“Your guess is as good as mine, Jadell. It is my sister who knows of other worlds and their strange wonders, not I.” But then Dalden pointed his computer-link unit at the woman holding the rod. “Brock?”

“Unknown as a weapon,” the computer answered without needing a full question. “But according to the women’s whispered words, which I could hear quite clearly, they are satisfied that you think it is a weapon. So probables says it is not, yet does it still give them courage.”

The two women looked around and behind them for the invisible spy who could have heard them. To their relief, they found instead that the general was coming swiftly down the hallway at last, with four more women hurrying to keep up with her.

“I am General Vand, gentlemen,” Donilla announced as she walked into the room. “If no one has done so, let me welcome you to Sunder.”

The biggest among them moved to stand in front of her. He was nearly two feet taller than she was and twice as wide, with arms the size of her legs, in length as well as in thickness. She tried to swallow, but her throat had gone suddenly dry. Even knowing what to expect hadn’t prepared her for the sheer size of these Sha-Ka’ani warriors.

“I am Dalden Ly-San-Ter,” the one towering over her stated. “Do you tell us where my sister is, we will leave here peaceably with her. If not, then must we tear your town apart in search of her.”

Nothing like coming right to the point. Donilla didn’t feel particularly brave at this moment, but she had information they wanted which gave her a slight advantage-hopefully enough for what she was going to attempt.

She pulled herself together and said authoritatively, “Thank you for making that perfectly clear, Mr. Ly-San-Ter. But custom decrees that we must dispense with protocol first, before we can discuss your sister. You do understand customs, don’t you? I’m sure you have some of your own that you insist visitors to your planet honor.”

“Indeed, yet-”

“Come, now, I’m not talking about anything difficult or time-consuming. It’s traditional for all visitors to meet my council of advisors. Merely introduce yourselves to them, shake their hands- possibly assure them you are here only on a family matter. You see, very simple. Ladies?” Donilla glanced around to find that the four women she had brought with her who had Altering rods hidden up their sleeves were nervously remaining outside the room. “Oh, do come in,” she ordered impatiently. “They won’t bite.” And to Dalden, she said, “Which of your friends is the eager bridegroom?”

She followed his gaze to Falon, who merely stood there frowning at the lot of them. He would have to be the most intimidating of the group. He was a few inches shorter than Shanelle’s brother, but what was a few inches when you were dealing with giants. Fortunately, the other women had come forward and were each extending a hand to greet a warrior. Donilla palmed her Altering rod, as the other women had been instructed to do, and walked toward Falon.

Falon had been relieved to be on solid ground again until he found he would be dealing with people so alien to him in their size. It was difficult not to equate them with children, they were so small. Even their voices lacked the appropriate depth of an adult’s. He certainly could not fight them. He could not even threaten them without feeling like a fool. And worse, the females of these tiny people had the authority here.

The little one called general was bold, he had to allow. When he had not accepted her offered hand for greeting, as his men were doing with the other women, she had reached forward and grasped his hand to mumble her words. He had not paid attention. He was watching the other women and the strangeness in their identical gestures and phrases.

“Falon, ah-I hesitate to ask this, but what are we doing here?” Jadell asked in Sha-Ka’ani.

Falon turned toward his brother with an incredulous look. The woman standing in front of Jadell was still holding his hand and smiling up at him. Falon began to scowl.

“What did she say to you, Jadell?” Falon demanded.

“Nothing.”

“She spoke words. They all did. I heard them.”

“Then you have better hearing than I, for I heard nothing,” Jadell replied.

“And yet now you ask why we are here? Something is not right, brother.”

“I agree. I feel I should know the answer, but I do not. Dalden?”

The younger man colored slightly. One of his hands was still being held by a Sunderian woman. “I had hoped I would not have to admit I am as forgetful as you, Jadell. Stars, it makes no sense. Falon, if you know-”

“So you would have me believe you have forgotten your own sister?” Falon asked. “And you, Jadell, that I am here to find my lifemate?”

“Droda, I was told to forget that!” Jadell exploded. “The voice was inside my head-” He yanked his hand from the woman’s grasp and glared at her as she backed away from him. “What did you do to me?” he demanded in Sunderian.

Her mouth moved, but she was too terrified for words to come out. The other women were also backing toward the door, looking just as frightened. Only the general stood her ground next to Falon, more confused than fearful, even when his eyes came back to her narrowed in anger.

“It didn’t work on you, did it?” Donilla asked. “It worked on them, but not on you. How is that possible?”

“He does not understand a word you are saying, General Vand,” Dalden said, having moved to her other side. “You see, my friend here does not trust anything that is alien to Sha-Ka’an. It was bad enough that he had to travel on a Droda-cursed spaceship, as he put it, and be subjected to Transferring, which he hates above all things, but he flatly refused to listen to the Sublims on your language that Brock made for us, even though that refusal would leave Falon at a disadvantage down here. Does that answer your question?”

“Unfortunately, yes.”

“Now do you tell us what did not work on him that did work on the rest of us.”

“I’m sorry, but I’m not at liberty to explain. Only women are allowed the secret-”

“Brock?” Dalden interrupted impatiently.

“Some type of hypnotic device that each woman held concealed as she touched you, and which had you accept her words as reality. You were each told the same thing, to forget why you were here. But you, Falon, were told one other thing, that you do not want a lifemate.”

Falon growled low and immediately lifted Donilla up by the front of her uniform jacket. That he did this with only one hand and kept her dangling like that, two feet off the floor, told Donilla that whatever they had just been told, it was now time for her to be seriously afraid.

“Speak for me, Dalden,” Falon ordered in a tightly controlled tone, “and make her understand that she lives only because she is not a man.”

“Brock has told us what you attempted to do, General Vand. Falon, of course, would be within his rights to kill you for trying to interfere with his duty, yet does your sex save you from that. But best you know that he is angry enough to overlook that if you still try to prevent him from finding his chosen mate. Where is she?”

“I-I can’t tell you that,” Donilla said apprehensively. “We have agreed to give her sanctuary, and she does not wish to be found by him.”

“She has no choice in the matter,” Dalden replied. “Our father gave her into this man’s protection. That gives Falon all rights over her.”

“But who protects her from him?”

“She does not need protection from her lifemate. He would never harm her.”

“You waste your time, Dalden,” Brock interjected at that point. “The woman is hindered by a code of honor that will not allow her to betray Shanelle, and now it is not needful. I have scanned the immediate area that would have allowed General Vand to reach here in the time she did, and have located a female who matches Shanelle’s voice pattern, though she speaks in Sunderian-and in a manner that would indicate she is extremely fearful of an immediate threat.”