Please read the Important Disclaimers in Chapter 1

The sudden blast shattered the pre-dawn stillness, and even Renee, who'd been braced for it, started hard and gripped Jess's shoulders with nerveless fingers. Only two sticks, thrown by Shann and Camryn from strategic positions above Caster's camp, but their sharp concussion carried as much shock value as A-bombs in the sleeping silence.

The orderly assigned to sentry duty came awake with a startled yell, firing twice into the air before he was fully on his feet. That's all Renee saw before she focused on freeing Jess and Kyla.

The blond medic had, in fact, sequestered a small utility knife in the most convenient hiding place available -- her cleavage. Jess's eyes bulged a little when Renee retrieved it, but she appreciated the blade's efficiency in cutting through the ropes holding her erect. Renee helped Kyla stand, and the two of them were able to support Jess -- but they were a swaying, clutching group for the first disorienting moments of the fight.

There was yelling now, male voices as well as Amazon war cries, and the dirt thrown by the TNT thickened the mountain air, transforming the enclosed camp into a hazy battlefield. The dynamite itself had not injured anyone -- Shann had directed Camryn in its placement carefully. Amazons tried not to kill unless necessary -- the guiding premise of all warrior women, according to Shann.

Caster's orderlies actually put up a respectable fight, once roused. The rifles they carried were only single-shot carbines, but they weren't burdened by any code to preserve the lives of mountain women. Tent flaps opened, and dark muzzles emerged to spit barks of thunder and snaps of red fire through the haze.

Jess had one arm around Renee's neck and the other around Kyla's -- the strength was returning to her legs,, and walking was possible now. They were headed back toward the trees Renee had walked through only minutes before, but Jess hesitated, craning her head back to assess the fight behind them. She stopped abruptly, and lifted her arms from the shoulders of the smaller women.

"Meet you later," Jess said.

"Hey!" Renee caught Jess's hand. "Shann said to wait for her at the top of -- "

"Good idea," Jess said, still trying to see her other sisters through the dust and confusion of running bodies, shouts, and rifle-fire. She pulled her hand from Renee's grip. "See you there."

"Jesstin, you are not -- "

But Jess was gone, moving stiffly but gaining speed as her tall form disappeared into the hanging cloud of dust enveloping the camp.

"Renee, hon." Kyla touched Renee's shoulder. "You might need to understand Jesstin a little better. Amazons can't just -- "

"No, Kyla," Renee interrupted, and her green eyes snapped. "Maybe you, and Jess, and every other Amazon in punching distance, needs to start understanding me a little better."

And she was gone too, yelling curses at Jess. Kyla grinned, snugged the blanket over her shoulders higher so she could kick, and followed her sisters into battle.

Without the unlamented Louis, Caster's forces were Dugan, two other men, and four rifles. Renee coughed and squinted her burning eyes in time to catch a fleeting impression of the status of the clash.

Shann, a slender woman, was struggling with an orderly easily twice her size. She was using his bulk against him to good effect, but she was no warrior, and the rifle clenched between the combatants could still be won by either. Renee caught a quick glimpse of Jess tackling the burly man who grappled with Shann, and then her attention was riveted by Caster, standing ten yards to her right, swinging up a rifle at some target behind her, and taking careful aim.

Renee started for the scientist even before the rifle discharged, knowing only that the bullet was intended for an Amazon. She heard a cry of pain -- Kyla, Camryn, she wasn't sure who'd been hit -- and then she leaped on Caster, hard enough to knock them both breathless, and carried her to the ground. The rifle flew from Caster's hands as she fell, and she gave an unlady-like grunt as her body smacked the earth.

Renee rolled with her, filling with a bone-deep fury she should have expected, with the Clinic incarnate flailing beneath her. Then she chanced a look toward the far tents, and froze in dismay.

Camryn lay curled on her side in the grass, clutching her lower leg, her expression locked in a grimace. Kyla crouched over her, her own features pale as chalk, scanning the arena for any new threat to her injured lover. The second orderly lay sprawled unconscious on the grass nearby -- Cam must have dropped him before she was felled by Caster's bullet. That still left Dugan --

Caster flung the handful of dirt and grass into Renee's face like a veteran of such cowardly ploys, and Renee instinctively ground her fists into her eyes to clear them. Caster had just enough time to club Renee soundly in the stomach with her fists, and then Dugan was on them, wrenching Renee up off the gasping scientist's body.

"Hey-hey, Renee!" Dugan roared, his grin wild and his eyes bulging with battle-lust. He pinned Renee's arms to her sides and pressed her to his chest, dancing to avoid her vicious kicks.

Vicious, but not random. The blonde medic knew human anatomy well, and she'd been kick-boxing long enough to aim for truly vulnerable areas. Renee didn't connect squarely -- her gouging knee only side-swept Dugan's crotch -- but it was enough to make him stagger and bellow with surprise.

