Harper stared all around her as they passed through the crowded market. It was amazingly colorful and it seemed everywhere there was something to see. After leaving the water tent, they passed through a long narrow corridor of food vendors, each selling stranger looking food than the last.
Harper saw a basket full of brown, prickly, spiny things almost like sea urchins about as big as her hand. Beside them were smooth, shiny orange pebbles about the size of large marbles.
“Hey—what are those?” she asked, tugging on Shad’s elbow.
He glanced at them briefly.
“Shugga nuts. The prickly ones are unpeeled. The orange ones are peeled. Naturally, they cost less if you peel them yourself but you have to wear special gloves. The spines are poisonous.”
Harper, who had just been putting out a hand to touch the spiny things, drew her fingers back quickly.
“What about those?” she asked, pointing at a display of rainbow colored wedges in red, green, blue, and purple spread out on a wobbly looking table.
The vendor behind the table saw her interest.
“My lady, these are the finest Bleeka-milk cheeses available,” he called eagerly, motioning her over.
“Bleeka?” Harper frowned.
“A type of ruminant common to Juno,” Shad told her. “Looks like a cross between a llama and a dog.”
“A dog?” Harper made a face. The vendor was offering her a sample of a bright blue cheese but the idea of eating anything made from llama-dog milk didn’t sound at all appealing. She’d had enough strange milk to last her a lifetime at the nursing tent, thank you very much.
A stray thought flashed through her head—Hope I got that all out of my system!
Harper pushed the worry away and smiled at the vendor as she shook her head, refusing the sample.
“No thank you,” she murmured.
After that, they passed by what looked like an open-air vegetable stall with some of the strangest produce Harper had ever seen. There was a fruit twice as big as a watermelon with a pale yellow rind and a bright blue inside. It was cut in half, showing the tiny red seeds that dotted its vivid flesh. Beside it were triangular vegetables in an improbable shade of neon green. They looked like tiny pyramids and oozed purple juice.
And then Harper saw something even stranger. To her right, lying in a bin together, were round, dusky black fruits as big as grapefruit and long, crooked stick-like things about the size of her forearm with white, papery skin. Among the other multicolored offerings, the black and white produce really stuck out.
“Those are retich fruit and kren,” Shad told her when she asked. “You shred the retich fruit with a sharp blade and slice the long kren into flat disks. Then you serve the shredded black retich on the white kren slices. It makes a very visually appealing dish. However, I believe it tastes very strongly—like limburger cheese and sauerkraut if I’m remembering correctly.”
“Ugh!” Harper exclaimed. Her stepfather liked limburger cheese—maybe because he didn’t have much sense of smell. It was so awful her mother made him eat it on the back porch and didn’t allow it in the house. As for sauerkraut, Harper had tried it once on a hotdog and she didn’t care for it at all. The idea of combining the two foods sounded disgusting.
Dog’s milk cheese…sauerkraut and limburger fruit…Did they make or grown anything on this planet that was fit to eat?
Stop it Harper, she chided herself. You’re being judgmental again. Remember, they have a whole alien culture you’ve never even heard of—of course it’s going to seem strange and different to you.
But she couldn’t seem to help it—any culture which thought it was okay to kidnap women via flying snakes and feed them sex-milk until their breasts swelled to gargantuan proportions already had at least two strikes against it in her opinion. Under the circumstances, it was damn hard to give Juno and its people the benefit of the doubt.
“Here is something you might find more appealing,” Shad said. He had stopped by a stall where a bored looking girl with pale blue skin was standing over a kind of fire pit, filled with glowing gold and red coals. She held a long black metal rod with a thick wooden cylinder at one end. As Harper watched, she dipped the cylinder into a barrel of pale, cream-colored liquid.
The vendor pulled out the cylinder, now coated in the creamy stuff, and twirled it expertly over the fire pit. She worked quickly, the bored expression never leaving her face. Clearly she did this same monotonous job over and over all day.
To Harper’s surprise, a warm, sweet smell like baking bread and fresh pancakes began to rise. The creamy liquid was evidently a kind of batter. Once it turned golden brown from the heat of the glowing coals, the girl dipped it into a vat of pale pink syrup and then rolled it in a shallow pan of crushed nuts—at least, that was what the crunchy little golden-brown nuggets looked like to Harper.
As they watched, the food vendor tapped the cylinder on a spread piece of blue and white striped paper until the cooked batter slid off. Rapidly, she wrapped it in the paper and handed it to Shad, who paid her by pressing his thumb to a small silver cube.
“Many thanks.” He nodded at the vendor and then handed the crispy, warm cylinder of cooked dough wrapped in the white and blue paper to Harper. “Here,” he said gruffly. “This should taste better than retich and kren would.”
“Thank you.” Just half an hour ago, after puking up the sex-milk, Harper would have sworn she never wanted to eat or drink anything from this alien world again. But the cylinder of cooked dough—which was about as long as her forearm and as big around as a roll of paper towels—actually smelled and looked appealing.
Tentatively, she took a nibble. The taste was amazing—a cross between French toast and a fresh-baked, buttery croissant. The sweet syrup and crunchy nuggets it was rolled in made the snack sweet and nutty and just a little bit salty too. It seemed to melt in her mouth and soothe her stomach as she ate.
