It settled to the ground, and its rider hopped off, a tall dark-skinned man. He was male, anyway; Temi wasn’t sure whether these elves/aliens/whatevers could be called men and women. He wore simple green and brown clothing that flowed loosely about him, not quite hiding the easy grace he shared with Eleriss and Jakatra. Was this the healer? If so, maybe this was the operating room. The new elf carried a small leather bag, reminding Temi of some traveling doctor from the Little House on the Prairie days, though the long black hair that fell to his waist in slender elaborate braids probably wouldn’t have been common in Walnut Grove.
Eleriss spoke to the new elf in his language, then handed him a small brown pouch, which quickly disappeared into a pocket with a nod. The doctor sat down cross-legged on the corner of the blanket and opened his leather bag. Temi tried to tell herself this wasn’t ludicrous. A blanket in the woods… after she had been in state-of-the-art hospitals with the best doctors and medical equipment money could buy. This couldn’t possibly be an improvement; God, what if it made her worse?
“He is ready for you,” Eleriss said.
“Was that a payment or a bribe?” Temi asked, more to stall for time than because it mattered. She had broken out in a sweat at her last thought and groped for a way to say she had changed her mind. “Because if he doesn’t want to work on humans, I’ll understand.” And they could go back through that portal and forget about this entire situation.
“He is a healer. He will heal anyone. The gift is to encourage his silence.”
Gift. Right.
“Your kind isn’t allowed here,” Jakatra said bluntly, as if she hadn’t figured that out yet.
“That is not entirely true,” Eleriss said. “She has our blood.”
“Because some randy ranger impregnated her ancestor a few centuries ago doesn’t make her one of us.”
Eleriss frowned at him, at Temi, then drew his comrade off, speaking rapidly in his own language.
Temi closed her eyes. She wanted to go home. As uncomfortable as home was these days, it was less strange than this place.
The doctor—healer, Eleriss had said—waved for her to approach. He had a handsome face, like the others, but it was forbidding, too, like he might be someone who would grow impatient quickly if crossed. Temi walked over, her gait more awkward than usual in the low undergrowth, and was conscious of him watching her leg. He pointed to the center of the blanket. She sat. What would she do if he pulled the equivalent of a hospital gown out of that bag and demanded she undress? Comply? Here? In the middle of the woods, with three strange guys watching her? Delia would probably punch him in the nose.
The healer pointed at her knee and said something in his language. Uh oh, did this one not speak English? Her translators were still arguing a few meters away.
Guessing at the meaning of the words, Temi pulled up the leg of her track pants. She had intentionally picked something loose enough that she could tug the hem up over her knee. He made a clucking noise. It sounded disapproving. With the exception of Eleriss’s cheery words, most of the things that came out of these people’s mouths did. He waved at her knee brace and said something that might have been, “Take it off.”
Temi did so, though the thought that he might do something to make her injury worse came to mind again. She licked her lips, trying to see into his bag. She couldn’t tell what anything was but was moderately reassured by the fact that the tools looked… gadgety. Technological rather than magical, not that she knew what “magical” instruments might look like. She just knew she would sprint back to that portal if he took out a jar of leeches.
The healer lifted her sweaty brace, gave it a sneer, and tossed it off to the side. Temi’s fingers twitched toward it. She didn’t want to lose it when she didn’t know what the end result here would be. She could walk without it, but its support meant less pain, especially when she made sideways movements.
The healer held a palm-sized device over her knee for a minute, scrutinizing it; though if there was some readout, she couldn’t see it from her angle. He poked and prodded in a couple of places. She was glad she had shaved. Next, he withdrew two brown—wooden?—disks with fuzzy undersides that reminded her of velcro. He stuck them to the skin on either side of her knee, and they remained when he removed his hands. He tapped the side of one, then sat back, looking toward Eleriss and Jakatra. They had stopped arguing and had come over to watch. Not exactly a representation of the supportive friends and family one usually had during a surgery. Of course, she hadn’t had anyone supportive around during her numerous trips in and out of the hospital after the accident, either.
A faint heat emanated from the disks, warming her knee as if it were wrapped in a hot towel as part of a massage. Temi stared off into the trees. She didn’t want to get her hopes up that this would do anything, yet that spark of hope kept reappearing in the back of her mind.
The healer spoke to Eleriss, who nodded and told Temi, “He believes you will be ready for full physical activity by this evening.” Eleriss looked at Jakatra. “It is likely gentle training can begin.” There was emphasis on the word gentle.
Jakatra said nothing. What was his reputation among his own people? Was he a jerk here too? Temi had certainly had coaches who were. Most cared, but some subscribed to that tough love method of teaching. Some resented young students with the talent to one day surpass them. At least she shouldn’t have to worry about that here. The way Jakatra had moved during the fight with that monster, he would make any human look clumsy in comparison.
“Is there any chance these monsters I’m supposed to fight can be dealt with quickly?” Temi asked.
“I do not know,” Eleriss said. “We have not identified who is responsible for creating them.”
That would be the smart thing to do, not simply react when they showed up.
