"I'm glad you brought her," said Kikho. "We'll look after her, don't worry."
"She must have some wonderful stories to tell," said Tyan wistfully, his ears flicking.
"Don't you go bothering her for tales," Vanna warned her young cousin.
"I can ask to groom her," said Kara, leaning over to touch Carrie's hair as it lay spread out on the
cushion.
Vanna laughed, leaning forward to flick Kara's nose. "Yes, you can ask her tomorrow," she said.
Carrie woke with a start to find herself still on the pile of cushions. Levering herself up on an elbow, sherealized that so were several of the others. Sunlight streamed in through the open door, as did themorning heat. She reckoned it was probably 25 degrees Celsius already. Another hot day. As she sat up,her movements woke the others.
"Good morning," said Sashti, coming through from an-other room. "You were so peaceful last night that we didn't bother to wake you and ask if you preferred a bed. We sleep in here when it's as hot as this anyway. First meal's on the table over there."
"Did you sleep well?" asked Vanna, yawning and stretch-ing.
"Fine, thank you."
"Good. I've got to go to the guild today, but I'll be back here tonight. Sashti and the others will look after you if you still want to stay for a day or two," said Vanna getting to her feet and checking her wrist unit. "I can't stop for first meal, Sashti," she called out.
"Then remember to eat at the Telepath Guild! I know what you're like," Sashti shouted back from the
kitchen.
"I'm not going back yet," said Carrie, a determined set to her face.
"Then I'll see you tonight, cub," Vanna said, reaching down to touch her face before leaving.
* * *
As soon as Vanna had landed at the Guild, Kaid came over to her.
"Where's Carrie?"
"She's safe, Kaid," said Vanna, walking toward the med-ical section.
"I want to know where she is."
"Sorry, but I'm not telling you. She's resting, on my med-ical advice."
"Vanna, there's a killer out there after either her or Kusac. He won't give a damn which one he gets. I
can't protect Carrie unless I know where she is," he said.
"If you don't know where she is, then neither does the killer."
Kaid grasped Vanna by the arm, pulling her to a stop. "I don't think you realize how serious this is," hesaid, ears twitching slightly backward.
Vanna looked at the arm holding her, then back at Kaid. "I realize that her medical condition means sheneeds a break from all this security and special treatment. You're isolating her and making her feeldepersonalized and fright-ened, Kaid. I'm not telling you where she is and you can't make me. Now, ifyou'll excuse me," she said, looking pointedly at his restraining hand again.
Kaid let her go. She left him standing in the grounds as she entered the medical building. As she enteredher office, one of the nurses popped her head round the door.
"The test results are on your desk, Physician Kyjishi. Last night's shift ran them through and gave them to
me this morning."
"What tests?" she asked, frowning. She didn't remember leaving anything out to be completed.
"The Liegen's. He came in looking for you last night and the medic on duty remembered that you wanted
extra tests run, so he took the samples."
"Thank you," she said, leafing through the papers on her desk till she found the lab report. She read the summary through, then picked up the attached crystal. Activating her comm, she inserted the cube in the reader and called up the actual data from the test. The medic had done a thorough job. His results even included the enlarged slides of the ge-netic material he'd been testing.
Getting out her master crystal, she transferred the infor-mation and checking through all her findings,began a final analysis.
* * *
It was well into the afternoon by the time Kaid had to give up trying to trace Vanna's movements thepreceding eve-ning. She'd covered her tracks too thoroughly. He'd only one option left. It meant pullinghim out of undercover, but the need to have Carrie properly guarded outweighed that. Using his wristcomm, he placed his call, cursing Vanna roundly under his breath.
* * *
Vanna was duplicating her work when she heard a knock at her door. She turned round to find Kusacstanding there.
"Hello," she said. "What brings you here?"
"I came to find out the results of the test," he said.
"Then unless you want me to shout them to you, you'd better come in." She turned back to her desk.
Kusac sat down in the chair beside her. "I feel like a pa-tient, sitting here," he said, shiftinguncomfortably.
Vanna turned to give him a long look. "You are," she said. "And I'm about to give you a prognosis."
"Don't joke about it, Vanna. I don't find any of this funny." Where his tail lay on the seat beside him, the
tip flicked spasmodically with irritation.
"No, I don't suppose you do," she said. "You've certainly lost your sense of humor."
"What are you trying to do, Vanna? Sweeten the medi-cine? Don't bother. Just tell me what you've found
and be done with it. I must know most of it by now, there's not a lot more that can happen to us."
"When your gestalt Link has been triggered in the past, it's initiated physical changes in you, like Carrie's
eyes and the endocrine system changes. Can you remember any other times it's been triggered?"
His eye ridges met as he frowned. "What's this got to do with anything?"
"It's important. Try and remember, please."
"On Keiss, before we met up with you," he said.
"Forget that," she said, making a dismissive gesture. "That was before I started my tests. Any other
times?"
"Not that I remember."
"Are you positive? Think hard."
"I've told you, Vanna, not that I can…" He stopped. "Wait a minute, there was another time, but it didn't
affect Carrie."
"Don't be so sure. Tell me about it," she said.