But not enough to release her. Instead Dugan dropped where he stood, pulling Renee down with him, until he straddled her supine body in the grass, one knee on either side of her. His face was distorted with both rage and pain, and he slapped Renee hard, with a spitting curse. Renee's groping fingers felt for the exquisitely painful soft spots between the jaw and the ear, but Dugan trapped her wrists in one hand and flattened himself over her, squirming, beginning to grin again.

"You med-techs got it all over orderlies," Dugan breathed in Renee's ear, as she struggled beneath him. "You paraded these proud tits down the hall by me, a dozen times a day -- "

Dugan kneaded Renee's left breast through her green shirt until Jesstin's kick rocketed into his ribs, knocking him off the blonde woman and onto his side. Renee clawed the grass to put distance between them, staring at Jess, appalled -- the dark woman had finally reached the end of her formidable strength. The powerful kick had drained the last of her energy, and she crumpled when Dugan grabbed her legs.

Dugan pulled Jess down beneath him and fastened his huge hands around her throat. He hissed at her and his spittle hit her cheek, but Jess couldn't even turn her head to avoid it. She had little hope of breaking his pinkie fingers, usually the best option with a choke-hold, and no hope whatever of dislodging his weight. She saw Dugan's broad shoulders above her, and the sunlight outlining them began to darken to red in her vision, as his large hands choked off her breathing.

Vaguely, Jess heard Renee cry out, somewhere close by, and Kyla's voice, calling Shann's name. Then nothing, for a few seconds, except pressure and pain and the desperate need for air. Jess's senses had started to fade when she heard the muted crack from Shann's rifle that sent a bullet deep into Dugan's brain.

The big man stiffened and convulsed over Jess, his hands jerking away from her throat. Gasping, Jess made a huge effort and managed to twist out from under Dugan before he fell. She came to rest on her back, staring up at the brightening morning sky through the smoke and dust, and then both sound and light went wavy and treacherous again for a moment.

When her vision cleared again, Jess was lying with her head pillowed in Renee's soft lap. Her head pounded sickly, only the most pre-eminent of the aches awaiting her return to awareness, but then fear filled her more urgently than the pain.

"Where's Shann." Jess began to sit up, but Renee tightened her hold on her shoulders and kept her flat.

"S-Shann's all right, Jess." Renee's teeth were chattering as if she were freezing. "Kyla is too, so am I -- Camryn . . . Cam's been shot, but it's superficial -- "

A muffled exclamation escaped Jess and she tried to sit up again, but only until the pounding in her head hit a huge bass note --

"Jesstin, lie still!" Renee pressed the dark Amazon back down, too easily, her green eyes filling with tears she was too distracted to notice. "It's over, we're okay. Shann's got them covered -- don't sit up, just look there."

Renee supported Jess's head so her dazed blue eyes could focus on the odd tableau at the other end of the camp. Shann, looking dusty and disheveled, but perfectly composed, was holding one of the rifles on the only orderly still functional enough to walk. He had just finished dumping the last of four men into the Humvee -- two unconscious, two corpses -- and now, under Shann's silent gaze, he was escorting Caster to the waiting vehicle. Caster was limping, her clothing was torn, and she did not spare Renee or Jess so much as a glance.

They watched Caster pass Shann, and the two women regarded each other for a long moment. Caster spoke, briefly. Shann listened, but made no reply. Then Caster lifted herself into the front of the Humvee, a bleeding scratch on her throat, and her hair a snarled cap around her head, but her poise fully restored. She folded her hands serenely in her lap while the orderly keyed the Humvee's engine.

Shann kept the rifle trained on the hulking black jeep as it lumbered out of the camp, and off down a dry riverbed toward the base of the foothills. She waited until the sound of its powerful engine faded, and then her watching sisters saw Shann click open the chamber of the rifle she held. She apparently expected to find it empty, and did, because an Amazon would never drop a loaded firearm on the ground.

Shann lifted her hand to shade her eyes against the rising sun, and regarded them across the camp. "Renee? Do you need me?"

"No," Renee called. Their voices sounded unnaturally loud in the renewed stillness of the mountain air. "She's stable for now -- see Camryn!"

Shann nodded and jogged over to Cam, who sat with her back against a tree as Kyla bound her bleeding leg. Jess shifted in Renee's arms, and lifted herself on one elbow.

"Hey," Jess barked at Camryn, almost accusingly.

"She'll be alright, Jesstin," Kyla called over her shoulder, never taking her eyes from her work. Shann knelt beside her and checked her younger sister for signs of shock, taking her pulse, feeling her hands.

"I got shot," Camryn called to Jess. The young Amazon sounded surprised, and she was ashen, but she didn't seem particularly dismayed.

"You could have moved!" Jess snapped.

"Jess, I got shot with a rifle," Camryn protested.

