Eternity Row (26 page)

It got even weirder from there.

The entire mob reassembled into straight, long rows, then dropped to prostrate themselves on the ground. Faces pressed to the worms, just like Ortsac’s. A low monotone hum began and grew as each Taercal added his voice to it, until the wordless chant seemed to press in on my ears.

The only exception to this mass-prayer thing were the Taercal holding on to each of us. They watched with unblinking, reverent awe as Ortsac approached the mob.

“Sadda’s scourge is everlasting!” he yelled, pacing back and forth in front of the lines, like a secular cheerleader working a game crowd. “Sadda has tested the people and found them not wanting!

Praise be to Sadda for the gift of will and endurance.”

Endurance, ha. Let them spend a year on a Hsktskt slave depot and then come talk to me about endurance.

The worship ceremony went on and on, until I was ready to scream. To keep from making a spectacle of myself, I tried to figure out what had triggered the Taercals’ extreme response.

Evidently “Sadda” was a feline deity, doubtless responsible for the claws we’d seen decorating everything. Alunthri must have borne a close resemblance to she/he/it. A good thing, too, because I suspected without the appearance of the Chakacat, we would have all been tied up with stones and drowned in shallow grave-ditches.

Finally, the crowd rose slowly to their feet, and Ortsac lead the troops back toward the city entrance.

“Which one of the ten thousand gods is Sadda, exactly?” I asked the Taercal who were hauling me back through the wall entrance to the city.

“Silence, blasphemer.” A monitor struck me with a stick. “Your lips are not clean enough to form the great one’s name.”

I thought about mentioning the fact that I had actually owned the great one for a brief period of time, but bit my tongue. If I blew Alunthri’s cover, we might all be killed.

Ahead of us, the Taercal were ushering my friend with the kind of reverent deference one gave to a world monarch. I could just imagine what the Chakacat was thinking-as long as it went along with the religious fanatics, it could keep us alive.

At least, I hoped it was thinking that.

A dozen natives dragged Reever past me. He was still struggling and blood ran down the side of his face, and his eyes had gone that scary, colorless gray shade they got when he was really upset.

Duncan. What are we going to do? If they find out Alunthri isn’t a god, they’ll drown all of us.

Alunthri will shield us, long enough for us to come up with a plan. Have you seen Hawk?

I tried to look around, and got another whack from the stick. “Look, you,” I said, feeling very testy, “if you don’t stop hitting me, I’m going to shove that stick in a very uncomfortable anatomical location.” I spotted Hawk a few yards away. Like Duncan, he was struggling wildly to free himself, and bore a number of facial contusions. “Hawk! Stop-”

Someone clubbed me over the head, and the world became a little dim for a few minutes. They kept dragging my limp body along, while I tried to muster my senses back to some semblance of order.

Cherijo!

Duncan’s frantic thoughts were what pulled me back from the abyss.
I’m okay. Just give me a minute
.

Baby, we need a little more than sixty seconds
, a familiar voice said.

Who is that
? my husband demanded.

Hello, Reever. We haven’t met yet
. Maggie’s voice sounded amused.
I’m the little snot’s mother. In a stand-in kind of way.
.

You’re not my mother
. Coldness seeped into my limbs.
Duncan, end the link. I don’t want her infecting your mind, too
.

The world went away, and I was swept into darkness. This time, I wasn’t alone, and felt Duncan latch on to me with his inexorable control.

I fought him.
Duncan, I mean it. Let go of me. You can’t stop her
.

Then I’m going with you.

We ended up falling together, tangled in each other’s thoughts, into the abyss that always led to Maggie. Where we ended up was a total shock.

“How did we get here?” Duncan asked me as he helped me to my feet. Although we were still inside my mind, everything appeared as genuine reality around us.

The reality of my hotel room on Caszaria’s Moon.

“Maggie likes to play her little games.” I straightened my tunic and looked around. “Don’t worry, it never lasts long, thank Whoever Is in Charge Up There.”

A tall, red-haired woman stepped in through the door panel. She wore a waitress’s uniform that was a little too tight around the chest and hips, and pushed a cart laden with champagne and trays of little cakes and desserts. Her smile was as sexy as the wiggle of her hips.

“Room service.” She stopped the cart, straightened, and tucked a napkin over her arm. At the same time, she waggled her eyebrows at my husband. “Whoo-hoo. Hellooooo, handsome.”

Duncan regarded her the same way he did Terran food. “This is your maternal influencer?”

“Paid companion, replacement mother, partner in crime,” Maggie said in her sweetest voice.

“Personal demon from hell,” I added for good measure.

“That, too.” She removed a silver cover from one of the dishes with a flourish. “Let’s see here, we’ve got Dom Perignon, chocolate eclairs, imported cheeses, oh, and those vanilla cherry whatever-they-ares you gorged on back on that jungle world where you two met.” She held up a delicate china plate and looked at both of us expectantly. “Anyone hungry?”

I’d been through similar synaptic scenes in the past too often to let her rile me. “What do you want, Maggie?”

“Lots of stuff.” She left the cart in the center of the room and went to open the drapes. “Nice place, for a dome world. I like the posh, but I wouldn’t want to stroll through those bubble things down there.”

“How are you doing this?” Reever demanded.

