Keeper of the Heart

by Lindsey, Johanna

  “Are you sure about that?” Cira queried.

  Shanelle could understand that they might not be so eager now to sample the local males, but she hadn’t meant to dissuade them from having a little Sha-Ka’ani fun, just to be cautious. “Only two female visitors have been claimed in all these years, and those two wanted to be claimed, so no one got upset about it, least of all the females. And claiming protection does work, because a warrior who tries to claim a protected woman knows he’ll have to end up fighting her protector, and warriors don’t fight over women.”

  “Why not?” Yari asked with interest.

  Shanelle anticipated their reaction with a mixture of dread and disgust because of her own feelings on the subject. “Any warrior will tell you he doesn’t know what jealousy is—or love.”

  “Oh, come on, Shani,” Caris said doubtfully. “You’ve said that your father loves your mother, and we all know he’s a warrior.”

  “My father happens to be an exception.” But Shanelle’s tone turned dry as she added, “You could say my mother has been a bad influence on him.”

  Caris and Cira laughed, but Yari put in, “Well, I think it’s great. Imagine not having to deal with possessiveness and jealousy.”

  “Is that right?” Dren asked with a twinge of annoyance in his voice. He was even shorter than Shanelle was, and too slim of frame by half, but he’d been the most handsome boy in their class. “You weren’t thinking of trying any of these warriors yourself, were you?”

  Yari grinned and wrapped herself around him on the adjusticouch they shared. He was short, but she was still shorter. In fact, not one of the girls was taller than five and a half feet, which made Shanelle occasionally feel uncomfortable with her own height and lushly rounded figure.

  “Don’t get your nose bent out of joint, babe,” the petite brunette told him. “From what I’ve heard, those warriors are just too big for me. I like my skin white and creamy, not black-and-blue.”

  “Farden hell, I never thought of that,” Cira groaned in complaint.

  Shanelle chuckled and sat back with her goblet of Antury wine. “That doesn’t happen to be something you need to worry about. There is no man more gentle with a woman than a warrior because he is always conscious of his size and strength. The female Darasha of the servant class are much shorter than you are, Cira, and they have no complaints.”

  “Are these females someone Jadd and I might like to sample?” Dren asked, to get back some of his own, but what he got was a poke in the belly from Yari.

  Shanelle answered anyway. “The Darash females are available for anyone’s use, and they don’t mind. I sometimes wonder if they even know how to say no.”

  “You certainly know how to say no,” Jadd said as he brought his wine over and sat down next to Shanelle on her own couch. “I wonder if—”

  He didn’t get to finish. He’d no sooner taken the new seat than Corth was there and about to sit right on top of him if Jadd didn’t move himself real fast. He did scramble out of the way, spilling his wine in the process. Two robocleaners came out from two different sides of the huge room to clean up the mess, but no one noticed them. Jadd was glowering at Corth, Shanelle was laughing— she simply couldn’t help herself—and the others were all staring at Corth as if he’d malfunctioned.

  “Why did he do that, Shani?” Caris finally asked for the lot of them.

  Shanelle was too busy laughing to come up with an answer, but Jadd wasn’t. “He’s her protector,” he said, making it sound like a dirty word. “No one can share sex with her while he’s around. They can’t even touch her!”

  “That’s not precisely true, Mr. Ce Moerr,” Martha’s voice intruded, proving she’d been following the entire conversation. It was a wonder she’d kept quiet until now. “If Shani wants to do a little sex-sharing with a man, Corth wouldn’t interfere. He might even help her take her clothes off.”

  Shanelle stiffened, thinking about throwing her wine at the intercom panel. “That was rather crudely put, Martha.”

  “You know me, doll. I like to get my point across in a big way.”

  “Thanks a lot.”

  Martha started to laugh, but Jadd demanded indignantly, “What kind of protector is that, I’d like to know? I thought he was supposed to keep all men away from you, Shani!”