“Mmm…this is really good,” she said, taking another bite and chewing blissfully. “It’s probably got about a million carbs that will go straight to my hips but I don’t even care right now.”
Shad gave her a look from the corner of his eye.
“You always say something like that when I offer you anything sweet.”
For a moment his words startled her—then she remembered about the multiple times he’d tried to rescue her before. It was strange being with someone who was mostly a stranger but who knew her so well.
I guess I’m not a stranger to him, she thought, taking another bite of the sweet dough cylinder. I wonder if he cared for me in any of those other paths or if it’s just business as usual with him?
But though Shad’s words were rough, his actions told a different story. If the big Kindred truly disliked her, would he have shielded her with his body from the awful tongue lashing of the Controller? And would he have gotten angry enough to want to kill her attackers when he rescued her from the nursing tent? Also, would he have bought her the sweet dough cylinder for a treat?
It was confusing—so confusing Harper didn’t know what to do. She settled for answering his statement without commenting on its context.
“Well, I love my curves but I do need to lose a little—that was one of the New Year’s resolutions I was making on the beach when you came and grabbed me,” she said lightly. “In fact, Auntie Bru-bru and her awful son were complaining that I hurt their snake’s tail when he had to carry me.”
She tried to laugh but it came out sounding forced. It was still too soon to joke about the awful nursing tent and what had almost happened there, Harper decided.
Shad shook his head. “I don’t know where you got the idea that you need to be thinner,” he growled. “You’re perfect just as you are.”
Then he strode ahead quickly, not giving her a chance to answer. Harper had to nearly run to keep up with him but his words echoed in her head. Perfect just as you are… Was he serious? And why would he say such a thing?
There didn’t seem to be any answers so she trotted along behind him, admiring the sights of the market as she finished the hollow cylinder of dough.
Soon they passed through a long row of cloth vendors, with colorful squares of every kind of fabric stretched from poles outside their stalls. Some looked like silk, some like fur, some like nothing Harper had ever seen before.
One in particular caught her attention—a piece of fabric which appeared to be made out of exotic, rainbow colored porcupine quills. The quills were long and sharp, shading from deep indigo at their bases to green, purple, and red along their shafts, ending at last with orange and pale yellow at the very tips. The effect was colorful but it certainly didn’t look very comfortable. How could you use a fabric that pricked you painfully every time you touched it?
But when she ran her fingertips over it very lightly, she found that the “quills” were as soft as rose petals. In fact, the blanket smelled a little like roses or some other kind of flowers too. Leaning closer, Harper pressed the side of her face to the fabric, inhaling the fragrance.
Mmm—really nice! It was amazing that something which looked so forbidding could be so inviting once you got close. Speculatively, she looked at Shad. Could the big Kindred be the same? Prickly on the outside but sweet underneath? If so, she wished he would show his sweet side more openly. It would be nice if he’d talk to her a little and hold her hand willingly instead of being so gruff all the time.
Suddenly a dark green face with wide yellow eyes popped up from behind the porcupine quilt.
“You like, beautiful lady? You like the cloth of thorns? The royal fabric?” a person who was apparently the vendor for this stall demanded. “You must like, for you have touched it. Now it is only for you.”
“Oh, uh…” Harper backed away quickly. “Sure. It’s…very nice. Surprisingly soft.”
“Soft only for you, fine lady! Only five hundred credits. You pay now—I wrap it up.”
“No, thank you.” Harper wasn’t sure about the monetary conversion but five hundred credits sounded like a lot of cash. Plus, Shad was the one with the magic thumbprint for paying—not her.
But the vendor wasn’t taking no for an answer.
“Five hundred too much? For a beautiful lady like you, I knock it down to four hundred,” he exclaimed. He had pulled on a pair of elaborate gloves which reached up to his elbows and was already unpinning the rainbow porcupine fabric from its pegs. “You touched it, so now it is yours. You pay—I wrap it up!”
“What? No! No, I don’t care how much it costs—I don’t want it,” Harper edged away from him. She looked to Shad to see what the big Kindred would say but he was striding ahead, almost out of sight further up the green cobblestone road.
“Yes!” the vendor insisted. “See—I wrap it up for you!” He folded the porcupine fabric and put it in a thin cloth bag. “Just for you. You tell me what you want to pay.”
“I don’t want to pay anything—I don’t want it!” Harper could see that her words weren’t getting through to him. She began to walk quickly away but the vendor followed her.
“You want!” he insisted. “A beautiful lady like you must need the royal fabric! And already you touched it so it is yours! It will behave for no one else.”
Talk about a hard sell! Harper thought distractedly as she hurried away, hoping the vendor would give up. Instead, he kept coming after her.
“You pay,” he was insisting. “You touched it—you pay now!”
“Just because I touched it doesn’t mean I have to buy it!” Harper protested, looking over her shoulder.
“Actually, it does. Or rather, it means I have to buy it for you,” a familiar voice growled in her ear.
“Shad?” She skittered to a stop, almost running into his broad chest.
“Is this lady your woman?” The cloth merchant had caught up with them, the rainbow porcupine quilt wrapped in a protective bundle under his arm.
“She is,” Shad said gravely. “Did you say that she touched that—the royal fabric?”
