“I know. She may be so mad at bein’ called a slave that she’ll just decide to blast you all to vapor, and that’ll be that.”

“Master—”

“But I’m a nice guy.” Louis Nenda removed his foot from the Zardalu’s tongue, turned, and headed casually back to the Indulgence.

“You stay right there, while I try to put in a good word for you,” he said over his shoulder. “If you’re real lucky, mebbe we can work somethin’ out.”