There was a stir, accompanied by a soft rustle of movement.
Tillek raised his head at the sound. There was no mistaking it, Mai was moving. He reached for her hand and took it in his. "She's coming to," he called to Leysen, who had wrapped a blanket around herself as she sat in a chair in order to get some rest while awaiting Velder.
Mai's fingers sought his. He gasped as it closed about his in a tight grip; never during their frequent lovemaking had she held him this tightly. Wincing from the pain, he tried to extricate himself but to no avail.
Her arm started to move across her body, drawing his arm with it. He pulled against it, without any apparent effect on the movement. If anything, her arm moved faster.
Her arm thrashed. He felt himself being lifted off his feet. For one long moment he was suspended upside down over Mai's bed. She still appeared to be unconscious, even as her slender arm continued to support his entire weight. Then her arm was moving again. He felt rather than saw himself moving toward the wall. Instinctively, he closed his eyes, bracing himself for the impact.
His body stopped moving. But it wasn't the wall that had stopped him, for he had felt no impact. He opened his eyes to find Leysen on her feet, holding on to him, a hand on the harness around his waist. Her other hand was on Mai's arm.
Even as he watched, Leysen released her hold on him and took hold of Mai's wrist. Then the hand moved up to Mai's hand, trying to loosen the grip on his.
He could feel the grip on his hand loosening as Leysen pried open Mai's fingers. Then his hand was free and he was being turned right side up.
"Are you okay?" Leysen asked, backing away from the bed and setting him down on the floor.
He wasn't listening to her, instead staring at the still unconscious female thrashing about on the bed. "What's wrong with her?" He took a step toward the bed.
Leysen grabbed him around his waist and pulled him aside just as Mai flung her arm out again, this time in a wide sweeping motion. The arm passed through where he had just been and the back of the wrist struck against the edge of the bed frame with a loud CRACK.
He gasped and jumped back on his own as the wooden plank split nearly in two and the entire bed shook.
He was afraid that the bed was going to collapse completely, especially when Leysen climbed up, putting a knee on the thin mattress as she tried to trap both of Mai's thrashing arms.
She had to climb completely up on the bed and straddle Mai before she succeeded in seizing both of Mai's arms. Even though she was still unconscious, Mai continued to thrash about, her bucking body threatening to toss Leysen from the bed.
Anybody less than an Arion Prime probably would have been tossed from the bed. As it was, it was only with some difficulty that Leysen finally managed to pin both of Mai's arms to the bed. Bringing them together, Leysen managed to grasp both of Mai's wrists in her left hand.
With her right hand thus freed, Leysen slapped Mai's face. "Mai! Wake up!"
"Stop! What are you doing, girl?" Tillek stepped forward and took hold of Leysen's wrist as she drew her arm back for another slap.
Leysen all but ignored him, shaking her arm out of his grasp. Tillek suppressed a shudder as she continued to slap Mai's cheeks, each blow seemingly harder than the one before it had been, the blows alternating between one cheek and the other, between the palm of her hand and the back.
Squirming, Mai freed her arms and brought them up to try to shield her face. Leysen again captured both of her wrists with her left hand while her right hand continued to slap Mail's face.
There was a resounding SMACK as Leysen delivered a particularly heavy blow. Tillek couldn't help but wince at the sound. A blow that probably would have separated the Beta's head from his neck merely turned the Talisi female's head to the side.
Leysen drew her arm back for another slap.
Seeing the burning timber coming down toward her, Mai raised her arms in an effort to shield her head. It fell across her arms, driving her to her knees. Ignoring the burning pain in her hand, she gripped the timber and tried to push it off of her. She got it off of her just before the pain made her open her hand.
Another flaming timber fell toward her in a shower of sparks. She threw an arm across her face to protect it.
Something that she couldn't see hit her in the cheek. She turned her head to avoid it, only to have something else --- or perhaps it was the same thing --- hit her other cheek. She struggled to see what it was, but the smoke was getting into her eyes and making them water, interfering with her vision. Whatever was hitting her obviously didn't need to see her, for the blows kept striking her face, first on one side then on the other. She brought her arms up to try to shield herself, but something moved them aside.
While the mysterious blows continued, she became aware of something else. Over the crackling of the flames, she heard a voice. A voice that seemed to be calling out her name. A familiar voice, that of someone whom she knew.
