Revealed (20 page)

At her soft words, the
tharp
started creeping down her fiancée’s body, much to Y’dex’s evident relief. But though it soon reached its correct position around his hips, it didn’t stay there. Y’dex gasped with wordless outrange as the bright blue living wrap slid suddenly down to his knees, baring him once more to the gaze of the entire grotto.

“Guess I was wrong,” Rast remarked, still grinning. “Looks like your
tharp
would rather be a pair of leg warmers than a scarf.”

“You…you…” Y’dex swung at him and missed, nearly overbalancing. The
tharp
was wrapped securely around his knees now and with another soft command from Nadiah, it began to tighten, effectively hobbling him.

“Look at that,” Rast said. “The incredible shrinking underwear. I’ve heard of tighty-whitys but that, my friend, is ridiculous.” Reaching out, he plucked the
goldur
out of the distracted Y’dex’s hand. “Uh-oh. Look who’s unarmed
now.”

“Human scum, give me that back!” Y’dex clawed forward, snatching for the
goldur
and missing.

“Ah-ah-ah,” Rast admonished. He twirled the
goldur
like an oversized baton. “You know, I could be wrong but I
think
this one has better balance than mine did. Think I’ll keep it. I know there are regulations against us switching weapons but I assume there’s nothing in the rule book about disarming your opponent?”
 
Rast looked over at Magistrate Licklow who said nothing. “Didn’t think so.” He looked back at Y’dex and leveled the
goldur.
“So which do
you
prefer, cave boy? Fire? Or ice?”

Y’dex blanched. “You wouldn’t. You can’t strike an unarmed male.”

“Oh no?” Rast frowned. “So
you
can do that but
I
can’t? Is that how it goes?”

“Bastard!” Y’dex hobbled backwards and then began yanking at the
tharp
with one hand as he tried to keep his balance with the other. “Make it stop!” he shouted at Rast. “Make it stop or I swear to the Goddess I’ll give Nadiah more pain than she’s ever felt in her whole miserable existence.”

Rast’s face went dark. “If you so much as give her a dirty look—”

“I’ll do it! I swear!” Y’dex looked up at Nadiah and made his free hand into a fist. But before he could twist his arm and yank on the bond, she made contact with her
tharp
once more.

“Leave him,”
she told it.
“Go before he hurts you. But give him something to think about first.”

A bright blue fabric arm flowed from her fiancée’s knees up to his unprotected testicles. The
tharp—
the same prototype
tharp
she’d taken and imprinted before she ran away to Sylvan’s bonding ceremony—gave Y’dex’s balls a mighty squeeze. Then, as he howled and toppled over into the icy water on one side of the pit, it flowed off his body and disappeared from sight.

“Be careful,”
Nadiah whispered, knowing that wherever it was it could hear her.
“You did well. Just stay hidden and find me later.”

She felt the
tharp’s
assent and thanked the Goddess she had thought to take it in the first place. Having a
tharp
which could mimic any other garment in the universe was coming in handy for much more than good fashion sense. Doubtless Y’dex’s own dress
tharp
was still lying unused in one of his drawers at his domicile.

Of course without Lydiah to smuggle her
tharp
into his room and let it see which garment to emulate, the plan would never have worked. Nadiah risked a glance at her friend and gave her a very small smile. Lydiah smiled back and gave her a sly wink before going back to refilling someone’s cup.

“I declare the off-worlder challenger the winner of the challenge of strength.” Magistrate Licklow didn’t sound very happy as he announced the outcome but there was nothing else he could do.

“It’s not fair, Father! Not fair—he cheated!” Y’dex protested from the freezing water. It was clear he wanted to climb out of the icy side of the pit but couldn’t since the bright blue
tharp
had deserted him completely.

“Hush yourself.” Magistrate Licklow glared at his son. “You cannot blame another for your own failure to control your
tharp.”

“But, Father—”

“Y’dex!” Lady Licklow came bustling up, holding out a thick, purple
tharp
to wrap her son in. “Come out
right now,”
she hissed.
 
“Everyone
is watching!”

Y’dex exited the icy water with poor grace. “You’ll be sorry, off-worlder,” he snarled at Rast, who was still standing calmly on the beam, twirling his
goldur.
“I’ll make you pay during the next challenge. You’ll see.”

Rast didn’t answer but he turned a troubled gaze on Nadiah. She wasn’t allowed to speak to him but some silent communication seemed to pass between them anyway.

“What next?”
his deep green eyes seemed to be asking.
“What next?”

Rast had no idea what the next challenge—the challenge of wills—involved, but he told himself he was ready for anything. He retreated from the narrow beam and watched as the partition between the hot coals and the icy water was lifted. The water flowed into the hot part of the pit, putting the fire out with a
hiss.
A vast cloud of steam rose and when it cleared, he saw that the enterprising Tranq Prime males who seemed to be in charge of setting everything up had fitted a long, flat slab of stone in place, obscuring the pit completely.
Pretty good,
he thought admiringly.
You can’t even tell it was ever there. It just looks like part of the floor now.

Nadiah had excused herself for a moment and by the time she returned, several rocks of varying sizes had been placed along the edge of the new floor. Rast looked at her anxiously, searching for any sign that Y’dex was hurting her but she seemed fine. She nodded at him, smiling as she sat back on the low platform, and he nodded back, wishing they could actually talk.

He wanted to tell her that the thing with the
tharp
was pure genius and let her know how much he admired her for thinking it up. Something like that never would have occurred to him but then, he didn’t own a sentient fur blanket that was capable of emulating any other garment in the universe. He only hoped the
tharp
had managed to make its way safely back to her after it finally left Y’dex.

“It is time for the second challenge—the challenge of wills,” Magistrate Licklow announced, breaking Rast’s train of thought. He was standing in the exact center of the new floor, looking as self important as ever. “Challengers, come forward.”

