Harry Harrison: The Horse Barbarians

“Sleep for a month, eat steaks and grow strong.”

“I do not mean that. I mean where will you go? Will you stay here with us?”

She was working hard to express her emotions, using a vocabulary that was not suited for this form of communication. He did not make it any easier for her.

“Does that matter to you?”

“It matters, in a way that is very new.” Hen forehead creased and she almost stammered with the effort to put her feelings into words. ‘When I am with you, I want to tell you different things. Do you know what is the nicest thing that we can say in Pynran?” He shook his head. ‘We say, ‘You fight very well.’ That is not what I want to say to you.”

Jason spoke nine languages and he knew exactly what it was he wanted to say, but he would not. Or could not. He turned away instead.

“No, look at me,” Meta said, taking his head in both hands and gently turning his face toward hers. Her actions said more than any words could and he was ashamed of his inability to speak. Yet he still remained silent.

“I have looked up the word ‘love,’ just as you told me to do. At first it was not clear because it was only words. But when I thought about you, the meaning became clear at once.”

Their faces were close, her wide clear eyes looking unflinchingly into his.

“I love you,” she said. “I think that I will always love you. You must never leave me.”

The direct simplicity of her emotions rose like a flooded river against the shored-up dikes of his conditioned defenses, the mechanisms that he had built up through the years. He was a loner. No one was on his side. I’m all right, Jack. Take a woman, leave a woman. The universe helps those who help themselves. I can take care of myself and… I. don’t… need… anyone…

“Dear stars above, how I do love you, too,” he said, pulling her to him, his face pressing into hen neck and hair.

“You will never leave me again,” she said.

“And you will never leave me again. There, the shortest and best marriage ceremony on record. May you break my arm if I ever look at another girl.”

“Please. Do not talk about violence now.”

“I apologize. That was the old unreconstructed me talking. I think that we must both bring gentleness into our lives. That is what you, I and our pack of growling Pyrrans need the most. That’s what we all need. Not humility, no one needs that. Just a little civilizing. I think that we can survive with it now. The mines should be opening here soon, and the way the tribes are moving to the lowlands, it looks like you Pyrrans will have the plateau to yourselves.”

“Yes, that will be good. It can be our new world.” She hesitated a moment as she weighed his words. ‘We Pyrnans will stay here, but what about you? I would not like to leave my people again, but I will go if you go.”

“You won’t have to. I’m staying right here. I’m a member of the tribe remember? Pyrnans are rude, opinionated and irascible, we know that. But I am, too. So perhaps I’ve found a home at last.”

“With me, always with me.”

“Of course.”

After this there was no more that could be said.