Ley? What was she doing here? She remembered leaving Tillek to wait outside, but she hadn't seen Ley all day. She blinked rapidly, trying to clear her eyes and make them focus.
Her senses cleared completely. She was no longer in the midst of a fire. Nor was she alone, for she could make out Ley leaning over her, calling out her name. Ley had an arm drawn back, as if preparing for a slap.
Mai somehow managed to find her voice. "Ley?"
Leysen had drawn her arm back for another slap but before she could deliver it, Mai's eyes fluttered open, looking up dazedly. "Ley?" she croaked out, her voice --- hoarse from days of disuse --- barely more than a whisper.
Leysen slowly released her grip on Mai's wrists. There was no resumption of her earlier thrashing. "How do you feel, Mai?"
"Thirsty." The voice was a little stronger, but not by much.
Tillek picked up a waterskin that was lying next to him, unstoppered it, and handed it to Leysen. Putting a hand behind her back, Leysen helped Mai to sit up and held the waterskin to her mouth.
Mai took a mouthful and coughed, spitting the water out, spraying both herself and Leysen. She continued to cough even after her mouth was empty.
Ignoring the water dribbling down her chest, Leysen continued to hold the older female while she got her coughing under control. This time, she had no trouble getting the water down and keeping it down, completely draining the waterskin before letting go of it.
Tillek picked up a second one --- this one filled with watered kifra --- and handed it to Leysen.
Leysen wrinkled her nose as she took the skin, and passed it back. "Not kifra," she told him. "More water. And food. Something easy for her to digest. Hurry."
If either of them noticed that a female had just told a warrior to fetch food for another female, neither of them gave any sign. Before coming to Talis, Tillek --- like all Betas ---had been accustomed to obeying any orders given by a Prime without asking any questions. He strode to the door, looked back over his shoulder once at Mai, and stepped out.
He wasn't gone very long. He returned with Velder at his heels, both men carrying baskets of food. There was a pot of broth for Mai, and meat and fruit for everyone else. Mai fell upon the bland broth with an appetite born of several days without any food whatsoever.
Leysen sat beside Mai, not taking any food for herself. The two Betas ate silently, their eyes seldom leaving the two females. Yet their gazes were not those of men looking at their lovers; both of them --- especially Tillek --- knew that something had happened.
The healer came in while Mai was working on her second serving. Seeing the young female sitting up and eating, the healer immediately turned on her heels and left.
The healer came back a few minutes later at the heels of the senior healer. The old white-haired crone seldom left her quarters except for meals. However, the news that Mai was awake had brought her as fast as she could, limping in with the aid of a cane --- momentarily reminding Leysen of Chaddik.
Leysen also remembered that this healer had been the one to repair as best she could Chaddik's leg. Not for the first time, Leysen wished that more had been possible; maybe she could have done for Chaddik what she had apparently done for Mai.
Despite her advanced age, the years had not dimmed the old healer's eyes. She was obviously surprised to see Mai awake, let alone eating with such a hearty appetite. There was no sign of Mai's earlier fever. Upon closer examination, she was also surprised to see that the burns that had covered Mai's body were all but healed, leaving behind only faint scarring. Those scars would vanish completely in the next few days, though she couldn't know that.
Completely baffled, the healers left without prescribing any further treatment, besides making sure that Mai got enough food and water.
The next day, Mai was moved to a vacant room in the females' quarters. Not yet feeling quite well enough, she took most of her meals in her room. Leaving Velder for the time being, Leysen moved in with her.
Of course, Tillek wanted that job. Or rather, he wished that Mai could have stayed with him, even if she wasn't yet well enough to share his bed with him.
"I was born a Prime," Leysen told him one evening in answer to his question. The two of them had just left the kitchen, carrying Mai's meal to her.
"Of course you were."
"No, I mean I've had my Prime strength all my life. Mai hasn't."
"She doesn't have the full strength of a Prime, does she?"
"No. But she's a lot stronger than you are. It's not safe for you to be with her just yet."
Remembering how a sleeping Leysen had thrown him from the bed during their first night in Panture, Tillek had eventually agreed.
Understandably, Mai was no happier with the arrangement than was Tillek. But as Leysen had pointed out privately to her, she would be much unhappier if she was to inadvertently hurt Tillek with her new strength.
