“I’m referring to your part of the agreement,” said he, the words slow and deliberate as he leaned forward to emphasize them. “Mehrayn is giving up his demand to keep you all to himself; in fairness he shouldn’t have to share you with anyone but Ceralt. Ceralt is giving up his demand that you leave the life of a warrior behind; in fairness he should have your word to avoid seeking trouble. If trouble comes to you that’s a different story, but riding out deliberately to seek battle has to be out.”
“What, then, might be left of the life of a warrior?” I demanded dismayed at the instant eagerness to be seen upon Ceralt and Mehrayn. “You now attempt to take what was given me by these others!”
“Not without being willing to give something in return,” said he, his grin in no manner encouraging. “The life you knew as a warrior has already been doomed, and not only by the arrival of those from the Union. Do you think many of the Midanna will find it possible to return to fighting between the clans, now that they’ve fought beside one another? How many of the Midanna and Sigurri will be willing to give each other up? You three intend forming your own family; do you expect to do it in Ceralt’s village? In Mehrayn’s city? In your home tent? What will happen once those of the cities begin learning ‘civilized’ ways from the Union?”
Ceralt, Mehrayn and I exchanged glances, yet were we unable to answer the queries S’Heernoh had put. What, indeed, would become of us?
“Stop looking so stricken all of you,” said S’Heernoh with moderate amusement, allowing his eagerness to gleam forth. “Why do you think I’ve told you everything I have? Just to drop you in an unsolvable muddle? Don’t you realize I have a solution?”
“And what shall it be necessary to give up for that solution?” I asked, in no manner willing to tender the male more than he had already taken. “Should it be our souls, the price has already been exacted.”
“Your souls are yours to keep,” said S’Heernoh with a laugh of greater amusement, truly taking joy from his doing. “Your bodies and minds are what I want, to train in mind control—which is the key to reaching and retrieving everything my people have ever learned and developed—and to explore the newness you’ve developed. You won’t enjoy what the Union has to teach, and you won’t be able to use it. What I have to teach is something else again, and may even provide some adventure. Now, let me think. We’ll tell Aram you survived that wound most likely because you were so near to the emergency healer main console apparatus that it picked you up without the receptor unit. Once we get back we’ll gather up all the Midanna and Sigurri who want to start a new life, find our own place in the wilderness, then start teaching and testing. We’ll have to make sure the Unioners don’t get curious, of course, but that won’t be very . . . .”
The words of the male continued on in thoughtful planning, yet did my eyes go to Ceralt and Mehrayn, whose eyes had already come to me. So eager was I to be with them that even would I allow S’Heernoh his plans—certainly to begin with. Should the time prove uninteresting or too filled with annoyance there would surely be other things to occupy a warrior, and even, perhaps, with the aid of Galiose’s male, Phanisar, as I no longer needed to stand as war leader, a daughter . . . .