When she started to get up, Mekos put his hand on her shoulder. “You don’t trust Sojee?”
Aradella lay back down but she was frowning.
Sojee, taller than any of the men and as heavy as they were, strode to the front of the room, and the men quickly took seats. Whether they respected Sojee or were afraid of him wasn’t clear.
The men waited in silence.
Sojee began. “What you and your men are to do today is more difficult than any Cutting Game. It requires extreme effort anddiscipline. Do you think you can restrain yourselves?” He glared at his audience. “More importantly, can you control your men?” He almost shouted the last, then looked at the huge men one by one, waiting for their curt nods. “All right, then, I will go over all of it again. You are to make these womencareabout you. And how are you to do that?”
There was a soft, incoherent rumble of voices.
“How do you make the womenlikeyou?” Sojee shouted.
“Tools!” the men yelled in unison.
Aradella and Mekos looked at each other in horror, silently asking,Do what with the tools?They looked back to Sojee.
“That’s right. You are to entice the women by using tools. You are to repair whatever needs it. If you see a broken wagon, fix it. Build her a grape arbor. And above all, donotask, ‘What do you want me to do next?’ Justdoit. Unasked.” He paused. “What is rule number two?”
Several of the men looked at each other blankly.
“Listen!” one of the deeply scarred men said.
“Yes,” Sojee said. “Listen to whatever the women want to tell you. Imagine that they’re explaining the rules to a game that could cost you your right hand. Believe me when I say that your life depends on hearing what she’s saying. Rule three?”
A man in the back said, “No teaching.”
“That’s right,” Sojee said. “Don’t try to teach them anything. I don’t care if a woman tells you to hang a door over a window, keep your mouth shut. Do you understand me? Do it correctly, but don’t puff your chest out and tell her how dumb she is and how smart you are.”
“But what if she—?”
Sojee didn’t let the man finish his question. “If you can’t get your men to do this, let me know now and we’ll send the lot of you home. You are on a team. Act like it!”
The man nodded and leaned back in his chair.
“No fighting!” Sojee said. “No matter what dishonorablething is said to you or disparaging remark is made, there is to beno fighting. Understood?”
Again, the men nodded.
“Now,” Sojee said, “the big one.”
In unison, every man gave a sigh so hard, so deep, that the curtains swayed.
A man in front mumbled something.
Sojee glared at him. “I can’t hear you.”
“No se...” He didn’t seem able to say the word.
“What?” Sojee shouted.
“No sex!” the men yelled back.
“That’s right,” Sojee said. “No sex. If a woman strips off naked in front of you and says, ‘I’m yours,’ what do you do?”
The men looked like they might cry.
“Do not touch her,” a man in front said, his voice full of grief.