As soon as Mai felt good enough to be moving about, Leysen undertook to teach her how to control her new strength. Discreetly, away from the prying eyes of the others.
There was nobody in the old smithy, now Leysen's private playground. Looking around as her eyes adjusted to the gloom, Mai saw all sorts of unfamiliar devices. This was where many of the parts had come for Velder's magical flying machine.
After closing the door behind them, Leysen took off her outer garments, revealing a small garment that appeared to be made from the pelt of a santha.
Mai remembered back to when Leysen and the two men had first appeared in Panture, they were wearing santha pelts. Like everyone else, Mai had assumed that the two warriors had killed the santha. Now, she wasn't so sure. Could Leysen have done it?
"Here, try this." Leysen's voice took Mai's mind away from the girl's garment and its origins. Looking, she saw that Leysen had her hand resting upon a large anvil, which in turn rested on a large block of wood.
"Try what?"
"This." Leysen closed her fingers about one end of the anvil.
A gasp escaped from Mai's lips as the anvil came up smoothly from its support. She had once seen two warriors straining to move a similar anvil. Yet this young female was holding it with just one hand. "How..." she managed to stammer out.
Leysen raised it over head, and then lowered it to shoulder height. "Here, take it." She held the anvil out toward Mai.
Mai's hands remained where they were. "I... I can't hold that."
"Yes you can. Take it." Leysen held it up higher, still using only one hand. Her other hand reached out and took hold of one of Mai's, pulling it toward her.
Leysen placed the anvil on Mai's hand but didn't let go, still supporting its weight. Gradually she transferred more and more the weight over to Mai until Mai was holding its entire weight. "See, it's not that heavy, is it?"
Flabbergasted, Mai stared at the block of metal, its entire weight supported by nothing but her arm. Raising her arm, she hoisted it over her head and then lowered it to shoulder height, just as Leysen had done.
She started to bend her arm in order to bring the anvil closer to her face. She was startled to see what at first appeared to be slitsa coiling about her upper arm. She nearly dropped the anvil before realizing that it was her own muscles.
The more she flexed, the more her biceps rose. She pumped her arm several times, the anvil in her hand barely providing any resistance, until her arm was bigger around than was that of any of the warriors.
Continuing to hold the anvil, she brought her other hand to her biceps, feeling its size and hardness. "This is incredible, Ley."
Leysen merely smiled as she took the anvil from Mai and set it back down on its supporting block. "Now, let's see if there's something else you can try." Leysen walked across the smithy, stroking the bridge of her nose as she looked around.
"Ah, this ought to do." She grabbed a heavy chain that was hanging on the wall and pulled it down. She then handed it to Mai.
Mai looked at the big gray links in her hands. "It's not very heavy," she said, hefting it.
Mai looked up at Leysen's laughter. "No, no, Mai. I know you can lift it. But can you break it?" She brought her hands close together in front of her and then pulled them apart, just as if she was pulling apart an invisible chain.
"Break it?" She looked down at the chain again. Each link was about as thick as was her thumb. She didn't think that a hand of hurjas could break such a heavy chain, let alone a single female.
Still, she was willing to give it a try. Grabbing hold of two adjacent links, she tried to pull them apart. Her arms bulged with muscles, but the chain would not break.
"Use your hands, not your fingers." Grabbing a length of the chain, Leysen demonstrated the hold. "Like this."
Mai adjusted her grip and pulled again, her arms bulging even further. The chain still wouldn't break. She stopped pulling and set the chain down. "I can't, Ley."
Leysen went across the forge and came back with another chain. The links on this new one were much thinner. "Here. Try this one."
Mai put down the heavy one and took the lighter one, holding it up to her face for a better look. As light as it was, she still didn't think that anyone could break such a chain.
The smaller links made it harder to grasp. It took her several tries to find a comfortable grip. However, once she found a good grip and pulled, the metal began to bend. Putting another effort into it, her hands flew apart as one of the links broke.
"Very good, Mai."
"I did it!" Mai looked at the broken link in her hand. Broken on one side, it had been pulled nearly straight. "I really did it!" Putting down the broken chain, she looked down at the heavy chain and then up at Leysen.
Leysen followed her gaze and picked up the heavy chain. "You don't think I can break this, do you?"
