To Battle The Gods

11 A demand—and a sign of intruders

“ . . . not at all sure I want to know what she has in mind,” said a male voice, coming to me as I struggled to free myself from that which felt as though it stole the very air from my chest. Thick gray fog enfolded my thoughts and desire for movement, and I knew not where I lay nor what went on about me.

“I don’t think I’ve ever before seen her that furiously angry—or that gloatingly happy,” said another male voice, one seemingly as familiar as the first. “I don’t know what she has in mind either, but I have a feeling we won’t be wasting our time if we pity these two.”

“The sole benefit here seems to be that we’re no longer barred from these subjects,” said the first voice, heavier than the second and perhaps somewhat older. “I can scarcely believe the story their bodies tell about the sort of conditions they live under. They actually have unremoved scar tissue.”

“Especially the female subject,” said the second male, his voice in some manner distracted, and then there came a touch upon my thigh. “She must have had some sort of accident, but just what sort I can’t imagine.”

“Use your eyes and learning rather than your preconceptions, Doctor,” said the first male, his voice gentle despite the air of rebuke about his words. “Her scars were clearly made by edged weapons, not caused by an accident. Just as the hack and ribs of the male show he was rather thoroughly whipped.”

“Whipped!” echoed the second in great shock. “And weapons? What sort of people are these?”

“Very primitive ones,” said the first, a sadness now touching him. “It takes centuries for man to drag himself out of the mud of ignorance and superstition, the wink of an eye for him to slide back again. He won’t truly be civilized until he can find a way to permanently keep what his centuries of struggle have brought him. No matter what happens to disrupt continuity. ”

“They really do need us to help them, don’t they?” asked the second, his voice now showing a revelation and odd vulnerability. “We’re not here to show them how much better off we are, we’re here to help them find betterment for themselves. I never really believed that until just this minute.”

“You won’t have trouble believing it when you see how much hard work we have in front of us,” said the first with a chuckle. “Helping people is usually harder than taking advantage of them, especially with people like these. They have your sympathy now because you’re picturing them as helpless, but in their own environment they’re far from helpless. In their world they’re deadly dangerous, and if you forget that even for a minute, you could find yourself facing a lot of time in bio-rehab tanks. Now, now, girl, don’t strain like that or you’ll hurt yourself. Just relax and don’t be frightened.”

The second male made a sound of surprise, for clearly only the first had seen that I had returned to myself enough to struggle against what held me. I knew not what it was which closed tight about my wrists, ankles and brow, that which felt like something other than metal, but it was unnecessary to know the makeup of slave chains to wish to be free of them. I knew not what I lay upon nor what held me, yet did I know I wished no part of them.

As the males knew the darkness no longer kept me from the world, I opened my eyes to look upon them; their voices had seemed familiar, and their faces proved the same. Both were stranger males I had seen in the chamber of confinement, those whose coverings had collars of blue. He who had spoken first was the roundish male with a lighter blue upon him than his brothers wore, short, thin hair of brown above dark eyes filled with concern. The second was one who wore deeper blue, and indeed did he appear to have fewer kalod than the first. He, too, was brown of hair and eye, and he regarded me where I lay upon a narrow, raised platform of some sort, wrists held to either side of my body, ankles immovable at the far end of the platform, head able to do no more than turn somewhat from side to side. Much like an alcove in Sigurr’s city did it seem, save for the pale blue all about upon walls and ceilings, and also save for the presence of Aysayn to my left, bound as was I upon another narrow platform. Sigurr’s Shadow stirred where he lay, in an attempt to break free of the darkness which continued to hold him, as yet unaware of the fact that darkness was not all which held the two of us.

“Is this the manner in which stranger folk observe a truce?” I demanded in a hoarse voice. “Release us at once!”

“What is she talking about?” asked the second male of the first, his expression a frown showing lack of understanding. “What’s this about a truce?”

“I have no idea,” said the roundish male with a shrug, as perplexed as the other. “Possibly something was said to them that they construed as an offer of peace. Whatever it was, I’m sure it wasn’t our project Leader who said it.”

“You can bet on that,” murmured the second male, his eyes resting thoughtfully upon my face. “Did you hear what she said to me? No? Well, it seems someone told her how hard I was hit when I first laid eyes on this-subject. She told me to be sure to stick around and watch the fun, and afterward I could test how effective the procedure was. I have a feeling that whatever the procedure was that she was talking about, it doesn’t come under the heading of truce.”

“No, I would tend to agree,” said the first male in a similar murmur, his dark eyes watching the other as unblinkingly as the second watched me. “Just a minute ago you were talking about helping these people. Does that by any chance mean you first intend helping yourself, or will you tell the project Leader your interest isn’t as sharp as you thought it was?”

The second male stood silent and unmoving in the face of the question put to him, a deep disturbance in the gaze which held to me, and then his head shook slowly from side to side.

“I don’t know,” said he, the words oddly simple and open. “I really do want to help these people, but when I look at this one—there’s nothing humanitarian in the urges which rise. I’ve never before seen a woman like her in my entire life, and don’t ever expect to see another. You like to know what I’ll do if I’m given the chance at her? Frankly I’d like to know the same thing.”

“The first thing you ought to know is that she probably won’t accept you freely,” said the first male, the sadness returned to him beneath the gentleness of his voice. “I’m not so old or sedentary that I don’t see what you do, Kene—but would you really take a woman against her will, even a primitive one like this? Would you force her to satisfy feelings she hasn’t purposely raised in you?”

“That’s more than a little primitive itself, isn’t it?” asked the second male with a smile lacking all humor and warmth, his arms coming slowly to fold across his chest. “I wonder if anything like that has ever happened to her—but that’s foolish; of course it hasn’t. These people may be primitive, but they’re not animals. And of course I’d never force myself on her, Doctor. I’m just not sure if I would take advantage of whatever Tia has in mind for her.”

“That’s a considerable relief, Kene,” said the first male, putting a hand to the shoulder of the other. “For a moment I thought we might have lost you to the lure of the primitive, a far greater menace than anything bacteriological. I recall an incident on my last project . . . .”

“What occurs here?” demanded the roughened voice of Aysayn, sounding much as I had. I turned my head to see that he, too, strained at that which bound his wrists to the narrow platform, yet he was as unsuccessful as I in finding freedom.

“Please don’t upset yourselves,” said the roundish male, this time addressing Aysayn as well, his discomfort having increased once again. “The project Leader had you brought here and restrained, but I’m sure she doesn’t mean you any true harm. She’ll be back in just a short while, and then we’ll all find out . . .”

“Truce!” spat Aysayn, looking to me with the great outrage he felt, his eyes speaking silently upon the matter of what was to be done with those possessing so little honor that their words were naught. I, too, recalled the manner in which we had dealt with the followers of the gray Oneness, and let him see that once we had found our way to freedom, we would surely do these strangers the same.

“I would like to know what truce you two keep talking about,” said the second male, also looking upon Aysayn. “The only ones authorized to make agreements with natives aboard this ship are Tia and . . .”

“Well, well, I’m right on time, I see,” came a voice, and then did the female Tia step forward between the two blue-collared males who immediately gave ground. The stranger female seemed very pleased with matters all about her, and after no more than a glance for me regarded Aysayn. “Now that they’ve both come out of it, I think we can get started.”

“We’ve—ah—been wondering just what it is you plan to get started with, Leader,” said the first male, his voice hesitant as he looked upon the female. She, in turn, looked only upon an icy-eyed Aysayn, and the smile she wore was more than insulting yet less than challenging.

“Regulations state that the project Leader may, if necessary, impress the natives with higher technology if it will convince them to cooperate with us,” said she in answer, a reply which surely brought as little to Aysayn as to myself. “Also, Doctor, a native who attacks a member of the project may be taught better, to protect the civilized who work with them and their barbarian ways. This native dared to put his hands on me, and now he will be taught better, at the same time finding himself impressed into cooperating. Oh yes, I think he’ll be very impressed, and after him it will be the girl’s turn.”

“But what do you mean to do?” asked the second male, with veiled impatience.

“I mean to introduce them to electricity,” said the female. “They’ll be taught to do anything we wish in order to keep themselves from being shocked again, and that will include going to their knees and begging. The female will beg you, Kene, and this male—this, oh so magnificent barbarian—will fall to his knees in front of me and kiss my feet, then beg to do anything he can to please me. If he begs nicely enough, I may even let him do it.”

“Project Leader, you can’t mean that!” said the first male in great shock, his face paling, both males clearly aware of what the female intended. That she somehow meant to have the use of Aysayn was evident, from the manner in which her hand insolently stroked the strength in his uselessly straining arm, if naught else, yet was she far wide of the mark in believing the male would beg. Neither Sigurri nor Midanna would beg, a thing to be known by any who would name themselves enemy to them. I, too, strained against that which held me, finding the same as I had found earlier, unable even to twist the hair which lay beneath me. Anger rose in me nearly as high as it had risen in Aysayn, yet were we unable to free ourselves from the platforms.

“Of course I mean it, Doctor,” said the female Tia, laughing lightly at the male behind her as well as the one before her who was unable to keep from the insult of her touch. “Once we have these two obeying us we’ll do the same to the others, then set them loose to talk some sense into the rest of those barbarians. Before you know it, we’ll have access to the entire population, and then we can do our jobs—which is what we’re here for, isn’t it, Doctor?”

“Yes, of course,” began the roundish male, wringing hands behind the back of the female in agitation. “However, I really must . . .”

“Must get on with it,” interrupted the female, at last turning from Aysayn to the male who hovered behind. Her satisfaction had not lessened, yet was she suddenly taken with a small frown. “Now where did Kene disappear to? He was here just a minute ago.”

“Kene?” echoed the male, turning with a similar frown to look behind himself. The second, younger male no longer stood in his place nor, apparently, was he to be seen in the chamber. “Why, I don’t know where he went. I didn’t even hear him leave. Please, Tia, I really must ask you to recon—”

“Now you’ll need another assistant,” interrupted the female again, annoyance taking her as she paid no mind to the beseeching look of the male. “Well, don’t just stand there, Doctor. Get someone else in here, and do it fast. I don’t intend spending all day on this.”

