Keeper of the Heart

Chapter 10

Dalden Ly-San-Ter was reluctant to return to the shodan of Ka’al that afternoon with the news he bore. He knew the man would never have come here if he didn’t feel he owed him a life-debt. Dalden also knew he expected to conclude the meetings expeditiously, so expeditiously that he had hoped to spend no more than one rising in Kan-is-Tra. Now he wasn’t going to like to hear that the competitions were going to delay the meetings with the Catrateri, but so they were.

The Ambassador of Catrater was aware of how the Ba-Har-ani felt about visitors. That was why he had asked Dalden’s father to make a formal request of the owner of the gold fields the Catrateri mining scanners had located near the town of Ka’al, and why Challen had sent Dalden to Ka’al to convince the owner to meet with the Catrateri. And that was why the ambassador had pleaded with Challen to lend his presence to the discussions.

But Dalden should have returned with the Ba-Har-ani last week, when Challen would have had time to involve himself in the matter. Now he lacked the time because of the competitions. And yet the Catrateri ambassador was too fearful of failure to begin the discussions without him, and with reason. If Dalden had learned anything during the time he’d spent with the Ba-Har-ani, it was that they had not the least care for the problems of visitors.

Dalden had done his part, due only to a piece of wild luck, but nonetheless accomplished. If the Ba-Har-ani chose to leave immediately rather than accept the delay, no one would stop them.

Only Falon Van’yer and his brother were present when Dalden arrived at their tent. Jadell offered a grin in welcome, which Dalden returned. He had formed a quick and easy friendship with the younger Van’yer brother, partly from having saved his life and gone on the little adventure afterwards to track down those responsible for nearly taking it, and partly because they shared so many things in common, including their easy natures. He also liked and respected Falon Van’yer, and although he hadn’t come to know him as well, it wasn’t hard for Dalden to sense that the shodan’s mood had changed drastically in the few hours since they had parted company upon their arrival in Sha-Ka-Ra.

“Has something happened that I should know about?” he asked without preamble.

Jadell laughed. “It does not concern you, no, yet may you likely be of help with your knowledge. My brother-”

“Can speak for himself,” Falon interrupted curtly. “And best we finish the matter that brought us here first so I may devote myself more fully to the other.”

Dalden didn’t care to argue the point with the older man, despite his curiosity. Sometimes Falon reminded him of his own father. Although much younger, he held the same responsibilities as Challen did, though it was more the tone of command that Dalden found the same right now and which he’d been raised to obey.

“Ambassador Zlink’s requested a postponement of your meeting until after the competitions. He hopes this won’t inconvenience you.”

“Is he participating in these games?”

“No, but my father has to attend the games, and the Catrateri want him at the meeting.”

“Why? Have I not agreed to speak with these visitors? What need is there for your father’s involvement?”

Dalden sighed. “It’s like this, Falon. Zlink doesn’t feel he’ll get anywhere with you without some powerful local support on his side. Visitors frequently use any means available to pad the odds in their favor, and Zlink is no different. He’s managed to get my father’s agreement to sit in on the discussions. Though my father won’t try to influence you, Zlink still thinks his presence will help.”

Total silence followed as the two brothers simply stared at Dalden. He wasn’t sure what the problem was, until Jadell burst out, “What in Droda’s name has happened to your speech?”

And Falon answered with a degree of amusement, while color tinged Dalden’s golden skin. “He speaks like a visitor now, yet have I found the combining of certain words easy enough to understand. It is the strange words that have no meaning.”

Jadell turned his appalled gaze on his brother. “She spoke thusly?”

“She did, as did her friend-as did her computer.”

“It is a wonder you were able to communicate with her at all,” Jadell snorted in disgust. “But what is your excuse, Dalden?”

Dalden wondered who the she with the computer was, but he was too embarrassed to ask. “You will have to forgive me. Such tends to happen whenever I am around my mother for more than a few minutes. She was a major influence in my growing years.” And still was, though he didn’t think the Ba-Har-ani would care to hear that.

Many of their customs differed, but this one was the same in their country as it was in this one, that children were the sole concern of their fathers, their mothers having little or no say in their raising. It just hadn’t worked out that way in his own household.

“My parents are both here in the park and look forward to meeting you. I can take you to them now, yet will there be little opportunity for private speech with so many others around. Or you can wait until this moonrising, since you have been invited to attend the private dinner in my parents chamber, celebrating my sister’s homecoming.”

“You have only just returned home yourself,” Jadell remarked. “Why is a sister honored before you?”

“She has been away much longer than I, but she is not being honored. She is due to return this rising and has merely been sorely missed by us all. These competitions, however, in a sense do her honor,” Dalden said, and was suddenly shaking his head in bemusement. “I knew my father had planned to do this, yet did I honestly believe my mother would not allow it.”

“Of what do you speak?” Jadell asked.

And from Falon: “What say can your mother have in such matters?”

“You would be surprised,” Dalden said ruefully. “But these are not normal competitions. It is an old custom in Kan-is-Tra, though one I have never seen enacted before. These warriors compete to better their chance at winning my sister for a lifemate. The custom eases the burden of a father from having to make a decision between more than one interested warrior.”

“All these warriors compete for your sister?”

