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  Lady Licklow simply sniffed again and moved off. Lydiah followed her mother, whispering a soft farewell as she went. Nadiah twisted her fingers together, wondering when the challenge would start—but she didn’t have long to wait.

  “Attention. Attention, please.” Magistrate Licklow was standing in front of the assembled spectators, looking extremely self-important. His rotund figure was draped in a deep purply-blue tharp and he wore vranna hide boots of the same color. “Attention,” he called again even though everyone had already stopped talking.

  Seeing that every eye was firmly fixed on him, the magistrate began. “Ahem. We gather here today for a blood challenge between the esteemed Tranq Prime male Y’dex Licklow and his off world competitor, the human called Rast.”

  At this point, Y’dex and Rast both entered the challenge grotto from a small, side tunnel. Nadiah was angered to see that Rast was flanked on both sides by guards. As if he was some kind of criminal, just because he’s an off-worlder!

  Both the competitors were wearing the traditional Tranq Prime male costume of furry boots and a tharp wrapped around the waist, leaving the chest bare. Nadiah was proud to see that Rast filled out his outfit much better than her intended. Seeing him in the dark green tharp and boots reminded her of when they’d first met, during the luck kiss at Sylvan’s bonding ceremony. I fantasized about this, she remembered. Imagined that he would be the handsome male who would sweep me off my feet and challenge Y’dex for me. Of course, in her fantasy he had also declared undying love for her and that certainly hadn’t happened. But still, at least part of her dream was coming true.

  Tearing her eyes from Rast, Nadiah examined the tharp Y’dex was wearing as well. It was a brilliant blue which looked too bright against his pasty skin. Perfect, she thought, staring at it. A perfect match—the exact color of his best dress tharp. Now if only—

  “The challenge of strength is about to begin,” bugled Magistrate Licklow, interrupting her thoughts. “I will now recite the rules. Ahem. The competitors will each be given a goldur with which to do battle over the pit of ice and fire. The one still standing on the beam at the end of the challenge is the winner. Falling off on either side constitutes a loss and the end of the match.”

  At this point, he reached for two long staffs which were lying at his feet. He seemed to take a moment handling them before giving one to his son and one to Rast.

  Nadiah studied the ancient weapons with a kind of dreadful fascination. The goldur was straight out of Tranq Prime history texts—used only for kin feuds and blood challenges. Each three foot long staff had a heavy, battering-ram type knob attached to one end and a thin, circular blade attached to the other.

  Supposedly each goldur was perfectly weighted so that the contestants could keep their balance while fighting on the narrow walkway that ran over the pit, between the hot coals and the icy water. Supposedly. But she saw Rast hefting his goldur with a frown—from the way he handled the weapon it was plain to see that one end was much heavier than the other.

  It was no more than Nadiah had expected. Still, it made her angry to see Magistrate Licklow pronounce both weapons sound and fit for battle when the one he’d given Rast had obviously been tampered with.

  “And now,” the magistrate said in his pompous, nasal tone. “Let the contestants cross the pit and the challenge of strength begin.” He nodded at Rast, who hefted his obviously overbalanced goldur in one hand and stepped onto the narrow beam across the pit.

  Rast walked carefully but with a natural agility Nadiah couldn’t help but admire. He might be human but he moved like a Kindred, with inherent grace despite his large, muscular frame. In fact, she was so busy watching Rast she almost missed what Y’dex was up to.

  Her fiancée followed Rast across the pit, holding his goldur in both hands, obviously using it to balance himself as he walked. Just as both of them had reached the center of the pit with the hot coals to one side and the icy water on the other, Y’dex hefted his goldur and used the blunt end of it to strike at Rast’s unprotected back.

  Rast hadn’t yet turned around and Nadiah saw what was happening just a split second before it did. She gave a little a cry as Y’dex struck with his weapon. The soft sound wasn’t much but it warned Rast and he braced for the blow. Instead of toppling over into the pit of fiery coals as Y’dex had obviously intended, he jumped lithely and turned to face his opponent, his own goldur held at the ready.

