The market overflowed with merchants selling their wares as the three girls wound their way through the dusty streets. Old men sat in small clusters, drinking thick aromatic coffee, while kids darted in an out of merchant stalls, the owners yelling after them for whatever they swiped. The place was a burst of color and noise with everything from exotic foods and vibrant cloth to leather goods, raw nuts and spices, and everything in between available.
“Too bad Vander doesn’t use litter bearers. We could have used the manpower to carry all these bags.” Henley blew her bangs from her forehead.
Riley snorted. “We can both do a little manual labor considering Vander wouldn’t let us pay for anything.”
“That’s easy for you to say, you only bought jewelry.”
“You could always ask one of our shadows to help.” Ri slid her eyes to the two guards set to escort the ladies as they shopped.
“No, thanks. They look unhappy enough having to babysit us.”
Riley shrugged. “I bought jewelry because nothing here fits me. For the first time in my life, I’m too small. Did you hear that shop keeper tell me I needed to eat more? That alone makes me want to stay forever. Especially if I could have everything custom made.”
Ivy laughed at them both, her heart so full, it could burst. “What about you, Hen? Still thinking?”
Her friend regarded her, hiking a stray bag onto her shoulder. “Riley might be tiny, but I’m average height. Everything fits me. No big and tall girl for me. It’s great, but I just don’t know if I’m cut out for an interplanetary move. It’s not like moving across the country, and I don’t know if clothes and shoes alone are worth the effort.”
A familiar voice came from the side. “What if you met someone who melted your panties, making you shiver just skimming your body with one look?”
The three girls turned, and Ivy grinned at the older woman as she pushed away from a spice stall along the line of shops. “I thought you said you couldn’t get away.”
“I can’t, really,” Gerri replied with a smile. “I’m playing hookie for a half hour or so. I can’t resist these spices. We don’t have them back home.” She lifted the soft gauze bag to her nose and inhaled.
“We’re headed toward a custom shoemaker Kari said was to die for. Can you come?” Ivy asked.
The matchmaker shook her head. “Sorry, love. I have a meeting with the warrior council and the elders on how to go about helping them with their issues. This is the tallest order I’ve ever had to face, so there’s not a minute to spare. I had planned to head back to Earth after Cassie had her baby, but now I might have to leave sooner. I have fishing to do. Plus, I need to catch the next transport to Nova. I have business there, too.”
“Not Cassie?” Ivy questioned, immediately concerned.
Gerri put her hand on Ivy’s arm and shook her head. “No, honey. Cassandra is just fine. I plan to drop in on her while I’m there and let her know your news. You should call her later yourself.”
“Call her? Right. Let me whip out my intergalactic cell phone.”
Gerri laughed. “Just use my communicator. I left it in my room. It’s already programmed. All you need to do is run your hand over it like you did the last time.”
Henley snorted. “Ha! The last time she ended up having interplanetary phone sex with the King of Galaxa.”
Ivy shot her friend a look. “That was a misunderstanding.”
Gerri laughed out loud. “A misunderstanding with a very happy outcome.”
Riley angled her head at Gerri. “What did you mean when you said you had to go fishing?”
“People email me for relationship help all the time, but nothing happens unless it clicks in here first.” Gerri tapped her temple. “I have to see what kind of net to cast.”
Ivy pushed her lips into a smirk. “Like using Cassie’s baby as a ruse to get me here.”
Gerri laughed, her eyes flashing. “Kind of. I love it when fate cooperates.”
The older woman waved as she wound her way through the crowd toward the castle gates and the girls walked on, stopping about fifty yards ahead at a cross street.
Ivy opened the makeshift map Kari had drawn and frowned, turning it back and forth. “I think we turn this way to get to the cobbler.”
“Stop guessing and ask someone for directions. I don’t fancy getting lost in this mess of a crowd. Not with Vander away and everything he said about the unrest around here,” Henley said, giving the area a quick scan. “Hey, look.” She gave a chin pop toward an alley off the main street. “It’s your favorite person, Vee.”
All eyes turned to see Maddox talking with another man dressed the same as the one they spied from the window.
“At court yesterday, the only people dressed like that were the representatives from the nomadic tribes. I wonder what’s going on,” Riley noted.
Maddox gestured with his head and the man followed him into the main thoroughfare, but strangely kept back from the Lord Chamberlain as the two pushed through the crowd.
“We need to follow him,” Ivy said, shoving her packages at the two guards.
