"You're welcome, Your Highness," the Marine said as she closed the door.
"Sergeant?" the prince called hesitantly. They were going to be on this planet for a long time, and he might as well bite the bullet on this one.
"Yes, Your Highness?" Despreaux replied, opening the door again.
"Could I have a moment of your time?" Roger asked, quite sweetly.
"Yes, Your Highness?" the sergeant repeated rather more warily as she stepped into the room.
"If you don't mind," Roger said, clearing his throat, "this is somewhat private. Could you close the door?"
Despreaux did, then crossed her arms.
"Yes, Your Highness?" she said for a third time.
"I know you're not a servant," the prince said, fiddling with his hair, "but I have a little problem." He took a deep breath and went on despite the hammerlike look on the sergeant's face. "It's something I can't do for myself: Could you possibly braid my hair for me?"
"There's no reason for them to notice the plant, Sir," Julian said as they walked away from the building.
"So why am I drenched in sweat?" Gulyas asked.
"Because... it's hot?" Julian suggested with a smile. "Sir?"
Gulyas smiled at the NCO's quip and stopped to look back at the building.
"What do you think?" he asked quietly. As long as they used Standard, no one was going to be able to know what they were talking about. But it never hurt to be careful.
"Like shooting fish in a barrel, Sir," Julian responded. "Two exits. Complex interior, but not bad. All the guard rooms at the front, servants at the back, family in the middle. If we need to take one, or even two or three, it won't be much of an op." He paused and then continued ruminatively. "Of course, it would use up ammo."
"Not much," Gulyas responded. "Okay, only three more to go. You can plant those; that was too much fun for me."
"Ah, that's nothing, Sir. Did I ever tell you about the time I stole a space limo?"
"You never learned how to braid your own hair?" Despreaux asked. The prince had the best hair she'd ever run across, solid without being too coarse, and long as a Mardukan day. "This is gorgeous stuff."
"Thanks," Roger said calmly. He wasn't about to tell the sergeant how sensuous it felt to have her brushing it. "Just another legacy of illegal gene engineering."
"Really? Are you sure?"
"Oh, yeah," Roger said ruefully. "No question. I've got the twitch muscles of a shark, the reactions of a snake, and way more endurance than I ought to have. Somebody on either Mommy or Daddy's side, or both, did a lot of engineering back in the Dagger Years, but I guess anyone who had the cash would have done the same thing then, rules or no rules. I even got enhanced night vision out of it."
"And Lady Godiva's hair. But you'd better learn how to do this yourself."
"I will," Roger promised. "If you'll show me. I've always had someone to do it for me, but I think servants are going to be in short supply on Marduk, and Matsugae didn't know how, either."
"I'll show you how. And it can be our little secret."
"Thanks, Despreaux. I really appreciate it. Maybe you can get a medal for it," he added with a laugh.
"The Order of the Golden Braid?"
"Whatever you want. As soon as we get back to Earth, I'm rich again."
"Rich city," Kosutic said.
This was the third bazaar the team had found, and it was of a piece with the others. The majority of the market was permanent, wooden stalls set side-by-side on narrow alleyways. There were also occasional open areas where temporary carts were set up, selling everything imaginable, but most of the trade was in the back alleys.
Kosutic had initially entered those with care. She'd been on enough planets and around enough alleys to know that they contained both the best and the worst available on worlds like this. The Marines had dispensed with armor, and if she gave them the chance, these Mardukans could be a nasty proposition at close quarters. So she was slow. And careful.
As it turned out, the alleys were generally the best part of the market. The small shops were very old and established, and had not only the best items, but better prices. Unfortunately, the products weren't what they wanted.
The region was a supplier of raw material and gems. There was more than sufficient food and leather goods available for their purposes, but what they really needed—pack beasts and weapons—were expensive and hard to find.
She stopped at one of the small booths selling weapons as a sword on its back wall caught her eye. The Mardukan running the booth squatted on a stool, and still overtopped her. Even by Mardukan standards he was a giant, and it appeared that he might not always have been a merchant. His left true-arm ended in a stump at the elbow, and his chest was an Escher painting of scars. Both horns had been capped with bronze points that were wickedly sharp, and a hook depended from the arm stump.
He looked up at what she was staring at, and slapped his hook with his remaining true-hand.
"You know that?" he asked.
"I've seen it before," she said carefully. "Or something similar."
The weapon was unlike the others she'd seen in the bazaar, for the steel was damascene. The black and silver water pattern was clear as day. The blade was long for a human, short for a Mardukan, and curved to a slightly widened end. It was neither precisely a katana nor a scimitar, but something in between.
And it was flat out beautiful.
She'd seen swords of that type on several worlds, but all of them were much more advanced than this one's tech level. Or than the local tech level, at least.
"Where is it from?" she asked.
"Ah," the merchant said, clapping his cross hands. "That's the sad part. This is a relic of Voitan. I have heard of you visitors, you 'humans.' You are from a far land, so do you know the story of Voitan?"
"Some of it," Kosutic admitted. "But why don't you tell it to me from the beginning?"
"Have a seat," the local invited, and reached into a bag to extract a clay jug. "Drink?"
"Don't mind if I do." Kosutic looked over her shoulder at the small group which had been following her around. Besides Koberda's squad, it consisted of Poertena and three of Cord's nephews. "You guys go circulate." They'd each been given an Eterna-light and a lighter. "Do a little trading. See what they bring. I'll be here."
"Do you want someone to stay with you, Sergeant Major?" Sergeant Koberda asked. His tone was mild, but the orders had been fairly strict.
Kosutic raised an eyebrow at the merchant, who grunted in reply.
"No," she said with a headshake. "I'm just gonna sit here and shoot the shit for a while. I'll give a holler when I'm ready to head back, and we can link up."
"Aye." Koberda gestured at his squad; he'd seen a place that looked a lot like a bar a few alleys back. "We'll be circulating."
Poertena followed Denat down the alleyway. He figured that three of Cord's nephews counted as "a group," and the Mardukan swore he knew the best pawn shop in the city.
The shopkeepers and artisans to either side of the narrow way looked up with interest as he passed. Word of the humans' arrival had spread through the grapevine, but he was surprised that there wasn't more overt curiosity. On most human planets, there would at least have been a group of children following him around, but not here. For that matter, he didn't see any children or women, and hadn't since they arrived in the area.
"Where are tee women?" he asked Denat as the Mardukan took another turn. Poertena decided that if they got separated he would be in trouble finding his way back.