Tedra didn’t like the sound of that, not at all. “I’m the only sky-flyer there is around here, Shodan La-Mar-Tel, the only one who’s discovered your planet, so I’m the only one who’ll be making the trading deals. And what makes you think I want gaali stones?”
He kept right on smiling. “It is the only thing of true value in all of Kan-is-Tra. Living jewels you possess. What can you want with ours? Wondrous weapons you possess. What use our Toreno swords to you?”
“Didn’t Challen tell you guys that every town would benefit?”
“He lied and so I told the council. Towns without wealth will benefit nothing.”
“I get the feeling you didn’t stick around until the end of the meeting.”
“After he stole my woman nearly out of my hand? Indeed I left.”
His affronted look was really amusing, but Tedra didn’t laugh. She came up with some half-truths instead. “I hate to put a dent in your conclusions, babe, which were really quite brilliant, but gaali stones are just raw energy, and we’ve got so many sources of energy it’s not funny. I’m not saying we wouldn’t like to have some to study, but there are many other things I’ll be trading for as well, some things I see right here in your hall. For instance, those goblets on your table. Aren’t they made of gold?”
“Think you I have no sense, woman? No one would trade for cheap metal dishes.”
“Then they are not of gold?”
“Certainly they are,” he snorted. “But it is a soft, useless metal, good only for the making of jewelry and shiny vases—and dishes.”
“Ah, but that’s only your opinion, and perhaps that of your entire planet, because it’s something you people have in abundance here. Where I come from, it’s not so plentiful. My planet doesn’t need it, but there are other worlds out there whose entire economies are gold-based. You find it useless. They use it for money. And that’s not all. Once I report the discovery of Sha-Ka’an, you’ll have representatives here from every planet in the Centura League to make offers for everything from food and wine to jewels and minerals to plants and trees. Even your dirt is valuable to planets with contaminated or burned-out soils. So don’t think gaali stones are the only things worth trading around here.”
“Dirt, trees, and gold?” He laughed. “Flowers, too, maybe?” He laughed some more, then sobered, showing a new face, one out of patience. “We are not fools here, woman, no matter you seem to think so,” he growled, and then to his men, “Chain her up—and watch those alien feet of hers!”
“I would not do that were I you, Falder.”
This from a new voice, one Tedra recognized very well. She turned as the others did, to see Challen standing in the doorway to the hall with a neck-lock hold on one of Falder’s warriors, obviously one who’d tried to stop him from joining the party. As they watched, the man was released, to fall unconscious to the floor at the barbarian’s feet. Even before he landed, Challen’s great sword was drawn. And then he was walking forward quite purposefully, heading straight for Falder.
He wasn’t alone. He had a handful of warriors with him. But there were a good deal more than that inside the hall, Falder’s men, and they didn’t just stand around waiting for the enemy shodan to reach their own. Tedra got her first true demonstration of why the barbarians called themselves warriors. If she thought those weighty swords were just decorations, she was wrong. And Challen, Stars, she’d never seen him like this. He barely paused in his determination to reach her—no, to reach Falder, who’d dared to take something of his. Swords that could have cleaved him in half were brushed aside with little effort, men literally thrown out of his path.
Falder got the message, was losing too many men by just standing there doing nothing. His options were two. He could lay hands on Tedra to use her as a leverage, or he could try reasoning with what appeared to be a madman. Naturally he looked toward Tedra. But she’d been keeping half an eye on him, and when he made his move toward her, she back-kicked him clean in the gut, then with a fast dive and a roll got well out of his reach. She even got an unexpected bonus, taking down two of his men whose feet, unfortunately for them, got tangled up in her roll. They happened to be the last two barriers between Challen and his target, except maybe for her. And although they were fast getting to their feet, she was faster to rise. Challen finally paused, with her standing right in front of him. But it was only a brief pause, long enough to look her over to see that she hadn’t been hurt, and then he was going to set her aside . . . not farden likely.
“Enough, Challen!” she had to shout above the noise still clanging in the rest of the hall. “He thought he wanted your gaali mine, but I think I’ve convinced him he doesn’t need it. If you have some other reason to kill him, though, then go ahead. But don’t make it on my account.”
Falder was close enough to hear that. “You are willing to die for her, Ly-San-Ter?”
“Yes.” Challen finally spoke, his eyes still on Tedra. “I have given her my life.”
“By the stones of gaali, why was that not mentioned at the council?”
Challen glanced at the surprised man in disgust, reminding him, “You were there to doubt everything I had to say, despite the proof I brought with me.”
“I doubted that all could benefit as you claimed, but ... the woman has made me rethink the matter. Thus do I relinquish all claims of capture. You may have her back. She is too dangerous to have around, anyway,” the giant added, rubbing his belly.
Of course, they were good buddies after that, much to Tedra’s disgust.
Chapter Forty-one
Tedra sat stiffly before Challen on the ride back to Sha-Ka-Ra, silently brooding and seething in a general all-around bad mood. She was furious at that muddlehead Falder for going to the trouble of capturing her, then just blithely letting her go. And she still wasn’t sure why the fight had ended so suddenly. Certainly not because of anything she’d said. There shouldn’t even have been a fight. Hadn’t she been told warriors didn’t fight over women? Buy back or steal back, but Challen hadn’t come to make an offer.
