Yolanda arrived at Karen's ranch on a snowy Christmas Eve night. Karen held the door open as her Gypsy rival came in, carrying whiskey, food, bread, and a valise. "Merry Christmas", Yolanda said, holding out a bottle of whiskey.

"Thanks," Karen replied, promptly accepting the gift and pouring two glasses. The touched glasses and sipped the whiskey, eyes locked over the rims of the glasses. When they lowered their glasses, each woman's hand trembled. Both women now knew that the locking of their spirits was complete. And each knew that neither woman would ever be able to escape it while the other lived.

Each woman moved away from the other with difficulty. They moved to sit down, Karen in a wing-backed chair, Yolanda on the couch.

"I have something else to show you," Yolanda said. She opened her valise and removed a document, handing it to Karen. Karen read it. She frowned slightly, then picked up a similar document from the table next to her chair and handed it to Yolanda. Each woman was surprised that the other had prepared her will, leaving all of her property to her rival.

Yolanda looked up at the blonde. "You know, the property doesn't really matter any more. It was what I wanted in the beginning, and how we met, but it just doesn't seem important now."

Karen nodded. "I know. You know that I never wanted the casino. I don't know how to run a casino. But I guess this is the way these things are done, when you're in America instead of Europe." She sighed. "I guess all that we need to decide now is when."

Yolanda shook her head. "Not quite. All the formalities have to be observed." Both women rose and Yolanda took a step closer to Karen. "My spirit will know no rest while we both live. I both love you and hate you."

Karen nodded. "We are two women of such equal power, of equal love and equal hate, that we can settle the question between us no other way."

"I seek to rest my spirit."

"I, too, seek the same."

Yolanda sighed. "I challenge you to a duel of strength, where the stronger woman will live and the less strong will die. Face to face, strength to strength, to watch each other in love and hate as we each strain for our lives."

Karen nodded, stepping closer to the Gypsy woman and placing her hands against the other's, palm against palm, as they had the night after their second contest. Yolanda had been afraid the challenge would come that night. The hands pressed against each other. "I accept the challenge. I will fight against your strength with all of mine, for my life."

The two women stepped apart. Karen thought herself lucky that she remembered the words.

The wagon train was due to reach Carson City in three days. For the last week, Tamara had gone out of her way to avoid Karen. But it was eating away at Karen and, on those rare occasions when Tamara was in sight, Karen could see the Romany woman staring at her.

Karen saw her at the wagon that afternoon and walked over putting her hand on the Gypsy woman's shoulder. Tamara looked around, the brunette hair covering half of her face. "Go away!" she hissed.

"Tamara!"

The Gypsy turned and faced her. "You are right, Karen. If we don't settle this question between us, it will destroy us both." She pointed to the south, into the forest. "One mile that way is a clearing with a small pond. I will meet you there in an hour and we will face each other in the challenge."

An hour later, Karen found the clearing without difficulty and waited. A few minutes later Tamara arrived, carrying a length of rope with loops tied in it. She also had some rags. She walked over to Karen, stopping just inches away. "My spirit will know no rest while we do not know which of us is the stronger. I both love you and hate you. I challenge you to a duel of strength, where the stronger woman will prevail and the less strong will fail. Face to face, strength to strength, to watch as we each strain for our honor." She held her hands to the side.

Karen placed her hands against Tamara's, as she had been taught. " We are two women of such equal power, of equal love, and equal hate, that we can settle the question between us no other way. I accept the challenge. I will fight against your strength with all of mine, for my honor."

"I think sunset on New Year's Eve. It should be decided before the New Year begins." Yolanda helped herself to another glass of whiskey.

Karen nodded. "I think that would be perfect. Clean out the year's business before the year ends. Are you going to stay here until we fight the duel?"

"I had hoped to," Yolanda answered, moving closer to her rival. "Why do you think I brought my bag?"

A week later, the day had come. All day long, the two women had avoided speaking to each other, but took every opportunity for physical contact, just to touch each other. There was about an hour left before sunset. Yolanda had gone into the barn to get everything ready, while Karen was stretched out on her bed, thinking about what had happened in her last meeting with Tamara.

"We will not fight to the death," Tamara had said. "But in every other way, it will seem like our last test of strength is a death duel." The two women looked at each with hatred in their eyes. "You feel it," Tamara said. "We have felt the love, and now the hate is coming out. We could easily duel to the death right now, woman to woman, strength against strength."

"I'm willing, if you really want to," Karen said, stunned by the words as she spoke them. But the anger in her, at her Romany teacher, burned fiercely, and she realized that she would have gladly fought the darker woman to the death.

