Next
Nor did she hear the distinctive three-legged gait of the newcomer as he entered the smithy.
"Ley, what are you doing here? I thought you were helping Velder with..." His voice trailed off as he saw the bent steel rod in her hands.
Too late, she tried to hide the rod behind her back as she looked up into Chaddik's face.
Walking around the worktable, she went up to him, she put her other arm around his neck and pulled his face down to hers. Still leaning on his cane, he put his free arm around her waist to prolong the kiss.
She finally broke off the kiss. "How's your leg feeling?"
He didn't answer her question. "What... what were you doing with that?" he stammered out instead.
"Doing with what?" She felt behind her back for the bench and tried to lay the rod down upon it.
Showing surprising agility for a man on a cane, he circled around her and picked up the bent rod with his free hand. "You... you were working that with your hands." It wasn't a question but rather a statement. He looked her in the eyes, before dropping his gaze to the table and the first rod, along with the other odds and ends that she had been working on. Pieces that could not have been made with any of the techniques that he had taught her. She knew that there was no way that she could explain how she had done them. No way other than for the truth.
For some time now she had suspected that she would eventually have to reveal more of her Prime capabilities to him. She just hadn't thought that it would have to be so soon. And not like this. With a sigh, she took the worked piece of steel from him and laid it down on the table. She then pulled out a bench and helped him ease down onto it.
She walked around the table. With a sigh, she sat down across from him. "I knew I was going to have to tell you this sometime." She rubbed the bridge of her nose with her finger as she thought of the right way to tell him. "You know I'm not like the other females."
"You're the only female allowed to work with weapons. And you're stronger than I am. But what you were just doing..." he shook his head as his words trailed off.
"I'm a lot stronger." She picked up one of her failed attempts from the scrap pile, a steel rod nearly two inches in diameter. Grasping it near the ends, she began pushing in.
Muscles bulged on her arms as the rod began to bend upward, the hardest substance that she and Chaddik had been able to make proving to be no match for the muscles of the young Prime. Her hands were almost touching when the rod finally snapped from the strain. She laid the two pieces on the table between them.
He reached out and picked up one of the pieces, looking at the broken end. Gripping it by the ends, he tried to duplicate her feat. His arms were bigger than hers to start with, and they bulged even more than hers had as he strained at it, yet the rod remained perfectly straight, his Talisi muscles having nowhere near the strength that her Arion Prime muscles had.
Without a word, she picked up the other half. Gripping it by the ends, she quickly brought her hands together, the rod almost bending into a loop before it also snapped.
"How...?"
"I'm stronger than you are." She set down the broken quarters.
"I know that, but..."
She smiled at him. "A lot stronger."
"And the others? Tillek and Velder?"
Her smile widened. "No, just me. They're stronger than you are, but I'm stronger than them."
"But... but how?"
How was she going to explain this? She couldn't explain it in Arion, let alone in Talisi. Even the scientists back home weren't unified on a good explanation regarding the genetic differences between Primes and Betas. How could she explain it to an apprentice blacksmith in a culture that had only the faintest glimmering of genetic sciences?
She picked up the piece that Chaddik had tried to bend. Instead of bending it, this time she twisted her wrists in opposite directions. The rod tore apart as if it was no more than a twig in the hands of a warrior.
"That's why...?"
"I don't come to your bed?" It hadn't been from lack of effort on his part, though he hadn't tried very hard since his injury. She looked down at the two twisted pieces of steel in her hands. Squeezing the fingers of her right hand, she crushed the steel. "If I'm not careful, I could easily kill you. I don't want to take the risk." Dropping the pieces and leaning across the table, she kissed him.
He put his arms around her and prolonged the kiss. When she showed no signs of breaking off, his hands began working their way inside her shirt.
He snatched his hands back at the sound of footsteps.
A voice rang out from the front of the smithy. "Ley! Do you have those fittings?"
She immediately straightened up, running her hands over her shirt to smooth it out. She managed to avoid blushing as she turned to see Velder entering. She quickly picked up the two pieces, one finished and the other not. "I'm still working on them." She handed over the finished one. "This the way it's supposed to be?"