"You could have moved," Shann and Jess said together, and Kyla snorted laughter, even though she was crying herself, now that they were safe.

Jess rolled back into Renee's lap with a muffled groan. "Dyan's response to every injury in the ranks," she explained to Renee.

"Thank you, I wondered." Renee smiled. Her pulse was slowing to a reasonable cadence again, and she cradled Jess's face in her hands. "Jesstin -- when you stand up, how many parts of you are going to drop off?"

"I hope my head does," Jess grumbled, and shivered once, hard.

"Shann, can you bring us a -- " Renee's voice cut off as she looked up to see Shann kneeling beside them, already spreading an army blanket over Jess's shivering form. "You're so good," she said instead, and helped Shann snug the warm wool in place.

"How good are you, at taking out bullets?" Shann asked quietly, her beautiful grey eyes on Renee.

"I've seen it done it before." Renee swallowed. "But I know we don't have the right instruments, all we have is a first aid kit. I don't suppose there's any way we could get Cam down to the city . . . ?" Renee's voice trailed off. She didn't need either of the Amazons to answer that. "Shann, tell me you packed painkillers from Tristaine, along with the dynamite."

"Not many," Shann sighed. "But I know something about herbs, and there are plants nearby we can use." She smiled down at Jess, who was looking up at her blearily. Hello, Jesstin . . . " She leaned over and rested her lips against Jess's forehead for a long moment, then straightened. "You've been sorely missed, in Tristaine. I'll wait until Renee gets you back on your feet, dearest, and then I intend to knock you senseless myself."

Renee stared at Tristaine's queen, amazed that those words, which could so easily have come from Caster three days earlier, sounded so loving, almost tender, in Shann's compelling voice.

"Hey, I did everything right." Jess sounded puzzled. The warmth of the blanket, and their hands, was reaching her now, and she was able to relax against the grass. "Benton and I had to move earlier than we thought, but everyone got out . . . " Her brow furrowed. "You mean the route? The route we took through the foothills? Shann, that was the fastest -- "

"I mean drop-kicking a two hundred-pound man six hours after a bad beating," Shann interrupted. Her eyes dimmed as she examined Jess's battered face. "The latest in a series of beatings, from the looks of you. How is she, Renee?"

"Not good." Renee brushed Jess's hair back, almost self-consciously -- she was measuring her fever, but she also wanted Jess to feel her touch. "She's got a nasty fever that comes and goes, and it's rising again. I haven't had a chance to examine her thoroughly, but I don't think anything's broken. There's no sign of internal bleeding -- but she's exhausted, just worn out."

Jess thought of refuting this clinical assessment, delivered as it was in the third person, but she was too tired to care. Renee's lap was too soft, and the blanket too warm. She heard Shann's worried voice faintly, far above her.

"Is she unconscious?"

"Asleep." Renee's smile could be heard in her tone. "Listen."

Jess figured she probably was snoring softly, but her sisters were safe, and she didn't care.

____ *** ____

They had the rifles, and they had the dry riverbank. Both advantages allowed them to take over Caster's abandoned camp, rather than drag their injured sisters further into the hills. A view of the riverbed below would give them a little warning if Clinic forces returned, and the rifles would provide a quick defense if needed.

Renee was surprised when Cam asked Jess to hold her while the bullet was removed -- not at the request itself, as much as the young Amazon's selection of Jess to provide the service -- Camryn's lifemate was nearby, and so was her queen. Shann noticed her curiosity as she helped her lay out supplies beside Cam.

"Even if Cam didn't need to be restrained for this, she'd want Jess to hold her," Shann explained, as Jess eased between Camryn and the base of the tree. The dark woman rested her welted back gingerly against the rough bark of the trunk, and then allowed Cam to lay back against her, before folding her long arms around her waist.

"Camryn and Jesstin are the only two warriors among us," Shann continued, carefully lowering Cam's bandaged leg to the blanket. "If an Amazon is injured in battle, she always wants a warrior to see her through the first healing, so she can absorb her strength."

"What strength?" Kyla asked flatly. "Jess is probably worse off than Cam, if you count the sum total of bruises." She crouched beside Jess and held the back of her neck, trying to get her to finish the last of Shann's herbal tea. Cam had already downed two cups, and her eyes were a bit glassy.

"Dang, why do you guys all have such cold hands," Jess complained, swallowing the tea with a grimace.

"I'm nervous," Kyla explained, and showed Jess her trembling fingers. "Excuse me, I've never seen a bullet cut out of my lover's leg before, okay?"

"You can be such a wimp, Ky." Leaning back against Jess, trying to be butch, and more than a little high, Camryn snickered. "My hands aren't cold. I bet Jess's hands aren't, either, and I know Shann's aren't -- "

Cam squeaked as Shann touched her thin wrist with icy fingers.

