Eeek! “What do I do?” I asked Lillith, praying my panic didn’t show.
“Say yes. You really have no choice.”
“But what if I accidentally kill someone?”
“Just remember your life isn’t in danger, no matter what happens. Try to think of it as a practice match with one of your instructors. Maybe your instincts won’t take over.”
Oh, sure. Nothing like showing a little encouragement to help build my confidence.
Keeping a stiff smile in place, I dipped my head in a nod. “If it’s the king’s wish. Sire?” I turned to Politaus, hoping he’d put a stop to the suggestion.
“What an excellent idea!” He scrubbed his hands together in anticipation. “I’ll have a wide selection of weapons brought in, and you can choose whichever you prefer.”
“Thank you, but I have my own knife. And I’d really rather we do this hand to hand, so no one accidentally gets hurt.”
His eyes lit with anticipation, and he ignored everything I’d said except the part about the knife. “You have a knife with you? Did August make it? May I see it? His weapons are much prized.”
Double schite! I’d chosen the plainest knife in the Alien Affairs armory, but it was still a technical marvel compared to the handcrafted weapons used on Madrea. I could only hope that August was ahead of his time when it came to weapons, and no one noticed the blade that never dulled, or the non-skid grip that was all one piece with the blade and not attached separately. Or the fact that it was made from a metal alloy that didn’t exist on Madrea.
Reluctantly, I reached under my skirt, pulled the knife from its sheath, and handed it carefully to Politaus.
He examined it reverently, almost holding his breath as he turned the blade in his hands. “Amazing. Such balance. This has to be August’s finest work. When did he make it?”
I watched anxiously as he passed it down the table for others to admire, including Zeller. The loss of its weight against my leg left me feeling strangely unsettled, naked almost. “It was the last he forged, sire, and therefore very dear to me.”
And why was Jancen checking my weapon so closely? My nerves were screaming by the time he passed it back in my direction, the look in his eyes speculative.
“Ah, I was hoping you might consider selling it, but I can see now that’s impossible.” The king retrieved the knife and gave it back to me. “Hand to hand will be sufficient,” he continued, as though I’d only just made the request.
Reynard leaned forward. “It would be my pleasure to engage Echo, sire.”
“I would also volunteer,” Zeller chimed in.
Choices, choices. I was pretty sure Zeller had offered because he wanted to do me in. Accidentally, of course, which I wasn’t about to allow. And stopping him would expose me.
Since Reynard knew all about me, that would solve all my problems. I wanted to kiss him for suggesting it.
“Nonsense.” The king smiled at him as I sighed in resignation. “You’re the best fighter on Madrea, possibly even better than August. I want the girl to have a fair chance. And Zeller, both you and Echo are Bashalde. I don’t want anyone to accuse you of favoritism. This should be a fair endeavor.” He lifted an arm and motioned to a guard standing near the doors.
Damn. Talk about up-and-down emotions.
As the man started forward, I leaned into Reynard, noting his resigned expression. “Who is he?”
“His name is Durtran. Other than myself and the king, he’s the best fighter we have.”
“Any weaknesses?”
“Only one.” He looked down at me. “He’s never sparred with a woman before. Use it if necessary. And try not to kill him.”
Sheesh. Why was everyone so convinced I couldn’t control myself? Even Marcus looked worried. Okay, so I almost gutted Reynard the first time I met him, and maybe my own knee-jerk reaction was fear for the man I’d be pitted against. Now that I remembered my defensive reactions were programmed to be instinctive, I was better prepared to contain them.
As I saw it, my biggest problem would be remembering that I was only supposed to be as strong as a normal female. That would limit what I could do to him, since he was almost as big as Reynard.
I watched him approach the king, frowning and glancing in my direction as he received his instructions in a lowered tone. He argued for a moment, and then stiffly nodded. It was obvious he didn’t like the king’s orders a bit, and I felt a little sorry for him. After all, men on Madrea were taught from birth that women should be respected at all costs. Now he was being told he had to fight one. It was a no-win situation for the man.
