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I just stood there, my finger raised, my eyes wide with fear. “No…”
I looked up at the empty space where I knew the Governor to be.
I couldn’t see him but I took some comfort in the knowledge he was there nonetheless. “Icor?” I said. “What happens now?”
When there was no response, I stepped forward and waved a hand to feel him.
Just a fingertip to his scales would have sufficed but my hand met nothing but open air.
I’d taken too long to answer the call and now the little leader had given up.
What would he do now? I wondered. Would he consider it a failure and go out and attack my sister?
Would he kidnap my beautiful little nieces?
I felt the tears begin to form in the back of my eyeballs when my communicator suddenly started buzzing again.
“Take it slow and easy,” the Governor’s deep voice said.
He was just ahead of me, and he must have raised his arm so I could feel his forearm, as I absorbed some strength from the coolness of it.
“Okay,” I said, blinking back the tears and regaining my composure.
I pressed the button and answered the call.
Before I could get a word out, the little leader’s harsh gravelly voice said:
“Congratulations. I knew you could do it.”
I managed a smile and a shrug of my shoulder. “No sweat. It would have been useful if you’d told me it wasn’tamong the palace’s artefacts though. I had to search the whole place before I found it.”
I was shocked at the evenness of my own voice.
It certainly wasn’t how I was feeling on the inside!
“I like to make it a bit of a challenge for you,” he said, his voice edged with acid.
“So what happens now?” I asked.
“Now, you bring it to me.”
“Where?”
“My, my,” he said. “Aren’t we hasty?”
“I don’t much like people threatening my family,” I snarled at him, and once again, I wondered where the strength had come from. “The sooner I give you this piece of junk, the sooner I can go back to living my life. Onmyterms.”
The little leader cackled. “You thinkanythingyou do on Enchor’s Heart is onyourterms? You’re a bigger fool than I thought.”
I ground my teeth. “I dowhatI want,whenI want!”
“Andbonewho you want? I think not. We both know you give yourself to the highest bidder.”
“Ineversell myself!” I snapped.
“Maybe in not so many words. But you do only choose the richest, most powerful creatures, don’t you? Why would you waste your succulent body on anyone else?”
Was hedeliberatelytrying to get a rise out of me? I wondered.
