He had made his voice awed and respectful, indulging the little girl in her fantasies, not seeing the expressions Tammad and Dallan wore. The two mighty warriors were finally on their feet, standing to Rellis’ right, anger and frustration competing for place on their faces, outrage and indignation pouring out of their minds. I was daring to trespass on warrior domains, daring to oppose their wills with mine, but I didn’t care how unhappy they were. It was time someone thought of me first, even if I had to be the one to do it.
“They will not face each other with weapons.” I said through my teeth, grating on the condescension Rellis felt so strongly, then turned my head toward the other two. “Should they find my resolve sufficiently distasteful, my life may be easily taken by them, yet not so the decision. That I will not allow to be taken from me.
“Do not speak foolishly, wenda!” Rellis snapped while the other two looked as though I’d struck them in the face. “No warrior would take the life of a woman, and most especially not the life of the woman he fights to possess. You cannot know whereof you speak, therefore . . . .”
“Hama, do you truly believe I would harm you?” Tammad interrupted, taking a step closer to me, his blue eyes seriously concerned. “Your life is mine to protect, never to take.”
“No more would I offer you harm, woman of my heart,” Dallan agreed, stepping forward to stand beside the barbarian. “You cannot think I would consider such a thing even for a moment. ”
“You both not only consider it, you strive to accomplish it,” I said, the harshness of my feelings coloring my words, “I will not be fought for and won as though I were no more than the spoils of your war. You both covet my possession for reasons of your own; should one slay the other toward this end, its very accomplishment will negate it. You have my word that I will open my mind wide, sharing the death of whichever of you experiences it, allowing the shock of such a contact to take me as well. You disbelieve that it may be done so; then doubt me if you wish. I say there will be no victory nor victor, not of the sort you profess to desire.”
“Profess?” Dallan repeated, his thoughts as shocked and confused as Tammad’s though his eyes and expression showed it more. Rellis didn’t understand anything that was going on, but nothing in his attitude showed that he intended interrupting or interfering. He had decided to listen and wait before coming to any decisions, an attitude which surprised me. I wouldn’t have expected it from a Rimilian barbarian.
“You cannot think I do not desire you, Terril,” Dallan said, his voice considerably more even that mine had been. “Should your power fail to tell you this, you may judge from my actions. Surely you understand that I would not have banded you had my feelings for you not been deep.”
“Indeed does my power tell me of your feelings,” I said, glancing at him briefly before looking away. “As for your actions, there are those which stand out quite clearly in my memory. I find it difficult forgetting actions such as those.”
I could almost feel him straightening where he stood, his mind filling protests of justification, but none of them reached the vocal level.
“By the Circle of Might, what have you done to her?” Tammad demanded in a growl, his fury beginning to tower again. “Should I find that you have given her pain. I shall. . . . ”
“That I have given her pain?” Dallan interrupted with his own anger, sounds of movement showing they were turning to face one another again. “What of the pain she has had from you? If your arms have held her for no more than proper punishment and expressions of love, why does she seek to run from you? Has she shown you the tears of her ache, so that you might banish them and ease her? When she was held in my cousin’s house, her life and sanity nearly forfeit, why did she not believe you would seek for and find her’? Why does the mere thought of you bring hopelessness to the depths of her lovely eyes? You ask what I have done to her; allow me to ask the same of you!”
When Dallan was through, there was no immediate answer to his question. I could feel the silence behind me, full of jagged edges, but even more I could feel the groaning and stretching in Tammad’s mind as his emotions tried to escape his control. He had forced that rigid, unyielding calm on himself almost from the first of Dallan’s words, and he refused to let it break. He’d felt the strength of Dallan’s bitter outrage full force, but what effect it had had on him—if any—he refused to admit even to himself.
“All you say is true.” he answered at last, his voice not overly loud and certainly even enough to match his calm. “There are far too many things between the woman and myself which should not have been. And yet the greatest of my follies was my attempt to give her up, which her recent disappearance has proven without doubt. I cannot give her up and I shall not, for she is more precious to me than life itself. She is mine and will remain mine.”
“She is banded as mine and will remain mine,” Dallan returned doggedly, completing the circle of speaking-and-refusing-to-hear. My head was beginning to hurt and I was very tired, and I realized that my eyes had closed during Tammad’s say, and I hadn’t opened them again. Lightheadedness tiptoed up to me, whispering of how good it would feel to sit down for a while, and I really began considering it . . . .
“Enough of this,” Rellis’ voice came, without anger but filled with authority. Suddenly hands were on me, lifting me in a pair of strong arms, and I didn’t understand what was happening. “Are the two of you so engrossed in one another that you fail to see that the woman you both seek to possess was nearly upon the ground in a faint?” he said, showing he was the one holding me. “You squabble more like children than men, and I find myself too weary to listen further. I shall see to the wenda, the while you pose as though you were warriors. Should you later discover some interest in the woman’s well-being, you may consider joining us—should I permit it.”
Holding me tightly to him, he turned then and started away, his mind faintly annoyed. I opened my eyes to see that we were heading for the stairs leading up to the palace, but I made sure not to look over his shoulder at the two we were leaving behind. They’d registered indignant outrage at his speech, but seeing Rellis walking away had bothered them even more. They hesitated no longer than necessary to glare at each other, then they were hurrying to catch up.
“Father, this is most unseemly,” Dallan protested, holding his anger down out of a deeply ingrained sense of respect. “It is unheard of for another to walk off with a woman who is the object of contention!”
“It is now no longer unheard of,” Rellis answered, keeping to a brisk pace as he mounted the stairs. The other two climbed behind him, and they seemed to understand he’d said all he was going to. Dallan was annoyed and fighting off anger, and Tammad was—calm above rumbling and swirling. I leaned my head against Rellis’ shoulder, trying to see the funny side of being carried away from the two men who had been fighting over me, with them now scrambling along behind in an effort to keep up. Under other circumstances the situation would. have been funny—except for the fact that Tammad and Dallan weren’t prepared to give up on the idea of facing one another no matter what had been said to them, and Rellis’ mind had begun to hum with interest. I should have been used to that hum from my time among the men of that planet, but I wasn’t. It still had the power to frighten me no matter how bravely I talked, especially when I felt as drained and tired as I did then. I was just about helpless to protect myself, and coward that I am, the thought made me ill with fear.
It didn’t take long to reach Rellis’ destination. A guard opened a door, and then we were entering a large reception room with a raised dais, much like the one Aesnil had in her palace. It was all marble with red and gold silks on the walls, golden carpet fur, and red and gold cushions; I was taken to the cushions at the foot of the dais and set down among them, but not to be left alone. Rellis went to a small table which held a golden carafe and golden goblets, poured into one of the goblets, then came back to sit down beside me.