The Warrior Victorious

14

I’ve never found wilderness particularly attractive, but there was something very satisfying in being in the wilderness on New Dawn. We who had gotten there on five large transports had set up a temporary camp just out of detection range of the complex, and it wouldn’t be long before we got the attack under way. I was wandering around alone for once, Tammad, Irin and Rissim all being occupied with other things, and I made excellent use of the thinking time. I couldn’t say I was particularly happy with one of the decisions I’d made, but another of them made up for it as far as it could ever be made up for. In a small way it even brightened the cloudy skies above me, and made me fairly eager to be finished with what we were doing so I could get started . . . .

“Well, fancy meeting you here,” a voice drawled, and I looked up to see Ashton giving me her usual grin. “Did you escape, or are you out on parole?”

“The rest of them are busy,” I answered, amused in spite of myself. “And I’m not being held prisoner, we’re just trying to work out a problem together. It only looks and feels as though I’m being held prisoner.”

“Well, Murdock and I have missed you these last days,” she said, putting an arm around my shoulders to aim me toward one of the tents. “Why don’t you visit with us for a few minutes during what will probably be our last lull, and tell us what’s been happening with you?”

Having nothing better to do I shrugged and agreed, and a moment later Murdock was adding his welcoming words to Ashton’s. He looked really tired and so did she, but that was only to be expected.

“Nothing very much has been happening,” I said when Ashton repeated her question, sipping from the cup of kimla I’d been given. “There’s something Tammad and I can’t agree on, and even with Irin’s and Rissim’s help we aren’t finding it possible to settle. I’m more than willing to keep trying, but I’m afraid that very soon he and I will be going our separate ways.”

I thought about what I’d be losing as I sipped at my kimla, and about all those glorious nights and satisfying days I’d been spending with Tammad. That first night on Rimilia I’d been more than ready to give him up, furious that the beast had kept himself shielded and then had given me the spanking I’d missed getting from Rissim. He’d punished me for controlling him and had pointed out that he would and could do it again if I ever tried controlling him again, and then he’d taken me in his arms and had made love to me. After that things were somehow different between us, just as though I was no longer simply a wenda in his mind, more like he thought of me as w’wenda. It was an acceptance above and beyond the love he felt, and I’d never known anything could be that good.

“What plans have you made for after the attack is done?” Murdock asked suddenly, as though something had just come to him. “Am I mistaken in believing you mean to remain on Rimilia a short while to assist in investigating the source of your strength and abilities?”

“I have something to do first, but after that I’ll be back on Rimilia to help,” I answered with a smile, again feeling that sense of excited anticipation. “I’m very glad there’s a coordinated attack being launched at Rathmore and his group while we’re seeing to this one, because I really do need to go to Central for a short time. I-left something there a while ago, something that doesn’t entirely belong to me, and I’d like to get it back and give it to its rightful owner. It’s all I can do, Murdock, and maybe it will help a little.”

“The child you left in stasis,” Murdock said with no expression on his face, surprising me by knowing about it. “You intend having the fetus reimplanted, bearing the child, and then giving it to Tammad. To make up for your not being able to remain beside him.”

“Why, yes,” I said, flustered over seeing what had to be his talent at work, not understanding why his eyes and mind were as dead as his voice. “The child is his and mine, and I’ve never wanted anything more than I want to give my beloved our child. I know I won’t be able to stay with him, so this is the only way to do it.”

“Terrilian-my dear child-how do I say this?” Murdock whispered, the tortured pain in him so heavy that Ashton was as shocked as I. “They-knew about the child, just as they know everything about the Primes they’re so concerned with. They couldn’t-allow a ‘tainted’ mixture of blood to remain where it might have-embarrassed them. They—they—”

He raised a trembling hand as he found it impossible to go on, his eyes trying to tell me how much he hurt for me, but all I could do was stand up while letting the cup of kimla fall to the tent floor. They’d taken my baby from where I’d left it and they’d killed it, throwing it away as though it were so much disgusting garbage. Ashton’s mind was crying as she tried to reach for me, but I thrust her away with more strength than my arms had ever had and ran out of the tent. I had to get away from there, away from the place I’d been told something so terrible I couldn’t bear it, and running was the only way to do it. I ran and I ran, out of the camp, into the forest and beyond, trying not to think, using the power of my mind to keep anyone from following me. I had to get away, and it didn’t matter to where.

Running hard and wild does help to keep you from thinking, especially when you’re crying and raveningly furious and totally shattered, all at the same time. I ran on for what felt like hours, picking myself up and going on again when I fell, not caring where I was going or how scratched and bruised I was getting. There were no predators in the area to threaten me, none would have dared even if they’d been there, so I just kept going. I had to find some place that agony couldn’t reach me, some place I could scream out loud and no one would hear it, but when I was finally forced to stop for a while I still hadn’t gotten there. Sweat streamed down my face and mixed with the dirt on it while I stood panting and gasping for breath, but I still wasn’t where I wanted to be. We had scouts out in the woods, I remembered, and I had to avoid them or I’d never find the place I needed.

I wiped my torn palms on the brown uniform I wore, the same uniform I’d been wearing when I escaped from the complex, the uniform I’d somehow felt I had to wear even though Tammad had hated the idea. It seemed to be coming in handy after all, getting even more torn and ruined than it had been, saving good clothes from being treated like that. I started to laugh at myself for thinking about clothes at a time like that, but it immediately turned to sobbing, that forced me to put a hand over my mouth, and then I began running again.

