Slave (12 page)

My ears pricked up at this. Ranata hadn’t been on this planet for very long—six months at the most. I wondered how often Earth women showed up here, though if the way I’d been stared at was anything to go by, it seemed that they were pretty scarce. I hoped Cat would ask the right questions since I still wasn’t sure if
I was allowed to speak to strange men unless spoken to—if this
was
a man; it seemed to have no penis, but that sort of thing wasn’t always hanging right out there in plain sight; the males of some species could retract them to the point that they appeared to be almost nonex-istent. Cat, on the other hand, was quite obviously male.

“She
is
lovely, is she not?” Cat purred in reply. “But she is not for sale.”

Dammit, Cat! You’re supposed to be asking where
Ranata is! Not chit-chatting with the visiting aliens!

“Pity,” the alien said, turning those gleaming red eyes on me once more, its gaze raking me from head to toe.

“She is a fine specimen.”

With an appraising look like that, this thing
had
to be male! I made a weak attempt at a smile and fought the urge to roll my eyes. If this guy had actually seen Ranata, he sure as hell wouldn’t be saying such things about me, which made me wonder if the woman he was talking about really was my sister, after all.

Cat nodded in agreement. “Her sister is very lovely, as well. I am told she is here on Statzeel. I would like the opportunity to purchase her, if that is possible.”

The little alien shook his odd, oversized head. “I do not believe she would be sold either. Though she might…” Those huge red eyes took on a slightly golden hue as the alien went on after considering the possibilities for a moment. “…be stolen. If,” and the golden gleam became more pronounced, “the right price were to be paid for information as to her whereabouts.”

Ah-ha! Now we’re talking!
This might be the creepiest little alien I’d ever seen in my life, but he
obviously knew the value of a dollar—or credit, that is—and therefore, could be bought.

Cat pulled Ranata’s photograph from the pocket of his vest, along with five credits, and handed them over.

“Do you know where she might be found?”

The creature studied the photo, and I could see the golden light of those eyes gleaming off the glossy surface. “This is not one I have seen,” it said. “But there are questions I could ask of the right people. For the right price, you understand.”

“Of course,” Cat replied, as though in complete agreement. “I understand.”

“Meet me later tonight in the trees outside the space port.” The alien glanced up at the darkening sky. “At moonrise, I believe. I will be there with the information you require if you will also be there with…one hundred credits, shall we say?”

I cleared my throat in an attempt to let Cat know that I would be willing to pay any price whatsoever for information about Ranata. I couldn’t tell if he got the message or not, but he nodded anyway.

“I will be there,” Cat said firmly.

“Oh, and be sure to bring your lovely toy along with you,” the alien said, and I watched, rather perversely fascinated, as those weird eyes returned to their customary red hue. “We wouldn’t want to break any laws, now, would we?” This time when the wheezing began again, it was quite obviously in amusement. Still chuckling, he left us to go into the restaurant.

“Geez, I wonder what
that
thing eats! And also why he doesn’t have someone chained to him!” I exclaimed.
“If it
was
a ‘him,’ that is. What a creepy little alien! Have you ever seen one like that before?”

“No,” Cat replied. “I have not. Do you believe he is trustworthy?”

“I doubt it, but what choice do we have? I guess I’ll give you my pistol just in case he isn’t. I’d carry it myself, but I’m not sure where I could put it that it wouldn’t show—although I suppose I could hide it in my sash.” On the other hand, the sash really wasn’t wide enough to conceal Tex adequately, and I hadn’t noticed anyone else openly toting weapons either— well, not the automatic pulse pistol type, anyway!

There was a little gold ring sewed into the sash for some reason, but the pistol would have looked a bit silly dangling from it. I had seen the occasional male with a sword, but they seemed to be more for show than anything, since the only men I’d seen so far with swords had also been mounted on horses at the time.

Perhaps it was a part of the riding habit on this world—

you know, the guys just thought it looked cool to be wearing a sword while they were on a horse, maybe as a carryover from an earlier time when swords were something everyone carried all the time, and it sort of stuck when it came to equestrian attire.

