A knock rang through the apartment and the deep voice of the Komodo dragon guard carried equally well. "Guardian, the healer for your new Anolis male is here."
Alex, sitting on the couch with Razz, smiled and him and motioned for him to stay. She opened the door and stared at...nothing.
She looked at each guard. The Komodo dragon was impassive but the Chameleon, a merry green, winked at her and nodded downward. She looked down to see a small Gecko staring up at her with intelligent black eyes.
"That happens frequently," he said with good humor. "May I come in? I understand there is an injured Anolis male for me to see."
Alex blushed and stammered an affirmative. After an awkward moment, she stepped to the side and let the Gecko in. He wore a red lab coat with pockets stuffed in a manner that reminded her of Dr. Glick.
"My name is Master Healer Guni," the Gecko said politely. "It is an honor to meet you Guardian. Thank you for rescuing the Council President. He has always worked for peace among the nations."
Alex smiled wryly. "Hence the assassination attempt."
The Gecko smiled back. "Hence the assassination attempt. Where is my patient, please?"
She led him over to the couch and Razz shrank back, distrust written large across his expression. Alex sat next to him and stroked his back.
"He's a healer here to help. If he hurts you too much, I'll break his fingers one by one."
The Gecko laughed nervously but Alex neither laughed nor smiled.
After an uncomfortable silence, Alex sighed and said, "Sorry, I'm a bit touchy about abuse victims. Really, I won't hurt you. It's this collar: you can see it's grown into his hide and is infected."
The healer sat on Razz's other side and peered at the collar but made no attempt to touch it.
He plucked a magnifying glass out of a pocket and studied it further. At length he said, "How long has it been on?"
"I do not know." Razz looked up at Alex, who held his hand.
"You are quite an unusual color and it is beautiful. Why would your mistress treat such a valuable male so?"
Razz trembled. "I am not valuable. I am nothing."
"That worthless piece of crap called Cla is nothing," Alex snarled, earning looks of respect from both Razz and Guni. "You, however, are priceless. Master Healer, enough questions. Can you help him?"
The Gecko dug in his pockets and pulled out a blue clay jar. "I recommend treating the infection for several days with this. It will soften the scabs as well and in a few days, it will be possible to remove the collar with less pain."
Alex chewed her lip in thought. "But won't he heal faster if the collar is off?"
"As I value my fingers unbroken," the Gecko said drily, "I recommend the slower, less painful method."
Alex blushed again. "I really am sorry about that. But what if I numbed the area so you could remove the collar? Would you do it now?"
"I do have the instruments to loosen the collar from the scabs and hide, but nothing strong enough to cut the metal itself."
"It is all right," Razz said. "Do not trouble yourself."
"It is not all right," Alex replied quickly. "And it is no trouble at all. Hilto was sending for a metal worker already. I'll see what's happening with that."
She walked to the door and spoke to the Chameleon guard. He nodded and with a whistle, a messenger appeared, who was soon sent to speak with Hilto.
Alex poured three goblets of wine and motioned Razz and Master Healer Guni over. "Let's start with a glass of wine and I'll show you what I can do."
Razz and Alex drank quickly, but Guni was slower and watched both of them with professional interest.
Alex lit her fingers with power and traced around Razz's collar. The golden sparkles were pretty and bounced merrily around before dying. The Gecko held his hand under hers so that he could catch some of them.
"It feels pleasant," he said.
"It's a pain reliever," Alex replied. "And some numbing as well."
When she finished, she gently prodded the infected flesh around the collar. Razz watched her face with wide, trusting eyes, and didn't flinch.
"There," Alex said. "Go ahead." When the Gecko hesitated, she said, "I swear I won't hurt you. I apologize again for my uncalled-for threats."
The Master Healer first lavished the cream from the blue jar all around the infected flesh. Then he pulled out a metal probe and began to pry around the edge of the collar.
Razz made no motion or sign of discomfort. Once the doctor made it full circle, he cleaned off his probe and looked apologetically at both of them.