I began running, but suddenly something sharp pinched my left arm, and I looked over to see the dart, and then I didn’t see anything

I woke up feeling lethargic, but it only took me a minute to understand what had happened and where I was. I was still in the filthy, sweat-covered uniform, and my left arm hurt a little where the dart had hit me. I must have known I’d run into some of the people from the complex even before the knockout drug had taken effect, and looking around at the small room I lay in confirmed that. I was on a narrow, padded couch of brown leather in a neatly dark-paneled room with a tiny, spotless desk, and the Sec staring at me just completed the picture. I took my time getting around to examining her face, but when I did she smiled faintly.

“In case you don’t remember, the name’s Finner,” she said, studying me from the chair she sat in. She was a big woman with blond hair and gray eyes, and I recalled her as the Sec in the dorm room who had tried to talk me into cooperating.

“I remember,” I said, examining her mind to find what I thought I would. She was a null, even if she did show more emotion than the rest of the breed. “Do they really think hiding behind you will do them any good?”

“They know it will,” she answered with a wider smile, crossing her legs as she relaxed back in the chair. “You did a good job of keeping out of the way of searchers for a lot of days, but your luck ran out when you stumbled over that team looking for targets to bring back. You really couldn’t have expected to stay loose much longer, and now that we have you again you might as well be reasonable. ”

I sat up on the couch to cover my surprise, only right then understanding that those people still didn’t know Iii been rescued. That meant they also didn’t know about the attack ready to happen, and I intended keeping it that way.

“What is it you expect me to be reasonable about?” I asked as I ran my hands through my hair, finally understanding why I had felt it necessary to wear that brown uniform. “If you remember me all that well, you might also remember my opinions about cooperating.”

“Look, honey, there’s only one reason you and I are holding this conversation,” she said, her gray eyes directly on me. “If any other girl had given them the trouble you did, right now shed be finding it tough to understand the wall she was staring at. They didn’t take your mind because they want to find out about it first, and they don’t much care how they accomplish that. Once they have everything they need, you’re off the hook. You’ll go quietly to sleep, and when you wake up again you won’t mind making babies or anything else.”

Straight out, without trying to fool me; the only thing I had to look forward to was pain if I didn’t cooperate, a final end to all the trouble if I did. It was the closest they were willing to let me come to freedom or death, and were offering it as a prize for my cooperation. I didn’t want to shiver, but not wanting to didn’t stop it.

“I really do have to remember to thank them for their generosity,” I said, letting my mind reach out as I looked away from her. “Just what kind of answers do they think they can get from me, and what good do they expect it to do them?”

“They want to know what you did to Serdin,” she answered willingly enough, still sounding mostly unconcerned. “They also want to know if you can do anything else, and if so, what.”

My searching mind had had some difficulty getting through the-tension-of some sort that seemed to surround the room, but once through I was aware of all the minds available to be reached. Most of them were rather far, but a group of five plus three null minds couldn’t have been more than a room or two away. They were also listening to what was going on in my room, that was almost as clear as words, and suddenly I knew how I wanted to respond to their questions—and incidently divert them from looking outside for a while.

“I can’t explain what I did to Serdin,” I said, bringing my eyes back to her while giving no indication that I knew anyone else was listening. “I don’t understand myself how it works, all I know is how to do it. As far as the rest of it goes-what I can do is beat any Prime in this place. If none of them have ever gotten out the way I did they can’t be much, which is exactly what I think of this whole operation. Half-baked normals puffing up the pride of a bunch of so-called Primes, all of them trying to hide how incompetent they are by telling each other how great they are. But they are men, Finner, so I never expected any more.”

“Is that supposed to be between you and me?” she asked, fractionally more amused. “Did you check a mind or two on your way out, and that’s how you know what they’re like? And while we’re near the subject, just exactly how did you get reawakened in the first place?”

“How I got to be awake is a piece of information I’ll be keeping to myself for a while,” I said, making it sound as though I intended bargaining with the point at a later time. “You can tell or not tell what I said about their operation, I couldn’t care less, but I don’t think they’ll really enjoy hearing it. And no, I didn’t check any minds on my way out, but I didn’t have to. As great as Kel-Ten thought he was, he was still here. By getting out, I proved I’m better.”

“I see,” she said, stirring in the chair before getting to her feet. “For some reason they don’t want any men around you, so you and I will be spending some time together. I’ll let them know you’re awake and somewhat willing to be reasonable, and then I’ll be back. Want anything to eat or drink?”

“You’ve got to be kidding,” I said with a snort, folding one leg under me on the leather couch. “What I found in the woods and got from the Ejects was no banquet, but at least it wasn’t added to. I’d rather starve than find myself drugged up again.”

“So it was the Ejects who helped you,” she said, nodding at the confirmation she’d gotten out of me. “We thought so, but didn’t know for sure. They’ll end up teaching them not to do that again, especially after they thought they knew better than to interfere with one of ours to begin with. I’ll be back in a couple of minutes.”

She went out and closed the door behind her, leaving the room a little darker without the presence of her white uniform. I kept my face expressionless and my mind curtained, but I wanted to bare my teeth at what they thought they’d be doing to those “Ejects” who had helped me. I couldn’t wait until they really were mixing it up with those who had helped me, but I had to stall for time until everything was ready. That was why I’d insulted them and their precious Primes, pretending at the same time that I knew nothing about the level of mind power I’d be going up against. Injured pride very often makes people act like fools, especially if they believe they can get the answers they want along with a good deal of satisfaction. If they let me challenge their people they could have me watched while I did it, and then they could find out about my abilities before I was flattened. That was the way I was hoping it would work, but I still kept my fingers crossed out of sight while I waited.

It was longer than the couple of minutes Firmer had mentioned before she got back, and she certainly hadn’t been reporting anything to anyone. She’d gone to the room her bosses were in and had waited while they argued about what to do, and I thought I knew how it had worked out. If Serdin hadn’t been one of the ones listening my planning probably would have ended up down the drain, but he had been one of them, and what he wanted was revenge. The others had argued with him but he’d shouted them down, and then he’d given instructions to Firmer.