He looked away from her. "Rala came to the guild one night, toward the end of one of our Link days.
They sent for me because she was refusing to leave until she saw me."
"What happened?"
"I came down, we fought, and I sent her home with Meral and Sevrin."
"Kusac, do I have to drag it out of you?" she asked, ex-asperated.
He breathed in sharply then looked up at her, eyes nar-rowed, ears flicking. "I was angry about thebetrothal, about Rala. I went to see a friend at the Temple to find out if there was any way to break thecontract." He was angry, and it showed now in his eyes.
"I wanted Carrie, not Rala, and as I arrived at the Temple the gestalt triggered. It can't have affected her
because Kaid told me he'd given her a sedative so she didn't sense Rala at the guild.
"How long ago was that?"
"Some time ago, about three months, just before we went down with that fever. Look, what's the
significance of this Vanna? Are you going to tell me what you've found or not?"
Vanna leaned forward on her elbows, clasping her hands together in front of her. "I can tell you now,"she said. "That gestalt triggered more than you think, and it did affect Carrie, too, because shortly afterthat she became pregnant. You're the one responsible for making that possible, not her."
"What're you talking about, Vanna?" he asked angrily. "You know as well as I do that she chose to
become preg-nant!"
Vanna shook her head. "Forget that rubbish about her choosing. You chose for her because you wanted
a normal family life with her, not Rala. That gestalt changed your re-productive system so you could have that life—it changed you to the point where you're infertile with anyone but Carrie. The tests from last night prove it. Not only that, you changed Carrie's system in a similar way. It's
impossible for her to have Terran children now, only yours. If you want to apportion blame, then you'll have to shoulder it yourself, since your Leska was lying doped up to the eyeballs at the time!" she said, equally furious.
"You've treated her like shit, Kusac! How would you feel if you were the one who was expecting an alien child and your Leska turned round and blamed you? That's without taking the whole mess of your betrothal into account! You were a fool to hide that from her. It's time you pulled your-self together and started thinking about her and your cub."
She saw the anger in his eyes fade as he flinched under her words. "Am I hurting you?" she asked. "Good! Someone needed to tell you. You've blocked your Link, cut her out, and left her on her own. What do you think she's feeling? You can pretend to run away from all this, she can't. You'd better dosomething fast while you've still got a lover and not just a Leska."
"I didn't realize I'd caused the changes," he said quietly.
"Well, now you know. And I also think you'll find that human females can't control their fertility the way we can. Here, have this," she said, taking the crystal from her comm. "I was doing this copy for you. It has all the data on the physical changes in you both and my conclusions regarding them. I'm still working on the hows of the reproductive ge-netic changes, but that's going to take longer."
He took the cube and sat there toying with it. "She didn't come back last night," he said. "I don't knowwhere she is, neither does Kaid." He looked up at her. "Have you any idea where she could be? I knowshe's safe, but that's all. She's shut down our Link again."
"Funny, I thought you were the one who'd done that."
"I did, but I attempted to reach her this morning only to find I couldn't sense her."
"Sorry, but I can't help you," she said.
"I need to find her, Vanna. Our Link day starts tomor-row."
"Tomorrow!"
"With the Link shut off and her gone, we'll both start suf-fering from overload within the next twenty-six
hours," he said.
"Damn," she said. "I'll see what I can do. You'll have to excuse me," she said, getting up. "You've
reminded me I want to check in on Raill."
"I saw him earlier," said Kusac, following her out. "He's in pretty bad shape. My father's been talking to
the Terran leader, but he doesn't believe him either."
"It seems you were lucky to get the one sensible Terran around," said Vanna, shutting her office door.
"It was seeing Raill that reminded me how lucky I am," he said, before walking back down the corridor
to the Guild entrance.
There was little they could do for Raill, except try to keep him alive with drugs in the hope that if the Terran girl died they'd be able to save him. Vanna looked at him lying there in the intensive care unit androundly cursed the Terrans re-sponsible.
She returned to her office to find she had another visitor. "Garras!" she said. "Where have you been?
How did you get here?"
He got up and came toward her. "Later," he said, taking her face in both hands and beginning to bitegently at her cheek and neck. "I didn't think I could miss you as much as I have," he said, his handsmoving to press her close against him.
Vanna reached up round his neck, her fingers catching hold of his short mane of hair. Her mouth foundhis, teeth biting gently at his lips. "Where were you? I've been so worried," she said, nuzzling his neck.
"Don't ask," he said. "I can't tell you. We've got a day, then I have to go back."
"A day! Gods, that's no time at all," she said, pushing him away.
"We're lucky to have that," he said, cupping his hand round her cheek. "It cost me, though."
"What do you mean, it cost?" she demanded.
"Kaid wants me to find out where you've got Carrie."
"You what? You mean you're using…"
"Hush," he said, pulling her close again and covering her mouth with his. He held her like that until his gentle bites and caresses had begun to take the tension out of her body, then he released her gently.
"I told him no," said Garras, putting a finger across her mouth to stop her talking. "So I've been given twenty-six hours to find and guard her before I need to bring her back to the guild. I won't be used by anyone, Vanna, never fear."
