by Megan Hart
It looked damn sexy, though. Linna waved her arms some more. Sexier than she'd have expected.
"And there's the museum," Del was saying.
"Sorry?" Her mind had been wandering, caught up in decadent fantasies involving Del's nipples.
Del pointed. "The museum. Over there, the marketplace."
Linna looked where his finger was pointing. "It looks like something out of an ancient Egyptian viddy story!"
Del laughed. "I told you Xanderra was different."
"But you have technology." Linna looked at the small hoverscooter whizzing by. "You have space travel. Advanced medicine. Stuff like that."
"Limited, compared to what you're used to. But we're not entirely primitive. We have lots of stuff imported for us. Xanderra's a wealthy planet with large mines of precious gems and rare minerals valuable to other places."
"Who owns the mines?"
He grinned. "Technically, all of us. Every citizen gets a share. Who controls them is another story."
"The Melekim Gadol." It was a guess, but not a difficult one. Linna knew how governments worked.
"You got it."
"Can we visit the marketplace?"
"If you want." Del pointed. "Sure you wouldn't rather go to the Bays D'en? The House of Learning?"
She wrinkled her nose. "Let me think about that for a minute. Um, no. Marketplace."
Del laughed. "All right. Come on. You got money to spend?"
"You know I don't," Linna answered. "Unless they take Newcity credits."
"I doubt it."
Del nodded at several men, dressed the same as him, as they crossed the street. The men answered him with grins and what she assumed were traditional Xanderran greetings. They even spoke to her, though of course she didn't understand what they were saying.
"You won't find that in Newcity," she said under her breath as they passed.
Del put his arm around her shoulder. "I told you, Linna. There's no attending thine own business stuff here. Your business is everyone's."
"I think your mother illustrated that to me quite perfectly," she said with a sigh. "It's just going to take some getting used to."
As they passed another group, this time made up of women dressed the same as her, Linna put a bright smile on her face and greeted them with the small bit of Xanderran she knew. "Shalem!"
The women nodded at her, their eyes wide, but returned the greeting with soft voices. A few of them looked over their shoulders at Linna as they passed, and she heard whispering. Linna frowned.
"Did I do something wrong?"
"No." Del squeezed her shoulder. "You're a little more...exuberant than they're probably used to."
"Exuberant?" Linna looked over her shoulder to the pack of women, now giggling together. "Never thought of myself as particularly exuberant before."
"Don't worry about it." Del paused. "And I'm sure they know who you are. It's bound to cause talk."
She stopped him from walking with a hand on his elbow, and waited until he faced her before asking, "How do they know who I am?"
He looked a little uncomfortable, bless his heart. "Well, they know who I am, and I'm sure the word's got out that I'm behsherit. They'd assume you are my behshera."
"You weren't kidding when you said everyone knows everyone's business." Linna looked again at the group of women who'd crossed the street, but still cast assessing looks their way. "That's going to take some getting used to."
"Don't worry about it."
She bit her lip. "I'm not worried."
But she was, a little. She knew what it was like to be married to a man in the public eye. Daniel had thrived on the exposure and attention being a Newcity Ruling Council member had provided. He'd loved nothing more than to attend the fanciest functions and keep the most illustrious friends. It had been more important to him she wear the right clothes, say the right words, have the right opinions, than it had been for him to know the woman she was.
She'd hated it.
"You all right?" Del lifted her chin with one finger until she looked into his eyes.
Linna nodded and shrugged. "Being a political wife doesn't change, no matter where you go."
She hadn't meant to remind him she'd been married before. Del's gaze flickered and his mouth thinned before he put a smile on it. "You're not a political wife."
Linna became aware they were blocking traffic and causing curious glances. She pulled him toward a small alcove in the building next to them. With the illusion of privacy shielding her, she put her hands on her hips to face him. "Is that because you're not political or because I'm not your wife?"
Del tried to pull her into his arms, but stopped when she resisted. "I'm not political. And you're my behshera. That's more than a wife."
