Part 7 (2/2)
”I think you just answered your own question,” Kor murmured, smiling. ”Behold, my lady-your suite.”
Maggie looked into the room and breathed a long, low, ”Ohhhh.” Then she looked at Kor with s.h.i.+ning eyes. ”It's amazing! I just wish I had my field kit.”
She rushed into the room, leaving him scratching his head in bewilderment. What had upset her a moment before? And why was she so excited now?
The Green Suite was apparently named for more than just the color of its door, because the entire s.p.a.ce appeared to be filled to the brim with exotic flowering plants. The moment Maggie stepped inside she was surrounded by a lush, verdant jungle of vegetation and not a single plant was one she had ever seen before. The Xen.o.botanist inside her rushed to the surface and she went delightedly from one to the next, sniffing and observing, her fingers itching to take notes.
”This is amazing,” she gushed to Kor when he came in and shut the round green door behind him. ”I've never seen so many alien species in one place before! Look-this one is blue! Not the flowers-the plant itself. What could account for the variation in pigmentation? Does the chlorophyll have a different structure than Earth chlorophyll? Oh, what I wouldn't give for a microscope!”
Kor seemed bemused but pleased by her excitement.
”So am I forgiven for tricking you to get you here?” he asked, coming up behind her.
”Oh, yes, I...” Maggie turned to face him and realized he was a lot closer than she'd thought. Suddenly she was right up against his broad, bare chest and he was staring down into her eyes. ”I mean, this is wonderful,” she said, taking a step back. ”It's...I study alien plants and animals. That's what I was going to Gaia to do but this is great too.”
”I'm glad you're happy but now we need to make an appearance down at the spa,” Kor said firmly, steering her away from the plants and deeper into the suite.
”What? Now? No,” Maggie protested. ”I want to stay right here. I need a notebook and pen and a way to collect and preserve specimens and-”
”The real Lady Pope'nose would never stay up in her room sniffing the flowers,” Kor pointed out.
”What?” She frowned. ”I'm not just sniffing them. I want to study them.”
”Lady Pope'nose wouldn't do that either,” he pointed out. ”Look, Maggie, if we're going to make this deception work, you have to play the part. The minute a rich mistress arrives at the spa, she changes her clothing and goes down to the spa facilities. If she doesn't, the other guests at the spa talk. And when the gossip starts flying, bad things happen.”
”Such as someone realizing I'm not who I say I am.” Maggie sighed and turned back toward one particularly huge plant with violet and magenta flowers. ”All right, I'm sorry. I just can't help wanting to work when I see all this exotic uncatalogued vegetation. I mean, the only thing better would be if there were strange animals here as well.”
As if to answer her wish, a tiny face no bigger than her thumbnail suddenly peeked out from behind one of the big colorful flowers on the plant she was staring at.
”Oh!” Maggie gasped as a tiny creature about as long as her pinky finger crawled out onto a flat blue leaf. ”What is that?”
”A nixnax. They're really friendly-especially if you feed them.” Kor picked up a long purple fruit from a bowl beside them and pinched off a piece. ”Here, little one-come get it,” he crooned in a soft, low voice.
To Maggie's delight, the tiny animal, which was covered in bright pink fur, crept forward and took the tiny piece of fruit from Kor's big hand. It sat on the leaf, nibbling as purple juice dripped down its little chin. As it ate, it watched them with wide, s.h.i.+ny black eyes. To Maggie it looked like a cross between a tiny monkey and a mouse.
When the nixnax was finished with the first piece, it stood up on its hind legs and chattered at Kor for more.
”Oh, can I this time?” Maggie begged. ”I want to feed him.”
”He is probably a she. Only the dominant females beg for food,” Kor informed her but he gave her the long purple fruit-which looked like an eggplant and a banana had had a particularly ugly baby-and showed her how to pinch off a piece.
”Here you go,” Maggie whispered, holding it out to the nixnax. ”Come and get it.”
The little alien creature took the food but instead of eating it, she stuffed it into her cheek pouch, making the side of her little wrinkled face bulge comically. Then she chattered for more.
”She wants to bring the food back to her tribe,” Kor said. ”Go on, give her some more.”
Maggie broke off another piece and handed it over. The minute the nixnax had the fruit shoved into her other cheek, she took off, swinging nimbly between the curling vines of the big plant and disappearing behind the blue leaves and brightly colored flowers.
”Oh...” Maggie couldn't help feeling disappointed. She had wanted to study the creature more and besides, it was cute.
”Don't worry.” Kor smiled at her. ”She'll be back. Right now, let's have some of this fruit ourselves. It's going to be a long time before dinner.”
”It will?” Maggie broke off a piece of the fruit for herself-noticing that it tasted sweet and bland, kind of like oatmeal.
”Mmm-hmm. The Grand Banquet is a big event here.” Kor picked up some fruit for himself. ”After we eat, it's time we got down to the spa. The other mistresses will start talking about you if you don't get there soon.”
”Oh, all right.” Maggie sighed. ”We'll go.”
”Of course. But first we have to change.” He looked at her speculatively. ”I wonder how you'll look in the spa clothes packed by my ex-mistress?”
”I don't even want to think about it,” Maggie ate another piece of the purple banana oatmeal fruit. ”She's so skinny and I'm so...not.”
”You're certainly much more curvaceous.” Kor's eyes roved over her body appreciatively. ”Is that one of her gowns you've got on now?”
Maggie looked down at the green gown she was dying to get out of. ”Yes. She said she wore it last season before she went on a diet.”
”Well I'm sure you fill it out better than she ever did. You'll do the same for all of her clothes.”
”If I can fit into them!” Maggie shook her head. She really wasn't looking forward to this at all. Trying to take her mind off the clothing situation, she ate another bite of oatmeal fruit. If only she could just stay here and study the plants and their tiny animal inhabitants...oh well, maybe later.
She just hoped Lady Pope'nose had packed something a little more reasonable and modest than the dress she was currently wearing.
Chapter Nine.
”The time of reckoning approaches.” Xandra the swamp witch stirred her caldron. An arctic blast came from the bubbling, pale purple mixture-the cold of pure hate which she poured into her brew.
Burning red eyes rose to the surface of her pot, staring at her.
”Is that so, wife? And where is our son? What do you see with your third eye?” demanded a deep, inhuman voice.
”The human girl has rescued him.” The witch frowned. ”She has named him and claimed him-she calls him Kor which means 'hope' in the ancient tongue.”
”All that is irrelevant,” the Shadow Demon rumbled. ”He will come when you call him by his true name-the one you gave him as a babe. Therron.”
”First his deepest and most painful memories must be reawakened.” The witch smiled. ”But that is easily remedied-they are going to enter a remembrance pool.”
”Good.” The burning eyes blazed brighter. ”Once the seed of pain and hate is planted, it can begin to grow. He will find his way back to us, my wife. Therron will come. And when he does...”
”I will have my revenge,” she finished grimly.
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