  An angry murmur was heard from the crowd at the cowardly move and Rast spared a moment to look up at Magistrate Licklow. “Hey, is that how you guys play it here? Hit your opponent in the back before he gets a chance to turn around?”

  “Both contestants were in the center of the beam and the challenge had begun,” Licklow said, frowning. “Y’dex’s move is perfectly legal.”

  “Yeah, I’m sure,” Rast muttered. “Just remind me not to do any real estate deals with you guys.”

  “What is that supposed to mean, off-worlder?” Y’dex sneered, swinging the sharp end of his goldur in a dangerous arc.

  Rast gave him a grin that didn’t reach his eyes and jumped back. “Just that I don’t trust you any farther than I can throw you, cave boy.” He swung his own weapon but it was clear the poor balance was affecting his aim and he missed.

  “Ha!” Y’dex laughed triumphantly. “Is that the best you can do?”

  “With this thing, yes.” Rast raised an eyebrow at him. “Care to trade weapons?”

  “That is against the rules of the contest!” Magistrate Licklow declared before his son could answer. “The contestants must keep the weapons they were given at the start.”

  “Well, isn’t that convenient?” Rast muttered. He used the blunt end of his goldur to poke at Y’dex but the other male moved back in time to avoid it and parried with his own, balanced weapon.

  For a moment their weapons locked and then Rast broke free with a jerk and retreated a step to be out of reach. Laughing nastily, Y’dex pressed his advantage. He came after Rast, swinging his goldur until the sharp edge whistled through the air.

  Nadiah gasped as she saw the cutting edge connect and leave a long, nasty looking slash across Rast’s broad, bare chest.

  “First blood!” Magistrate Licklow trumpeted triumphantly. “Y’dex has drawn first blood.”

  “Yeah and it’s gonna be last blood if I have anything to say about it,” Rast muttered. “Hey Y’dex, think fast.” With a quick advance, he swung his own goldur, causing Y’dex to hop backwards, losing his balance. One of his feet slipped off the beam and landed in the hot coals below. With a howl, he pulled his burned foot up, pivoted, and splashed it through the icy water on the other side.

  “You off-worlder human scum,” he growled, stalking towards Rast, his wet boot squelching as he went. “You’ll pay for that.”

  “Oh yeah? Come at me.” Rast spread his arms. “Come on, I’m waiting.”

  Y’dex glared at him but didn’t move. Instead, he looked up at Nadiah and made a fist. Then, with a cruel smile, he made the twisting gesture that had become so horribly familiar.

  She barely had time to think, Oh no! before the burning blade slid between her ribs, robbing her of breath and doubling her over with pain. A cry of agony escaped her—she couldn’t help it.

  “Nadiah!” Rast turned to her, his face filled with concern. “Nadiah, are you alri—?”

  At that moment, when Rast’s head was turned, Y’dex rushed forward, goldur swinging wildly. Rast turned back just in time to parry the attack but his opponent’s momentum tore his weapon from his hand and flung it far out into the bed of hot coals.

  “Now then, off-worlder.” Y’dex laughed unpleasantly as he advanced on his unarmed opponent. Rast backed slowly away, trying to stay out of reach of the other male’s weapon without getting either sliced or pounded. He was scowling and there was murder in his eyes.

  “I warned not to hurt her again. Didn’t that broken nose I gave you yesterday teach you anything?”

  “You
talk bravely for an unarmed male.” Y’dex swung his goldur in a slow, taunting arc. “Come on, human, which do you prefer—fire? Or ice?”

  With Y’dex’s attention centered on Rast instead of herself, Nadiah felt the pain ease and then release her completely. She sat up, glaring at her fiancée. Concentrating fiercely she stared at the bright blue tharp wrapped around his waist and muttered, “Now.”

  Slowly, almost imperceptibly at first, the blue tharp began inching its way higher up Y’dex’s long, skinny body. Soon the top edge of it was at his armpits. Which meant the bottom edge was considerably higher too.

  Rast, who had been scowling as he ducked the other male’s swinging weapon, began to grin. “Hey, buddy,” he said. “You feeling a breeze?”

