Salvage Rights (Distant Worlds Book 2) (12 page)

“Finest quality in the
galaxy, same model worn by League security and high ambassadors.  I trade you
crystal pearls you wear for one.”

Danika did not need to
feel his emotions to know when she was being taken, but it helped.  Before she
could speak, Tuft spoke from close behind her.  “Warrung pays in platinum, as
always.  The lady’s jewelry is not on the table.”

He did not look happy
but gamely continued to try to gouge them.  “Three thousand platinum for one
suit.”

“One thousand platinum
for three suits,” Danika said quickly before Tuft could counter with that
disgusted look on his face.  Pirate diplomacy they could do without in this
situation.

Tune gasped as if she
had struck him with a blade.  “What am I selling. 
Durges? 
Two
thousand, one suit.”

“Fifteen hundred, three
suits.”

“I would not sell the
cheapest imitation for such a
squo.” 
He threw his hands up
theatrically.  “Fifteen hundred,” he flipped up one of the three digits on his
right hand, “
one
suit!”

Danika tilted her head
feeling the air around her.  “I will give you three thousand for three suits. 
That is the best deal you will get, and only offered because I can see you do,
indeed, have the best quality.  It is a fair price and the highest I will go,
and only to save Warrung the trouble of finding another supplier.  What say
you?”

He squinted his eyes
and studied her stubborn chin momentarily.  The silence stretched most
dramatically as he waited to see if she would fold.  Finally, with a wide razor-toothed
grin, he spoke.  “Done.”  He chortled in glee rubbing his hands together more
from the fun of the deal than the good price he got for the armor.  Then he
continued slyly, “Of course, you will want boots.”

Danika raised a brow at
that.  “Are you trying to suggest I am foolish enough to believe that your
suits are so inferior that they do not come with boots?  Surely you would not
insult either of us in such a way.”

The little man blinked,
and a second later, chortled his mirth so hard he had to hold on to his side. 
Kira, who had been laying low and hiding close to the door behind them, even
came around the silent Tuft to see the sight of a usually dour Monghet laughing
his head off.  When he was finally merely chuckling sporadically, he bowed
Danika’s way with a sharp smile.  “How can I argue that I am indeed carrying
inferior suits. 
Obviously,
my high quality suits include the boots. 
You would not be so
foolish
to assume otherwise.”

This time Danika
laughed, then bowed back just as respectfully.  She looked at Tuft with a
smile.  “Pay the honorable dealer.”

With a snort that could
have been approval, Tuft did.

After the weapon shop,
they moved on to Kira’s domain – the clothes.  Walking inside yet another space
pod tricked out to look like an island hut, Danika found that unlike the
utilitarian weapons dealer, this one was full of billowing fabrics and jewel
tones, and probably three times the size.  Ornate seating areas and affluently
dressed women gave the place a totally foreign feel to Danika.  Whereas the
weapons seller’s shop reminded her of her brief time on the Jezebel, this place
made her feel closed in and itchy.  And it smelled.  Flowery to be sure, but it
lacked the clean uncluttered feel of the rest of the island.  Everywhere she
looked, women and the occasional under-dressed and over-muscled man looked
their way, some drinking from long stemmed crystal, while others perused the
wares empty handed.  Amongst the over-dressed clients, both she and Kira looked
out of place in their simple sarong.  Of course, a dark-haired sloe-eyed sales
woman latched right onto the crystal pearls with an avaricious gleam, and
headed with a graceful sway of slim hips their way, despite her clear
reservations of their worthiness.  In fact, everyone was questioning who they
were and how they got in.  There were so many emotions flying around, Danika
immediately felt her head start to spin.

Taking in the scene
with a glance, Tuft pivoted without a word to leave.  Danika latched onto his
arm and refused to let go, her eyes beseeching.  “Where are you going?”  She
knew her voice was high in panic, but she could not help that what she really
wanted to say was
take me with you
.

Tuft looked behind her
and then back at her, his eyes implacable.  “Anything attacks you in here, you
can handle.  I’ll be outside guarding the door.”

“I can do that,” she said,
keeping her death grip on his arm.  She cleared her throat.  “I mean, Lucan
said to stay with you.”

Touching his skin,
Danika could feel the humor he was hiding behind his facade.  The corner of his
lips quirked up ever so slightly.  For Tuft that was telling.  Clearly, he was
laughing at her.  “I just saw you face down a poisonous Monghet, and get a good
deal.  You can handle a pack of pretty peacocks.”

Raising her chin with
dignity, she let him go.  “The term peacock originated from a flightless bird
from Old Earth history with stunning plumage.  Peacocks don’t have packs.  The
term is a ‘clutch’.”  She firmed her lips.  “And don’t let the pretty fool
you.  Peacocks have sharp spikes on their feet to threaten away predators.”