She nodded. "Right. Because there's no dissolution or divorce on Xanderra."
He tilted his head to look at her, and this time, she let him pull her closer. "Does that bother you?"
Linna sighed. "Del, I just don't know. I've been in the public eye before. I didn't really like it. I like my privacy. Here..."
"Here, everyone lives in everyone else's back pocket. It took me a long time to get used to life in Newcity, where a man can fall onto the street and nobody will stop to pick him up. On Xanderra, the worst thing you can do to someone is to ignore him. Turning your back is the biggest insult." He paused. "When I left home, I turned my back on everyone here."
She slipped her hand into his. "It must've been difficult."
His face looked stony. "I had my reasons."
"I feel very out of place here."
"You'll learn to fit in."
She thought of lowered heads and complacent attitudes. "I'm not so sure I want to fit in."
The conversation was rapidly heading toward disaster, and she didn't want that. Before he could answer, Linna pointed toward the entrance to the marketplace. "I thought you were going to take me."
"Linna ..."
She stood on her toes to kiss him. "Later, Del. Let's just have some fun."
"All right." He looked like he was going to say more, but didn't. "C'mon."
The marketplace entrance was tucked just inside an alley. Fluttering banners and flags beckoned her, and in another minute, the smell of something delicious added to the welcome. Linna breathed deeply. Spices. Food. Perfumes. It smelled better than any mall she'd ever been to, and way, way better than shopping via System.
Her stomach rumbled. "Can we get something to eat?"
"If you want." Del's laugh made her pause.
"You say that like I'm going to regret asking."
When they ducked under the hanging banners and into the marketplace proper, Linna could only look around in gape-mouthed amazement. The enclosed courtyard, walls formed by the buildings surrounding it, was like something straight out of Arabian Nights. The 20th century movie version, not the more recent porno viddy series, she amended. Booths covered in hanging beads, multi-colored scarves, baskets and more made aisles and rows. The vendors called out to the passers-by in cajoling tones, mostly in Xanderran, but sometimes in Universal.
"Fresh bloodflower root!"
"Imported Shaddran silk for the lady?"
"Body piercing and inking, right over here! Meet the artist!"
Linna paused in front of that booth. "Del, wait."
He stopped. "You want to get yourself pierced?"
That didn't much appeal to her. "You told me if you'd taken a behshera before you left Xanderra, you'd have had her name tattooed on your wrist."
"That's so, pretty lady," said the booth's owner in Universal. He eyed her quite boldly, and she waited for Del to get angry before she realized the artist wasn't looking at her with lust. Not sexual lust anyway. He stared at the blank canvas of her skin as she pushed back her sleeve to expose her bare arm.
"Shalem, Fiyero," Del said. "Long time. This is Linna Fortense. My behshera."
"Seven full turns of the sun, at least." Fiyero tilted his head. "You here for your final
inkings?"
Del looked at Linna. "Just the behsherit marks, for now."
Linna's stomach leaped at the thought of what they were about to do. Somehow, the thought of permanently marking her body with Del's name seemed more of a commitment. He'd had no choice to already make it. She wanted to show him she was ready, too.
"And for the pretty lady?"
She held out her wrist. "Me, too."
Del grinned. "You sure? Inking hurts like hell, Linna. And you won't be able to get rid of it like you would back on Earth."
She linked her arm through his, put her pale wrist next to his dusky one. "I can't get rid of you either. Might as well get the marks."
The artist chuckled. "Where'd you find this one, Delek?"
"Earth," Del said, a measure of pride tingeing his voice."
"Ah." Fiyero nodded, like being from Earth meant something important. "And your Ima's ready to spit nails, huh?"
"He knows my mother," Del explained. "Fiyero did my father's inkings, too."
"I do all the melekim." Fiyero tapped the wooden counter top. "Did your brother's last set."
Del snorted. "What did Var get? Bloodflower petals?"
