“No, you’re not. Where is she?”
Thank God! Lauren felt weak with relief but it was short-lived.
“Well, well, your lover is sharp for a Scourge, I’ll give him that,” a familiar voice hissed in her ear.
Blix? Is that Blix?
There was a low, nasty laugh in her ear and she remembered he could read her mind. “Of course it’s Blix, my dear. You didn’t think I’d give up on such a rare exotic as yourself so easily, did you? But your paramour doesn’t seem content to give up either. Let’s see how he deals with more than one decoy.”
From another empty stall, a second Lauren look-alike appeared. And then another and another. All of them were dressed alike in silvery blue muumuus. And all of them looked exactly like her. Lauren counted at least twenty. Were these the seed clones Slk had been talking about the night before?
“Xairn? Master Xairn?” They all spoke at once, all of them reaching for Xairn, converging on him like a flock of flightless birds.
“Stop it!” Xairn roared. “Get away from me, all of you.” He turned in a circle, his blue-green eyes scanning the empty stalls filled with shadows. “Show yourself Spider! I know you have to be the one behind this. Give Lauren back right now and I might let you live.”
“Ah, here we go. Showtime!” Blix murmured in her ear.
There was a strange twitching sensation behind her and a very faint popping noise. Suddenly another Blix was standing to her right while the original continued to hold her tight and keep a hand clamped over her mouth. Lauren watched, wide-eyed, as this second Blix strolled casually out to meet Xairn with a smile on his face.
“Spider!” Xairn reached for him but he ducked lightly out of the way.
“Ah-ah-ah my dear Scourge,” he tisked. “Hands off, if you please. It’s true that I have your lady-love but I have a perfect right to her.”
“You have nothing.” Xairn glared at him, his big hands curling into fists. “We gave back the clothing you bartered and let you keep the grieza food cubes.”
“Alas, the cubes were defective and wouldn’t rehydrate properly.” Blix made a sorrowful face. “And unfortunately, your sweet Lauren neglected to return the lovely slippers I gave her. Worth a fortune, I assure you—much more than the cubes even if they were in top condition—which, as I said, they were not.”
“You’re a fucking liar!” Xairn grabbed for him again and this time the second Blix wasn’t fast enough to evade the enraged Scourge. He struggled as Xairn gripped him by the throat and squeezed. “Bring me Lauren now!” It was a deafening, full throated roar that echoed through the stone walled parking area. Watching, Lauren saw his eyes flash briefly from blue-green to the familiar red-on-black she knew so well. God, was his Scourge DNA reasserting itself already? Slk had warned that an extreme emotional reaction might trigger the change. Was he—?
Suddenly Blix shivered in Xairn’s big hand and then divided neatly in two. The second—or actually the third Blix, Lauren supposed—stepped to one side and shook his head. “Now, now, Xairn—there’s no need to resort to violence. We should settle this sensibly.”
“I believe you should settle it legally.” There was a sudden commotion among the milling clones and then Slk came into view, his tentacles whispering over the stone floor. “I thought you might be up to something unsavory when you contacted me so quickly to buy Lauren’s blood.”
Xairn turned on the alien geneticist. “You bastard! You knew about this?”
All three of Slk’s vertical eyes blinked slowly. “I suspected. Which is why I brought an arbitrator to judge.” He nodded behind him and Lauren watched in amazement as the huge, purple tree-like being which she had seen in the O’ah marketplace came gliding up.
“I am the Judge of the Market where this transaction first took place.” Its voice was like the creaking of an old oak in the wind and its eyes and mouth looked like the knots in the bark of an ancient tree. “Present the facts to me.”
At last Blix began to look worried. “Oh, great Judge of the Market,” he began, licking his lips nervously. “We are so honored by your presence among us today. If you will be pleased to listen—”
“I will be pleased to listen to nothing but the truth!” The Judge’s voice crackled with anger and above its head, the bare purple branches suddenly burst into pale blue flames.
