Please read the Important Disclaimers in Chapter 1

Jess took one of the Darvon when they returned to camp. The tall Amazon dry-swallowed the capsule, then looked at Camryn and Kyla, who were watching her silently. "I'm more rocky than I let on. I'm going to be fine, but I'm not at my best. Okay?"

"Okay," Kyla said.

"I can walk and fight pretty well, right now. The main thing I need to watch is fever. If it gets high again, I might get loopy." Jess measured her companions with blood-shot eyes. "Between the three of you, you could take me down, if you had to. Step on me fast if you think I need it, Cam, don't fuck around, all right?"

Cam hestiated for a moment, then nodded. "Okay, Jesstin."

Renee was listening to Jess quietly, her arms folded. Kyla nudged her, and when she caught her eye, the younger woman winked reassuringly. Rene smiled back.

Jess noted the setting sun, and ordered campstrike.

___ *** ___

The two Tristanians followed Jess's orders efficiently, their expressions troubled but respectful. Renee did what she medically could for Jess, which was less and less; what she really needed was days of stressless bedrest. Renee could use a few long nights in a decent bed, herself. And an almost forgotten feeling of safety. She couldn't remember the last time she'd felt --

Yes, she could. Renee stared at Jess, who was helping Kyla tie her pack. She'd felt safe when Jess kissed her, back at the Clinic, three nights ago. And she'd felt safe with her an hour earlier, by the river.

____ *** ____

When night fell in full, the four women broke into pairs along the moonlit trail. Jess and Kyla traveled in front, because, Jess claimed, Kyla had a hawk's eyes for mountain passages. Renee and Camryn brought up the rear. Breaking into two separate, but constantly communicating teams helped assure that if one pair ran into trouble, the other two had room to maneuver.

Renee wondered at the selection of partners, however. She and Camryn hiked side-by-side, in a courteous but strained silence. Cam did crack a smile when Kyla unleashed an especially elaborate all's-well whistle, so they shared that moment.

There would be no real climbing, this second night out, although their next night's travel might prove steeper; they were still in the elaborate system of foothills that fronted the rocky mountain range.

Renee remembered her sister Samantha again. Something about Kyla seemed to bring her to mind. Jesus, she'd probably thought of Sam more often in the past twenty-four hours than in the two years since she'd seen her.

She was startled by the white, neatly folded handkerchief Cam held out as they puffed up a gentle rise. Renee smiled reluctantly, snatched it, and blew her nose.

"You can keep that," Cam said generously.

"I will." Renee wedged the kerchief into the pocket of her scrubs. She sighed, and decided to try again. "I was missing my younger sister," she told the tall young woman beside her.

Cam nodded slowly. She stopped walking, took a small picture out of the breast pocket of her green shirt, and handed it to Renee.

Renee stopped too, and tried to tilt the glossy photo to see the image in the moonlight. Her throat tightened as she made out the young girl's face -- smiling, a little homely, a little plump, beautiful. Not unlike Samantha. Renee turned the picture over. On the back, in careful printing, were the words "Hannah" and "Twelve."

"This is your sister." Renee looked up at Cam sadly. "The girl that died, along with Jess's friend, Dyan?"

"They were murdered, yeah." Cam nodded, her eyes on the picture. "Shann thinks they only meant to get Dyan. But Hannah always followed Dyan around like a puppy, all over Tristaine, everywhere she went. She hero-worshipped her. So the bullets hit her too."

Renee handed the photo back to Cam, who returned it carefully to her pocket.

They walked on, and Renee allowed her shoulder to brush the young Amazon's arm once as they climbed the hill. She looked at the moonlit grass passing beneath their feet, and she was glad she had spoken. Renee was no doubt taller than Hannah had been, but Camryn might have found their shadows hauntingly familiar.

Their shared silence was still silence, but it was easier.

____ *** ____

Jess didn't even see Kyla fall.

Much as the tall Amazon would enjoy cursing herself for it later, it wouldn't have mattered if she had. The redhead's sneakered foot slipped off the edge of the muddy trail so abruptly, an amazonian rattlesnake couldn't have caught her in time.

Kyla managed to stifle any cry, so neither Camryn or Renee heard anything until the girl's body actually hit the hillside and began to roll. The sound reached the young medic and the Amazon as an alarming, distant thump, followed by a fading rustling.

"Bloody hell," Camryn hissed. "Renee, go north!"

And she was gone. All gangliness fled Camryn's body as she flew among the mesquite at a southern angle, in a flexible, cat-like crouch. Unbeknownst to Renee, who knew nothing of open-arena strategy, Cam was approaching the fall zone as a possible ambush area. Dyan had taught her warriors well.

