Chained (Brides of the Kindred) (9 page)

“Um, excuse me,” she called to the desk
attendants, who were still a rosy pink. “I almost forgot but I need to make a
call back to the surface of the planet. Do you have a, uh, communication device
I can use?”

To her surprise, both of the desk
attendants began shaking and emitting high, squeaky, bird-like chirps and their
skin turned bright orange. After one horrified moment of being sure they were
both having seizures, she realized they were
laughing
at her.

“Your pardon, my lady!” one of them
squeaked. “But your humor is most pleasing.”

“My…humor?” Maggie looked at them
doubtfully. Had she somehow made a joke? “All I want is to make a call. Just
one
call.”

The attendants began chortling and
squeaking with glee all over again. “My lady is hilarious!” declared one.

“But…I don’t understand why that’s funny,”
Maggie insisted.

At last one of the desk attendants stopped
laughing.

“Why, because as you know, all contact
with the outside world is strictly forbidden here at the
Lo’thian
spa,”
he said, wiping his eyes. “It is the first and principal precept our spa was
founded upon—complete relaxation means freedom from outside cares. No one is
allowed any contact with anyone outside the spa under any circumstances.”

“But…but…” Maggie looked at Kor, suddenly
furious. “You said that as soon as we got here—”

“Come, my lady. Let us go to your room,”
he murmured smoothly. As he was holding her in his arms, there was nothing
Maggie could do when he simply walked off, taking her deeper into the
Lo’thian
spa from which there was apparently no escape and no way to contact the
outside world.

Chapter Eight

Kor had been pretty sure she would be
upset when she learned about his little deception but he had no idea how angry
she could really get until he set her down outside the round green door that
led to their suite.

“You!” She slapped at his bare chest and
though her little hand didn’t hurt a bit, Kor was still worried by the angry
look on her face.

“Mistress,” he cautioned. “Be careful what
you say. There are listening ears
everywhere.”

“You
promised
me,” she hissed,
keeping her voice low but furious. “You promised I would be able to call as
soon as I got here. And now I find out that outside calls are freaking
prohibited
and I’m
stuck
here with you with no way to call my ride and—”

“Is it really so bad, being ‘stuck’ here
with me?” Kor asked roughly. “Does it bother you that much?”

“I…you…” His question seemed to have taken
the wind out of her sails. “You shouldn’t have lied to me,” she said at last.
“It makes me wonder if anything else you told me was the truth.”

“I haven’t lied to you about my past life
or my motivations,” Kor said. “I could have made up all kinds of things but I
told you what I am and why I did what I did.” He spread his hands. “I’m not
hiding anything here, blondie.”

“How can I be sure?” Maggie crossed her
arms over her chest, which made her considerable cleavage strain against the
low-cut top of her green gown. It was hard for Kor not to stare but he tried
manfully to keep his eyes on her face. “What about the prosti and porno
district being between us and the chasm back on Yonnie Six. Was that true?”

“Absolutely,” Kor assured her. “I only
lied about you being able to call as soon as you got here because…” He cleared
his throat. “Because, well… I wanted to be sure you were safe.” He took one of
her soft little hands in his. “Is that so bad…my lady?”

“Don’t call me that.” Maggie pulled her
hand away.

“Sorry, blondie.”

“That either! My name is
Maggie.
And
I don’t care what your motivation is. A lie is still a lie.”

Kor rubbed a hand over his face tiredly.
“It wasn’t strictly a lie. There
is
a way to make outside calls here.
You just have to know who to talk to…and who to bribe.”

Maggie shook her head. “Well why didn’t
you
say
so?”

He shrugged. “You didn’t give me a
chance.”

“Well, I…I guess I’m sorry.” Maggie
appeared somewhat deflated. She frowned at him. “But how do you know so much
about this place, anyway? Does the, uh, Blood Circuit stop here too?”

Kor laughed. “Hardly. The
Lo’thian
spa
is supposed to be a place of peace and relaxation—pretty much the exact
opposite of what the Circuit offers. No, I had a wealthy patroness who used to
pay my stud fee—”

Maggie frowned. “Oh great.
Another
lover?”

“I would almost think you were jealous,” Kor
said mildly. “No, if you’d let me finish I was going to say I had a wealthy,
elderly
patroness who used to pay my stud fee just to sit and talk to me. I think I
reminded her of her son or grandson who died. She was a regular attendee at the
spa and she liked to talk about protocol and gossip. You know—whose slave had
embarrassed them at the Grand Banquet, who had their ass lifted or their
breasts enhanced…” He paused significantly. “
And
who was evicted for
bribing the night steward to make a call back home.”