“Right you are, sister. After the look he gave us yesterday, I get what you mean about him being not right.” Henley glanced at Maddox moving fast and then spared a glance for the guards not happy about being made pack mules. She lowered her voice. “We need to ditch Thing One and Thing Two. When I drop my bags and scream, you two take off. I’ll catch up in a sec.”
With a nod, she moved toward a stall, purposely crashing into another customer. Half the hanging goods knocked to the ground and Henley let out a scream. The two guards perked up, rushing over. She dropped her bags and in the commotion, darted into the street.
“That was clever incarnate,” Ivy said with a grin. “Maybe Vander should introduce you to his security chief. There might be a job in it for you if you can think that quickly on your feet.”
Henley nodded, catching her breath. “Maybe. But only if he’s drop-your-pants gorgeous. Now where did the weasel get to?”
Riley pointed. “There, the side gate to the castle.”
Ivy frowned. “That’s for deliveries only. Maddox is an ambassador and a noble, not to mention stuck up as all get out. He’d never use the servant’s entrance.”
Henley pulled both girls to crouch behind bolts of cloth at the back of a cart. “He’s not going in. He’s buying something. Look.”
The nomad dude took something from a ragged satchel and handed it to Maddox. The clear jar was small, but the contents looked nasty. Like brown slime.
“Holy fuck! Whatever is in that jar just squirmed! I swear to God!”
Ivy shook her head. “My spidey senses are freaking out. Whatever that is, it’s not good.” She stepped out from behind the cloth and Henley grabbed her back.
“What are you doing? You can’t let him see you!”
Ivy smirked. “I’m practically Queen of Galaxa already. He wouldn’t dare hurt me and I’ve got a few choice words for Mr. Creepy.”
“Stay hidden, but get closer.” Henley pointed to a stack of oil jars closer to the gate.
Ivy put a finger to her lips and nodded, moving slow but determined. She tucked herself behind the largest jar.
“This is only half of what I ordered!”
The nomad’s eyes narrowed. “Do you know what will happen to me if my chieftain finds out I’ve been your courier in this? He hates the jungle people and refuses trade with them for standard goods, but this? He’ll have my head.”
“I don’t care if he takes your balls, too. I need the rest of the shipment. The worms only live three days outside the jungle.” Maddox looked at the jar and winced, holding it out from his body as if it stunk. “Will this work on humans? Did you ask like I told you to?”
The man shrugged again. “They said it might work, but they were unsure how long it would take to know. It would need to be tested.”
Maddox shoved the jar back at the man. “How? I won’t have my plans ruined by a human slut or the others that follow. Take care of it! You know what to do.”
The nomad shook his head, a sneer on his lips. “You can’t order me to do anything, not until you pay.” He nodded. “Unless you want a whisper in your king’s ear about your accomplishments.”
Maddox kept his eyes narrowed on the man. He reached for the jar and with a cruel smile, stuck a knife in the nomad’s ribs. Maddox shoved the blade hilt higher, tearing through the desert dweller’s chest, and then held him as he slowly slumped to the ground.
“Fuck! He killed him! What do we do?” Riley hissed, backing further into the jars.
Maddox slipped through the side gate, disappearing into the kitchens and the servants’ quarters.
“We have to tell Vander. Whatever is in that jar is meant for us—or me, at least, and any other women Gerri brings to Galaxa going forward.”
“He’s not back until tomorrow,” Henley added. “And Gerri’s probably halfway to the transport bay by now.”
Ivy glanced toward the main castle gate and nodded to herself. “We wait, then. Vander will have no other choice but to take his blinders off when it comes to that old man.”
“What about whatever is in that jar?” Riley asked.
Henley pulled herself to her full height. “We go into the kitchens for something to take back to our rooms and take a good look around for that jar.”
“Maddox could have taken it anywhere in the castle, Hen.”
Ivy shook her head. “Vander said the women who died were all sick. So maybe Hen’s right and he’s poisoning them. Whatever we eat or drink from now until Vander gets back is only what we prepare ourselves.”
Henley slipped out from behind the jars and smoothed her clothes. “I’m doing one better than that.” She walked into the main street and whistled. The two guards chasing after them pivoted in their search and stopped.
“Sorry for the run around boys, but we’ve have decided we’ve had enough shopping.” She took her bags from them and motioned for Ivy and Riley to do the same. “We’re going to grab some fruit and bread and then head back to the castle. So,” she flashed a bright smile. “—point us to the best this market has to offer.”