Tedra rolled over to find herself tangled up in covers in the center of Challen’s huge bed. She had known she’d feel lost in the farden thing, and without the big barbarian there beside her, she did. However, she hadn’t realized the bedding would try to strangle her.

When she finally got one elbow loose, enough to lean up on it, she glanced around to find what had awakened her, hoping it was… it wasn’t. Challen hadn’t returned. He’d left her at dawn with a very sweet parting, but obviously he’d meant it when he said he’d be so busy today that he wouldn’t likely see her until this evening, or in his words, this moonrise. He’d ignored several summons yesterday for his time, instead devoting the rest of the day to making her feel very welcome in his home, or at least in his bedroom. But today was back to business as usual, and if she felt deserted, that was just too bad.

The one who had disturbed her sleep was the young Darash female she had met yesterday-well, not actually met. Challen hadn’t bothered with introductions when the girl had brought them a meal last evening. And the girl hadn’t made any comments in the serving of it, had simply left quickly, a warrior waiting at the door for her and closing it after her. Tedra remembered her suspicions rising upon seeing that door-opening warrior, and had immediately got up to test the door herself. But she could open it, she was relieved to find, though not easily, for the thing really was heavy, but she could do it. It had been opened and closed for the servant simply because her hands had been full with the large tray she carried.

She carried another tray now, a much smaller one, and the door to the room had been closed behind her this time. Tedra watched her place the tray on the large square table with the couches around it, where she and Challen had eaten last night. That had been a study in decadence, lying stretched out on those couches so they met at one corner, she on her belly on one, Challen on his side on another, eating with fingers, but not their own fingers. The barbarian got to feed her as he wanted to, and because of where they were, she couldn’t refuse or bite his fingers. He also insisted she feed him, and after a while she didn’t half mind doing it, and getting her fingers sucked in the process. It got so erotic, in fact, the meal was interrupted for an hour and had to be finished cold, Tedra refusing to let him call for fresh food since it would be too easy for anyone to figure out how the first batch had got cold. She accepted the fact that everyone would know what she was doing in Challen’s bedroom, but she didn’t care to be thought so insatiable she couldn’t even take time out for a farden meal-whether it was true or not.

The girl didn’t depart immediately as she had done last night. She approached the bed, smiling, making eye contact, in no way obsequious or appearing slavish in manner. A step above a feudal-type serf, but a step below being actually free, the Darasha had a strange relationship with the ruling class. They were simply servants, subject to certain rules just as the women on this world were, but apparently not disliking their lot. Coming from a world that had no servants, since things mechanical made them unnecessary, Tedra knew it would take getting used to, being waited on by an actual living, breathing person.

This living, breathing person was maybe a few years younger than Tedra, a somewhat pretty girl with brown eyes and hair. That coloring was as close as she got to resembling those women Tedra had seen on the street yesterday. The girl’s skin tone was dark, not golden, and like the Darash male from the stable, she was much smaller than the average citizen of this world, probably no more than five feet and one or two inches, if even that.

“Would the mistress like a bath after she eats?”

Tedra glanced at the small pool, empty this morning. These barbarians had plumbing, for Stars’ sake, complete with hot and cold running and draining water, not exactly a primitive accomplishment. She was finding that, like the Sha-Ka’ari, the Sha-Ka’ani were advanced in some ways, archaic in others, especially the clinging to old beliefs and customs.

“No, no bath, thank you.” She wasn’t likely to enjoy it without the barbarian there to make it enjoyable.

“May I then select a chauri for the mistress?”

Tedra frowned, hearing herself addressed like that a second time. “Look, you’re not a slave and I’m not your mistress, so why don’t you call me Tedra?”

“That would not be properly respectful.”

“Is everyone mistress or master to you?”

“Yes, mistress.”

“Doesn’t that bother you?”

“For what reason should it do so?”

Tedra sighed. “Well, that was a pleasant trip around the block. How about if I order you to call me Tedra? Would that do the trick?”

“Trick?”

“Would it work, an order? Or don’t the wishes of a challenge loser count for much around here?”

“Challenge loser? The mistress is teasing me?”

“Yeah, I’m a great kidder,” Tedra said with a derisive snort, deciding hearing her name on the girl’s lips wasn’t worth this kind of aggravation. “You can fetch me some clothes while I fight my way out of these farden covers-that is, if clothes fetching is part of your job.”

The girl had trouble nodding, she was trying so hard not to laugh. It probably was funny, seeing a grown woman wrapped up in a blanket tighter than a gift-wrapped box and not too clear on how to break out of it, but so Tedra was. She could have said something about the convenience of air blankets, which turned off as soon as you sat up in bed, leaving nothing to tangle your feet in, but discussing the advantages of her world that she was having to do without would only get her more aggravated.

“If I may?”

The girl crawled onto the bed, found the corner of the blanket that was tucked under Tedra’s hip, and pulled it loose; then the rest of the blanket followed. Tedra started blushing immediately, having forgotten her state of complete undress, but the girl didn’t seem to notice. Having helped with the immediate problem, she left the bed to take care of the next, heading toward a door Tedra hadn’t even noticed yesterday, probably because it was without a doorknob of any kind and stood between two of those great, long chests. It merely pushed open, revealing a room beyond that Tedra was curious enough about to investigate for herself, if she could manage to find the sheet that had become lost under the blanket.

When she arrived at the room some minutes later, draped in the light blue sheet and trailing a good eight feet of it behind her, it took her a moment to grasp that she was looking into an old-fashioned closet, something she’d never seen before. What she thought of as a closet was a mechanical rack that came out of the wall with whatever outfit she had dialed for. She had never thought to wonder where her clothes were kept, or where they went when her robocleaner disposed of them for cleaning-just more of the things she was discovering she took for granted at home.

As closets went, she had a feeling this one was larger than most, just like the bedroom it was connected to. Sight of a long mirror, a wide shelf topped with bottles and jars, and even a couch in one corner indicated it was also used as a dressing room. A number of chests and one entire wall of drawers, some too high for even Tedra to reach, suggested it might also be a place for storage. But there were clothes in evidence, a great many clothes, hung on pegs on the walls, on stands with sticklike arms extended from them, draped on funny-looking racks that stood upright but curved at the top to lay spread-out comtocs on. The setup made everything just about visible at first sight, eliminating the need for an inventory list.