Previously in Trouble in Tortall III: Trouble's End...

Carly leaned back "What would you say my chances are with him?"

Now it was Zahara's turn to look away.

"Zahara? What is it?" Carly asked.

"I...you see, the thing is..."

"Yes?" Carly prodded.

Zahara sighed "There is no easy way to say what I have to say, since I know you like him now, but..." Zahara bit her lip.

"Out with it, Zahara. What are my chances?"

"Very small" Zahara said "You see, a few months ago, mother began to have a hard time finding him a wife, and was considering marrying him to a woman of another one of the tribes."

"And?" Carly said "What has that to do with me?"

"He-" Zahara hesitated before rushing through the statement "He refuses to have a relationship beyond friendship with a woman who is not a member of the Sandrunners Tribe."

Chapter Seven

Carly's smile fell from her face "He won't have a relationship with a woman outside of the tribe? At all? No exceptions?"

Zahara slowly nodded "I'm so sorry, Carly."

Carly looked back at Shakil. He had managed to defeat his opponent, and now he was letting him up. The two men shook hands and laughed with each other. She felt a squeeze in her heart as she listened to the laughter.

She looked at Zahara as the girl suddenly started tugging on her arm.

"What?"

"I know a way that you might get Shakil to have a relationship with you after all!"

Carly fought to keep her voice calm "How?"

"Well, he won't have a relationship outside of the tribe, right?"

"Right."

"Well? What if you became a member of the tribe? You could join the tribe, and then you would be a woman of the tribe-meaning you'd become eligible!"

"Your mother would never approve of him being with me" Carly said "It wouldn't have mattered if I was born into the tribe."

"Mother can't stop him. He is the head of our tent. What he says goes. If he says you two are in a relationship, you two are in a relationship, even if mother doesn't like it!"

Carly smiled at Zahara "Zahara, you are a genius! What do I have to do to join the tribe?"

"Come on" Zahara said "Let's go talk to the headman."

Later that day, Zahara ran into the tribe "Carly is joining the tribe!" she announced to everyone in the tent.

"What!" Yadira and Amani asked in alarm.

"What?" Shakil and Jamar asked, both very excited.

"Carly is joining the tribe!" Zahara repeated "We went to the headman, and he told her she would have to fight someone to prove she was strong enough to be of the tribe, but if she won, she'd be a member! He even asked the Voice yesterday at the Moment of the Voice to speak for her, and he did!"

"When is the fight?" Shakil asked.

"In three days" Zahara said "Isn't this great news? It'll be great once Carly is part of the tribe!"

"Now Zahara, you have to be prepared for disappointment. If Carly loses-"

"That won't happen" Shakil said.

Yadira turned to face her eldest son "Shakil, not you too. You know how the men in this tribe fight. Her body wouldn't be up to-"

Shakil stood up "I've seen Carly fight. I've even fought against her. She knows what she's doing, and she is capable of more than you give her credit for, mother. Now, I am going to congratulate our soon-to-be member" He quickly left the tent and quickly walked to Carly's.

"Carly? It is Shakil, may I come in?" he asked through the tent flap.

"Of course, Shakil. Come on in" Carly called.

Shakil walked in, and saw Carly cleaning and sharpening her knives and sword.

"I heard you will be joining the tribe" Shakil said.

"Only if I win the combat" Carly said.

"Don't worry, you will. Who are you against?"

"The Headman's son, Aijad nib Jiblon, offered."

"So...three days from now, right?"

"Right" Carly said.

"This is great Carly. You are going to be a really great addition to our tribe, and I have fought against Aijad many times. I'll help you, and show you some tricks to beat him if you'd like" Shakil said. He moved closer to Carly, and sat across from her on the floor of the tent, and pointed to the knives waiting to be cleaned "Would you like some help?"

"With my fighting, or cleaning all these knives?"

"Both, or either" Shakil said.

"Sure, if you would clean the weapons while I sharpen them, that would be great" Carly said "I'd ask you to sharpen them, but I am very picky."