Mai wasn't going to say so, but she certainly thought so. She gave her head a slight nod.
Leysen adjusted her grip, grasping two links with another one in between. Her arms bulged as she began to pull, her biceps rising even further than Mai's had. The metal squealed in protest as the center link was snapped completely apart, the two halves flying across the room.
As Leysen set down the two halves of the broken chain, a strange looking device lying on a workbench caught Mai's eyes. "What's this?"
As Leysen reached out and picked up the device, Mai could see what appeared to be a bow attached to a carved wooden stick. The bow was short, almost like something that a young warrior-to-be might play with. But who ever heard of a metal bow?
"It's a new type of bow, called a crossbow." Leysen held the device out to Mai.
"A bow?" Mai drew her hands back. "I can't touch that." Only Leysen among the females were allowed to handle weapons.
Smiling, Leysen pushed the bow at Mai. "I won't tell the Council."
Naturally, Mai had never handled a bow before. But she had seen them used often enough to know the general principles. Holding the wooden handle in her left hand, she looked it over. The handle was not a single smooth piece of wood as she had first supposed. There were strange protrusions on several sides.
Ignoring the protrusions, she adjusted her grip to hold the handle with her left hand by its relatively smooth rear. She then grasped the string --- which she discovered was also made of metal --- in her right hand and drew it back. If she had stopped to think about it, she might have realized that the metal string would have sliced off an ordinary person's fingers.
Holding the device in front of her face, she looked at the drawn bow and then gradually released the tension. She then drew it back again, but this time she released the string from a full draw. It snapped forward and the entire device shook in her hand.
"I don't think this is going to work, Ley," she said, handing the device back. "You and I can draw this, but I don't think any of the warriors can."
There was a glitter of amusement in Leysen's blue eyes as she took the device. "Only you or I could draw it like that. But this is how a warrior can do it." She made an adjustment to it, putting the string on a little hook. Another piece of wood unfolded from the handle and Leysen proceeded to pump that several times.
Mai watched in amazement as the string seemed to draw back on its own. Looking closer, she saw that the little hook was pulling it back, somehow drawn back by Leysen pumping the second piece of wood.
"This way," Leysen explained, "a bow can be made much heavier. The arrow flies faster and farther." She touched a finger to another protrusion, and the string snapped forward. It quivered for several seconds after that.
Mai had never felt anything like this before. She knew that she was running faster than any warrior could. Yet she wasn't exerting herself all that much. She was certain that she could go even faster. She felt as if she could soar with the jitkaws, if only she could leave the ground. Like Velder in his wondrous craft. Maybe he would let her take Leysen's place one of these times.
But until then, she would have to stay on the ground. Or at least, near it. Turning her head, she glanced back over her shoulder. "Faster?" she asked the female running at her heels.
"Go ahead," Leysen answered, no more out of breath than Mai was, the large leather sack banging against her back with every step.
A similar sack hung at Mai's back. As soon as they had gotten out of sight of the village, they had shed their outer garments, freeing their limbs for easier movement. Turning her head forward once again, Mai picked up the pace.
"Keep going," Leysen's voice came from just behind her shoulder.
Mai felt as if she could run all day. And in a way, she had. She had already come further from Panture than she'd ever traveled in a single day.
Apparently, Leysen had the same thought. "Okay, I think we've come far enough," her voice came a few minutes later, when the trail dipped down to a riverbank.
Mai stopped. A little too suddenly, pitching forward as her feet stopped before the remainder of her body did.
Leysen's hand closed about her arm, keeping her face from hitting the ground. "Careful," Leysen said, pulling Mai back up to her feet. "Stopping's harder than running."
"I know," Mai replied, trying not to show her embarrassment. She had smacked head first into a tree the first time. The trunk, almost as big around as was her waist, had nearly snapped completely from the impact.
It was when they had returned from the field after lifting small boulders that Mai again broached the subject. Leysen had to agree that Mai was ready, if Tillek was willing.
"There's one more thing." Leysen dropped a hand into a pouch. "Here. You're going to need this."
Mai watched as Leysen then drew out her hand. Hanging from it was a small chain made of a yellowish metal. Mai hadn't seen much of it, but she recognized the material as gold, used only for ceremonial purposes and highly prized.
As Leysen held the chain out to her, Mai moved her hands under it. "What do I do with it?"