“You were right about them not liking the way you looked down your nose at their Primes,” she said as she closed the door behind her before going back to her chair. “They decided that if you’re all that good, you won’t mind answering a challenge or two from their men. I told them I doubted if you’d mind at all.”

“Of course I wouldn’t mind,” I blustered, trying to sound nervous and unsure but too stubborn to back down. “I know they can’t be anything much, so why would I mind?”

“You wouldn’t, so you’ll be glad to know they’re setting it up now,” she said, getting some amusement out of my discomfort. “As soon as everything’s ready they’ll send for us, so we can relax until they do. And in case you were wondering, this room is in the middle of the complex, but don’t expect to pick up anything through the walls. The room is shielded, so you won’t be able to get through.”

“Oh,” I said in a wilted way, hoping I looked completely chastened instead of ready to stick my tongue out and make a rude noise. So that was what that strange tension around the room was supposed to be, shielding, and didn’t Serdin and his friends feel safe behind it. I made myself more comfortable on the couch while I hoped they felt very safe-right up to the minute I reached through it to get them, and then gave them my thanks for what they’d done to me and the child I would now never know.

It took me a couple of minutes to back my rage down to a manageable level, but once it was done I found I had nothing to occupy me enough to keep it down. I needed a distraction until my challenge was arranged, but friendly conversation with Firmer was out; the less I said the less chance there would be of my saying the wrong thing, and I didn’t particularly want to get friendly with Firmer. That left nothing but her mind to occupy me, a mind I couldn’t touch because she was a null. I’d never really been that close to a null before with nothing else happening, and I had nothing better to do anyway . . . .

Twenty minutes later that was all I had out of my efforts: a whole lot of nothing. Firmer sat relaxed in her chair while I shifted on my couch, trying to figure out where she could be feeling whatever it was she did feel. I’d done a little gentle sending just as a test, but the big blond Sec hadn’t felt a thing. I knew she was there and alive, I could see that even if I couldn’t prove it with my mind, but where the hell were her emotions? They had to be .some place if she was feeling things, and the amusement shed shown meant she was feeling them. Were they working on a different frequency, hidden in another dimension, what? Where in hell could they possibly—

“Okay, they’re ready for her now,” a voice came from the doorway, making me jump and look up. Another null female Sec stood there, and she was talking to Firmer.

“Okay, honey, now’s the time you get to show everybody what you can do,” Firmer said, getting out of her char. “You follow her, and I’ll follow you.

I stood up slowly, still playing scared but stubborn, and went toward the newcomer Sec. She waited until I reached her before turning and leading the way, and once I was out in the hall I understood where I was in relation to the part of the complex I knew. We were walking through the area on the inner side of the executive offices, and the women’s Medical section was just ahead. After just a few steps we were passing their lines, and they still didn’t look around in curiosity.

I was escorted through the women’s dormitory and the low dining room into the men’s area, and from there to the part of the building where all the exercising and training was done. When we moved out of the lift area we could see a small crowd of people waiting around the assignment board, mostly male with a couple of female executive types among them, and I didn’t realize the welcoming committee wasn’t official until Finner moved up to walk to my right instead of following along behind.

“I hope you’ll excuse our not stopping, but we have people waiting for us,” she said to the group in general, keeping it polite but also making it firm. “Since you were all invited, why don’t you just come along with us?”

“We prefer voicing an opinion or two ahead of the rest,” the lazy answer came as one man stepped out in front of the others, his grin full of anticipation. I didn’t have to look twice to know Jer-Mar, the very first Prime I’d met in that place, and when his blue eyes came to me I also had no trouble remembering the vicious delight they usually showed. “Well, well, sweet thing, so you’ve returned to us in ignominy. They won’t be letting Kel-Ten keep you all to himself any longer, you know, which means you’ll be available to the rest of us again. They intend seeing how well you do being tied down in a room with an open door, I hear, so I’ve already volunteered to be first. And tenth. And fiftieth. You have no idea how much I’m looking forward to that.”

He had moved up to stop in front of me by then, deliberately blocking our path, his mind positively writhing with delight. Firmer put a hand to my arm, obviously intending to guide me around him, but the slime wasn’t finished. Once he’d said the words meant to send me cowering to the floor at his feet, he reached a hand out and closed his fingers hard on my left breast.

Any competent tactician would know that the worst thing you can do is show your surprise reserve before the battle starts, but it wasn’t a tactician who had had so much done to her by that lower life form, it was me. Without even stopping to think about it I reached through my curtain to Jer-Mar’s mind, and then it was him doing the screaming, his face twisted in shock at the pain he felt. He went to his knees clutching his groin, his screams echoing in the otherwise silent area, and the faces of his cronies were gray with suddenly-departed gloating.

“So now we know one of the things you can do,” Firmer observed calmly, looking down at the writhing Prime. “Would you like to tell me what it is for the sake of my next report?”

To possibly keep them off your back for a little longer, was the suggestion, which might or might not have been true. At that point it hopefully didn’t matter that much, so all I did was shrug.

“He thinks he’s feeling very sensitive parts of him being squeezed in a strong, angry fist,” I answered, watching Jer-Mar collapse completely to the floor as I released him. “I’m sure you know it isn’t the pain we’re given but the pain we think we feel that hurts, so I didn’t have to touch him to do that. All I had to do was give him the proper sensations.”

“All,” the other Sec said in a mutter from my left, still staring at Jer-Mar. Firmer did no more than nod, and then we continued on our way. Behind us we left a number of very upset males, and two equally disturbed females in yellow uniforms. Quatry and her loyal assistant still hated me, but now they feared me as well.