He turned it over in his hands. He looked up at her with a smile. "Looks good. How about the other one?" He was starting to reach for the other one when he saw the other occupant. His smile immediately disappeared. "Oh, I see I'm interrupting something." Putting the piece down on the table, he turned on his heels and walked out.
"Velder, wait!" she called after him. It was too late, he was gone.
She had wanted to ask him about the next piece. "Oh well, I can ask him later," she mumbled under her breath. Turning around, she faced a more immediate concern.
Putting her hands around his waist, she lifted Chaddik up from the bench and set him down on the table, leaning her head forward to kiss him again.
She hadn't noticed that he had picked up the piece that she had just crushed and was turning it over in his hands as he looked at it.
There was something different about his kiss --- something missing. His hands stayed on her sides, instead of working their way inside her shirt as they usually did. In fact, it was almost as if he was trying to push her away from him instead of pulling her closer. Puzzled, she broke off the kiss and stepped back. "What's wrong?" she asked.
He scrambled to his feet, dropping the mangled piece of steel on the table. Staggering, he reached for the table, putting a hand on it for support.
She stepped closer, reaching for him. "No, Ley!" He slapped at her hand with his free hand. It didn't hurt her at all --- in fact it probably hurt him more --- but she immediately snatched her hand back. After all, a slap didn't have to physically hurt in order to hurt.
And this one did hurt. It hurt a lot.
She stepped back. He got up to his feet, supporting himself with one hand on his cane and the other on the table.
"Chaddik..." There was a pleading tone in her voice, which had no effect on him.
Leaving the smithy, Velder walked back to where he was working on his glider. He picked up two wooden pieces and looked at them. Yes, they should work. He had originally intended to use a different wood, but following Forden's advice he had chosen something different, a light but strong wood that could be fashioned into thin pieces.
With a sigh he put them back down. The fitting of the ailerons would have to wait for another day. Leysen obviously had better things to be doing with her time than making the metal fittings for him.
Walking around to the tail, he checked the movement of what was going to have to pass for the rudder. It wasn't as smooth as he would have wanted but it was smooth enough, given the materials that he had to work with.
Of course he would have preferred hydraulic actuators. And electronic controls. Not to mention a jet engine, or at least a good piston one driving a good propeller.
Despite the confident exterior that he was careful to present to the others, he had never designed an aircraft like this let alone actually built one. Not without computer designs and simulations, not without advanced components.
What he wouldn't give to have some of those things now. He'd done the calculations as well as he could, taking into account the heavier gravity, the thinner atmosphere, and the heavier components. Still, there was no way that he could guarantee that it would fly. Not without actually trying it. Oh, to be able to run some computer simulations...
He shook his head. While he was wishing, why not wish for a plasma hyperspace engine? Something that could get him --- and the others --- off of here. Away from this primitive planet and back to civilization.
He shook his head again and sighed. No, they were stuck here on Talis. But it was better than the alternative, he reflected. They could have died along with everyone else aboard the ill-fated Empress Jiltan'th. Or any of a million things could have happened while they were aboard the damaged lifeboat. Why, he'd barely gotten the lifeboat down in one piece.
Thinking about the lifeboat that had gotten them here made him think about the girl --- no, he corrected himself, the young woman --- who had gotten them out after the crash.
Thinking about Leysen made him remember his introduction to her. A less than formal introduction, by any standard.
On entering the lifeboat he'd been surprised to see a girl already aboard. That surprise had been nothing compared to what she had started to do to him. Even with the gold chains encircling her throat, he'd been helpless in the arms of the young Prime girl. He had thought that she might kill him, it had taken all of the strength that he and Tillek had just to pry him loose from her embrace.
Neither he nor Tillek had ever expected to be responsible for taking care of a young Prime, especially on such a wilderness planet as Talis. They certainly had never been trained for anything like that.
Though truth be told, he had to admit that she had taken care of them more than the other way around. If not for her, they probably would not have survived the trek through the mountains. They certainly would not have survived their encounter with the santha.
