Just as I had the bulky little package well-hidden in the folds of my clothes, the guy who seemed to be the Baron’s butler or head servant—Daw’snx—came into the small room.
“Excuse me, my Lady,” he said formally. “But I am here to let you know that the bathing chamber is ready for you, and the water is quite warm, as per the Baron’s instructions.”
“Oh, thank you!” I jumped up guiltily, hoping he hadn’t seen me stashing snacks in my clothes.
He raised his eyebrows at me politely.
“If you would follow me, my Lady?”
“Yes, of course.” I hurried to do as he said and he led me back out into the long hallway with its crimson runner rug.
Daw’snx led me down the hallway, around a corner and then around another corner, making me wonder exactly how big the Baron’s penthouse was anyway. We seemed to walk a long time before we came to a stop in front of a burnished bronze door.
“This, my Lady, is the bathing chamber,” Daw’snx opened the door and a puff of scented steam escaped. “Will you require any bathing attendants? I can get a few of the housemaids to assist you.”
“Oh no—no thank you,” I said quickly. “I’d prefer to be alone.”
All alone with the heavenly hot steam soaking into my bones—it was going to be amazing, I was sure of it.
Daw’snx nodded.
“Just as well. I am not certain how long any full-blooded Naggian could last in such overheated conditions.” He nodded at the steam escaping in small puffs and curls from the bathing chamber.
“Oh, I guess not,” I said and a new thought occurred to me. “Er, Daw’snx?” I said, hoping he wouldn’t mind if I called him by his name. “Do you mind me asking—all the buildings in the city are made of ice including this one, so how does the Baron have fireplaces in every room and hot running water without melting the whole thing?”
“I believe it is achieved through the use of an extremely effective insulation from the Braxian home world, my Lady,” he said courteously. “It traps the heat inside and the cold outside, thus keeping them separate.”
“Oh—interesting,” I murmured—but notnearlyas interesting as the idea of having a real bath with hot running water, I had to admit.
“If that is all, my Lady, I’ll leave you to your ablutions,” Daw’snx said, bowing. “The Baron asked me to tell you to please feel free to use anything you find—everything in the bathing chamber is completely at your disposal.”
“Thank you,” I said, resisting the urge to bow back. I had the idea that wouldn’t be correct.
“Enjoy yourself—no one will bother you,” Daw’snx promised. Then he bowed me into the bathing chamber and left, closing the thick bronze door behind him.
The minute I was alone, I took in my surroundings and my eyes must have gotten wide as saucers.
“Sweet baby Jesus,” I whispered in awe.
When the Baron had said he had a “bathing pool” he hadn’t been kidding. There really was a pool in here—one big enough to swim several laps in. It was a giant octagon of pale blue water that looked more like a swimming pool in a spa than a bathtub.
Around the edges of the tub were a few sturdy but elegantly carved wooden benches that had big, puffy towels on them. There were also some ceramic pots labeled in the Naggian script, which I was slowly learning to read.
The translation viruses that had been sent through the Earth’s atmosphere to allow Earth women to understand alien speech were great for helping youspeakan alien language but not so great for helping you read or write it. Still, I had been here long enough to start to understand the basic alphabet and some of the words.
“Hair soap,”one jar said—it was filled with a sticky white goop that smelled faintly of flowers.“Hair soft,”said another—maybe that was conditioner? There were others as well—I wanted to read them all but I was too excited to get into the water.
Divesting myself of my many,manylayers for the first time since I had come to O’nagga Nine six months ago felt incredibly liberating. You can take an ion shower with everything on which was a good thing because if it had been a choice between freezing to death and staying dirty, I know which one I would have picked. But it felt freeing to be down to my skin again.
When I was nude in the warm, steamy air, I looked down at my naked body appraisingly. I had definitely lost some weight—though not as much as you might have thought, considering I had spent the last six months feeling like I was simultaneously freezing and starving to death. But I’ve always been a curvy girl, so I supposed I could stand to lose some.
Other than my weight loss, I looked all right. Okay, well notcompletely.My knees were all skinned up from falling to the ground when R’xs had been trying to drag me away and my forearms and wrists were an absolute nightmare. Well, maybe soaking in the pale blue water would help them somehow, I thought. I hoped so anyway, since there wasn’t anything else I could really do for them.
I was about to let myself into the warm water via one of the two ladders that led down into the pool when a thought occurred to me. What if the Baron was some kind of perv and there were hidden cameras in here? What if he was recording me even now, walking around naked?
For a moment, I looked around fearfully. But then I decided I was being paranoid—he couldn’t have installed cameras just for me, right? After all, I doubted he’d been planning on picking up ahsh’fruxBlood Whore and taking her back to his home that morning. And no full blooded Naggian would want to come in here either, as Daw’snx had pointed out. So I was probably fine—I doubted the place was bugged or monitored.
And you know what? I don’t care if it is,I thought as I dipped my toes in the warm water.He can see me naked if he wants—it’s worth it to have a bath in real water!