Heart of a Warrior

  And she was fully committed. After spending nearly three months with Dalden, there was no doubt that her heart wouldn't be whole now without him. The thought of losing him when this was over and she was rejected as unconvinced, was so painful that she couldn't face it. Nor had she been able to seek reassurance or ask what was going to become of them when this was over, because he would just insist there was never going to be an "over" for them.

  She sometimes thought that Dalden was actually as brainwashed as they were trying to make her, that he really did believe everything that had been told to her. She preferred to think that was the case, rather than that he was deliberately lying to her for whatever "good" reason. Lying would mean an end when the truth was finally admitted. And what would that end be? Go home, we're done with you? Or stay with me and be part of the program? Could she agree to put other people through what she was undergoing? She didn't think so, because bottom line, it was cruel to tamper with emotions to this extent.

  But the journey was over; the announcement had already been broadcast that they'd be home in a few hours. And now she'd find out how they could possibly depict an entire planet‑that was, if they were going to try. No studio could be that big. She'd have to be contained in a small part of it. But how would that be convincing? And they'd made the mistake of telling her that there was plant and animal life unique to Sha‑Ka'an, that even the air was different, edenlike, it was so pure and pollutant‑free. Hard things to fake.

  So was this going to be the end, then? When she stepped off the ship," would they tell her, "You failed, you can go home now"?

  Chapter Thirty‑seven

  IT IS TIME."

  Brittany was staring out the bank of windows in Dalden's quarters at a very large planet that didn't come close to resembling hers. Hers was two‑thirds ocean. This one had a lot of green, but very little blue. A nice computer simulation, like everything else she'd seen out those windows. And yet it looked so real it gave her chills.

  "We aren't close enough to land yet," she pointed out.

  "We are. For a ship of this speed, it is a matter of moments."

  Dalden's massive arms came around her from behind to draw her back against his chest. It was comforting and frightening at the same time, because he could be preparing her for their last moments together. The thought brought tears to her eyes, and she swung around to hug him tightly.

  "Tell me this isn't going to be the end of us," she said in a voice that was as close as she could get to pleading.

  Dalden lifted her face in his hands. His thumbs gently smoothed away the wetness on her cheeks. His own expression was intense.

  "I feel your pain. What causes it cannot be allowed to continue. After today, there will be nothing else for you to fear."

  "I hate to break it to you, warrior." Martha's voice suddenly floated about the room. "But you are not reassuring her."

  He turned a chagrined look at the wall monitor. "What must I do to ease her distress?"

  "Take her home, to her new home. Get her settled in. Introduce her to the family pets." Some positively wicked‑sounding chuckling was inserted over that last suggestion before Martha continued. "It's really too bad this ship didn't come equipped with solaray baths. Three months of squeaky‑clean without a speck of water might have done some convincing. But she's only had inanimate things to go by here, which she has discounted as being 'tricks' or things her own people could have invented. Fifty giantsized warriors didn't impress her, when men can reach that height on her world. She thinks she's been on a simulated ship, thinks she's going to step off it and still be on her world. But you have things to show her now, live things. Living, breathing, unique, can't‑be‑shoved‑into‑the‑'trick'‑category things."

  Brittany stepped back, bristling a bit with indignation. She really hated it when she got talked about while she was standing right there listening.

  "I hate to break it to you, Martha, but you aren't reassuring me, either," she said testily.

  "Wasn't trying to, kiddo. I'm just telling the warrior what it's going to take to end your delusional state. But then I did toss you a bone; you just didn't catch it."

  "Excuse me?"

  'New home 'Settled.' Sounds like a beginning rather than an end, don't it?"

  It did, but words could be deceiving, or outright lies. She glanced at Dalden again, her skepticism plain. His own look turned determined, and she figured out why when he took her hand and marched her out of the room.

  "You're taking me off the ship?"

  "Indeed."

  "Why not take me off the same way I was brought on?" Brittany asked.