And then he’d behaved as if he’d merely come for a visit! The two shodani had discussed the council meeting, so she got to hear all about it—secondhand. Falder even offered up a number of his warriors for the contingent of mercenaries already volunteered and ready to leave for Kystran. It would have been nice if she knew what those mercenaries were going to cost her, but that wasn’t mentioned. Challen had taken it upon himself to arrange it, and so it was done. Get her input? Find out if she even needed so many men or if the Rover had room for them? Oh, if she didn ‘t need them, how quickly she’d tell them all where they could stick their high-handedness.
Challen had wisely kept quiet on the three-hour ride, but there had been no privacy for a heated discussion, and Tedra’s mood told him plainly it was going to be heated. He waited only until they reached his chamber, though he’d practically had to drag her that far. There she went straight to the couch where her fembair slept and pulled the cat onto her lap.
“You have every right to be angry with me, Tedra.”
“Damned right.”
“Best you speak of it—”
“Martha isn’t always right, warrior. Best you leave me alone right now.”
He came to sit next to her, only to have her move to the end of the couch, pulling the heavy cat with her. He tried a different tack.
“You are not pleased you have your army?”
“You mean your army, don’t you, in your command?”
“So it must be. Warriors will not fight for a woman.”
“Just like they won’t fight over a woman?”
“You are angered by that, too?”
“I didn’t ask for your life! You think I saved it so you could throw it away fighting a behemoth like that? And I’d already defused the situation. Falder would have accepted a cart of dishes for me!”
“Now you make no sense.”
“I told you to leave me alone, didn’t I?”
<
br /> “Chemar—”
“Don’t call me that. If you can’t give it the meaning I want, then I don’t want to hear it at all.”
Challen ran a hand roughly through his hair in exasperation. “Remain where you are, woman. I will bring my uncle here to explain, since you will not listen to me.”
“Don’t bother. All he can tell me is where you’ve stashed her. But let me tell you something, warrior. I don’t go in for threesomes. You try bringing that woman near me and I’ll tear her eyes out!”
“Who?”
“Oh, that’s funny. Who else was crawling all over you today, and her naked?”
“Laina?” Challen suddenly smiled, then he laughed. “All this because of Laina?”
He laughed again, so hard he didn’t even see Tedra get up to push him right over the backless couch. But even sprawled on the floor, he still chuckled.
“Keep it up, warrior,” Tedra growled, “and I’ll do to you what I did once before. That will shut you up, won’t it?”
“Tedra, chemar. ” He grinned over the couch at her. “You have no reason for female jealousies. Have I not stopped drinking dhaya wine? Have I not given my life to you?”
“What is it with this life giving? It didn’t stop you from bringing home a new captive, did it?”
“She was taken merely to end the dissension Falder was causing, not because I wanted her. I do not want her. She is to be Tamiron’s.”
“Then what was she doing on your lap?”
“She rode with me only because Tamiron went to arrange for the food supplies for the journey to Kystran. Now you have your army, there is no reason to delay the leaving.”
“The Rover has all the food necessary to feed two armies,” Tedra replied, but with a lot less heat and a good deal of feeling horribly foolish.
Challen came around the couch and drew her unresisting into his arms. “This Martha told us, but you have nothing of real meat, which a warrior must have. Our supplies will be included, else you will not get my warriors on your Rover.”
“The Food Processor won’t know how to cook it,” Tedra said softly, kissing his neck, his bare chest.
She didn’t see the couple who came in from the balcony at that point, but Challen did. What Tedra saw was her barbarian looking suddenly ill at ease, extremely so.
“Before this becomes more embarrassing than it is, best we make ourselves known.”
Tedra turned with a start, but then she thought she understood what was wrong with her warrior. She’d blown it but good.
“I didn’t know we had an audience,” she said. “Maybe I should apologize for pushing you over.”
“No,” he choked out.
“For screaming at you, then?”
“No.”
Now she frowned. “Then what are you disconcerted about? That’s just your uncle. Do you think he doesn’t know what we do in here?”
He merely groaned in answer this time, and Tedra turned to glare at Lowden and the woman with him. The woman was smiling. Lowden was for once not looking disapproving. Tedra could have sworn, in fact, he was trying not to laugh.
“Haven’t we seen enough of each other this week, Lowden uncle? Much as I enjoyed it, I’ve got other things to—”
Challen’s hand cut that off, plastered flat to her mouth. “Woman, that is not my uncle. Those are my parents!” he hissed in her ear before letting her go.
“But he’s identical to Lowden,” Tedra pointed out, as if Challen couldn’t see that. “You do cloning here and never bothered to mention it?”
“Lowden is my twin brother,” Chadar Ly-San-Ter interrupted at that point. “And may I make known to you Haleste, the mother of my children. We welcome you to our family, daughter.”
“Thanks, but I don’t need parents at this late date.”
The older couple laughed, but the woman said, “She speaks very strangely, Challen.”
