With just the tiniest squeeze she got released right quick. The trouble was, she might have both men at her mercy now, but both her hands were tied up keeping them that way. As far as she was concerned, being in control of things had not improved her situation very much. Frankly, she had no idea what to do next.

Chapter Twenty-four

“And how long do you think to hold them like that before some other warriors notice and come to their aid?”

Hearing “some other warriors” made Tedra think this new voice behind her belonged to a Darash male. No such luck, as a glance over her shoulder showed her. She hadn’t recognized the voice, but she certainly recognized Tamiron, Challen’s friend. She just didn’t know if she was now extricated from the vexing situation she had got into or was in more trouble. Likely the latter, if the cold look he gave her was any indication.

She decided to be prudent and release her victims. Maybe an apology was in order, too.

“Sorry about that, fellas, but Tamiron here can verify what-”

The words were choked off abruptly. She hadn’t actually hurt the warrior Bullan, just made him nervous as hell. So he was quick to react as soon as her hand let go of his soft parts, and his reaction was to put her out of commission. Only one arm circled her this time, but so tightly her breath was cut off. The other hand made sure her own couldn’t reach anything else he held dear, not that she had much strength to try, fighting for breath as she was.

The other warrior, meanwhile, was shaking the circulation back into his wrist and numb fingers, and glaring at her with murder in his light brown eyes.

Fortunately, Tamiron stepped between them at that moment, before the fellow could put thoughts to deeds. But if he didn’t do something quickly, she wouldn’t care one way or the other. She was already seeing spots before her eyes.

“The woman has a protector, Kogan.”

“You lie, Tamiron Ja-Na-Der! She wears no colors.”

“Through her own ignorance.” Tamiron’s voice seemed unnaturally calm after the heat of Kogan’s. “She comes not from Kan-is-Tra, so knows nothing of our customs. She also has ways much different from our own, as you have both found out for yourselves. Think you a Sha-Ka-Ran woman would dare behave as this one has?” Tamiron didn’t expect an answer or wait for one. He gave Bullan a level look and said quietly, “Best you release her now, before we must bring the matter to the shodan. ”

“There is no reason to involve the shodan. ”

Even Tedra, as groggy as she was becoming, could hear the nervousness in Bullan’s reply. And damned if he didn’t let go of her. Trouble was, she nearly fell on her face, and would have if Tamiron hadn’t been near enough to catch her.

“Are you all right, Tedra-de-Arr?”

She was too busy dragging in lungfuls of air to answer just yet, but when she did, it was to complain as she pushed away from him. “You sound just like my android, calling me by my full name. De Arr happens to be my classification, not a last name as you know it, so just Tedra will do if we’re friends. If not, you might as well call me woman. I’m getting used to it.”

“It is good to know you are accepting some things of our country. Were you as wise to accept all things, you would not have been claimed by a warrior who thought he had every right to claim you.”

“I knew I was going to like you, babe, if that’s the extent of your scoldings.”

“Scoldings? I think you will receive much more than that, Tedra.”

“Oh, come on, you’re not going to tell him about this, are you?”

Before she got an answer, Kogan interrupted quite insolently. “I would know who her protector is, Tamiron, or must I take your word that she has one, when her presence here alone says she does not?”

Tedra glanced from one to the other, expecting to hear a challenge issued. She hadn’t yet learned that warrior arrogance allowed for a certain belligerence that all warriors accepted as normal, so this in itself was no cause for insult. The way they saw it, every man had the right to doubt, argue, and disagree, no matter who was involved.

“There is no need to take my word,” Tamiron said, but he was grinning when he added, “You need only come to the castle and ask anyone there where the woman sleeps. You will be told she sleeps in the bedchamber of the shodan himself.”

“That was rather crudely put,” Tedra said as she watched her two would-be claimers hurry away after hearing that.

“It was said to embarrass you, but I see you are not embarrassed. Best I leave the disciplining of you to the one who has the right.”

She took his arm and started him back toward the castle. “But I like your idea of disciplining so much better. Do keep it up, and then you might not feel the need to file any extra reports for the day.” She waited for him to say he wouldn’t be telling Challen about her little escapade, but was met only with silence. She gritted her teeth, telling him. “Look, all I wanted was to see a little of your town. I wasn’t going to go far, and I wasn’t trying to escape, if that’s what you think.”

“I believe you have discovered that to leave Sha-Ka-Ra by yourself would be no easy task, but no, the thought that you were attempting such had not occurred to me.” And then he chuckled. “Likely you would have drawn no notice had you been properly cloaked. Of course, I would not have let you venture too far from the castle without stopping you.”

“You followed me?” she said accusingly.

He merely nodded, showing not the least embarrassment that he hadn’t interfered before the situation got sticky. Likely he thought she wouldn’t have learned her lesson so well if he had. It came to her suddenly why she had been noticed so soon, so she didn’t tear into him over his delayed rescue.

“It’s the farden cloaks, isn’t it? And since they’re different colors, that’s the colors that warrior was talking about, the colors of the cloaks.”

Again he nodded, then elaborated. “The Ly-San-Ters’ family color is blue, but the color of the household of the shodan is white. Either color or both combined are recognizable as Challen’s. To leave the castle without cloak and slippers is to become claimable. Were neither supplied with your chauri?”

She looked pointedly down at her scanty outfit and bare feet with a grimace. “If they were, don’t you think I would have used them?”

He smiled to acknowledge her attempt at humor, but still shook his head at her in what could only be considered disapproval. “The lack could be no other thing than Challen’s wish that you not leave the castle until he could escort you himself; thus your disobedience of his wishes must be made known to-”

“Now hold on,” she cut in anxiously.

This was no minor thing to call for minimal correction. If Tamiron hadn’t been there, the matter could have got serious. Serious, too, was likely to be her punishment if Challen found out about it.

“What if I swear it’ll never happen again?” she continued hopefully. “Couldn’t you see your way clear to keep it between ourselves, then?”

“And have Kogan or Bullan get up the nerve to apologize to the shodan for attempting to claim his woman?”

“I’m not his woman,” she snapped, but only because she saw Tamiron’s point. For Challen to find out about it later would be much worse, for then she would be guilty also of keeping secrets from him and involving his best friend in them. “You know,” she added conversationally as they reached one of the doors at the rear of the castle, “I’d forgotten for a while that I don’t like this world very much. I should be grateful I’m going to be reminded of it in a really big way, since one of the main precepts of a World Discoverer is to remain aloof and indifferent to the world they discover so they won’t be tempted to stay. Explorations naturally frowns on losing its pilots that way.”