  Martha chose to answer, from the comm‑link Brittany had been given a few days ago. She'd been warned to keep it with her at all times until she ran out of questions.

  "Transfer can't be done here until we've actually landed," Martha said. "Sha‑Ka'an is surrounded by a global shield that prevents access by ships without permission. A hole in the shield is opened above the Visitors' Center if permission is given, but even that opening contains a contamination shield. There is at least one meditech in each town, but that isn't nearly enough to help if disease gets introduced to the planet by visitors. The second shield the ship passes through scans for contamination and, in the process, interferes with Molecular Transfer."

  "But aren't we about to pass through it?"

  "Yes, and I could send you straight to the palace once below the shield, but do you really want to miss out on seeing the sights on the way home? Your first ride on an airobus and then an hataar? The architecture in the countryside? Your first view of Sha‑Ka‑Ra from afar?"

  "Things you think are going to make me a believer?" Brittany guessed.

  "You betcha," Martha said in smirking tones.

  Brittany snorted for Martha's benefit, but she was starting to feel some excitement. A beginning‑that implied a life shared with Dalden. And she had reached a point of not caring where they shared it, as long as they shared it. She simply couldn't bear the thought of losing him now. But on another world? How could she accept that as being real?

  Martha seemed to think she'd have no choice but to believe it pretty much said the same by the end of the day. Dalden had thing, that she'd have nothing else to fear after today. But where did that leave her? With Dalden, surely, but also with the fantastical concept of living on another world‑and meeting his real parents. Oh, jeez.

  Chapter Thirty‑eight

  SHE COULDN'T HAVE IMAGINED IT IF SHE'D TRIED.

  Brittany had been expecting a lot of spaceships laying around, nice, easy visual illusions. It was supposed to be a spaceport, after all. But none, zip, nada. Even the one she had just left wasn't visible by the time she was on the ground. They'd stepped out of it into some kind of tramlike thing that whisked them along for about a minute, then stepped out of that into a long tubelike tunnel that ended inside a large round building. Looking back, all she saw was the tunnel opening and a lot of wall surrounding it.

  The building was immense, she'd give them that. It wasn't often that you saw a ceiling about ten stories high. There weren't very many people in it, though, for its size, and the few that were there were dressed strangely.

  "It's just the disembarking terminal." Martha's voice started

  explaining from the comm‑link on Brittany's hip. "For all arrivals. Ships don't land unless they need repairs. It's not good for them to shut down."

  "So they just hover up in space depleting their fuel? Sure."

  Martha didn't remark on her skeptical tone, said merely, "Fuel as you know it is obsolete. A ship can run forever on one inexhaustible gaali stone. And no, once inside the shield, they aren't let out of it until they're ready to leave. They connect to this hub to drop off passengers, then to the supply hub to restock, then return to this hub and float in standby above the center. It'd be a pretty impressive sight if seen from afar, but it was built to not be an eyesore to a people who don't want reminding that it's here, so it's a very long way a
way from any towns, even Sha‑Ka‑Ra."

  A really good excuse to not show her the Visitors' Center from a distance. Their illusions must only be short‑range.

  She noticed the other tunnels then, like the one they'd come out of, ten in all, enough to accommodate a lot of passengers arriving at once, but no others were arriving except the people from their ship at the moment. There was a large open exit that they were heading toward, just a wide corridor that connected to yet another big building. No windows anywhere, to see what was outside. Now why didn't that surprise her?

  "This Center is like a small city, at least what you would consider a small city‑Sha‑Ka'ani towns don't come this big," Martha said, continuing the role of tour guide. "It covers two square miles, the port taking up half of that, the trade goods warehouses taking up another big chunk. The rest is devoted to housing for the Trade Ambassadors, security, personnel, and visitors who don't get to stay long. Then you have the areas for maintenance, supplies, repair, and anything else needed to make it a self‑contained area."

  "The planet doesn't sustain it?"

