The Challenge (42 page)

He pushed toward Tessa’s roots, sensed he would never have gotten this far, except she was retreating from this world, her spirit fading. He arrowed through memories and swirling emotions, careful not to cause more damage. What he saw shocked him. Torn metal. Blood. Two coffins on either side of a stoic child. Faces. Too many faces. Families that took her in and turned her out. A white room. Pain. A strike to the belly. A punch to the face. A wizened old man with yellow skin and slanted eyes. He’d never understood how Tessa’s childhood vulnerabilities had made her so strong. She’d overcome more than most, and he could see for himself where those scars had healed and she’d dug deeper roots.

Year after year, she’d grown new layers, growing stronger and stronger to protect the most vulnerable of cores—losing her parents, bouncing from one foster home to the next had made her adapt, made her determined. But the deep pain of abandonment, the fierce need to control her own fate so terrible things would never happen to her again came through on a level he’d never understood.

Stars! He couldn’t let her go. Not after he truly appreciated her vibrant spirit and what she had given him by becoming his wife, by becoming part of his family. She had dared to reach out for everything she’d ever wanted and now, only a few last bits of her spirit sparked.

Tessa, my wife, my heart. Stay with me.

A portion of her psi kindled.
Goodbye.
And the kindling burned down to ashes.

Nooo.
Kahn lunged into the ashes, searching, seeking, striving to find some portion of her spirit, using all his power, exhausting his limits and then pushing beyond them. But there was only smoke.

So he wrapped his psi in the smoke. Thinning his self, spreading until he too almost disappeared into the void. He drew on all the energy the others fed him and then demanded more, expanding to encompass time and space and the woman who was his life.

The psi link stretched until he was no more than a wisp of smoke in the wind, no more than a flicker of light, no more than a tarnished hope. When he perceived a sudden jolting surge of power from a new life entering the link, a life he didn’t recognize, he focused that, too. And then like a rubber band that stretched too far and either had to break or return back to its original shape, their psi snapped.

Broke him loose.

Unable to counter the rushing force, Kahn tumbled, contracting, consolidating. In reverse, he traveled the path, cart wheeling, skidding, out-of-control. But the roots of Tessa’s mind sparkled once again a comforting red, orange, and yellow glow with flashes of bright blue and streaks of green. The bark of her trunk stood strong, the lightning scar healing. The leaves perked up and the buds flowered with health.

He didn’t know how he passed through her shield but he found himself back in the healing circle, so exhausted and drained he had yet to draw a breath, yet content. Before he opened his eyes, he knew Tessa would survive.

They had succeeded. But who had entered the circle at the last moment and changed the balance from failure to success?

Kahn forced open his eyes. Zical stared back at him, as did Etru, their gazes shocked, weary, drained. He saw Shaloma and Helera looking at Miri oddly.

Then Tessa’s eyes fluttered open, and his heart sang. Her exotic eyes found him and held him, as her thoughts seemed to churn. Her hair might need arranging, her suit might be disheveled but to Kahn, she’d never looked more beautiful as a healthy pink glow chased away her ashen pallor.

Kahn placed his hand in hers. “Welcome back.”

“I had the oddest dream.” In confusion she searched Kahn’s eyes for answers. “You brought me back, didn’t you? It wasn’t a dream. It was . . .”

“We all healed you.” Kahn gestured to the others.

Tessa’s eyes brimmed and tears skidded down her cheeks. “You all risked your lives to save me. I don’t know how to thank you.”

“No thanks are necessary.” Shaloma spoke warmly for all of them. Helera nodded regally. Miri and Etru shared loving looks while Dora was silent for once. Zical appeared almost embarrassed to have taken part in a ritual so intimate.

Tessa sniffled and brushed away her tears. “Someone else was there. Someone whose psi seemed both familiar and new at the same time. How could that be so?”

Miri placed a hand on her belly with wonder. “Our son joined the healing circle.”

“Stars!” Etru whispered. And then he fainted.

With a chuckle, Zical caught Etru before he hit the floor. While the women fussed and spoke among themselves, Etru recovered and then all of them departed, leaving Kahn alone with his wife.

Already Tessa was trying to sit up, but he pressed a drinking vessel into her hand. “Rest. And drink this.”

She did as he asked, a strange look on her face as if she was still trying to solve a puzzle. “You were hunting. How did you arrive so quickly?”

“Dora came in a shuttle to get me. A strange shuttle. One I’ve never seen before.”

“Oh.”

“If there’s something you need to tell me, it can wait.”

“It can?” She searched his eyes, clearly wondering at the change in him.

And he had changed. From the beginning he’d believed this woman’s independence was a sign of disrespect, but he now knew that her self-reliant streak and fierce determination were forged to protect a tender core of vulnerability. She’d never battled with him so much as with herself. Understanding that made her actions much more acceptable.

She angled her head up at him. “Do you fear I’m still too weak for you to yell at me?”

“I do not yell.”

“Hm.” She grinned impudently at him, and his heart skipped a beat. “Since you aren’t going to yell, I might as well tell you the entire story.”

Leave it to her to sense when he was most mellow toward her and the best time to reveal her indiscretions. She told him about her profitable trading partnership with the Osarian and the Endekians who were furious at their losses.