“Oh.” Maggie frowned. “So you’re saying if
we can just find the night steward, we can make a call?”

“Sure.
If
your bribe is tempting
enough,” Kor clarified.

“Well…” She appeared partly mollified.
“That’s good, I guess, but it’s still a hell of a lot more complicated than you
made it sound when you were convincing me to come here with you.”

“As I said, I just wanted to make sure you
were safe.” Kor leaned down so he could look into her eyes. What color were
they? Damn her oculars—he intended to find out very soon. “You saved me,
Maggie," he said softly. "I was dying and
you
saved me.
How could I let you walk into danger without stopping you?”

“I…don’t know.” Maggie looked away from
him, biting her lip. “Look, we should get into the room and stop talking out
here in the hallway. Like you said, anyone could be listening.”

“True.” Kor produced the envelope the desk
attendant had given him and opened it. Inside were two golden latticework
rings. One was much smaller and studded all over with rubies, the other was
large and had a single dark emerald in the center. Kor handed this one to
Maggie and kept the smaller, ruby inlaid ring for himself. Then he held out his
palm. “Give me your hand.”

“What? Why?” she asked, even as she
complied.

“It activates the room keys. I have to
place the ring on your finger and you have to place mine. Otherwise they won’t
work.”

“I don’t understand—these are the keys?”
she asked but he was already sliding the gold and ruby ring onto the right
index finger of her left hand.

“Yes.” Kor frowned. “Traditionally, the
key-ring goes on the fourth finger of the left hand but you seem to already
have something there.”

“Oh, yes…” She looked down at the tiny
diamond chip set in some cheap, gold-plated metal which sat on her slender
finger. “That’s, uh, my engagement ring.”

“Is that so,” Kor said flatly. He was
thinking less and less of this “fiancé” of hers. To begin with he sounded like
a skinny weakling, unworthy of her love. And now it seemed he had chosen the
cheapest piece of jewelry imaginable to declare to the world his love for
Maggie. What was wrong with the male? If Kor had won such a brave and beautiful
female, he would have wanted to broadcast his good luck with a much more elegant
and expensive display.

“I know how it looks,” Maggie said
quickly, her cheeks turning pink. “But I was in grad school at the time and Donald
was paying off his student loans. Money was tight so—”

“I didn’t say anything.” Kor held out his
hand. “Here. Put mine on, please Mistress.”

“Oh, um…all right.” She took his large
hand in both her small ones and slid the heavy emerald ring carefully onto the
ring finger. Kor noticed she was shaking as she did it.

“Is everything all right?” he asked
softly.

“It’s…it’s fine.” She laughed, a jagged
sound. “I just…it’s almost like…never mind.” She shook her head. “It’s silly.”

“All right.” Kor didn’t press her.
Instead, he clasped her hand, pressing their rings together until he felt a
tingle. “There. That should do it—they’re activated.”

“They are? And how do they work?” As she
spoke, Maggie reached for the ornately carved door latch set in the center of
the large, round, green door. When she did, the door swung silently open.

“I think you just answered your own
question,” Kor murmured, smiling. “Behold, my lady—your suite.”

Maggie looked into the room and breathed a
long, low, “Ohhhh.” Then she looked at Kor with shining eyes. “It’s amazing! I
just wish I had my field kit.”

She rushed into the room, leaving him
scratching his head in bewilderment. What had upset her a moment before? And
why was she so excited now?

* * * * *

The Green Suite was apparently named for
more than just the color of its door, because the entire space appeared to be
filled to the brim with exotic flowering plants. The moment Maggie stepped
inside she was surrounded by a lush, verdant jungle of vegetation and not a
single plant was one she had ever seen before. The Xenobotanist inside her
rushed to the surface and she went delightedly from one to the next, sniffing
and observing, her fingers itching to take notes.

“This is
amazing,”
she gushed to Kor
when he came in and shut the round green door behind him. “I’ve never seen so
many alien species in one place before! Look—this one is
blue!
Not the
flowers—the plant itself. What could account for the variation in pigmentation?
Does the chlorophyll have a different structure than Earth chlorophyll? Oh,
what I wouldn’t give for a microscope!”

Kor seemed bemused but pleased by her
excitement.