"I'm afraid that is all I can do for now. I need the metal worker to cut the collar itself." He handed the jar to Alex. "Please apply this every time the wound starts to dry out. As the hide underneath grows, it will slowly displace the scabs. When they itch, it is fine to scratch them gently. I understand you are not replacing the collar?"
The Gecko tilted his head in an adorable manner as he gazed at Alex.
"Never!"
Razz hesitantly touched her arm. "I would consider it a great honor to wear your collar."
Before Alex could protest, a knock and Hilto's pleasant voice sounded.
"I've brought the metal worker as well as sausage, cheese, and red wine."
"You just come right on in," Alex sang out.
The Chameleon guard opened the door and liberated a chunk of cheese from the tray Hilto carried, who offered only a smile instead of an objection. The Komodo dragon lifted a link of sausage and eagerly munched it.
A lizard the size of Hilto pushed past the hospitable Chameleon and said in a fussy tone, "I am more than a metal worker, you know. I am a Master Metal Worker. I expect to be treated with the dignity due my station."
He patted his brown leather satchel like they should know how important it was.
Alex stared at him. His body was completely spotted, but with alternating bands of green and black with yellow spots. Two rings of pure black and yellow circled his neck and his head was a leopard pattern brown, with slanted eyes and a downturned mouth.
He looked Alex up and down and said, "Yes, I know I am the most beautiful being you have ever seen. It is why I wear no clothing. You only rate my attention because apparently you saved the Council President and I'm curious to see what manner of creature can win an Anolis male."
Before Alex could speak, Zilik entered and said smoothly, "Ah, Master Metalworker Crota, my thanks for answering my plea. Guardian Alex was sent here on a secret mission and you are the only one I can trust with such a delicate task. I know you can remove this hideous collar and keep your muzzle sealed."
Crota humphed and strode up to Razz, who was quick to bury himself against Alex.
"Come, come," Crota chided him harshly. "Don't be a fool. I won't hurt you. I'm obviously here to remove that crude and poorly-made collar of yours."
Zilik quickly intercepted Alex, caught her hand raised to slap the insolent Crota, and kissed it.
Master Healer Guni wisely scurried to the table where Hilto was setting up the wine, cheese, and sausage, and began to drink.
"Do let the Master Metalworker do his job," Zilik said to Alex, still holding her hand. "He truly is the best."
Alex growled at him but patted Razz's back and traced his neck again with sparkling golden fingers. "You won't feel a thing."
Crota opened his satchel and took out a large pair of metal shears. He nipped them open and shut, then set them aside and took out a smaller pair. Again, he clacked the blades, which made an impressive snicking sound, and nodded. "This will do. Come here." He motioned imperiously at Razz.
Again Zilik intercepted the furious Alex. "Anolis males are never seen without their females and are beaten until they cling to their owner," he said to Crota. "It would be best if you went to him."
Crota rolled his eyes, but picked up the shears and approached. With surprising gentleness, he maneuvered the shears in place and with one good click, cut the collar.
His fingers nimbly eased the metal away from the medicated hide and he held it up to the light. "Cheap," he sniffed. "Now I will make you a masterpiece."
"Hey! No collars!" Alex said.
"What?!" A large red pouch inflated under Crota's neck. "No collar? For an Anolis male? Are you insane? And you insult me! I am a Master! I brought gold, opals, and garnets." The pouch deflated and inflated again.
"I would be honored to wear such a collar," Razz repeated himself timidly, wringing his hands.
"You are not as big a fool as I first thought," Crota told him in a patronizing tone.
"You are a fool if you think I would enslave anyone and collar them!" Alex shouted and her hand clenched around the hilt of her sword.
The Chameleon and Komodo Dragon guards rushed in at her shouting, the Chameleon a furious red and holding a dagger while the Komodo held a short sword.
Zilik motioned to them and their postures relaxed, the Chameleon's color flowing into a placid green.
"I hope she hits that arrogant colorful windbag," the Chameleon told his fellow guard in a loud whisper meant to carry.
The Komodo Dragon snickered and the Gecko smiled, then hid it behind his hand.
