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“Why would I not be serious?” she demanded. “Didn’t I just tell you I have an advanced degree in Botany myself? Also, I’m what the Kindred call a Viridi Femma—I have special abilities with plants. So yes, a top government official is coming to meet me even if I am a lowly female.”
Unfortunately, her words seemed to have the effect of pissing the guard off.
“Is that right?” he snarled in Iyanna’s face. “Well I don’t see him here to meet you—in fact, I don’t see any male here to speak for you, despite the fact that you’re dressed as a cherished wife and claim to have a husband. I think there’s something wrong about you and I’m going to find out what!”
“But…but—” Iyanna began, but it was clear the guard was through listening to her.
“Hey, Farn,” he barked at a guard who was holding the leash of one of the big green grizzly looking things. “Come over here and let Bruu’no have a sniff of this one—there’s something suspicious about her.”
“Sure thing.” The other guard came over, leading his massive drug dog—or was it more like a drug bear, Iyanna wondered wildly? The moment they got over to her, he ordered the enormous creature, “Find!”
Lowering its blunt muzzle, the huge grizzly thing started sniffing at Iyanna’s feet and then making its snorting, snuffling way up her body.
Iyanna’s heart started pounding like it was trying to break out of her chest. Oh sweet Jesus, it was just like the Miami airport but a hundred, thousand times worse! Where was Dra’vik? Why had he left her all alone? Was it because he was mad that she wanted to keep things professional? Was he ever coming back? What if she was stopped here and sent back?
Worse, what if she was sent to prison on some kind of fake crime just because she was a woman alone? For all she knew, being a woman alone was a crime here, in which case she was guilty as sin, since Dra’vik had chosen this crucial moment to abandon her!
The enormous green grizzly finally reached her head—it didn’t even have to stretch to do this, since its broad back was easily as tall as its handler’s shoulders. As it shoved its muzzle into her hair, it seemed to find something it didn’t like because it suddenly bared its razor-sharp teeth and growled—right in her face.
Iyanna gasped and jerked back—she couldn’t help it! There was an enormous, savage predator snarling at her—one clearly big enough to disembowel her or bite off her head if it wanted to—and the guard didn’t show any signs of stopping it.
“Did you see that? She flinched away when he was trying to scent her!” the first guard exclaimed. “No innocent person would have done that!”
“Yeah, Bruu’no doesn’t like her,” the second guard agreed. “Must be something wrong with her.”
“I…I couldn’t help flinching!” Iyanna protested. “That…that thing is huge and scary as hell! What do you expect me to do when it shoves its face into mine and snarls at me like that? I thought it was going to attack me!”
“Bruu’no only snarls at guilty people—mostly females,” the first guard said, frowning at her. He looked at the second guard. “I recommend a thorough scan—something isn’t right with this one. Claims she’s here to see the Minister of Botany!”
“A scan? What kind of scan?” Iyanna demanded, but the first guard already had her by the arm and was marching her across to a small silver door at the far end of the room.
Once they reached it, he knocked twice and it slid open, revealing two more male guards in a room filled with an enormous humming arch made of burnished copper.
“Hey, Nak, Gorn—got a suspicious one for you,” he said to the two, who looked up when he came in, dragging Iyanna by the arm behind him. “Bruu’no doesn’t like her and she’s got no Master or honored husband to speak for her.”
“Ah—sounds suspicious all right.” Both of the new guards nodded—one had grass green hair and pale blue skin and the other had lemon-yellow hair and lavender skin, Iyanna saw.
“It gets worse,” the first guard informed them. “Get this—she says she’s here to meet with the Minister of Botany!”
This prompted a burst of trollish laughter as all three men rolled their eyes and shook their heads at the apparent ridiculousness of Iyanna’s claim.
“Send her in then,” the one with lemon-yellow hair said. “Sounds like she ought to be thoroughly scanned.”
“I thought so too,” the first guard said. He glared at Iyanna. “You’d better not be bringing any kind of contraband or illegal substances in with you, female. The Arch will find out all your secrets!”
“I don’t have any secrets—or any kind of contraband!” Iyanna protested.
But the first guard was already gone, the silver door slid shut behind him, leaving her alone with the other two guards and the gleaming copper arch—which was humming softly to itself.