Tamara looked at her, her eyes flashing, and Karen realized that her teacher felt the same way she did. "I do- but we will not."

Karen's anger burned even brighter. "You have denied me in every test of strength that we started, even though we both wanted to finish it. You knew that our spirits were in conflict. You knew that neither of us could possibly know who would win. You and I should have challenged each other to the finish all four times. Now we both stand here, ready to test each other's strength to the death because we don't know."

Tamara began string the rope that she brought around two trees, which were about fifteen feet apart. She hung it over branches, in both trees, that were about six feet in the air. "Had we tested each other, we would be in a death duel now. Our spirits would not let us have it any other way." She finished setting up the rope. Do you wish to meet me now, in a test of strength to the end, or not?"

"Yes" Karen hissed.

The eyes of the Gypsy met hers and locked, firmly. Karen looked back, just as firmly. And suddenly, the two women who had loved each other hated with the same intensity. "Then remove your clothing."

Both women were undressed in a matter of seconds. They moved between two trees and leaned back against them, their naked bodies about three inches apart. Still staring at each other in hatred, they slipped their hands through the loops, which had been tied into the ropes. Each woman's arms were bent at about seventy degrees. "In a death duel," Tamara said, "there would be a length of rope looped around our throats. As one of us proved stronger, the weaker woman's arms would be stretched, and the rope would slowly strangle her."

"It's not too late," Karen snarled.

Scowling, locked eye to eye, the two women leaned forward slightly, until their nipples touched, causing a feeling like an electrical shock between them. Both women gasped and leaned back against the tree.

Then, each woman began to try and bend her arms, until their strength met and locked. Neither could move the arms of the other. They began to sweat and grunt, each holding the idea in her imagination that she really was trying to kill her rival.

Time stood still for the two women, and there was no sound but the harsh breathing, the grunting caused by overtired, pained arms, which could neither conquer or be conquered. Although their eyes were locked, each woman could see the biceps of her rival, standing out on the arms with the definition of the Rocky Mountains. Each could see the tightened, flexed abdominal muscles that the other possessed. And each could see the quadriceps of the other, the huge thighs that the women bodybuilders of a hundred years later would kill for.

And all because of the spirit, the dueling spirit between the rivals.

Yolanda had finished the preparations and had returned to the house. The house was warm and the barn had been warmed with a woodstove as well, so the two women were wearing the most revealing clothing that they owned this day, despite the fact that it was December in the mountains of Nevada. This, too, was customary during the duels for Romany queenhood. The women would go out alone, away from their camp and their men, spending the day together, wearing as little as possible, with an eye toward showing her opponent the body she would soon face in the duel.

Karen contrasted the way she felt now, about Yolanda, with the utter hatred she had felt during her last contest with Tamara. Karen was certain that her hatred of Yolanda had been somewhat abated by the fact that she and Yolanda had faced each other, all out, in the four tests. Each had won two.

But with Tamara, there was no sense of completion at any time. And in the end, she wanted the right of every Romany woman. To face her rival to the death. Even now, it shocked her to think of it.

There was about fifteen minutes left before she and Yolanda would test each other's strength for the last time. She grabbed her coat and left for the barn, blowing out all the lamps in the house. If she were right about the last duel, it would be some time before either of them entered.

She walked out to the barn, where Yolanda waited on the opposite site of the large area. Neither woman spoke as they approached each other and the center horse stall, where the arena had been established. Their eyes were locked as each began slowly removing her clothing. Five minutes later, they stood nude before each other. Each turned to face the stall, eyes still locked. The two women were a contrast - Yolanda, with her darker, Romany skin and dark hair. And Karen, with her hair so blonde as to be almost white. Her Scandinavian skin tone so fair in comparison to her rival-

They turned to face each other as they reached the entrance to the stall, walking sideways, not allowing any contact between their bodies. Yolanda had padded the boards, which the two women leaned back against, as they eased themselves into the position to start the final duel. The twisted ropes, which would fit around each of their necks, had been hung above their heads. Yolanda, as the challenger, stepped toward Karen and took down the rope, placing it around Karen's neck. Karen did the same with Yolanda's rope.

As she placed her wrists inside the rope loops, Karen remembered the outcome of her last contest with Tamara.

Tamara's face was inches from hers. They had both stood up, pressing their nipples together, causing each other to scream as they bored into each other. The agony, the exhaustion was plain to see on each of their faces. Yet the biceps of each woman peaked even further as they began their more sexual contact. Each of them was beyond pain - there was only the duel between them. They had been locked in their struggle for nearly an hour. Their vision was getting blurred until each collapsed, unconscious, against the other, still held upright by the ropes, and each other.

