Heart of a Warrior

50

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IT WAS FORTUNATE THAT THE LID OF THE MEDITECH opened before Brittany's eyes did, or she would have thought she'd been sealed in a coffin. Not a thought far off the mark, since she had known that she was going to die. But she wasn't dead, or if she was, at least the pain that had surrounded her was now gone. Yet with Tedra standing there offering her a hand to help her up, she had to conclude she wasn't in Heaven, either.

She sat up, carefully at first, in case she was only imagining that the pain was gone. But it was. She could breathe normally now, too. And looking down at herself, she saw the evidence that she hadn't dreamed it all, her chauri in bloody shreds barely hanging onto her limbs. But no wounds on those limbs.

"It works from the inside out, which is why it doesn't require naked patients," Tedra remarked.

Brittany recognized it, the meditech that had put her back together. It sat in a small room by itself, she assumed in the castle, No one else was there, just Tedra-and Martha, if that was a computer link hooked to Tedra's belt.

"Would you like a list of the injuries that have been fixed?"

"No, I felt most of them as they occurred," Brittany said. Don't need reminding, thank you."

Tedra winced. "You're taking this pretty calmly."

"I'm not calm," Britanny replied. "The shock hasn't worn off yet."

"Understandable. That was one of the nastier predators around here that you tangled with. Sa'abo bring down their prey by ripping out its neck, usually resulting in instant death. I'm glad it didn't reach yours."

"That wasn't the shock I meant. You really are his mother, aren't you?"

It must not be a computer link that was attached to Tedra's belt, or Martha would be gloating by now. Tedra merely smiled in understanding.

"It is a bit difficult to ignore being brought back from the brink, by a machine, I suppose," Tedra said. "But don't try to assimilate everything you've discounted yet. You'll have plenty of time for that."

Assimilate everything? Things were rolling through Brittany's mind at high speed: the Androvia, all the different planets that had been mentioned, the different degrees of evolution, Sha-Ka'an on the bottom of the ladder in development, barbaric, yet amazing for all that…

Embarrassment began to override the shock. These people had been so patient with her, Dalden unbelievably so. She'd as much as called him a liar countless times with her continued disbelief, but he hadn't given up on her. He wasn't brainwashed, hadn't been playing a role. He was a real alien from a warrior caste of people who were barbaric in their customs and beliefs. And she was married to him, or bound to him by their equivalent of marriage-his lifemate.

"You'll want to go to your room and change clothes before Dalden is found and Transferred here," Tedra was saying, taking no pity on a mind gone haywire with the unbelievable suddenly turned real. "The less he sees of the trauma you went through, the better."

"Why? It wasn't his fault. He warned me to stay in the tent. There's no reason for him to blame himself."

That caused Dalden's mother to frown, and as if Martha had a visual of it, she proved she was present and accounted for by saying to her owner, "No need for confusion, doll. Our Brittany sees this from an Earthling's perspective, where their men have been conditioned to shoulder blame whether blame is theirs or not. She hasn't grasped yet that when a warrior's rules are obeyed, protection is guaranteed. So the only way for harm to occur is if the rules are broken. All blame is then on the rule-breaker, and the rule-giver is required to reinforce those rules with lessons guaranteed to leave lasting impressions, so the rules don't get broken a second time."

"Did you have to remind her of that, Martha?" Tedra said with a sigh.

" 'Course I did," Martha replied in distinctly smirking tones. "Nothing like a big dose of reality to shake off the cobwebs that shock leaves behind."

It did take a few moments for those cobwebs to clear enough for Brittany to grasp what Martha had actually said in her longwinded way. She went very still.

"Let me get this straight. I just went through hell. If it weren't for mind-boggling inventions like Transfer and meditechs, I'd be dead right now. And you think Dalden's going to punish me on top of that?" No answer from either of them, which was answer enough and had Brittany shaking her head. "No way. He wouldn't."

"Let's look at the facts." Martha switched to her teacher tone. "The beast that nearly had you for dinner was about as dumb as they come. It could smell you in your secure tent, it could be certain that you were in there, but it is too stupid to even think of a way of getting in at you. It would instead wait for you to come out. It might wait a long time because it does smell food, but eventually it would get hungry enough to go look for food that it can actually see instead of just smell. Of course, Dalden would have returned before then and killed it with little difficulty. Warriors are good at that. So if you had stayed in that tent as you admitted you were told to, would you have gone through hell?"

"You're missing the point that I've already suffered enough."

"No. You're missing the point that you wouldn't have suffered at all if you had simply obeyed your warrior. And he's going to be furious that you came to harm because you didn't obey him, and make damned sure that you don't put yourself in that kind of danger again. Are you understanding their logic yet?" Martha asked.

"I understand it." Brittany mumbled. "That doesn't mean I agree with it."

That got a chuckle from Martha. "Warriors don't require agreement. Tedra can assure you of that."

"Leave me out of this old girl," Tedra replied. "I happen to be getting along just fine with my warrior this week, don't remind me why I shouldn't."