“Very well, ma’am,” replied the male in dejected tones, defeat riding him heavily as he turned away. He passed from view with leaden steps, and the female turned again to Aysayn.

“You think you’re so good, don’t you?” asked she in tones so soft the words were difficult to hear, her hand reaching forth to stroke the chest of the Sigurri. “You get away with pushing around helpless females like that outrageous strumpet over there, and then get to believing it can be done with any woman. Well, it can’t be done with any woman, and that’s something you’ll be learning very soon now. I think I’m going to enjoy making use of you even more than I enjoyed doing the same thing to Aram.”

“Woman, you have long since gone beyond the bounds of my patience,” said Aysayn as he looked upon her, the cords in his arms and shoulders and neck standing out clear with the growl in his voice. “Release us at once, else you shall pay dearly for our discomfort when we have seen to our own release.”

“You expect to get out of this before I’m ready to let you out?” said the female with great amusement, trailing fingers down the body of the male. “How nice to see real confidence in someone who isn’t female. It’s a shame that that confidence isn’t destined to last very long. But don’t spend any time worrying about it, you’ll soon have other things to occupy your attention.”

The female then turned from a furious Aysayn to the others who stood behind her, clearly having heard their approach. The roundish male had returned accompanied by a second male, one lighter-haired, larger, and less concerned than he who had suddenly taken himself off.

“All right, let’s get started immediately,” said the female briskly to the two males, who merely stood awaiting her commands. Surely were these slave males, their blue collars perhaps having been placed upon them in lieu of collars of metal. “We’ll work on the male subject first, and once he’s conditioned we’ll do the girl. Get him wired up as fast as you can. ”

The two males did no more than nod, the first in resignation, the second without concern, and then did they move to the platform upon which Aysayn lay, one to each side of him while the female looked on with bright interest. The males produced lengths of what seemed very thin metal, and after a number of reckid of toying with the lengths, began to bring them to the body of Aysayn.

“You must understand, Leader, that this may not do what you want it to,” said the roundish male, his eyes upon the female. “We’ve had to adapt this equipment which wasn’t, after all, designed for torture.”

“Teaching, Doctor, not torture,” corrected the female with a very faint smile, her eyes upon what was then being done to a struggling Aysayn. “I’m well aware of your disapproval, but don’t let it lead you so far astray that you try disobeying orders. There are worse things than that to be done to civilized men, as I’m sure you know. If you don’t want to see your entire career go down in flames, you’ll make sure I get exactly what I want.”

The male made no rejoinder and his eyes lowered as his head did, and then had the other male moved so that I was no longer able to see the first. Indeed were these slave males, unable to refuse doing what they seemed to have no stomach for, obeying all commands without strong objection. My wrists pulled again at what held them, a material far softer than metal or even leather, yet one which refused to yield to even the strength of anger and desperation. That harm was to be given to Aysayn, I had no doubt, yet was I unable to free myself to aid him.

Too few were the reckid before the slave males completed their task, and then did they step away from the platform Aysayn lay upon. Sigurr’s Shadow had been draped about with threads of metal, as though the ones about him had been maglessa worms rather than males, and the female Tia moved to take their place.

“I’ll make this very simple so that you’ll have no trouble understanding what I want,” said she to a thunderously furious Aysayn. “I’m going to ask you questions, and when I hear answers I like and also believe, I’ll have the lesson stopped. If I don’t like what I hear or don’t believe it, it will go on. Is everyone ready?”

Her slender, amused face turned to the slave males who had done her bidding, they now standing beside a wall which had had a small door opened in it, and waited no longer than to see the slow nod of the roundish male before seeking again the one who lay tightly bound before her.

“Are you ready, too, barbarian?” she inquired with continuing amusement, apparently anticipating the lack of response which she received, other than the cold stare of fury. “I don’t think you’ll ever be readier, so here’s the first question: who’s the one to be obeyed around here, you or me? Answer quickly now, we don’t want to waste any more time. ”

The dark gaze of Aysayn was fully upon the female, yet did he refuse to respond to so foolish a query. A Midanna warrior might perhaps stand above a Sigurri, yet not without the skill of her swordarm. To suggest superiority without a sword grasped firmly in fist was more than laughable.

“If you don’t answer, I’ll have to assume you’re answering in a way I don’t like,” said the female, the continuing purr in her voice untouched by anger. “In that case, you get what a wrong answer will get you. Give him his first taste of it, Doctor, about five seconds’ worth, I think.”

The male at the wall hesitated very briefly as the female backed a step from the platform Aysayn lay upon, then did he turn to the opening and put his hand within it. Immediately there came a sound I had never before heard, a sound somewhat like the crumpling of very thin parchment, and Sigurr’s Shadow writhed upon his platform, his body tightening convulsively, his head thrown back, his teeth and fists clenched tight against the agony of the unseen. Neither hand nor lash touched the male where he lay, yet was he taken up, held, and then released in some manner most painful. Quickly did the strange sound cease, and when it had done so Aysayn lay quivering against what had occurred, his breath rasping in his throat, sweat upon his body, his eyes closed tight to what lay about him.

“Did you enjoy that?” asked the female as she retook the step she had earlier given up, her voice a caress of pleasure. “Do you want more of it? Tell me now who is to be obeyed, and be sure you speak loudly enough to be heard.”

With great effort did Aysayn open his eyes to look upon the female, yet was there naught of fear to be seen there. Blood fury flamed in the gaze which held to her, yet was the female no more than annoyed.

“You are a stubborn one, aren’t you?” said she, a muffled sound to be heard as though she tapped a foot in impatience upon something other than wood. “I can see being easy on you is wasted effort, you’re much too backward to appreciate it. Do it again, Doctor, but this time make it ten seconds.”

Again the sound of crumpling parchment came, and again Aysayn was touched with pain, yet was he not released so soon as he had been the first time. The unseen held him stiff in silent agony, and when once he was released he gasped as though the air had been taken from him.

“Are you rethinking your position?” asked the female very softly, her voice now an even greater insult as she looked upon one who lay trembling in his bonds. “The next jolt you get will be fifteen seconds long, half again as long as what you just had, and the time after it will be twice as long. If you begin pleasing me you won’t be given any more than one-second reminders, to reinforce what you’ll be learning. You’re lucky the current is so low, or you might even be dead by now. Tell me who is to be obeyed here.”

This time the Sigurri made no effort to look upon the female, and although he maintained his silence behind closed eyelids, the pain fairly pulsed from his flesh. Madly I struggled against the bonds which held me, the kill-lust rising so high that my vision swam, my body arching in an effort to break free. The band about my brow slipped some small amount, likely due to the moisture which had formed there, but there was too little resistance in the thing to pull from it with a single effort. Again I arched upward, using the bonds about my wrists as a brace, and again the band slipped. A third time and a fourth did I strain to escape its encircling clutch, frantic with the need for haste, yet even as I threw it from me with a toss of my head and raised up as far as I was able, the female Tia was again looking upon the roundish male by the wall.

“He’s trying to continue disobeying me, Doctor,” said she, the annoyance in her voice having grown stronger. “Show him again what happens to those who disobey.”

The roundish male looked upon the female with the hesitation born of his distress. His palms wiped themselves upon his covering seemingly without volition, and again his glance went to the Sigurri.

“If you keep this up, you’ll kill him,” he said with pleading in his voice, a slave begging the agreement of his mistress. “Can’t you see he won’t give you what you want? He doesn’t have a career you can threaten, and he’s no stranger to pain. You’ve got to let me help him—it’s what we came here for—to help them—!”

“No!” denied the female harshly. “He’ll do as I say despite your opinions to the contrary, Doctor, and he’ll do it fast as soon as he learns I’m not bluffing! Now, obey me or suffer the consequences!”

The mouth of the male opened to speak further, perhaps in agreement, perhaps in denial, yet was he denied the opportunity to put his thoughts in words. Another voice came first, one filled with boundless outrage, one which took the attention of all.

“What the hell is going on here?” demanded the male Aram, having appeared in the opening which was to these folk a door, the female Kira and the dark-haired male who had earlier departed hovering just behind. “What do you think you’re doing, Tia?”

“What I’m doing is none of your business, Captain,” returned the female, having whirled to face him at the first of his words, her chin high in defiance. “I found these two where you left them, and you’re lucky you were gone when I got back to your cabin, or you’d probably be strapped down right next to them. I think you ought to know that what you tried to do to me will be going into the log, Captain, so enjoy the title while you can. Once I’m finished with you, you won’t even be able to get a position as cabin steward aboard a cruise liner. ”

“Is that so?” said the male, looking upon the female with distaste. “Considering the fact that you’re already relieved from your post, just how do you intend to accomplish that?”

“What do you mean, relieved from my post?” said the female with a snort of ridicule, folding her arms in unconcern. “You have no grounds to relieve me, and you know it. You’d better get back to wherever you were, Captain; you’re in enough trouble already.”

“Where I was was with the people in Research and Investigation,” said the male, halting the female as she began to turn from him. “They found the source of that power signal, and were so involved with it they nearly forgot to give me the report I’d been waiting for. Would you like to guess what the source was, Tia?”

“I’ve already said it was probably one of their comm crystals,” returned the female stiffly, yet was there a certain unsteadiness in the manner in which she looked upon the male. “What else could it have been?”

“Well, it could have been an ever-light cell—but it wasn’t,” said the male, folding his arms as he met the gaze of the female. “As it turns out, it’s a Feridan artifact, and you’re the one who kept us from finding out about it immediately. Your order’s in the log-right along with my order relieving you of command, something I took care of before coming here. It’s too bad you weren’t taught how to keep your word any better than you were taught to think, Tia. You could have been relieved without prejudice, merely as a matter of form, but that’s not the way it reads now. You won’t ever make project Leader again no matter how much influence your family has—the Union doesn’t like to be embarrassed.”