  "No indeed, most of the planet refuses to acknowledge that it's here. It's run by the League for the benefit of League planets. Dalden's father is the only shodan who has to deal with it on a regular basis; all the other shodani go through him if needed."

  She'd already learned that a shodan was like a mayor of his town, or to be more exact, a medieval lord ruling over his small kingdom. But even that didn't describe it perfectly. Problems got brought to him, decisions affecting the town were made by him, widows and orphans got full protection from him, yet any warrior could challenge him for the position and take it over if he won. It wasn't a hereditary position in Kan‑is‑Tra, though it was in some countries like Ba‑Har‑an where Falon came from. Even then, the son wanting to take over still had to take on all challengers for the privilege.

  "Heads up, doll, you're about to meet the new in‑laws," Martha said next.

  " Huh?"

  Brittany stopped short, forcing Dalden, who'd been leading her along by the hand, to turn to see what was wrong. He smiled reassuringly. He'd seen the couple up ahead also, standing at the end of the wide corridor.

  The man was huge, as big as Dalden and just as golden, just as handsome, too, for that matter. And after spending three months with fifty warriors, she'd already figured out that they all preferred those leather pants they called bracs and the wraparound tunics. The woman was nearly as tall as Brittany, with long black hair pulled up into a high ponytail, and wearing a strange outfit that seemed to be made of sheer green scarves, a lot of them not actually see‑through, the points reaching her sandaled feet, with a white cloak attached at the shoulders. She was beautiful, no doubt about it. And young, too young to be a grown man's mother.

  Dalden did some explaining now. "Be at ease, kerima. Martha has been in contact with Brock since the last rising. So my parents expected us and due to our long absence, could not wait until we reached home. She would have told them all about you, is that not right, Martha?"

  "You betcha."

  Shanelle had already run forward, was embracing the couple.

  The warriors with them were filing past and continuing on, leaving the family to their reunion.

  "Go ahead. Give me a moment to compose myself," Brittany told Dalden.

  She smiled for his benefit, though it was an effort. He seemed somewhat nervous, too, a normal reaction, to worry if his parents would like her‑if this was for real. Damn, he was good, sneaking in those little subtleties that she might have missed if she weren't already so attuned to him.

  But the moment he was out of hearing she hissed at Martha, "You could have at least gotten someone old enough to play the part of his mother. If you're going to try to convince me that she is Dalden's mother, don't bother. She's not much older than I am Neither is he, for that matter."

  A short round of chuckles. "Tedra has aged very well in comparison to average humanoids. The Sha‑Ka'ani do also, due to their healthy environment, but Tedra has the added benefit of her Sec 1 training that she keeps up, grueling exercises that have honed her body into a lethal weapon‑well, considered lethal on other worlds. But she's forty‑four. I should know, she belongs to me."

  "I thought that was the other way around and you belong to her?"

  "Matter of opinion," Martha muttered.

  Brittany didn't believe the handsome couple up ahead were Dalden's real parents, so what was she suddenly nervous about? Because the second phase of "convince at no expense" had begun, apparently. A spaceship hadn't done it. So now new actors and a make‑believe whole planet were supposed to. She should be relieved. Her greatest fear before leaving the ship had been that she'd be back in her own bed by tonight, with the space next to her empty. But that wasn't on the agenda yet.

  "Showtime," Martha said as the group up ahead stopped waiting for her to join them and approached her instead.

  Martha was being cute, but that was too close to how Brittany viewed all of this. A show for her exclusive benefit, just actors following a basic script and improvising where needed.

  "Welcome to Sha‑Ka'an, Brittany Callaghan, and welcome to my family "

  Oh, God, that sounded really nice. Her own family had grown apart and rarely saw each other anymore. They kept in touch, but she missed that closeness of when they'd all lived together. One of her lessons on the journey had included that Sha‑Ka'ani families usually stayed together, that when children reached adulthood they stayed in the same town, some in the same house. A few females might end up with a lifemate in another town or country, but that was a rare exception, since warriors tended to pick their mates from women known to them in their own town.

