The Warrior Woman

by Evelyn Lederman

  “Let’s talk about it when we get to the house. Enjoy the tranquility of walking these streets. I never realized how stressful walking was with cars all around.” Shirl increased her pace, coming alongside Starc. Her friend had developed a talent for skirting issues she did not want to discuss. Candy would just have to wait for her answers. Tarsea stopped and joined Candy as they made their way to his parents’ home.

  “Do not look so glum, Candy,” Tarsea told her. “There is a surprise for you at the house. What is waiting for you changed my life. You and I just met, but I owe you more than I can ever repay. Whatever you need, all you have to do is ask.” Candy had no idea what Tarsea was referring to. Before she had a chance to cross-examine him, they appeared to be at their destination.

  They came to one of a myriad of stone structures that populated the Aster Province and the door opened. Who needed doorbells when you could telepathically announce your arrival? A middle-aged woman stood there and immediately sought out Candy. “I am Leenea Childers. You are so welcome to my home and family.” Before Candy could reply, Leenea embraced her. Where Jarlyn’s hug brought warmth, Leenea’s felt like home. It was the oddest feeling Candy ever experienced. She had never considered anywhere home, yet this woman personified it.

  Candy let Leenea guide her into the house. They entered a foyer and then a large room. The area had a massive table and chairs that took up half the enormous space. The other part of the huge room had a sitting area with numerous couches and chairs. She recognized Solfa Theffar on one of the couches. Solfa was talking to a small woman who had her back turned to Candy. The woman turned around and Candy stopped in her tracks. Alex was right in front of her.

  Her friend got up and ran the short distance that separated them. “Thank God!” Alex said. “I was so worried when I found out they were taking you to The Palace instead of straight here.” Alex embraced her. Candy was lost for words. Shirl had not said a word about Alex being in the Troyk universe.

  “Alex had been dragged through the portal following Darden,” Shirl explained. “Darden knew who we were since he had met Benko Jarlyn several years ago. Benko has been keeping an eye on us our whole lives. Benko feared gatherers from this universe would arrest him and bring him back to the Troyk universe, so he hid us away together in the orphanage. Tarsea was with Darden when she came through and immediately knew Alex was his soul mate. They brought her here and she has been presenting herself as Alexia Montiff from the Starling Province.”

  Candy released Alex and took a step back. “You are Alexia Montiff? The same Alexia who is supposedly Solfa’s cousin and was attacked by Raine Narmouth?”

  “Solfa is truly my cousin,” Alex explained. “I can’t wait for you to meet my aunt Norri and Solfa’s mother Pattrice. Norri was my mother’s twin sister. She held on to my mother’s clan bracelet for me all these years.” Alex pulled back her tunic’s sleeve and showed Candy the copper cuff. It was the same type of bracelet as Shirl’s. “Regarding Raine Narmouth, that bastard has attacked me twice. For some reason that psycho has fixated on me. I keep telling Darden and Shirl we should push him through the portal to some god-forsaken parallel world.”

  Candy could understand the animosity toward Raine Narmouth she had witnessed on the mountain. The next time she ran into the man, she wondered if she was going to display the same self-control she observed today from Starc and Tarsea. Both men had reasons to hate Narmouth, although Candy imagined there were more issues between Starc and Narmouth than what had happened to Alex. She also understood Shirl’s aggressive behavior toward the man. Had she been in Shirl’s shoes today she would have done more than drill her finger into the bastard’s chest.

  Tarsea came up and embraced both women. “When Narmouth first attacked Alex the self-defense moves you had taught her gave Tolfer and Koel enough time to come to her rescue. When they got there, Narmouth was in worse shape than Alex. I owe you for teaching Alex. You protected her, where I could not.” It was obvious that Tarsea cared deeply for her friend.

  With those words, Alex broke into tears. “I love you both so much,” Alex cried. Alex was always so stoic. Candy became alarmed by Alex’s breakdown. Seeing Candy’s distress, Alex said, “Don’t worry about me, Candy. My emotions are all messed up because of the baby.”

