“Well…thank you,” she said, smiling up at him. “I guess I’m ready to go now.”
“This shouldn’t take long,” T’zaren told her. “We’ll go and have Last Meal with the Twainer, make the deal for thedimriel,and be back to the ship in no time at all. And while we’re in the stronghold, we’ll simply play our parts.”
“Right.” She nodded firmly. “Play our parts. And that’s all.”
“Exactly.” T’zaren felt relieved that they had put the sexual incident behind them and gotten their relationship back on professional footing again.
But even as they followed the two guards, he could still taste Lucille’s sweet pussy honey on his lips and feel her touch on his Sen Stripe—as gentle as a feather and yet somehow as stinging as a whip made of thorns at the same time.
TWENTY-THREE
LUCY
The chasm was much,muchworse than Lucy had imagined. She had seen pictures of the Grand Cavern and the chasm reminded her of them—onlydeeper. It was an enormous dark hole in the ground—a hole that went down so far she couldn’t see the bottom.
The dark chasm completely surrounded an island of land that had a large, imposing looking mansion built in the middle of it. It was wide enough to keep anyone who might want to come from the other side at bay. In fact, it was so wide that Lucy estimated it must be several kilometers or almost a mile across.
“An impressive defense,” T’zaren said, surveying the gaping void that stood between them and Twa’linda’s stronghold. “But how do you defend it from the air?
“Oh, there’s an atmosphere dome over the island itself,” one of the guards explained. “So our Lady’s stronghold is completely protected on all sides.”
“And how…how are we supposed to get across to the stronghold?” Lucy tried to speak normally but her throat fell extremely tight. Shereallydidn’t like heights!
“Why, on the tracks of course.”
The guard pointed and Lucy followed his finger to see a set of extremely spindly-looking tracks spanning the great black gulf. They were made of two long, metal rods with wooden slats in between—exactly like railroad tracks but much,muchless sturdy looking, she thought.
“You expect us to walk acrossthose?”she demanded. “Huh-uh—no way. You can forget about it!”
“Of course no one needs to walk, Lady Lucille,” the guard said patiently. “That’s what the carts are for.”
He pointed further back and Lucy saw a little green cart sitting on the far end of the tracks. It had two sloping seats in it and the way it was configured reminded her of one of those flume rides at an amusement park. The passenger in the back would have his legs on either side of the passenger in the front.
But both of them are going to be in a rickety little cart going across a skinny bridge with no supports that I can see!she thought, feeling sick.
“Are yousureLady Twa’linda wouldn’t let us just go back and fly our ship across?” she asked the guards. “I’m deathly afraid of heights and Ipromisewe don’t mean her any harm—we just want to do business with her!”
The first guard frowned and shook his head.
“Sorry, Lady Lucille. The atmosphere dome is permanent and it covers the whole island. The only way to enter or leave the stronghold is to ride the cart across the tracks. That’s where the only opening is—see?”
He pointed and Lucy squinted, trying to see what he was talking about. Now that she looked more closely, she could see a kind of shimmering in the air around the imposing mansion. Presumably that was the dome. But the shimmer was notably absent right where the tracks met the island of land in the middle of the chasm. Clearly the guard was telling the truth—this was the only way forward.
“It will be all right,” T’zaren murmured in her ear. “The guards ride across these tracks often and they’re still here.”
“Iguessyou’re right,” Lucy said, feeling a tiny bit better. But she still didn’t like the idea of riding across herself!
“You’d better get into the cart and get going, Lady Lucille,” the first guard remarked. “I don’t like to rush you, but as I said earlier, Lady Twa’linda doesn’t like to be kept waiting—not even by anotherDom’mesque.”
“Um…all right.” Lucy looked at the little green cart at the end of the tracks. “I guess we both get in together?”
“I would recommend that you let your manservant ride in the back and you ride in the front, my Lady,” the second guard said. “It’s safer that way.”
Lucy didn’t see how riding in the damn cart across the spindly-looking tracks could be safe inanyway but there was nothing to do but head for the cart with T’zaren right behind her.
She sat in the front—noting that the sides of the cart were a lot lower than she liked—and the big Monstrum settled in the rear seat. Just as Lucy had thought, his long legs were on either side of her and her back was pressed against his broad chest. She tried to scoot forward to give him a little more room, but there simply wasn’t much room to begin with in the cart. And packing a curvy girl and a muscular, seven-foot-tall alien into it was clearly straining its capacity.
Lucy wondered if the two of them together were over the cart’s weight limit. Should she ask for them to ride in two separate carts? But no, she didn’t like the idea of riding on those skinny rails over the dark chasm all by herself. As awkward as things were between herself and the big Monstrum, having him at her back gave her a sense of security.