  Following Tedra's welcome, she got a tight hug and a whisper by her ear. "Relax, kiddo, we don't judge here. When a warrior makes his choice there's no reversing it, so he gets wished happy. Some take a long time to decide, some know instantly. Either way, it's something they know. Too bad women never gain that kind of certainty.

  Was that a joke? Tedra was grinning when she stepped back. Yet what she'd just said was kind of the reverse of the way Brittany knew things to be. Women knew right off when they were in love. It usually took the recipient of that love a heck of a long time to figure the same thing out. There were exceptions, surely, but on the average, women won hands‑down in the instant-decision‑making category.

  Seeing her close up, Brittany still couldn't believe that Tedra was forty‑four years old. "Aged well" was a definite understatement. She'd probably make a really cool mother‑in‑law, though. Brittany wasn´t so sure about Challen, who was very intimidating with his size and his look that seemed to be analyzing, but was otherwise inscrutable.

  Tedra now turned a stern expression on Dalden. "Six months' absence, never again, Dalden. Contrary to the Ancients' adage,

  absence does not make the heart grow fonder, it's farden wen painful. Never again. And your father agrees with me‑for once."

  "Do not give the impression that I never agree with you, woman," Challen rumbled curtly. "That would be an untruth of the size you call whopper."

  Tedra snorted. "You only agree when it suits you, never when it suits me."

  That caused a grin from the big guy. A yank to him that had to have hurt when Tedra collided with that big body. A slap on the backside that had to hurt even more.

  "We win agree to discuss the matter of disagreeing later," Challen warned.

  "Wanna bet?" Tedra shot back.

  She then pushed away from him, grabbed Shanelle's arm, and marched off toward the front of the building. Challen and Falon followed more slowly. Dalden took Brittany's hand again to bring up the rear.

  At her hip, Martha suggested in a cheerful tone, "Don't mind them, kiddo. Their way of joking around takes getting used to."

  "Joking, huh? Sure."

  Dalden gave her a glance. "Martha is correct, but it is my mother who will take getting used to. She does not behave as a Sha‑Ka'a
ni woman should."

  Brittany stopped, demanded, "And just how would a ShaKa'ani woman have acted? Smiled and thanked her lifemate for banging her around?"

  Dalden looked confused, but Martha wasn't, and said instantly, "Put the brakes on, girl. Tedra's body is conditioned to take damage and not feel it. She wasn't hurt; if she even felt that love tap, I'd be surprised. Challen would cut off his hand before he'd actually hurt her. Most warriors feel the same way about their women."

  "Do you?" Brittany asked Dalden.

  "Certainly," he replied, somewhat indignant that she'd needed that reassurance.

  Certainly, she repeated dryly in her mind. But he was talking

  about physical pain, not the mental kind that could sometimes be just as excruciating‑ What would a warrior's philosophy be about that? As long as it didn't leave a bruise, it couldn't hurt?

  She got the sneaky suspicion that phase two was going to be more emotional than visual. Bog her down with anxieties and uncertainties so she didn't notice when she started believing it all?

  Chapter Thirty‑nine

  BRITTANY BEGAN TO RELAX ON THE SHORT RIDE TO Sha‑Ka‑Ra, Dalden's hometown. They weren't showing her things anymore, had perhaps finally concluded that it was a waste of their time and effort. She got flimsy excuses for this new tack, but she didn't really care.

  There had been nothing outside the building to see except the front of the building they just left, and a hill on the other side was close enough to kill any views. It could have been an illusion; she wasn't allowed close enough to it to check it out. There were three vehicles there to transport the lot of them, and they an piled in.

  Airobuses, they called them. They could have been remodeled normal buses. Remove the wheels, make the front streamlined instead of flat, extend the length to twice normal size, and voilà a space‑age weird‑looking vehicle.