Next
That was when she remembered the warrior's sword.
She had completely forgotten about it in the excitement of the first meeting with a Talisi. And what had come after that.
Now the memories came flooding back. She remembered it striking her chest, causing a minor tingling sensation. She remembered it falling out of his grasp. She suppressed a blush as remembered exactly how she had taken it out of his grasp. She remembered flinging it aside. She didn't remember what had happened to it, since she had been looking at the warrior at the time and hadn't seen where it had gone.
It didn't take the men very long to recognize the object. "It's a sword," Tillek said unnecessarily, walking around the tree and looking at it from all sides. "But how did it get there?"
Looking over the men's shoulders, she was just as surprised as they were. The sword was embedded in the tree, the blade sunk in all the way to the hilt.
Tillek grasped the hilt and pulled, nearly smashing his face into the tree when the sword refused to budge. The sword refused to budge even when he put his other hand on the hilt and used both arms. "Give me a hand with this, Velder," he called over his shoulder.
Velder walked over behind Tillek and put his hands on Tillek's wrists, adding his strength to the effort. The sword steadfastly refused to budge --- remaining tightly wedged in the thick tree trunk.
The sight was almost comical, one man pulling on the sword while the other man pulled on the first man. It was all Leysen could do to keep from laughing out loud, especially when she remembered that she had casually flipped the sword away with just one hand.
When Tillek's hands slipped from the hilt and both men tumbled down to the ground, she finally lost control and burst out laughing.
Tillek stood up, brushing off dirt and leaves. "I suppose you can do better, girl?"
She refrained from telling him that she had put it there. Instead she walked up to the tree, stepping over Velder as he scrambled out of her way. Grasping the hilt with her right hand, she gave it a little tug. It was really embedded in there, still refusing to budge.
However, she was not about to be stymied in front of the two men. Especially not after she had laughed at them. Readjusting her grip and bracing her feet, she pulled harder. This time the sword moved a little before it stuck again. Increasing the force, she pulled it out smoothly.
She remembered back to something from one of her anthropology classes aboard the Empress Jiltan'th --- a bit of folklore from some obscure planet, not in this sector --- where a powerful sorcerer had embedded a sword in a stone. Supposedly, whoever was able to pull out the sword was to become the king. She smiled to herself, wondering whether there was any truth to that legend. Was she destined to become the king --- or rather the queen --- here?
She suppressed a chuckle. Her? A queen? Queen Leysen the First of Talis?
No, that was ludicrous. That kind of stuff only happened in folktales. A folktale from another planet --- she couldn't remember which one. Besides, in that particular legend the sword --- she knew that it had a name but couldn't remember it --- had been a magical one. And the young boy who had pulled it out was a magical boy. This was just an ordinary sword, carried by an ordinary Talisi warrior and pulled out of the tree by an ordinary Arion Prime. Suppressing a giggle, she brandished the sword, causing the men to jump back. Like all Primes, she had learned the rudiments of swordplay in school, though naturally with much heavier swords. She then casually tossed it into the air, caught the blade just above the guard, and offered the sword to Tillek, hilt first.
Tillek took the sword and examined it. "Definitely Talisi. Too bad it's not a layer sword. We could use one." He handed it to Velder.
Velder looked at it, noting the point, which had gotten smashed going into the tree. He also noted the crushed area at the base of the blade, where Leysen had grasped it earlier. "Good thing it's not a layer sword. That would have hurt even a Prime." He then fingered the middle of the blade, where Leysen had grasped it the previous night. "What do you supposed happened here?"
After looking at the blade, Tillek turned to Leysen. "Girl, do you know how the sword got into the tree? These things don't grow on trees."
Velder put his finger to the hole in the tree, then drew it back and looked at the sap on his finger. "It's fresh. The sword couldn't have been in there very long."
She knew that she had to tell the truth. Some of it, at any rate. "I must have put it there. He dropped it before he started running." She didn't elaborate on just how he had dropped it, how she had taken it out of his grasp without even using her hands. She put out her hand and Velder placed the sword into it. "I picked it up, and then threw it away." Holding the sword like a dagger, she plunged it back into the tree. There was a THUNK as the blade went in all the way up to the hilt, about six inches above where it had been earlier.