The Collared Lizard's red throat sac inflated and deflated rapidly. "I never! I shall take my considerable talents elsewhere!" He threw his shears into his bag.
Hilto cleared his throat and said in a soothing tone, "Do please reconsider Master Metalworker. If you leave, I shall be forced to call Metalworker Drue and you know making a male Anolis ah, necklace, will make him a Master Metalworker."
Hilto poured a clay goblet full of wine and held it out to Crota, who took it and gulped it.
Zilik stroked Alex's arm, then gently pulled her hand from the sword hilt, then twined fingers with her. "Guardian, perhaps it would be best to listen to Razz."
"And take advantage of someone who's been abused like I—?" Alex abruptly stopped herself and hot red spots burned on her cheeks as all eyes turned on her. "Never mind. I'm here to protect Razz and set him free, and those like him."
Zilik brought Alex's hand up and kissed it. "I suggest a compromise. Razz would like a collar and he will bear a nasty scar from his old one. You don't wish to collar him but there are many types of collars that are not associated with slavery. Crota?"
The beautifully patterned lizard said with pride, "I create collars that are jewelry and works of art, not common, filthy metal pieces of junk used by vicious reptiles to hurt others. For example, for this unusually-colored Anolis male, I would create an open lattice-weave collar of gold. It will be obviously too delicate for abuse and yet disguise that awful wound. It will surpass any inferior necklace that Drue could cobble together."
He opened his leather satchel, pulled out a drawing pad, and sketched quickly. Then he looked over at Alex. "I see your sword has an opal pommel. He reached in the satchel again and brought out a handful of opals.
Alex's pommel stone glowed brighter and brighter with the opals in Crota's hands answering. The jeweler stared at them, captivated and unafraid, while Razz whimpered and tried to bury himself in Alex. When the flare faded, all the opals matched the pommel and of much higher quality.
"Magnificent," Crota said, his tone subdued and even a little entranced as he examined the stones. "I'll scatter them about the gold lattice like stars in the nebula that I saw through a powerful glass of the Iguanas." Then he shook himself slightly. "I will make a few measurements and then I must return to my workshop."
The Master Metalworker worked quickly and excused himself, apparently now only interested in creating his work of art.
The guards, Hilto, and Master Healer Guni also retreated leaving Alex, Razz, and Zilik on the couch together, with Razz snuggled under Alex's arm.
"Thank you, mistress," Razz said.
"Calling me mistress makes me very uncomfortable."
"Guardian?"
"Alex, just Alex, please."
"Will you please tell me about Guardians?" Razz asked.
"Only if you eat and drink while I do," Alex stood up and walked to the table with the food and wine. Razz and Zilik followed closely.
Alex sliced cheese and sausage while Razz poured the wine. They ate and drank in silence until finally Zilik said, "I heard you are Called to worlds to aid others."
Alex shrugged. "Apparently. I'm new to this. First mission and all. Gabe is supposed to keep me on the team, but it's not working out real well. Some debate as to my skills and usefulness."
Razz and Zilik frowned identical frowns.
"Why do you say that?" Razz asked.
"I wasn't raised using a sword, staff, or knife. I use, ah, other skills," Alex said.
You can access the sword and knife skills, the small voice in her mind insisted.
Shut up for now, Alex told the small voice.
"That does not mean you were not Called as well," Razz said in persistent encouragement.
"Maybe Gabe is right and I wasn't Called to this world. I'm not the type to fit in." Alex slumped in her chair.
Razz's black button eyes fixated on her as he asked, "Are Gabe, Cale, and Rile the type for your world?"
Alex looked thoughtful, chewing her lip, eyes unfocused. "No."
"Yet they were Called there." Razz looked at her in adoration. "And you were Called here."
"I didn't think of that. Still, what good can I do here? I'm locked up in this Institute." Alex waved vaguely at the walls around her.
"You saved me." Razz echoed Alex's answer to the brothers an eternity ago.
"I did what anyone would do." Alex shrugged in dismissal of her good deed.