"She's exaggerating kiddo. My Tedra gets along with her warrior all the time. She might step out of line occasionally and suffer the consequences, but she makes sure Challen makes up for it big time."

Brittany stared at her mother-in-law. "You come from a society much more advanced than mine. I would have thought that you more than anyone, would find these rules and laws as barbaric as I do. Ordered to stay in that tent. I fully understand now. I didn't and found out painfully why I should have. But everything else? Unneeded escorts, clothes to mark your status. Why don't the rules get put on the men instead? Why aren't they told that women are to be left alone? How can you accept being treated like a child?"

"Hot damn, I'm looking forward to this answer myself," Martha said, Tedra ignored her instigating computer to hook her arm through Brittany's. She began to escort her to her room while she explained, "I don't accept being treated like a child, but I do accept the laws of the land. No one expects you to be a model of Kan-is-Tran womanhood overnight, not even Dalden. I had an easier time adjusting because my first month here was spent in a challenge loss, which was about as close as you can get to slavery. Since I had agreed to the challenge, I had to honor the results of losing it, so I couldn't really complain about bow belittling the position was. My point being, I was introduced to the way things are around here while I was on the bottom of the social scale. Which made it much easier to accept the things allowed higher up on the scale, even if most of those things grossly favor the male of the species."

"Grossly?" Brittany snorted. "How 'bout one hundred percent?"

Tedra grinned. "Face it, it's a male-dominated society, and because these males happen to come in giantlike proportions, they've had to make up a few little rules to keep themselves from hurting their women. The women raised here don't mind the rules because they've never known anything better. Are you getting that particular point yet? To them it's not barbaric, it's normal."

"And exceptions don't get made for visitors?" Brittany asked.

"Why should they? It's not as if a visitor from another world can be differentiated from a visitor from another country here. They don't have schools as you know them. They aren't taught about other people on their own world, much less about other worlds. They exist in black and white, and don't recognize much gray. They keep things simple, uncomplicated. If a woman doesn't have a protector, then she's up for grabs. You can't get much simpler than that. But once she has a protector, then she has to obey him to keep herself protected. You really can't get much simpler than that."

"You do realize that you've just defined childish?" Brittany said.

Tedra didn't try to deny it, at least not completely. "From an advanced perspective, certainly. But from their perspective it's actually pretty civilized. They aren't killing each other to take what they want. They've set up laws that they all abide by, self-governed by their warrior code of honor. They are light-years beyond our own prehistoric people. They are unique, without comparison-actually, that's probably half your problem, kiddo. You need to stop comparing them to your own species."

"It's kind of hard to ignore twenty-eight years of my own upbringing."

"Because you're looking at things here while wearing modern glasses. Take off those glasses and you'll get a completely different view, one much easier to tolerate. I know that's asking a lot. It was also easier for me because I spent three years training for a career in World Discovery before I was allowed to switch to my preferred career in Security. And one little gem I learned in Discovery was that if you want to live on a world other than your own, you do so not with the intention of changing that world, but of adapting to it. These medieval worlds must be allowed to evolve at their own pace. It's not for us to tamper with them just because we know better ways of doing things."

"I hate to break up such an excellent lesson in how to deal with your local barbarian," Martha interjected sarcastically. "But Corth II just informed me that Dalden is now approaching his camp."

Brittany frowned. "If Dalden didn't find me and get me back here, who did?"

"Martha did."

"I thought her link got left behind."

"It was," Tedra said. "It was actually Jorran who found you, and only because he was specifically looking. He had his ship computer contact Martha for a Transfer directly to a meditech. You didn't have enough blood left for any other option."

"Specifically looking?"

"He has returned with an army for revenge-and you. Not that he'll be getting either, but because he more or less saved your life, we're having to deal with him diplomatically again. He's requested permission to speak with you and has agreed to leave after-ward. Because it's a peaceful way of avoiding an outright war with Century III, we were inclined to agree. He's catching a ride here on an airobus as we speak."

"No Transfer?"

"He's used up his quota for the day-which reminds me. Corth II will be filling Dalden in on what happened, but you might want to point out to him that your meeting up with that sa'abo caused Jorran to change his original plan, which was to capture you both and cart you off to Century III, and Dalden probably wouldn't have survived the trip."

"Delete that," Martha said. "Jorran wouldn't have found them without her reverting to using her own language. It was what he was hoping for, the only way he could have located her. And she wouldn't have done that if she weren't alone with a sa'abo breathing down her throat."

"Farden hnnell, must you always get technical, Martha?" Tedra complained.

"Never mind that. Dalden wants Transfer now, and I mean now. I warned you he'd go berserk when he saw all that blood."

"For stars' sake, you know how to stall someone better than anyone else. Let her at least change clothes first," Tedra said, then suggested, "Transfer him to Challen. He can calm him down some, if you can't."

Which made Brittany start to panic. If Dalden's mother was this worried that she was in big trouble, she was likely in some seriously big trouble.