This time when she tried to pull the sword back out, it either snagged on something or she twisted it a little. In either case, there was a CRACK as the blade broke off, forcing her to grasp the broken blade and pull it out. She handed each of the two men one half of the broken sword as they stood openmouthed in amazement.
Velder was the first to recover. "Why did he drop it? A Talisi warrior would never discard his weapons. Especially his sword."
"Not as long as he was able to continue fighting," Tillek said. He then turned to Leysen. "Did you get into a fight with him?"
"Me? Of course not." She tried to look as innocent as possible, crossing her arms in front of her and rearranging her santha vest in order to try to cover up the gash in it. After all, it really hadn't been a fight, had it? She certainly hadn't intended to hurt him at all, not even after he had drawn his sword and slashed her with it. And she hadn't hurt him, had she? Not from the way that he had run afterward.
Unfortunately for her, Tillek had noticed her movement. She uncrossed her arms as he reached out for her, examining the ragged gash in her vest. "He did this, didn't he?"
She knew that she couldn't cover it up any more --- literally or figuratively. She nodded meekly without saying a word.
"What did you do to him?"
"Nothing." She had felt him up a little, but she really hadn't done anything to him, had she? "I did nothing to him. I tried to talk with him, but he just ran off."
"Tell me everything that happened last night, girl," he said, sounding just like a schoolteacher with an unruly student.
"Why should I?" She stepped back and put her hands on her hips. "You were on lookout duty. You should have heard everything."
"Tell me what happened, girl," he repeated. "We need to find out everything we can about the Talisi in this area."
She realized that he was right. They had already seen some of what these people were capable of doing. "I... I was just out for a walk, like I told you. All of a sudden, he attacked me from behind." She went on to describe the action, though she omitted the part about her feeling him up. And how she had felt when he had been striking her breasts.
She tried to finish up her narrative by taking the offensive again. "You were on lookout duty. Why didn't you hear anything?" Surely even a Beta would have heard them.
"You want to be our full-time lookout, girl?" he replied tartly. "With your Prime eyesight and hearing, you can have the job. Velder and I would be glad to get a full night's sleep."
Maybe Beta hearing was that bad.
She bit her lip, unable to come up with any kind of reply. At least, nothing that wouldn't give him an excuse to make her do even more work than she already was doing, which was much more than what the two men were doing. However she could tell that he wasn't completely unaffected by her remark. He had been on lookout duty, and he had failed. He knew from previous experiences that such lapses could be fatal on Talis.
Even though she had omitted some of the details, Tillek seemed satisfied with her account. Or perhaps it her final salvo had stung, and he didn't want to let her get in any more shots. In either case, he turned to Velder. "Do you think he was one of the attackers, or a defender who escaped the attack?"
"If he attacked a lone female, I'd think he was one of the attackers. Any females would have had to be from the village, and one of their own warriors wouldn't have attacked her."
"My thoughts exactly." He turned --- looking around in a full circle --- before continuing. "We're going to have to be very alert, in case any of the attackers are still around."
They returned to the campsite, retrieved their gear, and continued the journey. Just as it had been the day before, there wasn't much conversation. All three of them were too busy looking around to spend much time talking.
The hypno-teacher's lessons hadn't prepared Leysen for her first peaceful meeting with the Talisi any more than it had prepared her for her first non-peaceful meeting.
It was early in the afternoon. They were walking along a narrow path in the forest when Leysen heard something moving. She stopped and looked around. Not seeing anything, she signaled for the men to be quiet and cocked her head to listen.
She didn't hear anything out of the ordinary, at least for this planet. Just the insects and the birds --- the same stuff she'd been hearing every single day during their trek.
They resumed walking. About a minute later, she stopped them again. Listening again, she still didn't hear anything out of the ordinary.
Whatever she had heard --- or thought that she had heard --- was gone.
Or not.
Four men suddenly appeared on the path in front of them. Afterward she would never be able to say where they had come from. One second the trail was empty, the next second there were four men barring their way. It was as if they had materialized out of thin air.
