GALLANT (The Innerworld Affairs Series, Book 3) (14 page)

"What the—" Her fingers quickly examined then tugged at the circle of heavy metal links. She had played a slave girl often enough to recognize the collar by feel but those she'd worn for fantasy reenactments had an escape catch. This one was missing that feature. Before anxiety had a chance to set in completely, Gallant was explaining.

"I swear I'll take it off as soon as I've got you safely back on board."

"Does it ever occur to you to tell the truth to begin with, or do you just naturally have to be underhanded about everything?"

"I beg your pardon?"

"Why don't you try explaining things to me instead of always tricking me into them? I'm an intelligent person. If you ask me to do something and it makes good sense, I'll do it willingly. Your way only makes me angry and I'm much more cooperative when I'm not angry."

He let her words sink in before responding. "You have a valid point. My only excuse is that I'm not accustomed to dealing with cooperative people and deception is often the only way I get a job done. From now on, I promise to try to explain things to you first."

She studied him for a moment and decided that a promise to
try
was probably the best concession she would get from him. "Begin by explaining why I have to wear this collar."

Looking somewhat contrite, he said, "It's for your protection. The only way I can be sure you'll remain unmolested out there is if everyone's convinced you're my property."

"Hmmph. You make it sound like all the dangerous characters are so afraid of you that they wouldn't dare mess with what's yours."

"Let's say, I have managed to establish a certain reputation among this element."

She recalled Dot saying something about his "unsavory reputation." She considered asking him to elaborate, but decided she was better off not knowing exactly what he had done to earn that reputation. There were already too many risks involved for her peace of mind. However, her conclusion remained that it would all be worth it if it got her home faster. "Okay. I'll pretend I'm your slave. But don't push the master business too far or you'll regret it."

With a loud click, he snapped a chain leash to the back of the collar. On the other end of the leash was a manacle that he clamped over his left wrist. "I'll do my best not to take advantage."

Cherry wondered how he managed to say that with a straight face. Those two white stripes in his hair looked more like devil's horns every day.

As politely as though they were going out on a date, he asked, "Shall we go? I'm sure the sun is down by now."

Lifting a section of chain to take the strain off her neck, Cherry grimaced and gave him a nod of readiness... for whatever he was dragging her into.

Mar and Dot both wished them luck, although Dot sounded considerably less enthusiastic.

Gallant opened the hatch and a wave of oppressive heat lapped over Cherry. As she waited for the stairs to telescope their way down to the ground, she noted the red haze on the horizon where the sun had recently set. She couldn't begin to imagine how hot it must be during full sunlight.

"Go down slowly," Gallant instructed her. "I'll be close behind. But after that, be careful to stay a step or two behind me... and keep your eyes downcast whatever you do."

She turned and clucked her tongue at him when she reached the ground. "You don't have to tell me how to play a slave girl. I've done it thousands of times. Being lord and master over a helpless woman is apparently a universal male fantasy.
But"
—she wagged her finger at him—"like I told you before, don't get carried away with your role."

Instead of looking threatened, he winked at her. "I promise to whip you only if it becomes absolutely necessary to prove my manhood to the locals."

"Very funny! Can we just get this over with, please?" She readjusted the collar and lifted the chain a little higher. "This rig isn't getting any lighter."

Gallant frowned and gently touched her neck. "Your skin's already rubbed pink. I'm sorry. I didn't think about that. Let's go back and put some kind of padding inside."

He started to go up the stairs again but she gave the chain a yank. When he almost fell, she laughed out loud. "How about that? This thing works both ways. Forget the padding. A heartless master would hardly think of such a kindness. Anyway, what's a little irritation if I can help save the universe?" The concerned expression on his face was so sincere that she knew she had just gotten another glimpse of the real Gallant Voyager. That confirmation of his secretly sensitive nature went a long way toward relaxing her. "Come on, before someone besides me figures out your wicked reputation is mostly hype."

The rust-colored ground beneath her feet was hard as marble and had cracks large enough to trip in. She was having to be so careful about where she was walking she didn't notice the gruesome display at the edge of the camp until she was right next to it. Staked out on the ground were two skeletons.

"A not-so-subtle warning to unwelcome visitors," Gallant told her. "If an offender is lucky, he'll get put out here in the middle of the day. That way, he only lasts about two or three hours before he's completely dehydrated, then at least he's not alive to see the ugly little creatures that come crawling around after dark to clean his bones."

Cherry shivered, both from the image his words created and the noticeable change in the temperature. The red haze was gone now and it was getting darker by the minute. Gallant paused when they reached the inner circle of the windowless buildings, and Cherry cautiously halted a bit behind him, in case anyone was watching.

Picture signs hung above the front doors of several of the nearby structures. While she couldn't identify all the symbols on the signs, a few were generic enough for her to understand, such as the one with the depiction of two animals mating.

Gallant led her to a building with three different-shaped drinking glasses on its sign—obviously the neighborhood tavern.

Inside, it was cool and dimly lit, but Cherry's eyes soon adjusted. With the simple wooden bar and roomful of scarred tables and chairs, it could have been a tavern in any small town in the United States... except for the bartender and the four patrons sitting in the far corner.