"I'm nervous too." Shann smiled, which transformed her briefly from a handsome woman into a beautiful one. "And I have seen this done before, far too many times. Macha can only sustain us so long, Camryn. No one here is going to enjoy this." She nodded at the blonde medic kneeling beside her. "Luckily, perhaps alone among us, Renee is steady as a rock. Are we ready, Blades?"

"That's your second name now," Kyla warned Renee, anxiety making her talkative. "Once Shann dubs you, you're dubbed for life."

"Well, I'm glad I was cutting when Shann dubbed me, and not doing a rectal." Renee was relieved that the humor was there when she needed it, and gratified by the grins of the others. She'd wanted to ease the tension -- Cam's, certainly, but her own too. Renee felt blue eyes watching her, and she glanced at Jess. Jess winked, and managed to convey a sense of warmth and trust in that one small motion. Renee smiled at her.

She flattened her hands on her lap for a moment. She didn't close her eyes, but the green of them grew hazy as she concentrated. Cam was a patient, now, and Renee's patients always got her best efforts. In spite of the quivering in her stomach, Renee's hands, on her thighs, were steady and warm. She was back in her element. She drew on thin rubber gloves from the medical kit, and smiled at the pale Amazon who reclined in Jess's arms. "I'm ready, if my victim is."

"Wait," Cam said. She scowled. "I'm probably going to -- make some noise. Just so you know, and you're not surprised by it. And poke me, or something." It was not an admission Cam would have easily made without the boundary-blurring benefits of the second Darvon, and Shann's muscle-relaxing herbal brew.

"That's not something you have to apologize for." Jess's voice was low and calm, behind Cam. "Dyan would tell you to use your energy getting to the other end of this, not trying to keep your mouth shut."

"Okay." Cam smiled agreeably at Kyla as she knelt beside her and took her hand.

It was a grueling twenty minutes, for all of them.

Renee had been right, it was a superficial wound, if any such trauma to human tissue can be termed superficial -- the small-caliber bullet had penetrated the large muscle of Camryns' left calf. It's extraction was largely a common-sense procedure for Renee, who understood healing at an instinctive level. But she was using rudimentary instruments, sterilized in boiling water and alcohol, and the work was harrowing and slow. Camryn was quickly coated with sweat, in spite of the late-morning chill, and so was Renee.

Cam cried out twice, and Jess's arms tightened each time to hold her still under the blonde medic's blade. Later, Camryn would claim that her worst suffering came from Kyla, squeezing her fingers too hard, the second time she yelled.

Only Shann and Renee studied the procedure directly, both with rapt fascination. They murmured observations to each other that, frankly, creeped out the other three present. The two women worked together like a team long familiar with the other's skills, Shann handing Renee instruments, and monitoring Camryn's breathing and pulse. But Renee was never unaware of the pain Cam was feeling -- she gave the young Amazon breathers, twice, that Cam denied needing, but Renee thought were prudent.

Kyla was paler than the patient by the time Renee patted a sterile cloth over Cam's leg to dry it before bandaging. Cam let out a long breath of relief, and her eyes drifted shut as she rested her head on Jess's shoulder. Jess looked as spent as she did.

Shann eyed her sisters with sympathetic practicality. "Are you going to faint, Kyla?"

"Oh, no." Kyla's voice shook as she played with Cam's hand. "I always look like this, when bullets get cut out of my lover's leg . . . it's just nerves."

Then she burst into tears, and Renee and Jess exchanged exhausted smiles.

____ *** ____

"Too fucking fast," Renee murmured.

She didn't realize she'd spoken aloud until she felt Shann's hand on her shoulder. She started and sat up, and smiled at the older woman self-consciously. "Sorry. I think I'm starting to hallucinate."

"It's no wonder." Shann's low voice was kind. "You're exhausted, Renee. Why don't you sleep for awhile? I can finish this."

"Why don't you both sleep for awhile?" Jess growled softly. "I'm as clean as I'm going to get, thank you."

Jess was referring to the alcohol bath Renee had bared her to the waist to receive an hour before. She had taken Camryn's place on the pallet beneath the huge tree when her fever rose to the point that she couldn't hold a reliable conversation. The mild summer weather made it possible for them to forego Caster's musty tents, and sleeping under stars was always the preference in Tristaine, so Camryn and Kyla dozed in each other's arms on a blanketed air-mattress nearby. A fire crackled warmly in the center of their circle.

It was late, after midnight. Renee had left her wristwatch somewhere under Dugan, and she missed the sense of order knowing the time might have provided. As happened frequently now, when Renee felt unsettled, she looked at Jess. This time it didn't bring the reasurance she'd hoped for -- the dark woman lying half-propped against the tree still shook with fever, even at the end of a long, cooling bath, and Renee's eyes darkened with worry.