The vendor nodded his dark head eagerly.
“Indeed yes—the cloth of thorns. Once it touches the skin of a beautiful woman it refuses the touch of all others.” He looked at Harper reproachfully. “So you see, my lady, it truly cannot be for anyone else.” He held the rainbow bundle out to Harper who drew away quickly.
“Touch it,” Shad said to her.
“What? Why?” she demanded.
“To prove the fabric really is attuned to you.” He nodded at the prickly-looking bundle again. “Go on—touch it.”
Reluctantly, Harper put out a single finger to touch the fabric. She was halfway convinced that she would be pricked this time. Instead, the harsh-looking spikes twined caressingly around her fingers, almost as though they had a life of their own.
“Very nice,” Shad murmured. “And now I’ll try.”
He put out a hand to touch the rainbow daggers and the fabric actually hissed at him. Harper couldn’t believe it.
“What in the world?” she demanded. “Why would it do that? And how did it do that? Is it alive?”
“Semi-sentient.” Shad withdrew his hand. “The merchant is right—it has imprinted on you, Harper. It will resist the touch of anyone’s hand but yours.”
“But…that’s crazy.” Harper shook her head. “Who ever heard of living fabric?”
“Actually, the Kindred have had something like it for centuries,” Shad told her. “It’s a semi-sentient garment called a tharp which imprints on a single owner. But a tharp can become many different garments. I don’t think the cloth of thorns can be cut or sewn to change its shape in any way.”
“It is most often used as a cloak, good sir,” the merchant said quickly. He had tucked the rainbow fabric, wrapped in a protective covering, back under his arm and he was still wearing the long gloves he’d used to handle it earlier, Harper saw. “When your lovely lady wears it, nothing can harm her. It will be as strong as plasti-steel armor, repelling a knife or sword—even the blast of a plasma rifle cannot penetrate it. Yet to her, it will feel as soft as flower petals caressing her skin.”
“Most intriguing.” Shad nodded thoughtfully.
“Is it true?” Harper asked doubtfully. It was obvious the rainbow porcupine fabric would be protective. But was it really that strong?
“Yes, if I am remembering correctly, it is.” Shad nodded again. “Actually, this is a good thing, Harper. Just think if you’d been wearing a cloak made of cloth of thorns earlier—the slidy would never have been able to grab you.”
“Well, that’s true,” Harper admitted reluctantly. “But it’s going to make me awfully conspicuous if I wear that.” She nodded at the sparkling rainbow fabric. “And I thought we were trying to keep a low profile.”
“Its bright colors warn others away, my lady,” the merchant said earnestly. “It is why the cloth of thorns is also known as the royal fabric. The ones who wear it are important people. Wealthy royals from distant systems who are to be seen but not touched.”
“And I believe you offered to sell it to Harper for four hundred credits?” Shad raised an eyebrow. “It would seem that such a valuable and protective item would be worth far more. Why the reduced rate?”
The merchant shuffled his feet uneasily.
“This particular cloth of thorns is…somewhat bad-tempered,” he admitted at last. “It has bitten and pricked me more times than I can count. At last I hung it outside as a punishment—hoping that it would take a liking to someone—anyone. I will be pleased to get rid of it.”
“Are you sure it won’t decide it doesn’t like me after all?” Harper asked nervously.
“No, never!” the merchant exclaimed. “On you it has imprinted, lady. It will love you for always. It is only other people who are near you that it might become a bit…well, snappish with.”
Harper had a mental image of herself wearing the rainbow porcupine fabric and sitting on a subway or a crowded bus. It was one thing for the fabric to protect her from attacks—but it was something else entirely if it was going to start attacking people around her just because it was in a bad mood. It would be like going out with a badly behaved dog, one that was prone to biting.
“I don’t know…” she began but Shad was already holding out his thumb.
“We’ll pay your price,” he said to the merchant. “I like the idea of my female being protected so completely.”
“But—” Harper began but she didn’t get to finish because Shad was already pressing the pad of his thumb to the merchant’s small silver payment cube.
“Here you are, my lady. May it guard your life and serve you well.”
Carefully and still wearing the gloves, the merchant unfolded the cloth of thorns from its protective covering and draped it around the still-protesting Harper’s shoulders.
It fell over her as soft as silk and not nearly as hot or heavy as she’d imagined it would be. How something so incredibly light could really protect her, she didn’t know. But Shad seemed satisfied—especially after he reached to adjust a fold of the cloth—which had settled naturally around her shoulders like a cloak—and it bit him, its long spines forming a kind of mouth with many sharp teeth.
“Ouch!” he exclaimed, drawing his fingers back and sticking them in his mouth. “Son of a bitch! It’s quick.”
“I did warn you, sir.” The merchant shrugged. “The royal cloth loves none but its owner. All the rest of the universe is the enemy. A more loyal bodyguard your lady could not have—aside from yourself, of course.” He bowed deferentially.
“I see that.” Shad put his injured finger in his mouth and sucked at it thoughtfully. He looked at Harper. “Well, now that you’re protected by that gaudy, bad-tempered piece of cloth, maybe we can finally do what we came here to do—go see Master Yll-no.”
Harper sighed. “Lead the way.”
“Come.” Being careful not to touch the rainbow cloak, he led her deeper into the market.
