"Your pardon, my lady!" one of them squeaked. "But your humor is most pleasing."

"My...humor?" Maggie looked at them doubtfully. Had she somehow made a joke? "All I want is to make a call. Just one call."

The attendants began chortling and squeaking with glee all over again. "My lady is hilarious!" declared one.

"But...I don't understand why that's funny," Maggie insisted.

At last one of the desk attendants stopped laughing.

"Why, because as you know, all contact with the outside world is strictly forbidden here at the Lo'thian spa," he said, wiping his eyes. "It is the first and princ.i.p.al precept our spa was founded upon-complete relaxation means freedom from outside cares. No one is allowed any contact with anyone outside the spa under any circ.u.mstances."

"But...but..." Maggie looked at Kor, suddenly furious. "You said that as soon as we got here-"

"Come, my lady. Let us go to your room," he murmured smoothly. As he was holding her in his arms, there was nothing Maggie could do when he simply walked off, taking her deeper into the Lo'thian spa from which there was apparently no escape and no way to contact the outside world.

Chapter Eight.

Kor had been pretty sure she would be upset when she learned about his little deception but he had no idea how angry she could really get until he set her down outside the round green door that led to their suite.

"You!" She slapped at his bare chest and though her little hand didn't hurt a bit, Kor was still worried by the angry look on her face.

"Mistress," he cautioned. "Be careful what you say. There are listening ears everywhere."

"You promised me," she hissed, keeping her voice low but furious. "You promised I would be able to call as soon as I got here. And now I find out that outside calls are freaking prohibited and I'm stuck here with you with no way to call my ride and-"

"Is it really so bad, being 'stuck' here with me?" Kor asked roughly. "Does it bother you that much?"

"I...you..." His question seemed to have taken the wind out of her sails. "You shouldn't have lied to me," she said at last. "It makes me wonder if anything else you told me was the truth."

"I haven't lied to you about my past life or my motivations," Kor said. "I could have made up all kinds of things but I told you what I am and why I did what I did." He spread his hands. "I'm not hiding anything here, blondie."

"How can I be sure?" Maggie crossed her arms over her chest, which made her considerable cleavage strain against the low-cut top of her green gown. It was hard for Kor not to stare but he tried manfully to keep his eyes on her face. "What about the prosti and p.o.r.no district being between us and the chasm back on Yonnie Six. Was that true?"

"Absolutely," Kor a.s.sured her. "I only lied about you being able to call as soon as you got here because..." He cleared his throat. "Because, well... I wanted to be sure you were safe." He took one of her soft little hands in his. "Is that so bad...my lady?"

"Don't call me that." Maggie pulled her hand away.

"Sorry, blondie."

"That either! My name is Maggie. And I don't care what your motivation is. A lie is still a lie."

Kor rubbed a hand over his face tiredly. "It wasn't strictly a lie. There is a way to make outside calls here. You just have to know who to talk to...and who to bribe."

Maggie shook her head. "Well why didn't you say so?"

He shrugged. "You didn't give me a chance."

"Well, I...I guess I'm sorry." Maggie appeared somewhat deflated. She frowned at him. "But how do you know so much about this place, anyway? Does the, uh, Blood Circuit stop here too?"

Kor laughed. "Hardly. The Lo'thian spa is supposed to be a place of peace and relaxation-pretty much the exact opposite of what the Circuit offers. No, I had a wealthy patroness who used to pay my stud fee-"

Maggie frowned. "Oh great. Another lover?"

"I would almost think you were jealous," Kor said mildly. "No, if you'd let me finish I was going to say I had a wealthy, elderly patroness who used to pay my stud fee just to sit and talk to me. I think I reminded her of her son or grandson who died. She was a regular attendee at the spa and she liked to talk about protocol and gossip. You know-whose slave had embarra.s.sed them at the Grand Banquet, who had their a.s.s lifted or their b.r.e.a.s.t.s enhanced..." He paused significantly. "And who was evicted for bribing the night steward to make a call back home."

"Oh." Maggie frowned. "So you're saying if we can just find the night steward, we can make a call?"

"Sure. If your bribe is tempting enough," Kor clarified.

"Well..." She appeared partly mollified. "That's good, I guess, but it's still a h.e.l.l of a lot more complicated than you made it sound when you were convincing me to come here with you."

"As I said, I just wanted to make sure you were safe." Kor leaned down so he could look into her eyes. What color were they? d.a.m.n her oculars-he intended to find out very soon. "You saved me, Maggie," he said softly. "I was dying and you saved me. How could I let you walk into danger without stopping you?"