"I'd make you suck on a thermometer again," she told Jess, touching her face, "but knowing the exact reading wouldn't change much. I can tell it's as high as it was an hour ago."

The three women still awake kept their voices low, so as not to disturb the young Amazons sleeping nearby.

Shann finished wringing out a sponge. She closed Jess's shirt over her bare breasts and fastened it shut, then rested her hand on her warrior's warm waist. "Sleep will help you now more than anything, Jesstin. I've never had much success at ordering you around, but I want you to obey a friendly request, all right? Lie still for a few hours."

"Sure," Jess mumbled, her eyes already drifting closed.

"A friendly request." Renee smiled as they shook out a blanket over Jess. "That works, with Amazons?"

"Usually," Shann said. "Even Jess." Her hand moved soothingly back and forth over the blanket, across Jess's chest.

Shann wasn't a traditionally beautiful woman, Renee thought, but she had lovely hands and a soft, musical voice. She watched Tristaine's queen covertly as a light breeze lifted her hair off her face.

"You must be in some kind of culture shock."

Renee blinked. "Me?"

Shann nodded. "You mind if I pry into your personal history?"

Renee took the question seriously and thought about it, and found she didn't. "No."

"Let me see if I understand what's happened to you." Shann gathered her legs under her skirt and leaned back on one hand to study Renee thoughtfully. "You were a reasonably successful government medic, and then you were transferred to a military project. And you were assigned to Jesstin, what, less than a month ago?"

Renee nodded. She and Camryn had filled Shann in on the basics during the endless night Kyla and Jess were held in Caster's camp.

Shann continued. "So, in less than a month, you've had your faith in your leaders dashed, your career ruined, you've been raped, you've lost your apartment and your car, and all security. And now you're running for your life through a mountain wilderness, with three women you hardly know, and one you've fallen in love with, and people are trying to kill you." Shann lifted a distinctive eyebrow. "Is that about right?"

Renee had started smiling, rather bleakly, early on in Shann's recitation -- the summary was spookily apt, and very much like the one that had been running through Renee's tired mind a few minutes earlier. "You about covered it."

Shann chuckled. "You must feel like you've fallen in with some kind of bizarre cult."

Renee winced. "Well, no, I hadn't thought of that one, thanks though."

Shann laughed again, and then covered her mouth when Jess stirred between them. Renee tucked the blanket around Jess's long legs. She felt Shann's gaze on her.

"You care very much for her, don't you?"

Renee watched Jess's dark eyelashes flutter against her high cheek. "I guess I do."

"And you've told her this?"

Renee nodded. "I think she knew, but yes, I've told her, more or less. Shann . . . "

Shann allowed her time to gather her thoughts.

"I don't know how you feel about me being here," Renee said finally. "Not you, personally, but all of you, from Tristaine. I know that Jess -- cares about me, but you guys didn't know you'd be taking on an extra refugee." Renee paused. "One who was with the other side herself, only a month ago . . . I don't know why you should trust me. I'm an outsider, basically."

"Well, you probably always have been, basically. That's how most women seek out Tristaine -- they come to us because they don't belong in the city."

Renee absorbed this statement silently for awhile. She could have refuted the idea that she'd willingly sought out anything, except an honest paycheck, but she wasn't even sure that was true anymore.

"Tristaine isn't unique." Shann brushed a pine needle off Jess's arm. "At least we don't think we are, communication between counties being what it isn't. We believe there might be one or two clans very like Tristaine, for every city in the country. Full of women who don't fit in."

"That's what the tabloids say," Renee said carefully.

Shann grinned at her. "Renee, take your time. If you ever feel you need to leave us, we'll find a way to send you somewhere safe. Just let things happen at their own pace, for now."

"I'm trying." Renee cleared her throat. "I guess this is as good a time as any, to draw a clean slate, wherever I end up. It's not like I'm leaving a lot behind. Except for my sister, I'm not close to my family. I've always been good at my work, though." She needed no reassurance there.

Shann nodded.

"I'm crazy about Kyla," Renee continued, "and for some reason, I feel really easy with you. Camryn -- well, Cam and I didn't get off on the right foot, but now -- she's let me take care of her, and I've seen Hannah's picture, so -- "

Frustrated, Renee realized she was starting to talk with her hands, a sure signal that she was losing elocutionary steam. "I don't know where I'm going with this -- I've never had much practice making friends. I'm not sure how to do it."

"I often wished we hadn't lost Tristaine's language." Shann brushed a lock of hair off Renee's forehead, as naturally as she'd kissed Kyla good night hours ago. "Today, we only have remnants. We struggle with such paltry, inadequate terms for friendship, but Tristaine's founders had many ways of describing the bonds between women. I think I understand what you're saying, Renee."

"Good." Renee's shoulders slumped in relief. "I think you do too, oddly enough."

