That caused Dalden’s mother to frown, and as if Martha had a visual of it, she proved she was present and accounted for by saying to her owner, “No need for confusion, doll. Our Brittany sees this from an Earthling’s perspective, where their men have been conditioned to shoulder blame whether blame is theirs or not. She hasn’t grasped yet that when a warrior’s rules are obeyed, protection is guaranteed. So the only way for harm to occur is if the rules are broken. All blame is then on the rule-breaker, and the rule-giver is required to reinforce those rules with lessons guaranteed to leave lasting impressions, so the rules don’t get broken a second time.”
“Did you have to remind her of that, Martha?” Tedra said with a sigh.
” ‘Course I did,” Martha replied in distinctly smirking tones. “Nothing like a big dose of reality to shake off the cobwebs that shock leaves behind.”
It did take a few moments for those cobwebs to clear enough for Brittany to grasp what Martha had actually said in her longwinded way. She went very still.
“Let me get this straight. I just went through hell. If it weren’t for mind-boggling inventions like Transfer and meditechs, I’d be dead right now. And you think Dalden’s going to punish me on top of that?” No answer from either of them, which was answer enough and had Brittany shaking her head. “No way. He wouldn’t.”
“Let’s look at the facts.” Martha switched to her teacher tone. “The beast that nearly had you for dinner was about as dumb as they come. It could smell you in your secure tent, it could be certain that you were in there, but it is too stupid to even think of a way of getting in at you. It would instead wait for you to come out. It might wait a long time because it does smell food, but eventually it would get hungry enough to go look for food that it can actually see instead of just smell. Of course, Dalden would have returned before then and killed it with little difficulty. Warriors are good at that. So if you had stayed in that tent as you admitted you were told to, would you have gone through hell?”
“You’re missing the point that I’ve already suffered enough.”
“No. You’re missing the point that you wouldn’t have suffered at all if you had simply obeyed your warrior. And he’s going to be furious that you came to harm because you didn’t obey him, and make damned sure that you don’t put yourself in that kind of danger again. Are you understanding their logic yet?” Martha asked.
“I understand it.” Brittany mumbled. “That doesn’t mean I agree with it.”
That got a chuckle from Martha. “Warriors don’t require agreement. Tedra can assure you of that.”
“Leave me out of this old girl,” Tedra replied. “I happen to be getting along just fine with my warrior this week, don’t remind me why I shouldn’t.”
“She’s exaggerating kiddo. My Tedra gets along with her warrior all the time. She might step out of line occasionally and suffer the consequences, but she makes sure Challen makes up for it big time.”
Brittany stared at her mother-in-law. “You come from a society much more advanced than mine. I would have thought that you more than anyone, would find these rules and laws as barbaric as I do. Ordered to stay in that tent. I fully understand now. I didn’t and found out painfully why I should have. But everything else? Unneeded escorts, clothes to mark your status. Why don’t the rules get put on the men instead? Why aren’t they told that women are to be left alone? How can you accept being treated like a child?”
“Hot damn, I’m looking forward to this answer myself,” Martha said, Tedra ignored her instigating computer to hook her arm through Brittany’s. She began to escort her to her room while she explained, “I don’t accept being treated like a child, but I do accept the laws of the land. No one expects you to be a model of Kan-is-Tran womanhood overnight, not even Dalden. I had an easier time adjusting because my first month here was spent in a challenge loss, which was about as close as you can get to slavery. Since I had agreed to the challenge, I had to honor the results of losing it, so I couldn’t really complain about bow belittling the position was. My point being, I was introduced to the way things are around here while I was on the bottom of the social scale. Which made it much easier to accept the things allowed higher up on the scale, even if most of those things grossly favor the male of the species.”
“Grossly?” Brittany snorted. “How ‘bout one hundred percent?”
Tedra grinned. “Face it, it’s a male-dominated society, and because these males happen to come in giantlike proportions, they’ve had to make up a few little rules to keep themselves from hurting their women. The women raised here don’t mind the rules because they’ve never known anything better. Are you getting that particular point yet? To them it’s not barbaric, it’s normal.”
“And exceptions don’t get made for visitors?” Brittany asked.
“Why should they? It’s not as if a visitor from another world can be differentiated from a visitor from another country here. They don’t have schools as you know them. They aren’t taught about other people on their own world, much less about other worlds. They exist in black and white, and don’t recognize much gray. They keep things simple, uncomplicated. If a woman doesn’t have a protector, then she’s up for grabs. You can’t get much simpler than that. But once she has a protector, then she has to obey him to keep herself protected. You really can’t get much simpler than that.”
“You do realize that you’ve just defined childish?” Brittany said.
Tedra didn’t try to deny it, at least not completely. “From an advanced perspective, certainly. But from their perspective it’s actually pretty civilized. They aren’t killing each other to take what they want. They’ve set up laws that they all abide by, self-governed by their warrior code of honor. They are light-years beyond our own prehistoric people. They are unique, without comparison-actually, that’s probably half your problem, kiddo. You need to stop comparing them to your own species.”