Cat gave me the oddest look. “You would trust me with a weapon?”

“Is there some reason I shouldn’t?”

“No,” he replied. “I am worthy of your trust, but I have not been trusted in a very long time.”

“Well, you’d better get used to it, Kittycat,” I said roundly, “because I need you! The smuggler I got my
information from told me to take someone with me that I could trust, and that someone is you, big guy!”

I emphasized this point with a poke in his stomach, thinking that the odd thing was that, up until I’d actually said it out loud, I hadn’t realized just how much I
did
trust him. I couldn’t have said just why that was, but somehow it was there: as solid as granite and as immovable as the mountains on Tirellia Minor—and they had some serious mountains on that planet, some of them sticking right out of the atmosphere and into space.

I paused, momentarily struck by the gravity of what I was thinking, and also because it was making me feel slightly embarrassed for some reason. Deciding that the conversation was getting a little too deep for comfort, I figured I ought to lighten it up just a bit. The way I saw it, Cat seemed to be reading way too much into this trust thing—and maybe I was, too. “At least, I
hope
I can trust you!” I added with a chuckle. “After all, you
have
got me on a leash! And speaking of which, I’d like to get back to the ship so I can get this damned thing off for a while.

I don’t like things around my neck of any kind, and especially not collars!”

Cat didn’t say anything else regarding the trust issue, but merely nodded in agreement, and we went back to the ship to await our rendezvous at moonrise. On the way, he seemed to take what I considered to be an unfair advantage, pulling me closer to him with my leash and choosing to stroll along, taking his sweet time when all I really wanted was to get back to the ship as fast as I could so I could conk out for a while. All in all, I thought it was a bit tacky of him to piddle along like that when
he had to know I was bushed! Of course, when I told him that, I had to go into this long, rambling explanation of what it meant to be tacky—which if you’ve ever tried it, you’ll know is kinda hard to do. Explaining “bushed”

was a little easier.

Back at the ship at last, I left Cat to his own devices, told the computer to wake me a little before moonrise, and plopped down on my bed. I was bushed, beat, tired, exhausted, and totally wiped out—at least I think that about covers it—oh, unless you want to count how sore my nose was. I hadn’t bothered to take Cat to task over letting them do that to me, especially since it didn’t truly constitute what I’d call sex. I still thought it was pretty funny myself, and he couldn’t possibly have known what would happen if he were to let someone touch my nose.

Then, after the first one got his rocks off, we probably would have started a riot if we’d refused the rest of them—you know how those Statzeelian guys are when they get pissed.

I didn’t even bother to change my clothes, and I fell asleep with the thought in mind that while I probably shouldn’t trust Cat, I not only needed to, but wanted to, as well. I’d been on my own for so long and was always so suspicious of everyone, so cynical in my outlook on life and, you know something? I was damned tired of it!

It would be so nice to let someone else carry the burden at least for an hour or two, and that someone else was my big, ol’ Cat.

The computer woke me in plenty of time for our meeting and raised the lights. Apparently Cat must have been tired, too, for he was curled up at the foot of the
bed, purring contentedly. “Hey, Kittycat,” I said, prod-ding him with my foot. “Time to go and see ET.”

“ET?” he murmured sleepily. “What is ET?”

“Short for extraterrestrial—you know, someone not from Earth.”

“Not from my world either,” he muttered. He sat up and yawned, showing most of his sharp, white teeth.

When he stood up and stretched, I noted that his erection had subsided. I wondered how long it would take for it to come back.

I got my answer in about thirty seconds. “Well, you obviously haven’t forgotten me,” I said with a chuckle.

He shot me a rather withering glance and picked up my collar. “That would be
your
fault,” he informed me.

“You called me Kittycat.”

“Hm-m, and that’s all it takes, huh?”

He nodded. “I warned you.”

“Yes, you did,” I said. “Well then, Kittycat, put my poodle collar on and let’s get this show on the road.”

“Whatever
that
means,” he muttered as he adjusted my collar and turned the key in the lock. Then I locked the leash to his wrist and put the key in his vest pocket.

