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Jax bent down and whispered in her ear, “You smell and taste even sweeter.”
Chapter17
The folk of Ahn’hudin maintained a respectful distance as the new emperor, his mate, and their small entourage disembarked from the spaceship. Of course, Louella thought, most of those gathered were merchants, businessmen, and laborers, not warriors, and they were certainly not foolish enough to risk their lives just to get a closer peek at them. She compared what little she knew of Ahn’hudi traditions and culture to what she remembered from Earth and concluded that both had their pros and cons. Different, she mused, wasn’t necessarily inferior or wrong. At least the Ahn’hudin didn’t have paparazzi.
Her fingertips brushed the golden collar fastened around her neck as she walked alongside Yas’kihn. She appreciated that he’d slowed his steps to set a pace more comfortable for her shorter legs to sustain, but she still had to jog occasionally to catch up. He allowed the leash held loosely in his hand to drape in a slack curve to where it fastened to her collar. She wanted to ask him to remove it, but knew it was not the time either to protest the injustice or the indignity of being led along like a pet or to beg him to remove it. Sometimes one had to swallow bitter ire to maintain the peace.
She’d noticed that Evangeline, too, wore an altogether too revealing dress of that filmy, nearly transparent material beneath a collar from which dangled floor length ribbons and a gold collar to which two leashes were attached. Evangeline looked none too pleased about it, but apparently had come to the same decision to hold her tongue and keep the peace. Louella wondered how the other woman had managed to acquire the outfit on such short notice, because she definitely hadn’t been wearing it when she boarded the ship.
Maybe that’s why we had to wait—for delivery of an outfit that matched mine. At least I got to eat something.
“Where are we going?” Louella asked instead, pitching her voice low under the general din of the crowd.
“We will spend the night in temporary lodging,” Yas’kihn answered.
“I don’t suppose I could have something else to wear?” When he darted an irritated glance at her, she added, “Later?”
He nodded, understanding the concession she made. “I’ll send someone to procure you another shift.”
“Thanks.” Louella glanced around, noticing there weren’t many Ahn’hudi females, and few of the ones she saw wore collars or leashes. Nor were any wearing a collection of loosely flowing ribbons as their only garb. She made a mental note to bring that up with Jax in the near future, because it looked like Ahn’hudi culture was ripe for women’s liberation.I’ll bet Evangeline will support the revolution!She smiled to herself.
Louella tried not to gawk at the astonishing array of species gathered on the streets and sidewalks. They came in every shape and size, many furred, feathered, or scaled. Most were bipedal, although some had wings and others had four arms. Many had horns or antlers. Tails abounded. Some wore nothing but their own fur or feathers, and others were draped from crown to toe in concealing swaths of fabric. She saw none of the insectoid Sivuul.
“Wow,” she muttered under her breath.
“What is it?” Jax inquired, his tone soft and quiet.
She looked up at him and said, skipping to keep up with his long stride, “I never imagined there to be so many kinds of people in the universe.”
“I have heard your folk credit creation of the universe and all it holds to a single deity,” he replied. “If that is so, your deity must love variety.”
She grinned at him. “You know, I think God does.”
“Do you worship this one god?”
“I’m a Christian, if that’s what you’re asking.” At his frown, she continued, determined not to show prejudice. “Do your people worship multiple gods?”
He shrugged. “We have four gods. Durja is the All Mother to whom we warriors owe our ferocity and strength. There is nothing so fierce and loyal as a mother. We imbue her spirit when we fight for honor and the best interests of our people.”
“Do other Ahn’hudin who aren’t warriors have their own specific gods?”
“They do,” he said. “The Solari unite the gods and their clerics represent the gods and dispense blessings.”
“Who dispenses justice?” she asked.
“The claws of Durja.”
Louella supposed that made a kind of sense. In her neighborhood, mothers held authority over their families, because so many of those families had no fathers present. Except for Marisol, she couldn’t have named a single friend or acquaintance from the old neighborhood whose parents were married and still lived together. Too many were like her and did not even know who their fathers were, because their mothers couldn’t remember who had fathered which of their children. Growing up, she’d tried not to envy Marisol her family, but it was hard, and she hadn’t always succeeded.
The claws of Durja. She considered that an apt description. Many of the local policemen she’d met, especially in her stint working in a hospital emergency room, had that warrior mentality: an insufficient army of soldiers with inadequate weaponry and technology doing their best to combat the drug dealers, pimps, gangsters, and other human cockroaches infesting the city’s slums. Many of her peers had looked at law enforcement with suspicion if not outright loathing, but working as a nurse, she’d discovered most were hardworking people who merely wanted to clean up their communities so folks could live in peace.
She followed Jax through tall doors into an elegantly appointed lobby. The crowd did not pursue them inside the building, for which she was grateful. A short, rotund being who resembled a cross between a chicken and a wombat approached to greet them. The roly poly being clicked its beak, summoning a small army of servants who rushed to serve their every whim as their host guided them to an elevator.
The elevator carriage was tall enough to accommodate Yas’kihn’s great height, and then some, and roomy enough to hold an elephant. It lifted smoothly and ascended to the penthouse suite where it opened directly into another elegantly appointed lobby. Yas’kihn dropped the leash to let his bride wander the space.
“Wow,” Evangeline exclaimed again under her breath.
Hearing her, Louella caught her eye and said in English, “Incredible, isn’t it?”