“You couldn’t have done that to me,” the female said in denial, shaking her head in disbelieving annoyance, and then her eyes returned to the face of the male. “It couldn’t be a Feridan artifact, you’re lying if you say it is. You’re lying about everything, and it’s me you’re trying to embarrass, but it won’t work. I’m going to be the one to get somewhere with these animals, and there’s nothing you can do to stop me. Doctor, you have your orders. Carry them out immediately. ”

The female had turned again to address the roundish male, yet did he fail to give her the acknowledgment she sought. His eyes remained upon the male Aram, his disturbance clear, and when the female turned again in anger to seek what held him, she suddenly grew very still. Aram and Kira and the dark-haired male had all stepped farther into the chamber, and now was it possible to see two other males as well, those with green collars and white and green cloth about the upper sleeves of their coverings. Sight of these two males caused the female Tia to pale and begin trembling, yet the male Aram looked upon her with little pity.

“I had a feeling I’d need Ship’s Security to convince you,” said Aram to the now silent Tia. “They’ll take you back to your cabin and make sure no one gets confused about whether or not to accept your orders. We’re shielding now, the way we should have been doing right from the start, so don’t bother anyone about getting in touch with headquarters. They know why we’ve gone silent, and won’t expect to hear from us until this thing’s settled.”

“Captain, is it all right now for me to tend that man?” asked the roundish male when the female Tia merely stood and stared at the two males with collars of green. “Despite my orders I made sure to give him no more than absolute minimum voltage, but he must still be in a good deal of pain.”

“Voltage?” said the male Aram with a frown, looking immediately toward a still-unmoving Aysayn. “You can’t mean she actually went through with that insanity? Lord, man, get him out of that fast, and Jalav as well!”

Aram and the roundish male went quickly to Aysayn, leaving Kira and the dark-haired male to come to where I lay. I knew not what occurred there among the strangers, yet did I know that I, too, needed to go to Aysayn—before I saw to another necessity.

“How do you get these things off?” asked the female Kira of the dark-haired male as she examined the bonds upon my left wrist. “Jalav, are you all right? She didn’t hurt you, too, did she?”

“There’s a release under the table,” replied the darkhaired male, the words removing the female’s gaze of concern from me so that she might seek out whatever device the male had spoken of. So easily was the thing done, a mere touch of a hand as small and strengthless as Kira’s, and no longer was I held by unbreakable restraint. I freed my wrists from the cloth which had grasped them and quickly moved to sitting, watching with impatience as the two stranger folk sought for similar release of my ankles. The instant it was done I kicked free of the bindings, threw myself from the platform to the accompaniment of gasps of surprise from those who had freed me, and then was at the other platform. The male Aram grunted in startlement when I moved him with the weight of my body from my path, yet had I eyes for no other than Sigurr’s Sword.

Aysayn, too, had been released, but could barely sit up. The roundish male touched him in some manner, looking worried though my own concern was considerably lessened. The dark eyes which came to me showed the pain he had been given, yet were they also filled with a renewed reassurance which had been lacking since the lashing he had had in the Caverns of the Doomed. Pain takes the strength from one, and unendurable pain the spirit as well, yet Aysayn’s spirit was clearly untouched. His body continued to tremble somewhat, yet the flesh will heal when the spirit commands it.

“Don’t worry, Jalav, he’ll be all right,” said the male Aram, his voice gentle as he touched my arm. “The doctor wants to make sure his heart wasn’t damaged, and then he’ll give him something for the pain. Why don’t you wait over there with Kira, and as soon as we have him on his feet again, we’ll all go back to my cabin.”

The male began to urge me away from the platform, and I looked upon Aysayn a final time before allowing the thing. I had needed to know whether Aysayn would live, and now that I knew he would there were other matters to be about.

“So your name is Jalav,” said a voice, and I turned my head to see the dark-haired male who stood beside Kira. The male looked up to me with eyes alight, and surely did he appear as one who sought to follow a war leader. “It finally came to me that the only other one you could have had a truce with was the Captain,” said the male, attempting to straighten where he stood as I halted before him. “When truces are made, they shouldn’t be broken out of hand, especially not by those who should know better.”

“That’s why he came looking for Aram and me,” said Kira, her eyes sober with concern. “I only wish we could have gotten here sooner, before Aysayn was hurt.”

So gentle and disturbed were these stranger folk, as though naught might be done for the pain and humiliation which had been given, as though the one who had been halted was now unreachable. I looked beyond their shoulders to where the female Tia stood, shaking her head as though refusing to hear the soft words spoken to her by the two males with collars of green, they gently insistent despite her refusal. Without undue strength I put my hands to the shoulders of the two folk before me, moved them aside from my path without giving heed to their gasped out protests, then took myself toward she who had caused cowardly pain to be given to my brother.

“ . . . have to come with us, Leader,” said one of the males to the female as I reached them, the words sounding as though they had been spoken many times previously. “Technically you’re under arrest, but we don’t want to have to force you to come with us, and you don’t want to make us do it, so why don’t you . . .”

“Absolutely not,” denied the female with another headshake. “I won’t hear of any such thing, and I don’t care if . . .”

Her words ended abruptly as I spun her about by the shoulder and took her by the throat, my fingers closing about it as easily as they would about the throat of a child. So small was the suddenly wide-eyed and terrified female, small and seemingly helpless, yet had she dared to challenge those who were in every way her superiors. Her hands rose to claw feebly in an attempt to loosen my grip as she gasped and choked; so ineffectual was the gesture, however, that I was free to ignore it in favor of the attempts of the two green-collared males to assist her. Both came to grasp my arms with shouts of shocked disbelief, striving to force me from the frantically mewling female, yet were they no larger nor more effective than their brothers, neither even so large as the male Aram. A kick to the middle rid me of the one to my right, a kick to the manhood did the same for the other, and then was I able to look down upon the one I held by the throat. Slowly would I tighten my grip till no further air was allowed her, and this was she surely able to see in my eyes. Her hands held to my wrist in strengthless desperation, her widened eyes filled with the knowledge that she looked upon her death—and then was my arm struck in a way which had once been shown me by Chaldrin, a blow which caused the victim to lose all feeling and control. The female Tia was pulled from fingers no longer able to hold her and thrust away, and then was it Aram who stood before me.

“Jalav, you can’t kill her!” said he, paling as I growled low in my throat and sought to pass him even before life returned to my arm. “I know what she did was terribly wrong, but can’t you see that killing her would also be wrong? She’s so much smaller than you, and never bothered to learn the first thing about unarmed combat. Don’t you understand that it’s wrong?”

“Perhaps the wrong would equal binding those one would not find it possible to best while they were free, and then giving them pain,” said I, with a growl, as I flexed my hand to free the numbness. “To do wrong is to invite wrong, and those so invited need not refuse. To overlook a wrong done is to encourage the wrongdoer to do the same again.”

“She’s absolutely right, Aram,” said the female Kira, who also came to stand before me. “You can’t let someone get away with hurting you, or you are encouraging them to do it again. But you don’t have to worry about her ever getting another chance to do something wrong, Jalav. All her power and authority have been taken away from her, and they’ll never be given back. If you let her live she’ll have to return home in utter disgrace, a disgrace she’ll never be able to overcome. She’ll spend the rest of her life remembering what she threw away when she broke her word, and will know that she can never get it back no matter what. That’s what will happen to her—if you let her live.”

“Should I show her mercy,” said I, rubbing at the place where I had been struck but actually seeking to camouflage the shudder which touched me. Well did I know the male concept of mercy, which took the spirit and pride from one without also taking one’s life, a cruelty I had known naught of before becoming ensnared in the matters of Mida’s Crystals and the coming of strangers. Also did Mida and Sigurr know of the concept, easily finding approval for the soul agony it brought, and now did these strangers show a similar approval. The male Aram nodded anxious agreement with Kira’s words, both sets of eyes watching me closely, yet was the deepest and most anxious gaze possessed by Tia, who knelt wheezing, in a heap where she had been thrown, one hand to her throat. Clearly did the female beseech me with her eyes, asking not for the swift death which would end a life fallen to naught, but for the unending horror of a life given over to mercy. To be forced to continue with life under circumstances such as those was nearly inconceivable to me, yet to beg for the thing—! I turned from them all with the deep illness I felt, wishing it were possible to return to the time before the arrival of chaos and remain there, and the male Aram came to put a hand to my shoulder.

“You’ve made the right decision, Jalav, and by doing that you’ve also proven yourself to be much more civilized than Tia,” said the male, his tone warm as he clasped my shoulder. “She’s the real savage around here, and in a little while everyone will know it. Did I hurt your arm very badly?”

I looked down to see that I continued to rub at where I had been struck, feeling an odd amusement touch me. Many times had I been called savage, by the guard males of Bellinard, by the city females who had taunted me, by village dwellers and city dwellers and even by those who rode in the name of the Oneness. Never, however, had I been called civilized till I had committed what was an abomination in my eyes, allowing one to remain among the living when death would have been the far greater kindness. To be civilized, then, was to commit abominations, a revelation which was a good deal less surprising than it should have been. I took my hand from the arm which ached only a bit and shook my head in answer to the question of the male.

“Well, I’d still like the doctor to look at it when he’s finished with Aysayn,” said Aram, a frown in his tone. “I’ll get rid of Tia, and then I’ll be back to wait with you.”

The dark-haired male who had been with Kira now tended those in green collars, attempting to aid them to a steadier return to their feet, therefore did the small female walk to me alone. A frown rode upon her features, and when she halted beside me, disturbance clouded the gaze which came up to me.

“I wasn’t lying when I told you what would happen to Tia, but you don’t seem as pleased about it as you should be,” said the female, her words slow, her tone puzzled. “Is something bothering you?”

“How is it possible to covet life itself, yet be unconcerned about the quality of that life?” I asked, unsure as to why I put voice to the sudden question. “How is it possible to live on in dishonor when one’s soul may be cleansed by death in battle, the dishonor washed away with one’s blood? How might one beg such a life from another, and care naught for any other thing than that life?”