Shakil smiled "I can understand that."

The two of them worked silently for about an hour before they were done.

"You know, everyone in the tribe will be thrilled when you join us. You are a great warrior."

"Not everyone will be thrilled. I know your mother won't. She thinks I am a demon, and probably believes I will end up corrupting the entire tribe.

Shakil shrugged "Let her think that then. It is not true."

Carly smiled at Shakil, and felt her heart drumming on her chest. She prayed to any listening gods that Shakil couldn't hear it. She also noticed Shakil was leaning towards her, and her face felt hot.

"Carly, I-"

"Carly!"

Shakil jumped five feet in the air, and raced to one end of the tent just as Jamar walked in.

"Carly! I am so glad you are joining the tribe!"

"You are both so convinced that I will win. Will you be terribly disappointed if I loose?"

Damn, that sounded corny. That is something I'd expect from a love-sick court lady fresh from the convent!

"Why wait so long to congratulate her?" Shakil asked, with what sounded like a hint of contempt "You found out the same time I did."

"I thought you might be working, and I wanted to avoid that."

"You just barely missed helping me clean and sharpen my sword and knives" Carly said.

"Perfect timing then" Jamar said.

Carly noticed out of the corner of her eye that Shakil was acting really weird. He would glare at Jamar, then look at her for a moment, then frown as if thinking to himself. The pattern was continuous.

Carly had seen Nicholas and Caden act like that with Kaiya and Kirsten when other boys would make them smile or laugh, but that made sense. They loved her sisters. Why was Shakil treating 0her like Nicholas and Caden treated Kirsten and Kaiya?

(Somewhere in the desert)

"I hate the hot" Kirsten said, her skin had turned a slight pinkish red in the days since they had left for the Sandrunners Tribe "I blame the fact that it never gets this hot in the north, and I was raised in the north, so I never got used to the heat."

"We were both raised in the north" Kaiya said "I don't mind the heat at all."

"Well, you have been traveling with the Riders for the past three years. You have been in different climates at different parts of the year" Kirsten said.

"There is an oasis about half an hour's ride from here" Ishak said "We will stop and rest there for a while. That way the horses can rest and you can cool off a little."

"That's all I ask for" Kirsten said as she tried to find a way to use her coat that she could keep the sun out of her face, but not where she would be boiling hot.

(Sandrunners' Tribe-three days later, soon after the Moment of the Voice)

A crowd gathered for Carly's combat. Both supporters and people who disapproved of Carly wanted to come and see the results of the combat.

The headman of the Sandrunners, Hannam nib Jiblon, stood between Carly and his youngest son. Carly had met Aijad before, and she hated him. He was the most sexist of the entire tribe, and believed that Carly had made a demon possess the training master and Lord Raoul, then the Chamber of Ordeal and King Jonathan into thinking she was talented, rather than her really being talented.

This will be fun. Let's see how he feels about me after I cream him in this combat Carly thought.

Carly stumbled backwards to avoid Aijad's knife. She got a firmer grip on her own, and lunged. Aijad turned just enough that Carly was sent flying to the ground. Since she was holding an unsheathed knife, she didn't curl up like the Shang Warriors at the palace taught her to. She was rewarded with a sharp pain in her arm. A quick look with her magic told her she'd have a nice, colorful bruise tomorrow, but nothing was broken. She arm was already turning a faint bluish-purple.

Bruise Balm will help. I'll put some on tonight, while everyone is in the Moment of the Voice.

Carly quickly jumped back up and turned, just in time to see Aijad coming at her. She dodged his knife, but then grabbed his arm and pulled the knife out of his hand before helping him over her hip. She caught her breath while he laid down and remained in the sand.

"You may kill him" Carly could hear the suppressed anguish in his voice "It is your right."