"No, you did not." Razz looked stubborn, eyes hard and mouth firmly closed until he spoke. "You allowed yourself to be humiliated in front of the Kuni. You lost your claim to your first mate, and based on what Zilik said, your only one. No female that I know would do that."
Alex huffed a breath in denial. "You don't run with a very nice crowd."
"Why do you invalidate anything good said about you?" Razz cocked his head to regard her.
"What? No I don't." Alex ran her hand through her hair again.
Great, another nervous habit.
Razz didn't speak, but still looked stubborn, jaw clenched and eyes hard again. Zilik waited, still as a stone.
"Razz, you're just grateful because I rescued you from Cla."
"And that invalidates everything that I say."
The bitterness in Razz's voice made Alex stop to regard him. "Razz, you have quite the mouth. How did you survive Cla?"
He hissed. "She likes them like that, at least in the beginning. Then she enjoys slowly torturing it out of them. Once I learned that, all I would say was 'Yes, Cla' and 'No, Cla'. She lost interest in me. I was able to keep my mouth and other body parts that I value."
Alex felt the warmth drain out of her body. She stared at Razz, who nodded in a knowing way.
"How well can your friends act?" he asked, a trace of malice in his voice.
"Terrible." Her voice was faint.
"I hope that they are fast learners." Razz looked sorry when he saw how stricken Alex was, face drained of all color.
She stood up, walked to the far window, and leaned against it, forehead against her arm, as she looked out it.
"Alex is worried sick about her friends. Why are you salting her wounds?" Zilik whispered.
"I do not know. I am angry at too many things to count, but not with Alex," Razz whispered back.
"Are you jealous?" Zilik asked.
Razz watched as Alex started to pace on the far side of the room, rubbing her arms, with distress written large on her face.
"She is unusual-looking, nothing like the females of my species. Maybe that is it. I have no further attraction to my own kind, not after years with Cla."
"I'm telling you, it's hopeless. She's attached to Gabe and Gabe alone," Zilik said.
"He does not seem attached to Alex."
Zilik shook his head. "I agree, but stop thinking about her."
"Perhaps you should take your own advice," Razz said, eyes shrewd.
Zilik raised his eye-ridges in surprise and then let out a deep breath. "It's crazy, I know. All my instincts tell me to run, to avoid the pain involved, but something else draws me." His voice trailed off and they both watched Alex pace.
"What?" Alex stopped, aware of their gaze even from the far side of the room. "Why are you looking at me that way? What's wrong?"
"Nothing." Zilik was too practiced to let his embarrassment show, but Razz bowed his head and shifted foot to foot.
"You think I'm crazy," she said in an accusing tone and shaking an accusing finger. "Or blind, or stupid, or controlling, or jealous to not let my friends go where they want, with whomever they want."
"No, you are right to be worried," Razz said.
"There's nothing you can do," Zilik added.
"Oh, yes there is." Alex speed-burst out of the room, using her short-lived invisibility flight.
Zilik and Razz blinked in her wake.
"Where did she go? How did she do that? She's never tried to escape before." Zilik peered out the door swinging from her flight.
"Have her friends been in danger before?"
Zilik shook his head. "Razz, I must find her before she does something stupid. If anyone comes looking for her, stall them, please."
Razz thought a minute, tapping his fingers together. "I will tell them that we are mating."
Zilik stared at him, speechless for a moment. "I think you'll be very good around here. I'm not rushing the arrangements to smuggle you to Chameleon City. I'll drop word to the guards that Alex won you as a new mate. They'll get the hint. But let's keep this our little secret from Alex."
Razz said nothing and looked so blandly at Zilik that he left, apparently reassured. Razz would tell Alex everything. She freed him at great cost to herself and even now was risking herself to help others. She was everything to him.
***
A/N
How do you like the character development of Razz and Zilik?
Dedicated to:
For not only the great cover of this book, but reworking the cover of my first book, renamed The Vigilante and the Dragon.
And to kv_wilson for challenging me to replace the "said's" in my book with actions. How did I do ?