“So that’s the way you see it,” said she, bleakly. “With truth and honor, the brave-hearted way, and you can’t understand why Tia would want to do it any differently. I wish I could explain it to you, but I’m afraid I can’t—and wouldn’t even if I could. I’d like to see you keep your ideals for as long as possible—Jalav, Tia can’t help doing what she does, that’s what she was taught to do. Try to understand that all of us weren’t taught the same thing, and maybe accepting us will be a little easier.”

The words of the female merely added to my confusion, therefore did I take my attention from her to see how Aysayn fared. The male now sat upon his platform, slowly stretching arms and shoulders, the roundish male hovering near and watching anxiously. Soon would the Sigurri be as he had been before the difficulty, and I not alone in seeing it so.

“I really do wish I had the nerve to try that friend of yours,” muttered the female Kira, her half-lidded eyes moving about the form of the male. “I get all quivery every time those pretty brown eyes brush past me, and I keep wondering what it would be like with him. It would probably kill me, but what a way to go. ”

“Were he invited in a proper manner, Aysayn would bring no other thing than pleasure to a female,” said I, sending a dubious glance down to the tiny Kira. “That is, however, to one who was fully grown. The male is extremely well endowed, and perhaps would be overmuch for one who was—”

“Undersized,” finished the female sourly when I did not, her glance to me filled with amusing frustration. “I’ve never before worried about accommodating a man, but none of them had half what he has—in the way of good looks, that is. Do you really think he’d be too much for me?”

Her wistfulness brought a smile to me, the first I had felt in what surely seemed kalod. The thought came that perhaps the female spoke only to distract me from the upset I had felt, and should that be so, my amusement might only increase.

“There is but a single manner in which the truth of the thing may be determined,” said I, looking at the female who now looked up toward me. “I shall speak with him on your behalf.”

“Speak to him?” she echoed with something of a squeak, her eyes widening at the thought. “About—what I said? Oh, Jalav, you wouldn’t do that to me, would you? He might not wait to make sure he was really invited!”

“He would take you in his arms and determine the truth with full certainty,” said I, showing naught of the laughter which wished to bubble from my throat. “The use of one such as he is somewhat vigorous; more so, likely, than the use of one of your own males. He would not, however, intrude were another to be asked before him, one such as the male Aram. He has developed a small fondness for the male Aram, and certainly would not . . .”

“Yes, yes, that’s it, Aram,” said she with great haste, looking upon me with vast relief. “I’ve already invited Aram, so I couldn’t possibly invite . . .”

“Invited Aram for what?” asked the male Aram as he came up to us, eyeing Kira with curiosity. “What have I done this time?”

“It’s what you’re about to do,” said the female in a mutter, taking the left arm of the male in both of hers. “Since I’ve already invited you to share my bed, Jalav doesn’t have to speak to Aysayn about his sharing it. Does she, Aram?”

“What?” asked the male blankly, for the moment taken aback, and then did the female’s meaning come to him as her grip increased quite markedly upon his arm. “Oh, oh, that, sure, of course you don’t have to, Jalav. She won’t have the time for anyone else. In fact, she’s even agreed to stay with me in my cabin for a few days. Haven’t you, Kira?”

“Sure I have,” said the female, forcing the words between clenched teeth as she looked up blackly into the grinning face of the male she held. “Why would I want to see my own cabin’s carpeting ruined by spilled blood? You louse.”

“Now, now, no personalities,” laughed the male, truly pleased as he looked down upon her and covered one of her hands with his own. “I waited to be invited, didn’t I? When that was the last thing I wanted to do? Now all I have to do is make sure you don’t regret the invitation—which is the first thing I want to do.”

No longer was the male showing amusement, and the female ceased her glare with puzzlement, the two looking upon one another as they had not done before. I knew not why I had put the female Kira into the hands of the male Aram, nor was I aware of where my former amusement had gone; I knew only that the weariness deep within was again attempting to surface, and I had not then the thoughts to give it. I looked instead upon Aysayn and found that he now stood beside his platform, therefore did I take myself over to him.

“The pain has entirely gone from you?” I asked, bringing his eyes from Kira and Aram to me. “You are no longer in difficulty?”

“The lash was harder, yet scarcely so all-pervading,” said he with a grimace, still working one shoulder. “It pleases me, however, that the unseen lash leaves no track, for I would not be helpless at such a time and in such a place. What have you done with Aram and the wench?”

“My humor seems to have curdled within me,” said I with a grimace much like his. “The stranger female attempted to raise my spirits, and I, in thanks, drove her to the side of a male. It is perhaps all one with my failure to take the life of the female who gave you such pain.”

“The matter was not one to be pressed at that time,” said he with a headshake, his eyes hard. “These strangers are not the same as we, and little honor or satisfaction would be found in such a slaying. Sooner would I take a swordbelt to the bit for her insolence. In what manner did you drive the wench to where she had no earlier wish to go?”

“The female made pretense of an interest in the one who is my present companion,” said I, my amusement returning. “As I knew she had no true wish for your use, I made offer to request that use for her—should there fail to be another whose place you would take. Quickly, then, did she recall that she had already invited the use of the male Aram, and asked the male to verify the invitation. This he did with great speed, and she unable to deny him lest she find herself instead in the arms of one whose use would likely weary her greatly. ”

“Weary her,” said Aysayn with a soft laugh, the foolishness having taken the hardness from his eyes. “In truth I would likely find myself unable to so much as put a hand to her, for I have not a taste for the taking of small girl children. It pleases me, however, that you now think to request my use for another, rather than ordering it taken at dagger point. Is such thoughtfulness to continue?”

“For so long as we remain among these strangers,” said I with a shrug, well aware that he ragged me. “Their females do not possess daggers.”

“I really do think you should let me give you something for the pain, sir,” said the roundish male to Aysayn in a bustle of arrival as the Sigurri chuckled at my sally. “You sustained no permanent damage from what was done to you, but you can’t possibly be entirely over the affects as yet. Frankly, I can’t see how you’re able to stand.”

“The lash is harder,” said Aysayn to the male as he had said to me, looking down to meet his gaze. “Best you pray to whatever god you follow that you never yourself learn the truth of this.”

“Indeed,” said I to the wide-eyed male. “To be lashed is to be unable to stand, or breathe, or live in any manner save within a film of glowing red agony. One needs to feel the lash to know the true meaning of pain.”

“You can’t mean that you’ve been whipped too?” said the roundish male, his shock quickly replaced by concern. “All that hair must have kept me from seeing—Are you still in pain from it? To be distracted by those wound scars is inexcusable—Will you let me look at it? Perhaps I can help.”

“The pain from the lashings has long since passed,” said I with a headshake and a small smile for the male’s agitation. “It remains only in memory, and cannot easily be dislodged from there. Surely would you be more profitably engaged were you to see to your own wounds.”

“I?” said the male, this time in surprise. “I have no wounds. Why would you think I had wounds?”

“You felt the female Tia’s actions wrong, and yet you obeyed her,” said I, no longer showing a smile. “What other thing might you be than wounded in the soul? Does one who is whole do that which he believes wrong? See to your own wounds, male, and consider the while what your fate would be were you to fall beneath the sway of one like yourself. Such a thing would be truly fitting, would it not?”

The male went silent at my words, his visage paled, and he made no attempt to reply to the questions I had put. His wide, pain-filled eyes clung to my face as his fingers pulled at one another at his rounded middle, and not even the approach of Aram and Kira took him from that.

“Are you all right now, Aysayn?” asked the male Aram, looking upon the Sigurri with critical eyes. “Do you need to do anything else for him, Doctor? And have you checked Jalav’s arm?”

The roundish male surely heard the words addressed to him, yet did he remain unspeaking and unmoving another brief moment. Then he turned and stumbled hurriedly away, one hand to his face, shoulders rounded and quivering, the very image of one suffering great pain. Indeed was the male wounded in his soul, yet did it remain to be seen whether healing would prove beyond him.

“Well, he can’t say he didn’t ask for that,” said the male Aram with a sigh, following the other stranger male with his eyes till he was gone. “We heard what you said to him, Jalav, and it was something that had to be said. I suppose he thought he could excuse anything he did by tending it carefully afterward, but I don’t think he believes that any longer.” Then he looked soberly at Aysayn and myself. “We’d better go back to my cabin now. Something very important has come up, and we’ve got to get to the bottom of it as fast as possible. ”

Aysayn and I exchanged looks of puzzlement, yet did we follow as the two stranger folk began to lead us from the chamber. The female Tia and the two males in collars of green were no longer to be seen, yet had the dark-haired male remained, and now stood beside the open doorway. He straightened where he stood when we all of us turned toward him, hesitated very briefly with his eyes upon me, then quickly took himself from the chamber ahead of us. When we, too, had reached the doorway and passed through it into a corridor, the male was no longer to be seen.

“Where did Kene rush off to?” asked Aram of Kira, curiosity causing him to look about. “I thought he’d stick around at least long enough to find out if Jalav wanted to thank him for his help.”

“I think that’s the trouble,” Kira replied. “He may be afraid that’s exactly what she would want to do. I had the feeling he didn’t really understand what she was like until she pushed us out of her way in order to get to Tia. He looked like he was in shock afterward, especially over the way she—ah—disposed of those two Security men. I’m willing to bet he’ll do the rest of his admiring from afar. Very far.”

Aram chuckled at the tale he was told, even Aysayn joining him, yet I was impatient. Truly peerless were these stranger males, to look upon one with desire, and then quickly take themselves off through fear. Had it been necessary to face them in battle, their wonders might indeed have been insufficient to protect them.

The corridor we trod was unlike those others we had seen in that the many doors along it were of blue, yet once we had again entered a small, unadorned chamber and waited several moments before emerging, we found the corridor to have again been changed to one of few doors of white. The reason for such a doing continued to escape me, therefore did I come to the decision to speak of it.