Carly turned and bowed respectively to Hannam "Hannam nib Jiblon, I do not kill if I have a choice. That would make me a barbarian, not a honorable warrior. Furthermore you are a good friend of one of my teachers, Lord Raoul of Goldenlake, I will not cause your family pain by killing your son."

Two of Aijad's older brothers ran forward and pulled their brother up, and helped him walk away, panting hard. Shakil and Jamar both ran forward and gave her a towel.

"You did great" Shakil said "Welcome to the Sandrunners."

The crowd remained for the ceremony following the combat.

"The law is the law" Hannam clearly said "We know the law well here. Carly Burns of New Hope from the north has won the right to join our tribe. She is now one of us."

There were a few cheers from some of the men that Carly had fought before. They knew they wouldn't need to worry about her taking care of herself if the tribe was attacked. If anything, the attackers should feel afraid when they see her. Despite that, Carly could seem many men and many more women frowning at the thought of her, a woman warrior, becoming one of them.

The headman turned to face Carly "Hold out your arm" he instructed. Carly obeyed. In a swift movement the man opened a shallow cut on the inside of her forearm. Holding out his own wrist, he did the same, then pressed their two wounds together.

"Become one with the tribe, and one with out people" he commanded softly. An alien magic flooded Carly's body, and she nearly fainted. Her body wasn't use to having so much power. She wasn't sure she would be able to keep from fainting for too much longer.

Their combined blood welled up and dripped onto the sand. The men who had cheered for her earlier cheered louder now.

Zahara quickly bound up her arm. The magic from the Bazhir felt strange in her body, and she hoped the strangeness would soon go away. Once Zahara was done with Carly's arm, she ran off to help the women bring out food to eat, as a celebration for their new member. Many men in the tribe came up to Carly and sat down with her, talking about the many heroic things for the tribe that they had done.

Carly headed back to her tent after the party had gone on for a while, commenting that she was very tired. She found Shakil waiting for her outside her tent.

"I was hoping to catch you away from where everyone was" Shakil explained "I figured this would be the best place to do that."

"Yes, right outside my tent is a good place to catch me" Carly said.

For the past few days, Shakil had been looking at her funny, and he was doing it again now "Hey Shakil? Are you alright?"

"Yes. Why do you ask?"

"Well, you just haven't seemed like yourself these past few days, and when you came out of the Moment of the Voice tonight, you were frowning."

"The Voice just gave me a lot to think about, is all" Shakil said.

"Care to share it?" Carly asked.

"No. Not now, anyway. I don't know, maybe I will tell you what he told me another time."

"It was about me, wasn't it? The Voice told you something about me."

Review Reply

inktounge58: Like I had told you, you were close...like in the same family close! Yep, I had Carly join the Sandrunners.

spazzysassyangel: Sorry, that was my fault for making Shakil seem like a jerk. He had been teasing her...in a friend-to-friend way. Sorry, I guess I didn't make that clear! Hopefully I made it a bit more clear that he really isn't a bad guy in this chapter

Dragonfly257: I am glad you liked the last chapter. Hopefully this one is good too. Yep, I made Carly a member of the tribe, and she had to fight a snotty "guys-are-better-than-girls"-types a lesson. Obviously, she didn't mind getting a difference between her and her sisters, but you have to remember, this is all in the name of love. Maybe I'll make her regret it later, once the gushy lovey-dovey feeling of a crush passes, I don't know. I hadn't planned on another fight sparking between the girls, but maybe I will...you've given me something to think about. And, like you said, of course they have to be happy in the end. I'm glad you are loving it, and as long as my readers keeep reviewing, I'll keep writing.

ElvenPrincess69: Don't be sorry about your review for chapter five. You NEVER have to apologize for a review to me. I think Carly and Shakil will make a cute couple too (that's why I paired them, lol!)

dares to dream: I love it when the wishfull thinking of my reviewers appears in my story. Well, she still haven't told him how she feels. You'll have to stay tuned for that and Shakil's reaction

middnightblue33: I'm glad you love these stories. Thanks for reviewing.