He gave his signature
grunt, turning with a broad shoulder shrug to go.  “Then don’t let them walk all
over you.”

Truer words
,
Danika thought turning back to face the room.  Then, the pretty and slickly
dressed woman was there bowing gracefully at the waist.  “How may I be of
assistance?”  She ignored Kira, who she barely noticed already had her eyes on
a bolt of fabric on the overflowing shelves.  Danika studied the server and
then looked around the room.  “You can’t,” she said in her firmest no nonsense
voice.  She pointed to another girl teetering on a ladder and juggling bolts of
raw silk.  “We will wait for her.”

“Suma?”  The girl
looked both insulted and irritated at once.  “Whatever for?  She is merely a
servant
here.”

Danika quirked a brow
at the distaste she put on that word.  “We will wait for Suma.”

The saleswoman narrowed
her eyes.  “Suit yourself.  I have important clients to see to regardless.”

Then she was gone and
Kira returned to her side.  “You do not like her?”  Kira asked on a whisper.

“I do not.”

In an even smaller
voice she said, “Nor I,” then louder, “Suma is shy but she is honest.”

Danika smiled at Kira
to let her know she heard, then she sighed long, “I suppose we can get this
done quickly?”

Kira giggled at her
tone, then covered her mouth and looked around like it might be against the
law.

Danika smiled a true
smile then.  “You have a beautiful laugh, Kira.  You should do it more often.” 
Then she patted the girl’s back and looked to the task. “Let us finish this
quickly and be gone from this crowd.  They are giving me a headache with all
their petty jealousies and intrigues.”

Kira looked around with
wide eyes.  “Can you see so much?  They always just look rich and satisfied to
me.”

“Trust me.  Whatever
they possess, the last word to describe this lot is satisfied.”

They got to Suma in
time to catch a bolt of silk as it was falling.  “I am so sorry,” she gasped
out, climbing down the ladder without the use of her hands.  She looked scared
out of her mind when she turned to see Danika with the bolt of cloth.  She
dropped to her knees immediately upon spying it. “Please, Lady, forgive my
clumsiness.”

At the same time,
Danika was reaching for her arm to help her up a voice behind them spoke loud
and snidely.  “Can you not see girl that is no Lady.”

All eyes turned to them
and Danika was somehow unsurprised to turn and see the swirling mass of anger
behind her was Briar.  Beyond her she could see Tuft just inside the door.  He
caught her eyes and shrugged, as if to say
you handle it.  I want to see what
you are made of
.  Danika shook her head and turned back to the venom-filled
woman that used to occupy Lucan’s blue room.

“Briar, I believe,”
Danika said mildly, turning and stepping to the side to put herself closer to
the woman and between her and Kira who had frozen and paled at the voice.

Briar raised a sharp
brow.  “Where is Madam Green?” she called loudly.

“She is away to a
private fitting,” Suma said quietly without, Danika noticed, rising from the
ground.

“That explains it
then.  If she were here, she would have never let such as these past the
threshold.  Only the best families from a hundred worlds shop here.  She should
be cast out into the street and beaten.”

Danika raised a brow
but only smiled, hearing the lie in the other woman’s words.  “Lie,” she said
simply, “Madam Green would have no problem with me.”  Then she lowered her
voice so that only the closest listeners could hear her.  “You seek to cause
trouble where there is none.  Lady Briar, I warn you, continue in this vane and
it is you who will be cast out.”

Briar hissed.  “You
threaten me.  You are nothing but a whore Lucan acquired from the dregs of the
space dock.  You won’t last a week before he comes back to me.”

“She is not a whore,”
Kira suddenly burst out stepping up beside Danika.  “She is a truthsayer and
seer.
 Lady
Danika has no need to warm anyone’s bed for money and Lucan
Warrung has tossed you aside like the . . .” Danika could feel her thinking
frantically for the right word, “Useless
durges harlot
that you are!”

Danika knew she was
standing there with her eyes wide in shock, but she couldn’t help it.  To hear
scared little Kira jump to her rescue in such a way, and with Briar, a woman
Kira feared enough to have nightmares about her, she was at a loss for words. 

Then Briar reared back
and slapped Kira across her scarred cheek so hard the girl hit the floor with a
cry.  Seeing her friend slapped down and clutching her marked cheek Danika saw
red.

Briar looked down at
the girl with satisfaction, her mouth opening to add some emotional pain to the
rest when Danika had had enough.  Before the words could fall, Briar went
flying back through three racks of clothes and slammed into the steal wall of
the shop pod.  She hit the fabric shelves hard enough that they rained down in
a waterfall of colors, piling at her feet.

