Beti’s grunt was all that revealed she had been taken by surprise.
An abrupt cessation of the music caused both women to stop suddenly.
“Enough,” Marljas said. “You’re bleeding, Beti, and still have another fight.”
Both Beti and Sosha looked down at the thin ribbon of red on Beti’s biceps. The joyful expression and tone of Beti’s voice took them all by surprise.
“Very good, Sosha! You have done well! From now on, listen to the music of your soul.”
Sosha stared at Beti. “I blooded you.”
Slipping between the rails, Sheala sprinted across the corral and hugged her friend. “No one, I mean no one, except Kahn has been able to land any blow on Beti for the longest time, Sosha.”
After blinking a few times, Sosha began to smile.
The girls’ celebrations were soon interrupted.
“Have you finished with your playing?” Kadis asked in snide tone. “There’s much I must do before I leave in the morning. I would have this duel concluded.”
Beti wiped the blood from her biceps and crossed her arms over her chest. “I am ready.”
“Wait,” Marljas’ mother commanded as she and her husband entered the corral. “The proper rituals will be observed.”
Her face twisted with hate, Kadis sneered. “She is
not
Gattan.”
Dressed in a white robe, Denieen joined them in the corral. Her husband accompanied her, carrying an elaborately carved chest.
Kadis stared at Denieen. “Why are you dressed in such a manner?”
Sheala glanced at Marljas. Denieen’s robe made Kadis nervous. Why?
“Just watch,” he whispered to her.
Denieen stopped directly in front of Kadis, smiled serenely, and bowed first to Beti and then to Kadis.
“You are well aware of the fact that I was schooled among the
Snopards
for five years, Kadis. As a level four priestess, I can witness and approve the outcome of any bloodfeud challenge.”
Sheala turned to Sosha who now stood on her other side. “Denieen is a priestess?”
Sosha looked just as surprised. “She must be. No one would dare make such a claim if it weren’t true.”
Sheala tucked that information into her memory. She’d heard the
Snopards
mentioned more than once, and it was about time she learned more about them—and the other tribes of Gattan.
Denieen fixed her gaze on Beti’s arm. “You’re bleeding from a prior fight. You may take time to have the wound bound.”
“It was made by a Gattan knife,” Beti answered with a grin. “The bleeding has already stopped thanks to the potion you dip them in.”
Denieen nodded. “So be it then. Kadis Jadisdotir claims bloodfeud on you, Beti, Aradab of Mediria, for bodily insult against her person. Do you concur?”
Beti nodded once. “Yes.”
Denieen motioned Wendjas forward.
He placed the chest on the ground and opened the lid.
Denieen gestured towards its contents. “As the challenged, Beti of Mediria, you have the right to choose weapons.”
Beti never so much as glanced towards it. “I have need of none.”
Sheala looked around. Every member of Marljas’ family was frowning, except for her husband. But then, he’d fought Ban.
“You aren’t Gattan, Beti. You put yourself at great disadvantage,” Deni added.
“Wouldn’t it be better if she’d at least use a knife?” Sosha asked Sheala in a low voice. “Kadis is a very good fighter.”
Sheala shook her head. “In the last four years, only Kahn has beaten Beti in a fight, fair or foul. He trained her himself, and I’ve been working with her off and on for the last three years. You’re the first I’ve ever seen touch her with a weapon.”
Sosha shook her head. “She was careless. She never expected me to flow with the music like I did.”
Smiling, Sheala nodded. “You’re right, but no Aradab ever makes the same mistake twice.”
Sosha turned her gaze back to the combatants. “I hope you’re right, Sheala.”
“Stop trying to influence the duel, Denieen,” Kadis demanded in a superior tone, “or I will call foul here and now.”
After once last glance at Beti, Denieen nodded. “Very well. Kadis Jadisdotir has called bloodfeud on Beti, an Aradab of Mediria. As an acknowledged fourth-level priestess, I demand here and now that this fight be to first blood only.”
Kadis’ smile was more of a sneer. “I refuse. Nor can you make such a demand when my opponent has already agreed to a fight to the death.”
Denieen stared at Kadis. “Think carefully, Kadis. The political ramifications from this duel could be profound. The queen will not be pleased.”
Kadis’ smile became superior. “But my mother will. Nothing else matters. You would do well to remember that, Denieen.”
