She had closed the distance between them, was standing before him now, and there was moisture in her eyes again. “I thank you for my gift, Challen.”
“It was my pleasure to give it,chemar,”he said deeply.
Her hands came to his cheeks very gently. “You’re such a sweet barbarian. No wonder I …” “What?”
She dropped her hands, dropping her eyes, too, from his intense gaze. “Never mind.”
He didn’t press her. She was not yet ready to admit her true feelings for him. But soon …
He placed an arm around her to lead her from the room. “Come, we will take food now; then I must leave to inspect the gaali stone mines. Perhaps you would like to come along?”
She glanced at him in amazement. He knew her interest in the gaali stones. She’d never tried to hide it. Was this even more appeasement on his part?
“Sure, I’ll tag along. And I promise not to take notes,” she teased.
But she was still amazed at the extent of Challen’s generosity. When a barbarian got a guilty conscience, hereallygot a guilty conscience.
Chapter Thirty-four
“Who owns these mines?”
“I do.”
Tedra swung around in surprise. They’d come about a hundred feet into the mountainside on what was a gradually downsloping path. Challen had been filling her with information about how the gaali was cut, transported, sold, the dangers involved. She’d been amazed to learn all the miners were men who had for some reason or other lost their eyesight. Understandably, there weren’t that many miners, for unlike a few cut stones, a large vein of gaali was bright enough to blind. And the Sha-Ka’ani obviously hadn’t devised a way to get rid of that risk yet, or maybe they just didn’t want to. Gaali stone mining was a good-paying job for the handicapped, after all.
“What do you mean, you do?” she asked. “Or do you control them as theshodan?”
Challen laughed at her assumption. “Beingshodandoes not have great rewards, other than the living in a fine house. The mines belong to my family, who have long owned the northern face of Mount Raik.”
“But the town faces north, doesn’t it? Does that mean your family owns Sha-Ka-Ra, too?”
“Most of it, yes.”
“Well, hell, no wonder you’reshodan.How come you never mentioned you’re a powerful landlord?”
“It was not a thing needing mentioning. But you are wrong in this assumption, too,kerima.Theshodanis chosen for his strength alone, or he assumes the duty does he defeat the currentshodan.”
“Which was it in your case?”
“A little of both. I had warriors who followed me who wanted the title to be mine. The lastshodanbecame angry, hearing rumors of this, and so challenged me.”
“That must have been a pleasant win for you.”
“Not wholly. When I had fewer duties, I had more time for fun.”
It was his look that made her blush, not his reference to sex-sharing. “Poor baby,” she purred defensively. “I haven’t noticed you depriving yourself of fun lately.”
“Nor will I with such a beautiful challenge loser tempting me.”
Tedra turned away from the possessiveness in his eyes that warmed her clear to her toes. “We’re steering into an inconvenient subject here, babe. After all, you haven’t slept in these mines.”
“Does that still matter?”
It didn’t, not in the least, but she wasn’t going to admit that to him. As lusty as he was, it could get embarrassing if he thought she’d let him make love to her in just any old place. Their warrior escort was waiting outside the mines for them, and how long before they would decide to investigate if the inspection took too long?
She latched onto that thought. “What is it you have to inspect if you can’t go into the actual area where they’re cutting the stone?”
She heard him sigh before he answered. “These tunnels, the support beams. There are warriors who do this daily, but twice a year I like to see to the matter myself.”