He also had to admit that she had matured quite a bit since they had landed. Her willingness to work in the kitchen had surprised him, Primes normally did not do such work. And she certainly seemed to be taking her work in the smithy seriously, enough to have won Chaddik's support over any of the other men in the village.
Or was Chaddik's support based strictly on her work? Leysen was really maturing. She wasn't a young girl any more, but a young woman. He couldn't blame Chaddik for showing so much interest in her --- Chaddik certainly wasn't the only one. But did Chaddik know what she truly was?
He hadn't seen any gold around her throat, but it wouldn't be too hard to hide it under the Talisi clothing. Even with two gold chains she was stronger than were the two Betas combined, what might she do to a lone Talisi?
She could crush steel with her bare hands. What might she do to a man --- a Beta or Talisi --- who was in her arms? He suppressed a shudder as he remembered what she had almost done to Tillek and himself, as she fed them after killing the santha. That might have been a more dangerous situation than the santha itself had been.
And, while Tillek wouldn't admit it, Velder was certain that Leysen should have been with them on the recent santha hunt. Whether the Talisi knew it or not, she was the best warrior in the village. Certainly nobody else could claim to having killed a santha with his or her bare hands. A resource like that needed to be used, not hidden away in the kitchen or the smithy.
If such a situation arose again, he resolved to insist that she accompany them. As much as he admired and respected his friend, if Tillek didn't like it, too bad for him. Tillek could argue with the Prime, Velder wasn't going to.
That would be one way for her to prove her worth as a warrior. Not that it would be a very long test, for no Beta could possibly hope to stand up to a Prime in a fight.
Hopefully, such an occasion would never arise.
Since Leysen was officially working in the smithy, she no longer had to help serve the meals with the other females. She normally sat with Chaddik during the evening meal, discussing their work.
Mai noticed that Ley wasn't sitting with Chaddik tonight as she usually did. Not that she had any designs on the young apprentice herself --- she didn't --- but she had thought that Ley and Chaddik had something going on. Any female should be flattered to be receiving the attentions of the young warrior. She didn't know just how far the young warrior had gotten with the young female.
When she had first arrived with Tillek and Velder, she had thought that Ley was with one --- or both --- of them. She had since learned that it wasn't so.
At first she'd thought that one or the other of the warriors had hurt her in some way. The three of them certainly didn't act that way, however. They weren't siblings, and neither of the warriors appeared old enough to have sired her. Yet neither of them ever took Ley to his bed.
Well, that was Ley's loss, she didn't know what she was missing. Mai had been with both Tillek and Velder --- those warriors were superb. They really knew how to wield their 'swords'.
Tonight Velder saw Leysen sitting by herself. She kept looking in Chaddik's direction, but he didn't return her glances.
Chaddik was sitting with the old smith, carrying on an animated conversation in low voices. Though he couldn't hear their words, it appeared as if they were discussing the work of the smithy.
But if they were discussing something related to the work in the smithy, why wasn't Leysen involved? Had they had an argument of some kind, a falling out? Or was it some kind of act, trying to cover up what he had interrupted in the smithy earlier in the day?
There was a whisper in his ear. "What about tonight?"
He turned his head to see a female leaning over his shoulder under the guise of pouring more kifra into his cup.
"Tonight?" she repeated, again for his ears only.
"No, Mai." He laid his hand on her arm. "Not tonight. Maybe tomorrow."
"You said that yesterday." She pulled her arm out from under his hand. She was gone before he could stop her. She did not come by again that night, instead another female keeping his cup --- as well as those of the warriors at his table --- full of kifra.
He saw Mai talking with another warrior, one who apparently had claimed her for that night. Finishing the meal, he walked alone back to the house that he shared with Tillek and Leysen.
He'd seen Tillek calling a female to his bed. Was Leysen going to Chaddik's bed tonight? Was he going to be the only one to spend the night alone?
Chaddik had been doing most of the work in the smithy for several seasons now, recently aided by Ley. Still, old Telden was the village smith --- at least in name --- though he seldom came to the smithy now. Chaddik still valued the old man's expertise. And not just in matters pertaining to the smithy, Telden was almost a father to him.
