The big Kindred nodded gravely.
“Afraid so, little Mistress. I’m sorry I couldn’t just take you from him, but I wasn’t sure I could get you out of there in one piece.”
Remembering how close she’d come to being chopped into many pieces, Jillian shivered.
“What happened?” she asked, trying to focus on something besides Ripper and his three-headed customer, walking on Kalis’s other side as they traversed the streets of the Dark Market. “I must have been drugged,” she added. “But I tested the tea with my poison checker and it was fine.”
“The drug was in the massage oil,” Kalis said grimly. “It affected me too. They dragged me out and dumped me just where they’d dumped you, little Mistress,” he added. “I smelled your sweet scent mixed with that of the fucking Trollox and followed my nose to find you.”
It made Jillian feel a little better to know that the big Kindred hadn’t been behind her drugging and dumping, but she still couldn’t quite wrap her head around it.
“But why?” she asked, frowning. “I don’t understand—why would Mistress Douchenbag do this to me?”
Kalis looked remorseful.
“I’m afraid that’s my fault—I heard her tell Torris, the attendant at the spa, she wouldn’t have done it if you’d just agreed to take me off her hands. But since you wouldn’t—and you saw fit to lecture her about the morality of owning bodyslaves—she decided to take care of you once and for all.”
“What a horrible woman!” Jillian exclaimed indignantly. “She’s the one who ought to be going to court!”
“You’re right, little Mistress, but I’m afraid she’s off to Opulex—the capital city of Yonnie Six—so there’s no reaching her,” Kalis rumbled. “We’re on our own.”
“But…will everything be okay?” Jillian hated the pleading tone in her own voice, but she couldn’t seem to help it. She needed some reassurance here, damn it! It didn’t seem fair to her that they had to go to court at all—unless it was to convict the huge Trollox for assaulting and kidnapping her. Right now, more than anything else, she just wanted to go home. But apparently, that was impossible.
Kalis drew her close, one muscular arm wrapped firmly around her shoulders, and looked down to meet her eyes.
“Everything will be fine, Jillian,” he rumbled firmly. “Didn’t I give you my oath to protect you with every last drop of blood in my body? No harm will come to you unless it gets through me first.”
Jillian looked at him uncertainly.
“Thank you. But…are you doing this because you think I own you and you have to protect me for some reason?”
“I’m doing it because I’m a Kindred and you’re a female in danger, in need of protection,” Kalis told her. “And also because I’ve been dreaming of you for the past two years,” he added softly. “The Goddess wouldn’t send me dreams of you if she didn’t want me to protect you, little Mistress.”
Jillian didn’t know what to say about that. But just at that moment, before she could think of a good reply, they finally reached the archway that led out of the Dark Market and back into the main area of the Buy-All-Sell-All.
As they passed through the long, black flaps of the curtain barrier, Jillian thought she had never been so happy to see the weak golden sunlight of Prius Six. She hoped she never had to go back to the Dark Market again and wished desperately that she was headed home.
But she had to go to court first, so instead of hopping on the tram and heading for the exit, they aimed for the middle of the market where she had no idea what awaited her…
19
The very middle of the Buy-All-Sell-All market was walled off, much like the Dark Market was. There was a single gate and two guards with long, ostrich-like necks peered at them with large, googly eyes as their party approached.
Jillian wasn’t sure if they were normally wide-eyed or if they were surprised to see two Trolloxes—one missing an eye, a human woman, and a Kindred, all heading in their direction. Whatever their state of mind, they came together, crossing their long pikes, which crackled faintly with lethal energy at the tips, and one of them demanded,
“Halt! Why do you approach the Master of the Market?”
“We have a grievance to solve, so we do!” Ripper’s yellow-eyed head declared quickly. “This humanoid female owes a debt that she doesn’t want to pay.”
“Very well, then.” The guard nodded—an odd, bobbing movement with his small head on its long, ostrich neck. “There is no other grievance at this time, so you may go in to see the Master.”
The large wooden gates swung open, revealing an empty courtyard. Well, empty except for a large dead tree with purple bark standing right in the center.
Jillian frowned.
“What’s going on?” she murmured to Kalis. “Where’s the judge—the, uh, Master of the Market?”