“What a bitch,” Sheala murmured.
Marljas shook his head. “A statement like hers could be construed as treason. She and her mother must be watched.”
Sheala nudged him with her elbow. “Shhhh. They’re about to start. Just wait until you see Beti in action.”
As soon as Denieen stepped out of the way, Kadis launched an immediate attack.
Sidestepping, Beti retreated.
“She was hiding in the barn while Beti worked with you and Sosha, watching and planning her attack,”
Marljas said.
Sheala shook her head. “She won’t defeat Beti.”
A particularly vicious slash caused Beti to fall to the ground and roll away from her opponent.
“I wish I had your confidence,” Sosha murmured.
For five or so minutes, a seemingly one-sided fight progressed.
Sheala leaned her arms on the top rail of the fence and concentrated on Beti. “Pay attention, Sosha, she’s teaching us a lesson about retreat.”
Eyes wide, Sosha tore her gaze from the combatants and stared at Sheala. “Teaching us a lesson?”
Sheala nodded. “Aradabs turn every fight into a lesson.”
“But Kadis is trying to kill her.”
Sheala smiled. “She won’t.”
“She must attack,” Marljas muttered from her other side as Kadis barely missed slicing open Beti’s stomach.
“Beti is just playing with her, my love,” Sheala answered absentmindedly. “There, that move. That’s the second time she’s done that. She’ll end the fight any minute.”
Marljas shook his head.
Sosha snorted.
Sheala sighed. “Look. Beti had used Kadis’ initial charge to gauge and weigh her attack and teach Sosha and me different ways to retreat from a particularly lethal move. Look at Kadis. As close as she’s been to slashing Beti, she’s hasn’t touched her. She’s frustrated and will soon make a mistake.”
Sheala had barely finished speaking when Beti attacked. In a series of feints and lightning moves, she had Kadis flat on her stomach in less than a minute. Both arms were bent at the elbows with Kadis’
wrists drawn up towards her shoulders. Beti’s knee was in the small of her back. “I told you I would not kill you, but if you do not yield, I will dislocate both of your shoulders.”
Silence enveloped the two women. Every member of the household who could had made his or her way to this fight. All of them had heard of the hand-to-hand fighting prowess of the Aradabs of Mediria.
Many had not believed the stories, thinking that they had surely been exaggerated. The stories had not been exaggerated.
Kadis groaned but refused to yield.
Beti sighed. “Stupid is the warrior who refuses to acknowledge she’s been beaten.”
Kadis screamed as her right shoulder popped out of its socket.
“Do not mistake my promise not to kill you for weakness, Kadis Jadisdotir,” Beti said grimly. “Like you, I am a guest in this house. A guest does not spill blood on her host’s floor.”
“I suggest you listen to her, Kadis. The queen will not be impressed by your stupidity,” boomed a voice from behind Sheala.
“I yield!” Kadis screamed as Beti began to apply pressure to her left arm.
“Colonel Radris Nardinson of the royal guard,” Marljas whispered to Sheala as his mother and father greeted their newest guest.
Sheala kept her concentration on the corral.
Denieen went to where Kadis lay. Running her fingers gently over Kadis’ shoulder, she said, “Let me help you to your feet. Once you’re standing, I’ll put your shoulder back into its socket.”
Kadis pushed herself to her knees. “Get away from me, you traitor. You will all pay for this outrage.”
The colonel dismounted his riding beast and walked into the corral to stand before Kadis. “Still acting like the spoiled brat you are. I’d have thought you’d have grown up by now.” Reaching down, he gripped her waist and lifted her to her feet. Before she could move away, he grasped her upper arm and jerked her shoulder into place.
Her scream seemed to reverberate off the distant mountains.
Radris grinned at her. “Spite won’t heal that shoulder, and the longer you would have waited to have it set, the more painful it would have been.”
“The queen shall hear of this, you fool,” Kadis snarled as she stomped away.
“I know. I’ll be giving her a full report. By the way, I witnessed the entire duel.”
Screeching with frustration, Kadis cradled her arm against her chest and stomped towards the house.
Teena signaled two stout women servants to follow her. “Make sure her belongings are packed. She will be returning to her mother’s house in the morning.”
The older of the two women smiled and nodded her head. Both of them followed Kadis into the house.
