15 Targeted (33 page)

Grandy nodded solemnly.

“Why, twill end your sorrows, little Mistress—all of them—forever!” She laughed again, that shrill cackle which was so unlike her sweet, kind speaking voice. It set Emily’s teeth on edge but she didn’t want to seem rude so she just nodded.

“Thank you, Grandy. I can’t thank you enough. Er…” She twisted her fingers together. “And I’m afraid I can’t pay you either. I don’t, uh, have any money.” Not that it would have done any good. A hundred dollar bill would just be a piece of paper here—they might not even use currency for money at all. Maybe they were on the barter system? Emily had no idea. It was an alien world—anything was possible.

“No, no—don’t worry about that, little Mistress.” The old lady smiled sweetly. “You need not pay old Grandy—unless…”

“Unless what?” Emily urged. She felt very uncomfortable about not being able to pay. Especially since Grandy had said the nubbin pinchers and chafing shaft were made of star-silver, which sounded expensive.

“Unless you’d like to give me a lock of your pretty hair? I like to keep a lock from every
Khalla
I help. As a memberence—that’s all.”

“Oh, well sure if you’d like.” Though why anyone would want a piece of her dishwater blonde hair was beyond Emily. She’d always hated the color but it didn’t take dye well at all so she was stuck with it.

“Thankee, little Mistress.” Grandy See-er scrabbled around in the junk on the cluttered table and came up with what looked like an alarmingly large pair of shears with curving tips. But though the cutting implement was cartoonishly big, she snipped only a tiny bit of Emily’s hair. Then she wrapped it carefully in a twist of cloth and hid it away somewhere in the folds of her dress.

“Okay, well…” Emily hesitated, not knowing what to say. Were they done here? Should she go? Could she find her way back to the shuttle by herself? She’d always had an abysmal sense of direction…

“Take a sup of
nem-nam
with me afore we take you back.” Grandy was suddenly shoving a steaming cup that seemed to be made of some kind of bark into Emily’s hands. The liquid inside was very dark green and had an unappetizing algae-like smell.

“Oh, uh…” Emily really didn’t want to drink the weird, steaming liquid but she couldn’t think of a way to refuse without hurting her hostess’s feelings. And besides, Grandy See-er had done so much for her—surely one little sip of it wouldn’t hurt? Just to be polite.

“Come now—tis good for you, so it tis. Good for the memory.” Grandy tapped her forehead and cackled again. “And what
you
want to remember, little Mistress, is to keep the pinchers and the chafing shaft in place until you can get the Black Milk. Only that can set you free.
The Black Milk.
”

“Thank you. I’ll remember,” Emily said meekly. Lifting the cup to her lips, she held her breath and took the smallest sip possible.

Immediately, everything froze. Grandy, who seemed to be in the middle of saying something, stopped with her mouth open and the words half formed. The caterpillar-cat which had been in the act of crawling into Emily’s lap again, paused with one of its multiple paws resting delicately on her knee. Even the steam rising from the cup stopped moving.

“What in the world?” Emily tried to say—only to realize that she couldn’t talk.

She was frozen too.

* * * * *

“Where did she go? Why did she leave?” Tragar was frantic, already scenting the air, trying to find the trail that would lead him back to Emily.

As if you don’t know why she left,
whispered the little voice in his brain.
After the fight you had—the way you spoke to her—of course she wanted to get away!

Xen’dex was also scenting the air and the look on his face was extremely grim.

“I think I know where your
Khalla
went, Tragar,” he said in a low voice. “And I know who is with her as well.”

“What do you mean? There’s someone with her? Who?” Possessive rage burned through him like fire. “Where is the bastard? If he’s hurt her or so much as laid a finger on her I’ll kill him—I swear I will!”

“It’s not a male—she might be safer if it was.” Xen’dex sniffed the air again. “The smell is subtle—almost covered by the
Khalla’s
mating scent—but it’s there. I believe she went with a
lon-gon-har—
a voice witch.”

“A what? What the hell is a voice witch?” Tragar demanded.

“A female Wulven with strange powers. Come, I’ll tell you as we go.” Xen’dex nodded into the forest.

“But…I don’t smell anything. Or anything but Emily, anyway.”

“That’s because you’re so attuned to her,” Xen’dex said patiently. “You’re acting as her chosen mate—you’re not interested in anyone else.”

“I’m just trying to protect her—a job I’m failing at miserably,” Tragar groaned. “Why did I leave her in the shuttle? I
knew
there might be other assassins after us but I thought we’d shaken anyone who might be following by going through the wormhole. I thought it safer to leave her locked inside than risk the Wulven males scenting her.”

“The voice witch is no assassin—if anything she’s an opportunist. She must have seen something about your
Khalla
that she liked and decided to take her.”

“But why would Emily go with her? I warned her how dangerous it was to even open the door!”