  “What are you talking about?” Y’dex demanded haughtily. “If you think you can trick me with your false words—”

  “It’s no trick, cave boy—your ass is hanging out. Uh, among other things.” Rast laughed. “I’d ask if you were a boxers or a briefs kinda guy but I think it’s pretty clear you’re neither.”

  Y’dex risked a quick glance down. When he saw his exposed genitals, an outraged expression of embarrassment crossed his face. “How dare you? What have you done to my tharp?”

  Rast lifted his hands. “Not a damn thing—maybe it just doesn’t like you. Or maybe it would rather be a scarf than a skirt—I don’t know.” He shrugged. “Bad time to go commando, though, with everyone from your home cave watching.”

  There was a faint sound of laughter coming from the assembled crowd and Y’dex’s normally pale face went blood red. Still holding the goldur with one hand, he yanked futilely at the creeping tharp with the other. Nadiah couldn’t help noticing that he wasn’t nearly so well endowed as Rast appeared to be—at least from the bulge she’d seen in his pants from time to time.

  “Down, get down,” he muttered angrily. “What’s wrong with you? You’ve never behaved this way before.”

  Rast shook his head and made a tsking sound. “It’s always sad to see a boy who can’t control his skirt.”

  “You off-worlder bastard!” Y’dex nearly screamed, his eyes bulging with rage. “You did this somehow, I know you did!” He turned to his father. “Father, he’s cheating! I don’t know how but he is!”

  “Cover yourself, son, for Goddess’s sake!” Magistrate Licklow was as red in the face as Y’dex. “Have some decorum. This is not the proper place for such a display.”

  “I’m trying! Get down!” Y’dex implored the tharp again.

  Nadiah couldn’t hide a smile as she leaned forward and concentrated on the tharp again. “Down,” she murmured to it, sending a message only it could hear. “Go down. All the way.”

  At her soft words, the tharp started creeping down her fiancée’s body, much to Y’dex’s evident relief. But though it soon reached its correct position around his hips, it didn’t stay there. Y’dex gasped with wordless outrange as the bright blue living wrap slid suddenly down to his knees, baring him once more to the gaze of the entire grotto.

  “Guess I was wrong,” Rast remarked, still grinning. “Looks like your tharp would rather be a pair of leg warmers than a scarf.”

  “You…you…” Y’dex swung at him and missed, nearly overbalancing. The tharp was wrapped securely around his knees now and with another soft command from Nadiah, it began to tighten, effectively hobbling him.

  “Look at that,” Rast said. “The incredible shrinking underwear. I’ve heard of tighty-whitys but that, my friend, is ridiculous.” Reaching out, he plucked the goldur out of the distracted Y’dex’s hand. “Uh-oh. Look who’s unarmed now.”

  “Human scum, give me that back!” Y’dex clawed forward, snatching for the goldur and missing.

  “Ah-ah-ah,” Rast admonished. He twirled the goldur like an oversized baton. “You know, I could be wrong but I think this one has better balance than mine did. Think I’ll keep it. I know there are regulations against us switching weapons but I assume there’s nothing in the rule book about disarming your opponent?” Rast looked over at Magistrate Licklow who said nothing. “Didn’t think so.” He looked back at Y’dex and leveled the goldur. “So which do you prefer, cave boy? Fire? Or ice?”

  Y’dex blanched. “You wouldn’t. You can’t strike an unarmed male.”

  “Oh no?” Rast frowned. “So you can do that but I can’t? Is that how it goes?”

  “Bastard!” Y’dex hobbled backwards and then began yanking at the tharp with one hand as he tried to keep his balance with the other. “Make it stop!” he shouted at Rast. “Make it stop or I swear to the Goddess I’ll give Nadiah more pain than she’s ever felt in her whole miserable existence.”

  Rast’s face went dark. “If you so much as give her a dirty look—”

  “I’ll do it! I swear!” Y’dex looked up at Nadiah and made his free hand into a fist. But before he could twist his arm and yank on the bond, she made contact with her tharp once more.

  “Leave him,” she told it. “Go before he hurts you. But give him something to think about first.”