  “The baby?” Candy took several steps back and took a serious perusal of her friend’s slight body frame. “How did that happen?”

  Alex’s tears were now a result of laughter, rather than crying. “The usual way, Candy. Turns out my soul mate is insatiable. I never believed in love at first sight or soul mates until I met Tarsea. Well, it was more like lust at first sight. The whole soul mate thing took a little more convincing. We can get into all of that later. For now, I am just relieved you are here.”

  There was a knock on the door. Candy figured there must be some kind of protocol regarding when you announced yourself telepathically versus the old fashion way. Another tall good looking man entered the room. This one had dark blond hair and resembled Starc and Darden. He made eye contact with Candy and walked directly to her.

  “This is my cousin Koel,” Starc was able to say before Koel grabbed her arm. He pulled back the material of her shirt and grabbed her forearm with this hand. It was the most outrageous thing that ever happened to her, outside of going through a portal to a parallel universe.

  “She is not my soul mate,” Koel declared and dropped into the chair behind him. Candy turned to Alex for an explanation.

  “Soul mates can identify each other from their first touch, skin on skin. It feels like you are electrocuted,” Alex explained. Her friend sat next to the man who just discovered Candy was not his soul mate. “You will find her one day. I am convinced of it, Koel. Actually, the way you are touching every woman you see, it should not take long at all.” Koel must have been bad off. Alex’s comment did not have any impact on him.

  “Is there anything else I should know about soul mates?” Candy inquired. She kept her eyes fixed on Koel. He looked so defeated. Candy hoped he would recover soon. Finally she returned her gaze to her two friends.

  Alex and Shirl looked at each other. It appeared to Candy that they were having a stare-off and whoever broke contact first would have to answer Candy’s question. It was typical of the two of them. She could not wait to hear the answer.

  Shirl lost the war between the two friends. “Fine,” Shirl sighed, “I’ll explain it. When soul mates have sexual relations for the first time, their brain excretes a hormone that brings about the next evolutionary phase of their telepathic abilities.”

  Candy just stared at Shirl. “Is that all?” Candy started laughing hysterically. Although she had pinched herself and her headache was getting worse, Candy had to be dreaming. Only in dreams or very bad B-movies could anything so preposterous be true. She was laughing so hard, she was afraid she was going to wet her pants. Candy needed to get control of herself.

  Tolfer Childers entered his parents’ house and heard laughter coming from the common room. He had never heard laughter so musical before in his life. As if following the sound of a siren, he walked to the source of the enchantment.

  There having an attack on the couch was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. She took his breath away. It was at that moment he realized he was looking upon his soul mate. Tarsea had described his first response to Alex when he saw her. He said he had felt like he had been punched in the stomach.

  For Tolfer, it was as if he had never really seen with his eyes before. Darden brought back books from Ginkgo Terra, where Alex and Shirl were from. He felt like he finally understood what Shakespeare was writing about. The vision before his eyes could only be their friend Candy.

  The woman’s laughter turned into hiccups. His mother got up and ran out of the common room, no doubt going to retrieve some water and sugar.

  Alex looked up and saw him. “Tolfer, this is Candy. I am glad you are finally here. The baby and I are starving.” His parents were the worst cooks in
the world, including any parallel worlds. In order to survive his childhood, he had learned to cook. He became quite accomplished and could have gotten a job in any top-tier restaurant. His cooking was never appreciated to the heights it now reached with Alex. He had never encountered anyone with more of an appetite or more pure joy in eating than his brother’s soul mate.

  Candy looked up at Alex’s words, as she wiped tears from her sapphire eyes. They were a rich blue, only found in the most valuable stones. Her face was set around golden-brown hair. Tresses had escaped the confines of whatever she used to tie back her hair. He longed to set the rest of it free. He wanted to run his hands through it while he looked into her beautiful eyes. She was a gem. His jewel.

