Next
She didn't see Bander get up and go to the head table, bending down to whisper something to Gharrez.
When she returned from the kitchen with another pitcher of kifra, Tillek was with Gharrez, waving his arms around as she spoke. Bander was standing with his arms crossed over his chest, looking smug as Gharrez answered Tillek.
When he saw her emerge from the kitchen, Banden raised an arm and signaled her over. She tried to act as if she hadn't seen him, walking down the table and looking for empty cups. Unfortunately for her, one of the warriors grabbed her arm and pointed out Bander's signal. Knowing that she had no choice, she walked to the head table.
Bander reached out and grabbed her arm, trying to pull her closer. She shook her arm free of his grasp and looked to Tillek, who was still arguing over something with Gharrez.
"You're with me tonight, female," Bander told her, making another grab for her arm.
She stepped back out of his reach. "No! I... I'm with Tillek."
"He's on sentry duty tonight," Bander said.
She looked over at Tillek. He turned to her and spread his arms in a helpless gesture.
Sweeping her gaze around the room she spotted Velder at the next table, looking in her direction. She started walking in that direction.
Bander stepped forward and made another grab for her. She pushed him away and continued walking --- not noticing that her one-armed shove had sent him crashing against the wall and almost knocking off one of the torches before falling down onto the table.
Reaching Velder, she grabbed his arm and pulled him up out of his seat.
"What is it, Ley?" he asked, getting his feet under him.
"He... he wants me tonight," she said, jerking her chin in the direction of Bander, who was picking himself up off of the table and brushing off the food.
Velder seemed to immediately grasp the situation. Leysen stiffened when she felt his arm encircle her waist, until he whispered into her ear in Arion, "Just play along with me." She relaxed herself, though she remained prepared to defend herself from any man, Talisi or Arion.
Keeping his arm around her waist he sat back down, pulling her down onto his lap. With his free hand he picked up his cup of kifra, raising it to his lips and draining it in one long swallow. "The female is with me tonight," he announced, setting his cup back down upon the table.
She stiffened again when she felt his hand beginning to move up her side. He'd never touched her there before, except when she had fed him --- and Tillek --- during their trek through the mountains. She tensed even more as it approached her breast.
"Relax," he whispered again in Arion, keeping his voice down low enough that only a Prime could hear it. "It's just for show."
She tried to relax as the hand made its way along the side of her breast She stifled a gasp when the hand reversed direction and came up under her breast, cupping it.
Bander took a couple of steps toward them. Velder remained seated and continued fondling her breast, keeping his hand outside of her clothes. It appeared as if she was going to be in the middle of another confrontation.
Bander apparently thought the better of it, for he suddenly stopped. Snatching a cup from the table, he held it up. "Kifra, female!"
"Go get it," Velder whispered to her, dropping his hand and releasing her.
Pushing herself up off of Velder's lap, Leysen stood up. She retrieved her pitcher from the floor and looked inside. It was empty, its contents spilled out on the floor. Nobody interfered with her as she made her way to the kitchen to get more.
Nobody interfered with her when she came back out and made her way to Bander, who had resumed his seat. She filled his cup as he held it out for her. She then made her way down the table toward Velder.
Velder stood up as she reached him and took her arm. Glad to be getting away from Bander, she let him lead her out of the hall. When he stopped at the door to his room, she shook her arm free. "Thank you for getting me out of there." She turned to go on to the room that she shared with Tillek.
"Wait, Ley!" He grabbed onto her arm again. She dragged him along for another pace before stopping and turning to face him. "Come in here. You have to stay with me." Not wanting to cause a further scene, she let him pull her in and close the door behind them.
The room was just like hers, right down to the single bed.
She shook her arm free again and turned to face him. "If you're thinking to..."
He backed away from her, holding his hands out to his sides.
Bringing up her right hand, she rubbed the bridge of her nose. Velder was right. If Bander found out that she hadn't spent the night with Velder, there could be trouble.
Spending the night didn't mean sleeping with him, though. Walking over to the bed, she sat down on the far side. "I'm taking this half." She then reached into a pocket, pulling out one gold chain. "I'm only putting one of these on, so you'd better keep your hands to yourself."
"I wouldn't dream of touching you."
