After a while, I wrapped a towel around me and went back to the bedroom. Surprisingly, Denny was there, sitting in a chair next to a table that held a pile of clothes and a tray of food.
“About time,” Denny observed when he saw me. “Didn’t you get enough of soaking outside?”
“It’s not the same.” I commented. “Is that supposed to be for me?”
“Nobody but.” He grinned. “Something for both inside and out. I have to take care of my favorite Prime.”
I pulled a chair closer with a sigh and started to eat, and Denny frowned at me.
“What’s the matter with you?” he demanded, putting his forearms on the table. “You look like the living example of joy gone out of everything. It can’t be that bad.”
“Why can’t it be?” I asked, poking at the food. “Is there some law against it?”
“Come on, Terry” he urged, “snap out of it! This is a great world and you’ll love it! I doubt if I’ll ever go back to Central even if I’m recalled.”
“I’m glad somebody’s pleased to be here.” I muttered, still not looking at him. “How long do you think it will take?”
“There’s less than two weeks until the Great Meeting,” he sighed, leaning back in his chair. “Allow maybe another week for the meeting itself, plus your travel time back here. Terry, what’s wrong between you and Tammad? I thought everyone would like him as much as I do.”
“You enjoy being raped by him?” I asked with raised eyebrows, finally looking at him. “Well, each to his own.”
“That’s not what I meant,” he protested, flushing a little. And Tammad doesn’t rape women—he just uses them the way they’re made to be used.”
“From my particular point of view, I fail to see the difference,” I said, finishing the last of the food. It was strange, but oddly tasty. And I also fail to appreciate being beaten. Your good friend Tammad is nothing but a barbarian, and I wish I were back on Central.”
“Stop feeling so sorry for yourself,” he said, a definite impatience in his tone. “You were never beaten in your life, and Tammad hasn’t changed that. A simple switching or two is hardly likely to cripple you, and that man is used to having obedience from the people around him. Just because you can’t antagonize him the way you do everyone else, doesn’t mean it’s the end of the world.”
“A lot you know about it!” I snapped, standing up. “I’d love to see how you’d take to `a simple switching or two’! And I don’t antagonize anyone.”
“The hell you don’t!” he snorted, looking up at me with the large, brown eyes that most women found so compelling. “Why do you think Murdock McKenzie nicknamed you `The Terror’? Everyone who knows you knows how fitting it is! Now that you’re through eating, try these clothes on. I want to check the fit.”
I pulled the clothes out of his hand and stormed into the bathroom, wordless with outrage. So that’s where that nickname had come from. Murdock McKenzie. I should have known! That was something else I would owe him for!
The imad and caldin were like nothing in my entire wardrobe, and I didn’t care for them. The imad slipped on over my head and was slit up the sides, then tied with a thin piece of leather at either side of my waist. The long sleeves of the thing were slit too, all the way to the armpit, and were tied at the wrists with more leather. The caldin was very full, but fell without pleats from my waist all the way down to my ankles. It was tied with a sash at my waist, and was made of the same thin material as the imad, although of a different color. The imad was a well-washed rose color, the caldin a dull gold. Nothing at all was worn under them, and I felt more undressed than in a sleep suit. I barely glanced at myself in the mirror, then went back to Denny
“They don’t fit at all.” I told him as soon as I walked out. “If you don’t have anything better, I’ll wear my own things.”
“You’ve got to be kidding,” he grinned, getting up to walk all around me. “They look better on you than they do on Asdir. I’ve got half a mind to take Tammad up on his offer.”
“What offer?” I frowned, turning around to keep him in view “And you keep mentioning Asdir, but you haven’t said who she is.”
“She’s my woman.” Denny grinned. “A gift from her father who’s head man in that village near here. He also gave me a switch to go along with her, but I haven’t had to use it much. Her father trained her well.”
“No wonder you like it here!” I said, putting my hands on my hips: “You’ve gone native. I never thought I’d live to see the day that Dennison Ambler went native.”
“Don’t knock it if you haven’t tried it.” He laughed. “And I haven’t gone completely native, or you would be flat on your back now. When Tammad said that what was his was also mine, he meant everything. These buskins will fit well too, but you won’t wear them until the rain stops. Tammad can pack them in with everything else. Now put on the bands.”
“What bands?” I asked, looking around to keep from screaming. Denny had become perfect as a friend for the barbarian. They were more like brothers than I would have thought possible.
“Right here,” Denny answered, picking up one of five, short, bronze-colored chains. “Tammad said you’re to be five-banded, and I agree with him. Men will make offers for one-,two- and three-banded girls, and sometimes even for four-banded ones, but a five-banded girl has to be fought for. Not many men are willing to face Tammad, not even for a green-eyed, dark-haired woman like you.”
“You’ve got to be wrong.” I said, shaking my head firmly “I know about the custom of banding, but I’m sure it’s with ribbon or leather or some such. It can’t be with chain!”
“But it is,” be said patiently. “Here, this one goes on your ankle.”
“Not on my ankle!” I balked, folding my arms. “I’m a Prime, not a slave! Take your chains somewhere else!”
“Terry, don’t be difficult!” he said in exasperation: “You have to be banded if you’re to travel as a native woman.”
“I don’t see the burning need for that, either,” I countered: “What’s wrong with my being a sightseer of sorts? A visitor on vacation or something?”
“This isn’t Alderan,” he snapped. “They don’t have tourist bureaus and guided tours. And how close do you think a tourist would get to the Great Meeting? Use your head, will you?”
“That’s what I’m supposedly here for,” I snapped back. “To use my head, not to be chained.”
He opened his mouth again, but whatever he would have said was lost as Tammad came in. I stood and stared, because the barbarian had gone through a transformation.
Gone was the leisure suit as if it had never been. The giant stood in nothing but some brown cloth wrapped around him from waist to upper thigh, his mighty chest bare. On his hips was a broad, plain, leather belt, from which a large, sheathed sword hung to the left and a long, sheathed dagger to the right, and when he turned slightly to close the door, I could see a second dagger wedged into the back of his swordbelt. He had leather wristbands, was as barefoot as I, and was altogether an unfamiliar sight.
He stopped briefly to examine me, then turned to Denny “The imad and caldin suit her, my friend. If you can spare but one other of each, we will be on our way”
“That’s no problem,” Denny answered. “You’re welcome to anything I have. The seetar is packed?”
“And the other saddled.” Tammad nodded. “Some distance should be covered before dark. She has been fed?”
“She has,” Denny confirmed, “but there’s still one problem. She won’t wear the wenda bands.”
“The choice is not hers,” the barbarian answered. “All seem much in awe of this woman who is called Prime, but here she is wenda and will wear the bands.”
He picked up the chains and came toward me, so I turned and ran to the bathroom, quickly locking myself in. There was nowhere else to go from there, but that didn’t matter. I was not going to be wearing chains.