"Put it around your neck before you go to his bed." Leysen showed her how to fasten and unfasten the clasp, then dropped it into her hands.
The chain felt as if it was on fire. Mai dropped the chain and shook her hands.
Leysen bent down and picked up the chain. Straightening up, she offered it to Mai again.
Mai gingerly accepted it. The chain really wasn't on fire --- it wasn't even hot --- but her hands tingled nonetheless. She carefully turned it over in her hands. It didn't look very special, other than for the fact that it appeared to be made of gold. "I just wear it?" she asked, looking up quizzically at Leysen as she started to bring it up to her neck.
Leysen put a hand on Mai's wrist and stopped her. "Sit down first."
Mai sat down on a workbench. She worked the clasp, fastening and unfastening it until she was sure that she could do it without looking. Satisfied, she raised her hands.
The tingling sensation got stronger as she brought the chain closer to her throat. It began to spread over her entire body as she brought the ends together behind her back.
It hit her in a rush. She felt as if she'd just eaten bad meat. Or perhaps more like unripe punje berries. Her head reeled, she had trouble breathing, her vision dimmed, and she started to fall sideways.
Leysen reached out and caught Mai before she could fall. Continuing to support her, Leysen came around and sat down next to Mai.
Shaking her head, Mai started clawing at the metal around her throat, which had suddenly seemed to grow heavier. And tighter, as if it was trying to choke her.
Leysen grabbed her wrists and pulled them away. "Take it easy. Just breathe deeply."
Mai eventually calmed down, discovering that she could breathe after all. "What... what is it doing to me?"
"It's reducing your strength," Leysen explained.
"Reducing? Back to what I had before?"
Leysen laughed. "No, far from it. You're probably about ten times stronger than Tillek right now." She continued to explain about what gold did to them, after making Mai promise not to tell anyone else. There was something else nagging her at the back of her mind, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it.
Leysen then helped Mai to her feet and had her walk around the smithy, getting used to the new feeling. And proving to herself that she was still stronger than any Talisi --- or Arion Beta, for that matter.
Mai sat down and reached up to unclasp the gold chain. Leysen suddenly whirled toward her, lowering her hand from where her finger had been rubbing the bridge of her nose. "Wait, Mai. Don't take it off yet."
Mai froze. With her fingers clasped around the chain, she looked up at Ley.
Leysen walked over and stood beside Mai. "When you take that off, make sure you're not wearing anything. And make really sure you're facing away from Tillek."
Mai couldn't understand what Leysen was saying. When she wasn't wearing anything, Tillek much preferred seeing her front.
Seeing the older female's confusion, Leysen continued on. "If you're anything like me, there's going to be some fireworks" --- she had to use the Arion word here --- "when you take that off."
"What do you mean, Ley?"
"Come over here." Taking Mai by the arm, Leysen led her to the forge. Facing Mai toward the fireproof stone wall, she released the arm. "Now, take it off."
Reaching up to her throat, Mai unfastened the clasp. As she started to pull the chain down, blue sparks shot out of her breasts, arcing across her chest.
Shocked, she froze as she simply stared at the light show.
It was several minutes before Mai could put her garments on, putting the chain into a pouch at her waist.
"Don't you need this for yourself?" Mai asked as they were leaving the forge.
"I've got another one," Leysen replied, patting the pouch at her waist.
Mai was good enough to be up and about; Tillek had seen her with Leysen often enough. But even though she had been excused from her usual kitchen duties, he didn't see her very often.
Are the two of them...? He tried to dispel that thought. While Mai was now closer in strength to a Prime than a Beta --- let alone a Talisi --- he knew that Leysen was back to spending her nights with Velder, leaving Mai alone.
Maybe Leysen didn't want to part with one of her gold chains. He was still firmly convinced that Leysen was using both of her chains whenever she was with Velder, his one experience with Leysen and no gold notwithstanding.
Thus it was that he returned to his room alone. Quickly stripping off his gear, he prepared for another night by himself.
"Tillek?"
Tani'a Veloor glanced over at the two men sleeping, completely exhausted from tonight's worship service. It wouldn't be long before the third one joined them.
But not just yet.
Releasing his hands to let his arms fall limply to the cushions, she put her hands on her breasts, replacing his feeble caresses with her own much more vigorous ones.