“It is a long story, mother.”
“Mother?” Tedra cut in, startled. “She’s your mother? An actual mother?” And then to Haleste: “Oh, you poor woman.”
“Challen?” Haleste, asked, confused.
“A long story, mother,” Challen repeated, thought about putting his hand over Tedra’s mouth again, but tried jarring her memory first. “Parents? Relatives? You remember when you first met my uncle and we spoke of this?”
“I’ve made the connection, babe. I just forgot for a while that that kind of stuff goes on down here.”
“Stuff?”
“Women having babies. It’s—”
“What you will do as the mother of my children,” Challen finished for her.
“The wha— Oh, no.” She shook her head, wide-eyed. “Women don’t do that where I come from.”
Three pairs of eyes looked at her as if she’d gone off the deep end. “Then who does?” Challen finally got out. “Your men?”
“Real cute,” Tedra snorted. “No one does, of course.”
“Then how can your race survive?”
She finally realized where they were coming from. “Don’t get me wrong. We have children, we just don’t have to bear them.”
“Challen, where does this woman come from that this can be so?” his father wanted to know.
But Haleste replied, taking his arm and leading him toward the door. “It indeed must be a long story, Chadar, as he has said, and we will hear it soon enough. Best we leave them alone now to decide the matter of our grandchildren.”
Challen hardly noticed their going. He had about lost his patience, but not the topic under discussion. “Woman, you contradict yourself. You cannot have children without bearing them.”
“We can,” Tedra said smugly now that they were alone. “An adult female can produce two or even a dozen babies a year, depending on how many are needed—Population Control is strictly monitored. All she has to do is donate the cells when she’s asked and then has nothing more to do with it.”
“Have you done this?”
“No. Only cells from the most intelligent females are requested. I don’t fall into that category.”
“I will not believe you lack intelligence.”
“Thanks, but when I said most intelligent, I was talking certified geniuses. It doesn’t guarantee a child genius. It just betters the odds.”
“But how—who, then, bears the child?”
“Not who, what. If we can make a perfect simulation of a man or woman in android form, don’t you think we can simulate a perfect womb? Babies are the jurisdiction of Population Control. They go through gestation in an artificial womb we still call a tube, where their growth and development are under constant surveillance. Their education is begun even before they are ‘born’ from this, and continues in the Child Centers until they are old enough to have their interests and talents established and matched, between the ages of three and five. This is when they are sent to the appropriate schools for training in their life-careers.”
“This is how you were raised, in these centers and schools?”
“Certainly. It’s how every Kystrani is raised.”
“It is not how our children will be raised.”
She knew that this-is-the-end-of-the-discussion look. “All right, if it’s so important to you, when we get to Kystran we can donate our gene cells together. It’s never been done before, but I’m sure something can be worked out so the child can be turned over to you when it’s ready.”
“You would not want it?”
“What for? I told you, Population Control raises babies, donators don’t.”
“No,” he said flatly. “It will not be done this way. It will be done as it is meant to be done. You will carry my child inside you. You will bear it. You will be its mother.”
“Are you nuts? I’m supposed to be the first Kystrani in centuries to bear a child? I’m not dumb, you know. The reason we stopped doing it that way was not just because it’s dangerous, it also hurts like hell.”
“So you took away a little pain, but you also
took away a child’s right to know its parents’ love.”
What she had always felt the lack of, love, any kind of love. Tedra sat down, feeling suddenly confused. “I—I need to think about this, Challen.”
“This you may do, certainly, but the matter is decided.” He drew her gently back into his arms to hold her before he told her, “You already carry my child, chemar. ”
Chapter Forty-two
Challen was exploring the ship. That ought to keep him busy for hours, or so Tedra hoped, and keep Martha busy, too. They’d Transferred up together. He’d have it no other way. Sometimes she got the feeling the barbarian didn’t trust her. Maybe he had good reason.
Tedra locked herself in Medical and stared at the meditech unit, which would give her the answers she needed—no, not answers, just one. She’d already figured out how she might have got pregnant, but not the technicalities of it. Like so many other things she was learning she’d always taken for granted, birth control was just one more. On an automated world, however, such things weren’t left to chance. Birth control was administered to everyone whether they wanted it or not. It was in the food, in everything Kystrani consumed. But Tedra hadn’t been eating Kystrani food lately, not since she’d met up with the barbarian. And if she was supposed to have been taking some other sort of precaution while she was off ship, that must have been a subject her World Discovery class hadn’t got to before she changed careers.
She could be pregnant. Challen was certain that she was. And he based his belief on the fact that he’d stopped taking birth control, too. Talk about your double whammy. But she’d found out a lot of new things in the past few days since he’d dropped that bomb on her. Barbarians’ birth control was in their dhaya wine, something only warriors drank, so only warriors controlled it. But there was a reason behind that, since once a warrior chose the mother for his children, they were hooked up for life, and that was the meaning behind those words that had sounded so formal to her when he told her his life was hers. They were formal. Challen had married her barbarian-style, and she hadn’t even known it!
[Ly-San-Ter 01] - Warrior's Woman Page 30