“You should be able to figure that one out on your own,” I told him with a yawn. “I’m too sleepy to explain.”

It was a tad chilly out, which woke me up a bit and made me wonder if the native females had see-through cloaks to wear at night, or if they just never went out and about much after dark. I’ll have to say, though, that the sheer fabric had turned out to be much warmer than I would have imagined, but the dress didn’t cover very much of me and I shivered slightly in the cool night air.
Cat apparently noticed my shiver and put his arm around me while we walked. It might not have kept me all that much warmer, but it felt pretty nice anyway— much better than being jerked along on the end of a leash, for example.

The moon was just starting to peek through the tree-tops when we arrived in the small stand of trees near the spaceport. I hoped the news would be good, but quite honestly, I was preparing myself for disappointment. I had come so far, and the thought that my search might actually be nearing its end was nearly incomprehensible to me.

Not being able to see very well, I allowed myself to be steered blindly through the darkness. Cat didn’t seem to have any difficulty whatsoever seeing in the dark, directing us on an unerring path to the little red-eyed alien who was waiting for us there. Yet another reason why Cat was a pretty handy guy to have around.

The little alien bowed as we approached. “My bless-ings upon you,” he said in greeting. “Forgive me for not introducing myself when we met earlier, my friends. I am called Delamar.” Bowing again, he peered up at Cat expectantly, obviously expecting us to introduce ourselves as well.

“We are Carkdacund and Jacinth,” Cat said with a bow of his own. “Are you male, then?” Cat asked politely. “How is it that you do not have a female chained to you?”

“Oh, I am exempt from such foolishness,” Delamar replied with a casual wave of his funny little arm. “As a healer on this world, I would find it very…
inconvenient…to have someone chained to me. And as to matters of dress,” he added with a downward sweep of the same arm, “I have nothing to conceal.”

It sounded reasonable, but I wasn’t so sure he’d asked for that exemption to do any “healing.” He just didn’t want anyone else around when he made his little deals, which, as a trader myself, I could readily understand. The fact that he wore nothing and had nothing to conceal was patently obvious. How the heck did his species reproduce? It’s possible I would have asked him where his cock was if I’d been the one asking the questions, but Cat merely nodded, seeming to be satisfied with this explanation.

Delamar went on to announce, “I bring you good news, my friends! The woman you seek is but four days’

journey from here. I can give you her location, but no more, and for that, I only ask that you pay me fifty credits. I had hoped to give you more details, but this was all I could obtain in so short a time.”

Cat pulled the sack of credits out of his vest and gave the whole thing to Delamar. “Our agreement was for one hundred credits,” he said gravely. “I will pay you no less.”

The alien nodded and bowed again, saying with apparent approval, “You are an honest trader, and shall be rewarded,” and then went on to tell us where Ranata was being kept. “It is a fine house, very large with many rooms.

My information does not include her exact whereabouts within it, but you should be able to find the house without difficulty. It is on a high hill to the east.” I was riveted by what he said, no longer distracted by the mystery of the weird little guy’s reproductive equipment—Ranata was truly alive, and relatively close by! Delamar went on to
describe the topography of the road we must travel and the various landmarks to be noted along the way.

The route we had to take seemed fairly straightfor-ward and Cat nodded, seeming to follow the man’s directions; I would have preferred getting the exact coordinates myself, because if all else failed, I could always use the ship’s navigation computer to find her—especially if we had to alter our route for some reason. I started to say something, but was stopped short as those red eyes turned to fix their gaze on me.

“Your toy is very lovely,” he said. “You must guard her well lest she be taken from you. Are you well bonded to her?”

Just what he meant by that was unclear, but Cat replied anyway. “As well as can be.” Which, while it might have been stretching the truth just a bit, was at least diplomatic.

“It may not be enough,” the alien wheezed. “But because you have dealt truly with me, I will give you a gift.”

“We thank you, but that will not be necessary,” Cat began, but Delamar cut him off.

“No, no! I insist!” he said. “My gift will be of great help to you should the two of you ever become separated. What I will give to you will enable her to find you, though you be many miles away.”