"Well, you can wear normal clothes when you cook," Delvin conceded. I wanted to thank him for giving his permission in the most sarcastic way I possibly could, but Arvil might be running out of patience soon. I had no desire to see anyone else burned to a crisp while screaming in agony. Especially if the warlock was aiming at me.

I went to bed shortly afterward, but before I futilely attempted to sleep, I drew out what I'd held in the pocket of my leather pants and examined it. Perhaps it was luck, perhaps it was my death. I'd tripped over something when I'd gone to examine spawn dust in the field surrounding us. It turned out to be part of a sprinkler pipe.

I'd lifted a piece of it up after nearly tripping over it in the damp soil, and then slid the small chunk carefully into one of my pants pockets. It held a serial number—most things did that were manufactured by the Alliance. Contacting Lendill, who was grumpy at being wakened, I sent the serial number to him through mindspeech. I hoped he was awake enough to record it for research later—he was certainly interested in the fact that there were more fields of drakus seed somewhere.

"Re, what's this?" Teeg came in the following morning. I was exhausted since I'd gotten in late and then was unable to sleep afterward. I didn't bother with a jacket today and wore a stretchy, sleeveless shirt—it was summer on Campiaa and warm inside the kitchen, even early in the morning. My breasts, such as they were, were visible under my top. And when my nipples hardened at Teeg's appearance, it made me flush with embarrassment.

"I'm a girl. Master Arvil discovered that fact last night, even with my best disguise. There," I muttered, turning away to tend to something on the stove.

"He didn't touch you, did he?" Teeg was turning me back to face him, a look of concern on his face.

"No." My reply was sullen.

"I'll kill him if he does," Teeg's hands clenched. I stared at him in shock—where had that come from?

"Don't worry," Teeg said. "Go back to your cooking. The countertops will be delivered sometime today. They couldn't give me an exact time."

Neele chose that moment to wander in and he grinned at me. "Delvin told me," he laughed.

"Of course he did," I muttered.

"Nice black eye you gave him."

"He deserved it."

"Probably," Neele was still laughing. "I hear you're Master Arvil's new bodyguard, as well as his cook."

"I'm so lucky," I snapped.

"Re," Teeg warned.

"It's Reah," cruel-mouth sauntered into the kitchen. He stared at me the whole time I fixed breakfast. Teeg checked the plumbing. He checked all the new appliances. Checked the new cabinets and made sure he had enough supplies to lay the new countertops. Cruel-mouth finally left.

"Neele, is there any furniture polish anywhere?" Teeg asked my assistant.

"I think the housekeeper has some," Neele replied. Arvil's housekeeper was likely in her twenties and looked as if she hopped into bed with Arvil whenever he snapped his fingers. Her long dark hair and pretty face hadn't gotten past Neele either. "I'll go ask," Neele trotted out of the kitchen.

"Reah, if that wizard so much as looks at you wrong," Teeg didn't finish his statement. I wasn't sure why Teeg would be concerned, or what he could do if cruel-mouth did look at me wrong.

Neele trotted back in with a bottle of furniture oil. "This will do nicely—do you have an old cloth or anything?" Neele found that, too, by going to ask the housekeeper. He was gone longer the second time. Teeg did a thorough job, oiling and polishing the wood cabinets. They were red wood, and the new countertops were supposed to be black stone. It would look very nice when finished.

When Neele walked out of the kitchen to go to the bathroom, Teeg spoke again. "Reah, meet me in front of the casino when you're done tonight," he said.

I wanted to ask him why, but my desire to meet him just about anywhere kept that question behind my teeth. "All right," I agreed. "But they'll watch me, I think."

"Arvil won't care—I work for him, too. He keeps me busy at all his casinos most of the time. He pulled me away from my current project to finish this. I'll go back to that, tomorrow."

"They'll still have an eye on me," I said softly. Teeg was kneeling on the floor, oiling a cabinet door next to the stove, which meant he was right beside me as I worked.

"Only until they see you're with me. Don't worry, Reah. All right?"

Asking me not to worry was like asking the sun not to rise. Not possible. Teeg had no idea who I was and why or how I'd gotten here. And he was quite handsome, turning heads wherever he went. What could he possibly see in a small, nearly flat-chested female with a shaved head? It made absolutely no sense at all.

Chapter 6

"There you are—I was beginning to think you'd changed your mind."

