Abducted Read online

They chattered softly in the palm of my hand and I could feel my last nib-nib, Drogon, moving around restlessly at the back of my neck. But to my relief, he stayed where he was, even when I handed the two tiny nib-nibs over carefully to Tazaxx.

  “Be careful—don’t crush them!” I said, my voice hoarse.

  “I wouldn’t dream of it,” Tazaxx remarked. He slapped one hand over my mouth and opened the door a crack just for a moment.

  The nib-nibs scampered out and the other mud-me doppelganger, who was walking just behind Sarden, reached down to try and scoop them up. They ran around her and made a B-line for Sarden and for a moment, I thought they might get his attention. And if he turned and saw me through the crack in the door…

  But it didn’t happen. The mud-me was faster than I would have thought possible. She put on a burst of speed and snatched them up, chattering from the floor before they could reach Sarden. Then she gave me another nasty, triumphant smile and kept walking with the two of them cupped carefully between her hands.

  The door started to swing closed and I knew it was now or never. Surging forward, I bit down on Tazaxx’s palm as hard as I could, sinking my teeth deep into his flesh…where it crumbled into a mouthful of slimy dirt.

  Tazaxx held me off easily, as though I was no more than a child, and let the door snick shut and lock once more. He let me go and I spat out the mouthful of muddy dirt, completely disgusted.

  “Ugh!” I wiped at my tongue as best I could. “Disgusting!”

  “I’m sorry you find it so,” Tazaxx remarked mildly. His hand wasn’t injured at all—it looked like I hadn’t even bitten him, let along taken out a big chunk.

  “Promise me your, uh, scion won’t hurt my nib-nibs,” I demanded, spitting again. I didn’t like the way she’d smiled at me when she caught them.

  “I assure you, they will be unharmed. They are only there to perfect the illusion. Your paramour will never suspect a thing now…that is until he’s too far away to get back in time and do any good.”

  He gave me a smirk that was unbearably self-satisfied.

  “Sarden will find out what you’re doing,” I said. “You can’t keep up the illusion forever.”

  “I don’t have to—I only have to keep it up long enough to sell the two of you at auction. Which will be in exactly twenty solar hours at an undisclosed location.”

  “He’ll come,” I said stubbornly, trying to make myself believe it.

  “Please don’t fool yourself,” Tazaxx said. “The auction site is kept secret from all but those who are expressly invited—and they aren’t notified of its exact location until shortly before it is to begin. Your Master will never find you.”

  He gave me an evil grin and once more I had the weird experience of being taunted by myself.

  “Could you not?” I said. “I mean, it’s really creepy when you use my own face to sneer at me.”

  “Forgive me.” His features mutated until he was the mud-man again. “Is that better?”

  “Not by much. But a little.” I lifted my chin. “Fine, so you’re going to sell us. Now that we know can you just leave us alone?”

  “So that you can unlock the door with your La-ti-zal powers? I don’t think so, my dear. From now on, I won’t be leaving your side. Not until I can turn you over to the Master of the Auction.” He walked back to the door and stood right in front of it. “Feel free to talk but if you attempt an escape, know this—some of the attendees at my yearly auction like buying injured females. It makes breaking them to a new owner’s will so much easier.”

  “You bastard,” I spat at him.

  “Actually, as I told you before, we Gord reproduce asexually. So I have neither a mother nor father, which renders any insults relating to my heritage completely pointless.”

  “How about this—you look like a mud puddle and your assistant looks like a giant, walking piece of excrement,” I snapped, completely fed up.

  Tazaxx seemed to consider my insult for a moment, then he nodded thoughtfully.

  “You are correct, I believe.”

  “Oh…go away. Or at least just stop talking to me.” I was beyond exasperated—I couldn’t even insult the jerk!

  “As you wish.” The mud-man stopped talking and then, his mud began to run and flow until he lost his shape completely. Soon he was just a mud puddle on the floor right in front of the door.

  I wanted to jump over the puddle and try to unlock the door but I had seen how fast he could move and change shape. If I tried anything I would probably wind up on the cold metal floor with mud tentacles wrapped all over my body. I remembered Tazaxx’s slimy, cool touch and his terrible strength when he put his hand over my mouth—I really didn’t want to feel that again, especially not all over me.

  Instead, I turned to Sellah again.

  “I’m really sorry,” I said. “Some rescue, huh?”

  “You tried.” Her golden eyes were bright with unshed tears. “It was a trap from the first—Tazaxx put me here to catch your eye, I’m certain of it.”

  “Well, if so he succeeded.” I sighed. “What can we do now?”

  “Nothing,” she whispered. “Nothing but wait.”

  I was afraid she was right.

  Sarden

  My heart was so full of grief I could scarcely see to pilot the shuttle. I think Grav saw that because he took over the controls and made me sit in the passenger seat instead of driving.

  In the back, Teeny, his ward, sat quietly beside Zoe. I would have expected Zoe to be chatting with the girl and trying to make her feel at ease. But she was strangely and uncharacteristically quiet on our flight out of the atmosphere of Giedi Prime. Even when we dropped Grav and his ward back at his own ship, she barely said goodbye to them. I wondered if she was upset about what she had seen—I knew for myself, the image of Sellah’s body was one I couldn’t forget. It was like a fresh wound that kept bleeding—I saw it every time I closed my eyes.

  Grav left with the promise that he would help me take vengeance as soon as Teeny had been delivered safely to her grandfather’s planet. I thanked him for his help and promised to see him again soon. But every word I said seemed to come from someone else, some other person who was speaking on my behalf.

  I couldn’t think straight—could barely breathe. Despite my determination to put off my grief until I took vengeance, I could feel the anguish already on me and its weight was crushing.

  We got back to The Celesta at last and I thought that Zoe might try to comfort me again. I shouldn’t let her, of course. I deserved no such comfort after failing Sellah in such a terrible way. But I would have welcomed Zoe’s soft arms around my neck, anyway—even if I didn’t deserve it.

  But Zoe barely said a word as we came from the docking area out into the main corridor of the ship. I noticed she was holding her pet nib-nibs in her cupped hands instead of letting them nest in her hair and wondered why.

  “Zoe?” I asked, when she turned away from me.

  “I’m tired.” She didn’t meet my eyes, only looked at the floor and her bare feet. Our footwear, which we had abandoned outside Tazaxx’s home, had been brought back to the shuttle but Zoe hadn’t bothered to put hers on.

  “I know this has been…a bad time.” I barely knew what I was saying. “And…I know I promised to bring you back to Earth once it was all…” I had to swallow before I could go on. “All finished.”

  “Yes,” she said, still looking down. “Yes, take me back. You promised.”

  I don’t know what I had expected or hoped for. Maybe for her to say she didn’t want to go back? That she wanted to stay with me…to explore whatever it was I’d thought I felt growing between us when she tasted me, as I had tasted her, which is almost always the first step in bonding?

  But she didn’t say any of that. And I didn’t feel anything between us anymore. It was like there was a blank wall there—a wall I couldn’t penetrate, no matter how much I wanted to.

  “Take me back,