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  He wondered what had happened here since the Nix people and the Lost Kindred blended and settled on Nixelle Prime-Beta. How could a race of people with Kindred blood in them get so far from the Kindred reverence for all that was female?

  It went beyond the Nixian sexual practices that his own beloved mate, Solange, had been so interested in—far beyond it. The Nix had mostly kept their perversions to the bedroom but this society seemed to have brought them out in the open and added them to their everyday lives. They—

  “Hey! Hey, you can’t do that! Get away from her! Stop that!”

  The shouts sliced through the silence of the marketplace like a stone dropped into still waters and cut off his train of thought.

  Terex had been driving his jendel almost on autopilot, watching the road as he mused about the strange society he found himself in. Now his head jerked up and he looked to see which one of the Nixians was making the racket.

  But it wasn’t a Nixian, he saw with growing horror—it was Elaina. She had jumped off the jendel and appeared to be grappling with a strange male on the street.

  * * * * *

  At first, Elaina thought the people using sign language in the marketplace was fascinating. Then, when she heard Ambassador Waygu’s explanation for it, she was horrified. What the hell was wrong with these people, passing laws that women couldn’t even speak in public?

  Elaina had never considered herself much of a feminist. She would stand up for herself when need be, but she didn’t go to women’s rights rallies or protests or anything like that. The most she did was the breast cancer Walk for the Cure every year. But when she saw women forced to use sign language because the men around them literally didn’t want to hear their voices, it made her angry.

  Then she saw something that made her even angrier.

  Standing on one of the street corners was a group of three women, all dressed in tightly fitted, black, sheath dresses that went from their necks to their ankles. Of course there were holes cut in the dresses—it seemed to be the standard on this awful planet. The circular holes exposed the women’s bare breasts and, as one woman turned to the side, Elaina saw there was also a larger circular hole in the back to expose her bare ass.

  Each woman’s breasts were pierced with small golden rings. From the rings hung tiny silver bells. The nipples themselves were surprisingly dark—a rosy hue much different from the pale, barely-there pink Elaina had seen other women displaying. They stood out starkly against their ghostly skin tones. The three of them wore long black gloves and veils, as though to conceal their faces. Only their eyes showed past the fluttering pieces of black silk.

  And their eyes are so sad. Look at them! Elaina thought. Why are they dressed like that? It’s like the only parts of their body they want to be seen are their breasts and behinds—everything else is completely covered.

  The women were standing beside a long bench. On a rack beside the bench, hung a row of what looked like black tennis rackets to Elaina. Except that the place where a tennis racket would have mesh, there was solid wood with holes cut into it.

  As the jendel trundled very slowly forward, she kept her eyes fixed on the strange, black-clad women, wondering what their story was.

  A man wearing a black leather vest with bronze chains on it came strolling up the street, not paying any attention to the women. It looked like he was going to pass right by them when suddenly, one of them jumped out in front of him, blocking his forward progress.

  The man stopped, frowning, and the woman cupped her bare breasts in her hands and jiggled them, causing the little silver bells to tinkle. The sound carried surprisingly well, probably because the rest of the marketplace was so quiet.

  The man appeared to be considering her for a moment and Elaina wondered what was going on. Was the woman a beggar, asking for money? If so, this was the most unusual instance of panhandling she had ever seen.

  It looked for a moment as though the man was simply going to continue on his way. But then the woman jiggled her breasts again, causing the silver bells attached to her nipples to tinkle and jingle even louder.

  Suddenly, without any warning that Elaina could see, the man grabbed the woman by the arm and dragged her over to the bench on the side of the road. Selecting a racket—really more like a paddle, Elaina thought numbly—from the hanging rack, he pulled the woman over his knee and began beating her bottom as hard as he could.

  The woman wiggled and struggled but the man seemed intent on his mission. He held her down firmly with one arm and continued to beat her, reddening her bottom and ignoring her tears and the muffled pleas that were coming from behind her veil.

  That’s it! Something inside Elaina snapped. What was wrong with these people? A woman was being beaten on the street and nobody was trying to stop it. In fact, everyone appeared to be just ignoring it.

  Before she knew it, she had jumped off the slow-moving jendel and was rushing over to the bench where the big Nixian male was beating the sobbing female.

  “Hey! Hey, you can’t do that! Get away from her! Stop that!” she shouted, trying to grab the black racket-paddle thing from his hand. “Leave her alone!”

  The Nixian male looked up at her with a shocked and uncomprehending expression on his face. The muscular arm holding the paddle-racket sagged and Elaina was able to pull the sobbing woman off his lap.

  “It’s all right,” she told the girl, who was looking at her with wet, confused eyes. “Everything is going to be okay now.” She used the sleeve of her sweater to blot the girl’s streaming eyes. There were so many tears that they soaked her sleeve but Elaina scarcely noticed. “It’s all right,” she said again. “I won’t let him hurt you.”

  “No, no, no! What are you doing?” Suddenly Ambassador Waygu was there, his hands fluttering in agitation like plump white birds. “Master Valdor, I insist you come and control your slave!” he exclaimed, glaring at Terex.

  “What do you mean, control me?” Elaina demanded. “I was trying to stop this woman from being beaten and abused. If anything the two of you ought to be helping me!” She pointed at the still-sobbing woman. “Just look at her!”

  “The male was not abusing her—she is a Needy One!” The Ambassador sounded exasperated, as though she ought to know what he was talking about.

  “A Needy One?” Elaina asked blankly.

  “Please—direct your speech only to your Master.” The Ambassador frowned at her disapprovingly.

  Elaina bit back a sharp reply and looked meaningfully at Terex. If she wasn’t allowed to ask the questions, he would have to.

  “Maybe you would be so kind to explain to El—er, to my slave what you mean by that,” he said to Waygu.

  “Ah—yes. She wouldn’t know—nor would you, Master Valdor, as you left before the Need spread over our fair planet like wildfire.” The Ambassador sighed and straightened his turban hat, which had gone askew on his puffy white hair.

  “The Need?” Terex frowned. “Is that…some kind of disease?”

  “Alas, it is.” Ambassador Waygu nodded sorrowfully. “It afflicts only the female population but it’s very contagious. Which is why those who are afflicted are charged with keeping themselves covered as much as possible.” He nodded at the three black-clad women who had gone back to stand behind the bench again. The man who had been whipping the crying girl had disappeared, apparently wanting no more drama.

  “I don’t understand,” Terex said, shaking his head. “What is ‘the Need’ and what does it do? What are its symptoms?”

  “It causes females to crave punishment and…” The Ambassador dropped his voice. “And sexual domination.”

  Elaina looked at him skeptically and then turned her attention pointedly to Terex. “Is he for real?” she muttered. “What kind of disease makes you want to be abused?”

  “It’s not abuse—not to them.” The Ambassador nodded at the three women. Apparently he was willing to answer questions Elaina asked as long as they weren’t aimed directly at him. Which