“Why may we not remain in the corridor while it is changed?” I asked, looking about myself. “Do you hesitate to show us your wonders? And for what reason need the corridor be changed at all?”

“What?” asked the male Aram, slowing as he turned his head to look upon me with puzzlement. “What do you mean, while the corridor is changed? The corridor isn’t changed.”

“Most certainly is the corridor changed,” I returned, almost scornfully. “Are we to believe this corridor the same as it was before we entered that small chamber? Then the doors were blue, now are they white. Do you think me unable to know one color from the next, unable to see the difference between no doors, and few doors, and many doors?”

“Wait a minute, Aram, I think I know what she’s talking about,” said Kira as the male frowned. “Jalav, do you think we keep taking the same corridor, only are changing it from time to time? Where do you think the room is where we left your friends?”

“The chamber is there,” said I, pointing in the direction opposite to that in which we walked. “I know not why its appearance has been changed, yet do I know it lies there.”

“An inertialess portal system would be somewhat beyond them, wouldn’t it?” said the male Aram with a wry look in answer to the one he received from the female. “I could repair one faster than explain it.”

“That’s because you know too much about it,” returned the female, amused. “Jalav, the corridor doesn’t change every time we step into that little-chamber; our location changes. The chamber moves us around without our having to walk, and the corridors look different because they are different. The place we left your friends isn’t down there, it’s a good distance away from this location. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

“Perhaps in part,” said I, recalling the mist which was used by the gods to move themselves and others from one place to the next. This, then, was the same without the mist, and I liked not the implications. We had been taken far from those who accompanied us, and would be unable to return to them without the aid of the strangers. A glance to Aysayn showed him far more perplexed than I, for he had never been to the place where Mida and Sigurr dwell, yet was he far from cowed or stricken with awe. As the stranger folk again resumed their walk toward that which was termed the “cabin” of Aram, I knew that Aysayn would not hesitate to assist me, should it become necessary to force the strangers into returning us to those who had been left behind in enclosures.

The chamber we entered was unchanged from when we had last seen it, save for a small box of glaring red, which sat upon one low platform. Aram walked directly to this box as the door behind us saw to its own closing, raised it and put it carefully into the hands of Kira, then turned to regard Aysayn and myself.

“We found this among the belongings of our four—guests,” said he, the sobriety returned to his light eyes. “We were able to detect it even before we picked you up, which was the main reason you four were chosen as subjects to begin with. What we’d like to know right now is where you got it.”

I almost said that the red box was no possession of ours, when the male reached to it and opened its top. Kira watched with some concern as Aram reached within, and then was it Aysayn and myself who felt concern. Slowly and with great care did the male withdraw my life sign by its leather, yet even so was I visited with illness to see it so close to another. Great harm was it possible for that life sign to bring to one who was not Jalav, and even seeing it held so carefully, my agitation was not soothed. That I had not realized these stranger folk would have possession of it was inexcusable; had any been harmed by it, the fault would have been mine.

“Best you return that, man, and quickly,” said Aysayn to Aram, looking upon the other male angrily. “The thing is unsafe, save in the hands of she to whom it belongs.”

“She,” echoed Aram, sending his gaze to me instead. “You don’t have to worry, Aysayn, I know better than to touch the mechanism itself. This is yours, Jalav?”

“Indeed,” said I with a nod, somewhat eased to know that the male would touch no more than the leather of my life sign. His calling of it was unfamiliar, yet did I sense the caution within him.

“If this is yours, then you can tell me where you got it,” said he, his light eyes unmoving from my face, his hand continuing to hold forth the life sign. “We both know it isn’t something your own culture produced, so where did it come from?”

My lips parted to speak of the manner in which it was given to me by the gods, yet did no sound come forth as the thought struck me that to speak of the gods was perhaps to betray them. The dilemma I had earlier been faced with, concerning how to avoid dishonor in a situation fraught with nothing save dishonorable options, had now expanded in size, and I truly knew not what to do.

“This is one question you can’t refuse to answer, Jalav,” said the male, seeing my hesitation. “The point is too important to let pass, for all of us.”

“There are certain things one does not speak of,” said I, feeling annoyance that the stranger would believe I might be ordered to betrayal. “Should the matter change, the male will then be told.”

“Damn it, stop looking at me as if I were a lower life form!” snapped the male, returning my life sign to the red box before putting fists to hips. “I don’t like being talked down to, and if you’re still thinking I couldn’t take you hand to hand, you’re quite mistaken. And I can also get what answers I need without your cooperation. I asked first to be polite, but good manners go as soon as patience does. Tell me where you got that equiresonator!”

“The male Aram may do as he pleases,” said I with a shrug, folding my arms as Aysayn moved to stand more closely beside me. “Pain is no stranger to this Midanna, yet first must the male reach her to give it. No words shall I speak, lest the decision be mine—which it is not.”

“Now, just calm down, all of you,” said the female Kira, putting one hand to the chest of the angry male beside her as she looked upon Aysayn and myself. “Aram, you can’t expect to bully her into answering you any more than you would be able to bully a—a general. From what I saw when she made her move on Tia, she didn’t get to be a leader because of her bust measurement. And Jalav, Aram isn’t threatening you with pain, he doesn’t have to. Getting honest answers out of people isn’t hard, and there’s no pain involved. We have something called truth drugs, and no one, no matter how strong, can resist them. But instead of arguing and throwing threats back and forth, why don’t we all sit down and discuss this calmly? We can start by telling you why we want to know what we do.”

“They already must know something,” the male Aram declared, glaring at me over the head of the female. “Why else would she refuse to come up with any answers?”

“That’s what we have to find out,” soothed the female, sending her gaze up to the still-angered male. “Or has your male ego been too badly bruised for you to be sensible? Just because you feel she’s challenging you, doesn’t mean you have to answer that challenge. ”

“The hell I don’t,” muttered the male, his glance to me fierce with anger. “I doubt if the primitive is buried very deep in any of us, and all it needs is the right nudge to bring it to the surface. Every time she straightens up and looks down her nose at me I get nudged, but I can’t really argue with you. Let’s all sit down and be sensible.”

The male turned then to the seat he had taken earlier, with the female perching upon the platform to his left, yet when he had settled himself he saw that Aysayn and I had not stirred from where we stood. The truce earlier made remained between us, yet was there no longer a feeling of kinship.

“Do you intend standing there till you drop?” asked the male with faint annoyance for the coldness I sent to him, then did he turn his gaze to the Sigurri beside me. “Aysayn, my friend, I think you may be able to understand why I lost my temper the way I did. Is she always that arrogant with men?”

“Even after a beating,” said the male beside me, faint amusement easing the stiffness of his stance. “Chaldrin speaks of the times he whipped her well, yet did she continue to defy him. Never shall she bow to the will of another, save that that other be—”

Abruptly did Aysayn’s words cease, for clearly had he nearly spoken of the gods, and the male Aram smiled without humor.

“You, too, eh?” said he, shaking his head as though in disappointment. “Well, if you two think you know something we don’t—aside from where you got that equiresonator—I don’t mind proving you wrong. Feel free to sit down any time you get the urge. This is likely to take awhile.”

The male settled himself more comfortably in his seat, his head back as he kept his gaze upon Aysayn, and seemed to search within himself for the proper words.

“I really don’t know where to begin,” said he, the female Kira silent yet attentive beside him. “We’ve already told you how your people came to this place, as colonists who wanted to open up a new planet. Not long after your colony was established, the word went out to all Senders, who were female, that the power crystals of all comms were to be removed and hidden away. Men ran the Union at that time, but the Senders were more ambitious and better organized than anyone thought. Comms without power crystals can be used for short-distance transmissions but not between stars, and the Senders threatened to isolate every planet in the Union if they weren’t given the reins of government. The men in power resisted; there was a long and bitter struggle, but the inevitable winners had to be the Senders. You can’t drug a Sender or torture her, otherwise her talent weakens or disappears, and chaining women to comms whose power crystals had been replaced turned out to be highly impractical. Senders have to be conscious and wilting, or the whole system breaks down. In order to keep themselves and their planets from absolute breakdown due to the lack of essential interstellar trade, the men in power finally gave in.

“Now, the Senders on the various planets had been ordered not to return their crystals no matter how long it took, until a ship came to their systems announcing success with a prearranged password, so that was the first thing the new Union leaders began doing. They sent out the first few ships—and the third one to go out came back with a startling discovery. One of the planets they had been scheduled to stop at, a planet that hadn’t yet been able to develop all of the ‘wonders’ older settlements had, had been taken over during the years of struggle for leadership by a previously unknown advanced race. The members of the advanced race look like us, but their ‘wonders’ are even more wonderful than ours, proving they were a much older race. Somehow, using their powers, they had started making the entire population of the planet their slaves, and if they hadn’t been found out when they were, they would have succeeded.”

“The Union suddenly found itself in the middle of a long and totally unexpected war,” said the female Kira, her demeanor, too, more sober than it had been. “When it was finally over, everyone found it incredible that there had only been five members of that advanced race directing the battle against them.

After that there was a search that went slowly from one less-civilized planet to the next, but only two more very small groups of them were found. They hadn’t gotten quite as far as they had on the first planet so the battles against them weren’t as bad, but they were bad enough.”

