The Challenge (41 page)

Cheers and applause came sporadically from the audience. Tessa estimated maybe one third of the women might be convinced. Not enough.

“I will not follow that abomination.” A thin woman pointed at Tessa. “My husband says that she fights like a man.”

Tessa was about to defend herself, but Miri came to float by her left side. “Tessa
is
different from us. She comes from another world with customs that permit a woman to work and fight or to stay at home and raise children. On her world, her job was to protect a great leader. And because of her skills, she saved the life of my Etru, as well as Kahn, Xander, Zical, Mogan, and Nasser.” Miri placed her hands on her extended belly. “Because of Tessa’s alien skills, my child shall grow up with his father. Yes, her talents are different from what I know, but that does not mean we should fear what she can offer.”

More murmurs grew. Heated arguments sprang up in several areas, including several shouting matches.

Tessa stepped forward and held up her hands for silence. “No one will be forced to do anything that makes them uncomfortable. And if our grand experiment fails, you can return to the old ways. I ask that you take a chance for a better future for yourselves, your husbands, and your children. Those who want to try, please stay. Those that don’t wish to participate are free to leave.”

Tessa expected very few people to stay. But only a few dozen out of maybe a thousand women left the chamber. However, she saw doubts, fears, and much hesitation on the faces of the ladies who remained. “I thank you for your support. More important, I hope the entire community will thank you when we succeed. Those who wish to work on the farm, please move to the right. Those who want to cook for the workers, go to the left. And those who will watch the children please step to the back.”

As the women picked and chose where they wanted to be, Tessa saw they’d actually divided into thirds. She had too many cooks and child care workers, not enough people to labor on the hydroponics, but it was a start. And they would make do.

KAHN PLANNED to hunt for four full days. He figured Tessa could use a break from her training. He didn’t want her to go stale, and more importantly, he intended to keep the men out of the women’s way until they worked out a system to tend to the children, the cooking, and the hydroponics. So the men broke into three large groups with a plan to converge at a preappointed place to clean their kill.

Unfortunately, one group ran into Endekians almost immediately. They escaped through a mountain pass. The second group met up with hunters from a neighboring village who had wandered into Rian’s hunting territory due to their own lack of game. Threats were shouted, but no blood spilled. Kahn’s group found several
octar
, barely enough to feed the hunters and keep them going, with little left over to bring home.

At camp for the night, discouraged men sat around glow stones discussing their options, protected from the wind by their suits and their sleeping
masdons
which surrounded them. Mogan and Xander pressed their argument to go farther south. Etru and Zical, fearing an Endekian attack, wanted to head back to Rian to protect the women. Kahn remained undecided until a psi shriek, unlike any he’d known, had him leaping to his feet. The shrill cry had broken into his mind with a thunderous blow and a hammer strike that made his ears ring and his heart pound.

Etru stood also. “What’s wrong?”

“Tessa’s in trouble.” Kahn prodded his
masdon
awake.

Zical exchanged a long glance with Etru, then angled his head in disbelief. “Kahn, how do you know?”

“She called out to me with her psi.”

Nasser shook his head. “That’s impossible. We are two day’s ride from Rian.”

“I heard her,” Kahn insisted, floating onto his
masdon
. It mattered not if his men followed. It mattered not that it was night. Or that Endekians might stand between him and Tessa. Not for one minute did he doubt that she needed him. Knowing her spirit as well as he did, he knew she would not have called unless a life was in danger.

With an urgent psi command to his
masdon
, he prodded the beast to top speed. He sensed men following, their voices pleading with him to slow down, but he didn’t heed their words to take cover, to avoid leading the Endekians straight to Rian. At the journey’s end, he would hide his approach, but not yet.

With every lumbering step, he could only think that Tessa needed him. He must hurry.

When a shuttle dropped out of orbit and landed in front of his masdon, Kahn wondered if the Endekians had found him. And if they already had Tessa. But he had no time to consider the merit of that idea before the hatch popped open.

Kahn reached for a stunner. As did his men who guarded his flanks and rear. He was just about to order his men to circle the ship, when Dora’s familiar voice called out to him. “Kahn, is that you?”

“What’s wrong?” Without hesitation, he floated off the
masdon
toward the shuttle’s hatch.

“I need to get you to Rian,” Dora told him. “Fast. I’ll explain on the way.”

Etru and Zical came with him. Kahn left Nasser in charge of the remainder of the hunting party and headed inside the shuttle. The moment Kahn, Etru, and Zical entered, the hatch closed behind them and the craft soared into the sky.

“Dora, is Tessa still alive?” Kahn asked the question that burned like a painful brand.

“She’s in a coma.”

He stiffened but didn’t lose hope or he would fall into a panic and would be no use to anyone—especially his wife. Lael’s death had torn him apart with grief, but losing Tessa wouldn’t just have devastating personal consequences. If she died all of Rystan would mourn . . . and suffer. “What happened?”