If she didn't know better, she might have guessed that they were dressed up for Halloween. The bartender made Cherry think of an octopus. Eight tentaclelike appendages extended out in a circle from the upper body, and an oversized head had two bulbous eyes protruding from opposite sides. She thought those characteristics could certainly come in handy for a bartender.

As Gallant sauntered toward the bar with her in tow, Cherry took another peek at the group in the corner. They were more humanoid in structure than the bartender and seemed vaguely familiar to her. With their gray flesh, skinny, elongated arms and legs and slanted, black, almond-shaped eyes, they were the image of the aliens that supposedly abducted Earthlings for the sole, peculiar purpose of probing their orifices. It was too bad she could never tell anyone they really existed. Then she realized, since they
did
exist perhaps the stories were
true
, which meant those beings weren't as harmless as they appeared.

"Stars above, it's Gallant Voyager!" the bartender exclaimed in a very sweet, feminine voice.

Cherry wondered if the bartender was truly a female or if the translator she was wearing beneath the slave collar merely interpreted the voice that way. Her curiosity was settled a moment later when a tentacle whipped out, wrapped around Gallant's neck and pulled him close enough for her to plant a loud kiss on his mouth. Cherry had to fight the urge to wipe her own lips after the creature released him.

"It's been a while, Kip," Gallant said with a broad smile.

"I've missed you, handsome. Where have you been?"

"You name it, I've been there."

"And picked yourself up a pet, I see. For some reason, I thought you had an objection to slavery." A tentacle uncurled and tipped up Cherry's chin.

Cherry let herself be inspected without meeting the bartender's gaze.

Gallant smirked. "I won her in a game of cubit and only found out how untrained she was after her former master took off."

"Where did you get her?"

"Innerworld, Earth," Gallant stated in a slightly raised voice.

"She's a Noronian?"

"Terran," Gallant said a bit louder.

Suddenly the murmurs from the back of the room ceased, and Cherry knew without looking that they now had the undivided attention of that group.

Kip gracefully recoiled the tentacle. "If you want to get rid of her, I'm sure the Finites over there would pay you a fair price. You know how they love their Terran specimens."

Gallant nodded. "That's a thought. I'll let you know if I decide to let her go and you can handle the negotiations. For now, how about setting us both up with refreshers?"

Cherry kept telling herself he was only acting but the way the four Finites were staring at her made her very uneasy. She inched closer to Gallant.

Kip set two tall glasses of bubbling green sludge on the bar and waved for them to drink up. Gallant picked up one glass, toasted Kip and handed Cherry the other. She could barely conceal her disgust as he took a long swallow and signaled for her to do the same. She held her breath and took a sip. Though she had never actually tasted nuclear waste, she was certain it was similar to this.

"Drink more than that, woman," Kip ordered. "It's the only thing that will help your body tolerate the lack of moisture on this planet."

Cherry stared into the gurgling slime then gave Gallant a pleading look.

"Try holding your nose and gulping it all down at once," he said without sympathy.

Even the small amount she had drunk seemed to be eroding her esophagus. When he made a move to hold her nose for her, she pushed his hand aside and forced herself to take three large swallows. Gingerly, she placed the glass back on the bar while she concentrated on not gagging.

"She does tell a good bedtime story though," Gallant declared as if it just occurred to him that she had some value.

"Oh?"

He took another drink that almost emptied his glass. "Yes, indeed. You know Frezlo, don't you?" Kip nodded. "She claims she saw him incinerate a Weebort trader in Innerworld, in front of a dozen witnesses, then casually walk away."

"Frezlo's been known to do that, depending on the urgency of the situation."

Gallant leaned forward as if to confide a vital secret.
"But,
she says the Weebort told her something important right before he died. Now, you and I both know, if that was true, Frezlo would have eliminated her as well."

Cherry knew that was the bait he had come here to dangle, and the way Kip was now eyeing her said the story had captured her attention. She only hoped Kip could get the message to Frezlo quickly... before she exploded with nervous energy or died from that vile drink.

As more customers came in, Kip was kept busy serving and gossiping. A few recognized Gallant and greeted him but none were as friendly as Kip. Most of them were humanoids, and Cherry tried not to stare at those who weren't, but one patron caught her gaze from across the room and she couldn't make herself look away. Her instincts told her it was a male and the lizard skin identified him as reptilian even before she saw his yellow, snakelike eyes.

He came toward her in a smooth movement that made him appear to be gliding on air. A peculiar heaviness began seeping into her limbs as he drew closer, and her first thought was that the drink was causing the lethargic sensation. But it was the way she was unable to separate her gaze from the reptile's that worried her enough to nudge Gallant.

A split second later, Gallant slapped her face so hard she staggered backward.

Chapter 7

Without considering the consequences, she raised her robotic arm and swung at him, but he easily dodged the blow. The sound of a roomful of male laughter brought her to her senses before she attacked again.

Quickly shortening the length of chain between them, Gallant whispered, "Get down." He then made it look like he was forcing her to her knees at his feet as he muttered another private message. "I told you to keep your eyes lowered." In a more audible voice, he demanded, "Beg forgiveness, woman."