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  “Well, well—only because you’re so beautiful. Pretty things for pretty girls, I always say.” He leered at her again and then jerked his head at Terex. “Come, Valdor—we must be going. The rest of the Private Council will be waiting by now.”

  “Yes, your Majesty.” Terex looked at Elaina. “Go straight back to the suite, please Elaina. Be safe, sweetheart.”

  The concern in his eyes made her heart flutter for some reason.

  “Yes, Master,” she murmured, dipping him a bow.

  It occurred to her how different she felt, having Terex look at her in her skimpy outfit as opposed to having the awful Krumf stare and leer at her body. She knew the big Kindred didn’t want to take advantage of her and that he respected her intellect. It was even different when he called her “good girl.” On his lips, it was an affirmation—the praise of a Master for something well done. When Krumf said it, she felt like her skin wanted to crawl off her body—it was a degradation and an insult to her intelligence.

  “I’ll see you later,” Terex murmured and then he turned and followed the Supreme Leader and his entourage.

  Elaina watched his broad shoulders as he went down the hall and sighed to herself. She’d been hoping to talk to him as soon as they reached the suite—not just to explain why she had caused him to lose Krumf’s wager but to ask him what was going on with her breast. The left nipple that had been pierced by his fang was getting extremely sore and swollen. But there was nothing to do except put up with it until he came back from the Council meeting.

  Maybe a warm bath would help, she thought, remembering the vast, black marble bathtub in the center of the bathroom. At any rate—it certainly couldn’t hurt!

  Turning, she headed down the hallway for their suite, intending to take a warm bath and relax until Terex got back.

  At least, that was her intention. But the way back to their suite wasn’t exactly straightforward. They had made several turnings in the vast, maze-like corridors of the palace to get to the banquet hall and Elaina hadn’t been paying much attention to their route. Soon, to her dismay, she found she was hopelessly lost.

  “Where am I?” she muttered, stopping at last in the middle of a three way intersection and staring at her options. The hallway on the left was broad and well lighted and looked somewhat familiar, she thought. The one on the right was narrow and dim and scary.

  Left it is then, Elaina told herself. At the very least, the left-hand corridor looked more likely to have people in it. She was determined to ask for directions, even if she had to break the rules and talk to a man who wasn’t her Master. Or she could just use the market slang, she thought—no one could complain about that.

  She had just taken a step down the left-hand passage when she heard someone calling her.

  “Hello! Hello, foreign girl? Alien girl?”

  “What?” Elaina stopped, startled when she realized the voice was talking to her. It was light and feminine but also sad, she thought. “Who…who said that?” she called, feeling a little foolish standing in the middle of the hallway yelling.

  “It’s Zerana—come talk to me.” The voice was coming from the darker right-hand passage. Elaina looked into the dim, narrow corridor and shivered.

  “I…don’t think I should,” she said. “Why don’t you come to me?”

  “I can’t—I’m chained up.” There was a soft sob in the voice that tugged at Elaina’s heart. “Aren’t you the slave of Master Valdor? Please—can’t you come talk to me?”

  “Well…” Almost of their own accord, her feet had already taken a step towards the soft, sad voice.

  “Please,” begged the unseen girl. “If your master is truly Valdor then he has come to set us free. Please, please come talk to me.”

  “I shouldn’t,” Elaina whispered but somehow she found she was going, walking carefully along the left-hand corridor, looking for the girl with the heartbreaking voice.

  About halfway down the dark hallway, she came to a gate made of bars—like the door to a prison cell, Elaina thought. There, standing on the other side of the golden bars, which glimmered softly in the dim light, she saw a girl who looked to be no older than her late teens or early twenties.

  “Oh thank you—thank you for coming!”

  The girl had long, wavy black hair and huge dark eyes with green and blue and purple rings. Her slim hands were cuffed to the golden bars, keeping her in place no matter what she did. Elaina thought she recognized her from the banquet—hadn’t she been one of the girls attending Krumf?

  Hello,” she said softly when Elaina came near. “I’m Zerana.”

  “I’m Elaina,” Elaina said. “What are you doing way back here? Why are you chained up like that?” She nodded at the slim golden cuffs that encircled the girl’s wrists, binding her to the bars.

  “Because the lanthum syrup makes the Need so much worse and I have not been chosen to be used by his Supreme Excellency tonight.” There was bitterness in the girl’s voice that stabbed at Elaina like a knife. “Since he doesn’t want me and I’m not allowed to help myself, I must be chained to keep from committing the sin of self-pleasure.”

  “That’s awful!” Elaina exclaimed indignantly. “But…you have the Need?” It seemed strange because the girl wasn’t acting like the other women she’d seen with the dreaded disease. She was neither begging for sensation, nor happy and frisky like the girl that had been beside them at the banquet. In fact, she seemed calm and collected, though extremely sad.

  “Can’t you tell?” The girl nodded down at her nipples, which were jutting through slits in her elaborate green and blue gown.

  “Oh, uh…I guess they are kind of dark pink.” Elaina acknowledged, taking a look.

  “So are yours, for that matter, but I heard the Supreme Leader gave you a pass. How did you manage that?”

  “I explained—well, my Master explained—that this is my natural coloring.” Elaina nodded down at herself, thinking briefly how bizarre it was to be standing here comparing nipple color with a complete stranger.

  “Lucky girl.” Zerana sighed and then straightened up. “Speaking of your Master, is it true he’s come to set us all free?”

  “What?” Elaina looked at her blankly. “I’m sorry but what would make you think that?”

  “The prophesy, of course! It was foretold when Master Valdor left that when he returned he would free those of us who are in bondage—both to the males who own us and to this horrible disease.” Zerana sounded desperate. “Please tell me it’s true. It would give me hope that I might…might get out of here and see my home again. That I might see the male who should have been my Master and my love.”

  “Were you forced to come here?” Elaina asked, her heart aching for the girl.

  “More like flattered into it,” Zerana said bitterly. “I was out in the central square one day, walking behind my father who is one of the over-leaders of our province. It was just a solar week before I was to go to my new Master’s house—Ledo, his name is.” She sighed unhappily. “He was the male my father had picked for me but he was young and kind and, well…we understood each other. We would talk for hours sometimes and he treated me like an equal, not a slave.”

  “What happened?” Elaina asked her. “Why didn’t you go to him?”

  Zerana leaned her forehead against the golden bars.

  “Unfortunately, it was a day when his Supreme Excellency had chosen to tour our village. He saw me and invited my father to bring me to the palace for mid-day meal.”

  “What happened then?” Elaina asked, although she thought she could guess.

  “We came and ate and I tried to be unobtrusive, as a slave is supposed to be, but I could feel his Supreme Excellency looking at me through the entire meal.”

  Elaina shivered with disgust. “I know the feeling. But go on.”

  “I thought I tasted something strange in my wine—it was so bitter and I got very dizzy,” Zerana said. “His Supreme Excellency told me to go lay down—he said there was a