The Rigellen attendant blinked.
“Oh, yes! Forgive me—please follow me.”
She turned to go and Em, still leaning on the big Monstrum’s arm, followed her, feeling relieved to leave the strange and acrimonious scene behind.
23
Rarev kept an eye on Emilia as they walked along yet another long glass corridor. He was certain he’d felt a tremble go through her as he helped her up from her seat. Though she was trying to pretend she was perfectly fine, he had an idea that the attack by the vicious sea monster that fool Om’bobla had made, had shaken her more than she wanted to admit.
There was also the matter of her wounds. The suckers on the sea creature’s tentacles had been tipped with sharp points. Rarev was anxious lest it had injected some kind of toxin into her smooth, lovely skin. And even if it hadn’t, she had bright red suction marks all over her wrist and breast. He wanted desperately to heal her…but he wondered if she would let him.
After admitting her attraction to him during the Trial of Truth, she had become cool and distant for a time. Clearly, talking about her true feelings embarrassed and disturbed her. Rarev wished it wasn’t so—he longed to discuss the mutual attraction between them and the sexual need he could smell coming from her like the strong aroma of a v’eelah blossom in full bloom.
Her Second Mating Period was almost upon her—he was sure of it. And while his vow kept him from bonding her to him as he longed to do, he could still help her with the pain and the need she must be experiencing.
But until Emilia was willing to speak of such things to him, Rarev had to admit, there was nothing he could do.
24
“This is to be your sleeping chamber for the single night you are with us,” Elfa said, showing them into a room that appeared to be an octagon constructed of eight large crystal panels that rose to a single point in the high ceiling above.
In the center of the room was a large, round bed with lots of cylindrical pillows all draped in white, but the focus of the chamber wasn’t the bed but the panels it was made of.
The panels looked out onto a landscape of breathtaking beauty—a desert scene with a fiery sunset that painted the sand dunes that surrounded them in many shades of crimson and vermillion and deep, dusky purple.
“Oh—are we in the desert, then?” Em asked, surprised. “I thought we were in the middle of a city.”
Indeed, when they had first landed in Rarev’s ship, they had done so in the middle of a vast complex of glass and crystal and silver buildings that had stretched as far as Em’s eyes could reach. Yet the octagonal panels that formed their sleeping chamber told a different story.
“Oh, this is simply a scene from our world—the Moda’jeh Desert,” Elfa explained. “This chamber is composed of viewer panels that will show you all the wondrous beauties our lovely planet has to offer. Here—let me show you.”
She picked up a small silver device that looked a bit like a TV remote to Em and pointed it at one of the panels. She pressed a button firmly and the scene changed from the fiery desert sunset to an underwater view. Tropical fish swam in and out of brightly colored corals, which swayed gently in the currents. The water itself was a vivid pale purple and the sand was dark green.
Elfa pushed the button again and once more the panels shifted. This time they showed a view from a high, craggy mountaintop. There were other mountains all around, their tips capped with snow and wreathed in mist. It made Em feel like she was standing at the top of the world.
It also made her feel dizzy—she had never much cared for heights.
“That’s lovely,” she said brusquely. “But can you tell me if there is a place to change and bathe and relieve oneself anywhere near?”
“Oh, of course. Forgive me, Minister Oxley.”
Elfa put down the remote and turned to tap on one of the octagonal panels. It opened inward, revealing a short hallway that led to whole separate room.
“Let me show you how our facilities work,” Elfa said, but Em shook her head.
“Thank you, but I’m quite sure I can manage. I just need a bit of alone time, if you don’t mind.”
“Well, if you’re sure…” Elfa sounded doubtful. “Some have said that our bathing apparatus is somewhat complicated…”
“I’ll take my chances,” Em snapped. Then she took a deep breath. “Forgive me, I’d just like to be alone,” she said, trying to modify her tone.
After all, it wasn’t Elfa’s fault that she was feeling so frazzled. Though honestly, there should have been some sort of warning on that clay at dinner, she thought. Something about how one oughtn’t to make living creatures with it…