“Tessa went through the ice into a water pocket. She struck her head and couldn’t protect herself from the frigid cold. Helera is unsure if she will recover.”

Dora flew the shuttle straight to the cave and popped the hatch. “Go. Go. Helera thinks only a healing circle can bring her back.”

Kahn raced out of the shuttle, his heart thudding, his mind silently screaming. He didn’t know where the shuttle had come from. He didn’t know how Dora could be on it. Right now he didn’t care. His thoughts were on Tessa. She would not die. She could not leave him. She meant too much to him and to both Rystan and Earth.

Kahn sprinted to his quarters, shocked to find the hallways lined with dozens upon dozens of weeping women. They parted, their eyes brimming with tears, their sobs ringing in his ears as he rushed inside to find Tessa lying on a tapestry before the hearth. Helera, Shaloma, and Miri had their hands locked in a healing circle around Tessa.

Kahn, Etru, and Zical joined the circle, adding their heat and their psi to the women’s. Tessa still breathed, but her pink skin was tinged with blue, her lips purple. She didn’t shiver. Her breathing was light, her chest rising and falling with a shallowness that frightened him. He ached to take her into his arms, but knew that if she were to recover, her chance was best inside the healing circle. Kahn fought to keep his voice steady. “What happened?”

Helera spoke softly as the four of them shot psi healing to Tessa. “One of the children fell through the ice into a water pocket. Tessa dived in after him.”

Stunned that she would risk her precious life in such a foolish way, Kahn almost broke the circle. “What! She tried to kill herself?”

Shaloma shook her head. “She floated through the water with skill and purpose—like we float through air. She scooped the boy into her arms and brought him back to the surface. Her skin turned blue, and we tugged both her and the boy to safety.”

“Then she collapsed?” Etru asked.

“Not right away.” Miri spoke sadly. “The boy didn’t move. Didn’t breathe. He was dead.”

Shaloma continued the story. “Tessa shoved the boy’s wailing mother aside, struck his chest with her fist. Then she breathed into his mouth. He coughed and spit out water. She saved his life.”

“And then?” Kahn sensed the women didn’t want to tell him what occurred next. Something horrible had happened. He sensed it from their psi, saw it in the shadow of disgust and sadness in their expressions.

“Several women claimed that Tessa was . . . unnatural. Evil.” Helera sounded tired and exhausted as if the years weighed heavily on her thin shoulders. “Those hostile women panicked and shoved Tessa back onto the thin ice. Your wife wasn’t even scared. She tried to explain, to reason with them. Although she was somewhat cold and shivering, she was handling her suit’s control well enough to avoid serious hypothermia. The women were too afraid to listen to her words. Then the ice broke under Tessa’s weight. Again she fell through the surface. For a long time she didn’t come up. When she did, she was . . . like this.”

Miri filled in the gap. “We think she hit her head and was unconscious while under the water. I saw blood on the ice after she disappeared and heard a terrible thud as her head smacked. Perhaps she was too cold to use her shield. But she fought through it, came back to the surface and climbed into Miri’s arms before she again collapsed.”

Was that when she’d fired off that psi scream? When she was cold and frightened and alone? When she’d been slipping from consciousness?

Kahn should never have left her. With her aptitude for stirring discord, he should have known better than to let her out of his sight. And he was sick with grief over such an avoidable accident.

“Kahn, she called out to you.” Helera drew him from his thoughts. “I heard her psi scream your name. Now you must find a way to bring her back,” Helera directed, “or it may be the end of all our people.”

“What must I do?” he asked.

“The two of you share a rare connection that is older than Rystani history. You must find a way to ease a path for her back into the light.”

Kahn sent out his psi. “She’s closed to me.”

“Find a way to slip through or she dies,” Helera warned in a voice fierce and ferocious. “She’s fading.”

“Tell me how to do more,” Kahn pleaded, having no idea how to reach her.

“I cannot tell what I do not know. I’ve only heard the legends that say a psi mate must be willing to risk all to bring back the other.” Helera’s eyes found his across the healing ring. “You may have to stretch yourself so thin that we lose you, too.”

“I’m not important,” Kahn told them. “Tessa is. She must win the Challenge.”

“Kahn, we will be here for you,” Shaloma promised. “Use our strength to add to your own.”

“We could all die?” Kahn asked Helera for clarification and read the answer in her eyes. As much as he wanted to save Tessa, each person must take that risk of their own free choice.

Kahn’s gaze sought out the men and the women who meant so much to him. “Are you sure, my friends?”

Each of them nodded in turn. That Tessa was Earth’s champion and Rystan’s only hope of a final Challenge win outweighed all other considerations, but it didn’t hurt that in the short time she’d been with them she’d touched their lives in manners both significant and small.

Dora chimed in, her tone somber. “I will add my psi, too. Let us begin.”