The Warrior Within

5

I was annoyed, but I tried to control my annoyance. It wasn’t Tammad’s fault that he was a barbarian. I knew it was my place to try civilizing him, but the job wasn’t going to be easy

“You just can’t, that’s all,” I said, trying to sound reasonable. “It isn’t done on most of Central, and people will be offended.”

“How will my action with you offend others?” Tammad asked patiently “I may do as I wish with that which belongs to me.”

“But that’s just the point!” I said in exasperation. “I do not belong to you, and those people out there know it! If you try to make me sleep in your cabin, they’ll complain to the captain.”

We were aboard the Central Starshine, the transport that would take us to Rimilia, and we stood in my cabin. Tammad had had all memory of the real removed from his mind, and Murdock McKenzie had called before we’d left for the Port to tell me how lucky I was. I’d listened to the first of his words coldly and then had cut the call the way I’d done the time before. Murdock McKenzie had nothing to say that I cared to hear.

My cabin was right next to Tammad’s, one of twenty around the circle of the middle deck. The center of the middle deck was devoted to tables for eating and couches for socializing, and was spacious enough for a medium-sized transport. With the crew’s quarters above on the control deck, and the cargo below on the lower deck, the passengers could spend their travel time undisturbed by anything other than minding everyone else’s business.

“Of what will they complain?” Tammad the Innocent asked. “I do not take any women to my cabin but my own.”

“It’s not the men who will be doing the complaining.” I said sharply, annoyed all over again that he still considered me his woman. “Didn’t you see how that Paulamin Tumley looked at you? She’s a Neighborhood Chairman in her district, and the other passengers look up to her. She already disapproves of you on general principles—the rest of Central is much more provincial than Tallion City. If she sees you taking me to your cabin, she’ll explode.”

“This is not clear to me,” he insisted, shaking his head “The woman can say nothing on the actions of a warrior. Is this captain a warrior that he will fight me for possession of you? Do you fear that I will lose you to him?”

I groaned feelingly then threw myself on my bed. The legs of the bed were secured so tightly to the deck that the bed didn’t even quiver. “You’re a barbarian and can’t be blamed for your lacks.” I recited, trying to keep the thought firmly in mind. “You know nothing about the workings of civilization, and I haven’t the time to teach them to you. We will each sleep in our own cabins, and do nothing to upset Paulamin Tumley. It will be hard staying inconspicuous if I have to use my Prime status to counter her narrowmindedness.”

“Is this your word on the matter?” he asked in amusement, coming over to sit on the bed next to me. “Will you punish me if I fail to obey you?”

“You can’t refuse to do as I say” I insisted, starting to sit up again, but I found my hair tight in his grasp, which kept me firmly in place. I reached up to see if I could loosen his fingers, and my wrists were abruptly held instead.

“No, you may not refuse to do as I say,” he corrected softly those blue eyes directly on me. “It is a warrior’s place to say a word, a woman’s place to obey that word. Do you again wish to disobey me?”

“You’re impossible!” I snapped with resentment, completely out of patience. “I don’t know why I bothered. If you want to tangle with Paulamin Tumley go right ahead. People like her never learn anything, and they never change their minds. I hope you end up in the brig.”

“Should that eventuate,” he said, grinning, “you will yet be with me. I know not the meaning of `brig.’ but I will require my woman wherever I be. What is the meaning of that sound?”

He was talking about the gentle gouging that could be heard from the one-way on the wall. “It’s to notify passengers that food will be available five minutes from now,” I told him. “We can go out now and get a table.”

“We may seek our table later;” he said, stroking my side with his hand. “For now, I find that having discussed requiring a woman has given me hunger of a different sort. I shall deal with this hunger first.”

He dealt with his hunger in the usual way, and I found myself wishing that at least some of the real had stayed with him. His appetites were beyond the bounds of belief, and could have done with a little trimming. Correction—a lot of trimming.

When my clothes were decently arranged once more, we went out to have our meal. As we stepped from the cabin, the eye of every person at every table turned to stare at us, and each of those eyes was accompanied by a frown. I ignored both frowns and stares and followed Tammad to the one empty table in the area, discovering that the barbarian wasn’t even aware of being stared at. He sat himself with easy grace, not bothering to notice anyone in the circle. I sat too, feeling the red flush on my cheeks in spite of everything I could do.

The steward came and put our plates in front of us, then fetched a bottle of wine which he poured for us. Tammad bent to his food as if famished, but as soon as the steward was gone, Paulamin Tumley stood herself in his place. She was a nicely built woman, with a pretty face and hair as blond as Tammad’s, but her brown eyes were cold and uncompromising, and her expression totally unforgiving.

“You eat as if you’ve done something to acquire an appetite,” she said frostily to Tammad. “I’d better be wrong about what that something might be!”

The barbarian looked up as if noticing her for the first time, and examined her with his eyes just as if she hadn’t introduced herself to us as soon as we’d come aboard. She flushed slightly at his frank appraisal, and her eyes flashed fire and destruction.

“Answer me!” she snapped. “What were you and that girl doing alone together in that cabin? We are all of us decent people here, and will not condone goings-on of a lewd and lecherous nature! Tallion City is a hotbed of licentiousness, but we here will not be contaminated! We demand to know about your conduct!”