Lauren would have gasped if she could have gotten enough breath to do so. The flickering pale blue light illuminated the dark parking area and cast an eerie glow over everything. She tried to remember what Xairn had told her about the purple tree being. He is a Quinlow—they carry the power of life and death in their hands. As she thought it, the tree-being raised its stumpy, branch-like arms which ended in two long-fingered hands. The fingers looked like twigs that had been set on fire—they two glowed with the deadly, pale blue flames.
Blix gasped and jumped back. “Your Eminence! I—”
“Your pardon, Judge of the Market,” Xairn interrupted him, bowing briefly. “The facts of the matter are this: While I was away bargaining with Slk for a DNA alteration, this thought thief tricked his way aboard my ship and deceived my female into dealing with him. His intention was to take her for a splice whore. He gave her expensive clothing which he claimed was a gift in return for what he believed to be worthless food cubes.”
“But they were worthless!” the Blix whose throat he wasn’t squeezing protested. “They were defective!”
Xairn glared at him. “Prove it.”
Blix shrugged uneasily. “I cannot. I threw them away, of course—I don’t keep useless things around. What would be the point?”
“The point is that food cubes containing grieza worms are more than equal to the cost of the clothes you gave Lauren. Which we gave back,” Xairn said.
“But she did not return the slippers I traded to her,” Blix remarked triumphantly. “And those were worth a fortune—more than your ship at least.”
“But not more than Lauren’s life,” Xairn growled. “She is priceless—nothing you can do or say or offer will convince me to give her up.” He looked at the tree-being. “I appeal to you to rectify this injustice, oh Judge. The Spider has captured my female and is holding her somewhere near. He thought to confuse me with seed clones but none of these are the real Lauren.” He gestured to the milling clones who were standing around in groups of two and three watching the proceedings vacantly.
“An injustice has indeed been done.” The Judge’s branches and twig-like fingers burned even brighter. “Grieza worms are a delicacy prized the universe over and are worth more than whatever garments were given. Unless Blix the Spider can produce the cubes and prove that they are defective, the Scourge’s female shall be returned to him. At Once.”
“Very well. Very well.” The third Blix backed away, rubbing his hands together nervously. “Send her out,” he called. “Send out the true female—no more clones.”
Again Lauren felt a huge rush of relief. At last she was going to be free to go back to Xairn! But the hands holding her in a vise-like grip didn’t relax. Instead, Blix number one tightened his grip and laughed nastily in her ear.
“Come now, my dear. You didn’t think I’d give up as easily as all that, did you?”
And then someone was shouting, “Here I am! I’m coming, Xairn.”
Lauren nearly fainted when she saw yet another look-alike come running up. She pushed her way past the seed clones and threw herself into his arms, sobbing much as Lauren wanted to sob herself.
“Lauren?” He looked down at her uncertainly and released the second Blix, which promptly merged with the third one.
“Oh God, it was awful!” the new pseudo Lauren gasped. “He grabbed me and held me and I was so afraid I’d never get back to you. Oh Xairn!” She stood on tiptoes and wrapped her arms around his neck, clutching him tightly.
“She’s quite good, isn’t she?” Blix muttered into Lauren’s ear. “I know you’re wondering why she’s so different from the others—it’s because she’
s a true clone, not a seed clone. I hate to tell you, my dear, what it cost me to bribe Slk’s stupid servant to get me one of your fingers so I would have enough raw material to grow her, but it was well worth it, as you can tell. Besides…” He squeezed her tighter. “You can pay me back during your first year of work.”
Lauren had gone rigid with shock at seeing the new clone but now her knees felt like rubber. She was sure if Blix hadn’t been holding her so ruthlessly she would have collapsed. My God, she looks and acts just like me! He’ll never know the difference. He’ll leave me here and won’t find out until too late that she isn’t real. But if she’s such an exact copy, why do they need me at all?
“Because the original is always better than a copy, especially for making other copies, my dear,” Blix said, answering her thought. “And because I’m able to charge so much more for a night with an original splice whore. Their reactions are so much more… satisfying and unique.”