  A bright blue fabric arm flowed from her fiancée’s knees up to his unprotected testicles. The tharp—the same prototype tharp she’d taken and imprinted before she ran away to Sylvan’s bonding ceremony—gave Y’dex’s balls a mighty squeeze. Then, as he howled and toppled over into the icy water on one side of the pit, it flowed off his body and disappeared from sight.

  “Be careful,” Nadiah whispered, knowing that wherever it was it could hear her. “You did well. Just stay hidden and find me later.”

  She felt the tharp’s assent and thanked the Goddess she had thought to take it in the first place. Having a tharp which could mimic any other garment in the universe was coming in handy for much more than good fashion sense. Doubtless Y’dex’s own dress tharp was still lying unused in one of his drawers at his domicile.

  Of course without Lydiah to smuggle her tharp into his room and let it see which garment to emulate, the plan would never have worked. Nadiah risked a glance at her friend and gave her a very small smile. Lydiah smiled back and gave her a sly wink before going back to refilling someone’s cup.

  “I declare the off-worlder challenger the winner of the challenge of strength.” Magistrate Licklow didn’t sound very happy as he announced the outcome but there was nothing else he could do.

  “It’s not fair, Father! Not fair—he cheated!” Y’dex protested from the freezing water. It was clear he wanted to climb out of the icy side of the pit but couldn’t since the bright blue tharp had deserted him completely.

  “Hush yourself.” Magistrate Licklow glared at his son. “You cannot blame another for your own failure to control your tharp.”

  “But, Father—”

  “Y’dex!” Lady Licklow came bustling up, holding out a thick, purple tharp to wrap her son in. “Come out right now,” she hissed. “Everyone is watching!”

  Y’dex exited the icy water with poor grace. “You’ll be sorry, off-worlder,” he snarled at Rast, who was still standing calmly on the beam, twirling his goldur. “I’ll make you pay during the next challenge. You’ll see.”

  Rast didn’t answer but he turned a troubled gaze on Nadiah. She wasn’t allowed to speak to him but some silent communication seemed to pass between them anyway.

  “What next?” his deep green eyes seemed to be asking. “What next?”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Rast had no idea what the next challenge—the challenge of wills—involved, but he told himself he was ready for anything. He retreated from the narrow beam and watched as the partition between the hot coals and the icy water was lifted. The water flowed into the hot part of the pit, putting the fire out with a hiss. A vast cloud of steam rose and when it cleared, he saw that the enterprising Tranq Prime males who seemed to be in charge of setting everything up had fitted a long, flat slab of stone in place, obscuring the pit completely. Pretty good, he thought admiringly. You can’t even tell it was ever there. It just looks like part
of the floor now.

  Nadiah had excused herself for a moment and by the time she returned, several rocks of varying sizes had been placed along the edge of the new floor. Rast looked at her anxiously, searching for any sign that Y’dex was hurting her but she seemed fine. She nodded at him, smiling as she sat back on the low platform, and he nodded back, wishing they could actually talk.

  He wanted to tell her that the thing with the tharp was pure genius and let her know how much he admired her for thinking it up. Something like that never would have occurred to him but then, he didn’t own a sentient fur blanket that was capable of emulating any other garment in the universe. He only hoped the tharp had managed to make its way safely back to her after it finally left Y’dex.

  “It is time for the second challenge—the challenge of wills,” Magistrate Licklow announced, breaking Rast’s train of thought. He was standing in the exact center of the new floor, looking as self important as ever. “Challengers, come forward.”

  Rast came to the center to stand in front of the magistrate. Y’dex was already there. He was wearing a purple tharp and he was dry, except for his white-blond hair which had been slicked from his forehead. Rat thought the new ‘do made him look like an albino hairless cat. Y’dex shot Rast a look of pure, unadulterated hatred and Rast responded with a little grin.

  “Hey, how you doing, buddy?” he murmured. “I like your new skirt. Is this one going to stay on?”

  “Silence!” Magistrate Licklow thundered, frowning. “The second challenge is about to begin.” He turned and nodded at two attendants who were standing on the far edge of the new flooring. “Bring out the mud worms.”