Uncharted Read online

  “Of course,” he said and pressed his left eye to the lens, holding still for a moment until a green light flashed and the Ambassador pulled it away.

  “Very good,” he murmured. “And now if you please—we have all your fingerprints on file but just one will do for identification.” He held out a small white square about the size of a pack of Post-its which seemed to be made of some kind of soft foam.

  Again, without hesitation, Terex pressed the pad of his left thumb firmly into the white foam and held it until it lit up green.

  “Well, now!” Ambassador Waygu looked immensely pleased. “It really is you! Oh my—I’m so pleased.”

  “Ambassador. I’m also pleased to have returned.” Terex made a sweeping gesture. “Much has changed, and yet much remains the same.”

  “Exactly! Such wisdom! But then the holy texts speak of your thirst for knowledge and your judicious advice.” The Ambassador, whose snowy beard was only a shade paler than his skin, looked excited. “By the rod and flail! To think that I should live to see this moment when he who is foretold has returned!” He turned to the assembled crowd and clapped his hands. “Listen up, everyone! Listen!”

  The band stopped playing their string and leaf instruments and the milling people stopped talking among themselves. An expectant hush fell over the crowd.

  “Many of you know the story of Master Valdor, keeper of the Ancient Lore, who took to his ship and flew into the Blind over a hundred cycles ago,” the Ambassador said. “Master Valdor swore he would return. He planned to explore the unknown and find answers to many of our most pressing questions. Then, using wormholes and the supermassive time vortex in the heart of the Blind, he would come back to us, having hardly aged a day, to share what he had learned.”

  “Wow—so this guy you’re supposed to be has been gone over a hundred years?” Elaina murmured in Terex’s ear.

  He nodded. “Time travel isn’t deemed practical by our people, but it is possible if they do indeed have access to a time vortex.”

  “What about all the answers to these burning questions you’re supposed to have?” Elaina asked.

  He frowned. “Let me worry about that.”

  “…and so he has returned to us,” the Ambassador concluded, sounding like he was wrapping up his speech. “And I am going to bring him to the palace to meet with his Supreme Exaltedness, Krumf the Fourth. But let your eyes feast upon him while you can and thank Janos, the Lord of Judgment, he who sits on high and metes out both pain and pleasure, that your eyes have witnessed this event. Surely it is a blessing none of us shall ever forget.”

  Elaina thought that Terex looked slightly uncomfortable at this—as well he should. By declaring himself to be the long lost prophet finally coming home, he now had some very big shoes to fill. He’d told her to let him worry about it and mind her own business and Elaina decided she would—for now. She just hoped they weren’t found out because any consequences that fell on the big Kindred would almost certainly fall on her as well.

  “Master Valdor—if you would say a few words?” the Ambassador asked.

  “Oh, er…” Terex cleared his throat and came forward. “Words cannot express,” he began. “The depth of my emotion at this time.”

  People began to applaud but then there was a low, collective gasp from the crowd.

  Elaina, who had been staying carefully behind Terex until he stepped forward to speak, looked around wondering what had caused the crowd’s reaction. To her surprise and chagrin, she found that the people in front of them were looking not at Terex, but at her.

  “Look at the Master’s slave,” she heard someone murmur. “She covers herself as though she was a male!”

  “Ugh—see how she’s concealed from neck to toes. How tacky.” The girl in the crotchless gold lame` bikini spoke to the man beside her, giving Elaina a look of pure disgust.

  “Its more than tacky—it’s indecent,” the man with her remarked. “But no more speaking out of turn, Lia, or I’ll have to punish you.”

  “Forgive me, Master.” The girl with the gold bikini hung her head, casting a sullen glance at the man who held her leash.

  Elaina looked down at herself—did she really look that bad? Her plain brown sweater and jeans seemed extremely modest to her—which was one reason she’d chosen to wear them in the first place. But could it be that the people of Nixelle Prime-Beta found them somehow offensive?

  “Oh, er…” Ambassador Waygu himself looked around and seemed to notice her for the first time, just as the crowd did. His already pale face went even paler and Elaina heard him give a little gasp. But to his credit, he wiped the look of horror off his face quickly and reached out to take Terex by the arm.

  “Come, Master Valdor.” The Ambassador nodded at the big Kindred as he hustled him quickly out of the crowd. “And, er…your slave may come as well. Did you find her on your travels?” He cast a doubtful glance at Elaina who looked blandly back.

  “I did,” Terex answered simply. He put a proprietary arm around Elaina’s shoulders and pulled her close to him. “Elaina is mine.”

  Despite the fact that she didn’t like pretending to be owned, Elaina couldn’t help the shiver that went down her spine at the possessive growl in the big Kindred’s voice. It almost made her wonder what it would be like if she really did belong to Commander Terex…If he could do anything he wanted to her…anything at all…

  Stop it—you’re here to find a cure for Gina, not indulge your kinky sex fantasies!

  “No one disputes that you own her, Master Valdor,” the Ambassador murmured as they finally got clear of the crowd. “However—forgive me, as I know much has changed since your time—but you cannot bring her to the palace dressed as she is now.”

  “What? Why not?” Terex asked, frowning. “I know she isn’t dressed as a female of our fair planet, but I believe her native clothing is most fetching. I found her on a small, primitive world named Earth, many light years from here.”

  “Her native dress may be considered fetching on her home world, but here she is positively indecent!” The Ambassador, who was rather portly, was getting red in the face, possibly from walking and talking at the same time. “I simply cannot present you to his Supreme Exaltedness Krumf the Fourth with her looking like that. Her flesh is hidden and she has no collar—”

  “How am I supposed to look, then?” Elaina interrupted him, speaking up for the first time. “Like all the other women here?”

  The Ambassador looked even more shocked.

  “You let her speak to strange males in that manner? Master Valdor—surely you can see the problem!”

  “On Elaina’s planet females are permitted freedom of expression,” Terex said stonily. “And they do not display their bodies.”

  The Ambassador came to a halt. “If she does not agree to change her clothing to something decent and hold her tongue in the presence of his Supreme Exaltedness, I am afraid I cannot present you at the palace.”

  Terex glowered. “I will not ask her to demean herself in public.”

  “I can see that she is a Love Slave—clearly she must be for you to tolerate such behavior and dress as she displays,” the Ambassador argued. “But even a Love Slave must agree to abide by the standards of common decency.”

  “The standards here are not the ones my, er, Love Slave was raised with,” Terex began. “And you must see—”

  “I’ll do it,” Elaina said quickly, before he could protest further, as she could tell he was about to do. This time she spoke to Terex himself, as it appeared to be wrong or disgraceful for her to address any man other than her “master” on this world.

  “A moment, please,” Terex said to the Ambassador. Then he pulled her a little way away and lowered his voice. “Are you certain, Elaina?” He searched her eyes with his own. “I don’t want you to do something that makes you…uncomfortable.”

  Elaina thought that wearing an outfit like the ones she’d seen the other women in the crowd wearing most certainly wo