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?”
“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 onc
e 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!
She could be pregnant. She likely was. The meditech would tell her for sure. But she was afraid to get in, afraid to know, because then she would have a decision to make, one the barbarian didn’t know she could make, one she didn’t want to make. Stars, there was no decision to it. She couldn’t go through something as barbaric as giving birth. It was terrifying even contemplating it. Women died. But that was then, centuries ago, a common-sense voice reminded her. Would it be so dangerous now, with the modern advances in the past two hundred years, with a meditech on hand? But there was still the pain. Why should she go through that when Challen didn’t even love her- yet? But she loved him. And he wanted her to have his baby. His baby.
She got into the unit before she lost her nerve, pressing Gen. Ex. before closing herself in. It didn’t even take a half minute before the lid was opening again, her health stats coming across the screen at its base. But she couldn’t look yet. She’d have a printout delivered to her quarters l
ater, when she wasn’t so paranoid about it.
“You might as well look now, kiddo.” Martha’s voice came in over the intercom, making Tedra grab for her heart. “It’s not a word we see every day. I’m surprised I even have it in my data banks, it’s so obsolete.”
“Am I supposed to be a mind reader to know what you’re going around the block about?”
“No, I’m the mind reader around here. You’re the Sec 1 who got herself pregnant. So are you going to have the seedling transferred to a proper container?”
Tedra crossed the room to glare at the viewer on the intercom. “Actually, it’s in its proper container. Tubing is an artificial means we’ve come to accept as the norm, but I’ve been reminded it is artificial.”
“And none of that answered my question. Kystrani don’t bear babies.”
“Sha-Ka’ani do,” Tedra retorted.
“Ah, that’s right, and you’re going to be a Sha-Ka’ani, aren’t you? In fact, you already are, if I can believe everything that barbarian of yours has been telling me. By the way, he just mutilated one of our adjustichairs. He sat down in it, felt it adjusting to his great girth, and thought it was very much alive. He’d hacked it to pieces before I could tell him it was only doing its job.”
“Oh, stop.” Tedra began giggling. “He didn’t do any such thing.”
“He did. Of course, he was properly apologetic afterward, but that didn’t save the poor chair. You should have seen his face, kiddo, when that thing started moving under his backside. I’ve never seen anyone move so fast as he did coming out of that chair.”
Tedra had to hold her sides, she was laughing so hard. “We’re going to have a problem, then, when I take him to bed tonight. It’s going to do a lot of adjusting to accommodate his size.”
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