Rast came to the center to stand in front of the magistrate. Y’dex was already there. He was wearing a purple
tharp
and he was dry, except for his white-blond hair which had been slicked from his forehead. Rat thought the new ‘do made him look like an albino hairless cat. Y’dex shot Rast a look of pure, unadulterated hatred and Rast responded with a little grin.

“Hey, how you doing, buddy?” he murmured. “I like your new skirt. Is this one going to stay on?”

“Silence!” Magistrate Licklow thundered, frowning. “The second challenge is about to begin.” He turned and nodded at two attendants who were standing on the far edge of the new flooring. “Bring out the mud worms.”

“Mud worms?” Rast muttered. “What the hell are those?”

He got his answer soon enough as the two female attendants—one of whom was
  
Nadiah’s friend—stepped forward. Both of them were holding a long, thin stone platter and on each platter was a thick black earthworm-looking creature as long as Rast’s forearm.

Though both worms were the same length, Rast couldn’t help seeing that one was much livelier. It writhed and wiggled so much it nearly escaped its stone platter twice and the girl holding it had to push it back.

In comparison, the other worm was limp and sluggish. It barely lifted its head and couldn’t be bothered to move an inch in one direction or another. Magistrate Licklow examined both worms, pronounced them “equal” and gave the lively, wiggling worm to his son.

This meant, of course, that Rast got the limp, tired looking worm which, now that he looked more closely at it, seemed obviously sick. But sick or well, what the hell was he supposed to do with the damn thing? Were they going to have some kind of a worm race? If so, he was going to protest because Y’dex had obviously been given the worm to beat. In fact—

His thoughts were cut off abruptly as Y’dex lifted his own, writhing black worm, and bit off one end. He grinned at Rast fiercely, black slime dribbling down his chin, and swallowed with obvious enjoyment.

“What the hell?” Rat demanded, repulsed, as the Tranq Prime male took another big bite of the still wiggling worm. Was the contest of wills about who could do the most disgusting thing? Watching Y’dex chow down on the oozing, thrashing worm made him feel like he was on some kind of sick reality show. Suddenly, he felt a soft nudge at his elbow.

“Huh?” he looked down to see Nadiah’s friend, Lydiah motioning at the limp worm on his platter.

“Eat it,” she hissed. “Quickly—you will not be able to compete in the challenge of wills unless you do.”

“Eat it?” Rast’s stomach rolled in protest. He’d had some more of the excellent bread Nadiah had brought him for breakfast but now, at the thought of eating the live worm, it had decided it wanted to come back up. With a grim effort, Rast held it down. “Look,” he muttered under his breath. “How in the hell is eating a live worm going to help me compete in a challenge?’

“The mud worm gives limited short term telekinetic ability,” she replied in a low voice. “The male who is able to lift the largest boulder with his mind will win the challenge.”

“Seriously?” Rast looked at her in surprise. “Eating one of these suckers makes you able to move things with your mind?”

She nodded. “And the more lively the worm, the greater your ability.”

Rast frowned. So that explained the fact that Y’dex had been given the wiggly worm while he got the limp noodle.

“Don’t worry,” Lydiah hastened to assure him. “Y’dex and my father
think
Y’dex has been given the worm with the most life, but it is untrue. Look closely at yours—examine it.”

Hesitantly, Rast poked at the limp worm, causing it to roll over. What he saw made his gorge rise again. The entire underside of the worm’s belly was writhing and bulging. It was as though there were hundreds of tiny things in there,
 
trying to get out.

“What the
fuck?”
he whispered, grimacing at the disgusting sight. “Is it pregnant or something?”

“No. Your worm has been stung by a
marlot.”

“A
what?”
he demanded.

Lydiah looked impatient. “A
marlot.
A creature that usually lives in harmony with the mudworms and endows them with their telekinetic abilities. But when one spawns, they inject their eggs into a mudworm. When the neophyte
marlots
mature, they eat their way out. This worm is about to burst—the larvae inside it will give you uncharted abilities!”

“Let me get this straight,” Rast muttered. “You’re saying that this worm is filled with other worms? And you want me to eat them all?”

“Yes!” Lydiah nodded her head eagerly. “It took me hours to find one like this for you—the
marlots
spawn only rarely. Eat it quickly before Y’dex gains the upper hand.”

The idea that he had to eat not only the thick black worm but also its contents of writhing larvae nearly made Rast puke on the spot. He didn’t consider himself a squeamish man—he’d eaten everything from blood sausage to haggis in the past.
But at least all of that was dead,
he thought, looking at the worm in dismay. Y’dex, meanwhile, was nearly halfway finished with his own worm and still grinning fiercely as he chomped.

Rast was about to refuse when he looked up and saw Nadiah watching him with anxiety. She was twisting her fingers together the way she did when she was nervous, and the look in her deep blue otherworldly eyes was one of fear and concern. Suddenly his own words came back to him.
“No matter what it takes, no matter how hard it is, I’m not giving up until you’re free or I’m dead,”
he had told her. Of course, when he had made that vow, he’d imagined some kind of duel to the death—not eating live animals. But that didn’t matter—a promise was a promise.

I have to do it,
Rast realized.
No matter how disgusting or repulsive it is, I have to do this for Nadiah.
He sighed.
And to think after all this is over, I don’t even get to stay with her in the end. But that doesn’t matter—what matters is freeing her from that bastard of a fiancée of hers.

Speaking of Nadiah’s fiancée, Y’dex was starting on the last third of his worm and Lydiah was tugging at his elbow anxiously.

“Eat,” she whispered. “Please, off-worlder. You must eat!”

“You’re right.” Not giving himself time to think about it, Rast grabbed the worm and took a huge bite from one end.