Stardust Dreams (17 page)

He knew he had been hustled
as soon as Frezlo's run of foolish mistakes and bad choices came to an abrupt
end. Now the beast played a careful game, as if he had miraculously begun to
comprehend the odds. With each quad Frezlo accumulated, Cherry's fingernails
dug a little further into Gallant's flesh, but he was so tense, he hardly felt
it.

The first two games in the
match went to Frezlo, and the bystanders were no longer keeping their voices
hushed. It sounded as though the betting was fairly even, and Gallant's
supporters were growing restless. From what bets he had heard, he knew some of
them stood to lose a considerable amount if he didn't win, but he could only
worry about one thing at a time.

His luck seemed to have
changed in the third game, when he made two of the needed six quads on initial
tries. At least the angry threats from the audience quieted back down enough
for him to temporarily scratch them off his list of problems. He took the game
six to two, which helped restore his confidence, but Cherry's grip on his
shoulder didn't ease up in the slightest.

The next game progressed so
swiftly and so disastrously, Gallant was certain Frezlo had used cheats. Although
he had been watching closely, he hadn't seen the beast make any suspicious
moves, so he couldn't prove anything. By the time Frezlo was ahead five to zero
by rolling four quads in a row, the observers were also beginning to question
his good luck, but no one was willing to come forward to make a formal
accusation.

Gallant achieved a quad on
his next turn, but it didn't go far to relieve the tension building throughout
the room. At least with suspicions aroused about Frezlo's honesty, some of the
heat would be taken off Gallant if he lost. That was hardly a consolation
though, when any second he could be forced to turn Cherry over to a giant,
pig-faced hairball with incineration on his mind.

While Frezlo picked up the
cubes for what could be the final round, the room grew silent. Gallant heard
Cherry take a deep breath and hold it as the cubes rolled to a stop.

Two greens, an orange, and
a yellow.

Frezlo's hand hovered over
the orange, then moved to the greens, then back again to the orange. If
Gallant's outward show of emotionlessness wasn't so well practiced, he might
have been pounding on the table like the beast had. But such a display would be
out of character for him, so he forced himself to lean back and fold his hands
over his stomach as if he had no particular interest in the outcome of this
game.

Finally Frezlo scooped up
the orange and yellow and dropped them again.

One blue. One more green.

Gallant could feel Cherry's
body vibrating against his back. She was still gripping his shoulder, but now
she was using it as a crutch. If only he had gained a little of her trust, she
would not have to be so frightened. Then she would know he would never allow
Frezlo to harm her, even if it meant having to use his secret.

Considering that, he knew
he could not do it here, in front of so many. Not only might it possibly blow
his carefully created cover forever, he had no way of knowing if every one of
the species in the tavern would be affected in the same way. Before he could
think through a solution, Frezlo rerolled the blue.

Cherry sent that little
cube the most positive thoughts she could conjure up—orange, red,
purple—anything but green. But her message didn't get through. The damn thing
came up green. And her heart pounded even harder.

Frezlo's triumphant roar
was nothing compared to the overjoyed shouts of the bystanders who had won and
the furious shrieks of those who had lost.

If she wasn't absolutely
positive Gallant was her only chance of getting out of this in one piece, she'd
throttle him where he sat.

"Woman… mine,"
Frezlo declared unnecessarily.

Cherry took a step backward
and bumped into a wall of men who had come up behind her. One glance at Dutch
confirmed that he was going to make sure Gallant lived up to his part of the
bet, with no concern for what it meant to her.

Gallant stood, removed a
small hook from the waistband of his pants, and unlatched the manacle on his
wrist. "Looks like your luck turned around, Frezlo. Almost unbelievably,
I'd say, but the woman's yours now. Kind of a shame. I hadn't quite gotten
tired of her yet. Maybe you'd consider leasing her to me for another day or two
before I take off."

"No! Want… her…
now."

"Fine," Gallant
said with a negligent shrug. "I'm sure there's a pleasure female down the
way that I can use for tonight." He tossed the manacle and hook to Frezlo.
"She's still a little rebellious; I didn't have time to finish training
her. Though I don't sup-pose you intend to keep her long yourself. I would
suggest you use her at least once before doing away with her though. I think
you'd find her very… What had Sinbar called her? Oh, yes. He said she was
amusing."

Cherry's sandaled foot
connected with Gallant's shin the next instant, but all she accomplished was
setting off a round of laughter.

Gallant shook his head as
he eased himself out of the reach of any of Cherry's limbs. "As you can
see, she's still a bit wild, but she's your problem from here on. As for me,
having her hot bottom squirming against my privates the last couple of hours
has left me with a problem I think I'll have taken care of right away." He
gave Frezlo a farewell salute, turned on his heel and walked out of the tavern
without sparing Cherry a glance.

She was furious and
terrified, and might have burst into tears if she wasn't certain it would only
entertain the heathens that much more. She didn't know precisely what she had
expected Gallant to do, but it sure wasn't walking out like that. She had heard
the grumbling of the losers and realized if Gallant had hung around much
longer, they might have decided to retrieve some of their losses out of his
hide. At the moment, she'd be glad to help them do just that!