"Camryn," Renee yelled, and then bent her knees and looked around, furious with herself for the noise. "Camryn," she whispered, fiercely. She hesitated -- and then ducked into the brush, and began her own angle, north.

____ *** ____

Jess snugged the knot around her waist, yanked the rope to test its hold, and stepped back into open space.

The first drop was only ten feet or so, and the ledge was well-padded with soft dirt and grass, but Jess could imagine that, at best, it had knocked the breath out of Kyla. Even braced for it and securely roped, the dark Amazon's abused body screamed protest when her boots hit the ledge.

The rest of the grade was encouragingly gentle, and free of any half-buried boulders that might bash out the brains of a tumbling body. Jess bit back the urge to call out to her younger sister, and descended in long, silent leaps.

Then caught herself, half-way down, her scratched hands clenching around the rope. Jess stood still, panting, her eyes narrowing as she listened. She recognized a voice.

____ *** ____

Kyla came to rest on her back, at the bottom of the muddy hill. She stared stupidly up at the blanket of stars above her, her heart pounding queasily. She was intact, she decided, just bruised and breathless. Jess would come for her, Kyla was sure of that. She tried to lie still and let the rest of her wits catch up with her.

The full moon back-lit the woman's curly hair as she loomed over Kyla, who shrank back instinctively.

"We haven't met, Kyla. I'm staff." The voice was polite. "My name is Caster."

____ *** ____

"Jesstin? Hello? Mr. Dugan, the -- "

The tinny, reverberating voice broke off. Then Caster lifted the megaphone again.

"Whoops. Here we go, all right. Jesstin?" Caster's amplified tones clanged against the dark hills. "You're aware that one of your little Amazonlettes has joined us, correct?"

There was a pause. Jess waited. And her hands clenched again on the rope, because she knew what was probably happening to Kyla.

Whatever form the pain took -- an arm wrenched behind her back, or her wild auburn hair pulled -- Kyla just used its energy to broadcast her message with maximum venom:

"Fuck this bitch, Jess, get out of -- "

Jess closed her eyes as a thump sounded -- Kyla, dropping the megaphone. Jess half-bent herself, feeling the blow as if it had hit her own stomach. She thought carefully and quickly, and then she moved.

____ *** ____

Renee crouched behind a bank of boulders, still shivering with the adrenaline rush, trying to spot Jess somewhere on the hillside in front of her. She couldn't see Kyla, among the dense trees at the bottom of the hill, and she couldn't see Cam, who should be coming around the slope across from --

Renee felt the cool hand slide around her face and clamp down over her mouth, and she threw herself backwards, sirens going off in her skull.

The woman caught Renee's thrashing body easily, and held her still.

"I don't know you." The musical voice was calm. The hand lifted slightly.

"I'm Renee," Renee gasped.

The woman released her. "I'm pleased to meet you, Renee." Renee spun, and found herself pinned by a pair of extrordinary gray eyes. "I'm Shann."

____ *** ____

Caster was a scientist, not a military strategist, but she rightly assumed her other three Clinic refugees were nearby. She didn't have enough staff with her to search the wooded hills at night -- the Clinic "hum-vee" was only big enough to carry Dugan and Louis and two other over-paid orderlies with her on this mission. She had them make a rudimentary camp in the small valley at the base of the wooded slopes.

Down into which had rolled, not ten minutes ago, to Caster's astonishment, another answer to her prayers, young Kyla of Tristaine. Caster commented to Dugan that fate did indeed smile occasionally upon the righteous and well-armed. Dugan grinned stupidly, but Caster knew he didn't get it. She rather missed Jesstin and Renee, at least they had pulses.

Once in possession of Kyla, obtaining Jesstin would be a no-brainer, as Caster's older son would call it. Kyla was bait. Another wonderful side-benefit of this Tristainian adannin-fixation. The Amazons' loyalty to each other would be their downfall, Caster thought tragically, imagining the words printed in bold-type in a prestigous military journal.

Caster didn't count Renee in that category, she was no Amazon. Intelligent or not, the blonde medic was a traitorous little sheep, led around by her mindless young vulva. Renee wouldn't be returning to the Clinic, Caster decided. She'd decide later about Jesstin, once she had her. Now that she held Kyla, her true quarry was Camryn of Tristaine.

___ *** ___

In the Clinic, Camryn and Kyla had trusted Jess enough to allow her time. Time to form a workable plan with Benton, and time to get them out of there safely.

Now, Jess knew two things, as the rope ran out and she side-stepped free-style down the slope. She knew Caster would continue to hurt Kyla, if Jess didn't surrender as ordered. And she knew that together, the two Amazons had to buy Cam and Renee time.

