Then Kalis slowly edged one end of the thaelite bar into her cupped palms—while being careful to hold the other end himself.
“There you are, little Mistress,” he rumbled. “You’re holding it—half of it, anyway.”
“This isn’t so bad!” Jillian exclaimed, frowning. “I can barely feel anything at all.”
“That’s because I’m still holding it up,” Kalis said mildly. “Do you want me to let you feel the weight of it?”
“Of course—isn’t that the point?” Jillian was rapidly running out of patience.
“It is indeed, little Mistress. Very well—here you go.”
Suddenly a crushing weight was pressing down on her cupped palms and fingers. It was like someone was slowly smashing her hands between two of the heavy plates on a weight-lifting machine at the gym, Jillian thought.
“Ow! Hey!” she exclaimed, attempting to pull her hands away. “That hurts!”
At once, the weight was lifted and Kalis took the thaelite back into his own large hands completely.
At last, Jillian was convinced. She’d known that thaelite was a dense, compacted material, but she hadn’t had any idea how heavy it was.
“That was awful!” she exclaimed, looking up at the big warrior. “How are you holding it so easily?”
“It’s not easy, little Mistress,” he remarked, and Jillian noticed that his biceps were bulging as he cradled the small brick in his massive hands. “But I’m strong. Spent seventeen years in the Blood Circuit—I had to be strong or I’d be dead.”
Jillian didn’t know what to say about that. She only shook her head—she definitely had a new appreciation of the big bodyslave’s strength.
“I think you can see now why paying the higher price, which includes transportation of the thaelite, is both necessary and practical,” the Yonnite Mistress said smoothly. She arched one perfectly plucked eyebrow at Jillian. “Unless you have a male of your own somewhere in the market who is strong enough to transport the brick to your vehicle?”
Jillian thought about calling Hard or Kind and asking them to come help her, but then she remembered the bags under Suzanne’s eyes the last time she’d seen her friend. All three of the triplets had gotten colic at once and she and her husbands had been taking turns rocking and burping them. They were sleeping in shifts, but since all three babies were crying all the time, whoever actually got to lie down and close his or her eyes for a few hours really wasn’t getting much sleep.
It’s an exorbitant price, but it’s not outside the budget the Kindred High Council gave us, she thought.
Though she hated like hell to do it, she was pretty sure she would just have to pay what the Yonnite Mistress was asking. The huge bodyslave, Kalis, could carry the brick of thaelite out to her shuttle and deposit it safely. And hopefully she could get one of the Kindred warriors in the Docking Bay to bring it to the kitchen of Pat-ar for her.
How she was supposed to cook with it, she wasn’t sure yet. But that was a problem for later—right now, she just needed to get the damn thing stowed in her shuttle.
“All right,” she said, frowning. “A thousand credits for the thaelite and a way…er, a person to transport it,” she ended, looking up at the massive bodyslave.
“Don’t be ridiculous—Kalis isn’t a person—he’s a male,” the Yonnite Mistress said dismissively. “Now then, let’s see the color of your credit. Do you wish to pay by coinage or cred-chip?”
As it happened, Jillian had a special cred-chip the Kindred High Council had issued just for her for this occasion. She pulled it out and waved it in front of the Yonnite Mistress’s chip-scanner, watching as a thousand credits was deducted from the account.
“Thank you.” The Yonnite Mistress smiled brightly. “Enjoy your purchase and do come again.”
Not likely! Jillian thought. But she only nodded briefly and said, “Thanks. I’ll bring, er, Kalis back as soon as he puts the brick in my shuttle.”
“Oh, no need for that,” the Yonnite Mistress had said, breezily.
By which, Jillian had assumed she meant that the huge bodyslave could find his own way back through the market. Which was fine with her—she was eager to get back to the Mother Ship and start researching how in the world she was supposed to cook with the super-dense brick of thaelite.
“Okay,” she said and nodded at Kalis. “Let’s go—I know how heavy that is so we’ll go straight to my shuttle.”
“No need to rush, little Mistress,” he rumbled. “I can carry it as long as you need me to. Just point me in the right direction.”
“This way,” Jillian told him, and they headed off to the tram together.
3
But as Jillian and the huge bodyslave had boarded the tram, one of the gramples—small soft purple fruit about as big as a large apple—which she had bought at the produce side of the market, somehow worked its way out of the hole in her tote and tumbled to the ground.
“Shit!” Jillian hissed impatiently. “No, don’t worry—I’ve got it. You just stay here and keep hold of the thaelite,” she added to Kalis, who looked like he was about to go after the rolling grample. “Don’t move—I’ll be right back.”
Hopping down from the tram, which was still for the moment, she ran to grab the purple fruit…only to see it snatched up in a huge gray-green hand as big as her entire head.
Looking up, she saw that the hand belonged to the two-headed Trollox she’d seen eyeing her earlier.
“Hey,” she said uncertainly. “Uh, that’s mine.”
“Of course it is. Sweeties for a sweet little humanoid.” It was the yellow-eyed head talking and Jillian thought it produced a strangely high voice for such a big body. Its eyes glowed like a Jack-o-lantern’s as they roved greedily over her body. The leering way it was looking at her made her want to cover herself, though she wasn’t wearing anything provocative—just a pair of jeans and a t-shirt.
“Sweeties for the sweet!” the other head exclaimed, and bellowed laughter—a hyuck-hyuck-hyuck sound that set Jillian’s teeth on edge. This head had beady little red eyes and it seemed to be somehow mentally deficient—at least compared with the first head. Its long yellow tusks dripped drool on the dusty ground, which made her stomach turn.
The Trollox extended its enormous hand and opened it, showing her the grample, which looked about the size of a pea in its huge palm.
“Go on, my dear—take it,” the yellow-eyed head said as the Trollox loomed over her like an enormous tree. “A gift from Ripper to you.”
“Uh…Ripper?” Jillian looked up at him uncertainly.
“That’s our name, so it is!” the red-eyed head exclaimed. “Hyuck-hyuck-hyuck! Ripper, cause we rips ‘em open when we shoves inside!”
“Shut up, you imbecile!” the yellow-eyed head snapped. It looked at Jillian. “Pay no attention to him, my dear. Here you go—take it.” And it held out the lost fruit again.
“Okay, thanks…um, Ripper,” Jillian said, frowning as she reached for the grample. What was going on between the two heads? It must be really weird to have to share a body like that—especially if you disagreed a lot…