“And despite running into them three times, we still know almost nothing about them,” said Aram, continuing to look only upon Aysayn. “We know they’re from something called the Feridan Complex, but we don’t know if that’s a single planet, a group of star systems, or an entire galaxy. We know they have high-tech gadgets—sorry, ‘wonders,’ I mean—that are so far ahead of what we can do that we’re lucky we can understand what they’re supposed to be for. We can’t bring our own knowledge up to that level because there’s too much missing in between; it would be like seeing someone very good in hand-to-hand combat without seeing the training he went through to get that good. Seeing the end result doesn’t tell you how to get that good yourself, especially if it all happens so fast you barely have the time to see it before it’s over. We have ‘wonders’ that can tell us when Feridan ‘wonders’ are working, other ones that can keep us from being seen by the Feridan invaders, and ‘wonders’ that can to some extent stop some of the Feridan ‘wonders’ from working if we’re close enough. We learned how to do those few things from the times we fought them, but that’s nothing compared to what we want to learn. Compared to what we have to learn. ”

“Those Feridans are—twisted,” said Kira, looking to me with a shudder as she spoke. “They like to hurt the people they take as slaves, hurt them horribly, or else make them as twisted as they are. I’ve read about some of the things they made people do, and I get sick just thinking about it. We have to find out who and what they are, where they come from—and how we can kill every last one of them before they hurt anyone else, if the rest of them are the same. What we have here in this box is one of their ‘wonders,’ Jalav, something we’ve named an equiresonator. We’ve seen it before, always set to match only one person, and what it seems to do is keep that person’s body in the same state it was set for. What I mean by that is, if the person was well rested when the equiresonator was set to him, putting it on him when he’s tired will give him back a good deal of the strength he’s lost, and even repair damage if it has the chance, using the body’s own reserves to do the repairing. How it does this we don’t know, but it works faster than anything we have. We found quite a few of them on the slaves of that first planet, and they were the only things keeping those slaves alive. Some had been worked nearly to death, and some had been—used to give pleasure to the Feridans, their own twisted kind of pleasure. That’s why we have to know where you got yours, Jalav, to find out if the Feridans are anywhere around here.”

Silently I returned the gaze of the stranger female, understanding not half of what had been told me, yet a terrible cold had taken my thoughts in its clutches. I allowed the icy spinning to continue no more than a short while, and then found I could no longer keep from voicing a query.

“For what reason would—that device—do harm to another and not to the one to whom it was—set?” I asked, stumbling upon the words in order to state the question in a manner which would be understandable. The male Aram immediately moved his gaze to me, yet did Kira reply before he might speak.

“As far as we can tell, the equiresonators are an exact match to the people they’re set for,” said the female, also apparently groping for adequate words. “Even if there was someone on your world who looked just like you, inside their bodies they would be different and the—device would be able to tell. It would then decide that it was your body it was sensing, and that something was wrong, so it would immediately try making what was wrong right. Of course, we would know that there was nothing wrong, only different, but the device wouldn’t know it and would try to change what it thought was wrong. If it wasn’t taken off the other person immediately it would kill them, and the person the device was set for would suffer, too. There’s a—link of some sort between the device and the person who’s supposed to wear it, and if the device is activated, the person it belongs to is affected. The device has to be returned to that person, or they could die, too.”

Kira ended her words of explanation and merely gazed upon me as Aram did, both silently attempting to sense whether I had garnered what I needed from the reply. Also without words, I sank to the floor cloth and sat cross-legged, so shaken that I knew not whether I could have remained erect had that been my wish. It could not be, it could not be, and yet did it seem the answer to many questions.

“Jalav, what disturbs you?” asked Aysayn after a brief hesitation, crouching to put his hand to my shoulder. “For what reason do you seem so—odd?”

“Aysayn, I greatly fear that Mida and Sigurr have been taken in by these—others,” I whispered, noting the concern upon his face. “Have we not remarked how different they have seemed, how unknowing and dishonorable they have become? My life sign— How might I have been given a thing so familiar to these folk, save that its source was not the gods but these others? And my sword, the sword given me by Mida. Into the blade have words been etched, yet words which are unreadable by any of this world. In some manner have Mida and Sigurr been taken captive by those who are capable of wonders even beyond the knowledge of these folk we speak with, perhaps even beyond the wonders of the gods! What are we to do?”

The Sigurri’s eyes widened as the shock I myself felt gripped him, and he looked upon me wordlessly. He, it seemed, like myself, was unable to conceive of the manner in which mere mortals might free the very gods themselves from capture. Into the silence stepped the male Aram.

“If you have a particular problem, we might be able to help you with it,” said he, an offer as gentle as his previous words had been. “We may not know everything, but what we do know we’re willing to share. That’s the main reason we’ve come here—to teach you whatever we can.”

“How might you teach true warriors to do battle?” I asked with sudden annoyed impatience. “Have you not said that the battles you fought with these others were won only with difficulty? And what of those who were held hostage to these others? Were you able to free them without causing them great harm? From the manner in which you spoke, I would say not.”

“You’re right,” said he with a nod, leaning forward eagerly. “We did have a hard time winning against the Feridans, and we weren’t able to save the people they held the closest. Who are they holding hostage that you’re afraid for?”

Again I felt it best that I not speak of the gods, this time to spare them the shame of having others know of their humiliation, yet was I this time alone in my determination.

“These—Feridans—you speak of hold hostage the gods themselves,” said Aysayn, the pain in his eyes an indication of how deeply touched he was. “Jalav’s lady Mida and the great god Sigurr whom I serve—our confusion was heavy when we thought they demanded that we do battle with those who might well be our kin, an action filled with dishonor. Now are we able to see these others as the source of dishonor, yet we are unable to rescue the gods from them. The gods hold our oaths of fealty, and we are unable to aid them!”

So distraught was Aysayn at so great a shame that he hung his head; yet was the male Aram merely puzzled.

“The Feridans are holding your—gods?” he asked, sharing his confusion with the female Kira, their glances to one another fully eloquent. “How could they be—I mean, what makes you think they’re holding your gods? How would it be possible for them to do such a thing?”

“We know not how it might be possible, merely that it is,” I grudged, speaking where Aysayn was unable to. “How else might Mida have given me the device you speak of, the device you describe as being of those others? Would the goddess who holds my life vow do such a thing, save that she moved to the demands of another? Would she have sought so diligently to take my life, when that life was meant to be spent in her service? Would both goddess and god have demanded that Midanna and Sigurri turn upon one another after they had seen to the common enemy? They would not—save that they were held by these others.”

“What do you mean, your goddess tried to take your life?” asked Aram with a frown, this time sharing a longer glance with Kira. “And what’s this about people turning on each other?”

“You must tell them all you know, sister,” said Aysayn when I again showed hesitation, seating himself beside me upon the floor cloth. “We must learn all we may in order to defeat these others, and how may our kin be of aid to us without knowing all we know?”

“Very well,” said I with reluctance, unconvinced yet seeing no other path which might be taken. “I shall speak as you ask, brother, yet shall I also seek a return for what is given. Should no aid be forthcoming, there will surely be a reckoning.”

The gray eyes of the male Aram touched me then, the thoughts behind them unreflected in their depths, yet was I near to certain what those thoughts must be. The likely displeasure of the male did naught to keep me from beginning my tale, however, therefore I began it with the theft of Mida’s Crystal from the Hosta. Strange did it seem to relate happenings which now appeared different than my original view of them, therefore did I speak of them as they had appeared at the time, without the bias of what I had learned. The Hosta rode to retrieve the Crystal held by them as a sacred trust, Bellinard was investigated, endured and survived, three Hosta were taken to Ranistard as slaves, despite all efforts three Crystals were placed within the device of the Ancients, and then were the strangers spoken to. In accordance with the will of Mida was I then brought to her Realm upon this world, told that the coming strangers were enemies, and sent to unite my sister clans of Midanna and raise the Sigurri to stand beside them. With the Sigurri allied to our cause we had to claim the leadership of the enemy Midanna as well, and then did all ride to Bellinard to await the arrival of those who were enemies to the gods. What occurred when once those strangers arrived was already known to Aram and Kira, therefore was there no need to tell it.

So few occurrences, and yet was the relating of them so unbelievably long! At some point did Kira quietly depart the chamber for a brief moment, and two hands of reckid after her return was provender brought to us by a stranger male, who quickly deposited his burden, then as quickly left us once more. Somewhat different was this provender in that it seemed less aged than that offered previously, and also was there a considerably larger quantity of it. With the provender was there drink, somewhat like renth yet with a smoothness not to be found in the drink of villages and cities; that it lacked the presence of brewed darus was not to be mentioned, for even so it was considerably more palatable than that termed juice.

The end of my tale found Aram stretched long in his seat with his head back, half-lidded eyes fully attentive, Kira alone upon the wide seat we had earlier shared, also listening closely. Aysayn had put himself flat upon the floor cloth as he, too, listened to the tale he had not heard before in its entirety. I sat as I had been, cross-legged upon the floor cloth, a cup of the odd renth in my hand, pleased to have found an end to the narrative which had not seemed to wish to end. I allowed a swallow of the drink to slide down my throat, a faint curiosity arising within me amid the silence all about, as to what the cup I held might be made from. Smooth was the thing, as smooth as finished metal, yet was it softer and warmer and clearly not metal. Red was it in color, a red I had never before seen yet undeniably red, shiny and yielding and brightly colored and—

“I think I may finally understand,” said the male Aram with a sigh, levering himself up to sit more directly upon his seat. “If I’m right you won’t have to worry about your gods being held captive any longer, but I have a question. Even if you don’t have those to set free, will you still help us against the Feridans?”

“For what reason do you believe we will have none to free?” asked Aysayn, sitting up so that he might look more easily upon the stranger male. “The gods must be held hostage to these others, else they would not have done as they did. ”

“There’s another explanation you don’t seem to be seeing,” said Aram with a headshake, dismissing Aysayn’s contention with full confidence. “That’s probably because you don’t know the Feridans, but unfortunately for them, we do. We’ll tell you everything we can to help you, but I’d still like an answer to my question.”

“You would know of our willingness to end these others no matter the hostages they may or may not hold?” said Aysayn, his voice nearly scornful at the thought of allowing such beings to continue. “To permit an enemy to retain his life, is to give him the gift of your own when once your back has turned. The Sigurri will ride against them no matter what, and also, I think, shall the Midanna.”

“I’m really relieved to hear that,” said Aram, smiling even more broadly at my nod indicating agreement with Aysayn. The Midanna, too, would ride against those who wished to make slaves of them, as what warrior would not? Those called Feridan would regret having attempted the deed, no matter their wonders, no matter their determination.

“It feels good to finally have us all on the same side,” said Aram, looking between Aysayn and myself with what was nearly a grin. “The thing you’re not seeing is simply this: why do the Feridans have to have your gods as hostages? Why can’t they simply be impersonating them?”

