“Must have been a trick of the wind,” Smithers muttered to himself.
And indeed, as he closed the doors he felt a shiver go down his spine—it felt like someone—or something—had brushed past him in the long hallway. Which was just a trick of his nerves, he was sure.
“I’m all keyed up about this Grand Event the Mistress has planned,” he told himself. And speaking of the Grand Event, wasn’t it almost midnight?
Smithers consulted the chronometer on his wrist and turned pale. He really mustn’t be late! He had never been flogged even once, and he wanted to keep it that way.
He trotted quickly down the hallway, heading back to the Grand Receiving Chamber, his curly-toed shoes tap-tap-tapping all the way.
He had no idea that someone he couldn’t see was following him.
FORTY-SEVEN
He really can’t see me! I don’t believe it! Terra thought, watching as the snobby little servant with the tall powdered wig scampered past her.
The Goddess had promised to make her unseen, but she could still see herself perfectly well. It was just everyone else who couldn’t see her, apparently. The servant had looked right through her when he’d opened the doors—he’d even leaned out and peered around until his wig almost fell off his head—and Terra had been standing right there, the whole time!
It had been easy enough to walk around him and thankfully her footsteps couldn’t be heard. That was because she was still barefoot, having left the flowered kitten heels Kat had made her in another universe.
I left them on DY-12, the world of The Watcher, she remembered with a touch of unease. She really had to warn Chief Commander Rarev about the malevolent eye entity once she got back to the Monstrum Mother Ship. But right now, she had to rescue her guys!
She followed the pudgy little servant silently down the hallway and from there down another long hall to a room she recognized. It was the same Grand Receiving Chamber where she and her Monstrum had originally met Mistress Bodikin in order to bargain for the Heart-finder in the first place. And for some reason, it seemed to be packed with every single servant and guard and bodyslave in the entire villa!
At the very end of the room, sitting on her golden throne, was Mistress Bodikin. And sitting beside her on a slightly smaller throne-like chair was Dahlia. The spoiled Yonnite woman was looking extremely pleased with herself. She had a satisfied smirk on her face and it was easy to see why—all three Monstrum were standing behind her in a semi-circle.
Terra felt nervous at first, walking into such a crowded room. But then she remembered the Goddess’s promise and the way the snobby little servant had looked right through her. Lifting her chin, she stepped right out onto the red carpet just as if she was an honored guest and walked down to the end where Mistress Bodikin and Dahlia were sitting. Neither one of the Yonnite Mistresses appeared to notice her at all.
Unfortunately, neither did her guys. V’rone and Rive and Tem just stood there behind Dahlia’s miniature throne with blank looks on their faces. Peering at their hands, Terra saw that all three of them were still wearing their rings and that each of the rings was glowing brightly.
Dahlia had a diamond band on her own finger which glowed the brightest of all. Terra speculated that she hadn’t seen it earlier because the other woman was holding the fake Heart-finder, which had been flashing and blaring its alarm to cause a distraction.
Terra knew exactly what to do now. Carefully, she slid around the edges of the crowd until she was behind the two golden thrones. A few steps further and she was standing behind Tem, who was the closest Monstrum she could reach.
Stepping up behind him, Terra removed the glowing sapphire ring from the big warrior’s finger. At the same moment, she reached up to put a hand over his mouth and whispered in his ear,
“Tem, can you hear me?”
Tem jerked and looked around, blinking like a man being woken from a dream.
“My Lady?” he whispered hoarsely. “Is that you? Where are you?”
“Shhh!” Terra hushed him. “You can’t see me yet but you will in a minute. Just be quiet and look straight ahead.”
“All right.” Tem nodded and looked forward obediently.
Terra moved on to Rive and woke him as well and then to V’rone.
The Brawn of the colony was the hardest to keep quiet. He kept demanding in a loud whisper why he couldn’t see Terra but she finally shushed him and got him to face front.
Luckily, the murmuring of the crowd was enough to cover the noise they were making. Or else the Goddess was lending a hand with noise control. Either way, Terra was grateful that Dahlia never once turned her head to see what was going on behind her back.