"I...don't know." Maggie looked away from him, biting her lip. "Look, we should get into the room and stop talking out here in the hallway. Like you said, anyone could be listening."

"True." Kor produced the envelope the desk attendant had given him and opened it. Inside were two golden latticework rings. One was much smaller and studded all over with rubies, the other was large and had a single dark emerald in the center. Kor handed this one to Maggie and kept the smaller, ruby inlaid ring for himself. Then he held out his palm. "Give me your hand."

"What? Why?" she asked, even as she complied.

"It activates the room keys. I have to place the ring on your finger and you have to place mine. Otherwise they won't work."

"I don't understand-these are the keys?" she asked but he was already sliding the gold and ruby ring onto the right index finger of her left hand.

"Yes." Kor frowned. "Traditionally, the key-ring goes on the fourth finger of the left hand but you seem to already have something there."

"Oh, yes..." She looked down at the tiny diamond chip set in some cheap, gold-plated metal which sat on her slender finger. "That's, uh, my engagement ring."

"Is that so," Kor said flatly. He was thinking less and less of this "fiance" of hers. To begin with he sounded like a skinny weakling, unworthy of her love. And now it seemed he had chosen the cheapest piece of jewelry imaginable to declare to the world his love for Maggie. What was wrong with the male? If Kor had won such a brave and beautiful female, he would have wanted to broadcast his good luck with a much more elegant and expensive display.

"I know how it looks," Maggie said quickly, her cheeks turning pink. "But I was in grad school at the time and Donald was paying off his student loans. Money was tight so-"

"I didn't say anything." Kor held out his hand. "Here. Put mine on, please Mistress."

"Oh, um...all right." She took his large hand in both her small ones and slid the heavy emerald ring carefully onto the ring finger. Kor noticed she was shaking as she did it.

"Is everything all right?" he asked softly.

"It's...it's fine." She laughed, a jagged sound. "I just...it's almost like...never mind." She shook her head. "It's silly."

"All right." Kor didn't press her. Instead, he clasped her hand, pressing their rings together until he felt a tingle. "There. That should do it-they're activated."

"They are? And how do they work?" As she spoke, Maggie reached for the ornately carved door latch set in the center of the large, round, green door. When she did, the door swung silently open.

"I think you just answered your own question," Kor murmured, smiling. "Behold, my lady-your suite."

Maggie looked into the room and breathed a long, low, "Ohhhh." Then she looked at Kor with shining eyes. "It's amazing! I just wish I had my field kit."

She rushed into the room, leaving him scratching his head in bewilderment. What had upset her a moment before? And why was she so excited now?

The Green Suite was apparently named for more than just the color of its door, because the entire s.p.a.ce appeared to be filled to the brim with exotic flowering plants. The moment Maggie stepped inside she was surrounded by a lush, verdant jungle of vegetation and not a single plant was one she had ever seen before. The Xen.o.botanist inside her rushed to the surface and she went delightedly from one to the next, sniffing and observing, her fingers itching to take notes.

"This is amazing," she gushed to Kor when he came in and shut the round green door behind him. "I've never seen so many alien species in one place before! Look-this one is blue! Not the flowers-the plant itself. What could account for the variation in pigmentation? Does the chlorophyll have a different structure than Earth chlorophyll? Oh, what I wouldn't give for a microscope!"

Kor seemed bemused but pleased by her excitement.

"So am I forgiven for tricking you to get you here?" he asked, coming up behind her.

"Oh, yes, I..." Maggie turned to face him and realized he was a lot closer than she'd thought. Suddenly she was right up against his broad, bare chest and he was staring down into her eyes. "I mean, this is wonderful," she said, taking a step back. "It's...I study alien plants and animals. That's what I was going to Gaia to do but this is great too."

"I'm glad you're happy but now we need to make an appearance down at the spa," Kor said firmly, steering her away from the plants and deeper into the suite.

"What? Now? No," Maggie protested. "I want to stay right here. I need a notebook and pen and a way to collect and preserve specimens and-"

"The real Lady Pope'nose would never stay up in her room sniffing the flowers," Kor pointed out.

"What?" She frowned. "I'm not just sniffing them. I want to study them."

"Lady Pope'nose wouldn't do that either," he pointed out. "Look, Maggie, if we're going to make this deception work, you have to play the part. The minute a rich mistress arrives at the spa, she changes her clothing and goes down to the spa facilities. If she doesn't, the other guests at the spa talk. And when the gossip starts flying, bad things happen."