They both looked down at Jess, who was tightening beneath the blanket, the smoothness of her brow growing tense. Renee shifted closer to her, and slipped her hand beneath Jess's dark hair to cup the back of her neck.

"This helps her relax, sometimes," Renee murmured, kneading the tight muscles at the base of Jess's skull.

"Good. I used that touch to ease Dyan's headaches, the ones my herbs couldn't help."

Renee looked up at the note of sadness in Shann's voice.

"Did you know Dyan was my wife?" Shann asked. "I don't know how much you've heard about Tristaine's high council, so far."

"No." Renee's eyes went a deeper green. "I mean, I know you, and Dyan, and Jess, were all on this council -- I knew Dyan was Tristaine's military leader, and that she was kil -- that she was murdered. With Cam's sister. I didn't know you and Dyan were bonded, Shann. I'm sorry."

"Thank you," Shann said, and she seemed to mean it. "I'm sorry she's gone, too. I wish you could have known Dyan. She'd laugh to hear us called 'bonded,' though -- another of those new Tristanian terms. Dyan was my wife, and I was hers." Shann's grey eyes shimmered in the firelight. "In Tristaine's old language, the word 'wife' is a prayer -- in and of itself. I've always liked that."

Renee felt a tightness in her throat. "I like that too."

Shann looked down at Jess, who had relaxed again in the grass. "Why don't you stretch out for awhile, young Blades, just for a few hours. I'll wake Kyla soon, to take a second watch, and I can take third before your turn comes around. Sound reasonable?"

"Sounds fine to me," Renee sighed, already unwinding on the grass next to Jess's sleeping form. Shann spread the blanket to cover her as well, and Renee grinned when she felt her tuck it securely beneath her side. "Does anyone in Tristaine ever accuse you of mothering them, Shann?"

"Frequently." Shann bent and kissed Renee's cheek. "And I always consider it a great compliment. Now sleep, Renee. That's a royal command."

____ *** ____

She was riding the black horse again, over forested hills this time, the wind lifting her blonde hair. She knew she was in no danger now, but she knew, just as certainly, that her safety was an illusion that would fade, soon. Something followed.

"Renee."

She came awake with a shuddering gasp, darting up on one elbow so fast she almost smacked Shann with her head. She felt the older woman's steadying hand on her arm, and she spoke as soon as she could breathe evenly. "Sorry. What."

"Everyone's safe. It's all right, give yourself a moment to wake up."

Renee craved a drink with something like despair for an unsettling moment, but the urge faded. Nothing like a heightened startle reflex to start off the day. "Jess?"

"She's better."

Renee put her hand out, and felt a moment of panic in spite of Shann's words to find the pallet beside her empty. She looked up at Shann, blinking.

"Jess is better," Shann repeated, keeping her voice low. She was outlined in faint blue light, so sunrise must be close. "Her fever broke early in Kyla's watch. She's had a solid six hours of sleep -- that's enough until we get some breakfast down her, at least."

Shann helped her sit up. Renee raked her fingers through her hair, and craned to see Camryn's face, half-covered by Kyla's curling red tresses, on the air-pallet nearby.

"Cam's fine too," Shann confirmed, "I've checked her. Jess felt strong enough to stretch a little, which I thought would be all right. I'd rather she not be alone long, though -- "

Renee was already getting up, trying not to groan after another night on the damp ground. "Can you point me?"

Shann nodded toward the dry river bed. "She promised not to go far. So I expect the two of you back by lunch."

Renee was awake enough now to hear the joke, and she offered a weak smile as she tied her sneakers. "Is there decent coffee in Tristaine?" she asked, rather wistfully.

"The best," Shann nodded. "And I brought some. Jess lives on it. Go tell her, I'll keep an eye on our casualty of war, over there."

Renee nodded and limped toward the riverbed, still trembling a little from her abrupt awakening.

"Renee?" Shann looked after her, folding the army blanket neatly. "What's this about a black horse?"

Renee groaned. Unlike Jess, talking in her sleep was nothing new for her, Sam used to tease her about it. "Just a dream, Shann. Not even a nightmare, just me riding a black horse, running away from something . . . chasing us."

Renee didn't feel the suddenly intent grey eyes on her as she made her way down the rise of the riverbank.

Shann felt a warm arm slide around her waist, and Kyla rested her head on her shoulder, yawning.

"Everything okay?"

"So far so good. Jess is stronger." Shann put her arm around Kyla's slender shoulders, still looking after Renee with a bemused expression. "I'm about to cook breakfast, want to help?"

"Sure." Kyla eyed her elder sister and queen curiously, then followed her fixed gaze. "What? Is something up with Renee?"

"Possibly," Shann murmured. "We need to move our camp, Kyla, just as soon as Camryn and Jesstin are strong enough. We may not be safe here much longer. And I'm beginning think we might have a seer among us, at last."

____ *** ____

True to her word, Jess hadn't gone far.