"Arvil wanted extra dessert," I mumbled as Teeg pulled me along beside him. We were walking down the street that ran between the casinos and the beach. I'd been right, too, about Arvil's guards watching me. They'd melted away as soon as they saw me with Teeg.

"Let's sit here." Teeg chose a spot with a nice view of the moon hovering over the water. I dropped beside him and sat cross-legged on the sand. That seemed to amuse Teeg for some reason. We didn't talk for several ticks.

"Reah, did you think I wouldn't know? I can't believe those idiots didn't see it sooner," Teeg turned to look at me. His face was in shadow, but I could see moonlight glinting in his dark eyes.

"I should have hit Delvin harder," I grumbled.

"He does have a nice black eye," Teeg agreed. "But I don't like the way Haral looks at you, now."

"Is that his name? I was calling him cruel-mouth."

"He has that, certainly," Teeg agreed. "You didn't call him that to his face, did you?"

"Do you think I'm that stupid? I watched him fry a man." The thought of that made me shudder.

"Reah, I think anyone else would have gone into fits over that," Teeg said, bumping his shoulder against mine. "Or fainted."

"I wish I had fainted."

"No, Reah. We don't need to hand them any more weapons than they have already."

"What do you mean?" I was concerned, now. And a little frightened.

"If he learns he can make you pass out, then he might do it, just because he can," Teeg shivered.

"Oh, gods," I dropped my face into my hands.

"But since he knows you can deliver a good right hook," Teeg smiled crookedly, "maybe he'll back off. Watch him, Reah. He likes the young ones—the smaller ones."

"Arvil told them they couldn't touch me unless I wanted them to touch me. I won't ever want them. Any of them. Ever."

"Then don't put yourself in any position to make it a he-said, she-said situation. Arvil may side with his wizards. They're valuable to him, I know."

"You seem to know a lot about them—for a contractor."

"Reah, I've been in and out of Arvil's palace and his casinos. I've heard all kinds of things. Trust me—burning that poor man to death was one of Arvil's quicker murders. He owns Campiaa, Reah. Don't ever forget that. The constabulary are for the others, when they murder, rape or steal. Arvil gets away with whatever he wants."

"Yet you work for him. My employment was involuntary."

"I heard that too," Teeg sighed. He didn't bother to explain how or why he worked for Arvil San Gerxon. "I know you don't belong here, Reah," Teeg went on. "You're like a lily standing in a patch of blackweed." His analogy was good; blackweed was a pernicious plant that choked out all other plants if allowed to grow unchecked.

"Let's go walk in the water," I suggested. Our conversation was only serving to frighten and depress me. We took off our shoes and waded in the water while the moon shone upon us. After a bit, I pulled the piece of pipe from my pocket—I'd been afraid to leave it in my room—and flung it far out into the water.

"What was that?" Teeg asked as we watched it curve over the ocean before dropping in with a soft plop.

"A piece of my former life," I sighed and walked on.

"That fool Delvin let the bull out of the barn." Norian felt like hissing, even if he wasn't currently in his lion snake form.

"So they know she's female now." Lendill raked a hand through his hair.

"On another note, we've managed to convince wizard Bel to work for us. He was so angry over being duped by Delvin that he wants to help us out any way he can. I think the fact that they grabbed Reah had something to do with it." Norian had Bel's signed conscription on the comp-vid lying on his desk.

"That serial number she gave us checked out—those fields are on Reliff. We can have a team in place by tomorrow."

"Do it," Norian nodded.

Anyone who was still in bed was pulled from their sleep early the following morning and hauled off to a huge media room inside Arvil's palace. We all watched as drakus seed fields burned on Reliff. A reporter was saying that two farmers from adjoining property had gotten suspicious after seeing what they thought were fire blasts two nights earlier. They had reported to the local constabulary, who'd done an initial investigation before calling the ASD. Arvil was so angry, he was ready to pull his hair out and kill someone.

"I told you your blasts were useless against those things!" Delvin was shouting at cruel-mouthed Haral. Haral looked as if he were about to send some of his blasts in Delvin's direction.

"Arvil's family is coming home today, too. Don't do anything to upset him." The gray-haired wizard whispered to me while Delvin and Haral glared at each other and Arvil stared in disbelief at the huge vid screen. "My name is Milus," the gray-haired one continued. "I'm sorry we were never properly introduced."