That was too much like Tillek. But then, Tillek hadn't touched her either.
She picked up the blanket and threw it at him. "Here. You could use this more than I can."
He caught the blanket and wrapped it around himself, and then sat down on the floor.
She suppressed a giggle. "You don't have to do that. You can sleep here." She patted the bed beside her.
He was reluctant to come within touching range of her, remaining on the floor and stretching out.
She scooted further, up against the wall and patted the bed again. "You don't have to be afraid of me. If you won't touch me, I won't touch you."
"That's okay, Ley. I'll sleep here."
"No you won't." With that, she sprang up off of the bed. Before he could move away from her, she picked him up and carried him to the bed and set him down on his half.
He tried to crawl off of the bed. This time she couldn't suppress a giggle. Reaching down with a hand, she put it in the middle of his back and held him in place.
She then slid her other hand under him and picked him up again, moving him to the other half of the bed, against the wall. "You stay on your half, and I'll stay on my half. It'll be just like on the lifeboat."
She regretted her words as soon as she had said them. She still hadn't forgotten what she had been doing to him on the lifeboat, when they were still in the boat bay of the Empress Jiltan'th. She was sure that he also remembered. To be on the safe side, she carefully got on the bed without touching him and made sure that she stayed on the other side of the blanket from him.
Both men went down hard in a cloud of dust, all but making the ground shake. The smaller man was the first one up, quickly pouncing on the larger man before he could get up and pinning him to the ground.
When the larger man acknowledged defeat, Velder let his opponent up and got back up to his feet, brushing off the dirt.
There was a smattering of cheers. There probably would have been more if the other warrior had won. At least that was what she thought, as she looked around herself and saw only a few of the others cheering.
Or perhaps not. She knew enough to know that Bander was not the most popular warrior in the village.
Leysen was sitting with the other females, watching the action. The wrestling style wasn't exactly the same as what she'd learned in school, but it wasn't all that different. She didn't think that she would have any difficulty in learning it. Wrestling was wrestling, no matter where it was done.
Not that it would matter much. Since she was much quicker and had far more strength in her little finger than any of the warriors had in his entire body, she wouldn't need much in the way of technique in order to defeat any of them. Though she would have to be very careful in order not to hurt her opponent.
She itched to give it a try, to show them what real wrestling was like. She knew that she could easily defeat all of them --- together --- without exerting herself all that much, let alone working up a sweat. Any Prime her age could do that.
However, that would be a sure way to draw the attention of a Velorian Protector, if there was one on Talis. Even the two Betas had to be careful in that regard, though of course not nearly as much as she had to be.
It was apparent to her that the Betas were having no trouble in winning the majority of their matches without using too much of their Arion abilities. Several times she saw one of them refusing to take an opening that his opponent had unwittingly presented.
It was also apparent to her that they were being careful to not be the very best wrestlers.
"He is good, isn't he?"
Leysen turned around to see Mai --- the young woman who had been helping her in the kitchen --- waving at the two wrestlers.
"Who?" Leysen asked, not sure whether Mai was just making idle conversation. All of their previous conversations had been about their work in the kitchen, they hadn't engaged in any idle chit-chat.
"Velder," Mai answered. "And your man, Tillek. He's good too, but I don't think he's as good as Velder."
Her man? Did Mai think that Tillek was Leysen's man? A Beta?
Of course, it probably looked that way to her. Since their arrival in Panture, Leysen had spent every night except the last with Tillek.
She was about to deny it, when she remembered that they were trying to cultivate precisely that impression. She also refrained from mentioning that she was a better wrestler than were any of the warriors. Instead, she smiled at the other woman. "Yes, they are good, aren't they?"
Mai lowered her voice in a conspiratorial tone. "Are they as good at anything else?"
Despite her earlier train of thought, it still took Leysen a couple of seconds to figure out what Mai was driving at. When she did figure it out, she was shocked. None of her girlfriends had been quite this blunt.
The thought of her girlfriends reminded her of the Empress Jiltan'th. But then, she had hung around with friends who were more interested in fighting for the glory of the Empire. She fought to control herself. "I... I really don't know," she stammered out. "I don't have much to compare with, I mean." At least that part was truthful.
"You were with him last night."