Still, he couldn't quite bring himself to tell Telden about what he had seen Ley do earlier that day in the smithy, bending steel rods in her bare hands.
He knew that the old man genuinely liked the young female. Not in that particular way --- for all that she was a very beautiful and desirable female --- but more as a daughter. Or perhaps as the mate of a son.
Ley was a very unusual female. No other female had ever worked in the smithy, let alone in the making of weapons. But there was more to her than that. Much more.
He'd known for some time that she was stronger than she looked to be. He'd known that from when she had helped him carry the wood and charcoal for the forge, as well as the ore itself. She'd carried just as much as he had.
He now knew that she could have carried more, far more.
He glanced over at the young female sitting by herself. What else was there about her that she hadn't told him?
Tillek was surprised to see Leysen sitting by herself tonight. Not that he was displeased --- she had been seeing too much of Chaddik, in his opinion. A Prime had no business gettting mixed up with a Talisi. Especially when the Prime was a female, and one as young as she was.
Still, he could feel sorry for her --- almost. She was the only Prime on the entire planet, after all. He and Velder could make do with the Talisi females, their strength levels weren't all that different. But a Prime and a Talisi...
He shook his head, trying to banish the image from his mind.
Another image came in to his mind, that of the girl working in the smithy with Chaddik. In a way, she was contributing more to the Talisi than he and Velder were.
While the two Betas were stronger and quicker, and excelled in the drills and mock duels, they had yet to prove themselves in actual combat against other Talisi. Leysen's advances in metalworking were already bearing fruit.
It was ridiculous, in a way. The two Betas were making a place for themselves using their physical prowess, while the Prime was using her knowledge and technical skill. It was completely reversed from the way that things worked in the Arion Empire.
Maybe he should have let her come along on the santha hunt. Female or not, young as she was, she still was an Arion Prime. She may or may not have kept Chaddik from getting injured, but she undoubtedly would have been a valuable asset on the hunt.
If she'd even want to come, after the last one.
Telden was more than satisfied with the work that Chaddik had been doing in the smithy. The young warrior couldn't have done better if he'd been his own son.
And the female! The things that they had learned from Ley. Where had she learned them?
How could something as soft as charcoal actually make iron harder, making what she called steel? Just where had she learned that?
It couldn't have been anywhere in Turea. If it had, he surely would have heard about it from one of the other smiths. Even with all of the bickering between the various villages, communication was maintained and a discovery like this would have been shared. In fact he had been thinking about sending Chaddik to some of the neighboring villages to teach them, before he had gotten hurt.
Besides, she really wasn't a Turean, was she? She had gotten better at it in her time here but her speech still had that odd lilt to it, even more pronounced than was that of her male companions.
Could they have come from Porea? But Porea was to the south --- they claimed to have come from the north, but there were no more villages to the north of Panture. Only Ranture, before the Poreans had attacked and destroyed it shortly before Ley and the others arrived.
He was convinced that the three of them hadn't been responsible for what had happened to Ranture. Three people --- one of them not even a warrior --- couldn't possibly have destroyed an entire village.
Or could they? What else did they know, besides the making of steel?
Undressing, Leysen climbed into her bed. Why had Chaddik tried to push her away? It wasn't as if he hadn't known that she was stronger than was any Talisi, male or female. He'd known that since before he had gotten hurt. He'd never objected to her use of her strength before, in fact he'd seemed to enjoy seeing --- and experiencing --- it.
But in the past she'd only shown him no more than a Beta was capable of doing. A Beta certainly couldn't work steel in the way that he'd seen her doing it.
Was that the reason? Was she too strong?
There wasn't any such thing as being too strong, was there?
The Talisi respected strength. The warriors were always having contests of strength, wrestling and the like. So what was wrong with her being so strong?
Was it because she was a female? The Talisi females weren't expected to be strong.
Could Chaddik consider her strength to be a threat to his masculinity, as did some male Primes? But he had supported her before the Council, allowing her to work in the smithy. It wasn't her fault that she had been born an Arion Prime, was it? Was it her fault for having been born female? Of course not.