We both of us looked upon Aram with incomprehension, his question in some manner unanswerable, and the female Kira came from her seat to resume her perch upon the platform to the male’s left.

“What Aram means is, why couldn’t it have been the Feridans you met, Jalav, passing themselves off as gods?” said she, her expression now eager. “They seem to have a device that lets them talk to people over great distances without the need for receivers—ah, something like a comm, I mean—that would seem like god-magic to anyone who didn’t know about it. By talking to you almost exclusively in your sleep, the female one made it seem that she could enter your dreams, when all she really did was wake you up part way to talk to you, and then let you go back to sleep.”

“And they also have a machine—a device—that moves them around like our portal system,” said Aram, nodding in agreement with Kira. “The difference in theirs is, they don’t need a car—a chamber—to move in, so they can go anywhere with it. The only thing they have to do is stay in range of the device—damn, how do you explain operating range and field of broadcast, Kira?”

“Operating range is easy,” said the female with a grin, again turning her gaze to me. “Jalav, picture yourself with a knife in your hand and your arm able to move, but your feet in a place where you can’t free them and your body rigid except for being able to turn in a circle. If Aram comes close enough to you you can stab him, the closer he comes, the better you can stab him. That’s because he’s in range of your knife. If he steps back or stays back, he’s out of range no matter how sharp your knife is. That’s clear enough, isn’t it?”

“Indeed,” said I with something of a smile for the amusement I felt, in the main due to the humorous outrage the male attempted to show to the female. “However, it must be recalled that Jalav is also able to cast her dagger, therefore is its range wider than you believe.”

“Great,” said the male Aram, glancing sourly upon the laughter of the female Kira. “You have her stabbing me, and now she decides to throw the thing at me. While I’m still unperforated, would you like to cover field of broadcast next?”

“I don’t think that’s necessary,” said Kira, looking to me with no more than the end of her amusement. “Do you understand the rest of it too, Jalav? Everything you thought was being done by gods was being done by the Feridans. They’re the ones you met, and they’re the ones who caused all those ‘miracles’ to happen.”

“Indeed I do not understand,” said I, again returned to confusion and lack of humor. “For what reason would these Feridani do me so when I believed I rode in their cause? And for what reason did the gods themselves not intervene? As they have not been bested, their power must surely remain as it has ever been.”

“Possibly your—gods were kept from knowing what was happening,” suggested the male Aram, again exchanging glances with Kira. “Just the way we can shield—block out—make unnoticeable—our presence to their devices, maybe they can do the same with the sight of gods. And as far as why they tried to kill you, I couldn’t even begin to guess. They probably had what they considered a good reason, but that doesn’t mean it would look the same to us.”

“And your not feeling—ah—interest in men while wearing your life sign may not have been done to you deliberately,” said Kira. “The equiresonator is made to keep your body the way it was when the device was set. Passion raises the pulse and increases the rate of breathing, weakens the limbs and causes the body to generally deviate from the norm. The purpose of the device is to stop and change deviations from the norm, so passion would, as a matter of course, be ruled out.”

“Passion and deviations from the norm,” said the male Aram, grinning upon Kira. “I’ll just sit here quietly while you define those terms, assistant Leader.”

“You have not as yet said what might be done against these Feridani,” said Aysayn, impatient with Aram’s unexplained amusement with Kira. “Nor have you spoken upon the reason why the Midanna and Sigurri were sent against you. Surely would the Feridani know of your wonders and know, as well, that our weapons were no match.”

“Of course they knew,” said Aram, once again serious. “The reason they sent you against us is obvious—they didn’t want you finding out about them, as you would have if you’d met us as friends. And they didn’t want us finding out about them. As for why they bothered sending you against superior weaponry, the answer is easy: they expected you to pretend to accept us, and then wipe us out when we weren’t expecting it. That’s the way they would have done it, so why shouldn’t they expect the same thing of you?”

The anger in Aysayn’s eyes was strong as he looked toward me, outraged that he had been correct in his previous surmise. I, too, felt outraged, to think that these Feridani would see us as honorless as themselves, so twisted as to accept ones in friendship and then attack them in treachery. Indeed did my hand then yearn for the feel of a hilt, and those so-called gods armed as they wished before me.

“And as far as what we can do to help you against the Feridani goes, don’t forget we’ll be helping ourselves at the same time,” said Aram, his discomfort over Aysayn’s anger only somewhat apparent. “We can see to it that they don’t know we’re coming until we’re right on top of them, we can send out scramble signals to block the output of most of their gadgets until the signals are neutralized—protect you and your people from their powers for a while, I mean—and can supply transportation to their location for a large number of your followers. We can also supply about a hundred fighters to add to your force.”

“We thank you for the offer of fighters, and will consider it,” said Aysayn quickly, before I might speak upon the uselessness to be found from those who were not true warriors. “The balance of your assistance we will gladly accept, for these Feridani are indeed enemies to us all. When may we return to our people to discuss the attack we plan?”

“It’s too late to get started with it today,” said Aram, glancing to a device with numbers which were ever changing, before stretching hard enough to crack muscles. Then did he rise from his seat to look down upon us. “By the time I arranged for a scout ship to take you back, it would be well after dark on your world. If you’ll accept our hospitality for tonight, we can get started first thing in the morning.”

“We will accept your hospitality,” said Aysayn, again with haste, rising to his feet to forestall my objections. Ever do males find other things to take their attention when no more than battle considerations should concern them, and clearly were stranger males no different than those I was already acquainted with. I, too, stood where I had formerly sat, swallowed the last of the near-renth I had been given, then held out the cup for Aram to take.

“You, young lady, remind me more and more of the higher-ups among the Senders,” said he with a sour expression, taking the cup I held out, annoyance behind the sourness. “What’s eating you this time?”

“I have no understanding of what eating the male Aram refers to,” said I, folding my arms as I looked upon him. “What I know is that when one finds battle necessary, one sees to it at once rather than after all manner of delays. We are now to be returned to our enclosures, I take it.”

“Sorry, but you take it wrong,” said he, meeting my gaze. “You and Aysayn aren’t dangerous strangers any longer, so there’s no need to lock you up again. And since all of us can’t be great warriors like you, we’ll still wait until morning before getting started. Not to change the subject, but are you sure you’re old enough to drink that wine you’ve been putting down? I’d hate to have someone accuse me of letting a kid get blotto. ”

“You would dare to name the war leader of all Midanna a child?” I demanded, unfolding my arms so that I might straighten in insult. Nothing more was I able to glean from the male’s words, for in what manner might the age of a warrior reflect upon what daru she drank? The skill attained by a Midanna determined at what age she was blooded, and once blooded none might halt her in her doings save with a sword. The warrior who swallowed daru too near the time of battle or a hunt did not long survive to do the same again, a thing all those of the clans knew.

“All I can do is tell the truth as I see it,” he said with an innocent shrug. “Only children get pouty when they can’t get their way on the spot and have to wait for what they want, but adults learn patience. And they also learn good manners. If you were mine, I’d spank you and send you to bed without supper for something like that.”

“I would have you recall, friend Aram, that there is truce now between us,” said Aysayn with odd amusement in his voice, his wide hand quickly upon my shoulder, his grip hard. “All of us are concerned over what lies before us, therefore is courtesy surely strained. One who feels insult over the doings of a Midanna may challenge her, yet to speak to her as you have done is to give even greater insult, a dishonorable doing when she may not reply by cause of the truce. Was it your intention to give her such insult?”

“No,” said Aram with reluctance, glancing to me as he addressed Aysayn. “I was only trying to give back a little of what I was getting. Where I come from, men don’t challenge women the way you mean, not even when the women are as arrogant as she is. The most they can do is answer in words—as long as they don’t mind losing everything they might have for speaking them. If Jalav feels that insulted, she can use a sword the way Senders in the Union use the power of their positions. If keeping my job—or life—means I can’t answer back when I’m insulted, I’d rather lose those commodities and keep my pride.”

The male ended with his eyes directly upon mine, the gray gaze steady and unafraid, his shoulders back and head high. To declare one’s freedom despite being unable to defend it with a sword is a mark of one who is truly free, one who is warrior in truth if not in deed. Without doubt had I given the male inexcusable insult, seeing him as no more than those of cities and villages, yet had I been mistaken. There was naught to be done save retrieve what had been unintentionally given.

“It was not my desire to give challenge to one who is unable to honorably accept it,” said I, returning his look with a matching calm. “Had I known your codes forbade such a doing, I would not have spoken with insult. Despite the insult also given me, I shall not do the same again.”

“As long as that also excludes using me for dagger target practice, your apology is accepted,” said he, now faintly grinning, hands resting upon hips. “Being killed by a little girl, even one who leads hundreds and hundreds of bloodthirsty warriors into battle, would be somewhat embarrassing. What made you want to challenge me anyway?”

The question put by the male was open and without guile, no more than curiosity vocalized, mild and inoffensive; nevertheless did I find something of difficulty in answering, for at first was I unable to discover within me the true reason for my doing. Then did I see that I had done with the stranger as I had with Mehrayn, seeking one who would best me and thereby rid me of the burden of life, and the weariness deep within nearly rose to cover me. So sweet would be such an ending, were all responsibilities entirely seen to; with duty yet remaining before me, however, no more than a doing of shame was it.

“You are a male, and therefore less than a warrior,” said I after a brief pause. “Ever has it been the way of warriors to treat with males as they would, for what male not also a warrior might prevail against her?”

“But what if the—male—was a warrior like herself,” asked Aram. “What if he did prevail against her?”

“Then she would forfeit her life for the insult she had given,” said I with a shrug, wondering at what point the male moved toward. “What more fitting punishment might there be for offering insult to one’s superior?”

“I can think of quite a few more fitting,” said the male with distaste, yet not in an effort to give further insult. “I may be talking out of turn again, but I can’t see murdering a woman just for flapping her tongue too hard. Do you see it differently, Aysayn?”

