Page 59 of Challenged

She nods, not looking at all deterred. “Nineteen years, and in a place with so much rain - a small landslide could have covered it up. Trees grown over the top of it. I’ll see if I can find some blueprints of the base on Farrow’s computer. That would confirm what I’m saying. But if I had to bet my life on it, I’d be feeling pretty confident right now.”

“If only the answers to the blight were so simple.”

I glance at my Angie, expecting consternation, frustration to be shaping her expression. Instead, she has a thoughtful look on her face.

“You know, maybe they are.” She waves a hand over the table, bringing my map back into view. “Ignoring Jaskry’s path for now, this only makes sense as a spread for a disease if the disease started somewhere really near the base.”

I grimace. “It is like with your problem. A thing that cannot be true has to be true. You have said, and the other females have said, that the hut cannot cause a blight. And yet, everything points to the blight originating here. The shape of the spread, the fact that the trees are sickest close to the hut.”

“The only simple answer is that the base is somehow responsible.”

I nod, unease stirring in my heartspace. “If you think the hut is dangerous, then we must let the others know immediately. Little Marsal only has a few seasons of the moon. If she is at risk…”

My Angie shakes her head. “I don’t think she is. It wouldn’t make any sense, would it? To have people living here, working here, if the environment was dangerous to them.”

I wish to argue that Mercenia did not care even a little about her, that they abandoned her here to perish in a cold pod. But Mercenia did care about what they were doing here enough to go to the lengths of travelling across the stars, building themselves a hut in a forest they were not best equipped to survive in. I understand from my sisters that none of this would have been easy for Mercenia. It would be strange to go to so much trouble only to create an environment that caused harm to the people they put here.

“Okay,” I say, relief lifting my heartspace. “But it is still dangerous to the trees?”

“Only over a long period of time. So I don’t think harming the trees was the point. I think it was a side effect.” The fire in her spirit sparks, that beautiful light coming into her eyes. “The wildlife here is pretty dangerous, right? Show me one of your predators.”

I oblige, summoning a merka beast into the clearing with us. The creature stalks out of the trees, lashes flicking about its face, fangs bared as it snarls at us. It is not one of the skinny creatures that attacked the females on the beach, but a well fed, well grown thing. Thick haunches ripple and bunch beneath its skin as it paces back and forth before us, all that power in its legs for pouncing on unsuspecting prey. Big feet, toes tipped with long, sharp claws, move almost silently over the ground. Outhere, exposed, it is obvious, but the markings on its fur make it blend into the dappled shadows of the forest. If you do not stay mindful and alert, it would be easy for one to mortally wound you before you even knew it was there.

The one before us now might not even need the benefit of stealth. It is as fearsome a merka beast as I have even seen.

Though she must know it cannot hurt her, my Angie gasps and steps closer to me.

“You’ve got those living in the forest?” Her voice squeaks out of her.

“Do not let it frighten you unduly,” I say. “Merka beasts are dangerous, yes, but easy enough to contend with if you are careful. They have hunting territories that we avoid where we can. And they are unlikely to attack even a lone raskarran unless they are desperate for a meal. They know the places where raskarran hunters and warriors often tread - they detect our scents and avoid us just as we avoid them.”

“Good to know,” my Angie says, her voice still some distance from relaxed.

I cannot resist putting an arm around her, drawing her to my side. Leaning close to her and whispering teasing words into her ear.

“You do not need to fear. Not when you have a master hunter to protect you.”

“The only thing I know for certain you have mastery of is blowing your own fucking trumpet.”

It takes a moment for the dreamspace to make her words make sense to me, but when it does, I laugh.

“And as you get to know me better, linasha, you will learn that I have never lied to you.”

I speak the words close to her neck. A shiver prickles over her skin at the touch of my voice against it. My sensitive, responsivelinasha. I am going to show her such great pleasures when she is ready.

The merka beast continues to pace, indifferent to our exchange.

“Okay, get rid of it before I decide to never leave the base,” my Angie says, waving a hand in the merka beast’s direction as if she could shoo it away.

I will it away, feeling my Angie’s body relax in my arms as the creature vanishes.

“Good job the dreamspace means I can’t have nightmares anymore,” she says, shuddering. Then she steps out of my arms, all seriousness and focus once more. “That thing was quiet. Powerful. It might not want to tangle with a raskarran, but a human? We’d be easy pickings for it.”

“Humans have weapons far superior to raskarran spears and bows.”

“Weapons are only any good if you get a chance to use them. And they had a basic medical facility here, not a field hospital. If someone survived an attack, there’s a good chance they wouldn’t have survived their injuries. It’s not like they could easily replace staff. Better if they could avoid the creatures, like you do.”

“I am struggling to see what this has to do with the blight.”

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