She'd found a nice ledge to rest on, topping a bluff just yards west of the riverbed. Renee's first sight of Jess was her square shoulders and erect posture, even seated, and then the dizzying vista of treetops below her.

After months of confinement, Jess was enjoying the view, so she didn't turn around. "Good morning."

"Yeah," Renee said pleasantly. "How about you move, maybe, six feet back from that edge."

Jess turned her head stiffly and regarded Renee, who waited on the patch of grass between the riverbed and the bluff. The Amazon smiled, and lifted herself on her heels and hands to inch painfully back toward the grass.

"Sorry." Renee winced, and folded her arms against the pre-dawn chill. "But you're still weak enough that you might pitch head-first off that thing, and I hate heights enough that I'd probably just let you fall."

Jess eased herself carefully onto the grass as Renee knelt beside her, and brushed the gravel from her palms. "Better?"

Renee sat back on her heels, studying her patient. "Well, your powers of recuperation continue to amaze me, but apparently they don't extend to cosmetics. Sheesh, Jesstin, how many shades of bruise are you capable of?"

Jess chuckled ruefully, and allowed Renee's cursory examination of her visible ills -- touching her neck to gauge fever, taking her pulse, turning her head gently to check her blue eyes.

"How are you going to climb a mountain range with a fear of heights?" Jess asked seriously.

"I'm not going to look down." Renee touched the tender swelling beneath Jess's eye. "You ready to head back? Shann says there's Tristainian coffee brewing."

"Renee, do you realize we can't go home?"

Renee looked at her, startled.

Jess lifted her hand, and held it. "Not to Tristaine. None of Shann's council can, for awhile. Maybe not years."

"I guess I knew that." Renee let out a long breath, surprised by a faint rush of disappointment. "You're right, it wouldn't be smart for Tristaine's high council to come strolling down main street, if that -- mad scientist banshee -- is waiting for you there. Where can we go?"

"Through the mountains." Jess nodded toward a distant pass, barely visible now beneath the brightening sky. "Past the county line. And hopefully to a friendly village, somewhere, that's heard of Tristaine."

"Some village, somewhere?" Renee's green eyes were bleak. "It sounds like a long hike, Jess. Five women, two of them injured. Even Tristaine might be safer, at least for awhile, than a journey like -- "

"It might be," Jess interrupted, "for you."

Renee met Jess's guarded gaze silently for a moment. "You mean, without you? So -- you and the others would head for the county line . . . .but first, you'd drop me off, close enough to Tristaine that even a city drone like me could find it?"

"Your choice, Renee." Jess shrugged her aching shoulders, and kept her voice as toneless as she could manage. "You could probably have a life in Tristaine. You'd be welcome in any home in the village, with a letter from Shann. Caster's not looking for you, you'd be safe there."

"Tristaine isn't safe, Jess," Renee said gently. "Caster's project was funded by the military, and that means they've got your village targeted. That's not going to change. Eventually, there's going to be a war. And now, they've managed to get Tristaine's strongest leaders either killed or banished."

Jess said nothing. They sat quietly for awhile, listening to the birdsong that filled the cool air.

"Do you want me to stay with you?" Renee asked.

"I'm sorry?"

"Do you want me to stay with you?"

A variety of emotions crossed Jess's fine features, from surprise at the question to the dawning of a certain grim resolution. "Yeah, Renee, I want you to stay with me, with us. On one condition."

Renee cleared her throat. "What's that?"

"I've fallen in love with you, and you've fallen in love with me back," Jess said. "You're my adannin already, and you've been my lover since that morning at the river. Someday I hope you'll be my adonai, my wife."

Renee's mouth fell open, but Jess lifted an eyebrow and silenced her.

"That means a lot of things," Jess continued, "Here's just one. You have to tell me you want me, flat out, and that you want me to touch you. Because touching you a lot, Renee, is going to be mandatory on this -- hike -- if you and I are going to wake up together every morning."

High color filled Renee's cheeks. She was not often speechless, and was not now, but she was close. She wanted to crank her hands to try to jump-start her voice again, but she couldn't move -- she was looking into sunlit blue eyes.

Women didn't talk this way to each other, in the city. Even women who were lovers, in Renee's limited experience. Mating was usually a banal, if physically rewarding activity. Love was rarely mentioned. It was considered unsophisticated. (The belief in love was one bond Renee shared with her sister, Samantha.)

She hesitated, watching Jess's patient eyes. Then she figured she'd just follow her heart, and the words were there.

"Okay."

Well, the word.

Jess blinked. "Yeah?"

"Sure." Renee thought about it, then nodded. "I do." She laughed. "I mean, yes, I'm in love with you, and you can touch me, any time."

Jess stared at her, disconcerted. Later, she would learn that all three of her sisters had noticed, and rather appreciated, Renee's amazonian directness. The dark woman grinned, and started unsnapping her shirt.

