There were a lot of them. He had assumed the officer was exaggerating when she said her force was ten thousand strong, but he began to think she might not have been so far off at that. Each rank had five women, and he stopped counting ranks after five hundred. They went on and on, and after the soldiers themselves, there were teenage girls steering rank upon rank of carts, horses, and elephants loaded with equipment and provisions. The army seemed to go on forever.
Of course, he couldn't wait that long to go after a little information, so he asked, “Is this, uh, a regular custom of yours, to welcome male visitors?”
“Aye,” the corporal said, “the few who have the courage to come.”
Considering all the well-armed women he was passing, Matt could understand that the occasional male visitor might feel a little outnumbered. “Might as well get acquainted, if we're going to be road companions. My name is Matt.”
“I am Adonitay.” The corporal inclined her head in polite greeting. “Be welcome in the Grand Feminie—for nine days. Ladies, greet him.”
“Welcome, stranger,” the privates chorused. Matt glanced back, saw them nodding, and inclined his head in return. He noticed then a strange suppressed excitement about them; they fairly seemed to glow.
“You will have to pardon us if we seem short with you,” Adonitay said.
“Oh, I understand,” Matt assured her. “I'm making you miss out on the action. Sorry about that.”
Adonizeb gave a mirthless bark of laughter. “We regret missing action, truly enough, but not in battle, and it is certainly not your fault, but that of the stranger who was here two nights ago and was too much the fool to take advantage of his good fortune.”
“Oh. A bad guest, huh?”
“Very bad,” Adonitay said, seething, “though we could scarcely condemn him for loyalty to the woman who traveled with him and her need to speed their journey.”
Mart's mental ears pricked up. “Woman? His mother, maybe?”
The privates laughed, and Adonitay smiled, choking down glee. “Only if a mother could be a year or two younger than her son.”
“Oh? A young couple, setting out in life?”
“On their way to Maracanda, so she said,” Adonitay answered.
“So she could have rested for nine days, by your law?”
“As long as she wished, but of course she was as loyal to her traveling companion as he to her, and we do not allow men to stay longer than nine days.” She glanced at Matt sidelong and hinted, “A day to Asusu and a day back to the border.”
Matt took the hint; it left him an even week of hospitality, not that he was about to take advantage of it. He hated to eat and run, especially after they'd apparently just had a case of such rudeness—poor things must be hungry for news of the outside world. Well, he'd tell them what he could before he went to bed. “So you didn't even let them stay the full week?”
“We sent them on their way that very night,” Adonitay said. “They could have stayed till morning, mind you, but they chose to leave directly—she was in a great hurry to reach Maracanda.”
A very great hurry, no doubt, and Matt was sure that the young woman was Balkis. So she was traveling with a young man, was she? He could only think of one reason, and hoped he was right—Balkis in love with somebody her own age would certainly save him the embarrassment and difficulty of having to quietly discourage her interest in himself. And what could it be but love, when she could travel more safely as a cat than as a beautiful young woman, attaching herself to a caravan as resident mouser instead of road companion to a lone young man?
He must have been very trustworthy for her to take the chance—and from what Adonitay said, he was certainly faithful. Matt wished him all the best.
Matt resolutely put the young couple out of his mind. He'd stay the night, he told himself, then sneak out in the false dawn and call Stegoman—he was sure the dragon would be following him and would hide near Asusu and wait. There was the outside chance that Stegoman might attack Adonitay and her soldiers, thinking he was a prisoner—a reasonable assumption, after all—but Matt didn't think so. Stegoman was the soul of discretion. Total surprise made his attacks all the more terrifying.
No, no reason to worry about the dragon. Matt decided to concentrate on being a good guest, and wondered why Balkis' boyfriend hadn't taken advantage of his good fortune.
He found out in Asusu, when the fortune turned out to be a little too good.
Adonitay and her soldiers led him into a military compound right inside the main gate—but they went past the barracks to a smaller, circular house.
“This is the house for male guests,” Adonitay told him. “Will you enter?”
“Why, thanks,” Matt said, and stepped through the door into a sybarite's' dream.
The circular room had to take up most of the house, and the floor was one giant mattress, covered with soft rose-colored fabric, firm, but yielding enough under his step so that he stopped, afraid to damage it. Islands of cushions cropped up here and there, mostly around a low table that held a hookah, which Matt suspected did not hold tobacco. But the most outstanding feature of the room was the dozen young women kneeling on the floor, who stood up in a single sinuous movement and advanced upon him with low-voiced, throaty words ofwelcome.
CHAPTER 15
“Welcome, traveler!”
“Welcome to rest and refreshment!”
“Welcome to delight and pleasure!”
All twelve of them wore short-skirted tunics made by draping a length of clinging fabric around the neck, crosswise over each breast, then wrapped around the waist to form the skirt—simple but extremely attractive, especially considering how the fabric molded itself to their bodies. They advanced barefoot over the cushioned floor, smiling and eager. “May we aid you in taking off your boots, traveler?”
“Why, uh—yes, that would be very nice, thanks,” Matt stammered, then wished he hadn't, for two of them pressed up against him on either side, ostensibly to brace his shoulders, while a third knelt to yank off first the one boot, then the other. Still kneeling and proving how low her neckline was cut, she looked up at him through long lashes. “May I perform any other service, O Guest?”
Matt had the first inkling of the true nature of his visit. He swallowed heavily and said, “Uh, no, thanks, I'm fine.”
“I am sure that you are,” the young woman said with a heavy-lidded glance. “A bath, then?”
Two other young women drew aside a curtain from an alcove, revealing a huge copper tub in a wooden frame, filled with steaming bubbles and emitting a fragrance of sandalwood.
“Yes!” Matt said. “That would be very nice. If you'll give me a few minutes privacy, a bath would be just the thing.” He strode over to the tub before his hostesses could answer.
“May we not help you remove your clothes?” asked one of the women who had pulled open the curtain.
Alarm bells rang, but Matt knew the importance of abiding by local custom. “Yes, that would get me into the bubbles more quickly, thanks.”
Slender hands unbuckled his belt as others plucked the jerkin, then the tunic, from his shoulders—but he stopped when they started pulling at his hose. “Uh, thanks, but I'll do that myself, if you'll just turn your backs for a minute.”
“If you must,” the oldest sighed with bad grace. “Turn your backs, girls.” She set the example, muttering, “Foolish modesty!”
Matt stripped off his breeches and got into the tub quicker than he ever had. At the sound of splashing, the women turned back to look. He heard murmurs of approval at the contours of his chest; then a gentle hand drew a cool cloth over his forehead and murmured, “Lean back and enjoy the heat and moisture.”