The two Betas in front of her stopped in their tracks. Looking back, she saw four more men behind them. All eight warriors were armed with swords.
The way that they were holding their swords suggested that they knew how to use them. She knew from experience that the iron blades couldn't hurt her, but she doubted whether she could defeat all eight men before at least one of the Betas got hurt --- or worse.
She was relieved to find that she didn't recognize any of the warriors. Whoever that had been that she had encountered the night before, he wasn't one of this group. The fact that like the three Arions none of these warriors had any mud smeared on their faces or bodies led her to think that she wouldn't see him with this group.
Tillek and Velder held their hands out to their sides, being careful not to reach for their own knives. "We mean no harm," Tillek said, gesturing with his right hand in the Talisi ritual greeting. "We have traveled far."
"You come from Ranture?" one of them asked, gesturing up the path with his sword.
At least the hypno-teacher had taught her enough of the language to be able to understand them. The accent was a little different, no doubt due to the fact that the hypno-teacher's knowledge was based on the dialect spoken on the east coast.
Ranture turned out to be the destroyed village that they had seen. Leysen's presence helped to convince them that the three Arions had nothing to do with its destruction --- the Talisi did not include women on their raids, and it was clear that she was not their captive.
After a little more discussion, two of the warriors left. They reemerged from the trees leading a pair of hurjas --- the six-legged beasts of burden. Mounting them, the two warriors then galloped off ahead of them.
She wondered whether the rest of them were going to ride as well. She wondered what it would feel like to ride a six-legged animal, with what had to be an unusual gait for anybody whose only previous riding experience was with four-legged animals. However she was not about to find out, as no more hurjas were in evidence. With their escorts around them, they resumed walking.
If nothing else, she thought that the scenery had definitely improved. As they accompanied the warriors to their village --- which they learned was called Panture --- she took the opportunity to look the men over. They were all tall men, even the shortest was a couple of inches taller than were Tillek and Velder. Their harnesses did nothing to conceal their large muscular bodies, physiques that rivaled --- and in some cases exceeded --- those of Primes.
She also understood why she hadn't heard anything. Despite their size, they moved almost completely silently. Even looking directly at them, she could barely hear their footsteps.
She recalled from the hypno-teacher's lessons that the humans had adapted superbly to their planet's heavier gravity and harsh environment. In addition, their warlike lifestyle had culled out the weaklings. She couldn't help but be impressed by the nearly naked male physiques around her, even though from just looking at them it really was hard to believe that none of them had as much strength in his magnificent body as she did in just her little finger.
She also noticed that the men were checking her out as almost as intently as she was checking them out, if not more. Two men in particular seemed to be quite interested in her.
The older one had a livid scar across his left cheek. She didn't think that he had been very handsome before he got the scar, but now it gave his broad face a particularly nasty aspect, especially whenever he leered at her --- which was quite often.
The younger one --- perhaps the youngest one in the group --- also seemed to be having some trouble keeping his eyes off of her. At least until she would turn to look at him, when he would blush and look away from her.
Since he was in front of her, it was easier for her to watch him than the other way around. She especially liked the way that the muscles rippled on his back and legs as he walked. Tall, with straight black hair, he was definitely an impressive specimen. Perhaps not quite as big and muscular as the warrior last night had been, with his physique he could still pass for a Prime. And he had a cute smile --- with a twinkle in his eyes --- that he showed her every time that she caught him looking at her. He reminded her of Mellek --- her boyfriend back home on Tiburon --- even more than had the warrior the previous night.
Tiburon! Would she never return there? Was she doomed to spend the rest of her life here? On this miserable planet? With these primitive people?
Though she supposed that there could be worse fates in the universe than being surrounded by all these good-looking men. It really was hard to believe that not one of those men had as much strength in his entire body as she did in her little finger. But they --- and she --- were still alive, unlike her classmates and everybody else aboard the Empress Jiltan'th.
Naturally none of the men offered to carry her pack for her. Not that she would have accepted such an offer, since she knew that it was much too heavy for one of them to carry.
The sun was just starting to set when they arrived at Panture, a village much like what she had imagined Ranture to look like before it had been burned down. A wooden wall surrounded a cluster of wooden buildings. There were pens for animals just on the inside, along with storehouses for the grain.