Our final destination turned out to be one of the bigger training rooms, and there were quite a lot of people in it. Aside from white-clad Secs and black-clad trainers there were dozens of Primes dressed in their short exercise clothes, most of their minds filled with outrage and indignation. Iii been told how touchy they were when it came to being challenged, but that was just too bad about them. You didn’t have to be special to challenge someone, you just had to be good—or ready to fall. As I felt my curtain thickening against the noise I knew I wasn’t ready to fall, and wouldn’t be if I had the choice. Through the windows wed passed I’d been able to see it was almost full dark, not far from the time the attack was scheduled for.

I was led through the big room to the back of it, away from the doors to the hall where the major portion of the crowd was. There were two men in black waiting for me there, giving off the air of being in charge, but I already knew they weren’t. We were being watched and monitored from very near, from a place that was safely behind shielded walls, where those in the room could remain untouched.

“So this is the ring who thinks she can face up to Primes,” one of the trainers said as we came up, his voice dripping contempt as his mind probed toward mine. “It’s too bad we were all dragged away from what we were doing for nothing. Her mind power is so weak, I can barely detect it.”

“That makes you weak, not me,” I countered as I stopped a couple of feet in front of him, refusing to get flustered or angry or embarrassed the way he wanted me to. “If you were all that good you’d be showing off your knees like the rest of them, not wearing black from head to toe. If we’re supposed to be here for a reason, why don’t we skip the conversation and get on with it.”

The man’s face flushed as his mind filled with insult, but he realized very quickly I was just giving back what I had gotten. He didn’t seem to think I had the right to do that, but he wasn’t too thickheaded to remember I was a Prime, and one who could do things no one knew much about. He would have preferred continuing the argument, but he gritted his teeth and got on with the show instead.

“If you’re in that much of a hurry to lose, I think we can oblige you,” he said, still stiff with affront but also pleased at the thought of what he knew would be done to me. “Step right out here and we’ll get started.”

He gestured toward one of the lines on the floor before beginning to head for it, and my two Sec companions moved toward the back wall when I followed the man. They were the only other women in the room, and even though their faces were expressionless I had the strangest feeling they were hoping I wouldn’t lose. The men in that place were arrogant beyond standard for the breed, and even though female Sees would not be given the disdain used on female Primes, they must have had something they would have enjoyed getting even for. I smiled to myself just a little at that, taking it as a confirmation that nulls did feel things like everyone else after all.

“There’s no sense in having one of our absolute best waste his time on you,” the man in black announced more to the audience than to me when I joined him on the line, a smirk creasing his face. “After this is over you’ll have their attention, but not now. Prime Ind-Fam will begin, and will probably also finish. Just face him, he’ll take care of the rest.”

The man stepped away from me to the accompaniment of laughter from the watching Primes, all of them really enjoying themselves. The one who seemed happiest, though, was the brown-haired, brown-eyed man who stood facing me on a line of his own, twenty feet away if the distance indicators were accurate. That had to be Ind-Fam, of course, and he didn’t waste a minute beyond the time it took for the trainer to get out of range.

“You don’t have to be afraid of me,” he called while projecting heavy fear, his mind. steady and confident. “You’d be very wise if you were, but you don’t have to.”

The man had moderate strength in his range, but just as the trainer had said, he wasn’t one of the best. I shunted the spread-out fear past me, then sent back a little gift of my own.

“You don’t have to be sorry for what you did, but somehow I think you are,” I called back, playing the game while I sent him grief instead of sorrow. His mind blotted up the emotion like a dry towel dropped in a puddle, his frantic efforts to resist proving absolutely worthless. His eyes widened as he began to tremble, and then he was on his knees sobbing with heartbreak, his face buried in his hands. There was shock in the minds behind him, and then two of his friends came forward to help, while that second trainer I’d seen moved out of the crowd and came forward. By then the first one in black was standing beside me again, and he was the one the second trainer spoke to.

“Nothing,” he said as he came up, his face on the pale side. “If there was any spread I couldn’t detect it, and neither could the Primes in front of me. I was watching them at the same time.”

“Why should there have been any spread?” I asked innocently, just as though I didn’t know what the problem was. “I was taught to keep my projections tight. Weren’t the rest of you taught the same?”

The two men stared at me without answering, knowing damned well that everyone’s projections spread at least a little at the edge of their range. Since twenty feet should have been close to my limit they didn’t understand what was happening, but standing there guessing wasn’t getting them anywhere.

“We’ll go on to the next one,” the first trainer who was obviously in charge decided, ignoring me in favor of his coworker. “Get back in position.”

The second man nodded then turned and trotted back to where he’d been, passing another great Prime who had stepped out of the crowd to claim a line. This one wasn’t laughing or making clever comments, and the line he stood on was thirty feet away. As soon as I was alone again he launched his attack, which proved to be a little stronger than the previous one. Increasing your range also increases your strength, of course, and the scathing, belittling contempt should have sent me shuddering back in shame and inadequacy, firmly believing I had no chance against him. He also held the projection longer, which meant I had to work around what he was sending in order to reach him, but reach him I did. His projection began wavering when the insecurity touched him, and only seconds later he was also down on hands and knees, but not crying like his predecessor. His problem was that he was so unsure of himself he didn’t dare trust himself to stand without falling, and wasn’t even certain he could keep the floor under him with the help of his hands. This time there was a thick faintly frightened silence before anyone came forward to help him, and after that the muttering began.

“You’re playing some kind of game with us, aren’t you?” the first trainer said from his place to my left, having already gotten a headshake from his second in command in the crowd. “You’re showing nothing like enough power to do all that, but you’re still doing it. Who the hell are you, or better yet, what are you?”

“I’m a Prime of the Centran Amalgamation,” I answered, turning my head to look him in the eye. “Did you think they gave that calling just to superior men, and simply let the women use it to soothe their delicate little egos? Did it never occur to you that you might have done better training the girls?”