Renee smiled. "What are we doing."

"I'm going to ravish you before breakfast."

"No, you're not."

Jess nodded, and pulled her shirttails out of her pants.

"Jesstin." Renee reached out to touch Jess's face, but she caught her hand.

"Don't worry about me, girl. I'm well enough to take on someone your size. If you refuse me now, let it be because you -- "

"Amazons make such bloody long speeches," Renee sighed. "All I wanted to know was whether you felt up to it -- "

She surged hard against Jess, wrapping her fingers in her wild dark hair, and pulling her head down for an ineffably heated kiss.

The two women groped their way toward the rocky ground in full, unabashed liplock. Both of them cursed when their bodies hit the earth -- Jess cursed because it hurt her back, Renee cursed because Jess did -- but both of them did so without ending the kiss. Their tongues entwined and they rolled.

Renee's clothing was half off before she looked up, and realized how close to the ledge they were. Jess knew they were safe, but Renee panicked a bit. She thrashed upright in Jess's arms instinctively -- not fighting her, just following a gut-level need to regain control, and back away from danger.

"Wait," Jess breathed behind her. Her strong arms were wrapped around Renee's waist, and she pulled her upright against her, her bare back pressing into Jess's open shirt. Now they both kneeled in the grass, the dark woman behind the light one, looking out over a carpeted expanse of green, silent space. Jess's arm was clamped beneath Renee's exposed breasts, which bobbed against her tanned skin, the pink tips swollen and hard.

"The fear you're feeling now will be part of your life with us," Jess whispered. Her long fingers wrapped around Renee's cool breast and squeezed. "But it will be a clean fear, not like the kind you grew up with, in the city." She began kneading both full globes, methodically.

Renee groaned with pleasure, in spite of her racing pulse. The edge of the bluff still felt terribly close, but her tension began to drain from her as Jess's palm rasped across her turgid nipples.

"We can't offer you safety, Ren. We'll be refugees at first, perhaps for a long time."

Jess's free hand wormed down beneath the waistband of Renee's slacks. "Spread your knees, Renee."

After the Amazon's questing fingers skated over the younger woman's soft mound, they moved on to discover that her thighs were still clenched together. Jess slapped the girl's sensitive vulva, hard, and Renee gasped and jerked her thighs apart, feeling the burning rasp of the grass against her kneecaps.

"And you're not alone any more." The faint echo of a brogue touched Jess's voice again. "You have sisters, other adannin. You have me, lass." Her fingers swarmed down over her damp cleft, probing.

"Jesstin -- " Renee's hips bucked as two long fingers slithered up into her vagina, filling her snugly, then impaling her with a grinding twist. Jess began fucking her, with smooth, relentless strokes.

"I'm a warrior, adannin," Jess murmured in her ear, "And I pledge my life to keeping you safe."

The young woman grunted as the Amazon flexed her knuckles gently, stretching her, before resuming the tireless digging. The rough side of her narrowed hand scrubbed against Renee's straining clitoris, sending needles of heat sparking along her shoulder blades.

"Tell me if you choose a life with us," Jess panted in Renee's scarlet ear. "Answer me, with your body."

Gasping, Renee looked down and saw her stuffed mound protrude beneath her taut breasts with each surge of Jess's fingers inside her, and she whimpered helplessly, her blonde head falling against Jess's bare shoulder, and then she exploded.

____ *** ____

Jess wrapped the army blanket around them both after they'd calmed down, and they watched the sun finish peaking over the eastern rise. Renee sat in the grass in front of Jess, between her long legs, her back against the Amazon's chest.

Renee was dozing, and Jess was marveling at Renee's capacity to fall asleep, almost instantly, under any circumstances they had thus far encountered together. Actually, Renee suffered from insomnia as often as Jess did, but they wouldn't learn that until the cougar attacked, five mornings hence.

Jess shifted her aching shoulder an inch, trying not to rouse the sleeping woman whose head rested against it. She looked down, and gave in to an uncharacteristic wave of maternal protectiveness. Renee slept like a child in her arms. Shann would understand why Jess found the brief sensation of mothering her lover so sweet.

"Hey." Jess squeezed her gently.

"Sorry. What. Hey."

"Nothing, querida. My butt's falling asleep, though."

Renee opened her eyes in stages, letting the morning sky fill her vision, as blue as her lover's eyes.

After awhile, they helped each other up, then made their way back up the riverbed, toward the faint, spicy aroma of fresh-brewed Tristainian coffee.

End

This chapter marks the end of The Clinic series. I'll go on writing about the women of Tristaine, but probably privately, unless there's interest. If you'd like to read any future series, please drop me a line. Many thanks again to Judy (Wishes), my beta Heron, and the intrepid webmistresses who sponsored this not-for-all-tale. - Klancy7