"He got a tannan on his back," Fiyero said with a shake of his head. "Cocky son of a bitch."
"He's entitled."
Linna listened to the interplay between the men, not really paying attention to what they were saying, but noting how similar in build and demeanor they both were. Fiyero, like Del, was broad and muscular, though he wore a full beard with his shaved head. His sleeveless tunic highlighted bulging arms covered in a swirling array of intricate designs she had to really concentrate on to figure out what they were. She saw vines, leaves, waves, even the hint of a face....
"Your woman is checking me out," said Fiyero with a deep, rumbling laugh.
Linna looked away from his arm, embarrassed to have been caught staring. "Your designs are beautiful."
"Fiyero is the best in Yarushalim." Del reached out and grabbed the other man's arm, turning it to show the inside of his wrist. "And see there? That's his behsherat's name."
She couldn't read the Xanderran alphabet. "What's her name?"
"Ghislain," said Fiyero with another flash of white, straight teeth. "He's upstairs. Come on. I'll introduce you."
She followed him back through the booth's tented covering into a small room, then up a wide flight of stairs to an airy room with multiple skylights, through which the fierce Xanderran sun poured. Ceiling fans kept the air moving, so the room was bright but not stifling. A padded table sat in the room's center, with a stool next to it and a set of shelves. Colored bottles, canisters and books lined the shelves. The rest of the room was clearly set up as a living space, with a small kitchen off to one side and a bed toward the back on a raised platform. Through a small doorway, she spied a bathtub.
"Welcome to my palace." Fiyero's laughter rang throughout the small space. "Ghislain!"
A figure, equally as brawny as Del and Fiyero, came out of the small closet in the kitchen. White powder dusted his nose and sprinkled his bare chest. He was wiping his hands on a cloth.
"I thought I heard you come in," he said. "I was just making some flatbread."
"This is Ghislain," Fiyero said to Linna.
The tall man came forward and reached for her hand, which he kissed as he looked at her, a twinkle in his eye. "Hello, pretty lady."
He turned to Del and clapped him on the shoulder. "And hello to you, handsome fella."
Ghislain was clearly flirting, which Linna didn't understand. "I'm sorry," she said, embarrassed to ask, but not willing to stay ignorant. "I thought Fiyero said you and he were behsherit?"
"We are. Ten years now." Fiyero crossed to the small kitchen area and pulled open a panel set into the wall to reveal a refrigerated cupboard.
Linna looked at Del, trying to tell him with her eyes what she wanted to know. Del, God-of-Choice bless him, seemed to understand.
"Don't you remember what I told you before about those who are behsherit? Just because you can't actually make love to another person doesn't keep you from seeing another person as attractive and desirable."
Linna looked at Ghislain, who was still grinning. "But isn't desire...I mean..."
"He means that just because my dick doesn't rise for someone else doesn't mean I can't appreciate a beauty when I see it." Ghislain's eyes swept up and down Linna's body. "You are a beauty. I can appreciate it. My mind remembers what it's like to want it, even if my body won't comply."
"Very complicated." Linna eyed Ghislain back with the same intensity. "You're quite a beauty yourself."
This sent the big man into gales of laughter. "Delek, you've got a good one here. Don't you let her get away."
"I thought the whole point of bonding was that you couldn't get away," Linna said boldly.
"Ah, who knows what the point of bonding is." Fiyero brought a tray with cups and a pitcher on it from the kitchen. "Five thousand revs ago, when our ancestors came to this planet, monogamy must've been damned important. All those laws they followed, that fence around the book stuff, it had to spill over into their sex lives. Have a seat."
Linna sat down on the padded table and took a cup of liquid from Fiyero. She sipped. Some sort of sweet, cold juice. She drank it down, suddenly thirstier than she'd expected.
"Linna doesn't know anything about Xanderran history," Del said and quaffed his own cup. He filled Linna's, then his own, from the pitcher.
She shook her head, thirst sated, but Del pressed the cup into her hands. "It will numb the pain from the inking."