Unlike Ranture, Panture was full of life. Other warriors gathered around to look at the newcomers. Like everywhere else in the universe, the children ran around as the women tried --- and failed --- to keep them away from the newcomers.
Leysen looked around herself, just as curious about her surroundings as the children seemed to be about them.
The other men were just as impressive as those who had just escorted them here were. Even the older men stood straight and proud, their backs unbent by age.
In contrast the women were not as big as she would have thought, given the size of their men. Whereas the average male Talisi was larger than the average male Prime, the average female Talisi was no larger than the average female Beta. Though Leysen was not particularly tall for a Prime, she saw that she was one of the tallest females around. The Talisi women were also a bit stockier than the typical Beta, though Leysen thought them far from unattractive.
Unlike Arions, they weren't all uniformly black-haired. While many of them did have black hair, a good number had hair that were lighter shades of brown. Some almost had red hair. Some even had hair light enough to be called blond.
Remembering their earlier discussion about Velorians hiding in plain sight, she looked around again. However none of the lighter-haired ones had the golden hair that she had always associated with the Velorians.
She wasn't completely reassured. Just because she didn't see anybody who looked obviously Velorians didn't mean that there was no Velorian Protector on Talisi. She might be inside one of the buildings, or in the next village.
She could be out looking for the people who had attacked Ranture. Or she might have led the attack.
That was a scary thought.
Fortunately she didn't have the opportunity to dwell on that thought. They were quickly taken to a building in the center of the village to meet with the headman and some of the Council of Warriors. Gharrez, the head of the Council --- the War Leader, as he was called in the Talisi terminology --- was a large man, not much older than some of the warriors who had escorted them to Panture.
The only female present, Leysen stayed with the two Betas. She didn't say a word, letting the men do the talking and trying to follow along with what they said. Not that she would have been allowed to speak on her behalf.
Instead, she looked around, trying to find the man whom she had encountered the previous night. Relieved not to see him, she finally decided that he had been part of the group that had raided Ranture.
The men were eventually able to convince Gharrez that they had absolutely nothing to do with the destruction of Ranture, that they had traveled from afar --- exactly where, they were deliberately vague.
Satisfied that the three newcomers posed no threat to the village, Gharrez declared a feast in their honor, much to the delight of the entire village.
By this time, everybody in Panture had heard of what had happened in nearby Ranture. The mood was subdued and somewhat somber. A feast was just what was needed.
The feast was in the courtyard of Gharrez's house --- the only building in the village made of stone. At least for the men, that is --- except for those doing sentry duty to prevent a repeat of what had happened to Ranture. Leysen tried to stay with her companions but had to eat in a side room adjoining the kitchen, with the other women and the children. Growing up in Arion society where the genders were much better integrated --- even though the class field trip aboard the Empress Jiltan'th had been all female --- this was something she found somewhat disconcerting. Even when her father hosted receptions for other officers, she'd been allowed to attend --- even getting to mingle with the handsome junior officers.
She had known that this was the way things were here, but actually experiencing it was something completely different, something for which the hypno-teacher couldn't prepare her. The other females seemed to have no problems with it, having grown up in this society. At least as a guest she didn't have to help out with the cooking, or to help carry the food in to the men, as the other women were doing.
Despite all that, it felt good to be eating real food again, instead of leaves and bark. Or raw santha steaks. Hot food, properly cooked, though naturally the best portions went to the men in the main hall. Still, it was great, easily the best meal she'd had since she'd been on the planet. The others were surprised by how much she ate, much more than any two of them did.
Leysen was glad that she had paid attention during the lectures aboard the passenger liner. Though at the time, she had thought that it was merely a matter of a simple homework assignment for school, as part of the price for being allowed to go on this trip. Even though the classes hadn't covered this particular planet --- yet --- there had been numerous discussions on the various primitive cultures in the sector. The hypno-teacher's lessons had filled in the gaps.
Still, she had never anticipated that she would actually have first-hand experience with life on any of the planets in this sector. She certainly had never anticipated meeting the natives, let alone trying to pass herself off as one.
