Page 72 of Mazorium Buys a Human
When we got there, Mia was sitting on a countertop next to one of Maz’s complex machines, holding a red rock large enough she had to use both hands. All her earlier tears were gone, replaced with an absolutely brilliant smile.
“Looks at this, Iris!” she said, holding up the rock. “Isn’t it bweautiful?”
I had to grin at such a kid moment. One second she was screaming and in clear distress, the next it was all forgotten.
“That is beautiful,” Iris agreed.
Mia’s smile faded a little. “I lost my other pretties.”
“But this one is even better,” Iris said, stepping away from me to lean over and get a closer look at Mia’s knee. I followed her gaze to see that there was a scrape and a little blood that was already drying.
Knowing what was needed, I walked over to the rack full of human-specific medical items. It didn’t take me long to pull out the few things Iris would need, but by the time I turned around, everyone had changed positions.
Maz was digging through a box of samples. Damascus had sat down with Mia on his lap. She was talking animatedly, and if she paused, he asked her another question. Iris was sitting on thefloor, facing Damascus and Mia, gently pulling bits of clothing out of the minor abrasion.
I walked over and sat next to her. She glanced at me then saw what I was holding and grabbed the sanitizing spray. “Perfect, thanks.”
She sprayed it over Mia’s injury, and the little girl didn’t even pause her conversation with Damascus to notice.
“Here, these are notable samples,” Maz said, bringing over a rock with blue streaks and another one with silver flecks.
Mia let out an excited squeal. “Pretties!”
Then she looked down at the rock in her hand and realized she couldn’t hold everything at once. Her lower lip started quivering, but before she could start crying again, I got up and grabbed a little carrier.
“Do you want to put all your treasure in here?” I asked, holding it up. “That way you can keep them all together.”
“Yes!” she agreed and gently set the red rock into it, then she emptied her pockets one rock at a time. It took so long Iris was long done doctoring her knee by the time everything was transferred.
With her hands now free, she made a grabbing motion at Maz, who handed her the two new rocks. It was all so cute I couldn’t help but chuckle.
“She’s adorable, isn’t she?” Iris murmured, getting back to her feet.
“I bet she’s a handful,” I said. “Mom always said healthy kids are always a little obnoxious, and she’d remind herself of that whenever I was acting out.”
Iris snorted. “You do realize that Mia’s going to feel like she’s allowed to fill that entire container with rocks? I swear, we have entire storage containers full of rocks back on the ship already.”
I gave her an unrepentant grin. “Oh well.”
“Remind me to give Nadia the loudest toy I can find,” Iris said. “Maybe an Ugarian fulk-horn!”
I didn’t know what that was, but I was sure I didn't want Nadia to ever have one. “You’re really pretty, did you know that? And you have such a nice voice.”
Iris barked out a laugh at the same time Nadia decided she wanted to be fully awake. The noise she made had everyone turning to look in the direction of our bedroom.
“I’ll get her,” I murmured, giving Maz a helpless shrug. It wasn’t like we could pretend Damascus hadn’t heard that. “Um, I’ll be right back.”
“Tea?” Iris suggested. “We could all sit down and have some tea while we meet Nadia and chat.”
“I haven’t finished showing Damascus the maps,” Maz protested.
I think I was the only one who noticed that Damascus shuddered slightly. “That’s fine. We can view more of your maps later. My human wants tea now.”
My curiosity was aroused. If Damascus didn’t want to find out about what Maz had discovered, then why was he here? It couldn’t be to buy or steal me, he already had Iris and Mia. If he wanted to add me to his collection, I’d think he’d pay more attention to me, but so far it was almost as if I didn’t exist. He was far more preoccupied with Iris and Mia.
What was the real reason for his sudden investment and visit?
Chapter 22