Again he simply stared at me, trying not to believe I was telling him women were potentially more powerful than men, an outright lie I was hoping they would all start to believe. They deserved to be driven wild for what they’d done to the women in that place, even if that wildness lasted only a little while. The ones who survived would learn the truth—but first they had to survive.

“You’re still playing games,” he said flatly after a moment, not really believing his supposed decision. “I don’t know what you’re after, but whatever it is, you won’t be getting it. Those who win their challenges also win the right to face the best, and that’s where you’ve managed to get yourself. They’ve already been sent for, so why don’t you spend the next five minutes getting your strength back?”

He gave me a very small, very cold smile and turned away, leaving me to stand on my line all alone. He couldn’t get through my curtain to really touch my mind, but after facing two challenges he knew I had to be very tired and almost to the end of my strength. If I had been tired five minutes wouldn’t have been long enough to rest even if I used trance, especially not with the big guns coming. Happily for me I hadn’t expended much in the way of strength so I didn’t have to rest, but there was no sense in sharing that piece of information, even though it would have made them all feel worse. Let them think I was tired but stubbornly refusing to admit it; their eventual enlightening and disappointment would only be that much sharper.

Anyone watching me should have concluded I was waiting deep in worried thought, but instead of worrying I was looking around for some indication that the attack was starting. The crash teams were scheduled to come in first and disable the outer defense weapons, and then they were to do the same with the inner ones if they could. No one wanted them setting off alarms or cutting off the lighting system to warn the inhabitants our fighters were on the way, but once those fighters were inside, the defenses would go no matter what went with them. Our fighting force consisted of those of Central stock with sophisticated hand weapons, those of Rimilian stock with swords, and everyone with a mind shield for defense and Prime strength for offense. The w’wendaa with us hadn’t been trained to community-level ability, but they’d been paired with mind warriors as a protection, and also to give them a chance to see what it was possible to accomplish. The community had a large number of l’lendaa but only a few w’wendaa, and they’d been invited to join the attack in an effort to recruit some of them. The community wanted them to join and train, but believed more in enticement than in coercion.

I touched a number of minds around the building, finding nothing out of the ordinary, and then I caught just a trace of extreme pain before the mind winked out. Unconscious or dead I couldn’t tell, but I was definitely able to detect a number of shields around the place that mind had turned off in.- It had to mean at least one of the crash teams had made it inside the building, which also meant it would only be a matter of minutes before everyone else joined them. I found myself flooded with vast relief even as I pulled my mind back, finally able to admit I’d been starting to feel very alone again. Just being in the complex made my hands want to shake, but knowing I would soon have my own there helped to keep them as steady as I needed them to be.

“Rest time is over, girl,” the trainer’s voice came suddenly, a lot of satisfaction in it. “Open your eyes and turn around, you have very special visitors waiting to get a look at their challenger.”

I opened my eyes and turned as he’d suggested, but the newcomers weren’t in any way surprising. The crowd had separated and moved left and right in the room, leaving a broad aisle that framed three men who stood at the other end. Two were in red shorts and top, one of them Ank-Soh and the other most probably his co-holder of second place, they two in turn framing the man who stood between them. That one was dressed in the gold he alone was permitted to wear, and even at that distance I could tell his eyes were on me. His emotions were being held rigidly in check, and someone who didn’t know better would think Kel-Ten was only faintly interested in answering my challenge.

“When they told him you were gone, they had to drug him to bring him down out of the rage,” the man beside me murmured, knowing well enough who I was looking at. “He’s not used to having rings turn their back on him unless they’re on hands and knees, and he’s sure as hell not used to having them turn around and challenge him after he’s dipped them good. He wants more than a small piece of you, girl, .he wants what he’s been promised when he wins: enough hours with you to take the bad taste out of his mouth.”

With me still completely aware while it was happening, the dirty laugh in his mind told me, something he couldn’t say out loud in case I didn’t yet know what my final fate was to be. I closed my hands to fists at my sides to help keep them steady, all the while continuing to stare at Kel-Ten. As far as he knew I’d run out on him after he’d taken the risk of awakening me, not caring that I was leaving him behind as long as I got out. He didn’t know he would soon be free and maybe wouldn’t have cared even if he’d known; what I was searching for was some vestige of tender feeling inside me for him. He was the one who had made my escape possible, the one who had saved me from Jer-Mar and the women in yellow, the one I had spent so much time with. I should have been feeling something for him besides the deep-burning anger and almost-hatred I did feel. I’d forgiven Tammad for what he’d done to me; why couldn’t I forgive Kel-Ten?

“Are you starting to feel nervous, girl?” the trainer asked with the dirty laugh now showing up on the outside, clearly misinterpreting my reactions. I was starting to worry, all right, but not in the way he thought. Considering the fact that I owed Kel-Ten quite a lot it wouldn’t have been fair to hurt him, but that was exactly what I wanted more and more to do. I kept remembering being ordered to my belly, and being dressed in a tight gold shirt that was then torn almost to my waist. I remembered being treated as though I were nothing, used to satisfy his needs, ignored when it came to my own. He’d awakened me, all right, to make sure that he was able to escape, but I had to keep telling myself I owed him . . . .

“I think they’re just about ready for you,” the man beside me said, his gloating anticipation very strong. “As luck would have it, all three of them have had a really easy day; they’re as fresh and rested as if they just got up from a good night’s sleep. And since you like games so much, we’ve decided we’ve got one for you. ”

“What are you talking about?” I asked without looking at him, still trying to soothe the growl out of my mind. If I had to fight Kel-Ten in my current mood I’d end up really hurting him, and the worst part of the problem I faced was that most of me liked the idea. I wanted to hurt him, wanted it very much because I hated him, and couldn’t find the faintest trace of guilt in me to make the hate go away. The only thing I had going for me just then was that Ank-Soh and his partner would need to be faced before it was Kel-Ten’s turn, and being number three on the list just might save him.

