Healing the Broken Read online

  Chapter Twelve

  The Courtly Row was off the main tunnel and was indeed a row of large glass bubbles, each housing a separate accommodation. Sarah and Sazar had been given one on the very end which seemed slightly larger than the rest and was as brilliantly lit as the outside tunnel.

  The first thing Sazar did when they got in and shut the door—which appeared to be both air and water-tight—was to find the lighting controls and turn the illumination down to low.

  Sarah breathed a sigh of relief as soon as the relentless brilliance dimmed.

  “Whew—they sure do like to keep it bright, don’t they?” she remarked.

  “Yes, unfortunately,” Sazar growled. Despite the dark light blockers he wore, he was looking a little peaky, Sarah thought. She wondered again if he needed blood. Should she ask him? But the thought of walking boldly up to him and offering herself as she had the night before was now considerably complicated by the outfit she was wearing.

  I don’t know why you’re hesitating to offer him your blood just because your boobs are out, whispered a sarcastic little voice in her head. After all, you’re going to have to ask him to suck them again eventually if you want to get the nipple jewelry off.

  But Sarah didn’t want to think about that—it was too embarrassing. Too…stimulating. And with the honey pearls still rotating and vibrating between her legs, she didn’t need anything else to get her going. She wondered if now would be a good time to try and turn the darn things off—surely there must be a way! She would just slip into the bathroom, if they had one here, and do her best to find the off switch before they went to dinner.

  She looked around, searching for a restroom and ended up studying the room itself instead.

  Now that her eyes were adjusted to the dimness, she saw that the bedroom walls were clear glass but mostly obscured by hangings and tapestries depicting scenes of Alquon people both swimming and walking. Some of the water scenes made it look like they had pets with them—crab and lobster like creatures that swam along beside them on long leashes.

  Sarah studied them with interest—she’d never thought of having a crustacean for a pet although she supposed it would be much more practical than a dog or a cat if you lived in the water half the time.

  The tapestries and wall hangings were gorgeous and interesting but Sarah couldn’t help wondering why the Alquons would block out the view of the ocean, which she could catch little tantalizing glimpses of through the walls now that the lights were dimmed. She saw multicolored plants swaying in the currents and schools of jewel-bright fish darting around rocks and coral as well as some creatures that didn’t look much like fish at all. Sarah saw one that looked a little like a flying squirrel but covered in scales and another that looked like a cross between a sea turtle and a giraffe.

  She wished she could get a better look at all this but the walls and ceiling were too obstructed. Well, maybe she could get a better view from the bathroom when she found it.

  There was a large, round bed in the center of the room covered by a satiny aquamarine coverlet that seemed to ripple like waves in the sea. Beside it was a tall white set of double doors that Sarah at first thought must lead to the bathroom she was seeking. But when she pulled it open, she found it was a kind of free-standing closet.

  Inside someone had thoughtfully placed her pink carry-all cube and Sazar’s luggage as well. Her anonymous benefactor had also hung her gold lame' outfit so it wouldn’t wrinkle. On a shelf beside it were the black atomizer bottle containing the compound for applying her nipple jewelry, a small box with more float dots in it, and a pair of strange looking, stretchy gold lame' panties which appeared to match her ball outfit. Sarah picked them up and studied them with a frown.

  What’s the deal with these things? They have too many holes. One for the waist and two for the legs but…what’s this last one for?

  “Is everything all right?” Sazar asked from right behind her.

  “What? Oh, yes—yes just fine. I…I was looking for the, uh, the bathroom but I think this is just the closet.” Blushing, Sarah hastily pushed the gold lame' panties with their extra hole back onto the shelf and shut the doors.

  “I think it’s over there—behind that large tapestry.” Sazar nodded his head at a colorful depiction of Alquons playing what appeared to be some sort of underwater game using giant chess-type pieces as large as themselves on a green and blue and red checkered board.

  “Oh, thank you.” Sarah nodded gratefully and ducked behind the tapestry. Sure enough, she found a small door leading into an even smaller glass bubble which connected to the main room bubble.

  Now this is more like it! she thought as she looked around. The bathroom’s walls were clear and unobstructed by hangings or pictures. She could see right out into the lovely depths of the ocean.

  She didn’t admire the darting fish and swaying plants for long though, because the honey pearls were really driving her crazy. She reached into her split skirt and felt along the fine, silky ribbon-like fabric which made up the sides and back of the buzzing panties but nothing but smooth material met her fingers. All right—maybe the switch was somewhere on the double strand of black and green pearls themselves?

  But try as she might, Sarah couldn’t find any way to turn the pearls off there either. She shifted her hips and tried wiggling out of the annoying undergarment but it was on her too tightly. She was getting desperate—maybe she ought to tear the panties off? Snap one of the sides and slither out that way?

  But no matter how she tugged, the fabric stayed firm. Sarah considered trying to break the strand of pearls instead but they seemed really expensive. What if Sazar had to pay the equivalent of thousands of dollars for them?

  Reluctantly Sarah admitted defeat…for now. She would try again before bed to get out of the vibrating pearl panties. If she still couldn’t find the switch to loosen and deactivate them, she would have no choice but to break them after all.

  Sighing, she started to leave the bathroom. But then her curiosity got the better of her—she couldn’t go before examining the Alquon facilities.

  There was something that might have been a shower—although the nozzle looked much too low and the bathtub was much too deep with very high sides. How would you even climb into the strange contraption? And once you were in, how would you get out again, Sarah wondered. It also had buttons instead of any kind of knobs—lots of them in several different colors. Weird.

  Beside the strange shower was something vaguely resembling a toilet—at least, it appeared to be a low black bench with a lid. Sarah wondered if the Alquons flushed their waste right out into the open ocean. She hoped not since many of them spent a lot of time swimming out there. It wouldn’t be very agreeable to swim outside of Idd if everyone who lived there was flushing their toilet into the sea around the city.

  Curiously, she opened the lid and peered in. She jumped back with a frightened gasp, nearly falling ass-first into the shower. About a foot and a half down, where an Earth toilet would have held water, was a writhing mass of long, slender black bodies which glistened in the dim light.

  “Sarah? Are you all right?” Suddenly Sazar was at the door.

  “I…there…” Sarah tried to clear her throat and found she could barely get the words out. “There are snakes in the toilet!” she managed at last. “A lot of them.”

  “What? I’m coming in.”

  Sarah hadn’t locked the door—mainly because she hadn’t seen any way to lock it—so the big Kindred was able to push his way into the bathroom easily.

  “What did you say was in the waste facility?” he asked, raising an eyebrow at her.

  “Snakes,” Sarah whispered. “Or eels or something. I know it sounds crazy but there is something alive down inside the toilet—or somethings. Look for yourself.”

  Sazar opened the lid and gave a low curse when a slender, snake-like head raised up to look at him with unblinking yellow eyes. He slammed the lid back down and frowned.

  “Som