Anything that numbed pain sounded good to her, so she drank. "You've been on this planet for only five thousand years?"
"Give or take," said Ghislain. "Actually, some schools of thought believe we came here a lot earlier than that, but our recorded history is about five thou revs. What we do know is that we share common ancestry with Earth. Xanderrans are descended from one of your Lost Tribes."
"She doesn't know anything about that either," Del said. His voice sounded slightly slurred. "Newcity didn't have any religion left in it."
Fiyero pushed Del until he sat next to Linna on the table. "Sit before you fall, big man. You've got no tolerance for that stuff any more."
Linna's thoughts were still sharp and clear, even if the edges of everything she saw had taken on a soft, fuzzy edge. "Del said you were descended from Earth colonists. I didn't know Earth sent any so long ago?"
"Sent? We don't know about that." Fiyero sat on his stool and hitched himself closer to her. "Your history tells of some ancient tribes, some who got lost. Nobody on Earth ever seemed to figure out where they got to, but there's a story of one of your ancient prophets being taken to heaven on a great, fiery wheel. We went, too. First contact. We think it came from the Sivestrine Alliance, though they've consistently denied it.
"Anyway, some of us ended up here, in the jungle, and hacked out a living in it. The native people, the Esheethim, called them the Allamane vi Xander. People of the Book. It was because of all the rules and laws they followed. The People of the Book adopted that name, called this planet Xanderra and themselves Xanderrans, and adapted to life here."
He'd taken her wrist in his massive hands while he spoke. Linna looked down, surprised to see the first black mark already on her white skin. It stung, but didn't hurt.
"But what does that have to do with the bonding? I thought it was a virus?" The question oozed from her mouth, every word dripping, liquid. She laughed and Fiyero laughed with her. She'd been drunk before. She'd been high before. She'd never been...melted...before.
"The Esheethim aren't monogamous," Del explained. He had his eyes closed, wrist out, while Fiyero worked. "They live in extended family groups."
"This freaked out the Xanderrans, whose marriage laws were just as complicated and extensive as all the others. They figured out pretty quick it didn't make much sense for them to hold onto the rules about what food they ate and what ritual
s to follow since the food here was different, and the solar and lunar cycles not the same either. They let go of most of what was in that book, but they wanted to hold on to something from home."
"But it wasn't enough to just say monogamy was the way to go," Ghislain put in. He handed Fiyero another set of needles. Long ones.
Linna thought she ought to be nervous, watching him put the tip to her skin, but it didn't hurt and she couldn't be afraid.
"They had this thing they did. A wall around the book. They extrapolated the laws to make it so nobody could accidentally break them. The book said you should only have one mate at a time? They made it so we can only have one lover. Ever."
"Took away the choice," Del grumbled. "Decided for everyone."
"What I think, and what's not in our history books, is that there were too many Xanderrans hooking up with the Esheethim. Orgies and casual sex were more popular than tying yourself down to one person." Fiyero grunted as he bent over her wrist.
Del laughed. "Like in Newcity. One great big fuckfest."
"And I don't think the Esheethim liked it either. Being with the Xanderrans meant they had to choose a gender. So some bigwigs from the Esheethim got together with the bigwigs from the Xanderrans, and they figured the only way to keep us all in line was to fix us."
"Put a fucking wall around us," Del said.
Linna looked at him. He sounded so vehement. In her oozing, liquid state, she couldn't find the energy to be alarmed.
"That's right, my friend." Fiyero looked up from where he'd been bent over Del's wrist. "A fucking wall. Or a no-fucking wall really."
"But how?" She found her voice to ask. She blinked, slowly, aware her wrist now danced with the lines and swirls of her inking. "What could they do?"
"It's genetic," said Ghislain. She felt him stroke her hair back from her face and realized her head had nodded forward. "A virus, native to the jungle, usually only found in a now-extinct species of flying mammal. The virus altered their DNA, their chromosomes, something like that. It made a helluva lot of them sick, too."