“Of course I can!” Cassie exclaimed. “I can do anything we have to in order to catch The Best!”
“Good.” Stone had nodded. “Then let’s go over our back-story one more time and get to the palace.”
And now, here they were, about to put their new characters to the test, Cassie thought, as they finally came to the vast double doors that led into the black marble palace of Xempi Gozeriam, the porn king of the galaxy.
There was another pig-man on guard here—this one with slightly nicer armor than Pocker’s rattling tin-can array.
“And who might this be?” he snorted to Pocker, just as though the other pig-man hadn’t been calling Cassie’s name the entire time they were promenading down the white marble walkway.
“Why, this is Mistress Cassandra of Yonnie Six,” Pocker said indignantly. “She and her body-slave are here to audition for his Great Slimefullness, Xempi Gozeriam!”
The other guard frowned at him, his snout wrinkling.
“And do you vouch for them before I allow them to enter?”
“I do so vouch,” Pocker said loftily, lifting his snout to the air. “They will be an excellent addition to his Greatness’s stable of actors.”
“Very well, then.” The second guard nodded and swung open the door, allowing them to enter the vast, golden hallway which lay inside. “Enter and see if you can please his Greatness,” he snorted to Cassie. “Good luck—fortune favors the bold.”
Cassie certainly hoped that he was right.
“Thank you.” She nodded stiffly and then, holding her head high, started down the rich golden hallway with her partner in tow.
Twenty-Five
The golden hallway was lined with holograms on white marble pedestals—like moving statues, Cassie thought. When she looked closer, she saw that every single hologram seemed to depict some kind of sex act. But since many of the subjects were non-humanoid beings, it wasn’t always easy to see what kind of sex was being performed, exactly.
She saw two octopus-like creatures entangling their tentacles on one pedestal and on another, two insects were busy screwing while one of them gnawed on the other one’s half-eaten head.
Ugh—like praying mantises! Cassie thought, looking hurriedly away. Only to see a hologram of what appeared to be a centaur with a horse’s body and a man’s torso and head making love to a woman with a human body and a horse’s head.
Oh my God—how is he going to fit himself inside her? she thought, staring at the strange sight.
“Try not to look shocked,” she heard Stone murmur behind her. “Remember, you’re a worldly Yonnite Mistress—you’ve seen everything before.”
Cassie realized that the disgust she felt must be showing on her face and Stone had seen it when she turned her head to look at the bizarre holograms.
“Uh, right. Of course,” she whispered back and made an effort to put on a look of haughty distain. To her mingled relief and apprehension, the long hall was coming to an end. There was another set of doors at the end, every bit as tall as the front doors, except these were round and seemed to be made of solid gold. They looked like two vast, shimmering disks at the end of the hall.
Standing in front of them was yet another pig-man guard, but this one had on much nicer armor than the other two, along with special-looking gold epaulets on his shoulders.
“Halt,” he snorted at Cassie. “Give me your rank and station and state your business so that I may announce you to his Greatness properly.”
“Very well. Stone, tell him.” Cassie tried to sound impatient, though honestly, her stomach was twisted into a knot at the idea of passing through the round gold doors and she wouldn’t have minded putting it off.
“This is Mistress Cassandra of Yonnie Six,” Stone said, frowning at the guard. “She is here about the job notice for Yonnite pornography.”
“I see.” The guard nodded. “A moment while I introduce you. I hope your display will entertain his Slimefullness—he has been purple-gray all evening with boredom.”
“Our display?” Cassie asked, but the guard had already touched a button, which caused the vast, round, gold doors to roll open smoothly. As he did, he bellowed at the top of his lungs,
“Announcing Mistress Cassandra of Yonnie Six, here to audition for his Great Slimefullness, Xempi Gozeriam, for the position of actor.”
“Is that so?” a deep, burbling voice remarked, echoing from the end of the enormous, shadowy room beyond the golden doors. The voice was so deep Cassie could feel it in the soles of her feet. “Send her in,” it continued. “We have not had a Yonnite to answer our add in many cycles and we wish to look upon her.”
The butterflies in Cassie’s stomach were doing loop-the-loops and barrel-rolls by this time but there was nothing to do but lift her head high and march into the throne room of the palace with Stone in tow.
They seemed to walk forever but at last the end of the huge room was in sight. It was like walking into a theater, Cassie thought, and finally getting to the stage. In fact, there was a real stage and on it was a rectangular platform draped in red velvet. Lying on the velvet drape was a creature that looked like an enormous slug.
Kat said he looked like Jabba the Hutt but I think that’s an insult to Jabba, Cassie thought, eyeing the slug-person.
Xempi Gozeriam was about the same size as an elephant, which was to say enormous. He had pale, wrinkled skin, narrow slitted eyes, and a flat, frog-like face. Two tiny sets of arms that looked no bigger than a child’s were folded across his massive belly and five tiny feet dangled uselessly from his bulk on the side Cassie could see. She assumed there were five more on the other side, since Kat had told her the porn magnate had ten in total, but it didn’t look like he could use them to walk at all—he was too huge for them to support his massive, wrinkled bulk.
But the thing that really caught Cassie’s eye wasn’t his alien body but the film of slime that covered it. A thick, glistening layer coated Xempi Gozeriam’s entire slug-like body like a second skin. It shimmered in the dim light of the throne room and at the moment, it was a dull purplish-gray.
Surrounding the alien porn magnate were a bevy of beautiful alien women. All of them were dressed in the same kind of metal bikini Cassie was wearing, though their outfits were considerably more revealing since they had openings in the breasts which revealed their nipples. Wide slits in the crotches of their metal bikini bottoms put their pussies on display as well.
Wow—I’m so glad Kat didn’t put holes in my costume! Cassie thought. Each of the women was armed with a sharp metal spear and they stood around their slug-like lord with an air of casual menace. Cassie counted six of them.
But soon her attention was drawn back to Xempi Gozeriam himself, because he spoke to her once more in his throbbing, burbling bass voice which echoed in the immense, dimly lighted chamber.
“So you have come to us looking for employment, Yonnite Mistress?” he asked, staring at Cassie with his slitted yellow eyes.
“I have, uh, your Slimefullness,” Cassie said, hoping that was the right way to address him. “I have come about the opening for, um, Yonnite pornography. And I have brought my body-slave with me to help me perform it. Bow to his Greatness, Stone!”