“It’s kind of hard to ignore twenty-eight years of my own upbringing.”
“Because you’re looking at things here while wearing modern glasses. Take off those glasses and you’ll get a completely different view, one much easier to tolerate. I know that’s asking a lot. It was also easier for me because I spent three years training for a career in World Discovery before I was allowed to switch to my preferred career in Security. And one little gem I learned in Discovery was that if you want to live on a world other than your own, you do so not with the intention of changing that world, but of adapting to it. These medieval worlds must be allowed to evolve at their own pace. It’s not for us to tamper with them just because we know better ways of doing things.”
“I hate to break up such an excellent lesson in how to deal with your local barbarian,” Martha interjected sarcastically. “But Corth II just informed me that Dalden is now approaching his camp.”
Brittany frowned. “If Dalden didn’t find me and get me back here, who did?”
“Martha did.”
“I thought her link got left behind.”
“It was,” Tedra said. “It was actually Jorran who found you, and only because he was specifically looking. He had his ship computer contact Martha for a Transfer directly to a meditech. You didn’t have enough blood left for any other option.”
“Specifically looking?”
“He has returned with an army for revenge-and you. Not that he’ll be getting either, but because he more or less saved your life, we’re having to deal with him diplomatically again. He’s requested permission to speak with you and has agreed to leave afterward. Because it’s a peaceful way of avoiding an outright war with Century III, we were inclined to agree. He’s catching a ride here on an airobus as we speak.”
“No Transfer?”
“He’s used up his quota for the day-which reminds me. Corth II will be filling Dalden in on what happened, but you might want to point out to him that your meeting up with that sa’abo caused Jorran to change his original plan, which was to capture you both and cart you
off to Century III, and Dalden probably wouldn’t have survived the trip.”
“Delete that,” Martha said. “Jorran wouldn’t have found them without her reverting to using her own language. It was what he was hoping for, the only way he could have located her. And she wouldn’t have done that if she weren’t alone with a sa’abo breathing down her throat.”
“Farden hnnell, must you always get technical, Martha?” Tedra complained.
“Never mind that. Dalden wants Transfer now, and I mean now. I warned you he’d go berserk when he saw all that blood.”
“For stars’ sake, you know how to stall someone better than anyone else. Let her at least change clothes first,” Tedra said, then suggested, “Transfer him to Challen. He can calm him down some, if you can’t.”
Which made Brittany start to panic. If Dalden’s mother was this worried that she was in big trouble, she was likely in some seriously big trouble.
51
�� ^ ��
CHANGING CLOTHES WASN’T ENOUGH. BRITTANY WAS still smeared with dried blood, even though there were no wounds left to account for it. She had just enough time to drop into the sunken bath, scrub thoroughly, then drain the water-leaving a pink pool wasn’t a good idea-and get into a fresh blue chauri. Not enough time to dry her hair completely, but that was a minor point. She wasn’t trying to hide the fact that she’d been hurt, which Dalden already knew, just the visible reminder of how bad the injuries had been.
Tedra left Martha’s link behind and told her to use her discretion if someone needed Transferring out of there until emotions settled down. At that point, Brittany had no idea who that someone might be, since her own emotions were getting out of hand as well.
By the time Dalden finally walked into their room she had worked herself into a fine state of nervousness. And what kept repeating in her mind was he was for real, really for real. He wasn’t someone playing at being a barbarian, he was a barbarian, and how the hell did you deal with an archaic mentality that, instead of offering comfort over an injury, was going to add punishment to it as well?
He didn’t look angry. But she knew him well enough by now to know that he wouldn’t look it. Wrapped in his warrior’s calm, you had to search for more subtle signs than the obvious, and they were there: a certain stiffness, compressed lips-no warmth in his golden eyes.
Her problem, and the reason she couldn’t shake the dread building in her, was that she didn’t know what to expect from him at this point. He’d said he would never cause her physical pain and she believed that, but what about mental? just what was a barbarian’s idea of punishment if it wasn’t whips and chains? Dumped in some dark, dank hole for a week? A month? Solitary confinement? Her only defense was anger, and she wrapped herself securely in it.
“Remove your clothes.”
She blinked, stiffened, narrowed her eyes at him. “No way.”
“Remove them,” he repeated as he started to cross the room to her. “I need to see that you are whole.”
That should have reassured her. He just wanted to see for himself that she was okay. She would have wanted the same visual proof if he’d been the one injured. But this wasn’t a normal situation.
“Forget it,” she said and started backing away from him. “I’m not putting myself in a vulnerable position like that when you’ve got punishment on the brain. Do I look like I’m flipping out of my mind?”
She’d just given him a chance to deny it. He didn’t take it. The anger wrapped more firmly around her.
“You can stop right there,” she told him. “I’m fine, good as new. You will take my word for it. And I’ve already learned the lesson you think needs reinforcing, so there’s no need for reinforcing it. I’ll obey all future orders.”
“Then obey this one. Remove your clothes!”
That was about as close as Dalden had ever come to actual shouting. Incredibly, it made her want to obey him, which was insane!
