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specific place, although
Marge, who knew the laws of such fairies, assured him that this was a
protective device and not truly a compul-
sion. If he didn't consciously wish to do it, he could retain his
independence, such as it was.
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He had decided to remain strictly aboard while in the port, although he was
dying to see one of the great City-
States. He was physically weak, and, unlike Marge, was totally defenseless in
terms of powers, and yet he was a nymph and would behave like a nymph. He'd
never been really scared of much of anything before, either on Earth or in
Husaquahr, but he was scared now, almost fright-
ened to death.
After Macore and Biy went ashore, the others grew restless, with the bright
lights and noise of a massive and living cosmopolitan city crisscrossed with a
network of canals and levees. Marge had already gone, almost at nightfall,
assuring them she'd be back in a couple of hours at worst, and Audra and Tura
really couldn't be talked out of it by Tiana. For the former nymph, it was her
first and perhaps only, chance to see what a big city was like;
Tura wanted to walk around and find what it was like to be a human rather than
a mermaid in such surroundings.
That meant that Tiana was more or less forced to figure out the big
wheelchair, since she didn't really trust those two on their own out there.
Joe normally slept at night, but he fought sleep much of the time now, and the
sun of the past two days had given him a lot of reserve energy. He still kept
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below, and it wasn't until boredom, curiosity, and apprehension at
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hearing nothing topside caused him to emerge and look around nervously. When
he found no one else aboard, he nearly went into a panic. He felt suddenly
very alone and very vulnerable. There was activity all around this twenty-
four-hour port, with dockworkers, stevedores, and all sorts of others doing
their jobs.
A young man, dressed as a dockworker of some sort and apparently on a break,
saw the small figure and walked over to the side of the Hippogryph. "Hello!"
he called, sounding friendly. "What sort are you?"
Suddenly Joe felt a tremendous rush through his whole body, and from that
instant he was no longer in any way in control. He found himself walking
sexily over to the rail near the gangplank and smiling sweetly at the man.
"I'm a nymph," the pale green girl said in a soft and sexy voice.
"Is that right? What's your name?"
"My name is call me Joey," the nymph said.
It was nearly morning and there was much conster-
nation on the afterdeck of the Piebald Hippogryph.
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"How could you be so stupid?" Marge demanded to know, sounding angry as hell.
"Look, what was I gonna do, huh?" Tiana responded, sounding angry herself.
"I'm going to stop somebody intent on going who's six-six and two-sixty, all
muscle? And I
had my own problems, remember!"
Macore and Biy tried to make some peace between them and finally got the whole
story. It was apparent now that Audra had no intention of returning to the
ship; by midway through the first bar, she'd excused herself to go to the
bathroom and that had been that. Once Tiana and
Tura had determined that the former nymph was gone, and not apparently a
victim of foul play, they decided to return to the ship and confer before
notifying the author-
ities. It was, after all, a city of almost a million inhabitants and not
familiar to either.
The bigger surprise was Tura. They'd gotten back to
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