"Yes, but..." She rubbed the bridge of her nose with a finger. "Too much kifra."
Mai nodded thoughtfully, then smiled. "Hmm. Maybe I'll have to find out. Don't let him have too much kifra tonight."
Leysen was too surprised by Mai's words and her smile to reply. Did she really want to sleep with Velder, to be used by him?
Well, if that was what she wanted, she was welcome to it. And to Tillek as well, for all that Leysen cared about it. She was welcome to all of the warriors here, Talisi as well as Beta.
Her thoughts were interrupted by the start of the next match. This one was between Tillek and Chaddik, the handsome young warrior whom she had noticed during their initial journey to Panture.
She wasn't quite sure which one she wanted to root for. Though it probably wouldn't matter --- with his Arion strength and quickness, Tillek would win if he wanted to.
His hands found their way to her breasts again, eliciting another low moan from her lips.
Mai couldn't believe that she'd had her doubts when he'd selected her for the night. Why would any woman ever refuse this?
She could still remember when the strangers had first arrived in Panture. The two men seemed a little short for warriors, but they had quickly proven their prowess. Naturally, she didn't have any expertise in the subject, but she had heard other warriors mention that they had never seen anybody with swords that fast. And she had seen them wrestling. She had never seen anybody defeat Gharrez before, but both of them seemed to do it effortlessly.
Everything that they did seemed effortless. They moved with a grace that she had never seen in anybody before, let alone in warriors.
And the girl! She was like no female that Mai had ever met before.
She moved with a grace that made even the two newcomers seem clumsy in comparison, almost as if she was weightless. But that wasn't what struck Mai the most about the girl.
How could a girl get to be that age without knowing anything about a female's work? She didn't know how to tend the fields, or to prepare food, or to prepare skins.
And she didn't know the words to the songs --- the songs that Mai had learned as a child. At first, she'd thought that Leysen hadn't sung because she was ashamed of her voice. But when she finally joined in on the chorus, she sang with a sweet melodic voice. Better than most of the other females.
And while she seemed to be old enough, it was clear that she had never known a man. It certainly couldn't be because she was unattractive, for she definitely was not. The two men she had come with seemed to be protective of her, but didn't seem to be using her.
That was the girl's loss, not Mai's.
All further thoughts about Ley vanished from Mai's mind as he spread her thighs and mounted her. She'd never been with another man who was ready for another go as quickly as he was.
Or so big.
She moaned again and gripped him tighter as he thrust deep into her, deeper than any other man ever had.
She couldn't understand why she had been hesitant to go to his bed.
Why would any woman ever refuse to be with someone as skillful as was Velder? A bit rough, but oh so pleasurable!
It had been quite a while since he had last been with a woman.
He remembered enough from his previous stay on Talis to know that he had to be gentle with her. He also had to be careful not to thrust too deeply. The Talisi were strong and durable --- for ordinary human stock --- but not quite up to Supremis standards. As beautiful as she was, he could not treat her quite as he would an Arion girl.
Even as he was being careful to hold himself back with Mai, Velder knew that there was one girl in the village with whom he would not have to be so gentle.
As pleasurable as it was to be with Mai, he still could not shake the thought that it would be more --- much more --- pleasurable with her. He had spent every night with her --- in his dreams.
But he would only have her in his dreams. If he were ever to get intimate with her in reality, he would hope that Leysen would be gentle --- very gentle --- with him.
Even in the dark, Leysen could clearly see the wooden wall in front of her as she blinked her eyes back to normal vision. But that was better than what she had been seeing on the other side with her tachyon vision.
Velder really seemed to be enjoying himself. Mai didn't look too unhappy, either.
Was that what Tillek wanted to do with a female himself?
Was that what Tillek wanted to do with her?
Hearing the soft even breathing behind her back told her that Tillek had fallen asleep, she rolled over and looked at him. He was on his side, facing away from her. The blanket had slid down, exposing most of his muscular body.
Did Tillek want to be with a female? A female who would cater to his desires, his lusts? A female like Mai?
Did he wish that he didn't have to be with her? Did he want a room of his own, so that he didn't have to stay with somebody whom he considered to be a young girl needing his protection?
As if she needed his protection! A Prime, needing to be protected by a Beta?
