Evermore

Jayr stripped and stood motionless and naked as Alex circled around her and made notes. Rarely had she felt so uncomfortable or vulnerable, but if the doctor could help her, then it would be worth it.

"Were you born with this?" Alexandra said, tapping the patch of puffy purple skin six inches above the flat circle of her left nipple.

"Yes." Jayr covered it with her hand briefly. "I should have mentioned it. I know it is unsightly."

"Port-wine birthmarks are attention getters." The doctor used the flat of her fingertips to push at the edges. "It looks like a dented heart. Kind of cute. Any bleeding or inflammation here?"

"None, ever."

"Good. They can be a problem sometimes. So, no breast development, low body weight, narrow hips, no pubic or underarm hair—you don't shave it off, do you?" When Jayr shook her head, Alexandra took out a slim pen that, when she clicked its handle, shone a narrow beam of light. "Open your mouth nice and wide." She directed the light inside Jayr's mouth and peered in. "Unlike your fangs, your wisdom teeth never erupted." She stepped back, sniffed, then leaned in and sniffed a second time. "Do you use tobacco?"

She should have bathed before coming. "No, Doctor."

"Your hair smells singed. Must be from lighting the fireplaces." She pointed behind her. "Hop on the gurney and lie down."

Jayr remained quiescent as Alex measured the length of her arms and legs and used a device she said would determine Jayr's muscle mass. "Why do you wear gloves?"

"Leftover human habit. It intimidates some of the more pigheaded Kyn, too." She straightened. "I need to perform a pelvic and an ultrasound to confirm it—if you can requisition some gynecological supplies and an ultrasound machine from someone, I can do that later—but my educated guess is that you never acquired secondary sexual characteristics when you were human."

The long words made her head spin. "What does that mean?"

"You didn't go through puberty, Jayr. At least, not all the way." Alex handed her clothes to her. "Every human makes a physical and emotional transition from childhood to adolescence. It's triggered by the pituitary gland secreting hormones called gonadotropins, which stimulate the sex organs to mature. In girls, the ovaries are stimulated, in boys, the testes." She frowned as she watched Jayr dress. "You've got a slight bowing to your calves."

Jayr glanced down. "They have always been shaped so."

"It's usually a sign of malnutrition," the doctor told her. "Did you have to go without food a lot when you were human?"

"Many times. The convent where I was brought up was very poor, and food was often scarce." She glanced down at her flat chest. "One of the sisters said hunger was a good thing. It kept me from having my moon time."

"Body weight is definitely a contributing factor in the onset of puberty," Alexandra said. "It's the reason so many overweight kids today go through puberty much younger than they should. Starvation, on the other hand, has a way of postponing things. After you made the transition to Kyn, did your body mature in any way?"

"No. I remain exactly as I was on the last day of my human life." She glanced down at her flat chest, and felt the usual bleak wash of depression. "I have lived in this body for six hundred years and better, so I have accepted my fate. Still, if there is something that could be done to make me like other women…"

"I don't want to give you any false hopes," Alexandra said firmly. "If you were human, we could try medication, maybe some artificial implants, but your Kyn metabolism would automatically reject them. You have almost no body fat, which is the only thing I could possibly transplant to build up your breasts. About the only thing surgically I can do for you is get rid of that birthmark, if you want."

Disappointment made Jayr retreat into herself. "I thank you, but no, I am used to it."

"Well, maybe we can try some other things," Alex said. "First, though, I'd like to do a gynecological exam and perform that ultrasound, so I can be sure there's no internal trouble contributing to the problem. Do you have a decent medical vendor?"

"An excellent one. I will see to it that the equipment and supplies you need are delivered before the week's end," Jayr promised. "What could be inside me that would cause this?"

"Some parts that don't belong there." Alex gestured toward her abdomen. "Nature can't always make up its mind whether it wants a girl or a boy, you know. In very rare cases there are people born with extra reproductive organs. You might have ovaries and testes." She took out a copper-tipped syringe. "Time to pay the bill. Slide up your sleeve, please."

Jayr watched Alex draw two vials of blood. "What do these people born with too many parts do about it?"

"In your time they had to live with it, if they were allowed to live at all. A lot of hermaphrodites—that's the common term for people with the condition—were killed at birth if they showed visible characteristics of their dual gender."