Dalden grinned at Jadell’s incredulous tone. “I would not be surprised, yet do I doubt it. Anyone can compete just to compete. The final champion does not have to put forth his request to my father, just as those who are eliminated may still make the request. And even if the champion wants my sister, he still may not be chosen. The final choice rests with my father. These contests merely give him the opportunity to choose from the best.”

“You wound me, friend, not to have mentioned such a desirable sister before now,” Jadell said.

Dalden chuckled. “I have learned not to speak of her among friends when too many of them want her.”

“Before you think to ask for her yourself, Jadell,” Falon said, “you had best see what she looks like. What one man finds beautiful, another may not.” That brought another chuckle from Dalden, prompting Falon to add, “You disagree?”

“Not at all, yet more than half the men gathered here to compete for her have never seen her.”

“Do you jest?”

“Unfortunately, no.”

“I have never heard of men asking for a woman they have never seen. Why would they, even visitors?”

“Partly it is because of the gaali-stone mines my family owns. My mother established an exorbitant price for it from the start, and other planets were willing to pay the price, making my family one of the richest in several Star Systems. You have the same opportunity yourself, Falon. Gold is now a rare commodity, long since depleted on planets that once mined it and established their economies with it. It may be worthless to you, good only for the making of shiny ornaments and such, but to the Catrateri it is a priceless metal. They will likely be willing to pay you anything you ask for it.

“But as to your question,” he continued, “visitors want my sister because of the mines. Warriors want her because she is the only daughter of a shodan, a very rich and influential shodan. But once she is seen, most men want her for herself.”

“And I may meet her this moonrise?” Jadell asked with a degree of eager anticipation.

It was Falon who answered, however. “If we accept the invitation.” And to Dalden, “We seek no special privilege here. Why should we be included in a private gathering of your family?”

“Because my father is pleased to have you here other than for the benefit of the Catrateri. It has been too many years since the Ba-Har-ani have come to Kan-is-Tra, even to trade with us.”

“The distance was never an easy one to cross between our two countries,” Falon pointed out.

“True, yet is it no distance at all now, with the aid of an airobus. My father would be willing to provide the transportation if your merchants wish to trade again with ours.”

“Provide it? As in giving us our own private airobus so we would not have to deal with your Visitor’s Center?”

“Exactly.”

“It is something to-think about,” Falon replied noncommittally.

Dalden nodded. He hadn’t expected an answer. It was something for the two shodani to discuss between themselves.

“You chose not to stay at the palace when we arrived earlier, thinking you would not be here long,” Dalden reminded them. “Perhaps you will now reconsider with the meeting delayed-if you still mean to attend the meeting.”

“How long a delay?” Jadell asked.

But Falon waved the question aside. “I am not in such a hurry to leave now, Jadell.”

Jadell chuckled as he noted Dalden’s surprise and explained. “My brother has met a woman here that he finds great interest in.”

“Is this the other matter you were concerned with, Falon?” Dalden asked.

“It is. The woman is a visitor under your father’s protection that I wish to buy.”

His amber eyes widened the slightest bit, yet Dalden was much more amazed than that. This had to be the she-with-the-computer, and she had to be something quite impressive for Falon to actually want to buy her, since Dalden knew how he felt about visitors.

It had been Falon’s own house that had been shamed all those years ago, his own sister who had been stolen by a visitor, kept for several months aboard the man’s ship, and returned with a child in her belly. It had been Falon’s father who had gathered the warriors of Ba-Har-an to ride against the visitors, ready to go to war if the man responsible was not turned over to them for punishment.

This had been the incident, the last of many, that had led to the closedown of the whole planet to visitor travel, and had turned the Ba-Har-ani so against visitors of any kind that they had never traded with them again. And Falon now wanted to take one home with him? But as a slave, Dalden reminded himself, not as a lifemate, and Falon likely wouldn’t want her any other way.

Reluctantly, Dalden had to disappoint Falon. “If she’s a visitor, she can’t be bought.”

“How, then, may I obtain her for my own?”

“In most cases, you have to ask the female herself if she will have you.”

“It is foolishness to leave such an important decision up to a female. Is there no male at all to be dealt with in the matter?”

“In some cases, but not in most. Yet we no longer speak of buying, Falon. If you truly want the female, you would have to take her as your lifemate, and I doubt you are prepared to do that.”

“No, I am not. She would refuse even did I ask, because she fears me.”

Dalden commiserated. “Visitors usually do fear warriors. Our own women fear them when it comes to joining with one for the first time. This is normal.”

“So I tried to tell him,” Jadell said.

“And I told you, brother, that her fear came after.”

“You mean you have already had her?” Dalden asked.

Falon’s nod was so curt as to be barely noticed. “Is there no alternative you can offer me?”

“Since you only wish to own her, best you hope she is a Catrateri. They would likely do anything you demand just now, including ordering one of their women to accept you-at least temporarily. Did you happen to find out what planet she is from?”

“No.”

“This, then, we will discover first thing on the new rising. But do you decide you would have the woman as other than a slave, I could ask my mother to speak with her, to ease the woman’s fears. She relates well to visitors, knowing how they think, what their concerns are. And she is a perfect example of how happy a visitor can be in joining her life with a warrior’s.”