“So am I forgiven for tricking you to get
you here?” he asked, coming up behind her.

“Oh, yes, I…” Maggie turned to face him
and realized he was a lot closer than she’d thought. Suddenly she was right up
against his broad, bare chest and he was staring down into her eyes. “I mean,
this is wonderful,” she said, taking a step back. “It’s…I study alien plants
and animals. That’s what I was going to Gaia to do but this is great too.”

“I’m glad you’re happy but now we need to
make an appearance down at the spa,” Kor said firmly, steering her away from
the plants and deeper into the suite.

“What? Now?
No,”
Maggie protested. “I want to stay right here. I need a
notebook and pen and a way to collect and preserve specimens and—”

“The real Lady Pope’nose would never stay
up in her room sniffing the flowers,” Kor pointed out.

“What?” She frowned. “I’m not just
sniffing them. I want to
study
them.”

“Lady Pope’nose wouldn’t do that either,”
he pointed out. “Look, Maggie, if we’re going to make this deception work, you
have to play the part. The minute a rich mistress arrives at the spa, she
changes her clothing and goes down to the spa facilities. If she doesn’t, the
other guests at the spa talk. And when the gossip starts flying, bad things
happen.”

“Such as someone realizing I’m not who I
say I am.” Maggie sighed and turned back toward one particularly huge plant
with violet and magenta flowers. “All right, I’m sorry. I just can’t help
wanting to work when I see all this exotic uncatalogued vegetation. I mean, the
only thing better would be if there were strange animals here as well.”

As if to answer her wish, a tiny face no
bigger than her thumbnail suddenly peeked out from behind one of the big
colorful flowers on the plant she was staring at.

“Oh!” Maggie gasped as a tiny creature
about as long as her pinky finger crawled out onto a flat blue leaf. “What is
that?”

“A
nixnax.
They’re really
friendly—especially if you feed them.” Kor picked up a long purple fruit from a
bowl beside them and pinched off a piece. “Here, little one—come get it,” he
crooned in a soft, low voice.

To Maggie’s delight, the tiny animal,
which was covered in bright pink fur, crept forward and took the tiny piece of
fruit from Kor’s big hand. It sat on the leaf, nibbling as purple juice dripped
down its little chin. As it ate, it watched them with wide, shiny black eyes.
To Maggie it looked like a cross between a tiny monkey and a mouse.

When the
nixnax
was finished with
the first piece, it stood up on its hind legs and chattered at Kor for more.

“Oh, can I this time?” Maggie begged. “I
want to feed him.”

“He
is probably a she. Only the dominant females beg for
food,” Kor informed her but he gave her the long purple fruit—which looked like
an eggplant and a banana had had a particularly ugly baby—and showed her how to
pinch off a piece.

“Here you go,” Maggie whispered, holding
it out to the
nixnax.
“Come and get it.”

The little alien creature took the food
but instead of eating it, she stuffed it into her cheek pouch, making the side
of her little wrinkled face bulge comically. Then she chattered for more.

“She wants to bring the food back to her
tribe,” Kor said. “Go on, give her some more.”

Maggie broke off another piece and handed
it over. The minute the
nixnax
had the fruit shoved into her other
cheek, she took off, swinging nimbly between the curling vines of the big plant
and disappearing behind the blue leaves and brightly colored flowers.

“Oh…” Maggie couldn’t help feeling
disappointed. She had wanted to study the creature more and besides, it was
cute
.

“Don’t worry.” Kor smiled at her. “She’ll
be back. Right now, let’s have some of this fruit ourselves. It’s going to be a
long time before dinner.”

“It will?” Maggie broke off a piece of the
fruit for herself—noticing that it tasted sweet and bland, kind of like
oatmeal.

“Mmm-hmm. The Grand Banquet is a big event
here.” Kor picked up some fruit for himself. “After we eat, it’s time we got
down to the spa. The other mistresses will start talking about you if you don’t
get there soon.”

“Oh, all right.” Maggie sighed. “We’ll
go.”

“Of course. But first we have to change.”
He looked at her speculatively. “I wonder how you’ll look in the spa clothes
packed by my ex-mistress?”

“I don’t even want to think about it,”
Maggie ate another piece of the purple banana oatmeal fruit. “She’s so skinny
and I’m so…not.”

“You’re certainly much more curvaceous.” Kor’s
eyes roved over her body appreciatively. “Is that one of her gowns you’ve got
on now?”