“I love themigicandies,” Bazi said, completely unaware as to the import of the conversation the two women were having. “’Tis nigh unto perfection.”
Clearly torn between the two conversations, the princess held up a finger to Kari, indicating she needed a moment. That accomplished, she turned to Bazi. “Aye they are,” Dari scolded, “yet that is your last one until you partake of the meats, fruits, and vegetables.”
“By the sands,” Bazi complained. “Please,mani?” His eyes rounded. “I mean to say, please milady?”
Dari smiled softly at the huge boy-child. Her hearts thumped pleasurably in her chest. “I rather prefermani.”
“For a certainty?”
“Aye. For a certainty.”
Dari knew he was pleased for he ate his meats, fruits, and vegetables with vigor. She secreted away another smile before turning back to Kari. “I know you’re of a mind to get back to work on those transmitters, yet I must insist you finish your meal afore doing so. Leastways, you need your strength.”
“Now you’re mothering me too?”
“If needs be then aye.”
Kari grinned, but listened. “You know,” she said between bites, “you really do look like a super sexy bad-ass in those leathers.”
“Sexy?”
“Yeah, totally. The white pants are a perfect contrast against your dark skin and the white vest thrusts your breasts together and up as if to say ‘I am woman. Hear me roar!’”
Dari shook her head, bemused. “You are an odd one, Kari Gy’at Li, yet do I like it.”
They shared a long and much needed laugh. So much uncertainty lay ahead for the deuce of them that ‘twas necessary to grab pleasant moments whilst they could. Neither woman had any notion as to what secrets Khan-Gor held, yet did they know for a certainty it held many.
“Your leathers are to be onyx,” Dari informed her. “As they will also be a perfect contrast against your pale skin, prepare to wield the look of a second sexy bad-ass.”
They laughed again. “I can hardly wait,” Kari grinned.
* * * * *
“We are approximately oneNuba-hourfrom being within range of teleportation!” Gio announced. “If Kari doesn’t fix their long range transmitters aforehand then mayhap twoNuba-hoursat best.”
“Excellent.” Zor nodded. “Keep me apprised.”
“Aye.”
“I wonder why that void caused them memory loss?” Zor asked rhetorically. “’Tis a puzzle for a certainty.”
“And I wonder which memories they’ve lost,” Death intoned. “I would that I could be assured Kari has not forgotten me.”
“Bah!” Kil balked. “Leastways, I doubt as much. Even so, Kari did say ‘twas usually temporary.”
All the talk of memory loss—temporary or no—made Gio all the more desperate to be reunited with his princess. Goddess, but how he missed her. Now that he had been given the go ahead to claim her as his own, the desperation bordered on nigh insanity. He had known she was his other half for most of her life; ‘twas torture not being able to be near to her.
Yet that was not the worst of it for ‘twas also anguish not being able to protect her from whatever lay within Khan-Gor. What if this memory loss was more than temporary? What if Dari had lost certain memories that would have protected her on Khan-Gor? He simply had to reach her afore she and Kari could breach Khan-Gori airspace. Once it was breached, it would take mayhap minutes to dock the cruiser above-planet and teleport down to it. Such a close teleportation did not require long range transmitters to be operational.
“Forty-fiveNuba-minutes,” King Kil called out. “Goddess willing, we will make it to their cruiser well afore they breach Khan-Gori airspace.”
That announcement should have settled Gio’s pacing, yet it failed to. He had never felt so much trepidation in all of hisYessat-Years.
“Give us one more burst ofgastrolight,” Zor commanded. “I would that we could afford to burn more fuel, yet all of us will die if we do so.” He ran a punishing hand through his mane of black hair. “Let us all hope this works.”
“Preparing to fire the thrusters,” King Rem declared. “Three… two… one…fire!”
* * * * *
