“Hey, leave me alone! I don’t belong down here! I need to get back upstairs—to the top of the building!” I shouted, trying to keep away from the huge Sweeper as I was herded away from the elevator.
If the Sweeper understood me, it gave no sign of it. I thought of waving the Baron’s sigil in its nightmare of a face, but then I remembered I had left it tucked in the pocket of the coat I had given to Natalie. So there was no help there.
I thought of trying to get to one of the tunnel mouths, but the Sweepers were rushing at me from all directions now. I didn’t want them touching me again with there horrible roller-brush mouths or their long, chitinous legs and claws, so I turned and ran in the only direction I didn’t see any of them—towards the double doors at the front of the building.
Before I knew it, I was through the first set of doors and into the small area where Sir and I had taken off our face coverings. Thankfully, I was able to get the doors shut before any of the Sweepers could get into the small, enclosed space with me.
But then I was trapped there, wondering what to do?
THIRTY-TWO
SIR
Iwas talking with Baron Vik’tor when I began to feel that something was wrong with little one. Our Master/pet bond wasn’t sealed yet but I had been doing everything I could to strengthen it and it let me know when something wasn’t right. I could feel it, like someone plucking at my nerves—something was wrong with her and it was getting wronger by the second.
“So you’re saying thatyourplanet is going to invadeours?”Baron Vik’tor said, frowning at me. “Because I think you’ll find that O’nagga Nine is prettyfucking well protected.”
“Excuse me.” I stood up abruptly, leaving the glass of expensive brandy on the side table. I knew what I was doing would be considered rude but that couldn’t be helped—I needed to assure myself that little one was all right.
“Where are you going?” Azz’lx, the Baron’s lackey asked, looking up at me in apparent confusion.
“I must check on my pet,” I said distractedly. “I feel that something is wrong with her. Can you please direct me to her?” I asked.
The Baron frowned and shrugged.
“Sure—in the living area. One of the servants can take you.”
He clapped his hands and the door to his study opened at once, revealing the same servant who had first let us in at the lift.
“Yes, Baron?” he asked, bowing.
“Daw’snx, take Sir Bart to find his pet,” the Baron commanded. “And when you get back we can discuss this ‘invasion,’” he added, looking at me.
But I didn’t even answer. I was already hurrying out the door. The jangling of my nerves was getting worse—it was like a humming in my ears.Danger, danger, danger!a little voice was shouting inside me. I couldn’t have ignored it even if I’d wanted to—which I didn’t. Ihadto be certain little one was all right.
The servant seemed to understand I was in a rush because he hurried down the hallway, almost running to keep ahead of me. We rounded the corner and he was quick to open a door for me.
I burst into a room with several soft, comfortable looking sofas and an expensive woven rug on the floor. The female Naggian, Dru’silla, was sitting on one of the sofas with a bored look on her face but little one was nowhere to be found.
“Where is she?” I demanded of the startled woman. I crossed the room in two strides and loomed over her. “Where is my pet? What have you done to her?”
I had seen the animosity in the other female’s face when she looked at little one—naturally I assumed that the danger I knew little one was in must be coming from her.
Dru’silla’s eyes went wide and she shrank back from me.
“N-nothing,” she stuttered. “I…I haven’t seen her—I swear!”
“What? Then where is she?” I looked around the room but there was no place to hide a body. Besides, if little one was dead—(Goddess Eternal forbid it)—I would know. The Master/pet bond would be severed and the spark of her life force, that I felt within me, burning like a bright, brave little flame in the darkness, would be extinguished.
“Excuse me, Sir Bart,” the servant called Daw’snx, said hesitantly. “But your, er, pet told me she needed to use the necessary room.”
“Where is it?” I demanded, rounding on him.
“This way.” He hurriedly showed me out of the room and down the hallway again. There was a doorway right beside the lift entrance and the row of hooks where we had hung our coats. The servant knocked on the door but there was no answer.
I pushed past him and flung open the door. Little one’s sweet, feminine fragrance lingered here, but only faintly. She had been here briefly but not for some time. I turned to the servant.
“She’s not here—where could she go?”