“I’m talking about the new game we just made up,” the trainer said, really enjoying himself. “Until now you’ve done it just the way it’s usually done, one challenger and one defender, winner going on to face the next higher defender. Maybe if you weren’t a-‘Prime of the Centran Amalgamation’ we would have continued doing it that way, but seeing you’re so important we decided you deserved something special. Instead of facing them one at a time, they’ll be coming against you together-unless you’d like to answer the question of where you learned to do what you’re doing. That will get you two on one, and to bring it down all the way you tell us exactly what your range and capabilities are. You can have thirty seconds to think it over.”

I finally turned my head to look at him, but he was too busy checking the time to return the look, and I might not have noticed even if he had. My thoughts were thundering around inside my head, and I couldn’t decide whether I felt suffocated or chilled. I couldn’t answer the questions they’d asked, not even if I wanted to tell the truth, but I also couldn’t face all three of those men together. I knew I couldn’t best all three unless I killed them the way I’d killed that Hand of Power, and for all the hate I felt I didn’t even want to see Kel-Ten dead. Hurt for the way he’d hurt me, yes, but not dead!

“You can’t expect me to take this seriously,” I said to the man counting time, finding it was definitely chill that was all around me. “If those three together manage to stomp me flat, you won’t have your answers and you won’t have me. Besides, I thought Kel-Ten was promised something. ”

“He was,” the trainer said without raising his head, the smile visible only in his mind. “That’s why the three of them won’t be stomping you flat, only making you wish they had. Have you ever had three male Primes playing your mind the way they would play your body if you were theirs to keep? Until now they’ve only practiced on female targets, keeping it relatively short and simple. With you it won’t be either, and if you expect the screaming to bother them you’re kidding yourself. Your thirty seconds are up.”

His eyes came up to me then, clearly hoping I would still refuse to cooperate, and there was nothing I could do but oblige him. His mind had confirmed the truth of everything he’d said, but there was still nothing I could tell him that would do anyone any good. I’d have to face the three—but then it came to me that maybe there was something I could show them.

“So you’re curious about what my range is,” I said, as flatly as he’d spoken earlier. “I think I will let you know that-in my own special way.”

I turned from his newborn frown to walk two steps forward, knowing I wasn’t about to give anything away. If I had to face three strong, trained minds I couldn’t do it with my curtain in place and possibly getting in the way, so I had to banish it. Doing it with a flair might not get me anything that would help, but there was a chance it could and none that it would hurt.

“Brothers, there’s something you have to know,” I called to the three men at the far end of the room, using the opportunity to try reminding them that we were, after all, the same kind. “The people running this place want you to face me, but they’re using you just like they always have, this time to see if you can succeed where others have failed. I know your minds but you don’t know mine, so why don’t I show it to you before you decide whether or not to let them use you again.”

There was just enough time for a startled mutter to break out in the crowd of watchers to either side of the room, and then it turned into a concerted gasp to greet the banishing of my curtain. The strongest mind those men had ever seen was Kel-Ten’s, and I could feel the shock in every one of them when they were able to reach mine. From where they all stood they shouldn’t have been able to reach me; the fact that they could told them I was the one doing the reaching, and that in itself turned them very shaken.

“I see Ank-Soh and his level-brother are uncertain,” I said, pressing my small advantage while at the same time sending a strong “patience!” to Kel-Ten. I wanted him to know the game we’d played wasn’t over yet, that there was still a chance for him to have what we’d plotted for, but I couldn’t quite get how he took it in the midst of all the new mental noise flying around. “Yes, I can read you from this distance, but more to the point I can also touch you. Are you going to let them send you against me, forcing me to destroy you, just so they can find out what I’m capable of? In range and together you three may well be stronger than I am, but let me show you another thing I can do.”

I called up the light shield to cover my mind and immediately reached through it, but almost didn’t have to bother. The crowd of watching Primes was going wild, knowing I was right then untouchable to each and every one of them, something they’d never seen anyone do on their own before. Things seemed to be going well enough to let me feel encouraged, but at times like that there must be a law that causes someone to come along and spoil it.

“Be quiet!” the man in black shouted as he came up beside me, his face red as he raised both arms to command the silence he’d demanded. “Shut up and listen to me! You’re all acting like a bunch of tight-assed virgins, listening to this ring and taking her seriously! Didn’t any of you ever face a challenge before’? Did you let your opponent talk a win out of you? If she didn’t know damned well she would lose, wouldn’t she be fighting instead of flapping her mouth? Are you men and Primes, or are you shivering rings yourselves? Get over here and make her drop this shield, then teach her what you do to females who try getting out of the place they belong!”

He shoved me forward a few steps then, deeper into the new mutter rising to both sides of the room, but worse than that closer to the three he’d mainly been addressing. They’d all been staring at me during his harangue, their minds too far away to reach easily through the shield, and after a very brief hesitation Kel-Ten started forward! All I could think of was the time Len had used his mind to make my body react, the times Tammad had done the same, all those times other Rimilian males had unknowingly coerced me into doing what pleased them. If Kel-Ten and the others got control of me Iii do anything they said, answer any questions they asked, and being done like that frightened me more than even the thought of death could. If I stayed shielded they couldn’t touch my mind—but the trainer had said it was possible to force a shield open! To keep them away from me I’d have to kill them, but I didn’t want to kill them! I was very much afraid it wasn’t possible to kill with your mind when you didn’t want to, which left me with nothing at all to do to protect myself. I stood in the middle of the floor as Kel-Ten, leading the other two, slowly got nearer, helpless to keep myself from trembling and not far from a whimper.