The heat had grown warmer. It wasn’t painful yet, but would it become so soon? The healer was merely sitting and waiting.
“What’s it doing?” Temi pointed at the disks.
Eleriss considered the question before answering. Searching for a way to say it in English? “Instructing your cells on how to heal the injury and giving them the energy to do so, so your body won’t be overly drained by the process.” He looked at Jakatra, as if to ask his opinion on the translation. Jakatra gave him an indifferent glance and didn’t comment. “I have seen some of your scientific equipment,” Eleriss said to Temi, “and it is very fascinating, but it is also very different.”
“Fascinating,” Jakatra said. “Right.”
“Why is he helping if he hates humans so much?” Temi jerked a thumb at Jakatra, probably not as afraid of him as she should be.
“As your people would say,—” Eleriss gave his buddy another long look, “—it is a long story.”
“Coercion,” Jakatra said.
“Perhaps not so long a story,” Eleriss said, but didn’t elaborate further.
The healer removed the disks from Temi’s leg. Fortunately, they peeled off without sticking to her skin. He brought back the first device, a diagnostic tool or monitor, presumably. He made a clucking noise again, this one sounding more self-congratulatory than disapproving, then returned his equipment to his bag and stood. He spoke to Temi and lifted his hand.
“You want me to get up?” She flexed her knee experimentally. It felt fine, but bending it while sitting down didn’t usually hurt, so she didn’t assume anything yet.
“Yes,” Eleriss said. “He wishes you to stand and move before he leaves. Test it.”
From habit, Temi kept her leg straight as she rose, putting most of her weight on the good one. After she was standing, she tried a knee bend. Nothing hurt. She bent deeper. Her ankle cracked, which brought an eyebrow raise from Jatakra—what, elves had perfect synovial fluid?—but the knee didn’t protest the movement. She shifted her weight from side to side. Nothing.
“There is no pain?” Eleriss asked. He didn’t sound surprised.
“Not at the moment.” T
emi felt that spark of hope growing, threatening to become a flame, but she forced herself not to assume anything yet. She could take away the pain with enough drugs, at least for a time. For all she knew, the guy had pumped morphine into her knee. But no, his gadgets hadn’t broken her skin, not as far as she could tell.
“It should remain free of pain,” Eleriss said. “Until Jakatra’s training begins.”
Coming from someone else, that might have been a joke, but Temi hadn’t seen these two display much that could be considered a sense of humor.
“Then everything will be in pain,” Eleriss added. “But you will learn much.”
“Goodie.”
“We can start the lecture immediately,” Jakatra said, “with physical activities beginning this evening.”
While he spoke, Temi kept flexing her knee, putting weight on it from different angles. Despite her sarcasm and her determination not to get her hopes up too soon, she had to hide a grin that threatened as she jogged experimentally around the blanket. If her knee returned to 100 percent, she could play tennis again. She could train, compete, and win doing the one thing that she had always loved.
Her circuit brought her around to Eleriss and the stern-faced Jakatra.
“We will show you to your temporary home and the practice arena,” Eleriss said.
Practice arena, not practice court. They had training in mind, too, just not the training she wanted to do. They had healed her so she could learn to poke holes into monsters. And she had agreed to that. She couldn’t go back on her word, even if they would let her.
“Bring the sword,” Jakatra said.
Temi smiled bleakly. She would go with them, but she would bide her time and hope… for a loophole.
Chapter 3
“This will be your home while you train.” Eleriss pointed at a door in the side of a big tree beside a meadow. Temi would have to duck to enter it, and unless that tree had a basement or a lot of levels, she couldn’t imagine having room to do anything more than sleep inside. Even then, she wasn’t sure she would be able to stretch her legs straight in the bed. If these people had beds. “There is food and water inside that should be acceptable to a human palate and digestive system,” he added.
“Should?” Temi murmured.
“Our systems are similar. I sampled numerous cuisines in your world without suffering digestive stress.”
“The flat disk covered with strange meat-like products was an exception,” Jakatra muttered.
“Yes, pizza.” Eleriss smiled brightly. “Pizza was digestively stressful.”
“I don’t doubt it.” Temi pushed open the door to her tree house—what had Delia been saying about tree houses? It was as small inside as it had looked. The bed issue wouldn’t be a problem, because something akin to a hammock appeared to be where one slept. The cushions on the floor in the back must be what passed for chairs, and the narrow counter with a jug of water, plate, bowl, and spoon must represent the kitchen. “Is this a normal… house for your people?”
“It is small and sparse,” Eleriss said. “A place one would stay for training or for meditation. There is a pleasant stream down that path if you wish to do the latter, and Jakatra will meet you in the meadow every morning for training.”
Jakatra had already started lecturing her about the hard work he would require as they walked through the forest to reach the meadow. Since the healer had left, they hadn’t encountered another soul, though she had glimpsed animals grazing in a clearing, animals that reminded her of the black antelope she had seen in Africa.
“You will stay here when he’s not training you,” Eleriss said. “There are devices to keep dangerous animals away for a mile in each direction, but you must not go beyond their border.”