  “Your eyes are perfect,” Candy said. Her face turned beet red when she realized she said those words out loud.

  Rather than letting her suffer over what to say next, Tolfer approached and sat in the chair directly across from Candy. “Alex and Shirl have told us all about you. I am glad they successfully brought you to the Troyk universe.” It was rather a dull thing to say. Tolfer did not want to let on that she was his soul mate. He wanted to get to know her before any pressure presented itself that pushed them to have sex to bring about the next evolutionary change. Alex and Shirl were both rushed into having relations with their soul mates before they got to know each other. Tolfer wanted Candy to have choices. If they were destined to be together, they would.

  He did not know whether it was the shock of seeing him or her embarrassment at the words she uttered, but her hiccups stopped. His mother came in with both a glass of water and a mug of the herbal drink. Tolfer imagined she was having issues managing the communal pathways, resulting in a headache.

  Candy took the mug and started to sip its contents. Tolfer could see the stress lessen in her face as the herbs curbed her headache. “I understand,” Candy said, “you can help me manage the telepathic channels that are dueling in my head.”

  He liked the way she had stated she had a headache. “It would be my pleasure. We can start after dinner. Alex will faint from hunger soon if I do not start cooking.”

  Tolfer left the common room and entered the kitchen. He needed some time alone to come to grips with having just met his soul mate. Their first touch would alert her to the fact there was a unique telepathic link between them. Tolfer knew he could not have any physical contact with her. The big question was how he was going to do that when all he wanted to do was get his hands all over her?

  Candy could not believe she made that comment about his eyes. They were exactly like the eyes she had imagined when she first met Tarsea. They were primarily green with the slightest brown darkening them uniformly. Tolfer was taller than his brother, probably pushing six feet. It was a perfect height compared to her five foot, eleven and a half inches. He had the cutest curly black hair. She was glad he did not wear it short like his brother.

  Leenea came and saved her from further embarrassment when she placed a mug of the herbal tea before her. Candy could concentrate on sipping the soothing beverage, rather than staring at the magnificent male specimen before her. She had appreciated good-looking men before, but with Tolfer it was different.

  Not only were her eyes absorbing him, but her body as well. She could imagine her hands touching his biceps or caressing his back. There was no part of his anatomy she was not interested in exploring. The problem was, he seemed indifferent to her. Candy had noticed his eyes taking her in, but he sat so far away from her. He had barely been in the room when he got up and fled.

  Alex was going on about something called keen and Tolfer being a wonderful cook. Candy could barely keep up with the subject at hand. She wished she could cook. It would have been so easy to excuse herself and go to help Tolfer in the kitchen. Fantasies about what they could do in the kitchen played in her mind.

  “Candy,” Shirl yelled, pulling her out of her daydream about making something to eat with Tolfer and then sharing the end result in bed with him. “We need to head off to the Crystal Telepath Headquarters early tomorrow so we can get you initiated as a CT Guard. I will be heading back with Starc after dinner and you will be staying here in Tolfer’s old room.”

  She had just swallowed some of the herbal beverage when Shirl said where she would be sleeping tonight. She choked and spewed out the beverage in her throat. Yet again, she had reason to be embarrassed. Generally she had better control of herself. First the laughing fit, followed by her run-away mouth, and now spitting out her beverage. What was next?

  Leenea handed her the water she had brought in earlier and Candy started to sip it. She needed to move, to get her circulation going.

  “Can I have a tour of the house, Leenea?” Candy asked. Since she was going to be staying here, it seemed like a reasonable request. It would also shift the focus of attention away from her. The tour would also take them into the kitchen where Tolfer currently cloistered himself.

  The house was actually quite charming. It had what was referred to as a common room, where all socializing took place and meals were consumed. All the other rooms except the kitchen were small and intimate spaces. Leenea’s favorite color was green, and there were splashes of that color throughout the house. When they reached the bedroom she would be staying in, she tried to ignore that Tolfer had once slept there. They finally made it to the kitchen where Tolfer was busy preparing their dinner.