“The witch probably talked her into it. A
lon-gon-har
can make anyone believe what she says just by the power of her voice—
especially
if it’s what they want to hear.” Xen’dex was already moving off into the forest, sniffing the air for the scent only he could smell. “Come, we need to get to your
Khalla
before the witch’s spell of control is finalized. If she manages to gain a permanent foothold in your female’s mind, the consequences may be far reaching and irreversible.”

* * * * *

“I’ve done as you asked, now pay me.” The old witch held out a grubby paw tipped with long, dirty nails.

“
Pay her,”
whispered the voice of the Master in Y’s brain.
“I grow weary of her grasping ways.”

Obediently, Y counted out the golden credit coins they had agreed to and dropped them into the dirty palm.

“Thankee!” The witch grinned up at him, showing brownish teeth. How she had gotten the Earth female to follow her, Y had no idea. But somehow she’d cast a spell over her and had gotten the female to do all sorts of things, including clamping silver tips to her sensitive, swollen nipples which had looked extremely painful. Well, technically the witch herself had put those on but the Earth female
had
inserted a strange silver device between her thighs of her own volition—Y knew because he had been watching from the shadows, concealed by a ragged black curtain.

He wondered what the little female would think if she knew a male had been watching her strange, secret actions. Would she be upset? Appalled? Not that it mattered what she thought or felt since she was soon to be dead. The witch apparently thought the same thing.

“Now you can do with her as you wish, so you can,” she said, motioning to the Earth girl who was still frozen in place with the cup halfway to her lips.

“Shall I kill her, Master?” Y sub-vocalized so that only the Master could hear him. Master Two might be a chip implanted just under his left ear, but he was unable to read Y’s thoughts, making it necessary to speak aloud. Y was certain that the Master would order him to step out and strangle the Earth female or perhaps just break her neck, which would be quick and easy and painless—not that he should care if he caused her any pain, he told himself. But the answer he got surprised him.

“
No—not just yet.”
The Master sounded excited—almost as if he was laughing.
“No, that’s too easy and this is too much fun.”

“But why not?” Y was bewildered. “Why bother to track the
Verrak
here and get the girl alone if not to kill her? I thought you wanted her dead, Master.”

“
And so I do—but I also wish to punish that meddling assassin whom I hired to kill her in the first place.”
The master’s voice sounded shrill and petulant.
“How dare he refuse to kill her after he promised he would? I paid a lot for that contract I put on her!”

“Then I will kill him too,” Y said. “If it pleases you.”

“
What would please me is if you’d stop being so stupid and appreciate the subtleties of the situation!”

For the first time, Y felt the sting of irritation at the Master who was always with him. But it was wrong to feel that way—he knew it and subdued the feeling quickly.

“I am only newly made, Master,” he said, humbly. “I do not know the ways of the universe as you do.”

“
Very well, that’s true. It took me a little while to train X as well.”
The master sighed.
“Here is what you must know about the Verrak—if they do not kill their target, they must kill themselves. If they refuse to do that, another member of their order will be dispatched to kill the rogue assassin. Either way, a death is necessary to fulfill the contract.”

“So you want to wait and let another member of the
Verrak
kill the girl? Or kill the assassin who was sent to kill her in the first place?”

“
No, it won’t come to that. We will dispose of her long before the Verrak dispatch another assassin. But we’re going to have some fun first.”

“What fun?” Y still did not understand.

“
I believe our faithless assassin is beginning to have feelings for the little Earth female,”
the Master hissed softly.
“Feelings that are just starting to develop. We must nourish those feelings…feed them so that when he loses her, his pain will be all the worse.”

“You prefer to see him in pain rather than to see him dead?” Y asked.

“
Indeed. You are very young, Y, but you will learn that some forms of pain are worse than death. In fact, I believe our Verrak assassin has already experienced something of the sort so his heart is guarded now.”
The Master gave a hissing laugh.
“We must break down the barrier he has built and allow him to care for the girl before she is snatched from him.”

That seemed like needless torture but Y knew better than to object.

“I thought you simply wanted them both dead,” he said neutrally.

“
And they will die—but they must suffer first”
the Master insisted.
“And I will be watching it all and savoring their agony before the end.”

“If you’re done muttering to yourself, tell me what you want to do with the Earth girl,” the witch said, interrupting his conversation with the Master. “She cannot stay in Grandy’s hut, no she can’t! Twill be trouble from the Wulven elders if she’s found bespelled here on my property!”

“
Make certain the girl is under our control—that she will do as she has been told to do,”
the Master directed. Y repeated his question and the old female nodded quickly.

“Yes, yes—she drank some of Grandy’s special medicine, so she did,” she said, nodding at the cup of green, noxious smelling ooze the Earth female still held in her hand. “And I have a lock of her hair, so I do! She twill do what she’s been told—well, mostly anyway.”