Uncharted Read online

  “I’m sorry about that,” Terex murmured. “But I’m afraid you have to wear this.” Tilting her chin, just as he had when he was examining her eye earlier, he studied her face. “Elaina,” he murmured. “I need you to do this for me—to wear this for me.”

  “I…I don’t know if I can,” she whispered.

  He looked at her sternly but compassionately.

  “I’m your Master—I could make you do this…but I won’t. You can go back to the ship and wait for me if it’s too much.”

  “No!” Her eyes flew up to his and she stared at him defiantly. “No, I…I won’t do that. I won’t give up and leave you.”

  “Then you have to wear this.” He held up the golden collar which glinted in the glows of the elaborate light fixtures hanging from the vaulted ceiling.

  Elaina took a deep breath, trying to calm herself. This was the only way to go to the palace—the only way to stay in the game and find something to save her sister’s life.

  I can do this. I know I can. I have to do this.

  “All right,” she said at last. “Put it on me.”

  Gently but firmly, Terex fastened the thick golden collar around her neck. Elaina noticed he tried to make it as loose as possible but she could still feel it like a cruel hand gripping the column of her throat, making it hard to breathe. She couldn’t help it—one hand crept up, her fingers aching to rip the awful collar from around her throat.

  Terex seemed to read her mind. He caught her hand and held it in his much larger one.

  “Elaina, look at me—it’s not that tight,” he murmured. “It’s all right. You’re going to be all right. Just breathe.”

  She forced herself to take one deep breath…and then another. Slowly she began to calm down and the panic receded. He was right—she could breathe. It was going to be okay.

  “Better now?” the big Kindred murmured.

  Looking up at him, Elaina nodded.

  “Yes,” she whispered. “Yes, I…I think so.”

  “Good girl,” he rumbled. And then he leaned down and brushed her lips lightly with his own.

  Elaina let out a little gasp as the soft kiss sent shockwaves through her body, making her feel shaky and weak all of a sudden. God, what was wrong with her? She looked up at Terex with wide eyes. Why had he done that? Why had he kissed her?

  His fangs were out again and she couldn’t help wondering if he had wanted to bite her rather than kiss her. And then she wondered what it would feel like if he did bite her…

  “If you’re quite finished coddling your slave, it’s past time we were going.” The Ambassador’s annoyed voice broke the spell that seemed to have fallen over both of them.

  Elaina bit her lip when she realized that the whole intimate scene had been witnessed by the fussy little man and his wife/slave. She felt her cheeks get hot with embarrassment and she wanted to pull away but the big Kindred wouldn’t let her.

  Terex stroked her cheek and gave her one last searching look before releasing her and turning to the impatient Ambassador.

  “I’m ready. Are we going to ride the jendels again?”

  “Most certainly not! When going to the palace, one must drive in style. Come, Master Valdor—the carriage is ready and waiting.”

  He swept out and Terex followed him, leaving Elaina and Jessa to trail at a respectful distance behind.

  Elaina still felt slightly dazed. Why had he kissed her? And how had he calmed her down about wearing the collar? Somehow she’d managed to get past her fear and it wasn’t just because she wanted to stay for her sister’s sake instead of going back to the ship.

  I didn’t just want to wear it for Gina’s sake…I wanted to do it for him. To please him. To make him proud of me. Her fingers crept up to the golden collar with its large, square cut emerald. Why?

  She had no answer and no time to think of one. It was time to go to the palace—their little fiction was about to become a reality.

  Elaina just hoped she could play her part convincingly enough not to get them both found out and killed.

  Chapter Eleven

  Why did I kiss her? Why did I speak that way to her? Terex couldn’t answer either question. Inside his head, a soft voice from his memory whispered, “A master must be stern but loving. Sometimes you may have to punish your submissive but that’s all right as long as you do it out of love…”

  No! He shoved the memory aside and concentrated on the road outside the luxurious but boxy carriage they were riding in. It was pulled by a creature that resembled a cross between a rhino from Earth and a Gorgian Yak. It had a single horn in the center of its long snout, four thick legs, and a surprisingly lush coat of long, silky, pink hair that trailed on the ground as it trundled along, pulling the carriage.

  “We’re not far from the palace at all,” Ambassador Waygu told him proudly. “As I told you before, his Supreme Exaltedness, Krumf the Fourth, likes to keep me close to offer him council. If we’re lucky, he might even extend an invitation to stay with him at the palace for a day or two. That’s a mark of royal favor.”

  “Tell me—is Krumf the Fourth a direct descendant of the first Krumf?” Terex asked.

  “Yes, he is. In fact, it’s said to be uncanny how much he resembles his predecessor and his ancestors all the way back to the original Supreme Leader, Krumf the First.” Waygu shifted uncomfortably on the padded carriage seat. “Now look, Master Valdor, I know that you were an opponent of the first Supreme Leader but much has changed since your time. And I hope—”

  “Don’t worry,” Terex said shortly. “I am not here to disrupt your social order. I merely want to see how things have progressed during my absence.”

  “Well, they’ve changed a great deal, but all for the better, I assure you.” The Ambassador smiled broadly. “Oh look—we’re coming to the palace grounds now.”

  Looking out the small window of the boxy carriage, Terex thought Waygu hardly had to announce it. After all, there was nothing else that the immense structure they were coming to could be but a palace. Like the other private mansions he’d seen so far on this planet, it had marble columns in front. Unlike the private dwellings, its columns were four times as high and gilded so that they shone with an aggressive golden glow in the sunlight. Terraced gardens encircled the massive structure, filled with brightly colored flowers. A massive curling golden gate surrounded everything like a gleaming wall.

  “It’s very…grand,” he murmured, looking at the gold and marble monstrosity.

  “Yes—we’re very proud of our ruler’s dwelling.” The Ambassador nodded proudly. “It was commissioned by the first Supreme Leader and every Krumf after him has lived in it. Just wait until you see the inside—it’s even more lavish!”

  More lavish than golden marble columns? Terex raised an eyebrow and saw that Elaina, who was sitting across from him, was giving the palace skeptical looks as well. He wished he could ask her opinion or that they could talk at all, but even if they’d been able to, he didn’t really know what to say.

  At least she had her arms and legs crossed, making it impossible to see her breasts and sex clearly through the see-through gown she wore. He was grateful for that, although he still found her devastatingly attractive with her long, silky brown hair falling over her shoulders. And her scent—Gods, he could still smell her sweetness, even sitting across from him in the carriage. She—

  “Ah—here we are!” Waygu announced, cutting off his line of thought as two guards opened the curling, golden gate which surrounded the palace. The beast pulling the carriage—Terex still didn’t know its name—came to a stop at the grand front entrance as though it had been this way many times before.

  “My lord Ambassador,” one of the guards on duty said gruffly, opening the door of the carriage. “Please come in—his Supreme Exaltedness wishes for your council and to see the guest you have found.”

  “It isn’t so much that I have found him,” Waygu said. “But that he has found us again after so many cycles.”