“Those two won’t be intimidated by the niece of a queen, I don’t think,” Radris said from where he stood with his hands on his hips.
Teena smiled a wide smile. “Sarti was nursemaid to both Wendjas and Marljas. She’s wanted to put Kadis over her knee since the day she arrived.”
Smiling broadly, Radris turned to where Marljas stood with Sheala. “So, you are the Drakian wife.
You’re pretty enough, I’ll give you that.”
At her side, Marljas stiffened and his gaze became decidedly cold.
Radris laughed. “Ease yourself, cub. I can still defeat you in hand-to-hand combat.”
Marljas wasn’t intimidated. “I’ve learned a few things since the last time we sparred, Colonel.”
Denieen stepped between them. “Wife? Who told you that Marljas had married?”
Chuckling, Radris answered, “The King and Queen, who else?”
Sheala stared at the huge black man before her. Both his skin and his close-cropped hair were black, as were his eyes. At least three inches taller than Marljas, who was taller than any other Gattan Sheala had ever seen, Radris was also much more muscular. If anything, he reminded Sheala of a rather tall Aradab.
He certainly had as many muscles as any Aradab man she’d ever met. He wasn’t
Leonine
either. Just how many tribes of Gattan were there? And why did he appear on a riding beast? Didn’t Gattans travel in sky ships or land vehicles like everyone else?
Sheala frowned. No. Kadis was taking a shuttle home. “Do you always choose to travel on the back of a beast? Surely you’re a modern enough man to appreciate flying?”
Radris laughed. “Of course I fly. However, my mare prefers to use her own four feet.”
Sheala blinks. “Your mare?”
He stepped back, glared at Marljas then looked back to Sheala. “Has no one told you of
pholola
mares?”
Marljas put a protective arm around Sheala. “There’s much she hasn’t had time to learn yet.”
The colonel burst into loud laughter. “You have been too busy to talk, yes?”
Sheala was not one to be intimidated or bested in a game of wits.
“And you, Sir, would stand here and crow like a barnyard fowl while a
pholola
mare stands in the afternoon sun still saddled, unbrushed, and unwatered, virtually ignored by her rider?” she countered.
Amazement sweeping across his countenance, Radris was struck dumb. Then he laughed louder. In two strides he was before Sheala. Before she could even think what he’d done, he engulfed her in a huge hug and tossed her into her husband’s arms. Still laughing, he walked to his mare and proceeded to lead her into the barn.
Sheala watched with a decidedly smug expression on her face—until the mare turned her head and winked at her.
Her mouth dropped open.
Marljas just grinned. He had Sheala right where he wanted her, in his arms. And he knew exactly what he wanted to do with her.
Spinning on his heel, Marljas headed in the opposite direction towards another barn.
To steady herself, Sheala wrapped her arms around his neck, recognizing the grunt that escaped his throat as pure satisfaction. The memory of her birthday celebration flashed into her mind. Marljas had caught her in his arms that night—and she’d been disappointed when he let her go. A shiver danced up her spine.
“Where are we going? Put me down. I can walk.”
He grinned at her. “You haven’t seen the foaling barn, and I don’t mind carrying you.”
“But…”
Before she could finish, he reached the barn and kicked the door open.
The two men working there looked up, surprise quite evident on their faces.
“Out,” Marljas growled.
After quick smiles, both men disappeared.
Striding into a large stall, he kicked the door shut and dropped his arm from beneath her legs.
He let her body slide down against his—slowly—until her feet finally settled on the wooden floor.
Wrapping his arm around her waist, he pulled her tight against his body.
Again, the memory of that night of her birthday celebration surged. She’d slid down his hard body that night too. And much later in the evening, she’d savored every inch of it.
This time the shiver danced down her spine—all the way to the tip of her tail. It twitched, and she wrapped it around her own ankle to control it.
Swallowing, Sheala placed her hands flat against his chest to push herself away from the erect cock pushing against her belly.
His voice was low, urgent, compelling. “Sheala, I need you.”
Blinking, she looked up into his face. “Marljas… I…”
When he dropped his arm, she stepped back. He caught her face with his hands, caressing first the corners of her mouth and then her cheeks with his thumbs. “I love you, Alalakan dem al’ Sheala, my wife and the keeper of my heart. I honor you above all women. For you, I would leave my mother’s hearth. I would leave Gattan. Just ask it of me.”