Dragon in the Dark (Kindred Tales)

“Yes, I heard about that—in fact, I had to settle it for you. Discretely, of course.” Master-Doctor Ostensio frowned up at him reprovingly. “You’re very fortunate that you had already signed the paperwork giving you diplomatic immunity, you know, Sir Dra’vik. Otherwise you would have been prosecuted for killing an officer during the course of his duties.”

“Did his duties include raping my wife?” Dra’vik demanded. “Because that’s what he was fucking trying to do when I found them!”

The round little Minister gave Iyanna a brief, dismissive glance.

“Trying to use another male’s wife without his permission, is, of course, a severe breech of etiquette,” he said. “But I see no cherished wife here—only a pleasure slave.”

“Iyanna is my cherished wife, but those bastards ripped her patches off!” Dra’vik growled.

Of course he knew it was the magnetic field of the Lix’dorian scanner that had actually demagnetized Iyanna’s patches and caused them to fall off, but that didn’t matter. The two guards had been running the machine— therefore they were responsible.

The Minister of Botany puffed himself up importantly.

“I’m sorry, Sir Dra’vik, but it doesn’t matter why or how your female’s patches were removed, the fact is that she is now a pleasure slave and her status as cherished wife cannot be restored,” he lectured.

“But she has other clothes!” Dra’vik protested. “Ones where the patches are still intact!” He hoped, anyway.

“Oh, speaking of that—Jund’o—come here,” the Minister called. A servant scurried in—the same one who had brought the wrong female from the check point line, Dra’vik noted sourly. He was holding Iyanna’s golden case in one hand. Bobbing his head nervously, he handed it over to Dra’vik and then scampered out of the room again.

“There you are—I thought you might want your belongings back,” Ostensio said, nodding grandly as though he had just bestowed a great gift, instead of simply returning some lost luggage. “I thought it best to remove all evidence of you and your pleasure slave from the scanning room,” he added in a low voice. “I’m still hoping we’ll be able to sweep this nasty little incident under the rug, so to speak.”

“It shouldn’t be swept under the fucking rug—you need to talk about the way males treat females on this planet,” Dra’vik growled. “Those two bastards thought they had the right to hurt my female just because I wasn’t there to stop them!”

“Well, in most cases, that’s true,” Ostensio said, frowning. “Carnal importuning is simply something most females must put up with. They’re the weaker sex and males have needs.” He shrugged his shoulders, his long robes rustling. “It’s just the way things work.”

“Well they shouldn’t fucking work that way!” Dra’vik growled. “What in the Seven Frozen Hells is wrong with you people? How can you abuse your females so casually and act like it’s just Status Quo?”

The Minister blinked his eyes owlishly behind his little round oculars.

“Why, because it is Status Quo here on Lix’dor Prime. I’m sorry if it offends you but I was under the impression you were here because you wanted to trade for our rare and valuable pleasure plants—not to criticize the Lix’dorian way of life!”

“Dra’vik is upset because his people value females highly.” Iyanna spoke up for the first time, her voice calm and collected, though her dark eyes were flashing. “The Kindred treat their females as equals and the Monstrum Kindred—Dra’vik’s people—have lost all their females, so they are doubly valuable to them.”

Master-Doctor Ostensio blinked again, looking surprised to be addressed by a female. It was as though a pet had spoken to him—or some inanimate object he hadn’t expected to have a voice.

“Well that is…most regrettable,” he said at last, speaking to Dra’vik. “And as I said, I hushed up the incident with the guards—though you killed one and the other may lose one or more of his testicles. But we really can’t be having any more such incidents.”

“We won’t,” Dra’vik said shortly. “As long as no one else comes near my wife.”

He glared balefully at the little round Minister until Ostensio took a step backwards, his blue skin going so pale it was almost white.

“I…I’m certain that can be arranged,” he stammered. “I’ll make it very clear at the Royal Botany Society’s annual banquet tonight that she’s not for sharing. No other male will come near her—I can promise you that.”

“Good,” Dra’vik growled. “And I also want to make it clear that she will be appearing at this banquet of yours tonight as my cherished wife. Not as a pleasure slave.”

But here, he seemed to have hit a roadblock. For the Minister raised his double chin and glared up at him in a very offended fashion.

“No, absolutely not. I cannot condone such a breach of etiquette!” he exclaimed, his face going from pale blue to puce. “It is absolutely, positively out of the question. A female who has been demoted in status cannot be re-instated!”