The color drained from her face as her eyes scanned the crowds so avidly watching her arrival. “Are—are you going to do that?”
“If such had been my thought,kerima,it would have been done already.”
She swung around to look at him in surprise. “You’re breaking that rule for me?”
“You are not a normal challenger loser. Never before has a woman been such.”
Now if that didn’t beat all. “So you couldn’t break two rules to let me arrive free of restraints?”
“And leave the Sha-Ka-Ran in doubt of what you are to me?” he replied.
“Oh, sure,” she said in disgust. “We certainly wouldn’t want to leave anyone in doubt. They might think I’m from another planet, after all, here to improve the quality of their lives if they’re interested.”
“What they would think is that you are a claimed woman—mine. No other thing would occur to them.”
“Not even that I’m a free woman under your protection?” she demanded.
She thought she had him there, but he disabused her quickly of that notion. “A free woman would not be seen in public dressed as you are. She would insist I supply her with thechauriof my household before she was brought into town.”
And he’d do it, too, which showed her more clearly than anything else could the difference between a free woman of this world and a claimed one, who couldn’t get away with making demands like that any more than a captive could, andshewas lower than them all.
Chagrined, she heard her tone turn surly. “Have you people never heard of public announcements? A single statement from you would clarify what I am.”
“Is this what you would like me to do?”
She started to say, “Of course,” but his reasonableness gave her pause. And then it occurred to her that he still didn’t believe anything she’d told him about herself, that all she was as far as he was concerned was a challenge loser, andthatwas what he was being magnanimous in offering to announce, even after he’d told her how challenge losers were scorned and treated worse than captives.
“You really are a jerk sometimes, warrior,” she spat out before looking stonily ahead.
“Because I tease you? Announcements are made only for concerns of war, raids, or the safety of the town. They are never made for the sake of clarifying the status of a woman.”
“Because we’re so farden unimportant?”
“Because a woman’s status is of concern to no one but her protector and his household.”
“That’s not exactly true in my case, but I’m not going to belabor the point. Let me ask you this instead. What if one of these warriors you’re parading me before likes what he sees and wants to offer me double occupancy?”
“Double what?”
“The equivalent of a man and woman sharing their life together. The Sha-Ka’ari didn’t have a name for it because all their women are slaves, but you must call it something when two people join up for exclusive sex-sharing.”
That got a laugh from him, which she didn’t appreciate. “Yes, we have such unions. But you are bound as a captive would be, and captives are rarely offered such union.”
She had a feelingthiswas the reason he broke only the one rule for her. He didn’t want to be bothered by offers for her that would require the explanation of her true status.
“So I don’t keep harping on this, why don’t you give me the whole of it for once? Sorting out these subtle little differences between your women is driving me nuts, especially the difference between claimed and captive, which only seems to be the matter of a farden rope about the wrists.”
“A woman claimed is one who had no protector. Is she offered for, she becomes a free woman with all rights returned to her. A captive is one who is taken from her protector; thus is her stay to be considered only temporary.”
“Why?”
“This should be obvious, woman. If she is desirable enough to be taken captive, it is almost a certainty her true protector will seek her return, either by theft or by purchase. Thus would a warrior think long and hard before offering for a woman who is likely to be stolen from him, whom he must then steal back again if he still wants her, and such can go on indefinitely, year after year.”
“You mean you mighty warriors would rather play tug-of-war with the poor woman than settle the matter with swords?”
“Women are not fought over,kerima.”
“Oh, excuse me. I keep forgetting how unimportant we are.”