  Shanelle was annoyed enough to snap, “No, just those I’ve already refused.”

  Jadd’s color heightened in embarrassment, making him sneer, “I doubt that’s what your father had in mind.”

  “You’re absolutely right, Jadd,” Shanelle replied. “It’s something my mother added to Corth’s programming without my father knowing. She is a Kystrani, after all, just like you. She believes in saying no when she feels like it, and yes when she feels like it.”

  “But do you ever feel like saying yes?”

  It was a question too personal even for a man in the grip of frustration to ask. Jadd regretted it immediately and looked away, not expecting an answer. Shanelle wouldn’t have answered him anyway. But Martha, that miscreant of metal parts, had no such qualms.

  “It wouldn’t do her any good to say yes on Sha-Ka’an. She’s a daughter with a hale and hearty father who no one will challenge for the position of shodan, much less for a woman. There isn’t a warrior who knows her who will even approach her. All they can do is think about it, and try to prove to her father that they are worthy of being her lifemate. She won’t be sharing sex until then. She doesn’t dare go against the natural order of things.”

  Shanelle was no longer thinking about throwing wine at the intercom. She was definitely going to smash it to bits. And she knew what Martha was doing. She was trying to goad Shanelle into standing up for her rights, by showing her how others would see her situation. And those others were looking at her in differing degrees of horror right now. Just what she needed, their pity on top of her own self-pity.

  “Is that really how it works, Shani?” Caris asked. “Do you have to go straight to a permanent commitment without even getting to try the guy out first?”

  “Most Sha-Ka’ani females don’t mind that at all—” Shanelle began, only to have Martha butt in again.

  “They don’t know how to buck the system.”

  “Tradition, Martha, not system, and stay the hell out of this!”

  “But, Shani, you’re half Kystrani,” Cira pointed out.

  “That’s right,” Shanelle replied. “Something Martha conveniently forgets about just to make her points. I do happen to have other options, one I’ve already decided on.”

  “The coward’s way out,” Martha said with a snort. “You can find what you’re looking for right at home. You don’t have to go to another Star System and end up breaking your mother’s heart in the process.”

  There it was, what Shanelle should have realized from the start. Martha was only on loan to her. She was first and foremost Tedra’s, and everything she said and did was ultimately for Tedra’s benefit.

  Shanelle sighed. “All right, Martha, I’ll look, I really will, right up until my father makes his choice. But if I don’t agree with his choice, then I’m gone, and my mother will back me on that.”

  “I know she will. All I’m asking for is a little effort on your part so it won’t come to that, and now that you’ve agreed to make it, you’ll have my complete support.”

  “Well, I hope you realize one of the undesirable possibilities of your underhanded goading.”

  “Of course I do. Dense isn’t in my programming.” And suddenly Jadd disappeared from his perch on the end of the couch only to reappear a few moments later looking mighty shook up. Martha’s voice was now purring as she addressed the young man. “That was just a preview of what will happen to you, Mr. Ce Moerr, if you mention any of what you’ve heard here tonight to a certain somebody’s father. Only next time you won’t be Transferred to your cabin and back, you’ll be dropped in deep space.”

  Even Shanelle was impressed by that threat. Molecular Transfer was the means t
o get from ship to planet surface without landing or using Transfer craft. It literally Transferred your body from one point to the other in less time than it took to blink. And Martha was in control of the Rover’s Transfer system.

  “That’s—that’s against the laws of Life Appreciation,” Jadd said in a horrified whisper.

  “That’s rich,” the computer was heard to chuckle. “I’m a Mock II, kid. I don’t obey any laws other than my own. Everyone knows—” There was a long pause, and then Martha actually screeched, “Get the hell out of my terminal, Brock!”

  Shanelle blinked in pleased surprise. She hadn’t realized they were close enough to contact Sha-Ka’an yet, but the deep, masculine voice that now came through the intercom proved that they were.

