need a slave for his bed. Gossip is, he’s tumbled half the female
nobility on Terra, and commoner girls past counting. Like I said, he
must think you’re special. The more grateful you act, the better your
life is likely to be … On your way, now. A matron will groom and gown
you.”
She also provided a fresh euphoriac. Thus Kossara didn’t even mind that
the servant who came to fetch her was hauntingly like and unlike an
ychan. He too was bald, green, and tailed; but the green was
grass-bright, without scales, the tail thin as a cat’s, the posture
erect, the height well below her own, the other differences
unreckonable. “Sir Dominic saw fit to dub me Chives,” he introduced
himself. “I trust you will find his service pleasant. Indeed, I declined
the manumission he offered me, until the law about spy bracelets went
into effect on Terra. May I direct you out?”
Kossara went along through rosiness, into an aircar, on across the city
and an ocean, eventually to an ornate house on an island which Chives
called Catalina. He showed her to a suite and explained that her owner
was busy elsewhere but would presently make his wishes known. Meanwhile
these facilities were hers to use, within reason.
Kossara fell asleep imagining that Mihail was beside her.