And if she wasn't a female, they never would have gotten into that kind of relationship in the first place. A relationship that they'd both enjoyed, up until now.
Maybe if she wore her gold chains? But even with both of them, she would still be quite a bit stronger than he was. She remembered what she had done --- and what she might have done --- to Velder on the lifeboat aboard the Empress Jiltan'th. Even with a third chain --- which she didn't have --- she probably would still be stronger than any Talisi. She had almost completely lost control wearing two chains, what would happen to her with three?
Maybe she would have to have one of the Betas? No, that would never work. She couldn't imagine Tillek agreeing to anything like that. Velder seemed to have forgiven her assault aboard the lifeboat, and he was friendly enough when they were working on his glider, but that was it. They were just friends. She had hoped that there was more between her and Chaddik.
As her mind worked on those thoughts, her hands worked their way to her breasts, lightly stroking and caressing them, not much harder than Chaddik used to do. Didn't he like doing that to her?
She gradually increased the pressure, until she was applying more force to her soft mounds than she had to bend and break those steel rods.
One hand moved down her stomach, her fingers tangling in her bush before plunging into her damp slit, imagining that it was Chaddik --- though not his hand --- that was entering her. Wasn't that where he wanted to go?
There were other warriors in Panture --- like Bander --- who wanted to go there. But the only one whom she wanted was Chaddik. She certainly wasn't about to let Bander touch her, especially there.
Oh, why had she shown Chaddik so much of her true strength? Tillek and Velder had been right, this was no place for a Prime. Not for a female Prime, at any rate.
She continued to stroke herself, her fingers rubbing and pinching her clit, imagining that it was a man doing it to her.
When Chaddik came to the smithy, he held himself aloof, only speaking to her when necessary. After the first couple of times when he tried to dodge away from her kisses, she had quit trying. In return, she started working more and more on the stuff for Velder.
At least when Chaddik was with her. Velder was just as distant and aloof as Chaddik was, only dropping by the smithy to ask for his parts. She started putting him off by telling him that she had lots of other work to do.
It wasn't a complete lie, since her blades were much in demand. Especially among the other females, the steel knives were much better at cutting meat than were the old iron ones. Of course Chaddik and the other warriors weren't too interested in making the females' work in the kitchen easier. But then, it was only a short step from cutting up a hurja carcass to chopping off the sword arm of an opponent.
Of course she didn't have the ability to create anything resembling the layer swords with the monomolecular edges that the Kintzi were so fond of. Nor did she know how to even begin to make Vendorian steel. Still, her steel blades were significantly better than were anything that the Talisi had been able to make on their own.
It didn't look as if it wasn't going to rain today, not that it would have bothered her all that much. As much as she enjoyed working in the smithy --- at least as long as Chaddik and Velder weren't making things difficult for her --- Leysen felt that she needed to do something else. Chaddik was all but avoiding her now. And Velder had been a little abrupt with her the past few days, only talking with her when he needed her to fabricate another part for him.
She decided that what she needed was a vacation of sorts, though the Talisi had no such concept. More like a holiday.
At the previous evening meal, she had overheard some of the women talking about how nice it would be to have more fresh fruit. Not having modern methods of preserving food, the Talisi made a jelly out of it that would keep through the winter. They could always use more preserves though, just in case the spring thaw came late.
It was late in the season. The trees near the village had all been picked clean of fruit. At the higher elevations though, there still would be some fruit on the trees, assuming the birds and animals hadn't gotten them all. Even though she no longer worked in the kitchen, nobody questioned her presence there. Taking a basket from the kitchen without telling anybody where she was going, she went out to see whether she could find some fruit. The sun had yet to come up, but the predawn darkness didn't hamper her at all.
She wouldn't have minded having Chaddik to keep her company but he would only slow her down, even if she was to carry him, and the jostling would only hurt his leg. And from the way that he had been behaving the last few days, he probably wouldn't have come with her anyway, even if he had been in any condition to do so.
Naturally Velder was going to be working on his glider today. Tillek was busy on some project of his own. That left her alone.