  “Be quiet, woman,” the voice sternly ordered Martha. “I have come at the request of Shanelle’s parents, both of her parents.”

  That “both” was all that was necessary to calm Martha’s outrage, but of course Brock knew that, which was why he’d included it. He could be just as high-handed or underhanded as Martha was, but then he was also a free-thinking Mock II computer. And he happened to belong to Shanelle’s father, which meant Brock had been programmed to be compatible with no one but Challen. To this day, Martha still complained that she was the one who had helped to create him by supplying Challen’s statistics. But she had done it for Tedra, because Tedra had wanted to surprise Challen with his own Mock II.

  Some surprise. For a year Challen wouldn’t even go near Brock. He didn’t want anything that ultramodern belonging to him. And after he did finally give in and start talking to the computer, it had taken nearly another year of arguing between the two of them to establish dominance, which each felt they had won. But now they got along perfectly. And lately, much to everyone’s amusement other than Martha’s, Brock had been trying to exert a warriorlike dominance over Martha as well, an impossibility if there ever was one.

  Martha’s outrage might have been put on temporary hold, but her grumbling certainly wasn’t. “Just say what you have to say, then get your tin ass out of my terminal. And the next time you think to drop in, you damn well better ask permission first.

  “A tin warrior can get his circuits fried,” Martha actually growled.

  “Now, now,” Shanelle said with a grin. “If you two have forgotten, you have an avid audience here who has never heard computers fighting before, and quite frankly, you’re shocking the hell out of them.”

  “We weren’t fighting,” Martha insisted.

  “Your amusement is uncalled-for, Shanelle,” Brock gently scolded.

  “That’s right.” Shanelle sighed. “When you come, you come fully equipped, including sight. Just how long have you been with us, Brock?”

  “Not to worry, kiddo,” Martha assured her. “He’s sneaky, but he’s not sneaky enough to arrive without my knowing it immediately. Now state your business, Brock, and go home.”

  There was a long pause, as if Brock were debating whether to do as instructed or upbraid Martha on the inadvisability of giving him orders. He finally addressed Shanelle.

  “I bring you greetings from your parents, child. They have sorely missed you, and eagerly await your arrival on the next rising.”

  “Is my mother there, Brock?” Shanelle asked eagerly. “Can I talk to her?”

  “I am sorry,” Brock replied. “But Challen and Tedra are presently at the competitions, where they will remain until this moonrise.”

  “What competitions?” Martha demanded before Shanelle even thought to. If there was anything Martha hated, it was not knowing about something before anyone else did, and before Brock in particular.

  “Warriors throughout the land have been invited to Sha-Ka-Ra to test their skills against each other. It began this rising and will continue until a champion of all is declared. Challen, of course, is the ultimate judge, and so his presence is required for each event, as is your Tedra’s. Otherwise they would meet Shanelle at the Visitor’s Center. Since they cannot leave the competitions, an escort will await Shanelle at the bus station to take her to her parents’ pavilion in the park.”

  “Just like that?” Martha’s voice remained testy. “Well, you won’t mind if I check with the Center to verify these facts, will you?”

  “Woman, you are being deliberately disagreeable.” Brock didn’t even try to hide his annoyance now.

  “Aren’t I just,” Martha shot back, and then added sweetly, “Good-bye, Brock.”

  There was silence from the intercom, long enough for Caris to lean over and whisper to Shanelle, “Does he really think she’s a woman?”

  Shanelle could have said that whispering didn’t do a damn bit of good when a Mock II was around, but Martha made that perfectly clear by replying, “Damned right he does, but then he’s an idiot, beyond salvation.”

  Only Martha didn’t sound quite so annoyed any longer. She sounded—proud, which had Shanelle grinning. “I thought you liked Brock.”

  “Only when he displays a modicum of his vast intelligence, which is rarely these days. He has become, for some male-oriented reason, no doubt, the quintessential barbarian. And when he spouts that condescending warriorlike nonsense, he drives me up a wall.”

