Battle for Tristaine by Cate Culpepper

Author:Cate Culpepper [Culpepper, Cate]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fiction, Lesbian
ISBN: 9781933110493
Google: 2TNWAAAACAAJ
Amazon: 193311049X
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Published: 2006-07-02T00:00:00+00:00

• 117 •

CATE CULPEPPER

“She’s seventeen.” Jess stretched her stiff back, following Brenna’s thinking without effort. “Older than I was when Dyan named me her second.”

“Yeah? Dyan saw your potential way back when you were a stoned toddler?”

The moonlight fi lling the small cabin glinted off Jess’s teeth when she smiled. “If I named Hakan or Vicar my second, it would be like choosing myself, Bren. Cam has the grit to make a great warrior, but she’s of a different weave than us. Not as strong as Vic, but faster. She’s smarter than any warrior I’ve known, save Dyan. And her courage…the kid’s got the heart of a damn lion.”

“She does. You’re right.” Brenna smiled too, remembering the fi rst time she ever saw Camryn and Kyla in the City. They stood behind a barred window in the Prison, defi antly hailing Jess with a shimmying dance, risking blows from the guards if they were caught. “You look after her, Jesstin, if it comes to a fi ght.”

“When it comes. I will, lass.” Jess’s fi ngers drifted lazily up and down Brenna’s arm. “And how much of a fi ght would you give me, querida, if I ordered you to sit out Caster’s attack?”

“Sit out?”

“Stay in the main lodge with Shann and Kyla and the council instead of fi ghting.”

“You won’t order me to do that.” Brenna yawned too. She was fi nally getting sleepy.

“I could,” Jess countered. “I’ve both the clout to do it and the reason.”

“You might have clout, but no good reason,” Brenna snorted,

“not unless everything you and everyone else around here ever said about Tristaine is a fl at-out lie.”

Jess was silent long enough that Brenna lifted her head and looked down at her. “You still insist on seeing me as fragile, don’t you? Is it because I froze on the ridge?”

“No. That was a simple phobia, Bren, and you’re working on that.You’re able enough in drills, adanin, but you’ve not trained long in the Amazon way of fi ghting. And Shann’s going to need your help with the wounded—”

• 118 •

Battle for Tristaine

“Whoa.” Brenna kicked off the heavy furs covering them and in one lithe movement, swung her leg over Jess’s waist and straddled her. She let her weight drop abruptly. Jess whoofed.

“I plan to help Shann with our injured after the battle. But when Caster attacks, Jess, I’m going to fi ght as well as I can. I’ll follow your orders to the letter, and I’ll be fi ne, because I’m a lot stronger than you think.”

Brenna clasped Jess’s wrists and lunged forward, pinning them to the quilt on either side of her head. “Which I will prove to you now.”

“Fierce Artemis,” Jess entreated the ceiling, “look down on yer poor sufferin’ servant, in this her time of true tree-vai—”

“Funny, warrior.” Brenna dropped full-length on the tall body beneath her to make Jess whoof again. She sought Jess’s mouth and drew her into an intense, sucking kiss.

The kiss went on for quite some time.

Jess’s bare left foot rose off the bed, hovered for a moment, then dropped back with a thud.

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