“Do you seek to cause deliberate mischief, woman, you will be punished.”
She smiled at his set look. “I was only curious, babe. How else can I learn the rules unless I ask?Youseem too content to wait until I break them before telling me about them. That’s rather late from my point of view.”
He ran a hand through his hair, actually seeming flustered. “It is strange, having a woman not know the laws.Allwomen know the laws from the earliest age.”
“In other words, you haven’t deliberately tried trapping me with my ignorance? Why, barbarian, I guess I owe you an apology, then.” This was said too dryly to be taken seriously. “Now let’s try this one on for size. What happens if I challenge someone while still under challenge loss to you?”
He sat up, an indication he wasn’t pleased with the direction her thoughts were taking. “This you will not do, woman.”
“I won’t? Who says I won’t? For that matter, what if I feel like challenging you again?”
“You will lose; thus will your service be extended for another month.”
“But if I won, you’d have a month to look forward to Tedra-getting-even, wouldn’t you? Now that’s a sweet thought. Would it make you think twice before punishing me again?”
“No.”
“You could at least have hesitated a little before answering that,” she said sourly.
He smiled at her now. “I have told you what you must do to avoid punishment; thus should there be no more.”
“’Should’ is a far cry from ‘will.’ Now don’t get me wrong,” she said when his smile disappeared. “I have every intention of obeying you when I’m supposed to…. Speaking of which, these living quarters of yours are going to have to be redecorated if this is where I’m to live for the next month. There’s going to have to be some kind of divider rigged up to make only one section of this tent the place where you sleep.”
“That will not be necessary.”
“Then we’ve got a really big problem, friend, because nothing was said about you keeping me all day long in your bedchamber. If that’s the case—”
“It is not. This is merely the camp we have used while hunting in this area. On the new sunrise do we return to Sha-Ka-Ra, the town where we live.”
“In houses, I hope.”
“Yes, in houses.” He grinned. “We are not as primitive as you would make us.”
“That’s debatable, but I’m willing to reserve judgment,” she said, pointedly looking at her greasy fingers.
This caused the barbarian to burst into laughter. “Come,kerima,I will take you to the stream where you may wash.”
“A cloth will do. Until you come up with one of thosechaurifor me to wear, or at least a belt to make this covering halfway decent, I’ll stay in here—if it’s all the same to you.”
“It is not,” he replied, though he wasn’t annoyed with her for trying to get out of what had been in effect a command. “You must also relieve yourself.”
“Oh,” she said, but charged through her embarrassment by adding, “Well, that changes everything. Silly me, for thinking the bathroom was going to pop out of the walls of a tent.” At his stare, she grinned. “Never mind. I’ve amused you enough for one day with the wonders of my—Kystran. Lead on.”
Tedra set her plate aside and stood up, but before Challen joined her, he drew to him the fur sack and took out of it the rope he had earlier removed from her wrists. She scowled at it, then at him, but held out her hands anyway. He grinned as he stood up, then wrapped the rope around her waist, tying it together for her, and even pulling the sides of her covering closed so that they would stay closed.
She looked up at him and managed a smile herself. “Thanks. I guess you’re not so unlikable after all.”
“This I am pleased to hear you say, but you will be bound again to enter Sha-Ka-Ra.”
Tedra’s eyes narrowed angrily. She had a real urge to sock him one, but since her hand was likely to come out the loser, she restrained herself—just.
“You really ought to work on your strategy, barbarian,” she said contemptuously. “A smart man would have waited until tomorrow to tell me that little gem.”
He seemed not the least concerned with her pique. “There will be honesty between us, woman, thus do I tell you now.”
“And give me the whole night to think about a repeat of the humiliation I was put through today? Thanks a lot. I can do without your farden honesty!”
She flounced out of the tent then, but had to stop and wait since she didn’t know in which direction the stream lay. More fuel to grit her teeth on. She couldn’t even make a decent exit in this place.