She thought back to the last time that someone else's hands had held her like this. It had been quite a while since she'd last been visited by a Messenger.
She normally had little use for Messengers. To be precise, she had exactly one use for the males sent by the Council to deliver the news.
Just because she only had one use for him didn't mean that she had used him only once. When he'd finally left her --- two days behind schedule --- he'd been almost as exhausted as the warrior beneath her was now.
Thinking of that, she glanced down past the swell of her breasts. No, the Messenger hadn't been quite as exhausted as was the nearly unconscious warrior --- at least the Messenger had made it up into orbit under his own power. Of course, much of that had been due to the recharging that he'd done at her breast.
Wringing the last drop out of the warrior without getting much back in return, she sighed, giving her breasts one final squeeze --- hard enough to crush the toughest granite --- and rose up off the warrior, who merely moaned and threw an arm across his face.
She glanced over at the other two warriors, and then sighed again. Neither of them would be recovering for a while yet. In a somewhat uncharacteristic gesture --- at least for her --- she gathered up some furs and threw them over the sleeping warriors. Then slipping into her blue and red Planetary Protector uniform, she padded to the door on silent feet.
Once out of the confines of her temple, she looked up at the night sky and one of the planet's two moons. Her calves bunched slightly as she leaped up into the sky.
She could have reached the moon in under half an hour, but she turned long before then, bending her course eastward, toward the interior of the single continent. She continued to accelerate, the sonic boom of her hypersonic passage reverberating over the uninhabited central desert.
She slowed down as she approached the inhabited eastern shore. Remaining several miles above the ground, she circled over the towns and villages. Already there was some activity down below, heralding the approaching dawn.
She squinted, zooming in on a pair of warriors patrolling outside the gates of one of the larger towns along the coast. Her blue eyes sparkled as they looked through the hurja skins that the warriors were wearing to keep off the predawn chill.
Like all Talisi warriors they were large and well built, with broad shoulders and deep chests.
She detoured to the north on the return home, skirting around the central desert. Approaching the northern mountains, she saw a pair of adult santhas lying near a wild hurja carcass while a pair of cubs pretended to attack the dead animal.
Landing inside the temple grounds, she went back inside. Glancing into the inner sanctum, she could see that the three warriors were still asleep. She briefly considered waking them up, but decided that it wasn't worth the effort. She continued deeper into the temple.
No one else was allowed into her private quarters. She didn't need a lock in order to keep others out; nothing short of a battering ram would have opened the heavy iron door. Laying a palm on the door, she pushed it open and entered her private quarters.
Closing the door behind her and walking to the far corner, she rose up into the air until her head was about a foot below the ceiling. She removed a sword from its display rack high up on the wall and descended to the floor.
A Talisi warrior would not have given the worn leather scabbard a second look. Even though the style and the workmanship were not in the Talisi style, it simply did not look all that special or valuable.
The same could not be said of the blade within. This sword was like no other on Talis. Tani'a would not be running her thumb along its blade any time in the near future. Far superior to the ordinary iron blades, even superior to the new steel blades that the Tureans had developed. The outer layers of the blade were made from the finest Vendorian steel. Sandwiched inside was a substance that was far harder than was the hardest diamond. The center layer --- and cutting edge --- was made of a single molecule and was capable of slicing even Supremis flesh. Wielded properly, a single stroke could decapitate even a Velorian.
It was the finest edged weapon in the known universe. A Kintzi layer sword.
It was a gift, presented to Tani'a by her mother when Tani'a had passed the Rites and become a Protector. Her mother, a valiant fighter though not a Protector in her own right, had taken the sword from a Kintzi in hand-to-hand combat. She had then added the jewel at the base of the pommel, a small diamond hand-squeezed from a lump of pure carbon.
She thought back to the first --- and only --- time that she'd actually used the sword on Talis. It had been during her first winter here. Still not completely familiar with the native fauna, she'd had it with her when she'd encountered her first santha --- the fiercest predator on the planet.
She knew better now. Killing santhas with her bare hands left the pelt intact --- and hence more valuable. That was how she had acquired the pelts that she now had.
Drawing the sword from the scabbard, she held it up to her face in a salute. Then carefully, almost reverently, she kissed the flat of the blade. Completing the salute, she sheathed the sword and rose up toward the ceiling, returning the sword to its place on the wall.