She shook her head at him, but dread was swiftly replacing her anger. She continued to back away. “That order has nothing to do with safety, just the opposite. And I’m warning you up front, I won’t accept punishment from you. I absolutely refuse to accept it. So don’t even think of-”
She’d run out of room for escaping, had come up against the wall behind her. Not that it mattered when his longer legs had already brought him within inches of her. And it didn’t even take him two seconds to pull her away from the wall and peel that stupid chauri to the floor. He then turned her around, once, twice, held her arms out to the sides, and felt her limbs in a clinical manner.
Brittany bristled under the close examination, was too indignant to be embarrassed over it. He should have taken her word for it.
She slammed her palms against his chest. A normal man would have at least been shoved back a little by it, since she put every bit of strength she had into it. Dalden wasn’t budged. Her hands now hurt.
“Satisfied?” she growled. “I told you I was fine! Why couldn’t you just believe me?”
He dropped to his knees in front of her, wrapping his arms around her. His head rested between her breasts. She was completely confounded by this, too surprised to think for a moment.
“I am sorry for my compulsion to see for myself,” he told her with a great deal of feeling. “I am sorry for the pain you suffered,” he added with even more feeling. “I am sorry I was not there to prevent it.”
“Dalden, stop,” she said, wrapping her arms around his head.
He didn’t. “I am sorry you could not trust me enough to know that I would not give you an order without there being a good reason.
“Dalden, please, you’re killing me with guilt here,” she told him. “You have nothing to be sorry for. Look, if you must know, when I heard that animal outside the tent, I was hoping it was a normal animal. Our visit to the clearing was unplanned, and I wanted ammunition to discredit the Sha-Ka’an fantasy. And I was only going to satisfy my curiosity with a quick peek. But it saw me, and ended up proving me wrong), instead.”
His grip tightened on her. “I am sorry you had to nearly die before you could accept the truth.”
She smiled. He didn’t see it. “You and me both.”
“And I am sorry that I must now make sure that you never let your curiosity interfere with an order given for your protection again.
She had begun to relax somewhat. Now all her muscles tensed again. He rose to his feet and picked her up to cradle in his arms.
“No!” she cried.
But he was set on his own path, was going to ignore anything she had to say. He didn’t want to punish her, he had to, for her own “good.” She knew that was where he was coming from, that he really did see this as being for her ultimate benefit, so nothing she said or did was going to stop it from happening.
She should just buck up and take it like a man. How bad could it be, anyway, if it wasn’t going to cause her physical pain? But it was the principle of thing, damnit. She was too old to have lessons taught by way of punishment, as if she were a child.
It wasn’t a law she broke, for crying out loud. That she could abide-break it and pay the fine or do the time. But a rule for her own safety should be at her discretion to decide whether to follow it or not. And the one she broke shouldn’t even fall into that category. All he’d had to do was tell her that there were maneating beasts in that woods and she would have damn well stayed in the tent.
He carried her to his bed, laid her on it, Joined her there, and simply held her to him. He had to force it, she wasn’t exactly laying still-until she realized that was all he was doing. He was trying to calm her first. He couldn’t have missed her rigid stiffness. But there was no way she could get calm under the circumstances.
He must have finally realized that, because he began to kiss her. New alarm bells went off. She didn’t think this was to calm her. How could it when his kissing had just the opposite effect? No, she was afraid he was trying to make amends beforehand, to cushion the blow for
the punishment that was coming-as if anything could.
She fought what he was making her feel, desperately fought it. She couldn’t let him get away with this. She had a stand to make here. But it was impossible. She’d never once been able to resist his kisses before. What made her think now would be any different?
Within moments she was kissing him back. Despite the grievance she should be feeling, and would soon be feeling, here, now, there was only him, a man she absolutely adored-when he wasn’t being obnoxiously barbaric. And he certainly wasn’t at the moment.
Meticulously, he brought every one of her senses to full awareness, set her pulses racing, frazzled her nerves in anticipation. So quickly, the coiled tension spread through her body. She was trembling, on fire, brought so close to the ultimate pleasure, only to have him soothe it away and start over again.
She told him in countless ways that she was ready, but he was determined to prolong the anticipation, to bring her to such a height of need that she’d probably explode the second he entered her. And then his hands were gone, the heat of his body next to her gone, too. It still took several moments for her to realize he’d actually left the bed.
Coming out of the daze, she sat up, growled, “What the hell was that all about?” But he hadn’t just left the bed, he’d already left the room.
Martha was still there, however, and answered cheerfully, “You were just punished.”
“How?”
“If you don’t know-”
“I’m not kidding, how?”
“Sha-Ka’ani women are highly sexual. Warriors, at least those in this country, figured out long ago that the most harmless way to punish one’s lifemate, if needed, was to bring her to an extreme state of desire, then leave her that way to reflect on the error of her ways. Being highly sexual themselves, they can’t accomplish this without the help of dhaya juice, which temporarily kills their own sex drive.”
Brittany began to laugh. So Dalden had been obnoxiously barbaric after all.
“You find sexual frustration funny?” Martha asked curiously.
Heart of a Warrior l-3 Page 29