Tears sprang to Lauren’s eyes. Was this how her life was going to end? A hundred thousand light years from home, trapped into prostitution on a planet no one on Earth had even heard of?
“Indeed, this is to be your fate, my dear,” Blix purred in her ear. “But don’t worry, I won’t give you over to the customers before I put you through your paces myself. I always like to make sure my girls are well trained.” The hand holding her throat slipped down to cup her left breast and squeezed it roughly. Lauren gave a muffled gasp and tried to kick him but it was like kicking a brick wall. “Don’t struggle so, my darling Lauren,” Blix murmured. “You should be enjoying your last sight of your Scourge paramour. He’s about to leave with that pretty little clone and no one will ever be the wiser. Even your own mother won’t be able to tell the difference between her and the original when he gets her back to your home planet.”
Despair washed over her like a cold wave and Lauren knew he was right. Even now Xairn was holding the clone close, his face buried in her hair as he comforted her. Me, that should be me that he’s holding! she thought desperately. But there was nothing she could do but watch. Nothing she could do but—
“Get away!” Suddenly Xairn pushed the clone to one side. “You’re not her either. Where is she? Where is Lauren?”
Behind her, Lauren felt Blix stiffen. “How in the seven hells—?”
“I know she’s near.” Xairn was moving in a circle, his head high in the air as if searching for some scent only he could smell. After a moment he seemed to catch it. He pushed the clones out of the way and headed toward to the empty stall where Blix was holding her.
Blix began dragging her backwards, deeper into the shadows but Lauren fishtailed her body desperately, fighting with renewed desperation. His hand on her mouth slipped and she was able to clamp down on his fingers. To her disgust, they came off in her mouth, wiggling like worms.
Lauren spat them out and screamed, “Xairn! Here—I’m here!”
“Lauren!” He rounded the corner of the empty stall where Blix had been concealing her just out of sight. “Let her go!” he roared, his eyes flashing red-on-black. “Or I’ll rip you into so many fucking pieces you’ll never be able to reassemble yourself!”
At last Blix released her and Lauren stumbled forward into Xairn’s arms. He snatched her up, holding her by the waist and buried his face in her hair. Lauren felt his broad chest expand like a bellows as he inhaled, breathing her in just as he had when he held the clone.
When he pulled back there was a look of relief on his face. “It’s really you this time,” he murmured, looking into her eyes.
“Yes. Yes, it’s me.” Lauren didn’t want to be a cliché or repeat everything the clone had just done but she couldn’t help tearing up just the same. She sniffed and blinked, trying not to let her voice shake too much. “How…how did you know? Blix said even my own mother wouldn’t have been able to tell me apart from that…that thing.”
“She probably wouldn’t.” Xairn changed his grip on her so that he was cradling her protectively close to his chest like a baby. “She doesn’t have my sense of smell.”
“What?” She frowned. “We smell different?”
“The clone smelled like you in your pre-altered state,” Xairn explained. “You smelled different this morning after the DNA alteration had completely taken effect.”
From the shadows of the empty stall, Blix cursed. “That stupid Bleek! To think what I paid and he gave me a pre-altered finger!”
Xairn glared at the thought thief. “You took her finger? You harmed my Lauren?”
“I thought it was a dream,” Lauren confessed. “The weird stork-looking servant gave me a brownie to eat and it must have had some kind of drug in it. I passed out but before I did he…he cut off my little finger. But when I woke up, it was still there so I thought it must have been a nightmare.”
“He regenerated it, of course,” Blix said. Casually, he reached down for his severed fingers, the digits Lauren had bitten off, and reattached them one by one.
It’s like he’s made of Play dough, Lauren thought with a shiver.
Blix eyed her coolly. “No, my dear—plasma. But you’ll have years to find out all the particulars about me, never fear.”
“What are you talking about?” Xairn demanded. “Lauren is leaving with me. But before I go, I’m going to rip you to fucking shreds.” He started to move forward menacingly but Blix sidestepped him.