“The girl isn’t the only one who had a lot to say,” Kel-Ten announced suddenly, stopping just as abruptly with the other two behind him. “You did a lot of talking yourself, Master Trainer, but I somehow missed the part where you proved she was lying when she said you were using us. Did you miss the fact that we could feel her mind all the way over on the other side of the room? Would you like to know how little spread there was even at that distance? We were told we were being rewarded by being allowed to go after her together to teach her a lesson. We could do anything we liked as long as we didn’t hurt her permanently, they said. Facing a mind like that is a reward? Without being told we have to work together, otherwise we’ll end up losing? Would you like to tell us how many of us you expect to lose anyway? Would you?”

By that time Kel-Ten was shouting, his fury so strong it blazed out of him in all directions. Even through my shield I could feel that Ank-Soh and the other Prime in red were linking their own fury and sending it out with his, spreading it to every Prime in the room. The man in black beside me had gone pale, and then he was staggering under the storm of rage echoing throughout the room.

“Get them all!” Kel-Ten screamed with teeth bared, and without an instant’s hesitation the Primes in the room turned on every white or black-clad figure, using their minds against the black and their fists and feet against the white, those two colors going down beneath whichever torrent overwhelmed it. There’s a limit to the amount of power you can shunt aside when it comes at you, and every trainer in the room was well beyond that limit.

I stood in the only sane three-foot square in the room, watching in shock as the Primes raged and ravened all over the rest of it, attacking the paneling on the walls when there were no more living enemies to go after. Every shred of resentment and anger they’d ever felt had been triggered at once, turning them into deadly, unreasoning animals, not caring what they did or who saw it.

Saw it! I realized with another shock that they didn’t know we were being watched by what was probably every higher-up in the complex, who had to have some way of stopping riots like that. I knew I had to do something to stop them, but it wasn’t possible to work through the boiling sea of insanity the room had become. I had to get out of there, and then I would do what I could.

I actually glanced over my shoulder to see whether or not I was being watched by the two Secs who had brought me there, then looked quickly away again before starting to make my way out of the room. I would have felt stupid for not realizing that a white uniform is a white uniform no matter who’s wearing it—if I hadn’t felt so sickened instead. That they were women had made no difference to the Primes, all that had mattered was that they were Sees. I would have closed my eyes and emptied my insides at that horrible example of total equality, but I simply didn’t have the time.

It didn’t take me as long as I thought it would to get out of the room. I was worried about the brown uniform I had on, but wrapping myself in a strong projection of unimportance had let me move through the riot without anyone paying any attention to me. I stopped out in the hall and took a deep breath, but didn’t have any more time to lose than that. Once the training room was completely demolished the riot would spill out into the rest of the building, and I had to be away after the people I was looking for well before that. Glad that the shielding on the room was still intact I sent my mind out, and found what I was looking for almost immediately. Those very important people were very close, and all of them seemed to be in a panic. I saw where they were in relation to the room I had just left, and quickly headed that way.

Down the hall and around one turn brought me to a door marked, “Do not enter,” and I had no doubt the command was usually obeyed. That time, though, it was ignored completely as I turned the knob and quietly entered, the noise in the room hitting at me as soon as I opened the door. The room was very tastefully and comfortably decorated around the half dozen viewing screens it held, but the men occupying it weren’t enjoying what it offered or taking advantage of the viewing it afforded. They were arguing bitterly, and Serdin seemed to be one against all the others.

“I don’t know why the pacifiers aren’t working!” he was shouting, his gray uniform looking rumpled rather than neat and cool. “That’s why I sent a repair crew to central control! What more do you want me to do?”

“We want you to get this stopped!” one of the men came back in a hiss, a heavy man also in gray who had very long brown hair and rings on nearly all of his fingers. “If this is an example of the way you’ve been running this complex, I’m surprised it’s still standing! You can be sure Rathmore will hear all about the way you entertain important guests, you certainly can be sure!”

“Krover, you’ve already been told this has never happened before,” Serdin growled, then gestured toward another man in yellow. “Your own spy there told you that, and if you’re not going to believe him, why did you bother sending him here to be my assistant? You and your associates will be just as safe in this room as I am, and once we get them quieted down you can even help me decide what to do to them for this outrage. Something like that should brighten your visit considerably.”

“I’d rather do something to darken it,” I said as the fat man began to appear mollified, stepping forward to let the door swing closed behind me. Every head in the room turned in my direction, most of them showing expressions of shock, but Serdin looked furious.

“You!” he spat, taking one step toward me, his hands closed to fists at his sides. “You have the nerve to walk in here after everything you’ve done?”

“Why not?” I asked mildly, letting him see nothing of what was growing in my mind—or letting him know I’d dropped my shield. “You don’t have your nulls with you any longer, so what was there to keep me from paying you’ a visit?”

“You can ask that when there are five of us?” he blustered, his mind suddenly cold with worry. “We saw you fighting to get out of facing three men, so what could you possibly do against five?”

“Those weren’t three men, they were three Primes,” said, still keeping the words to a drawl. “Don’t you know the difference yet between the two? Here, let me show you. ”

I took Serdin’s mind with mine and froze him in place, then reached out to the fat man who stood quivering with fear. I replaced his fear with infuriated outrage aimed at Serdin, then watched as the man fronted Serdin, spit at trim, then slapped him hard across the face. At that point I released them both, then smiled faintly.

“See what it means to be a Prime?” I asked, feeling their minds clang with shock while the other three men whimpered and backed away. “I couldn’t have done that to them, not without half crippling them, but I can do anything I like with the untalented.”

My two victims stared at me in horror, their eyes wide as they remembered every fairy tale they’d every heard about why it wasn’t safe to have awakened empaths around. Serdin’s mind stumbled across an idea and seized on it, and he laughed harshly even as he wiped a hand across his mouth.