So Jess walked into Caster's camp. She held her arms slightly away from her sides as two orderlies spotted her and yelled, snapping their rifles up to cover her.

Kyla moaned when she saw Jess's tall form emerge from the trees. The sight of her older sister walking willingly into enemy hands chilled her heart, and she turned her head in the grass. The other two orderlies had stripped the young redhead, and bound her spread-eagled on the ground, tying her wrists and ankles to tent pegs.

Jess's blazing eyes went flat when she saw Kyla's body, helplessly spread and naked beneath the eyes of men. Another Amazonian oddity, Caster thought, watching the shield fall across Jess's immobile face. An Amazon can bear her own rape more easily than she can see a sister ravaged. Jess and Renee had taught her so much.

Jess stopped at the entrance to the enclosure, a few yards from Kyla. Then Caster nodded at Louis, and the capture began.

It didn't go at all as Caster intended, at first. Louis was supposed to start fucking the girl on the ground, for one thing, but the cretin chose that crucial moment to go impotent. He lowered himself between Kyla's spread legs, and ground himself self-consciously against her, his small eyes bulging with both excitement and fear of failure.

Caster had wanted Dugan to do the fucking, but the burly guard had refused, in favor of subduing Jesstin. Some macho resentment of her Amazonian butchness, apparently. He and the two other orderlies waited until Jess broke and dived for Kyla, which was the second thing that went wrong -- they should have moved much sooner.

Jess broke Louis's neck with her heel as she flew over Kyla's spread body, then flipped once in a tight arc. She landed well but then staggered, the ache in her lower back sudden and immense. The injury she'd received days ago in the Clinic's arena awoke with a nasty, snarling burst of pain.

Kyla cried out, pistoning her knees as much as the ropes would allow, trying to shift Louis's slumping bulk off of her as Dugan and the others finally took Jess down.

Caster picked up the megaphone again, and crouched beside Kyla. She stroked the thrashing young woman's breasts gently, as Jess was beaten. After a minute or so, Caster raised the megaphone.

"Camryn? Are you watching?"

____ *** ____

Dawn.

Jess hadn't been sure she'd live to see it, and she wasn't sure she appreciated having done so. The last benefits of the Darvon had faded hours before. The dark woman stood -- after a fashion -- close to Kyla, her wrists tied tightly between two trees. Even when her knees buckled, as they did frequently, the pull on her arms kept her stiffly erect.

The beating had been savage, but Caster had stopped it when Jess passed out. Her kidneys were still intact, she thought, eyes still closed, head bowed, feeling the first warm ray of the sun touch her roped hand. No bones were broken, and she'd been left fully clothed, but she was probably a sight to frighten young children. Kyla had wept when they'd strung her up, just seeing her face by firelight.

"Jesstin?"

Jess heard the worry and weariness in her younger sister's voice, and she forced her eyes open again. She and Kyla had talked in the last hours, briefly and quietly, whenever Jess was conscious.

"How are you doing?" Worry was winning over weariness, judging by Kyla's searching gaze.

"At least I'm upright," Jess croaked. "More than you can say."

"Jess." Kyla was silent for a moment. "They'd kill Renee, wouldn't they?"

"What?"

"I've been thinking." Still naked and spread on the dew-soaked grass, Kyla was shivering, but not entirely from cold. "I know this fancy doctor bitch wants Cam. But she wouldn't have any use for Renee. Right? If Renee's captured too, would they -- "

"Probably." The "p" sound hurt Jess's split lip. She didn't think Caster would have much use for her, either, if she had Camryn -- all she needed was a new matched pair tto resume the project -- but Kyla didn't need to know that yet. "Don't worry about it, adannin. Cam won't just walk in here."

"What would we do, you and me?" Kyla asked softly. "If it were Cam and Renee here, and us out there? I've been trying to think of what Dyan would say. Would she tell us to -- "

"Not do this," Jess said suddenly, and her blue eyes ignited again.

Kyla turned her head on the grass to see Renee, in full view, stepping out of the trees and into the camp.

____ *** ____

She would rather not throw up, Renee thought, if she were given a choice between vomiting and her knees giving out. Hopefully neither would happen, and she'd just keep making her way over the uneven grass toward Jess and Kyla in the pre-dawn light.

Looking into Jess's eyes was not a good idea, so Renee looked down at Kyla, and her step faltered. She'd held no illusions about what must have been happening in the camp, but seeing the aftermath was still a gut-punch. Renee made a small side trip to pick up a blanket that had been abandoned in the grass.

She took the opportunity to survey the rest of Caster's camp, behind them. Nothing stirred. She saw an orderly, rifle folded in his arms, supposedly keeping watch, but he wasn't looking toward them.

Renee knelt beside Kyla in the wet grass.

