
pages curling back at the corners. She wanted to reach for it,
but his hold on her ear didn't allow it.
"What happened over here?" he demanded.
"I—the bell rang," she sobbed. "The Lessers were coming.
I—my stool—"
Abruptly releasing her lobe, Shipe turned her around. "I'm
going to ask you again," he growled with another hard look.
"Last time. Are you lying to me?"
Mercy shook her head, but she was so ashamed of herself
that she couldn't meet his knowing eyes. She buried her face
in her hands and just cried.
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Judgment II: Mercy
by Denise Hall
"Pick up this mess," Shipe told her. "And from now on, no
more stools. You sit on the floor in the corner on your breaks,
and if you need something off the top shelves, you ask a
guard to get it for you."
He didn't wait for her to answer, but turned on his heel
and stalked angrily back out the door.
* * * *
Mercy had just got the last of the spilled books put back on
their proper shelves when two guards came into the room.
The blond she knew as Stoner. The other, an older man with
salt and pepper hair and crinkles around his eyes, she hadn't
met before. Both had their switches out, and neither was
smiling.
"Come on," the older man said with a wave of his switch to
beckon her to him. They didn't spank her, though, but took
her from the library and led her up and out of the bowels of
the mountain. To Tane's room at the top, she realized with a
start. Or to the fortress entrance. That fear made her stumble
and she almost dropped to her knees twice. Accustomed to
female reluctance, the guards each slipped a hand beneath
her elbows to help her along.
But it was neither the entrance nor the Mountain Lord's
quarters that they took her to, although Tane was there,
along with Masters Deaton, Doctor Moulton, and Shipe. None
of them looked very happy with her.
They stood gathered in front of an observation desk, the
wall before them covered with security monitors and
recording machines. Judgment, she realized with a start, was
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Judgment II: Mercy
by Denise Hall
crowded with hidden cameras. Some of the monitors showed
stationary vantages overlooking a single place, these being
mostly the skill rooms and dining hall. Others flashed from
camera to camera, room to room.
The monitor the masters and Mountain Lord were gathered
before was the stationary camera that recorded the activities
within the common library. There were jagged horizontal
static lines across the screen, and from the stillness of the
picture, she knew they had to be watching a tape. From the
doorway she could make out two images: Mahogany and
herself.
Mercy felt her whole body run cold.
Shipe snapped to a spot on the floor and she crept to
stand before him. "Tell me again what happened?"
Her breath caught in her chest. She stared at the monitor,
unable to breathe.
"You see, we have two very different problems here," Tane
began when she remained quiet. He tapped the monitor. "This
being the first."
He reached over and hit the play button, and Mercy
watched the image of herself whirl around to face the
obviously conversing Mahogany. There was no sound, but
from the angle of the camera and the light of the fire
splashing back upon the Elite's face, it wasn't difficult to see
her moving lips.
"I didn't talk to her," Mercy blurted, shaking her head
wildly. "I swear I didn't talk to her! I thought I missed the
bell!"
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Judgment II: Mercy
by Denise Hall
The Drone in the monitor dropped her books across the
floor and ran for the bottom of the screen with the angry Elite
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