Or encountering a santha, up close and personal.
Fortunately, the hypno-teacher aboard the lifeboat had a memory crystal containing practically all known data about this planet and its inhabitants. She had been able to use it to learn more about this planet, and its inhabitants. In addition, Tillek and Velder had been able to use it to give her enough mastery of the language to understand it, at least enough to follow what little conversation there was over the meal, though she still sounded terrible whenever she tried to speak it. Which, thankfully, wasn't very often --- unlike the warriors, the women seemed to be completely disinterested in knowing where she had come from. Not that she was about to try explaining Tiburon, or the Empress Jiltan'th, or the lifeboat. And they certainly wouldn't have understood, if she had.
They seemed to be far more interested in the sleeping arrangements. From time to time one of the women --- returning from bringing food out to the men --- would tell the other women which warrior had just selected her for his companion for the night. There were sighs of envy at some of the names --- presumably the more talented of the warriors. Condolences were offered to those who apparently had been selected by men not so talented.
Thankfully --- since she didn't have to help serve --- Leysen was not picked by any of the warriors.
And thankfully, she was able to recognize most, though not all, of the ingredients in their meal, from the hypno-teacher's lessons. There was meat of the hurja, a partially domesticated six-legged animal used for riding and as a beast of burden --- and for food. Dried fruit. Dried mushrooms, which once she worked up the nerve to try she found were particularly tasty. A coarse unleavened bread baked from kif, their staple crop. Various nuts and berries. Juices made from fruit. The men were taken some stronger drinks, but the females abstained from them.
Though of course, she'd had to carry the hypno-teacher during the entire trek through the mountains, along with the power cells for it. Fortunately, it was compact, fitting into a corner of her pack, and not very heavy, weighing less than two hundred pounds even in the heavier gravity of Talis.
After the meal, the three Arions were shown to their sleeping rooms. Velder was shown to a room first. Tillek took Leysen's hand as their guide showed them to the next room. "You're with me tonight," he whispered to her. "I told them I was claiming you for the night."
She was so startled by his words that she didn't react at all. That was probably the only thing that saved his hand from being immediately crushed to a pulp in hers.
Recovering from her surprise, she drew in a slow breath. She looked first at Tillek and then at their guide, who apparently hadn't heard Tillek's words.
Instead of crushing his hand she dropped it. She refrained from doing anything else, mostly because she didn't want to display her Arion strength in front of their guide.
She refrained from showing any other response until their guide had shown them to another room and bid them a good night, throwing Tillek a smile.
It was a small room. As soon as the door had closed behind them, she whirled to face Tillek, putting a hand on his chest and pushing, throwing him against the wall. Quickly walking up to him, she put her hand back on his chest to catch him as he bounced off of the wall, pinning the larger and older man to the wall. "What are you doing, claiming me for the night? Do you really think I'll sleep with you?"
He made some wheezing sounds in reply. Realizing that she wasn't letting him get enough air to talk, she eased the pressure on his chest. Not enough to let him free, but enough to let him breathe. "I... I had to, Leysen," he finally managed to gasp out.
She pushed a little harder against his chest, driving the air out of his lungs again. "What do you mean?" She then eased the pressure, letting him breathe again.
"Did... did you see the way the men were looking at you?"
She thought back to the initial meeting with the villagers, before the feast. "So?" She all but smirked. "It's the same way you and Velder have been looking at me every day." She had not missed the longing glances that they had been casting towards the only female in their party --- when they thought that she wasn't looking --- as they trekked across the mountains. Especially when she was wearing less clothing than the Talisi females normally wore.
"Exactly." He gasped again, when she momentarily increased the pressure on his chest. "Vel... Velder and I know you're a Prime. But these men don't."
That was obvious, but she still couldn't follow his chain of thought. She brought her free hand up to her face, rubbing the bridge of her nose with her forefinger. "So?"
"But don't you see? If nobody claimed you, you'd be open game for anybody who wanted you, and there'd be nothing I could do to protect you. This way at least, I can protect you."
That was a ludicrous thought. When did a Prime ever need a Beta to protect her from other men? Hadn't she been protecting them during their trek through the mountains, not the other way around? When had they done anything to protect her? "Just like you and Velder protected me from that santha?"
