At last, however, Baslik took a deep breath and seemed to calm himself.
“All of this will soon be a moot point, little mouse,” he said to me. “For while we are at Fenushia Alpha, you will begin to glow—I am quite certain of it. They have ways of making a female fertile—some say the very air and water of their planet brings about fertility. Between that and the damned Kindred guard, there’s no way you can avoid glowing for me!”
I did not know what to say to that, and so I said nothing. According to Nana the only thing that could make me glow and become fertile was being held and touched by a man who cared for me and whom I trusted. I did not know if the air or water or soil of the planet we were bound for could influence my body in any other way—though now, of course, I am beginning to wonder as the Second sign seems to be upon me…
But I must not think of that now—I have much more to relate.
We landed at last without Baslik raising a hand to me—a great surprise but also an immense relief. When the stairs were unfolded from the ship, I saw Sark already waiting, standing beside his own ship—a sleek silver one which looked fast, though it was much smaller than the platinum bulk of Baslik’s immense space yacht.
“Come here, my lady,” Sark said at once, beckoning to me. With a swift glance over my shoulder at Baslik, I walked quickly over to him. I stumbled a bit because the ground of the landing area was quite barren and rocky and I was wearing very high heels, since Baslik had insisted I must dress up to meet the Fenushian dignitaries who were to greet us.
Sark caught me by the shoulders and looked me over carefully—he even had me pull up the stiff lace sleeves of my gown so that he could examine my arms and wrists.
“Did he hurt you? Lay hands on you at all?” he asked in a low voice as he looked me over. “I told him I’d make him sorry if he did.”
“No.” I shook my head, shooting another glance at Baslik, who was glaring sourly at Sark and me. Was this the reason he hadn’t touched me, though I could tell how much he wanted to beat me? Was it because Sark had threatened him? I did not know, but it seemed likely.
“Good.” Sark nodded. He put a protective arm around my shoulders and drew me close to his big, hard body.
It wasn’t the way one usually stands with a bodyguard, but I found I quite liked it. I felt safe with him so near me and I could smell his forest and spice scent, which seems to fill all my senses and makes me warm inside.
Now that I felt safe, I could take in my surroundings. The entire landscape was quite barren—there were no trees or shrubs or bushes or grass or indeed, any living thing that I could see. I noticed that we had landed quite near to a craggy mountain range and I observed what looked like the entrance to a cave in the side of the nearest mountain not far off.
As I was watching the cave—and Sark and Baslik were staring daggers at each other—I saw three strange persons emerge. They appeared to be either a man and two women or two men and a woman, for I could not quite tell the sex of the one in the middle. All three of them were bald and all were wearing long, flowing robes that seemed to be made of many colorful strips of some silky material.
To my embarrassment, I saw that the fabric did not quite cover all of their private areas, so that the woman’s breasts—or was it women?—were often visible. But I still did not know if there were one or two women present, for from some angles the person in the middle appeared to have breasts and from others his or her chest appeared flat.
It was all most confusing and their clothing was much too revealing, but I confess I could not look away. I found all three of them fascinating—especially the one in the middle.
Their skin had patterns, like a feline’s fur, though they appeared to be completely hairless. The two on either side had tan hides with brownish spots while the one in the middle, whose sex I could not determine, was striped in black and white zigs and zags.
“Ah, guests of Fenushia Alpha, welcome—welcome!” the striped person in the middle exclaimed. I had hoped to know his (or her) gender by the voice, but it was quite neutral, being too low for a woman’s voice and too high to belong to a man.