* * * * *
The way to Forger’s Row was not an easy one. For one thing, even at the Thieves' Market what they were doing was considered illegal. And for another, they only wanted to be found by those who could afford them. So when Shad saw a black tent which appeared to have nothing but a dusty floor and dark, foreboding shadows inside, he thought he was getting close. When he felt the air of menace and dread which surrounded the place, he knew he was.
“Wait—we’re going in there?” Harper pulled back on his hand as he attempted to lead her into the dark and dusty tent. “Why? There’s no one in there. And it feels creepy…wrong.”
“It’s supposed to feel wrong,” Shad told her patiently. “The forgers want to frighten away the wrong kind of customer. Anyone who doesn’t know exactly what they’re looking for won’t go in.”
“So you’re saying the forgers themselves—this Master Yll-no—somehow made this tent seem scary on purpose?” she demanded.
Shad nodded. “Yes.”
“So people who come to see them have to go through a haunted tent to prove they’re worthy? That’s crazy.”
“No, that’s doing business with a life-forger. Come on.” Shad nodded at the forbidding opening again and this time she followed him—albeit very reluctantly.
They went through the empty tent and Shad threw aside the back flap to reveal an amazing sight. The back of the tent opened up into a boulevard of wonders. Behind him, he heard Harper gasp as she took it all in.
They were standing on a row lined not with tents, but with every other kind of dwelling imaginable. To their right was a stately mansion with white marble pillars and an arching doorway. To their left was a castle surrounded by a moat with a fire-breathing dragon perched on its tallest spire. It roared down at them, smoke puffing from its nostrils. Harper flinched but Shad paid it no mind. It, like everything else here, was just a forgery—a very clever fake.
“What is this place?” Harper breathed, going up to a house which appeared to be made entirely out of candy. It had gingerbread walls and fist-sized red and white peppermints lined its windowsills. The icicles hanging from its eaves were clearly frosting and the front doorknob was an oversized green gumdrop.
“The Avenue of Forgers,” Shad answered. “What do you think?”
“I think it’s…bizarre.” Harper was looking across the street at an underwater palace entirely contained in an enormous round fish bowl. “But if they forge money all day, why do they spend it like this? I mean, is this some kind of a status symbol or something?”
“Forge money? You mean make counterfeit bills?” Shad frowned.
“Well…sure.” Harper shrugged. “I mean, that’s what a forger does, right? Makes fake money?”
“Not here on Juno in the Thieves' Market,” Shad told her. “Here, they forge fake lives. Which is exactly what we need for you if She Who Alters is going to agree to meet with you.” He jerked his head in the direction they needed to be headed. “Come on.”
* * * * *
Harper still felt dizzy from everything that had transpired since they’d landed on Juno. It seemed like strange things just would not stop happening to her and she was beginning to feel like Alice in an extremely warped version of Wonderland.
She still wasn’t sure about the rainbow porcupine cloak she’d acquired in her latest bizarre adventure either. It wrapped around her securely but the minute anyone else tried to touch her, the cloak went into a snarling, biting frenzy. Back home in Tampa it would have been a legal liability—a lawsuit just waiting to happen. But here on Juno, maybe it would be an asset.
She hoped.
They passed by more strange dwellings—a grand house that appeared to be suspended twenty feet up in midair with golden steps leading up to it, a tiny pink structure no bigger than a large doll house (Harper wondered how anyone was supposed to get in there), and the entrance to a cavern filled with green and gold and blue stalactites and stalagmites that glittered with jewels and veins of precious ore embedded in them.
But it was to none of these or the various other strange and wonderful houses that Shad was leading her. Instead, he pulled her towards the end of the long street where Harper saw a small, humble wooden house.
It was more of a shack than a house, actually. The kind of falling-down structure someone might use for a garden shed. With all the other amazing buildings on the street, Harper wondered why they had come to this one.
“This is it?” she asked flatly as Shad reached out to knock at the rickety, unpainted wooden door. “All these other amazing places and this is the one you take us to?”
“This is where Master Yll-no lives,” Shad said simply. “He—”
At that moment the door was opened by the tallest and most beautiful woman Harper had ever seen. She was six foot six at least and had pale lavender skin and wide, golden eyes fringed thickly with black lashes. A long waterfall of thick black hair fell to her ankles and she was wearing a flowing scarlet robe which should have clashed violently with her skin tones…but somehow didn’t.
“Yes?” she murmured in a soft, husky voice. “How may I be of help to you?”
Harper was certain they must be in the wrong place but Shad clearly wasn’t ready to give up.
“We are here to speak to the Master of the house,” he said.
“Master of the house? What of the Mistress of the house?” the lovely woman inquired. Then she changed before their eyes, melting like a crayon in the sun, her colors running, her shape changing until she was a young boy, of about seven or eight. The boy had mint green skin and eyes as golden as the woman’s had been. His hair, though, was a white gold that was almost silver. “Or would you speak to another?” he asked in a high, soft voice.
Harper blinked. What the hell was going on here? If it was a magic trick it was a damn good one. Neither the woman nor the boy looked anything but completely real. She wondered if they would be solid to the touch or if it was somehow an optical illusion.