My childhood companion ogled my husband again as she turned. “Dunkie, you really should have done more than just kiss her when you guys were here. Consider the waste of the bed, at least.”

“Dunkie?” My husband sounded mortally offended. “I beg your pardon.”

“Never beg, gorgeous.” As she walked past him, Maggie reached out and slapped his backside. “With a bod like yours, you should only have to fight them off.”

When Reever took a step to go after her, I caught his eye and shook my head.

Maggie wasn’t finished, and gestured toward me. “Take Dr. Uptight here. She’s not a pushover, my Joey, but with a little effort you could have convinced her to cheat on her boyfriend, way back when.”

“If that’s what you think,” my husband said, “then you don’t know Cherijo very well.”

“Oh, well, I suppose you’re right. Call it
wishful
thinking.”

“Maggie.”

She turned her attention to me. “And you. You’re supposed to be on your way to Jxinok, little girl.” Maggie took the champagne bottle from the ornate silver ice bucket and popped the cork. “We need to discuss that. Here, have a drink.”

“Let’s not and say we did. We have to go back.”

“Ah-ah-ah.” She wagged a finger at me as she handed me a flute of champagne. “Remember, ten seconds in your reality equals ten hours here. You won’t be gone longer than the blink of an eyelash.”

When she handed Duncan his glass, he knocked it away. The crystal smashed all over the deck. “End this and release us.”

“Raised with aliens, weren’t you? That would explain the hostility
and
the lousy deportment. So don’t drink-hell, I’m not going let good champers like this go to waste.” Maggie drank from the bottle, then belched.

He glanced at me. “She does this to you every time?”

“Every time.”

Taking the bottle with her, Maggie sat down to give a test bounce on the bed. “Excellent firmness. Really, Dunkie, you should have nailed her back then. Would have put a little flex in that titanium spine of hers.”

“Okay, you’ve embarrassed me enough, fun’s over now.” I had my own hands clenched. “Get to the point.”

“Gee, I thought I had. You’re stuck on this wormball here, and you’re supposed to be on my homeworld.” Maggie lit an illegal cigarette and dragged the smoke in before releasing it with a satisfied sigh. “I’m not very happy with you, baby.”

“You’ll survive.” I coughed and waved a hand in front of my face. “These people have taken us prisoner. Besides, we haven’t figured out where your world is yet anyway.”

“I told you back on Terra to move your little ass. You got the discs. You got the big blueberry guys to chauffeur you around and lots of big guns to guard you with. How hard can this be?” Maggie took another drink and sighed. “Jesus, Joey, just do what the hell I told you to do.”

“Cherijo has no obligation to do anything for you.” Duncan began pacing in front of the bed. “You don’t own her any more than Joseph Grey Veil did.”

“Ah, but there’s where you’re wrong, son. She’s all mine.” Maggie grinned at me as a box appeared on the bed, and she opened it. The red dress Ana Hansen had once lent me spilled across her thighs. “Yikes, what a choice little number. I know you didn’t pick out this one.”

“It was a gift from a friend-” I made a frustrated sound. “Look, there’s nothing I can do to get to Jxinok faster. We may not even make it off this planet alive.” I snatched the dress out of her hands and tossed it back in the box. “Are we done now?”

“Not yet.” Maggie got up and walked another circle around Duncan. “You two had better straighten out the other problem you have, because I can’t keep barging in to save your backsides every time something goes wrong.”

“Save
our
backsides?” I threw my arms up. “Please, refresh my memory, because I don’t remember you doing a damn thing for either of us.”

“Who told you to keep your mouth shut about the baby around Joseph? Who told you to tell handsome here about it, for that matter?” Maggie turned to Duncan. “And did she listen to me? No. She made you wait until you could see the kid. Is that trust, I ask you?”

“I didn’t even know if Marel was
alive
,” I said, snarling. “I wasn’t going to let Duncan go through that, too.”

“That comes with the territory, when you love someone. You share the good stuff, and the agony. It all comes down to the same thing, Joey. Trust.” My former companion returned for the bottle and shoved it back in the silver ice bucket on the cart. “You and Duncan have figured out the love thing. You’re halfway to figuring out the parent thing. Now you’ve got to deal with the trust. It’s got to be total, blind, and unwavering.”

“I trust Duncan.”

“Honey, you haven’t trusted anyone since you found out your father cooked you up in a test tube.” Maggie laughed. “As for this husband of yours, he’s made a living out of
not
trusting anyone. I’ll leave you two to get to work on that and, oh, hurry up and get off this sticky, wet rock.”

She pushed the cart toward the door, and Duncan suddenly lunged after her. He grabbed her arms and forced her around. “Tell my wife the truth.”

“Ooooh, big and strong and everything a woman wants in an alpha male.” Maggie felt the muscles in his arms. “Much as I’m tempted, you might want to let go of me, pal.”

Duncan only gave her a shake. “You’re not emanating from a subliminal implant. I can feel you. You’re a life force. You’re
projecting
.”

“Smart boy.” Maggie patted his cheek. “Let me give you some practical advice.” She gently pushed one hand against his chest. Reever suddenly flew across the room and crashed into one of the walls. “Don’t mess with this life force.”

“Duncan!” I ran to him, but he was already pushing himself up from the deck. I whirled around and spat, “You bitch!”