Unless I did something that went completely against the grain and let him beat me.
I pondered all angles of the solution as he turned to me and bowed. If I could do just enough to make him think he’d worked for his win, it might cause Zeller and company to underestimate my strength and ability. As far as I was concerned, that was a good thing, and my ego wasn’t so big that I had to win just for the sake of winning.
Standing, I pushed my chair back and followed Durtran to the other end of the hall, where we’d have space to move. “Stay with Reynard,” I told Peri. She made an annoyed sound, but obeyed, settling on his shoulder.
The tables emptied quickly as Durtran and I divested ourselves of weapons and put them on the floor out of reach. By the time we were done, everyone in the room had formed a wide, loose circle around us.
We took our place in the center and again, Durtran bowed to me. “My lady. Please know I do this reluctantly, even though it’s at my king’s order. There is no honor in fighting a woman.”
“Just try to think of me as a shorter, lighter man in a dress,” I told him.
Balancing on the balls of my feet so I’d be ready to move in any direction, I waited for him to attack. And waited. Then waited some more.
Okay, this was getting ridiculous. We couldn’t stand here staring at each other all night. I had to do something to motivate the man.
“Did you know August?” I asked him.
“Yes, I did. Your father was a great fighter, my lady.”
I sent him a cocky grin. “I’m better.”
His eyes went wide a split second before I dropped to one hand and used my legs to sweep his feet out from under him.
He’d barely started to fall before I was upright again. But instead of crashing to the floor, he used the momentum to roll back to a standing position. Without giving him time to recover, I aimed the edge of my hand at his neck.
As I’d hoped, I wasn’t the only one with automatic responses built in. He blocked me, grabbed my wrist, and used the motion to spin and toss me over his shoulder.
If one of my instructors had executed the throw, I’d have landed on my feet with no problem. But since I was supposed to be a normal female, I let myself hit the polished marble floor.
Yeowch! Zin, that hurt! For a split second, pain lanced through my hip, and then was replaced by warm, sweet relief. This super-fast healing thing was worth its weight in sunstones.
I got to my feet just in time. Durtran looked like he was in more pain than I’d been, and was on the verge of helping me up.
This couldn’t be allowed to happen. I had to make the man fight so hard he’d forget I was a woman.
With no more hesitation, I attacked, raining blows to his body and limbs, forcing him to retreat with each contact in an effort to defend himself.
Fortunately, it finally dawned on him that he needed to take the offensive if he was going to get out of this with his manhood intact, and he launched his own attacks.
Okay, now we were getting somewhere, even if it did feel more like dancing in slow motion to me than fighting. Up until now all my sparring had been down with GEP instructors, and the action with them was so fast it would look like a continuous blur to a Natural. Now, because it was so slow for me, I had time to choreograph every move, gauging Durtran’s response before he made it, and making sure he held his own.
I even ha
d time to make sure the outfit Treya had loaned me didn’t get damaged in the fray. The thought of having to tell her I’d ruined it was almost scarier than an angry Sumantti.
After twenty minutes of constant sparring, it occurred to me I had a problem. While the activity might seem slow and easy for me, my opponent was getting a real workout. Sweat rolled down Durtran’s face, and his hands were slick with it. I, on the other hand, was cool and dry, not even breathing hard. And while I could pretend to pant, there was no way to fake sweat.
So how could I let him win when he was obviously in more distress than I?
“Tell Marcus to do something to stop this!” I told Lillith. “I don’t dare let Durtran win, and I won’t beat him. He’d be humiliated for life. Not to mention confirming Zeller’s suspicions about me.”
As Durtran drew in an exhausted breath and came at me again, I saw Marcus straighten, hesitate for moment, and then lean toward the king.
Blocking the guard’s move, I danced out of reach, trying to give Marcus more time with my evasion tactics.
