Although the barbarian had left his swordbelt on the bank, he had taken the thin spear into the water with him. He buried the blade in the streambed until he had bathed, then he waded out farther with the spear raised high. He stood very still for a long time, then suddenly moved with flashing speed, the spear went into the water, then was pulled out again with a long, fat fish flapping on the end of it. He came back to the bank to put the fish down, and grinned at me.
“We will have enough of dimral before the rains cease,” he said. “This night we dine on pantay.”
He went back out to spear two more pantay, then we left the stream. With the blood from the fazee and dimral carcass washed off him, I could see three long gashes near his left shoulderblade where the fazee must have caught him. I quietly searched his mind for the pain he must have felt and did find it, but it was so well controlled that it barely reached his consciousness. I soothed it down farther still, then withdrew.
It was nearly dark by the time the fish were ready. The barbarian had wrapped them in more of the leaf that he had, then buried them under the still glowing ashes of the fire. I sat on the veranda of the camtah, comfortably clean in body and clothing, working at my hair with the seetar brush. The bristles were too short and stiff to be really good, but it was better than nothing, and certainly better than helping the barbarian stack what the seetar would carry the next day. My imad and caldin, and the barbarian’s body cloth—called haddin -were hung up to dry on pegs on the walls of the veranda in case it rained again.
The pantay was delicious, with a delicacy of flavor, given to it by the leaf, that I’d never tasted before. I ate almost all of mine—from the leaf with my fingers—and the barbarian finished his two almost including the bones. He then produced a different-looking waterskin, and took a deep draught.
“Ah, I must remember to thank my friend Dennison for this unmentioned gift,” he said, nearly smacking his lips. “I had not thought to taste drishnak again until I had returned to my people.”
“What is it?” I asked, watching him take another swallow
“It is a wine made by my people,” he answered, then he grinned. “Would you care to taste it?”
“Why not?” I shrugged, taking the skin as he passed it to me. “I could use some wine right about now.”
I sniffed at it before drinking, and it somehow had a spicy smell. I sighed a little, annoyed at myself for thinking it would have a bouquet. Considering its source, it would need a lot of apology. I took a swallow of it—and thought my throat was on fire! I could feel it burning all the way down to my stomach, and I gasped in lungfuls of air, trying to douse the flames. The barbarian quickly took the skin from me and pounded on my back.
“Did you swallow wrong?” he asked, his voice filled with a concern he wasn’t feeling. Inside he was laughing, and he added, “May I help you in some way?”
“You’ve already done enough!” I rasped, moving away from his pounding hand. “You did that on purpose so you could laugh at me. I hate you!”
I got to my feet and ran into the darkness to escape his laughter, but the memory of it followed even into the deeper shadow of the seetarr. I stood between them near the tree they were tied to, feeling the tears run down my cheeks. The tears were partly from the still burning “wine,” but mostly from the barbarian’s amusement. I was nothing but an object of ridicule to him, a willful child of no consequence, even less than wenda. I leaned against the side of the larger of the two male seetarr, and his enormous head reached around to poke at me gently.
“The seetar seems to have more sense than I,” the barbarian said softly from behind me. “I did not know you would feel the arrow of my laughter, but that has no bearing. I should not have done what I did and I ask your pardon.”
I leaned closer to the seetar and didn’t answer him, and he moved nearer to put his hand on my shoulder.
“Drink this water,” he urged, holding a skin where I could see it. “It will help against the burning.”
“Why should you care?” I asked bitterly “What difference would it make to you if I burned up? You could always get another Prime from Murdock McKenzie, and the next one might not be the total loss that I am. It would be a better bargain all the way around.”
“You speak again of bargains,” he said, pulling me around to face him. It was too dark to see him, but his strength glowed like a mile-high beacon. “I would have you know now that you were given to me by the Murdock McKenzie, not just as a Prime, but as a woman I desired. He is more father to you than you know, wenda, and long has he searched for a man for you. He accepted my offer of payment, and now you are truly mine. There will be no others sent in your stead.”
My head was swimming, and what he said didn’t make any sense, “But I don’t understand. Why would you make an offer for me when you already thought of me as your house-gift from Sandy?”
He chuckled, then rubbed gently at my shoulders with his thumbs. “Although I have traveled between the stars but once, I have traveled many places on this planet of my birth. The custom of house-gift, no matter how well known among my own people, is not followed by other people of this world. Why, then, would I believe that it was followed by the people of another world?”
“But you insisted!” I said in outrage, feeling dizzier and dizzier. “You took me and used me, and insisted that I was your house-gift!”
“You were unbanded,” he said, and I could feel his shrug. “On a world of darayse, a man insists on what he wills, does as he pleases. None came forward to challenge my claim, but I wished to buy you in a proper manner and so spoke with the Murdock McKenzie.”
“Murdock McKenzie can’t sell me,” I said weakly, trying to stop my head from whirling. “Even if he were my father he couldn’t sell me! You don’t own me and you know it! You’re just trying to—”
I broke off because my knees refused to hold me any longer. The barbarian caught me before I hit the ground, and lifted me in his arms with a soft laugh.
“The drishnak is not for wenda,” he said. “Best you seek your furs now, for we leave with the new sun. There is still far to go before we reach my people.”
He carried me back to the camtah, and I could feel the vague thoughts of comfort from the seetarr. My own thoughts were all confusion as he helped me out of the imad and caldin. I wanted to argue with him, talk to him, tell him what I felt, but it was as though I’d dropped all of my strings and couldn’t gather them together again. He took me in his arms, and it had been so long since he’d last touched me that my body responded immediately. I tried to stop the feelings of desire I was sending to him, but it was beyond my control. His own desire filled me, shrunk me to nothing, the fierceness of it like nothing I’d ever experienced before. He blazed up like a star gone nova, and I was dwarfed and consumed to ashes. I still don’t know if I fell asleep that night or passed out.
8
I woke alone again, but this time the light at the leather curtain was the palest of greys. I could hear the stirring-trees sound of heavily falling rain, underlining the annoyance I immediately felt. Didn’t that stupid planet ever have anything but rain or the threat of it?
I crawled to the leather curtain, intending to get the clean imad and caldin, but in the dim light of pre-dawn I could see that they were gone from the peg. My rain cape hung there instead, and that annoyed me, too. I went back to the furs, groped until I found the clothing Id worn the day before, and put it on.