“Well, if that’s your only difficulty, I can get a Sha-Ka’ani in here for you to hand your sword over to. But I’m a Sec 1 before I’m a woman, and I hate to tell you this, Kowan, but I already took you down once—or haven’t you ever wondered why you have no memories of our time together after we arrived at our destination?”
“You lie. I became drunk.”
“I drugged you, babe, butafteryou were already-”
“Tedra, look out!” from Garr.
“No!” from far behind her.
She turned, but all she saw was the flash of blue steel coming at her. She had time to do no more than keep her head from leaving her body. She had no time to avoid the backlash of the blade as it bounced off the doorjamb. It knocked her flat. Pain lashed across her chest. She suddenly didn’t feel like trying to get up. The Sha-Ka’ari didn’t care one way or the other. He was desperate to get his hands on Garr, assuming him to be his only protection now. She’d merely been in his way. But he didn’t reach Garr. Challen came charging through the door right behind him, roaring like a man gone mad. His sword buried, lifted, and actually threw the Sha-Ka’ari across the room. That was the last Tedra saw before she closed her eyes against the pain.
And then she was being lifted carefully, so carefully, but the movement still hurt like crazy. She tried holding it in, but the groan got out anyway. The movement stopped instantly. There was another groan, not hers, but it managed to get her eyes back open. Only she doubted what she was seeing: Challen leaning over her with tears in his eyes, tears running down his cheeks, Challen crying?
“Hey, don’t … babe.”
She raised her hand to his cheek, but it dropped back before it got there. Stars, she felt so weak—and cold.
“Do you … do you die, so too will I. Please,chemar,please! You willnotdie! You cannot!”
“No … I won’t.”
But he thought she was only trying to tell him what he wanted to hear. He was looking at her blood-covered chest and dying inside. She realized that at the same time it became clear he’d forgotten all about meditechs.
She tried reminding him. “Just get me to a—” But the awful sound of anguished rage he made drowned her out. Garr would have to tell him, she decided. She didn’t have enough strength left to break through all the noise Challen was making. But she wouldn’t have missed this for the world.
Her last thought before she lost consciousness was,That man is definitely in love with me.
Chapter Forty-six
Challen gave her still another frown. Tedra chuckled this time. She felt wonderful, actually close to ecstatic. Her barbarian loved her, and before they left her old quarters at Goverance Building, he’d tell her so.
“I tried to remind you about meditechs, honestly, I did. But you were too busy grieving over me to listen.”
His frown got worse. He was holding her in his lap, in an adjustichair that had made plenty of room for them. She was curled around him, wearing not a stitch of clothes, and feeling not the least bit embarrassed that she wasn’t and he was. But that was the first thing he’d done as soon as she’d brought him there, strip her down and completely examine her body. There was no sign left of her wound, not even a pink mark. The meditech had spit her out with a clean bill of health and the assurance that her son hadn’t been bothered at all by the ordeal. No wonder. He was going to be a warrior after all, just like his father.
His father told her now, “Warriors do not grieve.”
“Oh? Then what would you call it?”
Suddenly his arms closed tight around her, his face buried in her neck. “I thought I was losing you,” he said deeply, with a wealth of feeling. “Woman, you must never leave me!”
“I won’t,” she assured him, holding him just as tightly. Yet after a moment she smiled to herself. “But why is it important to you that I don’t?”
“Why?” He looked up, and back came his frown. “Did I not tell you?”
She ran a finger across his chin, not at all discouraged. “You said something about dying if I died, but … why do you feel that way?”
“Because I treasure you more than my life.”
Her finger stilled as the warmth flowed through her. She forgot about hearing the words she was seeking. What he’d just said was quite good enough.
“Oh, Challen, I love you so—”
“Am I intruding?” Rourk Ce Dell asked innocently from the doorway.
“Hell, yes,” Tedra half growled, half groaned. “How did you get in here?”
“Obviously no one was in a hurry to change your identilocks when you moved out, babe, but then, of course, we were invaded not long after that. I gave it a try and found my prints were still on record.”