The boy melted just as the woman had and reformed to become some kind of animal—it looked like a cross between a black panther and a lion, to Harper. It yawned hugely, showing sharp white teeth like daggers.
“Well?” it said, twitching its whiskers and shaking out its long, black mane. Its large golden eyes regarded them with interest.
“I wish to speak to the Master of the house,” Shad repeated, frowning. “Only he can help me. I am calling in a debt that is owed to my Twin Kindred fathers, Deep and Lock.”
The panther-lion twitched and frowned—a strange expression on an animal face, Harper thought.
“Name me and you shall know me,” it said at last.
Shad straightened his shoulders.
“Master Yll-no,’ he growled. “I call on you to come forth and fulfill your obligation.”
The panther-lion melted again, this time becoming a mild-looking old man with thinning gray hair and warm, copper-colored skin. He was wearing a simple white robe and a bemused expression on his kindly, worn face. Only the golden eyes remained the same.
“Yes?” he said. “What can I do for you? No, wait…” He held up a hand to stop Shad from answering. “Come inside where we can speak in privacy.”
“Thank you.” Shad inclined his head and he and Harper stepped inside.
Harper had expected the rustic shack look to continue inside the structure, but she was surprised again. The minute they crossed the threshold, a warm, comfortable sitting room was revealed. A soft, jewel-toned carpet in green and blue and crimson covered the floor. A fireplace with a fire of dancing gold and indigo flames was on the far wall and three brown, furry beanbag looking things were arranged around it.
“Here we are.” Master Yll-no shut the front door and made a motion for them to sit down. “Please, make yourselves comfortable and I will return in a moment.”
Harper started to sit on one of the furry brown beanbags but her new cloak reacted badly, hissing and spitting and trying to bite the beanbag, which whimpered audibly like a hurt puppy.
“Oh!” Harper gasped, jumping up again. “What’s going on? Is that thing alive?” She looked down at the furry beanbag which was undulating in a way that made her think it was trying to get away.
“My dear, if you could please take off your cloak of thorns, just for as long as you’re here,” Master Yll-no said. He pointed at a coat tree which looked like a pole with antlers growing out of it. “You can hang it there. I promise you will come to no harm from my humlocks. They wish only to cradle a visitor in comfort but of course, your cloak sees them as a threat.”
“Humlocks?” Harper said doubtfully, but after a glance at Shad, who nodded, she took off her cloak and hung it carefully on one of the antler branches of the coat tree.
It whined softly when she took it off and Harper felt suddenly awkward about leaving it.
“It’s all right, buddy,” she murmured, stroking the rainbow colored spikes which twined around her fingers appealingly, like a toddler begging its mom not to leave. “I promise it’s only for a minute. I’ll be right over there and I won’t forget you.”
The cloak’s sad whining subsided and she felt a little better as she went to sit down again.
But this time as she started to lower herself onto the furry humlock, she found herself falling.
“Oh!” she gasped and would have hit the floor with a jarring thump if Shad, who was already settled in the humlock beside her, hadn’t reached out a hand and grabbed her.
Unfortunately, her bottom landed in his palm so he saved her by getting a handful of her ass.
“Oh!” Harper gasped again, this time for a different reason.
“Forgive me,” Shad said roughly, removing his hand hastily as she scrambled back to her feet. “I acted on instinct. I didn’t want you to hurt yourself.”
“It’s okay,” Harper said quickly. “I…I’m fine.”
But was she? The touch of his big, warm hand in such an intimate area seemed to have done something to her. Her breasts suddenly felt tender, her nipples sensitive against the silky red material of the gown she still wore. A shiver of pure desire went through her, making her feel swollen and hot between her thighs. What was wrong with her?
Trying to shake the strange feelings off, Harper looked for her furry beanbag, which was halfway across the room.
“What happened anyway?” she asked, sounding breathless in her own ears.
“I am afraid the humlock rolled away from you at the last minute.” Master Yll-no sounded apologetic. “Clearly it thought it would be hurt again if you sat on it. You must reassure it before it will allow you to sit.”
“Reassure it? How?” Harper asked, bewildered.
“Call it over—coax it and promise you will not injure it again,” Master Yll-no directed. “It has limited intelligence but it will come if you are kind. Although, admittedly it will respond to the tone of your voice more than your words.”
“What—call it like a puppy?” Harper demanded.
Shad shrugged. “Why not?”
Because I’ll feel like an idiot sweet-talking a hairy beanbag, that’s why! Harper thought but didn’t say. She sighed deeply. Well, she had hurt the humlock by trying to sit in it with her bad-tempered cloak, even if it hadn’t been on purpose. And her mother had always told her to apologize if you hurt someone by accident.
“Just because it was an accident doesn’t make it hurt any less,” she had lectured, although Harper’s crazy younger brothers got this particular talk a lot more than she ever had. They were always running into someone or jabbing you with their sharp little elbows and knees when they were little, just because they didn’t look where they were going.
Crouching down to get on the humlock’s level, she put out a hand as she would to a wounded dog or cat she was trying to get to come to her.
