Sharon Green - The Warrior Challenged

“Indeed would you require a smaller sword than mine,” he said, grinning as he remembered the time I discovered I couldn’t even lift his sword. “Perhaps it would be best if I were to consider your request for a time before voicing a decision. And should you truly wish this thing, you also may take a time to consider how best to please me. A man who is pleased will often allow the things his wenda asks.”

I began to protest that I’d been offering a trade, not asking a favor, but even if he hadn’t moved me aside so that he could stand up, the words would never have gotten said. When I’d accepted Tammad’s bands I’d also been agreeing to do things his way, the way everyone else on that world did them. That meant that whatever help I gave him was due him, just as his love and protection were due me. If I wanted anything above the basics of food, shelter, clothing and protection, I had to ask for it in the way he wanted to be asked. The thought of wheedling a man for something I wanted was so humiliating I didn’t know how the women of that world could do it, but I knew well enough that they did. I’d agreed to try doing things Tammad’s way without anyone twisting my arm, but to wheedle and beg-!

“It is a thing you must become accustomed to, hama, should you truly wish what you have asked for,” Tammad said, interrupting my thoughts as he reached down to lift me to my feet, obviously knowing what I was feeling. “Should you find yourself unable to act so, we will merely allow memory of so- unusual a request to slip from us, and speak no more upon it. I will return when the meal with Rellis is done.”

He leaned down to kiss me then, impossibly tall and impossibly broad, and then, as he had already replaced his swordbelt, he simply left. I stood in the middle of the large blue and white room, the high-arched windows behind me, and tried to keep remembering how much I loved that overgrown barbarian. I did love him, I really did, but sometimes he made me so mad I could spit!

“Damn him!” I muttered with what was nearly a growl, my hands clenched to furious fists at my sides, the anger filling my mind so completely I was almost to the point of projecting it. He was trying to make me obey him again, and I was angry because I couldn’t see a way to get out of it.

I turned and started toward the windows, stopped abruptly as I changed my mind, turned toward the stack of furs Tammad and I used as a bed, changed my mind again, then furiously kicked at one of the white pillows on the carpet-fur. He hadn’t laughed aloud because he hadn’t wanted to insult me, but that didn’t mean Tammad didn’t consider my asking to learn how to use a sword comical. He also didn’t approve of something that ridiculous, but he didn’t want to hurt me by coming up with a flat no. That was why he’d said he’d think about it, to give me the chance to back out on my own-with a little help from him. He’d told me I had to convince him to agree, all the while knowing how humiliating I’d find doing something like that, fully expecting me to find it impossible. When I discovered I couldn’t wheedle and beg he’d let me forget all about the silliness I’d asked for, and that would be the end of an awkward situation-without his having to refuse. He had it all neatly tied and wrapped—which was what made me so absolutely furious.

I couldn’t have been seething more than five minutes before a knock came at the door, a knock that lacked the arrogance of the usual knockers on that world. There were no slaves in Rellis’s house so I wondered who it could be, then remembered my own lunch date. Still mired in bottomless distress I strode to the door and yanked it open, to see the two faces I’d expected. Garth looked curious, but Len seemed ready to cringe back with shield locked tight.

“Is it safe to come in?” Len asked more diffidently than was usual for him, his handsome face wearing a wary expression. “If you’ve changed your mind, we can come back some other time.”

“It’s safe to come in only if you’re female,” I returned, staring him straight in the eye. “If you’re male, you have to take your chances. ”

Len moved his wary expression to Garth, but Garth was already looking at Len, both of their glances asking the same question. Lenham Phillips, a brother empath from Central, and Garth R’Hem Solohr, Colonel of Kabras from Alderan, were trying to decide just how much they’d risk if they did come in, and their uneasy hesitation lightened some small part of the anger I was still feeling. The two Amalgamation men had given me nothing but trouble from the first day they’d set foot on Rimilia, but the last couple of days seemed to have changed all that. They were the ones who had been helping me and keeping Tammad from finding out, and sharing the secret had apparently drawn us all together.

“I have a better idea,” Garth said after the heavy hesitation, trying hard to lighten the mood. “Since the food trays have been delivered here to the bathing room, we don’t have to go in. Terry can come out.”

“I always knew the military mind was good for something,” Len put in as he brightened, giving Garth an amused look. “For a minute I was afraid we were going to have to turn female. How about it, Terry? The food’s getting cold.”

They were both turned to me expectantly, trying to talk me into it without words, and truthfully I was in no mood for my own company. I took a deep breath which didn’t do a damned thing to make me feel better, then nodded my head. The two of them immediately stepped aside to let me by, then followed after me.

The bathing room had a large pool surrounded by an area of uncarpeted marble, the same sort of arched windows the bedroom had letting in what seemed like miles of sunshine and warmth. Two well-stuffed trays had been brought and left on two small tables not far from the marble, but walking up to one of them and looking down at what it held showed me I was in no mood to eat.

“He said no,” Len guessed from not too far behind me, his mind sharing and commiserating with my upset. “Was it a final no, or did he leave room for argument?”

“He didn’t say no,” I grumbled, turning around to look at them. “He said he’d think about it, and while he’s thinking about it I’m supposed to coax him a little. If I don’t coax him, then the answer will be no.”

Len shielded immediately and looked down at the carpeting, but Garth didn’t know how to shield. He put one broad hand to his face and turned away, but the delighted amusement he felt just about flamed out of him. I’d expected them to react that way, and how nice they weren’t disappointing me!

“I’m going to throw this food at the first one of you who laughs out loud,” I warned them, glaring back and forth between Garth’s dark-haired head and Len’s light-haired one, my fists planted on my hips. “There’s nothing funny about this and you ought to know it!”

“Come on, Terry, lighten up,” Garth said, fighting to keep his face straight as he looked at me over his shoulder. “You know we all expected him to refuse immediately, so you’re still ahead of the game.”

“And if you need any coaxing practice, you know you can count on us,” Len put in in a very solemn way, which immediately caused Garth to break up in laughter. A second later Len was joining him, the two of them laughing like a couple of virenjj, totally ignoring my disgusted stare. Briefly I toyed with the idea of carrying through on my threat, then gave it up and simply turned away. Len and Garth were really enjoying themselves, but I was starting to get depressed.

“I don’t understand why you’re so upset,” Len said after a minute, his laughter eased down to chuckling “What’s the difference between doing what you usually do with Tammad, and coaxing him? The end result will be the same, and if you don’t mind that then what’s the big deal?”