Chained (Brides of the Kindred) by Evangeline Anderson Page A

broad, bare chest and he was staring down into her eyes. “I mean,
this is wonderful,” she said, taking a step back. “It’s…I study alien plants
and animals. That’s what I was going to Gaia to do but this is great too.”
    “I’m glad you’re happy but now we need to
make an appearance down at the spa,” Kor said firmly, steering her away from
the plants and deeper into the suite.
    “What? Now? No,” Maggie protested. “I want to stay right here. I need a
notebook and pen and a way to collect and preserve specimens and—”
    “The real Lady Pope’nose would never stay
up in her room sniffing the flowers,” Kor pointed out.
    “What?” She frowned. “I’m not just
sniffing them. I want to study them.”
    “Lady Pope’nose wouldn’t do that either,”
he pointed out. “Look, Maggie, if we’re going to make this deception work, you
have to play the part. The minute a rich mistress arrives at the spa, she
changes her clothing and goes down to the spa facilities. If she doesn’t, the
other guests at the spa talk. And when the gossip starts flying, bad things
happen.”
    “Such as someone realizing I’m not who I
say I am.” Maggie sighed and turned back toward one particularly huge plant
with violet and magenta flowers. “All right, I’m sorry. I just can’t help
wanting to work when I see all this exotic uncatalogued vegetation. I mean, the
only thing better would be if there were strange animals here as well.”
    As if to answer her wish, a tiny face no
bigger than her thumbnail suddenly peeked out from behind one of the big
colorful flowers on the plant she was staring at.
    “Oh!” Maggie gasped as a tiny creature
about as long as her pinky finger crawled out onto a flat blue leaf. “What is that?”
    “A nixnax. They’re really
friendly—especially if you feed them.” Kor picked up a long purple fruit from a
bowl beside them and pinched off a piece. “Here, little one—come get it,” he
crooned in a soft, low voice.
    To Maggie’s delight, the tiny animal,
which was covered in bright pink fur, crept forward and took the tiny piece of
fruit from Kor’s big hand. It sat on the leaf, nibbling as purple juice dripped
down its little chin. As it ate, it watched them with wide, shiny black eyes.
To Maggie it looked like a cross between a tiny monkey and a mouse.
    When the nixnax was finished with
the first piece, it stood up on its hind legs and chattered at Kor for more.
    “Oh, can I this time?” Maggie begged. “I
want to feed him.”
    “He is probably a she. Only the dominant females beg for
food,” Kor informed her but he gave her the long purple fruit—which looked like
an eggplant and a banana had had a particularly ugly baby—and showed her how to
pinch off a piece.
    “Here you go,” Maggie whispered, holding
it out to the nixnax. “Come and get it.”
    The little alien creature took the food
but instead of eating it, she stuffed it into her cheek pouch, making the side
of her little wrinkled face bulge comically. Then she chattered for more.
    “She wants to bring the food back to her
tribe,” Kor said. “Go on, give her some more.”
    Maggie broke off another piece and handed
it over. The minute the nixnax had the fruit shoved into her other
cheek, she took off, swinging nimbly between the curling vines of the big plant
and disappearing behind the blue leaves and brightly colored flowers.
    “Oh…” Maggie couldn’t help feeling
disappointed. She had wanted to study the creature more and besides, it was cute .
    “Don’t worry.” Kor smiled at her. “She’ll
be back. Right now, let’s have some of this fruit ourselves. It’s going to be a
long time before dinner.”
    “It will?” Maggie broke off a piece of the
fruit for herself—noticing that it tasted sweet and bland, kind of like
oatmeal.
    “Mmm-hmm. The Grand Banquet is a big event
here.” Kor picked up some fruit for himself. “After we eat, it’s time we got
down to the spa. The other mistresses