"Their Link day starts tomorrow," she said, leaning against him, breathing in his scent while her hands held onto his arms. "She'll need to return tomorrow morning at the latest anyway. How did Kaid get you off the Khalossa?"
"Let's just say that the past caught up with me temporar-ily."
"I knew you two were in the same guild," she said, "So you don't intend to stay on Shola?"
"That rather depends," he said, grinning down at her.
She turned away from him and switched her comm off, pocketing the memory crystal. "Come on," shesaid, taking his hand. "Let's leave. I'm off duty now."
They arrived at the estate in time for the evening meal. Garras had no sooner shown his nose through thedoor than Carrie came over to hug him, delighted to see him again.
They sat beside her during the meal and Vanna managed to have a few quiet words with her.
"Why are you blocking your Link?" Vanna asked.
Carrie looked startled. "You've seen Kusac?"
"Yes. He tells me your Link day begins tomorrow."
'That's why I'm blocking," she said, frowning. "I know I'm going to have to go back tomorrow, but I
resent the fact that he'll expect everything to be forgotten because of the Link."
"Does he? I made him realize that you aren't to blame for the child."
"How did you manage that?"
"By telling him the results of your tests. I'll talk to you on the way home tomorrow. Just enjoy tonight," she said, pat-ting her hand where it lay on the table. "Think about open-ing the Link to him. You're hurting each other needlessly."
"If I open the Link, Vanna, then I can't be responsible for the effect it has on everyone else," she said in
Terran.
"What do you mean?" asked Vanna, replying in the same language.
"We need to be in shielded quarters during our Link time. We broadcast," she said evasively.
"Broadcast what?"
"A lot of raw sexuality," she muttered, looking down at her food.
"Oh! Well, perhaps you'd better keep the block on in that case," said Vanna.
Vanna and Garras opted to have a room that night. Garras shut the door and took Vanna into his arms.
"The rest of the night is ours," he said, his voice low as he picked her up and carried her over to the bed.
"You know, planetside life suits you," he said conversa-tionally as he took her tunic off, before throwing
his own aside and sitting down beside her. "I like your hair better this length."
He looped a hand behind her back, drawing her toward him, running his hand across her face and ears tillhis fingers caught in the short curls. Pulling her head back, he lowered his mouth to her neck, licking itgently.
"Have you thought any more about whether or not I stay on Shola?" he asked, his voice so low she could
barely hear him.
Her hands clutched his shoulders, claws extending to hold him. "Stay," she whispered. "Be one with me."
His mouth closed on her throat, canines bruising her in his pleasure at her commitment to him.
* * *
"Ah, Tallinu," said Ghezu. "I was wondering when I'd get your next report."
"I call you when I have news," Kaid replied.
"Well, what's been happening?"
"Have you been able to trace the second assassin?"
"Your news first," frowned Ghezu.
"That wasn't the arrangement," said Kaid softly.
"I've nothing," said Ghezu shortly. "It's as if he ceased to exist. One of our own couldn't have done
better."
Kaid was hit by a sensation of having had this conversa-tion before as briefly, the room around him
seemed to lurch. "I've a feeling he might be a survivor of that scouter crash I had on Keiss. His name was
Chyad, the leader of the dis-sidents on the Khalossa," he said.
Ghezu raised a questioning eye ridge but said nothing be-yond, "If he is, and you find him first, Tallinu, Iwant him alive."
Kaid nodded. "If it's possible," he agreed.
"Make it possible," growled Ghezu. "Now, I want your news."
"The human female has issued the Life-bonding Chal-lenge to Rala Vailkoi."
Ghezu's eyes widened in surprise, and his ears flicked. "She has?"
"Liegen Aldatan intends to marry her, not Rala, but they couldn't find grounds on which to break the
contract. This seemed the only solution."
"You say seemed. Why?"
"Carrie Hamilton is twelve weeks pregnant, and Kusac is the father." Kaid had the pleasure of seeing
Ghezu stunned. "Before you say it isn't possible, it's been confirmed medi-cally, by genetic tests."
"A new species," Ghezu said quietly. "Vartra has created a new species."
"Rala Vailkoi accepted the Challenge," continued Kaid. "It's due to be fought in two weeks. We have to
stop it, Ghezu."
Ghezu's eyes snapped back into focus and he frowned. "Why? It gives us the perfect opportunity to seeher fight in real circumstances."
"There's a danger that she could lose the child."
"If the God intends the child to be born alive, then there can't be any danger to her. Besides, it will let us see how Kusac behaves during the Challenge. If he's become like us, then all his natural instincts, stronger at the moment because of his age, and her pregnancy, will make him fight to protect her."
"I think the benefits from seeing if she can fight are min-imal compared to ensuring that she and the child
are safe."
"I disagree. The God has dealt the tokens for the game, let the players play it out."
Kaid could feel his anger rising. It took all his self-control to stop his body from giving him away. "Females can die, even today, because of miscarriages," he said softly. "We could lose them all if we riskher. Is it worth it just to con-firm what we already know? What would Lijou say?"
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