Finding the Jewel Read online

  “Globber the Slimerian?” Chloe choked, horror filling her as she looked at his mottled greenish skin and yellow, tusk-like teeth. And don’t forget his rapey tentacles, whispered a horrified little voice in her head.

  “It isss I, Earth girl,” Globber burbled. His wide lantern eyes were glowing at her. “I have come for what isss rightfully mine.”

  “But…but you’re dead!” Chloe exclaimed. “I saw Tark kill you!”

  “He merely blasssted one of my heartsss.” The Slimerian flicked a tentacle negligently as though this was a minor problem. “I have ssseveral others, you know. As sssoon as I regenerated, I tracked you here. I wanted you from the moment I sssaw you aboard the Commerciansss’ station and now I ssshall have you.”

  “No!” Chloe gasped. She fishtailed her body, trying desperately to be free. “No, you can’t sell me to him!” she shouted at Zaroni. “You’d better let me go right now. If Tark finds out what you’re trying to do, he’ll kill you!”

  She knew that for a fact. They might have had an extremely confusing encounter just now but the big Kindred was very protective of her. He would never let this little asshole sell her or allow Globber to buy her if he knew what was going on.

  “He’ll kill you,” she repeated. “Slowly. You’d better let me go or you’re going to be so sorry…”

  “That’s enough from you, bitch,” Zaroni snarled in her ear, clamping his arm around her throat tightly again. He squeezed so hard Chloe gasped and gagged, clawing frantically at his arm. But the junior monk was definitely stronger than he looked. Though Tark could have broken him in half with one hand, Chloe couldn’t get away—couldn’t do anything while Zaroni and Globber agreed on a price.

  “Done,” burbled the Slimerian at last. “The credit isss being transssfered to your ssspecified account.”

  “Then the girl is yours.” Zaroni smirked. “I hope you enjoy her.”

  “Oh, I fully intend too.” Globber’s huge yellow eyes glowed with lust and a long, slimy tongue, studded with the same tiny suckers as his tentacles, lolled from his lipless mouth. “I intend to enjoy her immensssely.”

  “Good—here.” Zaroni loosened his grip for a moment and Chloe saw her chance.

  “Tark!” she shrieked at the top of her lungs. “Tark, help!”

  And then she was pushed roughly through the shimmering dimensional curtain and into the horrible tentacles of the Slimerian.

  She turned her head once more to shout through the curtain, hoping to attract Tark’s attention—or anyone else for that matter. But the wall was already back in place as solid as though it had never moved and flowed and become transparent.

  Chloe stared at its hard, shiny surface and felt tears of disbelief and horror rise like bile in her throat. Her worst nightmare had come true—she had been bought and sold, just as the Commercians had intended when they first took her.

  And Tark, the only man in the entire universe she could depend on, had no idea what had happened to her or where she had gone.

  Chapter Eighteen

  “Why are you taking the Resonite Rainbow-faceted Crystal?” Monk Aaroni repeated, frowning up at Tark. “What possible use do you think you can have for it?”

  For a moment—just a moment—Tark thought about simply taking the jewel and running. But they were deep underground, cut off from his ship and he didn’t have Chloe with him. He couldn’t risk it—couldn’t risk making a mad dash without her.

  So he simply growled down at the old monk, “I-I n-n-n…n-nuh-need i-it.” As always when he was stressed, his stutter got worse. He could barely get the words out. His hand clenched into a fist of frustration around the jewel.

  “You need it?” Monk Aaroni lifted his bushy reddish-gray eyebrows and frowned. “Whatever for?”

  Tark started to try and explain—to talk about the prophesy—but the old monk shook his head.

  “If you will permit me, my son, it would be easier if I simply read you.”

  He reached up and placed his fingertips against the side of Tark’s temple and closed his faded orange eyes.

  Tark wanted to jerk away—this reminded him entirely too much of letting the priestess in the Sacred Grove “See Into” him—an extremely uncomfortable process which involved having all his memories—good and bad—scanned.

  But he found he couldn’t move—the touch of the old monk held him as still as if he’d been encased in stone. What the hell was the old bastard doing to him and how was he doing it?

  “To answer your questions, pilgrim, I am simply using the resonite robes which you wear to hold you still,” Monk Aaroni said, without opening his eyes. “The part which you perceive as cloth is only a small percentage of the actual robe—it has a network of fine, invisible fibers woven all over your body and each and every one obeys my command. That is my gift.” He frowned and seemed to concentrate again. Then his glowing eyes popped open and he pinned Tark with an accusing look. “Ahh—I see now. You and your female are not here to work on your relationship at all! Your whole purpose was to steal a jewel to heal your faltering speech.”

  “Y-yes,” Tark said simply. There was no use in denying it—the other male could see inside his mind to his true intentions. “B-but i-it’s not Chloe’s fault,” he added quickly. “Sh-sh-she was only h-huh-helping m-me.”

  Monk Aaroni nodded. “Yes, I see that too. And I see that you have done her a great wrong just now, participating in a class the two of you had no business taking!”

  Tark felt his cheeks flush a dull, heated red with shame.

  “Yes,” he said again. Then his jaw clenched. “B-but I w-wouldn’t have if your G-G-Goddess-damned gella m-muh-mattress hadn’t f-forced us t-to-together!”

  “Hmm…” The monk frowned. Leaving Tark standing frozen where he was, he went to examine the mattress, which was completely still and quiescent now, and then came back to look at the jewel still clenched in Tark’s hand.

  “I see,” he said at last. “You interfered with the control crystal before the class even began, didn’t you?”

  “C-control crystal?” Tark frowned.

  Monk Aaroni tapped the jewel. “This. The Rainbow-Faceted Crystal is what relays commands to the gella. If you hadn’t tampered with it, your gella would not have become so aggressive.” He sighed. “I am sorry for this misunderstanding and for what happened to your female—from your memories I see that she was quite upset.”

  “Of c-course she was!” Tark growled. “A-after what that d-damn thing m-muh-made me do to her…”

  Aaroni shook his head. “Well, as I said, you had no business taking the Advanced Oneness class in the first place. By lying to get into our resort, you have lost what you came for.”

  Tark felt sick. “Y-you m-mean the j-juh-jewel.”

  “Oh, no.” The monk shrugged. “You may keep the Rainbow Crystal. That is not what I am referring to. In fact—”

  Just then Tark heard a panicked scream—someone calling his name.

  “Tark! Tark—help!”

  Chloe! His heart began to pound but he was still frozen, caught in the invisible resonite web.

  “L-luh-listen,” he said urgently to Aaroni. “Ch-Chloe! Sh-she’s c-cuh-calling f-for me!”

  The old monk frowned.

  “And how do I know this is not some kind of ruse?” he demanded. Just then one of the other monks rushed in.

  “Master Aaroni,” he exclaimed, his orange eyes wide. “The Dimensional Shift—someone has tampered with it! The wall between dimensions has been disturbed and someone has gone through it.”

  “What?” Aaroni looked startled and disturbed. “But who would dare?”

  “This one, would, Master.” Monk Taroni came in with the struggling junior monk who had been his apprentice. He was holding the younger version of himself by the scruff of the neck. “Tell the Master what you admitted to me, Zaroni!” he snapped.

  “I sold her!” the younger monk snarled. “She got me into trouble—you were going to kick me out without a cred