“So we are rich, woman?” he asked.

“Um, not exactly.”

“You’ve already spent the profits?” He scowled at her.

But she didn’t take his scowl the least bit seriously. In fact, she giggled. “We have the latest in technological wonders, a huge spaceship at our disposal orbiting overhead.”

He found the idea mind boggling. He could understand buying the computer information and hardware for Dora. Buying the hydroponics equipment now seemed an obvious solution to the food problems on Rystan, but a spaceship? What was she thinking?

Surprisingly, no anger surged up in him at her unilateral decision. Only curiosity. “Why did you buy a spaceship?”

“The Endekians.”

“You outfitted the spaceship with weapons?”

“Of course. One ship won’t be enough to fight off their fleet, but with the right tactical training, it’s a start.” She spoke to him gently as if she knew exactly how hard he always found making culture-altering decisions. During their shared psi experience he’d had access to parts of her he’d never imagined, but did the reverse also hold true? Had she also had a window into his spirit, too?

The thought unnerved him. He didn’t want to know.

“We need to have a council meeting,” she told him, her fingers stroking his shoulder. “This time, men and women should all be included.”

“Why?”

She skimmed a finger path over his collar bone. “Rystan can now import the most critically needed items. We need to decide what to buy and how to distribute what is purchased. We need to vote on how the wealth will be split.”

He groaned and threaded his fingers through her marvelous dark hair. “You’re making my head ache.”

She chuckled and snuggled against him. “There’s more. The women need help with the hydroponics. Can you lend me some men?”

“Maybe we should just put you in charge,” he teased.

“Oh, no. Then I would have headaches.” She tugged him closer. “Do you know what the cure for a headache is on Earth?”

“What?”

“This.” She kissed his mouth. “And this.” She kissed his jaw. “And this.”

“Umm.” He leaned back and tugged her onto his chest. “You know my headache is definitely better, but not yet cured. I think I could use more Earth medicine.”

“Coming right up.” She giggled again. “But the cure is working. Look at what we have here. You’re already up.”

KAHN CONSULTED with his most trusted advisors for another week before calling the council meeting Tessa had suggested. The women who pushed Tessa back onto the ice apologized, and she forgave them. While Kahn worked out organizational and tactical details and discussed which items they needed to import first, Tessa regained her strength with amazing speed and continued her psi training. Kahn brought in Etru and Zical as well as Xander and Nasser to up the difficulty levels, training her to fight different men and against a group attack. Shaloma accompanied Tessa to one of the sessions and returned starry-eyed then persisted in asking Kahn to train her, too.

He’d refused, but Tessa thought if Shaloma remained persistent, he might give in. They were working the self-defense angle on him. Men couldn’t always be around to protect the women, and what harm could a little self-defense training do?

Meanwhile Tessa’s control over her suit’s temperature elements progressed to a level where she no longer noticed Rystan’s cold, but she had yet to activate the null-grav once. She suspected that as Kahn’s feelings for her deepened, he couldn’t bring himself to push her to the necessary level of frustration required to enhance her skills.

She’d approached him once about having another man take over that element of the training, but Kahn had shaken his head, claiming that no other warrior had the expertise to push her that hard without risking serious injury to her. This close to the time of the Challenge, he was taking no additional chances that she wouldn’t be ready and healthy. And after Tessa trained with the other men, she learned that Kahn’s skill level was much superior to the others. He’d honed his abilities to a fine art, training her so well that she had no difficulty defeating the others one-on-one—as long as they didn’t use null-grav.

Tessa figured her last option to learn what she needed was using the programmed robot on the orbiting spaceship. However, Kahn refused to let Dora send the shuttle down, fearing the Endekians might track her flight to Rian. When Tessa’s life had been in danger, they hadn’t taken proper security precautions, so Dora had subsequently ordered the shuttle to aimlessly land and take off in various locations around the planet in the hopes that the first landing at Rian wouldn’t appear significant.

So far, no Endekians had approached, but Dora was monitoring a buildup in space that had everyone concerned. Kahn had posted extra perimeter guards as well as sent word of the hostile action to other villages and the Federation, but with thousands of hostile actions among millions of worlds to consider, he didn’t expect a political response for weeks. So in addition, every entrance to Rian had both mechanical alarms and men with weapons to stand sentry.

The good news was that the hydroponics plant was fully assembled and operational. Seeds were already sprouting. Within a few more weeks they could begin to harvest and supplement their meager food supply. Meanwhile, Tessa had placed her materializer in the hands of the council for everyone to share. Already the children’s faces had taken on the healthy chubbiness of well-fed youth.

But there was some resentment, too. With both women and men working on the hydroponics, the balance of power within some marriages had shifted. Helera had reported her marriage counseling services were keeping her hopping.

Tessa had been busy but not so overwhelmed that she hadn’t appreciated the changes in her own marriage. Since Kahn had surrounded her in the circle of healing, since he’d merged their psi at the deepest of levels, they understood one another better. Which didn’t mean that they always agreed. With Miri ready to deliver her baby at any moment, Tessa wanted her safely up on the ship with the best medical robot care and Helera there to midwife. Kahn insisted the baby should be born on Rystan like every other newborn.