Still, he probably would rather have a room to himself, almost as much as she did. It was something that she would have to bring up tomorrow. Again.
Propping herself up on an elbow, she studied his sleeping body. What was it really like, to be with a man? Not just the proximity that she shared with Tillek, but the intimacy that Mai and Velder were sharing in the next room.
A part of her wanted to wake up Tillek and find out. But no, that would never work, there was too much difference in their relative strengths. It would be too easy for her to accidentally hurt him, or worse.
She fingered the gold chain at her throat. Maybe if she wore the other one?
She remembered putting on both chains preparatory to the cuddling session with the Beta midshipman aboard the Empress Jiltan'th. The session that never came about due to the explosion of the fusion drives. The session that was responsible for her presence here in her current predicament.
Not that she could complain too much about it. If she hadn't been on the lifeboat at the time, she would have died along with everybody else aboard the Jiltan'th.
Besides, she didn't even like Tillek, and she was sure that the feeling was mutual. He only tolerated her because he had no choice in the matter. He certainly hadn't tried to touch her in any inappropriate manner despite the cramped sleeping arrangements.
She again thought back to the lifeboat. She remembered making out with Velder, when she had mistaken him for her young midshipman. She had enjoyed being in his arms then, and Mai certainly seemed to be enjoying it now. What would it be like to be in his arms again?
Or what about Chaddik? He had been looking at her again this evening, as she made the rounds with her kifra pitcher.
As she continued to study the man next to her, he stirred in his sleep, pulling the blanket back up over himself. She wished that she could fall asleep as easily. What was she doing here? Why did she have to be here?
She kept seeing her father's face every time that she closed her eyes.
Her father had to be looking for her. Any day now, an Arion ship should be appearing in the skies over Talis to take her away from this miserable place.
Back home to Tiburon.
Back where she wasn't treated as some kind of servant, not much better than mere property. She had told herself that she was going to do whatever she had to do in order to be able to live here. But did she really have to live here? Couldn't she go home?
Back home to Tiburon.
Tiburon, where her father would be waiting for her.
And there would be other people waiting for her.
Her father's face blurred, to be replaced by another face. Mellek would be waiting for her as well.
As it turned out, Leysen did receive her own room, though not quite in the way that she had expected to. Having been accepted into the village, they were given an empty house, vacant since the previous occupant had died earlier in the winter. A team of females had been cleaning it up, preparing it for the new occupants.
It was a relatively large house --- as these things went --- with a separate room for each of the two men.
"Why can't I have one of the rooms?" Leysen asked. "There's a spare room for me."
"Only mated females live with the men," Tillek said. "And the children. Which do you want to be, girl?"
"I don't want to live with the other females. I'm moving with you two," she said, planting her feet and putting her hands on her hips. "You can try to throw me out if you want to."
Tillek spread his arms out to his sides. "Don't try my patience, girl."
She smiled sweetly at him. "Or maybe I should challenge you to the Warrior's Duel?"
"Girl, you can't..." Tillek jumped back, almost as if he had been struck physically. His mouth opened and closed but no more sounds came out. As Leysen knew, females did not engage in the Warrior's Duel, strictly a male custom. But then, the Talisi customs had never been intended to accommodate Arion Primes. Her strength and speed would make her sword unbeatable. He knew as well as she did that she could easily defeat a hundred warriors in the Duel --- at the same time --- and without working up a sweat. Not that she would even need a sword for that.
It was Velder who somewhat unexpectedly came to her defense. "It might be better if the three of us stayed together." Tillek shot him a glare, even as Leysen smiled at him. "We do have the room. And this way, it'll be easier to keep her out of trouble."
Her? Get in trouble? She was about to give that statement the reply that it deserved, when she saw Velder's smile, telling her that the statement was for Tillek's benefit more than for her hers. She closed her mouth without saying a word.
"And it would keep her away from Bander," Velder added.
Since he was outnumbered --- or perhaps because of his understandable reluctance to face Leysen in a Warrior's Duel --- Tillek gave in gracefully. At least as gracefully as he ever gave in. "You're going to be responsible for the cleaning then, girl. We can't have another female coming in if you're going to be with us."
