Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 85794 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 429(@200wpm)___ 343(@250wpm)___ 286(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 85794 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 429(@200wpm)___ 343(@250wpm)___ 286(@300wpm)
A sudden flush of excited embarrassment passed through her in a wave but Phoebe somehow managed to keep her expression composed.
“No, Commander. I have no difficulty pretending to submit to Agent Sirex,” she said blandly. “I’ll do whatever the mission requires.”
From the corner of her eye she could see her mentor looking at her. No doubt he was picking up her body’s heated reaction to Commander Sylvan’s words with his special vision, but he said nothing about it.
“How, er, dominant do I need to be?” he asked instead, turning his gaze to their boss.
“Quite dominant, I’m afraid. Females are considered property on Salacious Prime. The males there are their owners or “Masters” as they call themselves. I’ve even heard that the women they claim to own are required to wear collars of different colors—apparently the colors have some significance to do with the type of ownership involved.” He cleared his throat. “Naturally Kat, who gets all our agents ready for their missions, will give you the outfits you’ll need to wear to fit in with the Salacion Court.”
“So we’re going to the Emperor’s palace?” Sirex asked, raising his eyebrows.
“Correct.” Commander Sylvan nodded. “And you’ll be looking for this.” He pulled out a thin, silver coin-shaped object and thumbed a tiny switch on the side. At once a projection of a gleaming, opalescent crystal came into view. It was long and narrow and smooth but Phoebe couldn’t tell its actual size because there was nothing in the holo image to give any kind of scale.
“What is that?” she asked. “It looks like a finger,”
“In fact, it’s called ‘The Goddess’s Finger or ‘The Finger of the Goddess,’” Commander Sylvan said, nodding. “It’s an ancient artifact which once belonged to the Kindred of First World, our home planet. However, it was stolen in a raid by an enterprising group of pirates and it hasn’t been seen in a thousand cycles. Just recently we got word that it surfaced on Salacious Prime. Apparently it’s being kept in the Emperor’s own private collection.”
“Are we going to bargain for it…or steal it?” Sirex rumbled, frowning.
“Ahh…I don’t like the word ‘steal,’” Commander Sylvan said, frowning. “Let’s just say it needs to be returned to its rightful place. It’s not just any artifact, you know—it has powers that shouldn’t be misused.”
“Powers? What kind of powers?” Phoebe asked, frowning.
“We don’t know everything about it, because it was stolen so long ago,” Commander Sylvan said. “But legend has it that The Goddess’s Finger can cure infertility. The Head Priestess of First World is eager to get it back so that she can help the many couples who come to her asking help to conceive.”
“Is there anything else we should know about it?” Sirex asked.
“Only that it’s dangerous for a female to touch the Finger directly.” Commander Sylvan looked at Phoebe. “If you come in contact with it, be sure you don’t let it touch your bare skin.”
“Why?” Phoebe felt a shiver run through her. “What happens if I do?”
Her boss shook his head.
“I’m sorry—I don’t know. Much of the knowledge we had about The Goddess’s Finger has been lost. I only know that the priestesses who used to work with it never touched it directly—it was always swathed in several layers of cloth if they needed to move it.”
“Got it. I won’t touch it at all.” Phoebe nodded firmly.
“Oh, and one other thing—it’s said to give off the scent of Loq’e blossoms,” Commander Sylvan added.
Sirex frowned.
“Loq’e blossoms?”
“A special flower dedicated to the Goddess which grows only on First Word,” Sylvan explained. “If you’ve never been there, you won’t have smelled them. They have a sweet scent that’s said to affect females especially—though how it affects them, I don’t know,” he added.
“Okay, so we’ll hopefully be able to smell it when we get close to it,” Phoebe said. “But can you tell us any more about the Salacions? What kind of people are they? I mean—are they humanoid at least?”
“Most of them are.” Commander Sylvan steepled his fingers on his desk. “The thing is, Salacious Prime wasn’t settled by any one group of people—it started as a smuggler’s hideout and then it became a kind of stronghold for the males who live there now.”
“You mean Males who wish to own females and treat them as nothing but sexual slaves,” Sirex growled, his eyes flashing.
“Unfortunately, yes.” Sylvan nodded. “Normally the Kindred would have nothing to do with such a place or its inhabitants—you know that we refuse to do any kind of business or trade agreements with a planet where women are mistreated. However, the High Council has determined that retrieving The Goddess’s Finger is so important that we must act.”
“I understand.” Sirex nodded. “So Agent Jenkins and I are to retrieve the Finger in any way we can.”
“Yes, but try a straightforward approach first,” Commander Sylvan said. “You’ll be going undercover as a rich merchant selling wormhole technology and I’ll be extending you an unlimited line of credit. If you can get the Emperor of Salacious Prime to sell you The Goddess’s Finger, then by all means, just buy it. However, if he absolutely refuses to sell…”