“But you’re not even looking at my dress!” she complained. “How does it look? I feel like I’m wearing a dress made of Christmas tree tinsel!”
“Baby, if I look at you—reallylet myself look at your beautiful body in that skimpy little silver thing—I’m going to have serious problems,” I explained, gesturing at my crotch. “So please take my word for it—you look gorgeous. So fucking gorgeous I don’t dare look at you. All right?”
She got a surprised look on her pretty face, then nodded.
“All right—I got you. Um, thanks, I guess.”
“Good—you’re welcome,” I told her. “Now—are you ready to go?”
Natalie nodded.
“As ready as I’m going to be, I guess. Er, but where are we supposed to go?” She looked around the small dressing area where we had been ushered after landing. “It’s not like we know our way around.”
“I can lead you to the throne room of the Rainbow One.”
The voice was smooth and feminine, even though it was almost as deep as my own. Looking up, I saw one of the tall Tangellan females who Natalie called “Amazons.” She was wearing a simple white dress that thankfully wasnotmade out of strips. It was a solid sheet of fabric that was opaque enough not to show her pale pink skin beneath.
“I am Thallia, servant to the Rainbow Empress,” she told us. “If you will follow me, I will lead you to her as she sits upon the crystal throne.”
“Thank you,” I said and Natalie nodded her head. She looked as stunning and regal as any of the Tangellans, I thought—although, of course, considerably shorter and more petite.
Thallia led us out of the small dressing room and down a long, light corridor lined with brilliant white walls. The vaulted ceiling was made of glass which let in a soft, golden light. It was a beautiful, delicate, feminine space and I didn’t fucking feel like I belonged.
At the end of the long corridor was a huge double set of doors—twice as tall as I was—that seemed to be made of some rare, sparkling crystal. Thallia stood to one side of them and clapped her hands twice. At once, the enormous doors swung inward, revealing a spacious throne room.
The room, like the corridor outside, had a vaulted ceiling which meant the whole space was bathed in golden light. The floor was paved with a mosaic of colored stones, all with a brilliant, pearly sheen, and a special path had been marked out in gold which led up to a dais. On the dais was a throne made of the same sparkling crystal as the doors and sitting on it was a statuesque woman with long hair that was every color of the rainbow. It was hard to tell from where we were standing, but I thought her eyes might be rainbow-hued too.
She was fucking gorgeous—if a little intimidating. She made me think of the Goddess of Mercy sitting on her throne in the Heavens, though I knew she was mortal, like me.
Beside me, Natalie gave a little gasp.
“Oh!” she whispered to me. “It’s just like I saw it in my vision—every single detail!”
I was doubly glad I had brought her with me.
“Good. Then maybe you can tell me what we’re supposed to do next?” I muttered.
But Thallia must have heard me because she murmured,
“Iwill tell you. But first I must announce you. Give me your names.”
We told her and she strode forward into the huge throne room, shouting at the top of her lungs.
“Behold, the Lady Natalie of Earth and the male who comes with her, Baron Vik’tor of O’nagga Nine!”
“Will Lady Natalie vouch for the male?” The Rainbow Empress had an even deeper voice than Thallia, though again it was still feminine. Her hair seemed to flare around her head in a rainbow nimbus as she spoke.
Thallia turned to us.
“Will you vouch for this male, Lady Natalie?” she asked. “Will you promise that he is of good character?”
Natalie lifted her chin.
“I will,” she said clearly.
“And do you swear that he has never raised a hand to a female in anger?” was Thallia’s next question.
“I will swear it,” Natalie said, not bothering to look at me. Which I took as a fucking compliment since she didn’t even feel she had to ask me. As it happened, though, her statement was true. My father taught me it was low and shameful to hit or hurt a female and that’s a rule I’ve lived by all my life.