“I…I went to him and I said it didn’t seem like she wanted to leave,” she said. “I…Ilikeher. And I don’t blame her for what she does. If you hadn’t hired me, Master, I would be doing the exact same thing,” she added in a low voice.
“I’m glad you don’t hold it against her,” I said, trying to control my impatience. “But tell me—what did Azz’lx say?”
“He…he told me she hadbewitchedyou.” Cla’na’s eyes went wide. “He said she must be sent away because her kind does evil magic that has a hold over males.”
“What?” I growled—so fiercely that she shrank back again. “I’m sorry,” I said impatiently. “I’m not fucking angry atyou—it’sAzz’lxwho’s in trouble here. What did he do with her?”
The girl shook her head quickly.
“I don’t know, Master. He made me run and fetch her old clothes from the room—she was wearing all the new ones—and then he took her down the lift and that was the last I saw of her. Master Azz’lx himself was only gone a few minutes though—he came back without her.”
“All right, thank you.” I gave a short, stiff nod. Now I knew what had happened to Natalie—though I still didn’t know what Azz’lx had done with her.
“I hope I did right by telling,” Cla’na said timidly. “I hope you’re not actually bewitched, Master.”
“That kind of talk is superstitious nonsense, Cla’na,” Daw’snx said firmly. “Ofcourseyou did right to tell—the Master is trying to find Natalie and we must help him in any way we can.”
“Thank you, Daw’snx,” I told him. “Now if you two will excuse me, I’m going to give Azz’lx a fucking call.”
NINETEEN
NATALIE
Irose shakily to my feet, looking around the long, dark tunnel where the yellow crawler had deposited me. I supposed I could go back the way the super fast vehicle had brought me—back to the main tunnel—but it would take hours and hours of trudging to get home again. And that would be hours of deafening noise and breathing the exhaust of the many, many vehicles whizzing along on the ceiling of the tunnel above me.
Plus, there was always the occasional accident—when a vehicle’s gripping mechanism failed and it fell from the ceiling to land on the pedestrians below. Or if two vehicles collided, their fiery parts came raining down on the people walking below the busy tunnel ceiling—which happened a lot more often than I liked to think about.
No, walking back wasn’t an attractive option. But neither was walking forward into the darkness of the side-tunnel where Ass-licks’ car had left me. But wait…was there a faint light down there? Or were my eyes playing tricks on me?
I squinted into the darkness and after a moment I was sure it wasn’t just my eyes. There was a steady glow further down the dark tunnel. Maybe there were people down there—maybe even someone with a communications device I could use.
Of course, I didn’t have Vik’tor’s private number and I wouldn’t begin to know how to get it. But maybe I could call a private tunnel-crawler and trade some of the rich new clothing Vik’tor had gotten me for a trip back to the Central Hub of my home city.
I didn’t want to trade away my new coat, of course—it was keeping me much warmer than even the fur Elli had given me. But there were gloves and a scarf and a hat that went with the new coat—all of them the same luxurious smoky-gray fur. Surely those would be worth the price of a ride home.
For now, though, I wanted to wear them. It was considerably colder in the dark tunnel than it had been in Ass-licks’ car.
I felt in my pockets and found the hat and scarf but only one of the gloves. Damn it! The other one must have fallen out of my pocket while I was hanging upside down.
Well, it wasn’t the worst thing that had happened to me that night, I thought grimly. Right now I had to concentrate on trying to get back to Vik’tor and hope he hadn’t lost interest in me the moment I was out of his sight. Because if Azz’lx reallydidreport me to R’xs, or even if my pimp just happened to check my location on his tracking board and saw that the tracker he had implanted in my neck was so far from home, Vik’tor was going to be the only one who could protect me from his wrath.
I had to get going.
Resolutely, I turned my face towards the glow—which had a greenish tint to it—and started walking.
It looked like it was going to be a long,longnight.
TWENTY
VIK’TOR
Azz’lx went even paler when I finally got him on the viewscreen and confronted him about what he had done to Natalie.
“It’s a lie—the little bitch of a chambermaid is lying!” he said at once, when I told him what Cla’na had said. “I never laid hands on that little Blood Whore—you told me she was yours, so I left her alone!”
I frowned.
“So you’re saying my chambermaid is lying just to get you into trouble? Why would she do that?”