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  “That’s all.” Blix was practically beaming by now. “Just three little food cubes, my friend. In exchange for clothing made from the finest Belarian silk and satin. Not to mention a tok made of one unbroken piece of skin from a rare crimson-hide gelk. Very expensive, I’m afraid, and all sales are final.”

  A what? Lauren looked at the neatly folded tok in Vlanka’s orange hands. Was it really made out of some creature’s skin? It certainly hadn’t felt like any kind of leather. But from the look on Xairn’s face, she had worse things to worry about than what kind of weird alien skin she’d been wearing.

  “Xairn?” she asked anxiously, tugging at his arm. “What’s wrong? What did I do?”

  “You’ve sold yourself.” His voice was hoarse and his grip on her arm tightened until Lauren let out a squeak of pain. “Sold yourself into the skin trade.”

  Panic gripped her by the throat. “What? What are you talking about? I swear I didn’t mean any harm. I only gave him the cubes with worms in them. I didn’t think—”

  “Worms?” Xairn’s eyes widened suddenly. “Grieza worms?”

  Lauren shrugged uneasily. “I don’t know what kind they are. They’re pale orange and about this long…” She held out her hands to measure. “And they come with a side dish of some weird blue-green sauce.”

  “So.” Xairn turned back to Blix who was looking much less happy and smug now. “You traded your ‘very expensive’ clothes to Lauren for three helpings of Grieza worms. Which are, as you know, a rare and costly delicacy all the way from Twin Moons.”

  “Not rare or costly enough,” Blix protested. “Not to pay for the fine garments I gave your pet.”

  “The clothing you gave Lauren was the equivalence of slavery and death,” Xairn growled. “And you damn well know it, Spider. Do you want me to call the Judge of the Market to settle the claim?” He nodded at the purple tree being which Lauren had first seen striding up and down the center of the street. As though sensing trouble, it had stopped what it was doing and was staring fixedly at the scene playing out in front of Blix’s dusty stall. “Or will you acknowledge that what Lauren gave you was of equal value to the fucking clothes?” Xairn finished.

  Blix looked sulky. “No. I’ll acknowledge.” His purple eyes flashed. “But be warned, Scourge—I’m not the only one who desires a piece of your little pet. An exotic like that will draw all kinds of interested parties. You’ll have to guard her with your life if you want to get her out of O’ah intact.”

  Xairn’s eyes blazed and his voice dropped to a menacing growl. “I’d die before I’d let you take so much as a single hair from her head, you sick bastard!”

  “And you may. If you don’t watch out.” With that, Blix disappeared abruptly, taking Vlanka, the clothes, and the booth he’d been sitting in when Lauren first walked up, with him. There was nothing left but a dusty, bare spot on the stone pavement.

  “Xairn, I—” Lauren began…but then she stopped. There was a lot she still didn’t understand but by the look on his face, now wasn’t the time to ask.

  “Come on.” Xairn pulled her roughly down the street, steering her back into the alley where the Kindred ship was parked.

  “Hey! You’re hurting me!” Lauren protested when he opened the door and shoved her inside.

  “You’d have been hurting a lot worse if I’d been even a parsec later getting to you,” Xairn growled, but he let her go at once.

  “I don’t understand.” Lauren put her hand on her hips and glared at him. “Will you please explain what just happened out there?”

  A muscle in Xairn’s jaw clenched and his eyes narrowed. “What just happened was that you were about to become a splice whore for the Spider.”

  “A spice whore? What the hell is that?” Lauren demanded.

  “A prostitute who offers her body to prospective clients. They try you out and if they like you, they can pay an extra fee to take part of your body to a lab and clone you.”

  “Part…part of my body?” Lauren could hardly believe it. Suddenly she flashed back to Vlanka’s orange, seven fingered hands. Some of her fingers had ended in sharp purple nails but some had ended in…In stumps. Oh my God! “You…you mean like fingers?” she asked in a trembling voice.

  “Among other things,” Xairn said darkly. “Believe me, Lauren, it’s not a life you’d want. And as beautiful and exotic as you are, you wouldn’t have lasted a month on the streets. Blix would have sold you piece by piece until there was nothing left.”

  Lauren shook her head. “But…but I don’t see how trading food cubes for clothes would make me Blix’s, uh, whore.”

  “The rules of trade in O’ah state that every transaction must be of exactly equal value. That is why it’s so dangerous to barter here instead of just buying something with credits. The Spider gave you very expensive clothing and in return, you gave him nothing but a few food cubes—you owed him more. Much more. And he could have forced you to pay the difference with your body.” He pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes tightly for a moment as though trying to hold back a headache. “Gods, if you hadn’t given him the cubes with the grieza worms…”

  “What would have happened?” Lauren whispered.

  “I would have fought for you to the last—please know that,” Xairn said in a low voice. “But there is no surviving a physical confrontation with the Judge of the Market. He is a Quinlow—they carry the power of life and death in their hands. So I…I would have lost you.” Suddenly he pulled Lauren to him in a crushing hug. “Gods, Lauren, I can’t lose you. I won’t.” His deep voice was raw with emotion.

  Lauren was so surprised she could barely think. In the entire time they’d known each other, Xairn had hardly ever touched her willingly. In fact, he’d even gone so far as to ask her not to touch him. Which made his spontaneous display of affection all the more rare and precious.

  “Oh, Xairn…” She hugged him back tightly, nuzzling her face into his neck, breathing in the warm, spicy scent of his bare skin. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered in his ear. “You were gone for so much longer than you said and I was so afraid…” She choked. “Afraid something had happened to you. And then Blix tricked his way into the ship by pretending to be Mr. Kittles—the pet rabbit I used to have. And then he seemed so nice and reasonable and he kept saying you would never come back and I…I was so scared and I missed you so much.”

  “That is what thought thieves do.” Xairn’s voice was soft and fierce in her ear. “They sense the troubled thoughts of their prey and then they stalk them mercilessly using their own fears against them. Forgive me for not warning you in more detail but I did not want to frighten you.”

  Lauren kissed his cheek impulsively. “That’s okay,” she whispered. “And I’m sorry I disobeyed orders. I should have known you had a good reason for me to stay inside the ship.” She shifted closer to him, happy to feel his arms around her and the comforting press of his muscular chest against her breasts. “I’m just so glad you’re safe.”

  As she pressed her body against his, Xairn stiffened in her arms. Abruptly, he drew away from her, ending the hug as suddenly as it had begun. “I am pleased and relieved that you are safe as well,” he said formally. “And I have good news—I have located an Alteration house that will perform the necessary manipulation of our respective DNA.”

  “That’s nice, I guess,” Lauren said doubtfully. “But Xairn…” She closed the distance he’d put between them and put a hand on his arm. “I still—”

  “Please.” Xairn pulled his arm away. “Don’t. And I believe it would be best if you would give me back my shirt and go put on the other garment I bought for you before I left.”

  Lauren frowned, scanning the heavy muscles of his chest and arms for chillbumps. “I’m sorry. Are you cold?”

  “No.” He suddenly wouldn’t look at her. “I just think it would be best.”

  “All right.” Feeling hurt by his sudden about-face, Lauren withdrew. How could he be so effusively glad to