“And a bed-warmer isn’t?” She smiled, then shrugged, unconcerned. “Well, then, since I’m having the job forced on me, you’ll just have to defend my honor, won’t you?”
He shook his head. “You will accept what comes, with no recourse. Service through challenge loss is not meant to be agreeable.”
She didn’t have his ability to conceal anger when it did show up. Her eyes glittered with it. Her teeth gnashed with it.
“Nice of you to tell me that after the fact,” she gritted out. “What other unpleasant surprises do I have in store for me? Some chains and whips maybe?”
Nowhe smiled, the farden beast. “I cannot know what would surprise you, when you knew so little of challenge.”
She waited for him to go on, but he didn’t, so she demanded, “What about the chains and whips?”
“For what reason would such be needed, since you have agreed to accept my will as yours?”
“Inthe bedchamber only,” she reminded him.
“WhereverI sleep,” he reminded her. “But—” and now he grinned. “You are still a woman, not a warrior.”
He seemed much too delighted by that fact. “Is that supposed to mean something in particular to me?”
“A woman, any woman, highborn, servant—or challenge loser—must defer to warriors, especially to the warrior who protects her, whom she must also obey. Until your service ends and you are again a claimable woman, I must give you my protection; thus will you obey me in all things.”
For a moment Tedra was too furious for words. Then she shot to her feet, snarling, “Like farden hell! That’s what you said about claimed women. Are you telling me every woman on your planet is claimed?”
“I know not the customs in every country,” he said as he also got to his feet. “But in Kan-is-Tra, very few women are claimed, since they need only apply to a warrior for protection to avoid claiming. This you were told, and this they gladly do, because Kan-is-Tran women do not care to lose their rights to claiming.”
“What rights?” she demanded. “It sounds like they have none if they must still obey—Stars, how I hate that word—every warrior who snaps his fingers!”
“Defer to, woman, not obey,” he replied with a sigh. “A warrior can make no demands of a woman under another’s protection. He can request such and such of her, but she need not obey him if the request is unreasonable or abhorrent to her. This is her right.”
“But she does have to obey the warrior who protects her? I see no difference.”
“He who protects her cannot have of her the serviceyouwill give to me, not unless it is her wish to give such service. Is that difference enough for you, woman?”
Tedra pinkened. “It still sounds too slavish to suit me, but I didn’t come here to live, only to trade. Though I’m not forgetting that you wanted me in the ‘without rights’ group.”
He shrugged. “You could have requested my protection instead.”
“I didn’tknowabout it!”
“Ignorance of the law is no—”
“Don’t rub it in the ground, warrior,” Tedra snapped. “You’ve already taken more advantage of me than any other man ever has, so let’s drop it, all right? Now, are we going to stand around here all day, or what? Why don’t you get on with whatever you were doing when I showed up to brighten your day. Whatwereyou doing out here on your lonesome anyway?”
She got a very clear look of chagrin out of him, which was heartening, proving he didn’t always keep his emotions to himself. “I was hunting thetaraanyou killed.”
“So that’s ataraan?”she asked. “Hey, I didn’t kill it. It’s only in a deep stun, which I wish to Heaven’s Starsyou’dbeen in, and stayed in.”
His only response to that was to ask, “How is it you know of ataraanbut have never seen one before?”
“Because it’s one of your words that needed a picture to go along with it, but Sublims don’t supply pictures, just words.”
“Explain, woman.”
“It’s how I learned your language, with a Sublim tape. I know all the words, just not all of their meanings. Your animals, foods, things like that will give me problems until I can match them up with the words I have for them. You’d have the same problem if you were given my language.” She grinned then. “Now there’s an idea. Would you like to Transfer up to my ship to learn my language? It would only take a few hours of your time, and the culture shock would do you a world of good.”
He snorted in answer. “I will see to thetaraan.You will stay where you are.”
But first he saw to her phazor unit, much to her regret, retrieving it from where he’d tossed it and hooking it on the back of his sword belt after that was also retrieved and put on. There were a few moments when he had hesitated in touching the unit that were worth a laugh or two, but Tedra managed to restrain herself. At least the barbarian wasn’t leaving the unit behind so she’d never have a chance to get it back. And she would get it back. But a fat lot of good it would do her for the next month, since she was honor-bound to accept the consequences of her challenge loss—and still looking forward to that despite the barbarian’s domineering nature.
