I was talking with Baron Vik’tor when I began to feel that something was wrong with little one. Our Master/pet bond wasn’t sealed yet but I had been doing everything I could to strengthen it and it let me know when something wasn’t right. I could feel it, like someone plucking at my nerves—something was wrong with her and it was getting wronger by the second.
“So you’re saying that your planet is going to invade ours?” Baron Vik’tor said, frowning at me. “Because I think you’ll find that O’nagga Nine is pretty fucking well protected.”
“Excuse me.” I stood up abruptly, leaving the glass of expensive brandy on the side table. I knew what I was doing would be considered rude but that couldn’t be helped—I needed to assure myself that little one was all right.
“Where are you going?” Azz’lx, the Baron’s lackey asked, looking up at me in apparent confusion.
“I must check on my pet,” I said distractedly. “I feel that something is wrong with her. Can you please direct me to her?” I asked.
The Baron frowned and shrugged.
“Sure—in the living area. One of the servants can take you.”
He clapped his hands and the door to his study opened at once, revealing the same servant who had first let us in at the lift.
“Yes, Baron?” he asked, bowing.
“Daw’snx, take Sir Bart to find his pet,” the Baron commanded. “And when you get back we can discuss this ‘invasion,’” he added, looking at me.
But I didn’t even answer. I was already hurrying out the door. The jangling of my nerves was getting worse—it was like a humming in my ears. Danger, danger, danger! a little voice was shouting inside me. I couldn’t have ignored it even if I’d wanted to—which I didn’t. I had to be certain little one was all right.
The servant seemed to understand I was in a rush because he hurried down the hallway, almost running to keep ahead of me. We rounded the corner and he was quick to open a door for me.
I burst into a room with several soft, comfortable looking sofas and an expensive woven rug on the floor. The female Naggian, Dru’silla, was sitting on one of the sofas with a bored look on her face but little one was nowhere to be found.
“Where is she?” I demanded of the startled woman. I crossed the room in two strides and loomed over her. “Where is my pet? What have you done to her?”
I had seen the animosity in the other female’s face when she looked at little one—naturally I assumed that the danger I knew little one was in must be coming from her.
Dru’silla’s eyes went wide and she shrank back from me.
“N-nothing,” she stuttered. “I…I haven’t seen her—I swear!”
“What? Then where is she?” I looked around the room but there was no place to hide a body. Besides, if little one was dead—(Goddess Eternal forbid it)—I would know. The Master/pet bond would be severed and the spark of her life force, that I felt within me, burning like a bright, brave little flame in the darkness, would be extinguished.
“Excuse me, Sir Bart,” the servant called Daw’snx, said hesitantly. “But your, er, pet told me she needed to use the necessary room.”
“Where is it?” I demanded, rounding on him.
“This way.” He hurriedly showed me out of the room and down the hallway again. There was a doorway right beside the lift entrance and the row of hooks where we had hung our coats. The servant knocked on the door but there was no answer.
I pushed past him and flung open the door. Little one’s sweet, feminine fragrance lingered here, but only faintly. She had been here briefly but not for some time. I turned to the servant.
“She’s not here—where could she go?”
“Forgive me, my Lord,” he said fearfully. “I showed her in here and that was the last I saw of her.”
I tried to swallow down the protective rage rising in me that made me want to grab him by the throat and shake him with my mind.
“All right—where could she go?”
Another servant suddenly popped up behind Daw’snx.
“We’ve searched the entire living quarters—she’s not up here!” he exclaimed.
I stormed out of the necessary room, past the servants, and looked around. My eye fell on the row of hooks—my own black coat was still hanging there but the thick, luxurious outer wrap I had synthesized for little one was gone.
“She must have gone back downstairs for some reason!” I exclaimed. Then I remembered the other female from Earth that little one had spotted on our way up. She had been very adamant that we should help her fellow human and upset when I had put her off. Had she gone down to try and find the girl instead of staying put in the Baron’s quarters as I had ordered?
I would have bet the entire Northern Continent of my home word, Korrigon Four, that was exactly what my disobedient little pet had done. Little one was too willful for her own good—I never should have left her alone! If only I could find her safely, I would never let her off the leash again, I swore to myself.
Grabbing my own coat, I jabbed at the lift button. It opened at once and I stepped inside. But when I pressed the button for the lowest floor, nothing happened. Angrily, I pressed it again…and again with the same result. Nothing.
“Sir Bart, forgive me, but if you’re trying to go down to the Central Hub, I’m afraid you won’t be able to get there for at least a solar hour,” Daw’snx said. “This is the hour that the Sweepers come out to clear the entire area of the ice mites that would otherwise eat our buildings. And besides, the lift is inactivated for the night.”
“Inactivated!” I exploded. “Then activate it, gods damn you! I must go down—little one is down there, I’m sure of it!”
My shouting must have drawn the Baron because he suddenly appeared, coming down the hallway with a frown on his face.
“What seems to be the trouble?” he asked.
“My pet—little one—is down in the Central Hub of your building!” I exclaimed. “She must have slipped out to see the other human female we saw on the way up to your living quarters. I must get to her!”
“If she’s down in the Central Hub, you’d better fucking pray to whatever gods you worship that she’s found a place to hide,” the Baron said, looking extremely grave. “The Sweepers are out now—they’re genetically engineered arachnids we use for cleaning away ice mites, but they’ll also tear the flesh off any living thing they encounter. All our native residents know to stay clear during the hour they’re loose in the Hub.”
“What?” I was so angry and worried now I felt very much in danger of losing control. “Listen to me,” I told the Baron, my voice dropping to a threatening growl. “Unlock your lift and have it take me down right now or I swear by the Goddess Eternal I’ll bring this whole damn building down around your ears!”
His eyes widened and I saw that he believed me.
“You’ll be risking your life,” he warned me.
“I don’t care. Let me go down now!”
The thought of little one caught in the jaws of the monstrous beasts he had described made me feel half crazy. And all the while the little voice inside me was shouting danger…danger…DANGER louder and louder! I had to get to little one before it was too late!
“Fine.” The Baron gave a short, sharp nod. “But let me at least get a weapon—otherwise we’re just going down there to get fucking eaten.”
“You’re coming with me?” I frowned at him.
“You’re my guest,” he said grimly. “The laws of Naggian hospitality are very clear—I must protect you with my life. Besides, I wouldn’t let you go down there alone. Oh, thank you, Daw’snx,” he added, because his servant was handing him a long-barreled weapon with a harness which he quickly strapped around his body with the ease of long practice.
“I thought the flame gouter would be best thing to clear the Sweepers,” the servant said, nodding respectfully. “Good luck, my Lord.”
“Watch the lift,” the Baron instructed him. “Keep the doors closed and locked unless Sir Bart and I come back up alone—don’t let any of the Sweepers into the living quarters.”
“Of course not, my Lord.” The servant bowed respectfully.
Baron Vik’tor looked at me.
“Do you need a weapon, too?”
I shook my head.
“Don’t worry about me—I’m well armed. Come, we have to go now.” I clenched my fists at my sides, fighting for control as I tried not to imagine what awful things might be happening to little one. My candalla lashed from side to side, as anxious as I was to reach her.
“Let’s go.” The Baron stepped in beside me and pressed his thumb to a small gray control panel to one side of the row of buttons. After a moment a soft ding was heard and he said, “Down to Central Hub.”
Then, at last, the doors closed and the lift started going down.