  Shirl touched her shoulder. “Candy,” she said, “let’s head back to where you are going to be sleeping. I want to show you the clothing Leenea picked up for you.” Candy was happy for the distraction from the man cutting vegetables in the kitchen. She followed Shirl to the back of the house. Alex and Tarsea had momentarily disappeared, which Shirl had told Candy was not unusual. Her friend compared those two to rabbits in a poorly delivered joke.

  They stood before a closet full of tunics and leggings. “When I described you to Leenea she came back with primarily black and dark blue outfits,” Shirl explained. Obviously the color selection was too limited for Shirl’s tastes. Candy stared at them. Tolfer’s mother had picked out exactly what Candy would have selected for herself. She noted all the colors women wore as they walked the streets of Aster Province. Somehow, Leenea knew her before they even met. Shirl would have gotten all sorts of colors she felt would have gone with Candy’s coloring.

  Candy rummaged through the clothing in the closet. Most of them were made with a Lycra-like material that had a lot of give. She already knew she was going to love wearing the material that would contour to her figure, as well as give her the ability to move freely. Her fingers skimmed along the tunics until she came upon a pure black sheer tunic. She pulled it out of the closet and looked at it in wonder. It was so delicate. Candy was afraid she was going to tear it by just holding it. Small black pearls were sewn into the fabric. Candy had never seen a garment so lovely. She would never dare wear something so revealing.

  “Women wear very elaborate tunics at night,” Shirl explained. “They tend to be more revealing than this one. When Leenea showed it to me, I knew she found something you would be comfortable wearing, and still knock every man out cold.” Her friend took the tunic from her and placed it back in the closet. “I want you to be happy here, Candy.”

  “How can I not, with you and Alex both being here?” Candy replied. “You two are my family.”

  “It is a little different now,” Shirl said. Candy could see her friend was uncomfortable with the subject. For once Shirl was not looking her in the eye when they talked. “We both have soul mates. Starc and Tarsea are part of our lives. I don’t want you to feel left out, but I don’t know how we are going to prevent it.”

  “Are you kidding?” Candy responded. “I am in a parallel world. You are responsible for me being the only female CT Guard, whatever that means. Plus, you’ve got a support structure of friends we did not come close to having before. I also imagine there are a number of secrets that will come to light that will keep me preoccupied. Besides, if I get
desperate, I can always follow Koel around as he assaults every female in the Troyk universe.”

  It comforted her that Shirl was concerned she would feel left out. They had already started living their own lives back home. She was so overwhelmed with everything that had been thrown at her, she hoped humor would reduce Shirl’s anxiety over her well-being.

  Shirl laughed, “You are going to be fine. Let’s go eat. Tolfer is a great cook, and wait until you see how much food Alex consumes. She has changed so much in this world, you will barely recognize her.”

  “What happened on Terra Nova, Shirl?” Candy wanted answers. She was going to keep pushing until she got them. Especially now that she was partially responsible for Shirl’s safety from a professional standpoint.

  “Later, you are right,” Shirl said. “There certainly are a lot of secrets to be shared and kept. I just don’t want to talk about them right now. Before we head to Terra Nova, I promise, I will tell you everything that has happened to me since coming here. Alex can share her story with you tonight.”

  Shirl had whetted her appetite for information. She desperately wanted to know the secrets Shirl was keeping. Although she looked great, no longer suffering from migraines, Shirl looked haunted.

  Chapter 4

  “Oh, my God!” Candy exclaimed as they entered Crystal Telepath Headquarters. “I have died and gone to heaven.” She had never seen so many good-looking men in her life. Candy knew Shirl was the only female crystal telepath and now Candy was the only female CT Guard, but she was not prepared for the smorgasbord of men assaulting her senses when she entered the building.