“Hey, buddy,” she said in her softest, most coaxing tone. “I’m real sorry I hurt you earlier. I didn’t mean to, I promise. Please come back and let me, er, sit on you. I’m not wearing the cloak anymore so it won’t hurt.” As long as the furry creature didn’t mind being squished by her overly large ass, that was, she though wryly. But Shad’s humlock didn’t seem to be having a problem and she was pretty sure the big Kindred weighed even more than she did. The difference with him was, it was all hard muscle.
A shiver went through the humlock and Harper got the feeling it was looking at her—though she couldn’t see any eyes—and trying to decide if it should trust her again. Watching it cower against the far wall, she felt genuinely sorry for it. Being bitten by her bad-tempered cloak of thorns was no fun and had obviously traumatized the furry creature.
“Hey little guy,” she tried again, forgetting to feel ridiculous for sweet-talking the strange beanbag-like creature this time. “Please forgive me and come on back. I swear I won’t hurt you this time.”
The humlock gave a little shiver which made its long brown fur ripple like a wheat field with a wind blowing through it. Then, slowly, it began to roll towards Harper, looking like a furry tumbleweed. When it reached her outstretched hand, she stroked it gently with her fingertips, as she might pet a mistrustful cat. She had the idea it was sniffing her—although again, she could see no nose—it was just a feeling she got.
After a moment, the humlock rolled closer and she was able to pet it with long, slow strokes.
“Poor little guy,” she murmured, though she had no idea if the creature was male or female. “You’re just scared to death, aren’t you? Don’t worry—it’s going to be okay.”
Harper had always been good with animals. In fact, she’d seriously considered going to veterinary college. But the waiting list to get in was incredibly long and she’d ended up in marketing instead—something she still regretted sometimes.
The humlock responded to her like most animals did and soon she was cradling the furry thing in her arms and humming to it gently.
“Well—it certainly seems taken with you now,” Master Yll-no remarked and Harper looked up, startled.
“Oh, um…I guess so.” She was embarrassed at being caught treating the wounded humlock like a baby or a hurt puppy. But to be honest, she’d forgotten the life-forger and Shad were even in the room, so intent had she been on soothing the strange creature.
“It should allow you to sit on it now.” Master Yll-no nodded at the humlock which was practically purring with delight as it trembled in her arms.
“But I don’t want to hurt it,” Harper protested, feeling suddenly bad at the idea of squishing the poor creature just when she’d won its trust. “I don’t want to put pressure on it when my cloak just, uh, bit it. Can I just hold it instead of sitting on it?”
“Well, that is something of a reversal but yes, I suppose.” The little old man shrugged his shoulders. He turned to Shad. “Let’s get down to business. You said that you are calling in a debt owed to your fathers, Deep and Lock. But they are Twin Kindred.”
“Were Twin Kindred.” There was a catch in Shad’s deep voice but he cleared his throat and went on. “They have been dead these twenty cycles.”
“Indeed?” The Master’s thin gray eyebrows rose in apparent surprise. “Then I grieve for you. But I must ask, where is your own twin? It was my understanding that Twin Kindred fathers always sired Twin Kindred sons.”
“They did sire Twins—my brothers, War and Peace,” Shad said quietly. “I am a Shadow Twin—an extra—so I have no twin of my own.”
“Ahh.” Master Yll-no nodded gravely. “One cursed to walk alone always. Then I am sorry for your lot.”
Cursed to walk alone? Harper wondered what that meant. Did it have anything to do with the way the big Kindred tried to keep his distance from her? Was he barred from ever having a close relationship because he didn’t have a twin brother like his brothers War and Peace did?
“I didn’t come here seeking your sympathy,” Shad said sharply, breaking her train of thought. “I am well used to being alone in life. I need your help—a repayment of the debt you owe.”
“Very well.” The Master forger inclined his head gravely. “It has been many years since I had dealings with your fathers, and yet the debt still stands.”
“Yes, I know—I have their memories,” Shad said. “Which is why I came to you, although what I have to ask may seem impossible at first.”
The Master’s golden eyes gleamed.
“I specialize in the impossible. Name it.”
Shad took a deep breath and Harper had the feeling he was trying to think how to word his request. Finally, he just said it.
“I need you to work a forgery so elaborate…so real that it will even fool She Who Alters.”
“She Who Alters?” The Master sprang to his feet in apparent agitation. “But She Who Alters sees through all subterfuge and punishes any who attempts to deceive her.” He melted into the boy and then the panther-lion again—which made Harper jumpy because it was huge—before reforming as the old man once more.
“Yes,” Shad said steadily. “I know that. But can you do it?”
“I had never even considered it before,” Master Yll-no admitted. “My life-forgeries are good—the best in the galaxy. But I never thought to fool an All Seeing One.”
“Who is this She Who Alters, anyway?” Harper asked, wanting to get some answers herself. “You said she can change me—take away the part of me that makes the Hive want me. But how?”
“Her methods are unknowable but always effective,” Shad said, which wasn’t much of an answer in Harper’s opinion. “And she is a semi-divine being. A Goddess almost as great as The Mother of All Life, whom we Kindred worship.”
“And we’re going to try and fool her—try and fool a Goddess?” Harper asked. “Why? Why can’t we just go as we are and ask for her help?”
“Because she is a Goddess—common people can’t even get near her,” Shad explained patiently. “There are many layers of bureaucracy surrounding her that have to be penetrated before she will even lay eyes on us—on you, Harper.”
