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  “But why not?” Y was bewildered. “Why bother to track the Verrak here and get the girl alone if not to kill her? I thought you wanted her dead, Master.”

  “And so I do—but I also wish to punish that meddling assassin whom I hired to kill her in the first place.” The master’s voice sounded shrill and petulant. “How dare he refuse to kill her after he promised he would? I paid a lot for that contract I put on her!”

  “Then I will kill him too,” Y said. “If it pleases you.”

  “What would please me is if you’d stop being so stupid and appreciate the subtleties of the situation!”

  For the first time, Y felt the sting of irritation at the Master who was always with him. But it was wrong to feel that way—he knew it and subdued the feeling quickly.

  “I am only newly made, Master,” he said, humbly. “I do not know the ways of the universe as you do.”

  “Very well, that’s true. It took me a little while to train X as well.” The master sighed. “Here is what you must know about the Verrak—if they do not kill their target, they must kill themselves. If they refuse to do that, another member of their order will be dispatched to kill the rogue assassin. Either way, a death is necessary to fulfill the contract.”

  “So you want to wait and let another member of the Verrak kill the girl? Or kill the assassin who was sent to kill her in the first place?”

  “No, it won’t come to that. We will dispose of her long before the Verrak dispatch another assassin. But we’re going to have some fun first.”

  “What fun?” Y still did not understand.

  “I believe our faithless assassin is beginning to have feelings for the little Earth female,” the Master hissed softly. “Feelings that are just starting to develop. We must nourish those feelings…feed them so that when he loses her, his pain will be all the worse.”

  “You prefer to see him in pain rather than to see him dead?” Y asked.

  “Indeed. You are very young, Y, but you will learn that some forms of pain are worse than death. In fact, I believe our Verrak assassin has already experienced something of the sort so his heart is guarded now.” The Master gave a hissing laugh. “We must break down the barrier he has built and allow him to care for the girl before she is snatched from him.”

  That seemed like needless torture but Y knew better than to object.

  “I thought you simply wanted them both dead,” he said neutrally.

  “And they will die—but they must suffer first” the Master insisted. “And I will be watching it all and savoring their agony before the end.”

  “If you’re done muttering to yourself, tell me what you want to do with the Earth girl,” the witch said, interrupting his conversation with the Master. “She cannot stay in Grandy’s hut, no she can’t! Twill be trouble from the Wulven elders if she’s found bespelled here on my property!”

  “Make certain the girl is under our control—that she will do as she has been told to do,” the Master directed. Y repeated his question and the old female nodded quickly.

  “Yes, yes—she drank some of Grandy’s special medicine, so she did,” she said, nodding at the cup of green, noxious smelling ooze the Earth female still held in her hand. “And I have a lock of her hair, so I do! She twill do what she’s been told—well, mostly anyway.”

  “What do you mean, mostly?” Y asked sternly.

  The old female frowned. “Well, she’s a Khalla, so she tis. You can put suggestions into a Khalla’s mind but they don’t always stick. Still, I did my best and so I did. And I have the lock of hair to help when it comes to it.”

  “As good as we’re going to get, I suppose,” Master Two sighed in Y’s head. “Very well. Tell her to take the girl someplace else. Someplace…dangerous. Let that fool of an assassin find know exactly how much he cares for her when he realizes what peril she’s in.”

  “She must go someplace dangerous,” Y said aloud to the witch. “Where is the most dangerous place on this planet?”

  The witch raised her grizzled eyebrows.

  “For an unmated female in heat? The Howland that would be. Full of Wulven males closer to their change, so it tis. Of course the chafing shaft will mask her scent some but they’ll find her right enough if she’s put in the middle of them.”

  “Perfect!” The Master’s voice was positively gleeful. “Send her there! The Verrak’s pain will be unimaginable when he finds her after the other males have their way with his precious Khalla!”

  Y felt a twinge of disgust and some other emotion he could not name when he thought of what the little female would endure.

  “Master,” he sub-vocalized. “I still do not understand this—I thought you wanted her dead. Aren’t you taking a chance—even a slim one—that the Verrak will get to her in time and she won’t die?”

  “I am counting on him getting to her, you fool!” the Master snapped. “If he’s too late to save her from being ravaged, so much the better. But even if he finds her before that happens, he will know how much he truly cares for her…and his emotions towards her will grow exponentially.”

  “But her death—”

  “Will come all in good time. The devices this old crone fitted her with will cause no end of pain and trouble and despair. And even if those fail, there is still the suggestion I had her plant in the female’s mind. She will die, either sooner or later and the Verrak will die with her…or another member of his order will finish him off after she is gone. But first he will know how much he cares for her and that he has lost her irrevocably. Which will be extremely entertaining.” He gave a mental yawn. “Which is a good thing. Riding around in your head unable to do anything is most dreadfully boring! I must see to that eventually…”

  “Are you ever going to stop muttering to yourself long enough to tell me what to do with the girl?” the witch demanded, frowning at Y. “Even now her male will be looking for her—yes he twill!”

  Y felt another twinge as he looked at the Earth girl, still frozen in place. But the Master was to be obeyed, always and forever.

  “Fine,” he said stolidly. “Take her to the Howlund.”

  “Take her?” The witch looked at him as if he was mad. “I’ll not do that, no I won’t! Grandy See-er can’t expose herself that way—I’ll have to put a scent-blocker spell around my hut, so I will, to keep folks from suspecting me as it tis!”

  “She must get there somehow,” Y growled. “It is imperative!”

  “Well, I can’t take her…but I can send her.” The witch got a crafty gleam in her faded blue eyes. “She’s bespelled now—she’ll do what she’s told, so she twill!”

  “Very well—do it,” Y commanded. “Send her then—and be quick.” He knew his Master wished to savor the Earth female’s pain but he just wanted to get this over with.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Emily blinked and found herself walking down the middle of a crowded street. No, not a street exactly—almost more of a marketplace. But not a nice, neat farmer’s market like they had at the park in South Tampa on Saturdays—more like some kind of a Middle Eastern bazaar.

  The hard packed dirt road was crowded with stalls on either side and the vendors behind them were shouting their wares.

  “Palla fruit—get your palla fruit! Ease the change when it comes—the palla gives you ease!”

  “Collars to hold, ties to bind. Keep those you love safe—don’t change unrestrained!”

  “Scent blankets—get your scent blankets here! A scent that soothes—calm the beast within.”

  Emily couldn’t help noticing that all the vendors were male…and then she noticed that all the customers were male too. They were all huge men—as big as Tragar at least—and they all seemed to have bright blue eyes—eyes that glowed when they looked at her.

  And more and more of them were looking. Why were they staring at her? For that matter, how had she gotten here in the first place? The last thing she remembered was sitting in the shuttle, feeling bored and wondering how much lon