Once she was out of the village, she tucked the basket under her arm and began jogging. While it was an easy jog for her, not even the fleetest of the Talisi could have hoped to match her pace. Velder still hadn't shown her the glider. She briefly thought about going that way and taking a look. However she discarded the notion. If he wanted to keep it a secret, then let him. She took a trail that branched to the right.
Her pace barely slackened as the trail turned up the slope and climbed steadily higher. If anything, she sped up. Soon she was well beyond where she had come to gather fruit with the other females earlier in the season, before she had started working in the smithy.
Before long, she came to some trees that still bore fruit. She began picking, humming an Arion song under her breath.
The wind shifted, bringing her the sound of drums.
General Estrad Strahzi returned to his quarters and closed the door behind him. A single glance took in the spartan furnishings.
It barely looked as if anybody lived here. His wife had been killed before he had been promoted. He'd left most of her things behind when he had been transferred to this post. His daughter had added a few touches here and there, but most of her things were in her rooms.
His daughter! Leysen had been so full of life, just like her mother had been.
How alike they were. Had been. And yet how different.
His wife would always stroke her chin when she was deep in thought, while his daughter would rub the bridge of her nose. He had loved --- still loved --- those little unconscious gestures.
The only two women he had ever really, really cared for in his life.
And now, they were both gone.
He looked at the closed door on the far wall, half expecting Leysen to come through it to tell him about the latest goings-on at school.
He shook his head, dismissing that thought. No, Leysen would never come through that door again. It had been over a year since the loss of the Empress Jiltan'th, with all hands.
Or she might have been with him at the reception. She'd often served as his hostess at such functions, though this one had been a civilian affair, hosted by the Planetary Governor and his wife. The visiting dignitaries had included a nephew of the Emperor.
He'd left the reception as soon as protocol allowed, not wishing to endure any more of the civilian inanities than he absolutely had to.
And some the junior officers were almost as bad as were the civilians. He supposed that he should be flattered, being considered among the most eligible bachelors on Tiburon even though he was a widower.
Sometimes he would go ahead and let one of them come to his bed. Or accompany her to her bed. Tonight had not been one of those times. Those women were all the same --- they thought that they could advance their own careers by bedding a senior officer.
If for no other reason, he preferred the transients. As the headquarters for the entire sector, there were always personnel moving through Tiburon on their way from one station to another. Many of them were simply interested in getting a little sexual gratification before moving on, without any potential entanglements.
There had been a few such women tonight.
Then there had been the women among the imperial entourage. Some of them had made it quite clear that they were available. At least for the right man.
Perhaps he should have taken advantage of one of them. He could have pretended to be interested in the connections at Court that they were dangling, even though he knew that they would forget about him as soon as they left Tiburon. They had as much interest in entanglements as did he.
With a sigh and another shake of his head, he went through another door into his bedroom. Instead of turning on the lights, he simply stood just inside the door and let his eyes adjust to the gloom.
There were two dim sources of light on the table. Walking across the room, he looked down at the two holograms.
His wife's smiling face looked out at him from one of them, a little baby girl in her arms. Even after all these years, he could still hear her voice in his mind.
A half dozen smiling faces looked out from the other hologram. That was the last image that he had of Leysen, as she and her friends were getting ready to depart on their class field trip aboard the passenger liner Empress Jiltan'th on its final trip.
There was no way that he could have known that he would never see her again. She and her friends had been so happy then, so full of life.
He clenched his right hand. There was a loud BANG as he drove his fist into the palm of his left hand. Though not particularly hard --- certainly not hard enough to hurt himself --- the blow would easily have smashed through six inches of ordinary steel.
What a complete waste! Dozens of young Primes --- as well as hundreds of Betas --- lost with the ship. And it wasn't even a warship, but a civilian passenger liner, of all things.
As a soldier, he could accept --- almost --- the loss of lives aboard a warship engaged in combat. But a passenger liner carrying school children on a field trip through a safe sector of space...
It almost would have been better if they had been caught in the fighting on some planet. At least then some of them might survive. And if not, then they would at least have a chance to meet a warrior's death.
That turned his thoughts from his daughter back to his wife. At least she had met a warrior's death, in battle against a Velorian Planetary Protector.