Leysen didn't have to think about that at all. In addition to working in the kitchen, she'd already had to help out with the cleaning. She'd done much of the cleaning for her father, anyway. And if wasn't as if the Talisi lived in a hermetically clean environment. "It's a deal," she said. "Anything's better than living with the other females."
If nothing else, having their own house provided them with a place to keep their things --- what little they had been able to salvage from the lifeboat --- without raising too many questions. It also allowed them some privacy, where they could converse in Arion.
That night, Leysen wasn't so sure of her decision. She could close her eyes and shut out the sight of Tillek and Velder in their rooms with their females. But it wasn't as easy to close her ears in order to shut out the sounds.
She knew that she couldn't blame them. They were men, after all. And they --- and the two females --- probably weren't deliberately making so much noise. They probably didn't know just how sharp her hearing was. The females certainly didn't know, and the men --- well, they were just men.
It was enough to make her want to run outside screaming --- almost. She knew that there was more of the same going on all over the village, not just in this house.
She resisted the urge to go to them and throw all four of them out. Instead, she rolled over, burying her head in her pillow.
It actually wasn't that bad, once she got the pillow over her head. Still, it was probably a good thing that she didn't need too much sleep. It was quite obvious that the men weren't going to get too much sleep tonight.
The beeping of the comm was insistent enough to finally intrude into Senior Lieutenant Tarrin Krilti's consciousness. Gently putting an arm around the man as he suckled at her breast, she rolled over onto her side and activated the comm, switching on only the audio. "What is it?"
"Incoming message, Lieutenant," the duty tech's voice came from the speaker. If he was surprised not to see her on his screen, he didn't show it. But then, he had a fair idea of what he had just interrupted.
What was he bothering her with a routine incoming message for? He'd been with her long enough to know the drill --- all of her Betas had. She momentarily thought about telling him where to put the incoming message, but immediately dismissed that thought as being unprofessional. "Relay it through, Kelnik. That's what we're here for."
"It's directed to us, Lieutenant."
That got her interest. She propped herself up on her elbow. She then adjusted the man's position to put a nipple back into his mouth. "What does it say?"
"Personal, Lieutenant. Addressed to you."
That really got her interest. The only person who would send her a personal message would be her husband. But why? It wasn't her birthday or any other special occasion. And he'd only sent her one messages in the past, saying that he'd been reassigned. Where, he couldn't say due to security reasons. So why now?
"Send it through to my console, Kelnik."
"Right away, Lieutenant." There was a click as he signed off.
Adjusting her grip to tuck man under her left arm while keeping his face at her breast, she got up off of her bunk and moved over to her console. Pressing a couple of buttons with her right hand, she quickly brought the message up on her console.
The message wasn't from her husband at all. It was from the adjutant's office back at Tiburon. What could Sector Command want with her?
A thought crossed her mind. Could they have found out about her relationship with the Betas on her team?
Strictly speaking, it wasn't against regulations --- the Arion military knew better than to try to control the sexuality of its personnel, especially the Primes. However, they did frown upon Primes taking advantage of the Betas under their command.
If they really didn't like it, they shouldn't have assigned her as the sole Prime on the team. And then compounded it by making the rest of the team all male, leaving her as the only female on the team.
But how could they have found out? She didn't think that any of her men would have reported it --- they all seemed to be happy with the arrangement --- and she certainly hadn't told anyone.
If this was an official reprimand, there was nothing that she could do except to accept it. She pressed a couple of keys and brought up the text, entering her personal code to decrypt it.
The message didn't start out as if it was a reprimand. Scanning past the usual boilerplate she quickly got to the meat of the message.
This was worse than any mere reprimand could ever be. She sat and stared at the screen, not really seeing the words, not wanting to believe them.
Dimly she became aware of someone screaming, and of a light tapping against her stomach and chest. Realizing that the screams weren't coming from her mouth, she looked around her cabin before locating the source.
She opened her left arm. The man slumped to the floor. The screaming stopped, replaced by a gasping sound as he struggled to fill his lungs with air.
It had been a while since she had hurt one of her men --- not that she had ever caused any of them any permanent injury. She temporarily forgot about the pain in her heart. Reaching down and grabbing him under one arm, she pulled him back up to her. He hadn't forgotten about his pain, it was obvious in his face. So was the fear, the fear that she would do even more to him than she already had.
