Seeing with the Heart Read online

  She threw open the door and a male around Braxx’s size with deep blue skin and the tiny, atrophied eyes of the Deep Dwellers came in. He had the short purple hair of all Tal’ossi males, both Top and Deep Dwellers, and his shoulders were so broad he would surely have to turn sideways to get through the doorway.

  “Greetings, Wise One,” he sang in a deep, bass voice that reminded Braxx of the Earth instrument called a tuba. “I pray to the Cha’llah you are well and bring you new crystals to work your craft on.”

  “Thank you, thank you,” the Wise One sang. Then she added, “Come in, Drogor! Come and meet Braxx from the Sky and Molly, she who has come from the stars to know the People.”

  The big male came into the hut, handing a large woven basket of crystals to the Wise One as he did so. He squinted in the dim glow of the crystal fire as though trying to make them out in, what for him, was blinding illumination.

  “Make greetings to each other,” the Wise One commanded and went to the back of her hut to begin sorting out the crystals Drogor had brought.

  “Greetings, greetings,” Braxx sang and Molly joined him as the new male came up to them.

  Though he knew the Deep Dweller couldn’t see well, Braxx still shifted positions to put himself between the alien male and Molly. The top of her negu was much too short, showing the undercurves of her full breasts. Worse, the tight pink nubs of her nipples kept poking through the silver, green, and blue grasses. Braxx had been trying not to look—except when she asked him frankly if she was “decent” but it was damn hard. He didn’t like the idea of a strange male seeing her so exposed.

  But it wasn’t Molly’s appearance which seemed to draw the Deep Dweller.

  “Greetings, greetings,” he sang and then broke off and began to speak instead. “By the Cha’llah! What is that amazing scent?” he exclaimed, by-passing Braxx and going right up to Molly. “Is it you, female from the stars?”

  “Oh, uh—you must be smelling my perfume,” Molly gave a self-conscious little laugh as the Deep Dweller seized her hands in both of his.

  “Whatever it is, it makes my shaft hard!” Drogor said frankly.

  “Oh my! That’s… er, quite a compliment.” Molly was sounding distinctly uneasy now.

  “All right, that’s enough.” Braxx put himself between them, drawing Molly’s hands out of the Deep Dweller’s huge paws and glaring at the other male. A possessive fire seemed to have been lit in his chest and it was raging out of control. No strange male was going to come over and paw the female he was protecting right in front of him!

  His expression appeared to be completely lost on the other male but Drogor still took his meaning.

  “Why do you stop our meeting, otherworlder?” he demanded, frowning at Braxx. “This female does not belong to you—I smell no trace of your mating scent on her! I smell only her own sweet scent and the stink of your aggression, which is unfounded as she is not yours.”

  “Just because we are not mated doesn’t mean I don’t claim her,” Braxx growled.

  “You cannot claim her if you have not marked her!” Drogor snarled. “You do not own her!”

  “Boys, boys, please!” Suddenly Molly’s soft hands were pushing them apart. She was feeling her way forward, placing her fingertips delicately on Braxx’s bare chest as well as the Deep Dweller’s. “No fighting, please,” she told them in a soft, placating voice.

  “But I must fight if I am to claim you, lovely one,” Drogor explained. “Your scent is too delicious to resist. I must take you into the deep places of the ground to stand before the Cha’llah and be claimed.”

  “The hell you will!” Braxx growled. “This female is spoken for, Deep Dweller!”

  “Your mouth makes sounds but your scent is not on her,” Drogor shot back. “You—”

  “No one is going to claim me or own me,” Molly interrupted him, speaking in a loud, firm voice. “So please stop fighting.”

  “I will cease if you tell me one thing, lovely one from the stars,” Drogor said to her. “Does this male own you?”

  Braxx opened his mouth to claim that he did—though it was wrong, he couldn’t help feeling a strange possessiveness towards Molly—but she spoke before he could get a word out.

  “No, Braxx doesn’t own me,” she said firmly. “Where I come from, females own themselves.”

  “What? Ridiculous,” the Deep Dweller snorted. “A female cannot own herself.”

  “Well I do.” Molly put a placating hand up to Drogor’s arm.

  The sight of her touching another male sent a sting of painful jealousy shooting through Braxx although he knew it was foolish. Somehow he couldn’t shake this feeling of possession which had risen in him.

  Mine, he thought angrily, his hands curling into fists at his sides. She’s mine and I’ll fucking break him in half if he tries anything!

  “Your scent is intoxicating,” the big Ta’losi insisted. “If you are not owned by another male, I must claim you.”

  “Drogor,” Molly said gently. “I thank you for your compliment. But truly, the scent you smell is artificial.”

  “What?” Drogor frowned, clearly not comprehending.

  “It is…from a flower grown on my home planet,” Molly said, obviously improvising. “Soon it will wear away and I will smell like any other, uh, female. I promise you.”

  “I doubt that,” Drogor said, frowning. “A female’s scent is her own and no flower can mask it or make it better.”

  “Now then—is there trouble?” The Wise One came back over, holding a basket with a fist-sized lump of black stone in it. “Because I won’t have trouble in my hut—you know that, yes, you do!” she exclaimed, squinting her one large eye at all of them.

  “This male from the sky says that I cannot claim this female, Molly from the Stars—though she does not belong to another,” Drogor complained. “She has none of his scent on her so he cannot claim her as his own, yet he keeps me from taking her. It is not right, Wise One!”

  Braxx expected the Wise One to back him up and say Molly could not be claimed but she only looked doubtful.

  “Well, an unclaimed female who is not scent-marked by a male should be available…” she began.

  “Please, Wise One,” Molly said quickly. “I have come to study the People and live among them for a short time only. I cannot make my life here forever—I have people of my own back on my home planet.”

  “And is one of these people a mate?” The Wise One inquired cocking a busy purple eyebrow at her.

  “Well, no, but—” Molly began.

  “But she’s still not available,” Braxx growled. “She cannot be claimed.”

  “We will see about that.” Drogor frowned and then turned back towards the Wise One. “I must go, I must take my leave,” he sang to her formally.

  “Yes, I think that’s best, Drogor. But don’t forget to take my Cha’llah stone back to the Cha’llah flow to be restored to full strength.” The Wise One held out the basket with the fist-sized lump of shiny black rock.

  “I will do so, of course.” Drogor nodded and took the basket.

  “Thank you, thank you,” the Wise One sang. “And please bring it back soon,” she added. “I must make a full strength healing crystal for Molly from the Stars. I was only able to craft a weak one with the power left in my stone.”

  Drogor nodded and turned to Molly, his nostrils flaring as he apparently took in her scent once more before going.

  “Will I smell you at the feast tonight, lovely one?” he enquired.

  “Oh, uh, I’m not sure,” Molly said but the Wise One said,

  “Nonsense—of course the two of you must come! The feast will be in your honor, visitors from the stars.”

  “Then we’ll be there, together,” Braxx emphasized, putting an arm around Molly possessively. She seemed startled at first, probably because she hadn’t seen his gesture coming. But then she leaned into him and put her arms around his waist. She even put her cheek to his chest.

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