The sound of the manacle
clicking shut drew her attention away from the door. Always a pragmatist, she
knew when to face facts. Gallant wasn't going to rescue her, and Frezlo
intended to kill her… or use her then kill her. Neither alternative was
desirable, but at least the latter would give her a bit more time to attempt an
escape back to Gallant's ship… or prepare for her death.

She stared at Frezlo as he
rose from the chair and realized that, based on his overall size, he could
probably accomplish using her
and
killing her at the same time. He
jerked the chain and she had to follow, or be dragged by the collar, in which
case she stood a chance of strangling
before
he incinerated her. Her
list of choices were increasing by the minute.

Her robotic arm was
powerful, but she didn't like to use it in a situation where violence could be
turned against her, and there was no one present with whom she could seek
refuge even if she did manage to break away from Frezlo. Just in case an
opportunity to escape arose, however, she noted where he had slipped the hook
for the manacle.

Encouraging suggestions and
wolf-whistles accompanied their departure from the tavern. As she had surmised
years ago, males tended to behave like males, regardless of their planet of
origin. They passed the building with the mating animals sign, and she couldn't
help but wonder what sort of creature was helping Gallant with the problem he
claimed she caused.

He had made it clear that
he didn't want to use her for sex, but he had also sworn that no one else would
use her for anything. There was no reason his breaking another promise should
surprise her, except that she had been so sure he wasn't lying when he said he
would keep her safe.

Frezlo came to a stop in
front of a door and pushed it open. The illuminated symbol above the
entranceway meant nothing to Cherry, but the only furnishing inside the small,
one-room building was a large bed, and on that, a satchel. This, she deduced,
must be the luxury suite of Hotel Zeonid.

If Frezlo had meant to kill
her right away, he could have done that outside, where she wouldn't have gotten
ashes all over his room. And since she no longer seemed to be in danger of
strangling, that only left the
other
alternative.

As he pulled her over
toward the satchel, she prepared herself to attempt a karate chop on the back
of his thick neck the moment he took his eyes off her. To her disappointment,
he reached into the bag without letting her out of his sight. Her curiosity
about what he was searching for took precedence over all else. She doubted that
it was a weapon, since his death ray seemed to be permanently affixed to his
index finger.

Frezlo stood up again and
held the object out to her. There was just enough light in the room for her to
make out that it was the largest hairbrush she had ever seen. He grunted and
she took it from him.

Keeping a grasp on her
chain, he then unlocked the manacle on his wrist, removed his tunic, and
replaced the manacle.

Her gaze quickly scanned
his huge, hairy form. Although he was technically naked, she couldn't see
anything that could be construed as a sex organ, but she didn't want to make
any snap judgments.

Pointing at the hairbrush,
he grunted at her again.

The only thing she could
think was that he wanted her to brush her hair, but when she put it to the
bangs of her wig, he stopped her.

"No… do… me…
first."

Cherry's eyes widened. "You
want me to brush you? Is that it?" A softer grunt was her answer. She smiled
in spite of the repulsion she felt at the idea of having to touch him. This was
far easier to handle than anything else her imagination had been conjuring up. With
the brush poised in midair, she tried to decide where to start.

Making a low groaning sound,
Frezlo pointed to the brush, then pointed to his feet, his calves, and his
thighs. After that he patted each arm, his back, and his chest.

"Oh! I get it. There's
a special routine to this, huh? Okay, I can play hairdresser for you. Let's
see, are there any problems I should know about? Split ends maybe? I can
recommend an excellent conditioner that would get rid of all these nasty
tangles at the same time."

"Do!"
he ordered and
pressed his hand on her head until she sat on the floor.

Brushing Frezlo's hair was
much harder than Cherry expected it to be. Not only was it extremely coarse,
bits of debris were caught in tangles that the metal bristles of the brush
couldn't get through. The first time she separated a tangle by hand and removed
a burr, Frezlo actually sighed. Or at least that's what Cherry thought it
sounded like.

She couldn't help but think
of how much she was going to enjoy telling this story to Aster, and realized
she didn't believe for one second that she was about to die.

By the time she finished
the two tree trunks he used as legs, she had received quite a few sighs and
something she thought might be an appreciative moan, for a beast. It occurred
to her that she was grooming him the way monkeys do for each other. She just
hoped he didn't expect her to eat any little bugs she might find while she was
doing
him.

She had just moved on to
one of his arms when the door burst open. Before he could raise his lethal
finger, Cherry clamped her robotic fingers around his wrist and held it down to
keep him from incinerating any possible rescuer.

Frezlo's other arm came up
to swat her away at the same time as Gallant stepped into the doorway and
pointed a small black box at him.

"Hold it right there,
Frezlo. I only want to talk, but I'll fire if you lay a hand on her. Woman, you
hold on to that arm for a few more seconds while I try to negotiate a deal with
your master."

Frezlo snarled at Cherry,
but the weapon in Gallant's hand seemed to intimidate him enough to make him
stand still. Cherry's attention was drawn to something even more interesting.

Gallant was not wearing his
eye patch.