To my relief, the king nodded, and then stepped forward, hands raised. “Enough! I hereby declare the match a draw. You’ve both represented yourselves very well indeed. Durtran has upheld the standards of my guards, and Echo has proven without a doubt that women can be excellent fighters.”
There was a smattering of polite applause as Durtran swiped his sleeve across his damp brow. “You’ve taught me a valuable lesson today, my lady,” he said before the others reached us. “Never again will I underestimate the skill of an opponent based on sex alone.”
“Well, I’m not exactly your average female,” I told him modestly.
“No, you’re not. Your father exceeded himself with your training. Don’t think I’m not well aware you could have bested me from the beginning. I owe you for allowing me my pride. If I had lost, it would have meant resigning my commission. If ever you need my assistance, please ask.”
I was trying not to gape at him when Reynard, the king, and Marcus reached us. Everyone else drifted away, and I saw Zeller duck out the door. My attention was still focused on his retreating back when the king grabbed my hand and raised it to his lips.
“You were wonderful, my dear. If I’d seen you first, Reynard wouldn’t have a chance of winning you from me.”
Gently, I extracted my hand from his grip. Because I’d been created for the Department of Protocol, my repugnance at having my hands touched wasn’t as great as it was for other GEPs, but it had taken intensive aversion therapy for me to reach this level of tolerance. And nothing was ever going to make me like it.
“Thank you, sire. If I might be excused, I’d love to find a place to freshen up a bit.” And even more, I’d love to see what had Zeller rushing from the room.
“Of course.” He beamed at me like a proud father. “Reynard can show you to a room.”
Marcus opened his mouth to protest, and I hastily contacted Lillith. “Tell Marcus to shut up. His reputation as my guardian will simply have to suffer this time. I need to catch up with Zeller.”
His mouth closed and he gave a grim nod.
Taking the commander’s arm, I urged him to quicken his steps as Peri took to the air and darted ahead of us. Although it seemed like hours since Zeller left, it had only been a few minutes, and the second we were through the doors, I looked in the direction he’d gone.
The hall was well lit and I had no trouble seeing the three men huddled together, halfway down, talking in furious murmurs.
Unfortunately, they didn’t have any trouble seeing us, either. Both Zeller and Chine glared at me, but the third man turned away quickly and faded into the room behind him.
He was too late, though, because I’d recognized him instantly. Losif Strand, leader of Helios One. It really had been him I’d seen at the gathering.
With one final optical death ray aimed in my direction, Zeller and Chine hurried into the room behind Strand.
“Lillith, send a red alert to Dr. Daniels,” I told the ship, actually speaking aloud so Reynard would know, too, as we went down the hall. “Losif Strand is on Madrea.”
“Sending. Did he recognize you?”
“Oh, without a doubt. We’ve never formally met, but we’ve been in the same room often enough that he’d know who I was. How did he get on Madrea without you seeing his ship?”
“They probably approached from the other side of the planet, and then landed just out of my sensors’ range.”
“That would imply they know you’re up there.”
“Yes, it would.” She sounded downright grim. “I wish I could deploy my satellites.”
“Ask Dr. Daniels to send a Federation ship to monitor the space from a distance.”
“I will, but it could take a few days. A large percentage of the unattached fleet is conducting maneuvers near Andromeda, and the ones that are patrolling outside Madrea’s planetary system are too large to jump in closer. They’ll have to use conventional engines to get here.”
“Fine, but tell them to come as fast as they can.”
I hadn’t paid attention to where we were going, concentrating on my conversation with Lillith instead. We stopped outside a door that looked vaguely familiar, and the commander opened it and ushered me inside.
No wonder it looked familiar. He’d brought me to his quarters. There wasn’t time to think about those ramifications, however. As Peri settled onto a table, gave a prodigious yawn and curled into a tired ball, I moved to the bed, sat down and looked at Reynard.
“That room the men went into, does it have another exit?”