“You can do anything you like while you’re awake!” he spat at me, vindictive delight coursing through him. “The only thing I have to say to a Prime is—”

The word he spoke registered in my mind even though I couldn’t quite hear and retain it, but nothing happened. I realized then that he’d tried to turn me off, but I’d been right about two “offs” being unworkable. I’d broken out of the last “off” and had never been turned “on” again, and that made whatever word I was keyed to absolutely worthless. The fat man was staring at me with the same hope-for-vengeance Serdin showed, and wasn’t it a pity I had to disappoint them.

“Would you care to repeat what you just said?” I asked, stabbing into each of their minds with a pinpoint of pain. “I’m afraid I didn’t quite hear it.”

The two men screamed with pain and fear, making the other three cower even harder against the wall they’d backed to, and suddenly I was no longer in the mood for games.

“You take people and do whatever you please to them, and don’t give a damn as long as you’re as well off as you want to be,” I said, beginning to walk slowly forward. “You kidnapped me and drugged me and took away my memories and had me savaged, and all the while you laughed and enjoyed what you were watching. That was bad enough, worse than bad enough, but then I found out you had even killed my baby! Do you know what that means I’m going to do to you now? Have you any idea how bad agony can get?”

The two I was screaming at were on the floor trying to crawl away, slobbering and mewling at what they felt from the leakage of my mind. I wasn’t projecting at them yet, only screaming, but the force inside me had been building ever since Murdock had told me what they’d done.

“You’re equally guilty, both of you, and what I give you will be only a taste of what Rathmore will get if I ever find myself in reach of him!” I screamed. “You were worried about being safe, both of you wanted to be safe! Well, I’m going to make you just as safe as my baby was! ”

I projected at them then, so insanely furious that I was aware of nothing but punishing them. Faintly I heard agonized and terrified screams, as though from far away, but. nothing reached through the madness controlling me. I just kept on projecting, until suddenly there was nothing but black.

I stirred where I lay and took a deep breath, feeling a little tired but very satisfied. I opened my eyes to find out where I was, saw a large room decorated in red and black and cobalt blue, and didn’t understand. The room was a very large bedroom, specifically shown by the wide bed I lay on, but I’d never seen it before and couldn’t imagine where it was. For that matter I couldn’t quite remember where I’d been, but as I sat up with my hand to my head I got all the answers in a way I would have preferred never having encountered.

“Well, now, I’m glad to see you awake again,” a voice said from my right and somewhat behind, a voice that chilled me to the bone. “It’s a good thing I had the foresight to bring you here rather than leave you where I found you. Here we won’t be disturbed.”

I didn’t even want to breathe let alone turn around, but a fascination for horror must be part of all of us. Still sitting on the bed I twisted to the right, to see there was no headboard or wall behind me. Instead, the room extended back almost as far as it did ahead, and sitting in a chair watching me, still in his white uniform, was the null Sec Adjin. Sight of his dark hair and eyes started me trembling, which in turn brought him a smile.

“You killed all five of them, you know,” he said, uncrossing his legs to get out of the chair. “If I didn’t know better I would have sworn they suffocated, there in a room with all the air they needed. You were screaming something about that being the way to kill an unborn baby, to deprive it of what it needs to live. I watched you waiting until they stopped moving, and then I watched you collapse. ”

He walked up to the bed and then started moving around it, obviously coming to the side where I sat. I wanted to run farther and faster than I ever had in my life, but his dark eyes kept me frozen where I was even as he strolled nearer.

“Those people are all over the complex by now, did you know that?” he asked, the calm conversation making it seem like a nightmare for me. “Before any of us were aware of it they were inside, and somehow most of our defensive and pacification systems were out. I went back to tell Serdin what was happening, and found that Serdin had no more interest in knowing. That was where I also found you. ”

“Those people are friends of mine,” I whispered, so petrified that all I could do was shake as he sat down beside me to the left. “They know I’m here, so they won’t stop looking until they find me. You can’t keep me...”

“But I can keep you,” he contradicted over my gasp of pain, the fingers of his right hand closed tight in my hair as they forced my head back. “I’ve brought you to a special room of mine, and your friends will be far too busy with the inmates of the complex to find this room for quite a while. By the time they do we’ll be gone from it, and already started on our new life together.”

I cried out and tried to fight free of his grip, but all he did was tighten it as he laughed. Iii also been trying to hammer at his mind, and for some reason I believed he knew it.

“I’m really going to enjoy owning you,” he said, bringing his face down so close to mine that I thought I’d be sick. “Not only will I have your body to use, but I’ll also have the use of your mind-in the way I train you to use it. Those friends of yours must have gone after Rathmore Heilman on Central too, but what they don’t know is that they’re just clearing the way for me. Before they turn around I’ll have all the reins in my hands, and then they’ll find it’s too late to stop me. I’ll see to the removal of the unimportant, those whose deaths won’t stir up a fuss, and you-you’ll take care of the ones who’ll be best dead without a mark on them. You’ll also be able to reach the ones hiding behind doors and guards, the ones who think they’re safe. You will do it for me, sweet thing, because you won’t dare not to.”

Again I tried struggling as his lips lowered to mine, but I simply couldn’t force him away from me. I was terrified of him, terrified of what he would do, but I couldn’t get away! Deep inside, my mind was crying, a terrible small-child wail that acknowledged the fact of my being lost forever. I’d killed those who had killed my

baby, and maybe that was why it was happening, as punishment. I would have done it again even if I knew the price I would be paying, but that didn’t change the fact that I would be owned by a man I both loathed and feared horribly, a man who would give me nothing but pain for the rest of my life. That had to be why I couldn’t belong to the man I loved, the reason why this null who held me had terrified me from the first moment I saw him. Some part of me had known he would own me, and there was nothing I’d ever be able to do to get free again!