“Very good, my Lord,” Daw’snx said again. “That will be ready shortly. Shall I have it served in the formal dining room or the breakfasting room?”
“The breakfasting room will be fine,” the Baron said. “And Daw’snx,” he added with another glance at me. “Have them build up the fire, all right?”
The servant nodded again.
“It shall be done.” Then he glided away, presumably to relay these orders to the other servants, of which there were probably plenty. The whole penthouse was probablystuffedwith people whose entire job was to serve the Baron.
And now you’re one of them,whispered a little voice in my head, sending another shiver down my spine.
“Er, you have a fireplace up here?” I asked the Baron, trying to take my mind off the way I would doubtless have to “serve” him before I left this plush sky-palace of his.
“I have one in every room,” he rumbled. “Gets fucking cold here when you’ve gothsh’fruxblood—don’t you agree?”
I was surprised to hear him use the derogatory term, considering the way he’d been giving Ass-licks the stink-eye for using it earlier, but there was no denying that was what I was—just a dirty off-worlder—by Naggian standards, anyway.
“I’m freezingall the time,”I admitted in a low voice.
“Well, you shouldn’t be too cold here,” he said. “So you can take off your coat if you want.” He nodded at a row of pegs on the wall beside the elevator.
“Oh, um…” I clutched uncertainly at the green-dyed fur that Ellie had given me. I was reluctant to part with it, even in the relative warmth of the Baron’s penthouse. Though I was still cold with it on, it kept me from feeling like I was only an inch from freezing to death.
“Or keep it on if you want,” the Baron said, shrugging those massive shoulders of his—(they were twice as broad as mine.) “I don’t care—though you might shock my staff. Bunch of fucking busybodies,” he added, without malice.
I realized he was talking about the bright, poison green color of the coat, which clearly marked me as a Blood Whore.
“Well, as long as nobody, uh,doesanything to it,” I said reluctantly.
“It’ll be right here where you left it when you’re ready to go,” the Baron promised me gravely, though he could probably buy about a thousand fur coats and not even blink.
“Okay, well then…thank you.” I bobbed my head awkwardly and began to unbutton it. I was about to shrug it off and hang it on one of the hooks, when something occurred to me. Reaching into the pocket, I pulled out his sigil. “Here,” I said, holding it out to him.
To my surprise, the Baron shook his head.
“Keep it for now,” he told me. “No matter what else happens, you’re under my protection—at least for the next twenty-eight solar hours.”
“All right. Thank you.” I nodded again as I put the sigil back in my pocket.
“Though I do at least like to know the name of the one who is carrying my sigil,” the Baron said as he watched me.
“Oh, sorry! Natalie—my name is Natalie Hale,” I said. I would have offered to shake hands but that’s not a thing they do on O’nagga Nine. Instead, I shrugged out of the coat.
“Natalie—I like that name.” The Baron nodded as I hung it on a hook and then motioned for me to follow him.
He led me down the long hallway to a small, cozy room with a single round table and two chairs set up in it. It had a lovely view of the city—all the tall towers of ice rising around the Baron’s building, which occupied a central point in the middle. They were all gilded with the faint gleam of O’nagga Nine’s distant sun and they sparkled like giant crystals just beyond the floor-to ceiling window.
“Oh—what a beautiful view!” I couldn’t help exclaiming. I was frozen in the doorway, staring at it.
“Yes, I guess it is, isn’t it?” the Baron rumbled speculatively. “I suppose I don’t notice it anymore.”
“I’ve never seen the city from this angle—this height,” I told him. “All I see are the dirty, endless tunnels.” Which was true—living in the lower strata of Naggian society literally meant living down in the dark—sometimes I felt like I lived in a big, endless cave I could never get out of.
“I’m sorry to hear that,” the Baron said unexpectedly. “Would you like to come in? The servants will be getting breakfast on the table in a few minutes.”
“Oh, yes—thank you.” I nodded as he ushered me into the room.
As promised, there was a fireplace on one wall and a small but sturdy blaze was already crackling inside it. I was drawn to it like a magnet.
“Oh sweet baby Jesus—warmth!”I moaned happily as I went to stand right in front of the flickering flames. I held out my hands and felt the heat beating on my cheeks and all along the front of my body. I closed my eyes in pure ecstasy and soaked it in.