I smoothed my hair into place quickly, hoping I wasn't too much of a mess, but the man who entered? It was Sylis. He stood straight and tall, almost like he was angry, but as soon as the door closed, a smile took over his face.
"If anyone asks," he said, "I'm here to find out if you're ever going to make the training sessions."
"Do I need to?" Tobias asked, gesturing to the rocking chairs in the room.
"No," Sylis assured him, settling into one. "But it makes a good excuse, and I thought I'd keep you updated." He glanced up. "Is it going to be a problem having your wife here?"
"Callah?" Tobias asked. "No." Then to me. "Come. Sit."
"I'm not sure if that's proper," I admitted.
"You've never formally introduced us," Sylis pointed out.
Tobias sighed heavily. "Callah, this is Sylis. He's my friend. He's talked to Ayla. He knows I'll kill him if he causes either of us any problems." Then he turned to the man. "Sylis, this is Callah. She's my lawfully weddedfriend. Maybe the rest of the compound thinks she's merely a woman, but she's smarter than either of us, and she's the only way we'll get out."
So Sylis pushed to his feet, crossed the room toward me, and offered his hand. "Callah, it's a pleasure to make a new friend."
I accepted his grip, but the gesture felt unnatural. Women didn't shake hands like this. I'd seen it enough, but this was a man's gesture. That he was offering it to me made that last bit of worry dissipate.
"Yes, it is," I agreed. "Tobias has told me a bit about you, but I wasn't sure how you felt about women."
"I really don't know," Sylis admitted. "I don't have much experience with them, but everyone else's marriage seems more like a chore than something to look forward to."
"Usually," I said, finally heading in to sit with the men, "it's torture for us. Girls know we'll be married one week after our twentieth birthday, whether we want to or not. We know our husbands will be excited about the consummation, then will breed us repeatedly - even though it's painful - until one of our children kills us. We also know he has the right to punish us for anything we do wrong, or that hethinkswe do wrong. That punishment could kill us."
"Which means," Tobias said, "they like nice."
"That does make me look at marriage in a new and disgusting way," Sylis said. "Unfortunately, it's also why I've come."
"What?" I asked because his words made no sense.
"He needs to get married," Tobias explained.
"Nomanneeds to," I shot back.
"I do," Sylis said. "And I think you'll even agree. See, I can't get promoted as a young, single man. I need to prove myself alittle more, but without that promotion, I can't get the door code the Phoenix wants. If I don't, she'll kill me."
"She won't," I told him. "Not unless you betray her."
"At least there's that," Tobias said. "But we need the code, Callah. To do that, he needs a wife."
"But I don't want children," Sylis hurried to say. "I was hoping you might know a woman in need of a husband who'll leave her alone. A friend would be wonderful, but I'll accept someone content to ignore me - and have me ignore her."
"And he's been helping me," Tobias promised. "Callah, we've talked. On those long walks to the Dragon town, we try to share as much as we can because no one's around."
"Except the other hunters?" I asked, trying to keep up.
"Not really," Tobias said. "The grouping spreads out. Men stop, or wander. When we camp, everyone's talking to their own companions, so it's easy enough to go unnoticed. Often, we've talked about how abusing women isn't appealing. Neither of us wants to hold a girl down and hurt her the way the other men do."
"They laugh about it," Sylis said. "They tell me how it'll make me feel like a man, and how my household is the place where I get to be in charge. They do to their wives what the leaders and elders do to them, and I refuse to be a part of that. I can wash my own things. I can ask a widow to mend for me if necessary."
"I tried to learn," Tobias said, "but I was told men can't sew."
"Anyone can sew," I huffed.
"But it's women's work," Sylis said. "That would make us less of a man, and our lives depend on being the strongest, best, and most important man in the compound. That's how men become elders. It's the only way to protect ourselves, and while we're not killed by our wives, we're thrown to the Dragons as if our lives don't matter!"
I looked over at Tobias to find him nodding. "This is what I was trying to tell you," he said. "Callah, they kill us off in different ways, but the whole point is to use the women up and kill the men who can't fall in line. The two of us? We never had a chance, so we're doing something different, just like you are. I don't know why the three of us can't join forces. Sylis already knows almost everything."