"What the bloody hell do you think you're doing?" Kyla hissed, her hands pulling at her ropes. Renee put a calming hand on the girl's bare waist -- she could feel Jess's blue eyes burning a hole in the top of her head.

"N-not surrendering," Renee stammered. She shook the blanket out and spread it carefully over Kyla, then tucked it gently beneath her sides. "But that's what I'm telling Caster, when they finally wake up and realize I'm here. Jesstin, did you hear that? I'm saying that I'm giving up, and I want to go back." The young medic bent lower. "Are you all right, Kyla?"

"Well, you better have a bomb taped to your chest," Kyla whispered, closing her eyes in relief as Renee's hands smoothed the soft warmth around her.

"Answer me, Ky." Renee pushed the auburn curls back off the girl's forehead, and checked her green eyes carefully. "Are you hurt?"

"I'm fine. God, you're worse about mothering me than Shann," Kyla complained. "You and Cam do have some kind of plan, right?"

"As a matter of fact . . . " Renee smiled down at Kyla, and stroked her hair again. "Shann's here."

"About bloody time," Jess snapped above them. She kept her voice low, and tried to crane her neck, painfully, to see the arena around them.

"Did you know she was coming?" Now that she was half-warm, Kyla apparently still found it impossible to stop trembling. Her green eyes narrowed. "Do you think you might have mentioned that, Jesstin, some time in the last six -- "

"No, I didn't know Shann was coming, but it makes sense," Jess replied. "It's what Dyan would do." Still no movement anywhere in the camp, she thought. The orderly on watch actually seemed to be dozing. Jesus. Caster's goons wouldn't last ten seconds against Amazons, if they could get the upper hand.

Renee stood and looked up into Jess's battered face. She drew in a long breath, and let it out slowly. "Well, I knew you'd look something like this," she said, and then burst into tears that astonished them both.

The outburst did not surprise Kyla, however, who watched sympathetically -- she knew exactly what her newest sister was feeling.

"Get a grip, Renee," Jess said quietly.

"I am." Renee shook her head once. "It's just nerves, I told you that." She studied Jess's body through the last of her tears, her hands moving over the dark woman's sides with care.

"Turn so I block the guard's view," Jess murmured, but Renee shook her head.

"No, he's supposed to see me," Renee said, wincing at the tightness of the rope around Jess's wrists. "Shann wants a general shift of attention toward this side of the camp, around us."

"Got a knife?" Jess asked casually, glancing up at the ropes holding her wrists spread between the two trees.

"No, and I wouldn't use it if I had," Renee answered. Jess's black shirt was hanging in dusty tatters, and she opened it to bare Jess's upper body and inspect new injuries. "This is as close as I'll ever come again to having you tied and at my mercy, I'm going to take advantage of it while I can." The green eyes rose to Jess's face. "There's nothing we can do until Shann moves, Jess. So stop glaring, and let me look at you."

Jess sighed, and allowed Renee's hands to curl around her back, to probe areas that were probably so tender she would make her yell out loud, in front of Kyla.

"She talks to you just like Shann, too," Kyla observed from the grass.

Renee shivered, and closed Jess's shirt again. The fever was coming back -- the glassiness in Jess's eyes had told her that much at first glance, and the unnatural heat rising off her body confirmed it. It wasn't too high yet, however. But the myriad bruises that covered the Amazon's strong body, all in various stages of healing, and the welts still striping her broad back, made Renee wonder why Jess was conscious at all.

She looked up into the tall woman's blue eyes again, and again, that was their mutual undoing. Jess's gaze gentled, and Renee released a slow, tired sigh, and sank against her. She slid her arms around Jess's waist as naturally as she breathed, and rested her forehead carefully against the strong swell of her shoulder.

"Do you realize we've had the worst fucking courtship in history?" Renee said finally.

Jess didn't answer at first, glowering at Kyla's delighted smile over Renee's head. But then the tall woman relaxed in her bonds, and rested her face against the soft blonde hair. "Ren. This is probably not the time for either of us to -- "

"It's going to be our last chance, for awhile." Renee sniffed, and lifted her head. "Shann's going to move pretty soon."

"Now? With the five of us, unarmed," Jess whispered, "against four men and one mad banshee scientist, with rifles?"

"Shann says to remember Dyan's last training." Renee's brows lifted, hoping this made sense, to either Jess or Kyla. "Shann came here from Tristaine, right? She says, remember that Dyan's orders were still in stock."

"Dyan's orders?" Kyla looked puzzled.

"Oh. Ordinance." Jess looked at Renee, who was starting to smile again. "Dyan's ordinance, Kyla . . . dynamite."

That's when the other end of the camp blew up.

Continue onto Part 6 and the conclusion of Clinic