He tried to pull himself out from her grasp. "Sorry, Rentik," she said, lifting him up higher as she used her tachyon vision to peer inside him. "Nothing's broken," she announced, setting him down and releasing him, "though one rib might be cracked. I'm sorry." She forced herself to at least try to smile with her apology.
Rentik let out a sigh of relief as she released him and backed away from her and sat down on he bunk. It could have been worse --- much worse --- and he knew it. It was a risk that he --- and the other men on the team --- took every night. The risk was worth it --- usually.
"What... what was it, Tarrin?" he asked.
Her face immediately hardened. "Leave me alone!" she snapped at him.
"Tarrin? Lieutenant?"
"I said leave me alone!" The tone of her voice struck him with almost the force of a physical blow.
"Yes, Lieutenant." He stood up and reached down to pick up his clothes from the floor. Without bothering to put them on, he walked to the door.
He had just gotten the door opened when he felt himself being lifted up off of his feet. He tried to turn around, but the arm around his waist was too tight. "Lieute..." he managed to gasp out before her other arm came around him, forcing the air out of his lungs.
"Stay with me," he heard in his ear, as he was laid down on the bunk. She then laid herself down --- not on top of him but next to him --- and slid an arm under him, gently pulling him to her. At least as gentle as any Prime could be with a Beta. "Stay with me," she repeated, pulling him closer. But it was just a cuddle, nothing overtly sexual.
"What... what was the message, Tarrin?" he asked.
"Just hold me," was all the answer that he received.
He put his arms around her as she leaned into him and held her body against his.
"Hold me," she repeated. "Harder."
Knowing that he couldn't hurt her with his Beta strength even if he tried, he held her as tightly as he could. She adjusted his position until his cheek was resting against one of her breasts.
Gradually he became aware of the rhythmic heaving of her chest. He'd been atop her bucking body many times, but this was different, much softer.
He also became aware of the sound of her breathing, but it too was different from anything else that he had ever heard from her.
Raising his head, he saw that she was crying.
A Prime, crying?
That was something that he'd never seen before. He wasn't sure of what to do. With a Beta woman, he'd find out what it was and try to comfort her. But this was no Beta woman, but a Prime. And on top of that, she was his commanding officer.
Deciding that the best thing to do would be to leave her alone, he tried to push himself off of her. Even though she was merely resting her arm across his back, it was tighter than any safety harness that he'd worn.
Unable to push himself away from her, he tried to slide out from under her arm. He'd almost gotten himself out when she stirred, pulling him back to her breast. "Stay, Rentik. I need you."
"What is it, Tarrin? What's wrong?" he asked again.
"It's... it's..." She broke off as her tears overwhelmed her again.
He reached out and pulled a lock of her hair back from her eyes. "It's okay, Tarrin. I'm here for you. We're all here for you." He didn't quite want to reach for her eyes to wipe away her tears --- she might misunderstand that as a threatening gesture, and her arm around his back was already tight enough.
Almost as if she was reading his thoughts, she removed her arm from around him wiped away her tears. "It's... it's..." she stammered out again sounding hoarse, not her usual melodic voice.
He brushed aside a lock of hair on the other side of her face.
"I... I really shouldn't be doing this." She laid her hand on top of his, holding it against her cheek.
"What is it?" he asked again.
"It's my husband."
"Your... your husband? He... he's coming here to see you?" If a Prime caught him messing around with his wife, he was dead. He tried to draw his hand back from her cheek. Her grip --- though not painful --- was too strong for him to draw out of.
"No, he's not coming to see me." Her voice broke. "He... he's never coming to see me. He... he's dead."
"Dead?" This was so unexpected that he couldn't find any other words. "I... I..."
"Just hold me." She put her other arm around him and pulled him even closer, until his wince made her relax her embrace slightly.
Having little choice in the matter, he clung tightly to her. Her chest continued to rise and fall with her sobs.
Gradually, her sobbing subsided. Pulling his head away from her chest, he saw that she had apparently cried herself to sleep. He brushed a stray lock of her hair from her face before trying to push himself away from her.
Even asleep, her arm was too tight. Abandoning the effort, he laid his head back down on her breast.
Soon he joined her in sleep.