Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 67092 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 335(@200wpm)___ 268(@250wpm)___ 224(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 67092 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 335(@200wpm)___ 268(@250wpm)___ 224(@300wpm)
“Sounds like a charming society,” Kara said dryly. “I’m glad I don’t live there.”
“No, you wouldn’t like it at all,” Raak told her. “Bunch of back-biting, back-stabbing females who hate each other and pretend to be best friends. But right now, we need to concentrate on Yi’pisselon, not Tava Prime. After all, we have to get the platters and bowls before we can sell them.”
“And I suppose you’re the master dealmaker?”
“Just watch and learn, baby girl,” Raak told her. “Watch and learn.”
Twenty-Five
Kara kept silent as they approached the merchant with the beautifully carved bowls and platters. She wondered how long it had taken to make each one—for all she knew the intricate carvings could have taken years.
There was another customer ahead of them, so Raak stopped and waited politely, his eyes flitting over the array of dishes while the merchant transacted his business.
“The little missuss might like this one,” the customer’s main head said as he lifted a large, carved serving platter in his first pair of hands.
“Ayup—that she might,” his secondary head said, nodding vigorously.
“That’s a good choice, that is,” the merchant remarked. “Good craftsmanship and built to serve a fair few guests if you’ve got ‘em.”
“That’s so, yes it is,” the merchant’s secondary head agreed, also nodding.
“Well then—I think we’re all in agreement,” the first head of the customer said. “We’ll take it!”
“Yes, we will. Yes indeedy-do!” the second head said, nodding enthusiastically. “We’ll take it—we surely will.”
“We’ll wrap it up for you,” the merchant said and his own second head nodded in complete agreement as he moved slowly to wrap the carved serving platter with all four hands.
Credits changed hands—all eight of them, Kara saw—and at last the transaction was done. She was relieved to see that they were finally next. Though Raak seemed confident in what he was doing, she most certainly was not.
All you have to do is agree, she reminded herself. Just agree with everything he says. You can do that—how hard can it be?
Not hard at all, she was certain. So she opened her eyes wide and smiled a bland but pleasant smile, which was the expression she had observed on many second heads around the marketplace.
“Good morrow,” the merchant said to Raak as they approached. “How may I be of service to you on this fine day that Gooshen has created for us?”
Gooshen must be their deity, Kara thought as Raak nodded back to the merchant.
“Good morrow,” Raak responded. “To begin with, you can show me some of your finest serving platters. I’ll be wanting to buy a fair few if you’ve got them.”
Wow, he really sounds like a Yi’pisselon,” Kara thought. She didn’t say anything but then Raak surreptitiously elbowed her and she remembered she was supposed to be agreeing with him.
“Oh! Uh, yes—yes we do. We want to buy a bunch of your fine platters and bowls,” she said quickly.
“Well, that’s a fine thing to hear on such a lovely day,” the merchant’s first head said.
“Isn’t it though? Just the finest day Gooshen ever created,” his second head agreed.
“Gooshen must be praised for this fine day,” Raak said, nodding piously.
This time Kara was ready.
“Gooshen really is the best,” she said, nodding as well.
“So he is. So he is,” the merchant’s first head said. “Well now, which platters were you looking at?”
He and Raak bent over the array of finely carved platters and bowls and Kara tried not to look too bored. Some adventure this was turning out to be. Despite being in disguise, all she got to do was nod and agree while Raak bought tableware. That wasn’t very exciting at all!
Just then the place where her fangs had been began itching again—then throbbing.
Kara frowned and rubbed the blunt little points with the tip of her tongue, willing them to stop. What was wrong with her, anyway? She’d thought that her fangs were cured completely in Qi’s Palace of the Unseen so why were they still bothering her?
But in just a moment, it wasn’t only her fangs that were itching. The strange sensation moved down to her nipples and then to her pussy. These parts of her had felt sensitive before, but now they began to throb and ache fiercely—almost as though someone was tugging and twisting her stiff, sensitive peaks and reaching between her thighs to stroke her pussy.
“Oh!” Kara gasped, writhing against Raak’s broad back. “Oh, what in the world?”
Her exclamation brought an astonished look from both of the Yi’pisselon merchant’s heads.
“Are you quite all right there, friend?” the first head asked and the second one frowned in concern as well.
“Just fine,” Raak said heartily, shooting a glance back at Kara.
“Sorry,” she muttered, trying to find a reason for her sudden outburst. “I think something just, uh, stung me.”
“No it didn’t,” Raak said pointedly, frowning. “Or I would have felt it too.”