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  “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