“If those around She Who Alters shield her from everyone but only the most important and influential people, then you must have a forgery that makes you someone to be reckoned with. A great power—or at least, someone of supreme interest.” Master Yll-no sounded thoughtful.
“So you’ll do it?” Shad asked. There was a look of cautious optimism on his face.
“I will indeed.” The forger nodded decisively. “I have always enjoyed a challenge and these last few millennia as I have reached the top of my skills, there has been little to challenge me.” He looked at Harper. “My dear, we will transform you completely.”
“Into what?” Harper felt distinctly nervous when he talked about transformation. She kept thinking about the way the Master himself had changed forms so many times, melting from a woman to a boy to an animal to a man. Even now she wasn’t sure if he was showing them his true shape. After all, why should he if he could be so many other things? And what would he turn her into?
Master Yll-no seemed to read her thoughts on her face because he smiled gently.
“Do not worry, my dear. You will not lose your lovely shape or any part of your beauty. We will forge a new life and identity for you—not a new appearance. Now let me see…” He began pacing in front of the fireplace, clearly deep in thought. “Someone important…someone influential…”
Suddenly from the coat tree, the cloak of thorns hissed angrily. A little blue moth-like insect had been fluttering around the fireplace while they talked and then, apparently attracted to the light shimmering on the cloak’s long, rainbow-colored quills, it had gotten too close.
Harper shivered as she saw the quills come together to form jaws and snap at the intruding moth, which barely got away. For the first time she wondered if she was supposed to feed her new item of clothing. And if so, what exactly did it eat?
But the incident seemed to give Master Yll-no an idea because he snapped his fingers excitedly.
“That’s it! You’ll be an empress. Empress Kyreella of Gobesh Prime of the Chavesh-Hie System. You’ve already got the royal cloth to wear—it’s perfect.”
“The which of the who?” Harper frowned. “You want me to pretend to be the Empress of an entire planet?”
“Oh no, no, my dear—of an entire solar system,” Master Yll-no emphasized. “But of course, Gobesh Prime is the only inhabited planet in it. I don’t have time to forge more than one world and all its cultures and topography if you’re planning to go to see She Who Alters at once.”
“We are—as soon as possible,” Shad said.
“Then one inhabited planet it is. The rest can be ice balls or gas giants.” Master Yll-no closed his eyes and drew a deep breath. When he spoke again, there was an echo of power in his words that Harper had never heard before. “Gobesh Prime a small world, but a rich one,” he said.
In the air before him, a globe about as big as a beach ball appeared, glowing faintly gold around its circumference.
“It has oceans filled with fish and unknowable sea beasts in its depths. There are high purple mountains, majestic in their grandeur, and fertile valleys where the common people plant crops of fruit and grains.”
As Master Yll-no spoke, what he was saying actually came to pass. Harper watched in amazement as the globe colored itself in, the oceans becoming a deep green, majestic royal purple mountains rising, and fields and valleys popping up too. Tiny people appeared as well, working hard with what looked like harvesting and planting machines among rows of crops.
“There are cities filled with tall buildings, marvelous inventions and rich culture…as well as rural areas with rich farmland and beautiful scenery.”
Cities appeared over the purple land masses and tiny vehicles traversed roads which unrolled in front of them like silvery ribbons.
“You, my Empress, live in a golden castle by the sea,” Yll-no continued and a small golden palace with tall spires rose at the edge of the green ocean. “You have been raised to rule but you long for someone by your side. A royal alliance from beyond the stars. But there is something about you—something which must be Altered in order for you to find this love—this is why you are going to seek out She Who Alters.”
As he spoke, a miniature Harper came out to stand on a miniscule balcony. She lifted her face as though looking out at the night sky. Though she was barely as big as Harper’s pinky finger, Harper could plainly see the look of longing on her tiny doppelganger’s face.
“This is amazing,” she whispered to Shad. “How is he doing all this?”
“It is the forger’s craft—to speak things into being. To weave dreams into reality,” Shad murmured back.
“Is it just an optical illusion?” Harper asked.
This time it was Master Yll-no who answered.
“Assuredly not, my dear. It is real, as are all my forgeries. Go on—touch it. I can tell you want to.” Master Yll-no gestured expansively at the globe which still hovered in mid-air before him.
Hesitantly, Harper raised up on her knees and put out a hand. She didn’t want to hurt all the little pinky-sized people, so she contented herself with dipping one finger into the deep green ocean. It came away wet and she stared at it in wonder.
“But then…if everything you make is real, why do you call it a forgery?” she asked, looking at her wet finger and then back to the miniature world, perfect in every detail.
A look of sorrow passed over the Master’s face.
“Because, alas, they do not last. My forgeries are very good—some can endure for years—but they all, eventually, disintegrate into dust.”
“Wow,” Harper murmured uneasily. “So how long will this…this new life you’re forging for me last?”
She was afraid Master Yll-no would tell her it could only last a day or two which would make their schedule extremely tight. She didn’t want to be standing in front of the Goddess they were going to when her new life melted away around her like Cinderella’s gorgeous ball gown fading to rags at the stroke of midnight.
But the forger’s next words set her mind at ease.
“With a forgery this elaborate I’m afraid I can only guarantee it for a year and a day,” he said, sighing.