  “But you can handle that?” Shanelle asked.

  “ ‘Course I can,” Martha replied with a very loud snort.

  Chapter 3

  Shanelle woke the next morning feeling a good deal of the excitement her friends had been feeling last night, but for different reasons. As much as she wasn’t looking forward to what might happen soon after her homecoming, she was definitely looking forward to seeing her family again. She had missed them terribly, and her friends, too, even the servants, even her spacious home.

  For the past nine months she had lived in a box of a room; at least it was boxlike in comparison to what she was used to. Of course, the Kystrani knew how to make good use of a little space, using movable walls to section off whatever room was desired at the push of a button, so that you could have four or five rooms in the space of one single room, everything coming out of the walls, even the toilet and bath.

  She had seen some pretty incredible things on Kystran, but no less incredible than some of the things she had grown up with. The Sha-Ka’ani might disdain the modern conveniences of other worlds, but Tedra certainly didn’t, and whatever Tedra bought for herself, she also bought for her daughter.

  Tedra would have done the same for her son and lifemate, but like the rest of the male populace, they stubbornly wouldn’t touch anything not made on their world, or was closely similar to what could be made on their world—except for meditech units. Warriors weren’t stupid, after all, and this was one modern wonder that beat the hell out of slapdash healers. Anything that could actually save lives given up for lost, repair tissue, and leave no scars was worth having, and just about every town on the planet now had at least one meditech unit; some, like Sha-Ka-Ra, had more than one.

  “Rise and shine, kiddo.” Martha’s voice floated into the room at the exact moment Shanelle sat up, deactivating her air blanket by the movement. “I’ve been having a long chat with the Visitor’s Center, and it looks like my good buddy Brock didn’t tell us even half of what’s going on.”

  “You really get a kick out of that Ancient’s lingo, don’t you, old girl?”

  “Me and my Tedra both.” Martha chuckled. “But if you haven’t noticed, the same ‘lingo’ pops out of your own sweet mouth.”

  “How could it not, listening to you two all my life? So what didn’t Brock tell us? I assume you mean about the competitions?”

  “You got it. It seems your father was planning this competition a good month or two before he got around to telling your mother about it, and he didn’t mention it to her until after I’d left to pick you up. But the ambassadors somehow got wind of it months ago, and they’ve had time to inform their home planets in case anyone wanted to participate. Apparently competitions like these appeal to one hell of a lot of people, becaus
e the Visitor’s Center is just about overflowing.”

  “But that would mean—”

  “You got it again, kiddo. Sha-Ka-Ra has been opened to visitors—at least the park is. Anyone can come into our fair city for the duration, even if it’s only to watch.”

  “And father agreed to that?”

  “Shocking, huh?”

  Shanelle just stared wide-eyed at the audiovisual console the Commander’s cabin contained, trying to grasp the implications. She finally concluded, “Mother must have talked him into it.”

  “When he’s been adamant all these years about keeping visitors out of Sha-Ka-Ra? When it was his idea to set the Visitor’s Center out in the middle of nowhere, and do that before the trouble? When the airobuses have to go out of their way to fly above the atmosphere just so they won’t be noticed? When all bus stations are inconveniently located well outside city limits?”

  “What’s your point, Martha?”

  “Your mother may wield a lot of influence where your father is concerned, but not when it comes to the well-being of his Sha-Ka’ani. This sounds more like a warrior idea, a little proof positive of who’s the superior fighter. I just wonder what brought it on.”

  “You should have asked Brock.”

  “That cretin wouldn’t tell. He just loves keeping Challen’s motives secret. For whatever miscircuited reason that had him class me with every other female, he now has it in his mind that I have no business involving myself in warrior business. He also won’t admit that I’m his superior, when any fool knows that a Mock II’s intelligence and capabilities increase with age, and I’m older than he is.”

  “You don’t have to convince me, Martha.” Shanelle grinned.