“Oh, I don’t think so.” Reaching into a pocket of his purple cape, he withdrew something. “Pardon me, your Eminence,” he said, nodding to the Judge of the Market who had come to stand in the entrance of the empty stall. “But I seem to have those defective food cubes after all. See here?”
“Let me examine them.” The Quinlow held out one burning hand.
Gingerly, Blix dropped several blackened cubes into the Judge’s branch-like palm, being very careful not to touch the pale blue flames. “They’re rotted—see, your Eminence? They can have no possible value at all.”
After a moment, the Judge nodded. “Blix is correct—these cubes are defective.”
Xairn set Lauren down and pushed her behind him. “I can’t believe we are even having this conversation. The Spider has just admitted to bribing one of Slk’s servants to maim my female in order to grow a clone to fool me. His crimes should be punished!”
“I was only trying to get what was rightfully mine without a fuss,” Blix protested. “In fact, your Eminence, I propose an amicable solution. Since the true clone and the original are exactly the same, let Xairn have the clone and I will keep this female.” He pointed at Lauren who shrank back against Xairn.
“What do you mean, just the same? We’re not just the same!” she protested.
“I’m afraid you are,” Slk said. Taking the true clone by the hand, he led her forward. “I have been speaking to this female—Blix had even given her your memories. For all intents and purposes, she is you.” He turned to Xairn. “I cannot tell you how I regret this. I will punish the servant Blix bribed in the sternest possible fashion.”
“Death is too good for him,” Xairn snarled. “This female is the only one I want.” He put an arm around Lauren and pulling her protectively close. “I brought her here and I have sworn to see her safely home which I still intend to do.”
Suddenly the Judge, who had been standing silent and thoughtful, spoke in his creaking, sonorous voice. “Blix makes a valid point. As the cubes are defective, it should be his right to take the female into his possession. Xairn the Scourge may have the true clone to do with as he pleases.”
“What?” Lauren felt like hear heart was going to stop. “Surely you can’t be serious.”
“Do you dare to doubt my judgment?” The Quinlow strode forward, its arms outstretched, the blue flames crackling like deadly lightning between its fingers.
Lauren bit her lip. Somehow she knew that if it touched her with those hands, that if even one twig-like finger brushed her cheek, the results would be horribly painful, and quite possibly fatal.
“We are not doubting, your Eminence.” Xairn’s voice was low with barely controlled fury and his grip on Lauren’s shoulders tightened until it was almost painful but he didn’t display any outward signs of anger. “But I regret to say that I cannot comply with your ruling. This female, and no other, is bonded to me. So I cannot let her go.”
The Quinlow’s mouth yawned wide in fury and Lauren saw that it was burning inside as well. She could feel the flames against her skin—not hot but cold. So cold it made her lungs ache to inhale the air around it. “You dare defy me? Death is the penalty, as you well know, insolent Scourge.”
“Of that I am aware,” Xairn said evenly. “And if a life is needed to satisfy, then you may take mine. But not until I am guaranteed that my female, Lauren, will be treated with respect and kept safe from the Spider.”
“No,” Lauren protested. “Xairn, you can’t!”
He gave her a brief glance. “I will be glad to die if it ensures your safety.”
“I will care for your female as I would my own progeny,” Slk said, his three eyes blinking. “Blix shall never have her. The clone either.” He turned a disapproving look on the thought thief. “I claim her—for the material that made her was harvested illegally under my own roof. You shall have neither of them.”
“Slk makes a telling point and his claim is valid.” To Lauren’s immense relief, the Judge of the Market drew back, its bark-like face creased into a frown. “Slk has decided to assert his rights. It seems that defective food cubes or no, you cannot have either female, Blix. One is bonded to another male—I cannot break a life bond. And the other was grown illegally.” It turned its attention to Lauren. “You must, however, return the slippers.”
“They’re in our ship, your…your Eminence,” she managed to say. “I’ll be more than happy to return them.”
Blix arched one pale blond eyebrow at them. “A moment, your Eminence. Of course I am pleased to comply with your rulings, but are we certain the Scourge is telling the truth? He claims to be bonded to this female but I see none of the Scourge marks of possession on her.”