“Midanna wenches are, of necessity, wenches rather than men,” said Aysayn with a shrug much like mine. “A man is more tolerant toward wenches than they are toward him, for he may ever soothe his feelings of insult by tasting deeply of the wench, after having given her a taste of the leather. To slay her would be far less satisfying.”

“Now, that I can go along with,” said Aram with a grin, deliberately taking no note of the bristling annoyance of the female Kira. “We’ll take you two back to that empty cabin, show you how to make yourselves comfortable, then leave you alone for a while. When you’re ready for more food, you’ll let me know and I’ll get it for you.”

“I would have what remains of the near renth,” said I as the male headed toward the door, the female in his wake. Both halted to turn to look upon me after no more than a pair of steps, and the male seemed faintly disturbed.

“You’re talking about the rest of the wine,” said he, and then did he look upon Aysayn. “I was only partially joking before, considering how much she’s already had of it. Isn’t she really too young to be swigging wine the way she’s been doing?”

“My sister’s capacity for drink is surely sent by the gods,” said Aysayn with a touch of amusement and a glance for me. “I have discovered to my chagrin that my own fails to approach hers, most especially with the liquid fire which she and her wenches imbibe from first light to last. In this instance, however, I believe she has had sufficient to last for the time. There remain things which must be discussed between us.”

The dark eyes of the Sigurri male moved to rest upon me with calm, a calm which failed to affect me. The male Aram had already turned again toward the door, pleased to deny me further drink at the command of Aysayn. Had we not been in the midst of the strangers I would surely have challenged the male for daring such a thing, yet were we soon to be left with none save each other.

The smaller chamber called cabin was shown to have many things, among them a place where one might relieve oneself without fouling the chamber itself. The use of this place was shown me by Kira, the same shown Aysayn by Aram, and then were we told of the main chamber. All words were accepted by me in silence, Aysayn alone seeing to their acknowledgment, and then were we left to ourselves by the departure of the strangers.

“So, brother, there are things remaining to be discussed between us,” I said with a growl, moving to stand perhaps two paces before him, my left palm seeking in vain for a hilt to stroke. “Perhaps you would now care to speak to these things. ”

“Indeed,” said he with a slow nod, seeing clearly how great my annoyance was at the absence of a weapon. “I would speak of the reasons for what is, in truth, an overindulgence on your part which had not been in evidence before our arrival at Bellinard. Also would I know the reason for your giving challenge to one who at first seemed incapable of wielding a weapon, yet who proved to be well-armed with a device unknown to me. In some manner do I believe that you were aware of this device despite being unfamiliar with it, an awareness which led you to seek challenge. What prods you so greatly that you would seek to stand against a well-honed sword with only a thin, useless twig?”

The concern in the eyes which held to me was unanswerable, therefore did I turn from it without reply. I, myself, knew not how it might be answered, save that my time enmeshed by males and gods and strangers had already been far too long, yet promised to continue even longer yet. My suspicion that the male Aram had armed himself in some manner had proven correct. Jalav, who wore no life sign to guard her soul, would truly be gone when once she was bested, yet the attainment of the doing continued to elude her.

“It seems strange that I had not before seen how few kalod are yours, wench,” said Aysayn from behind me, his voice soft with concern. “To see the warrior and war leader you are is easiest, for seldom do you appear indecisive or at a loss, and to see a sword in your fist is to see a skill seldom attained even by a man. And yet you are indeed scarcely older than a child, and burdened with the responsibility of the lives of the many who follow you. Would it ease you to have Mehrayn or Ceralt here in my place, or perhaps both?”

“No!” I said at once. In no manner might I choose one over the other, and to have them both would be to have them again at each other’s throats, a thing I was just then unable to bear. Indeed would I have joyed in feeling their arms once again about me, and yet— “No,” I said again with something of a headshake, and Aysayn came to stand directly before me.

“You will not speak to me of what disturbs you,” said he, raising one hand to free my shoulder of the hair which draped it about, no questioning in the words. “You have no need to speak of your reasons for wishing Mehrayn and Ceralt left where they are, for I know them as well as you. In what manner, then, may I indeed be of assistance to you?”

“Go and fetch what drink remains in the chamber of the stranger male,” said I, looking up at him directly. “As it was your doing that the near renth remained behind, you may now repair the lack.”

“That I shall not do,” said he, a shadow of anger forming in the dark of his eyes. “To wallow in drink is the coward’s way, and I will not aid a coward to greater avoidance of duty!”

“Duty!” I spat, truly enraged by his insult. “What might one such as you know of duty? Are you not male, and aided, as all males, in seeing to duty? Have you not Mehrayn to direct your legions, and those who send your prayers to your god, and ones to see to your mount and sharpen your sword and oil all your weapons? Even the pain of captivity was yours for no more than feyd, a weapon kept from your hand no longer than the time it took for the ache of the lash to leave you! I am Jalav, war leader of all the Midanna, and these things are mine to do alone!”

Again I turned from him, furious that he would dare speak to me so, forcing from me words I would not otherwise have uttered, but I was unable to stride about as I so needed to do. Two wide, strong hands came to my arms to halt me, catching strands of hair beneath them, their grip unbreakable despite the lack of pain.

“I had wondered for some time at the way you tended me when I lay in agony from the lashing,” said he, his voice strong yet odd to hear. “Surely did it seem that you knew what I felt, yet such a thought was scarcely possible. None would lash a wench, I knew, and though I tremble yet at memory of the doing, tremble at thought of facing it again, you, I now find, have faced it thrice. Your strength must nearly be spent, girl, to have faced that and recurring captivity, and pain and more pain. Turn not to drink when there are those about you who would share the burden and thereby ease it. ”

“Sooner would I have the drink,” I said. “The drink makes no attempt to pity its drinker, nor does it speak foolishly of those things of which it has no true understanding. Take your pity elsewhere, male; Jalav has no need of it.”

“I offer no pity, empty-headed, stubborn, she-lenga!” growled Aysayn, anger tightening the grip of his hands. “No more do I offer than what strength you require, till your own has healed itself and returned. Best you accept the offer, for I shall not allow you further drink. There is battle soon to be before us, and for battle one’s head and body must be clear.”

“A warrior’s doing is the concern of none save herself,” I rasped, raising fists before me as I attempted to pull from his hold. “Release me at once, else shall we see how far your learning goes.”

“You would know how far my learning goes?” he asked, truly angry. “You mean to obey none save yourself, and attempt to defy one who seeks naught save your well-being? Very well, then, girl child, test my learning; perhaps you will thereby be taught a thing yourself.”

Chaldrin had often spoke of Aysayn’s skill in weaponless combat. Well did I know that I had no hope of besting the Sigurri who stood behind me, yet shall no true Midanna admit defeat before the final blow is struck. With that in view I twisted between the hands which held me and struck upward with my right forearm, at the same time launching a backward kick, meaning to free my arm and strike the male, both at nearly the same time. The movement had not been taught me by Chaldrin, and quickly did I learn the reason for the lack; my rising arm found naught to halt it, for the male had already moved to grasp the leg which also failed to meet a target. The large male hands which had previously held to my arms were abruptly about ankle and foot instead, twisting with greater skill than I had yet attained, to take my balance and send me flying backward. Much did I expect to land upon the floor covering, as near senseless as I had been when last the male had tripped me so, yet had I forgotten the presence of the low, wide square which the chamber contained. That was the place to which I had been thrown, and when I sprawled upon it Aysayn followed quickly, to see that I was unable to rise again.

“You struggle more now than when last we engaged in such foolery,” said he, forcing my wrists beneath me as I fought to free myself from his grip and the too-near presence of his body. “Do you continue to mean to defy me? Shall I show you the folly in such a thought by giving you the hiding Aram would not be displeased to see you receive? As neither Mehrayn nor Ceralt are present in this chamber, I must see properly to their wench for them. ”

“Jalav is the possession of no male,” I grunted, finding yet again how difficult escape from male strength was. The hands about my wrists beneath my back scarcely strained, yet was I unable to free myself no matter the effort I attempted. “Nor shall she abandon a stand even should she be beaten for the lack. Do your worst, male; there shall come a time when I am not held so.”

“There shall indeed be such a time,” said he, the words soft, his amusement softening as well. “Just as there have been many such times in the recent past. You may not have Mehrayn for Ceralt is there, you may not have Ceralt for Mehrayn is there, and you may not have another for both men would then stand against the third. Their love has taken what little pleasure there was for you in this life, and I much doubt that they have as yet come to be aware of it. You are not made for such denial, sister, no wench is made for such constant strain. Will you not allow me to aid you?”

So soft had his voice grown, as lulling as the nearness of his great body was arousing. I put my head back to the low square beneath me as I closed my eyes, held in his arms and by his strength, the feel of his flesh against my breasts now intruding upon my awareness. So warm was the body pressed to mine, so easily were my lips suddenly taken; a wench who found too great a pleasure with males, had Aysayn called me, and with the emergence of the memory I twisted my face from his.

“The heat rises too rapidly within you to be denied, wench,” he murmured, his lips now at my throat, one hand freed so that it might stroke my flesh. “Take what is offered without hesitation, and perhaps a portion of your strength will be returned. As I shall not allow you the drink you demand, I must give you another thing in its place.”

“Aysayn, release me,” I whispered as his lips and tongue and hand touched me everywhere, yet was there no sound behind the movement of my lips. Soft yet firm was the wide square beneath me, inescapable was the grip of his hand about my wrists, wildly heating was the manner in which the male touched me all about. His warm, gentle breath briefly caressed my face, and then were his lips again upon mine, this time disallowing avoidance. Ah, Mida, how great a pleasure there is indeed in the use of males, nearly as great as once again finding myself able to call to you. My lips met the male’s and sought to give what they demanded, and not long was it before one called brother was in full possession of me. So long did it seem since last I had truly joyed in such vigorous thrusting, and long, too, was the time before it was ended. Blessed is she who is brother to a warrior, for in his arms is she able to find pleasure without concern.