"Characteristics?" Jayr said faintly.

"Being born with a vagina and an oversize, elongated clitoris. There's been a lot of debate over the last fifty years as to whether or not the clit is just an underdeveloped penis. Some can be hidden from view by the labia, and evident only when engorged or displayed." Alex gave her a guileless look. "Got anything tucked away down there that I should know about?"

"Ah, no." Jayr felt mortified, but added, "I have attended to some visiting Kyn females in their bath, and I confess I used a mirror to look upon myself and see if I was made the same. I have no body hair, but I am as they are fashioned."

"Good to know—and there's nothing wrong with being curious about your body." The doctor stripped off her gloves and discarded them. "One more question, and then we're done. You've been this way ever since you became Kyn, so why do you want to change it now?"

"I do not despise how I am made," Jayr said slowly. "For many reasons, not least of which is my position in this household, it is better that I do not look much like other females."

"I would cheerfully switch bodies with you, you know," Alexandra advised her. "And you didn't answer my question."

She met Alex's gaze squarely. "I am a woman. I never wished to become a nun or live as a celibate. I would like the same chance to enjoy what other females have. With my body as it is, I cannot."

"Some men really love the skinny-supermodel look, you know." Alexandra's gaze turned shrewd. "Oh, I get it. You've already got your eye on someone, and he likes his ladies fully loaded."

Jayr cringed a little. "Something like that, yes."

"At least some of your hormones are in good working order." Alexandra chuckled, and then grew thoughtful. "There was another girl I met in Chicago—Jema Shaw—who made the change from human to Kyn. She was first infected with Kyn blood when she was a baby, and kept in a partial state of prepuberty for years by a nutcase."

"No nutcase has done this to me, Doctor," Jayr assured her.

"I know." She smiled absently. "It's just that by suppressing the development of Jema's pituitary gland, her nutcase doc was able to keep her human for thirty years. I'll need some very specific drugs, but I think that if I reverse his formula, I might stimulate your body to finish growing by itself."

Jayr allowed herself to feel a twinge of excitement. "Then I would be as I should have been. We have friends in the city who can obtain whatever drugs and equipment you require."

"I can't guarantee it will work, kiddo. There are enormous difficulties involved in using synthetic hormones on Kyn. Encouraging hormone production is going to be a lot harder than suppressing it." Alexandra picked up a notepad. "I won't promise you a miracle, but with some luck, maybe we can jump-start the natural maturation process."

"I would be grateful for anything you can do." Jayr held out her hand and clasped Alex's forearm as she would an equal. "My thanks, Doctor."

"You're welcome." She began writing. "Now let's put together a shopping list."

The beginning bouts of the tournament filled the next several days at the Realm with activity. When no further incidents occurred between Locksley and Nottingham, who seemed to be taking pains to avoid each other, Phillipe began to relax and enjoy himself. With Cyprien occupied in talks with his suzerain, and Alexandra content to work on her medical research in the infirmary, Phillipe took some time for himself each evening to go down to the lists, where the seneschal preferred to gather to talk and train.

Among the serving class of the Darkyn were men of myriad backgrounds and lineage. Once they would have formed subclasses, with the younger sons of nobles and wealthy merchants at the top of the pecking order, and former villeins and common laborers like Phillipe at the bottom. That had been part of their human lives, however, and the common bond they all shared as Kyn had, for the most part, erased those distinctions.

"Navarre, are you rested?" Will Scarlet called out from atop the Belgian he had wrestled to the ground. He spoke, as they all did, in the archaic French they had used during their human lives. "I fear the bones of my sword arm have grown thin as I waited for you."

"Bring them here when you are finished with your sweetheart," Phillipe told him as he belted his scabbard and pulled on his gauntlets. "My sword wants polishing."

Several men around them snickered at the blatant innuendo.

Scarlet cuffed the Belgian across the head, stunning him momentarily. He flipped him over and pinned his shoulders for a ten count to end the bout.

"Better, Eustace," he said as he helped his opponent to his feet. "I barely broke that spleen-wrenching hold of yours this time. You but tarried too long powdering my face with the dust."

"On the morrow," Eustace promised, rubbing the grit Will had tossed in his eyes, "I will persuade you to dine on it." ns class="adsbygoogle" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true">