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muttered at the thought, surging to her feet and looking around a little wildly for any possibility of escaping. In the back of her mind, she knew it was useless. They were on a space station. She couldn ‟ t run far enough or fast enough to keep from being caught and she suspected runaway slaves would be punished. And she didn ‟ t really want to find out how they were punished. Beyond that, the fish-man had mentioned his fears of pirates, which seemed to suggest this was a very bad „neighborhood ‟ . She had a bad feeling that the entire station was a hideout for every sort of lowlife imaginable.
    She could be wrong, but it almost seemed that the fact that the place appeared to be primarily populated by males almost insured that likelihood.
    A jolt went through her when she searched the perimeter of the large room for any sign of a window she might be climb out of and spotted a creature very like thefish-man lounging sleepily on something like a daybed at the far end of the room. There were several others that differed very little lounging or seated on pillows around her/it?
    It spoke to her when she focused on it, but she didn ‟ t understand the language at all. The round face creased in a look of displeasure when she didn ‟ t response.
    “Speak Unduleze?”
    “I guess so,” Loren said doubtfully.
    “What you be? No see ting like you „for.”
    “Human,” Loren responded uneasily. “From Earth.”
    The thing frowned. “No know dat place. Why here?”
    There was something about the tone of the question that told Loren it/she wasn ‟ t going to be pleased to discover she was an addition to the harem and the others didn ‟ t look too happy about it either.
    Far be it from her to try to steal the fish-man ‟ s attentions! But could she convince them of that? And would it matter even if she did? He was going to do what he wanted to do and since they couldn ‟ t take out their anger on him, she was going to be the target.
    “I don ‟ t know,” she said unhappily. “I wasn ‟ t told anything.”
    The creature got up and undulated toward her.It almost seemed impossible that it could ‟ ve 19

    been bigger around than the fish-man, but it was. She—Loren decided it had to be a female even though she was damned if she could tell that it looked more feminine than the fish-man—looked her over with contempt. “Lecur buy at slave market?”
    Loren swallowed a little convulsively, wondering if she was about to have a fight on her hands. “Yes.”
    “Din know why here!” the creature spat.
    “Actually, I was kind of hoping he had something else in mind. My people would buy me back,” she added on inspiration. Not that she thought the bastards that had put her in this position would, but surely her parents could come up with something! “I was stolen.”
    The creature grunted. “I stolen. They stolen. You tink I be here I not stolen?”
    Loren smiled with an effort. “Well then! We have something in common, don ‟ t we? Neither of us wants to be here.”
    “I here first! Am concubine now!”
    “Oh! Well…uh…congratulations?”
    “You smartass?”
    Loren felt tearful all over again, but she knew it wouldn ‟ t do to appear weak, especially when she was out numbered. The others hadn ‟ t gotten up, but that didn ‟ t mean they wouldn ‟ t if there was any sign of trouble. “No. You seemed proud of it.”
    “Am!” she snapped angrily. “Lecur very rich! Have many gladiators.”
    Loren blinked at her, suddenly recalling the scars all over the two men who ‟ d escorted her and Dakaar ‟ s comment about being bought to fight. That was what he ‟ d meant, she thought, horrified.
    Abruptly, she realized that what they faced, regularly, was a good bit worse than having to face the stinky fish-man wallowing on her and poking her. They were scarred all over. They hadn ‟ t gotten those from fist fighting!
    Of course, there was hell and then there was hell! “The Hirachi that brought me here