Tedra gritted her teeth. She didn’t want to wear that damnedchauri,but she didn’t want to get into a blowup with Challen either, when things had been going so smoothly with him. She looked wistfully at his clothes all around her, but knew she didn’t dare borrow any, that the first warrior she came across would demand she hand them over, and she didn’t care to go through that again.
“Farden hell,” she fairly snarled, but pointed a finger. “That one.”
She’d picked the light green, since she had a feeling the blue and the white were somehow symbolic with theshodan,likely his colors, if the color scheme of the castle was any indication. And right now she was too displeased to want to please him by wearing his colors.
“Whosechauriare these, anyway?” she asked as Jalla began helping her dress, and she saw how easily the top could become hopelessly tangled if it wasn’t put on carefully.
“Yours, mistress.”
“But whose were they before?”
“Yours-”
“Never mind,” Tedra cut in, her patience gone with her irritation.
The clothes had been there before she was, so they couldn’t be hers. And she didn’t really care to know who had shared Challen’s closet before her. But he’d be hearing what she thought of wearing someone else’schauri.
When she looked down at the finished package, she groaned. When she caught her image in the mirror, she groaned louder. It was much worse than she’d thought it would be. Now she knew why the women she had seen on the streets looked so soft, shy—helpless. There was no other way to look in one of these outfits.
Tedra wasn’t one to object to a little skin showing. It wasn’t that, for she had bodysuits that showed off more. But she’d never worn anything that was so dainty, so blatantly feminine, so farden delicate-looking. In it, she felt strange, exposed, vulnerable.
“Theshodanwill be pleased, mistress,” Jalla offered nervously. She hadn’t missed those groans. “You look beautiful.”
“I look like a Sex Clinic worker,” Tedra replied in disgust. “But as long as Martha can’t see me in it, I suppose I’ll survive the wearing of it.”
Chapter Twenty-two
Tedra got her revenge for being forced to wear thechauri,and was it ever sweet in being so unexpected.
Jalla had taken her on a tour of the castle after she had finished eating. It was really interesting, and she even forgot for a while the way she was dressed, especially when she began seeing other women dressed exactly the same, and none of them feeling the least self-conscious about it. Jalla introduced her to a good number of them, explaining who they were and why they were there. She learned a great deal that morning about the women of Sha-Ka’an, very little of which she liked, but then she wasn’t there to change their world, just trade with it, and hopefully enlist aid from it.
One of the rooms she wasn’t supposed to go near was where Challen was conducting business, but when had “wasn’t supposed to” ever stopped her. She slipped into the back of this room despite Jallas protests, the girl flatly refusing to go with her. It was long and cavernous, the walls and floor in that shiny, marblelike substance, in this case light blue veined with dark. There was row after row of those low couches all in white, with an aisle down the center of them, and at the far end of the room, sitting behind a desk and looking like no more than a Goverance Building official, sat Challen.
Expecting a throne, at the very least a raised dais piled high with pillows, Tedra was surprised by the normal-looking desk. But she supposed this was just one more of the little abnormalities of Sha-Ka’an that made it so different from what she knew of the history of her own people.
The room was crowded with men, just about every couch filled with two or three of the big guys. They were probably waiting their turn to speak with theshodan,who was presently speaking with a group of four men who stood before his desk.
Tedra couldn’t hear anything that was said from that distance, and she was about to slip back out of the room with no one the wiser that she’d intruded in this strictly male domain, when Challen made eye contact with her and stopped whatever he had been saying. She supposed she was in hot water now, watching him stand up, come around the desk, and start down the aisle toward her. He’d given no excuse for his leaving so abruptly, so heads started turning to see what drew him, and very quickly Tedra had every eye in the room on her.
She wanted to leave before Challen reached her, she really did, but that smacked of cowardice, and so she stood her ground. Being brave was a pain sometimes; so was pride nudged with stubbornness. All she could do was hope Challen wasn’t too angry with her for being where she wasn’t supposed to be.
But as he got closer, she could see that the fire in his eyes had nothing to do with anger. She relaxed, and even began to be faintly amused, recognizing that look by now. The barbarian was inflamed with lust, and Tedra had little doubt that it wasn’t just her but thechaurithat had inspired it. He liked her in the farden thing, oh, did he ever. His eyes told her so as they moved all over her.
When he reached her he didn’t say a word, just took her elbow and led her out of the room. He didn’t stop outside it either, but started off down the wide corridor, her elbow still in his hand.
“Where are we going?” she asked with a knowing grin that he didn’t turn around to see.
“To my chambers,” was all he said.
“Now why would I want to go there?”
“Woman-”
“No, I mean it. Will you hold up a minute?” When he stopped to look back at her, she stated flatly, “I’ve got no reason to go to your room, Challen.”
“I do.”
“Then go ahead. I’m not stopping you.”