Tammad snorted in amusement, then started to laugh. He threw his bead back and laughed as if touched, and Paulamin Tumley really turned red. She stood with her fists clenched and her lips clamped tight, furious at being laughed at. I ate my steamed haldivar in silence, watching the proceedings with interest.

The irate Neighborhood Chairman finally grew tired of watching Tammad laugh, and turned on me. “I’ll have my answer from you!” she said in a choked voice. “What went on between you and that—that—deficient?”

“Oh, I wouldn’t dream of interfering with your conversation with him,” I said around a mouthful of haldivar. “You and he are establishing such a lovely—rapport.”

“I will be answered!” she screamed, shaking her fists in the air. “Come and stand with me, good people, and demand your right to know!”

At her urging, the other passengers came to stand behind her. There were three other women and fourteen men, and every one of them wore a grim, demanding expression. Tammad’s laughter trailed off into chuckles, and then died altogether.

“At last!” Paulamin said in triumph. “He ceases his caterwauling and now, perhaps, will answer us. I repeat, man of iniquity -what were you doing in that cabin?”

Tammad was looking around at the men behind Paulamin, ignoring her completely, then suddenly he was on his feet, no longer looking amused.

“A foolish woman is to be laughed at and overlooked,” he announced in a death-cold voice. “A foolish man is an entirely different matter. Do you men now step to me and ask what you will ask.”

The men glanced at each other, shuffled their feet nervously—then backed away to return to their tables. The three women hesitated no longer than the men, having no intentions of standing there by themselves. In no more than a minute or two, Paulamin was alone again. She looked around herself in disbelief, then saw that Tammad was staring down at her.

“You don’t scare me!” she said in a high, shrill voice. “Murder me if you will, but my voice will never be stilled!”

“Woman, you are exceedingly foolish,” Tammad said in annoyance. “Take yourself from my sight, else your voice will be raised at the urging of the flat of my hand. Too long has the man to whom you belong neglected your punishment.”

Paulamin turned pale and spluttered, trying, no doubt, to announce that never had anyone had the effrontery to speak to her like that. Tammad took a step toward her, and her spluttering turned into squeaking as she moved fast to avoid him. She scurried into the passage that led to the control deck, and Tammad came back to the table.

“Beautifully done,” I commented as I took the last bite of my haldivar. “I wonder if you’ll be as successful with the captain.”

“Keep silent,” he said irritably, his eyes on his plate. “I have had enough of foolish women.”

I leaned back in my chair with a shrug, sipping my wine and watching him eat. He left his own wine standing where it was, not even tasted.

Tammad had just finished eating when Paulamin reappeared, leading the captain and two of his crewmen. The captain was also a big man and, although not of Tammad’s giant proportions, still a good size. He had some grey in his dark, short-cut hair, but could not, by any means, be considered old. Paulamin led him to our table, and pointed an accusing finger at Tammad.

“He’s the one!” she shrilled. “He threatened me and everyone heard it! Arrest him, Captain, arrest him at once!”

“Calm yourself, Chairman Tumley,” the captain soothed. “I’ll soon find out who should be arrested. May I ask your name, sir?”

“I am called Tammad sek Ulenda,” Tammad answered with his eyes on the captain, looking as if he’d bitten into something sour. The name I’d given him meant, “Tammad, he who calls himself warrior,” and it was something of an insult. He disliked saying it, but Murdock McKenzie had told him that it was necessary.

“I see,” the captain nodded. “Am I correct in assuming that the lady with you is Terrillian Reya?”

“She is,” Tammad said with raised eyebrows. “You know of us?”

“I have spoken with one Murdock McKenzie,” the captain answered, his face still expressionless, but his eyes beginning to appear impressed. “It was requested that I give you and the Prime every consideration to make your trip a pleasant one. May I be of any service, sir?”

“I think not,” Tammad chuckled, looking at a stricken Paulamin Tumley but this time Paulamin was ignoring him. She stared at me with her mouth open until she finally found her voice.

“You’re a Prime,” she whispered, blushing furiously “You’re a Prime and I spoke to you as if you were a nobody. I’ve never been so embarrassed in my life.”

“What matters if she be a Prime?” Tammad asked curiously. “Is a Prime unable to do that which you accused her of?”

“Don’t be ridiculous!” Paulamin snapped, blushing even more deeply. “A Prime can do anything she wishes to do. No one has the right to direct her. You could have said she was a Prime. Oh, how I hate you.”

She glared furiously at Tammad, then ran to the peace of her cabin. The captain took a deep breath as he watched her go, then turned back to us.

“If there’s anything I can do for you, just let me know,” he said with a formal bow in my direction. “I hope you enjoy the trip.”

He led his men back toward the passage to the control deck, and I rose from the table, marched to my cabin, slammed the door, and locked it. I was furious with Murdock McKenzie, and would have strangled him if he’d been in reach. The nerve of him, protecting that barbarian with the prestige of my position as Prime! I hated Murdock McKenzie, I hated the barbarian, and I hated that stupid Paulamin Tumley for idolizing me. I ignored the ringing at my door, undressed, then went to bed alone.