“A year and a day?” Harper asked, cautiously optimistic. “Like an Earth year—three hundred and sixty-five days?” She knew that years could be different lengths on different planets depending on their size and rotation around their sun.
“Precisely.” Master Yll-no nodded. “Will that time be sufficient?”
“It should be more than enough time to get to Pelegiez-R where She Who Alters holds court,” Shad said. “Thank you, Master.”
“You are more than welcome. Now let me continue—I am just warming to my task.” The Master forger appeared to be really enjoying himself so Harper and Shad were silent as he continued.
“As an Empress, of course, you have a massive royal ship—golden I think—befitting your rank.”
A golden ship, about an eighth as big as the globe which represented Harper’s fake home world appeared, gleaming in the firelight.
“You wear gorgeous dresses—many of which you have brought with you on your ship,” Yll’no continued.
“Excuse me.” Harper hated to interrupt, but she had to ask. “Talking about the world and the ship and these gorgeous dresses, are they only here?” She gestured at the miniature glowing globe and ship. “I mean, this may be a stupid question but how can we use them if they’re so tiny?”
“Oh, these are only representations—models if you will—of the actual objects I am speaking into being,” Master Yll-no explained. “Far away in the Raphesh Nine sector of space, there really is a huge planet, just like this tiny one. As for your ship, it and all its crew will be waiting for you, docked near the ship you came in at the spaceport.”
“Really? Wow!” Harper tried to imagine the gorgeous golden ship blown up to full size and couldn’t quite picture it. It would certainly take up more than one spoke on the landing platform’s wheel. In fact, it might take up an entire landing platform of its own.
“Yes, really,” Master Yll-no assured her. “And speaking of crew, of course, there are many servants who adore you, also aboard your royal space yacht.”
“There must be a place for me as well,” Shad pointed out. “I have to be near her, to protect her.”
Master Yll-no nodded. “As I said, there are many servants but none as loyal as your faithful bodyguard. He never leaves your side, Empress—he attends to all your needs and cares for you both day and night.”
Beside the tiny Harper figure, a small Shad came out, dressed in black leather trousers and a black leather vest to match which showed off his muscular arms. Harper wondered if the big Kindred would object to being called a servant and relegated to the post of bodyguard but he nodded with apparent satisfaction.
“That’s good. Thank you, Master.”
Harper wasn’t sure about the whole “caring for her day and night” thing but the Master forger was going on, adding details to the ship and her fake home planet, spinning the small globe and the golden space yacht in midair which responded instantly to his words.
What he was doing was fascinating and Harper enjoyed watching as the things he described came into being right in front of them but after a while, she began to have a hard time concentrating. It wasn’t that the things Master Yll-no was doing became less interesting—it was the fact that she had a feeling something was wrong. Not with the scenario the Master forger was creating—something was wrong inside—with her.
It started as a feeling of heaviness in her breasts. They were big anyway so Harper wasn’t super comfortable going braless as she was now but it hadn’t bothered her quite this much before. Her nipples were sensitive too—and she realized they had been for a while—she’d just been too busy to notice it. Now they were getting so uncomfortable, she couldn’t help noticing.
As unobtrusively as she could, she tried to pluck the material of her red dress away from her aching breasts, in order to ease the tingling in her nipples. It helped a little—not much—and she shifted uncomfortably, realizing that her nipples weren’t the only part of her that was suddenly and unaccountably tender.
Between her thighs, her sex felt swollen and hot, her pussy aching to be touched.
Oh my God, what’s wrong with me? Harper pressed her legs together, trying to ignore the strange aching pull she was beginning to feel.
The humlock wiggled in her arms and gave a small sound of protest and she realized she had been unconsciously squeezing it.
“Sorry, little guy,” she murmured, looking down at it as she stroked its fur. But what she saw made her eyes widen.
Were her breasts getting bigger?
Surely not—they can’t be. But what if they are?
Harper bit her lip, trying to look at her chest as unobtrusively as possible but the black t-shirt she was still wearing over her dress got in the way. She needed to get a really good look at herself but she was afraid she was going to draw the attention of both Shad and Master Yll-no. What she needed was privacy.
“Excuse me,” she said hesitantly the next time there was a break in the Master forger’s speech. “Could you direct me to your ladies' room?”
He frowned. “I am afraid I do not have a room specifically set aside for ladies here in my home.”
“Your bathroom, I mean,” Harper said quickly.
Yll-no raised an eyebrow. “Do you wish to take a bath, my dear? You might want to wait until you get back to the space yacht I am forging for you. The bathing facilities will be truly sumptuous, I promise.”
Shad was frowning as well, as though he wondered if she was all right. But he only said, “I think Harper needs to relieve herself. Do you have a room for that purpose?”
“Oh, a personal waste disposal room! Why didn’t you say so?” Master Yll-no laughed. “Of course, my dear. Just take this door to the right, go down the hallway, and it will be the third door on your left.”
“Thank you.” Harper nodded gratefully and rose, still holding the humlock in her arms. She waited until Shad was watching Master Yll-no’s forgery again before setting it down carefully and walking quickly out of the door. Her breasts definitely felt larger and heavier and she didn’t want the big Kindred to notice if she could help it.