Danika walked carefully
through the assorted debris with purpose, her eyes only for the woman still
suspended by her anger like a bug on a pin.  She did not know it but for the
shocked people looking on, she appeared almost to float through the mess such
was her dangerous grace, and no one watching could tell whether it was the
crystal pearls that pulsed with a strange light, or Danika herself. 

She reached the wall
the same time Tuft did, and with a thought, she held him in place out of her
path.  She spoke with her eyes still glued to her target.  “You wanted me to
handle this.  I am.  Stay out of my way.”  She did not wait for an answer, just
shook her head.  The light caused her hair to glow like blood diamonds, and her
skin appeared almost translucent.  “This will be your only warning,
Lady
Briar.  Kira is off limits.”  She watched the woman flail and clutch at her
throat trying to scream through the pressure there.  “You do not talk to her,
look at her, or breathe in her direction, and should you ever attempt to lay a
hand on her again, I will make your outside match the twisted ugliness you hide
on the inside.”   She watched that sink in and true fear take root.  She leaned
closer and spoke for her ears alone.  “Mark me on this or the scars Kira wears
with such courage will be the least of what you bear.”  She studied her,
feeling the fear spike inside her.  “Nod if you understand me.”

She nodded frantically
and a moment later, Danika stepped back and she slid to the floor, shaking and
choking for breath.  Danika turned to the rest of them.  “I am required to get
two evening dresses and some assorted comfortable day clothes as befits the
truthsayer in the employ of Lucan Warrung.”  She looked at the scared shop girl
still on her knees, though now her arm was around Kira where she had fallen. 
Danika gentled her voice.  “You, Suma?  Will you pick out some things and send
them . . .?”

She stalled here, and
Tuft interjected from behind her.  “To Lucan Warrung.  You may come, and Madam
Green, but no other,” he said, pointing to Suma.

Danika walked back
through the mess while people backed further away.  She paid no attention,
leaning over Kira and helping her up, and pushing peace toward both girls.  With
her arms pulling Kira into her chest, she met Suma’s soft brown eyes and
realized the girl could be no older than twelve.  “I must see to my friend,
Kira, now.  Will you do that for us?”

The girl let go of Kira
slowly, her eyes on Danika.  Then she sighed and unexpectedly smiled.  “I will.”

Danika smiled back, bowed
her head in acknowledgment and turned to follow Tuft out.  She could feel his
anger like a palatable fog surrounding them, pushing back even the fear and awe
of the rest.  However, she was more concerned with the strange shock Kira
seemed to have fallen into.  In truth, Danika was not feeling all that much
herself.  She did not regret what she had done to that evil woman; she just
hoped that whatever consequences she would have to face for her rash actions,
they were ones she could live with.

As soon as they stepped
outside, Tuft pulled them away from the door and through the crowd forcefully. 
“We are leaving.  Keep up and don’t wander.”  Tuft started pressing buttons on
his icom even before he stopped talking. 

They made it to the
private port in record time, and out of breath, and still holding on to Kira,
she waited for Tuft to yell like he clearly wanted to.  He pushed them both in
the lift after coding in.  “We wait for Lucan at home.”

She sighed at his grim
words.  Lucan was not going to be happy about this, she could already tell. 
Absently, she patted Kira on the back and watched the lift doors shut with the
finality of steel.

***

Lucan was having a hard
enough time keeping his mind on business without the text report from Tuft
making him want to tear someone’s head off.  He had already been fighting the
need to check up on his little Bruha without that.

Without another word
for the pilot he had been interviewing, he stood up and headed for the space
port hub that led to market port.  By the time he was out the door, the man he
had been considering hiring was a memory.  When he stepped off into market port
he could hear the stories being bandied about.  “Truthsayer.”  “Deadly alien.” 
“Almost killed everyone.”  “Stood up for a servant against the Lady Briar.” “Powerful,
with lasers for eyes.”  “Stopped the injustice.”  A few conversations had him
blinking, even while he pushed through the crowd. 
What the hell had she
been doing in the short time since they parted?

Everyone was too
excited to pay him the usual fearful attention.  Because of that, it took him
twice as long as usual to get to the second lift.  It was not until he was in
the lift and on his way home that he realized he had not seen a single
Furgarian since the little lordling incident.  He put it on the back burner as
something to look into later.  For now, he only had one thought and that was to
get back to his Bruha.

He told himself it was
because he needed to punish her for exposing her powers in such a way and
marking herself as a prize for every mercenary who would make a buck by selling
her into slavery.  In truth, even he did not know what he would do when he got
to the little truthsayer.  He just knew he needed to get there, and assure
himself that she was safe.  Bottom line, though he hated,
hated
to admit
it, even to himself, was that he needed to see her face.  He cursed, ground his
teeth and took the hallway at a fast stomp – every step making him that much
angrier at his own weakness, and the Bruha that awaited him.