Karen awoke feeling hands on her throat. She reached out and grasped Tamara's throat with her own hands and the two women continued their test of strength, now aimed at the stronger hands. And this would be to the death. Each woman squeezed as tightly as she could, laying on their sides, eyes still locked in hellish hatred, two nude women locked in the most primal test, one that would kill one of them.

Their hands drew their faces closer together, closer, until they were almost touching. Then, they came closer still, their mouths fusing together, hot, hard, each trying to dominate the other. Their legs intertwined and flexed against each other. Each tried to overpower her rival with the kiss, with her strength. Each was trying to breathe past the strong hands that cut off her air, while still pressing mouths hotly together, and the strength of their legs held their lower bodies together, each straining to be stronger that the other.

Suddenly, the two women shuddered and screamed, the kiss at an abrupt end, the strength in their hands and legs seeming to increase tenfold as it became harder to tell where one body stopped and the other began.

As the orgasm subsided, the two women rolled apart, legs still tangled, each too weak to move. But their eyes were still locked with hatred. And each knew that she had met her equal in strength and in passion. Neither would ever be able to overcome the other, sexually or in power. After ten minutes, the disentangled themselves and dressed, facing away from each other.

They never spoke again.

Yolanda had finished fitting her wrists into the two loops on either side of her body and had lifted them from the pegs on which they had been hung. Karen had already completed that task herself. It was time to begin.

The two rivals looked deeply into each other's eyes for a long moment. There seemed to be sadness in each of them. Their bodies were less than three inches apart. They leaned forward and touched their nipples together, as Karen had done with Tamara. Instead of leaning back, however, both women remained in contact. Suddenly a look of hate transfixed them, and each began to bend her arms inward.

Each woman's arms trembled, yet neither uttered a sound. Their spirits were so perfectly matched that it was almost as if they were not struggling at all. Then the breathing became harsher, the biceps and forearm muscles stood out more, and suddenly, they were grunting, sweating with effort.

From the rear of either woman, shoulder muscles flexed so tightly that the observer could be sure they would soon pop. The biceps were flexed to huge proportions.

Yet neither woman's arms moved. The loops of rope about their necks hung limply.

After ten minutes of stalemate, Yolanda's arms began to bend inward and Karen felt the rope around her neck tighten as her own arms were pulled outward. She grunted loudly and Yolanda's progress was stopped. Five minutes later, Yolanda felt her air being cut off as Karen's arms began to overpower hers. She grunted as her effort stopped her blonde rival. After twenty-five minutes, the two women felt their vision becoming fuzzy. Never, in all of Romany history, had a duel such as this one been fought. There had never been two such equal women as rivals.

Both women had alternately been winning and losing. Each had felt her air being stopped and each had heard the gasp of her rival's efforts to breathe. Karen felt her head becoming limp, her legs barely able to support her weight.

Yolanda was in much the same condition, and the two women leaned forward on each other for support. There was, thus, no way that when the loser was dead, she could collapse and strangle her weakened rival with the weight of her body.

The two women cried in their efforts, straining, struggling, and knowing that unconsciousness was death. Karen felt her eyes beginning to close, her energy fading away, then, she blacked out.

A dealer walked upstairs in the casino to complain about another dealer. She knocked on the door and was bidden to enter. She stood before the ornate desk and made her complaint, including some comments about the way that the casino in general, was operated. Smiling, the owner told her to have a seat at the small table in the center of the room. She took out a bottle of whiskey from her desk and took two of the glasses from the credenza behind her, then joined the dealer at the table.

After one drink and a lost arm wrestling match, the dealer left, never to return. She was cursing that "blonde bitch" as she walked out the door.

Karen Swensen poured some water from the pitcher into the bowl and washed the perspiration from her face. She returned the bottle to her desk and sat down, pulling the book she had found out of the drawer. It was the history of the Gypsy tribe of which she was now the queen. The tribe had split up in many directions after their arrival in the West.

It had been due to the lack of leadership on the part of the queen. It seemed that, during the course of the travels, she had befriended a young blonde girl in the wagon train, who had been, according to the journal, her natural equal in passion and strength. After her contest with the blonde, she sought closure, and had challenged the queen, who gave up leadership after losing her third straight test of strength.

When the tribe split and the queen did nothing to stop it, Yolanda had challenged the queen. They had split the four tests and Yolanda had killed her after a long duel.

Karen was at last at peace. She had, though indirectly, defeated Tamara.