"Such as someone realizing I'm not who I say I am." Maggie sighed and turned back toward one particularly huge plant with violet and magenta flowers. "All right, I'm sorry. I just can't help wanting to work when I see all this exotic uncatalogued vegetation. I mean, the only thing better would be if there were strange animals here as well."

As if to answer her wish, a tiny face no bigger than her thumbnail suddenly peeked out from behind one of the big colorful flowers on the plant she was staring at.

"Oh!" Maggie gasped as a tiny creature about as long as her pinky finger crawled out onto a flat blue leaf. "What is that?"

"A nixnax. They're really friendly-especially if you feed them." Kor picked up a long purple fruit from a bowl beside them and pinched off a piece. "Here, little one-come get it," he crooned in a soft, low voice.

To Maggie's delight, the tiny animal, which was covered in bright pink fur, crept forward and took the tiny piece of fruit from Kor's big hand. It sat on the leaf, nibbling as purple juice dripped down its little chin. As it ate, it watched them with wide, shiny black eyes. To Maggie it looked like a cross between a tiny monkey and a mouse.

When the nixnax was finished with the first piece, it stood up on its hind legs and chattered at Kor for more.

"Oh, can I this time?" Maggie begged. "I want to feed him."

"He is probably a she. Only the dominant females beg for food," Kor informed her but he gave her the long purple fruit-which looked like an eggplant and a banana had had a particularly ugly baby-and showed her how to pinch off a piece.

"Here you go," Maggie whispered, holding it out to the nixnax. "Come and get it."

The little alien creature took the food but instead of eating it, she stuffed it into her cheek pouch, making the side of her little wrinkled face bulge comically. Then she chattered for more.

"She wants to bring the food back to her tribe," Kor said. "Go on, give her some more."

Maggie broke off another piece and handed it over. The minute the nixnax had the fruit shoved into her other cheek, she took off, swinging nimbly between the curling vines of the big plant and disappearing behind the blue leaves and brightly colored flowers.

"Oh..." Maggie couldn't help feeling disappointed. She had wanted to study the creature more and besides, it was cute.

"Don't worry." Kor smiled at her. "She'll be back. Right now, let's have some of this fruit ourselves. It's going to be a long time before dinner."

"It will?" Maggie broke off a piece of the fruit for herself-noticing that it tasted sweet and bland, kind of like oatmeal.

"Mmm-hmm. The Grand Banquet is a big event here." Kor picked up some fruit for himself. "After we eat, it's time we got down to the spa. The other mistresses will start talking about you if you don't get there soon."

"Oh, all right." Maggie sighed. "We'll go."

"Of course. But first we have to change." He looked at her speculatively. "I wonder how you'll look in the spa clothes packed by my ex-mistress?"

"I don't even want to think about it," Maggie ate another piece of the purple banana oatmeal fruit. "She's so skinny and I'm so...not."

"You're certainly much more curvaceous." Kor's eyes roved over her body appreciatively. "Is that one of her gowns you've got on now?"

Maggie looked down at the green gown she was dying to get out of. "Yes. She said she wore it last season before she went on a diet."

"Well I'm sure you fill it out better than she ever did. You'll do the same for all of her clothes."

"If I can fit into them!" Maggie shook her head. She really wasn't looking forward to this at all. Trying to take her mind off the clothing situation, she ate another bite of oatmeal fruit. If only she could just stay here and study the plants and their tiny animal inhabitants...oh well, maybe later.

She just hoped Lady Pope'nose had packed something a little more reasonable and modest than the dress she was currently wearing.

Chapter Nine.

"The time of reckoning approaches." Xandra the swamp witch stirred her caldron. An arctic blast came from the bubbling, pale purple mixture-the cold of pure hate which she poured into her brew.

Burning red eyes rose to the surface of her pot, staring at her.

"Is that so, wife? And where is our son? What do you see with your third eye?" demanded a deep, inhuman voice.

"The human girl has rescued him." The witch frowned. "She has named him and claimed him-she calls him Kor which means 'hope' in the ancient tongue."

"All that is irrelevant," the Shadow Demon rumbled. "He will come when you call him by his true name-the one you gave him as a babe. Therron."

"First his deepest and most painful memories must be reawakened." The witch smiled. "But that is easily remedied-they are going to enter a remembrance pool."

"Good." The burning eyes blazed brighter. "Once the seed of pain and hate is planted, it can begin to grow. He will find his way back to us, my wife. Therron will come. And when he does..."

"I will have my revenge," she finished grimly.