“Because I’ll be eaten, or because someone might see me and I’m not supposed to be here?”
Eleriss nodded. “Yes to both. In time, you should be able to protect yourself from the wildlife, but we have predatory species that are more aggressive than what your world possesses. That is the main reason you will be trained here. They will be good practice for the jibtab.”
“The day grows long,” Jakatra said. “We should begin.”
Eleriss stepped back, extending his hand toward the meadow. “You are in charge here.”
“You say I am in charge, but that I only have one week. You say I am in charge and that we will find a warrior with combat experience, but you choose a woman who has never held a weapon. You say I am in charge, but I am given no say in any of these decisions.” Jakatra stalked to the meadow, his back rigid, his long ponytail twitching with his movements, like that of an agitated animal.
It was the most Temi had heard Jakatra say. By this point, she wasn’t surprised by his agitation, but for the first time, she wondered if he might actually become an ally to her in this. If, after they trained for a while, he deemed her unfit, perhaps she would be sent back without the sword. Maybe she could even pretend to be more unfit than she was. The elves could then find someone else to protect the world, someone more experienced and appropriate. Delia would be disappointed—she and Simon actually seemed to want to battle monsters. But they wouldn’t be able to if they didn’t have the sword. Guns and bows had proved ineffective at harming the last one. Temi might even be saving their lives if her failure here forced the elves to find someone else to wield the weapon. Delia and Simon wouldn’t be so foolish as to continue hunting creatures if they had no means of destroying them.
She’d no more than had the thought when she heard Simon’s voice in her head, saying, “You’re kidding, right?”
Funny, Temi hadn’t known him that long, but she was sure those would be his exact words. Delia was more rational, but would she give up the hunt? Even if she did, she and Simon would still be out there in the sparsely populated mountains, searching for new archaeological sites and hunting for long-forgotten antiques they could sell in their business. If a monster found them, they would have no protection against it.
“She doesn’t even listen, Eleriss,” Jakatra growled.
Temi jumped. She had been staring off into the woods, unaware of her surroundings.
“I did mention to her that one could meditate here,” Eleriss said.
Jakatra made a disgusted noise—or maybe it was a sign of that digestive stress they had been talking about. He was standing in the meadow, holding a sword. He hadn’t had it before, and Temi hadn’t noticed where it had come from.
“The sword, female.” Jakatra pointed at her tennis bag. “Bring it. Let’s see if it hasn’t decided to reject you as its owner after all.” He looked wistful.
Despite her thoughts of using him as an ally, of deliberately failing whatever tests he had planned, his dismissal annoyed Temi. It made her want to prove him wrong about her capabilities.
Eleriss said something in a sharper tone than usual for him.
Maybe it was something about being more polite or not addressing her as “female,” because Jakatra sighed and said, “Artemis, yes, fine. Artemis, bring the sword.”
Normally, Temi would tell someone to use the short version of her name, since her grandmother and the reporters were the only ones who called her Artemis, but she didn’t want to invite familiarity with Jakatra. She couldn’t believe she had considered him attractive when she’d first seen them. That had been before he had spoken.
She unzipped her bag, pushed aside clothes and towels, and pulled the sword out of its scabbard. She should have taken the scabbard out first, because the serrated teeth on the back of the sharp, curving side of the blade snagged on something. Red panties. Temi stuffed them back in the bag, hoping the elves hadn’t seen. Whatever race—or species—they were, they were still male, and some things didn’t need to be shared with random males. Neither said a word, though. They were watching the sword, not the rest of her belongings.
As soon as her hand wrapped around the hilt, the blade lit up the afternoon shadows with its silver glow. That didn’t surprise her, as it
happened every time she picked it up. She hadn’t figured out how to turn it off yet, short of putting it down.
Eleriss nodded to himself. Jakatra made a noise much like a sigh.
Chin up, Temi strode to the meadow. She was feigning confidence she didn’t have, especially given that Jakatra’s blade was as sharp and wicked as hers, even if it didn’t glow. Shouldn’t they start with wooden sticks or something? How far away did that healer live, in case she was in need of his services again?
“Any instructions?” Jakatra asked Eleriss. “Even though I’m in charge—” his lip twitched, “—I can’t imagine you’ll leave us here without further input.”
“You are the master in this arena. Teach as you would teach anyone. Though the emphasis should be on animals more so than people. She’ll need to defend herself against claws and teeth rather than swords. In addition to learning attack techniques, she will need to know how to determine where vital areas might be on a jibtab.”
Jakatra looked at Temi. “Input,” he mouthed, surprising her because, for a moment, it was as if they were on the same side and Eleriss was the outsider. No, she decided, Jakatra was just being sarcastic all around.
“Do as you will,” Eleriss said, then frowned down at his pocket. He pulled something out, cupping it in his palm. So Temi wouldn’t see it? He turned his back and walked away, speaking into the device.
“Artemis, do as I do.” Jakatra bent his knees and tilted his torso away from her, leaving his sword arm toward her. “Ready stance.”