“Yes. It’s one of the king’s small central meeting rooms, and can be entered at either end. It’s often used as a shortcut so people can get from one side of the castle to the other without going around the long way.”
“Okay.” I took a breath and braced my body. “When my psi ability first began to manifest, I ‘saw’ you having breakfast without actually showing up in front of you. I’m going to try it again with Zeller.”
He frowned. “What if it doesn’t work and they see you?”
I shrugged. “They can’t hurt me in my ghost form. At worst, it will simply expose my ability to them. And while I’d rather that not happen, knowing what they’re doing is more important right now.”
Eyes closed, I concentrated on building an image of Zeller in my mind. Medium height, stocky build, greenish squinty eyes. Instead of letting it reach the page-ruffling stage, though, I tried to mimic what I’d done with Reynard and treat this as I would a daydream.
He would be with Chine and Losif Strand, so I sketchily added the other two men to my mental picture, and made the room around them deliberately hazy. When I had it fixed to my satisfaction, I gave a gentle push.
Abruptly, my image of the room solidified to include a glossy table surrounded by four chairs, and a desk full of scrolls. Both Zeller and Chine were staring at Losif like he’d grown a second head.
“You’re sure?” Zeller asked.
“Positive,” Losif’s smile was feral. “Not only is she a Federation agent named Echo Adams, two cycles ago her indenture was purchased by the Department of Alien Affairs because it was discovered that Simon Gertz was her creator.”
At Gertz’s name, Chine went pale, but Zeller only looked puzzled. “Who is Simon Gertz?”
Losif glanced at Chine. “Why don’t you explain?” He went to a sideboard and poured a glass of wine.
“Simon Gertz is a rogue geneticist who tampers with the DNA of those he creates, giving them unknown psychic abilities. According to the book Braxus has about the Smith woman, the Gertz GEPs are also stronger, faster, smarter and nearly impossible to kill, since their wounds heal instantly.”
“And it’s all true,” Losif added, swirling his glass. “The only thing we don’t know is what her psychic ability is. But be assured she has one. Gertz is well known for his ingenuity.”
“What are we going to do?” Zeller blurted. “This changes everything. We t
hought there would be more time before the Federation discovered where the crystal was located. Now they not only know we have it, they’ve sent a woman we can’t hurt to stop us and retrieve the crystal.”
Losif drained his wine and then sat the glass aside. “The only thing this changes is our timeline. We’ll have to speed things along, put our plans into action now. Once we have control of the Sumantti, not even Echo Adams will be able to stop us.”
He crossed to the other two men and slapped Zeller on the shoulder. “Come, I want to see if the men have started loading my ship yet. And you can reassure your chieftain that the woman won’t be an obstacle much longer.”
As soon as they left, I banished the image and opened my eyes. Reynard was crouched in front of me, a worried look on his rugged face, and Peri was snoring away from her position on the small table.
“Well, schite. Not only do they know who I am, they know what I am. The only thing they don’t know is what kind of psi ability I have.”
“Did they see you?” he asked anxiously.
“No, they didn’t. This ability does have its good points, and unlike you, they weren’t even aware that someone was watching. What bothers me is that Losif Strand didn’t seem too worried about me. From what he said, he has plans to stop me from completing my mission.”
The commander surged to his feet and reached for the hilt of his sword. “He plans to hurt you?”
Now wasn’t that the sweetest thing ever? He wanted to defend me. It was enough to make my heart leap with joy, and it was an effort not to smile from sheer happiness. But since I didn’t want to hurt his feelings, I kept my expression serious when I answered.
“He didn’t say for sure, but he knows enough about Gertz GEPs to understand that hurting me won’t work. I’ll heal too fast. He also knows I’m not easy to kill. From what Kiera said, it would take a direct blaster shot to the head or heart, and if I know it’s coming, I’m fast enough to dodge. I suspect he has something much more diabolical in mind. I just wish I knew what it was.”