"That's different! That was a wild animal. These are people. Men."
"Oh, you're going to protect me from men? Who's going to protect a little girl like me from a big man like you?" Her voice dripped with sarcasm as she continued to pin the larger and older man to the wall with just one hand in the middle of his broad chest.
"You know I won't do anything to you." He looked down at her hand. "I can't, and I know it. So does Velder. But these men don't. Now, they won't try." He gulped down another breath.
She finally started to see what he was driving at. She dropped her hand from his chest. As he continued to lean against the wall, gulping in air, she turned around and stepped away from him, rubbing the bridge of her nose as she looked around at their room.
There wasn't much to see. A small room, smaller than her room back home. Even smaller than her cabin aboard the Empress Jiltan'th. Simple wooden walls. A plain wood floor.
A bed to one side, with a couple of blankets neatly folded and placed on top. A little lower than she was used to, but it would be a nice change from sleeping on a pile of leaves.
She then noticed its most prominent feature.
It was the only bed in the room.
No sooner had General Estrad Strahzi --- formerly the Deputy Commander for this sector --- returned from the spaceport to his quarters when the comm screen beside the door beeped. Too tired to do anything else, he reached over and thumbed it on.
The face of Marshal Junter Barrahdi, the Commanding Officer for the sector, appeared on the screen. "I just read your report on the Empress Jiltan'th, Estrad. I... I'm sorry."
Estrad looked up unseeing at the face on the comm screen. "It's... it's so senseless. To lose five hundred people, just because a Stars-damned engine blew up in a Stars-damned ion storm." He pounded the wall beside the screen. There was a loud CRASH as his fist went right through a foot of solid concrete, narrowly missing a reinforcing Vendorian steel girder.
He drew back his hand and looked at it, as if he was surprised that his fist could do so much damage to the solid wall. Yet he had been powerless to do a single thing about his daughter.
He looked at the hole in the wall and shook his head in resignation. The hole in the wall could be filled in. The hole in his heart would never be.
Just like that other hole in his heart.
He tore another piece of concrete out of the wall and hefted it.
"I'm sorry," the face on the screen repeated.
He stared straight ahead, through the hole in the wall. A couple of Beta orderlies walked by, carefully picking their way over the rubble and warily looking in his direction to make sure that no more concrete fragments were coming their way, looking particularly wary of the chunk that he held.
He closed his hand, letting the powdered concrete dribble out between his fingers. "I... I suppose I should be glad it was quick and clean." He wiped his hand on his thigh, as if to emphasize the point, at least to himself. "There's no way anybody could possibly have survived the explosion. But still, to die like that..."
"It's no way for a Warrior Prime to die," the Marshal agreed. "At least your wife..."
"Yes, yes. At least she took a Velorian with her." He leaned for support against what was left of the wall. "But to lose five hundred people for no good reason..." He resisted --- barely --- the urge to smash his fist into the wall again. "She... she so much wanted to become a Warrior. To avenge her mother. To die like this..."
"I'm sorry, Estrad," the Marshal repeated. "If there's anything my wife and I can do, just mention it."
He didn't need to hear the tone of his voice nor to see the expression on his face to know that the offer was genuine. The Marshal's children were all grown, with young children of their own. He hadn't lost any of them yet, but one doesn't get to the rank of Marshal without losing some of the people under him. "Thank you, Sir."
"If you want to take some time off..."
"Junter, please. Taking time off isn't going to bring my daughter back to me. I need to be doing something. Anything. Please."
"Very well, Estrad. Report to me in the morning. I still need a deputy commander."
"Yes, Sir. But first I'd like to notify all of the other parents. The parents of my daughter's classmates. I... I'd like to do it personally. For me. And for... for Leysen."
"I had a feeling you'd want to do something like that. Very well, Estrad, I can do without a deputy for a little longer. Report to me when you're done."
"Yes, Sir!" Then he added, "Thank you, Junter."
"Do what you have to do, Estrad." With that, the Marshal cut the connection.
He continued looking at the blank screen --- without seeing it --- for several more minutes.