He felt Larsson’s hands snake around his neck as he held onto Tarr, steadying himself. He looked up into Tarr’s eyes, his pupils still blown. “Wha-whahappen?Whajudo?”
“Shh…it wasn’t me. Now keep quietfor once and let me handle this.” He began following Rabb again, half-dragging Larsson along with him as Larsson fought to get his feet firmly under him.He dropped one of the arms around Tarr’s neck but still held on tightly, probably to keep from face-planting. Tarr was aware ofLarsson’s head swiveling as he stared around him in wonder at the village full of huge Tygerians.
“W-wher’re we? What’s this?” he asked, still slurring his words.
“We were attacked by the locals,” Tarr whispered to him. They look like my people, but they talk strangely.” They were being led toward the big structure in the center of the circle of houses.Tarr bent toward Larsson’s ear again. “Let me do the talking. I told them you’re my nobyo.”
Larsson turned those huge, dark red eyes up toward him, but they still had a glazed look and Tarrhoped he’d understood. It was imperative that he pretend to be submissive in front of these people and for Larsson, Tarr knew that would be a stretch, to say the least.
He followed Rabb through a small door they had to bend over to enter through, but when he straightened, the room inside was large with a great deal of light streaming in. Rabb led them up to a long table, the center position occupied by an older Tygerian male. He was tall and lean with a mane of white hair around his face. Rabb stopped in front of the man and bowed deeply. He motioned back toward Tarr.
“Father, we found this man in the forest, along with this Lycan, whom he says is his nobyo. He wouldn’t give us his name.”
Tarr looked up in surprise.“I never refused to give my name. You never asked me properly.”
Rabb turned to look at Tarr in surprise and the older man waved at him to stand back.“Then please pardon our manners, sir. My name is Julan Seneca, and I am the leader of this settlement. Would you be so kind as to give us your name and tell us how you came to be here on Ravnia?”
“Ravnia?”Tarr grinned. “Is that what you call it? I thought it was just some numbers and letters.”
“Yes, but since we came, we decided to name our world. It helped us to feel more…at home.”
“And just how did this come to be your home?”
“I’ll be glad to tell you, but would you first honor me with your name?”
Tarr gave a brief bow. If the man wanted formality, he’d get it. “Of course, Julan Seneca. I’m Tarr Bonnet, and this is my nobyo. Your men shot him with a dart containing, they said, a sedative.If he suffers any ill effects, I’ll be most unhappy.”
Julan nodded gravely. “Certainly. But he should be fine. I can have one of our physicians check him if you like.”
“Maybe later. Your son tells me you have my men as your prisoners. I need them to be released immediately.”
Julan frowned.“Your men?”
Rabb leaned over next to his father’s ear and whispered something to him. He nodded again and smiled at Tarr.“I see. There has been a bit of a misunderstanding. Your men landed here on Ravnia several days ago, but of course we had no idea they belonged to a Tygerian.”
“Well, now you do, and I’d like them to be released. Ineed their ship as well.”
“Unfortunately, that willpose a problem.”
Tarr took a deep breath.“What kind of problem?”
“We rarely get young men here on our world, and I’m afraid many of the young Tygerians have spoken for them to be their nobyos. So many, in fact, that we decided to have a bit of a competition to make it all more interesting.”
“What in the fuck are you talking about? Theyaren’t love slaves! They’re all members of my crew!”
“Of course, I understand,” he said, with maddening patience.“But you have to understand our situation here as well. Once you know our history…You see, we originally came here from Tygeria many, many cycles ago. Back when Tygeria decided to separate the males and females into separate sectors.” He smiled over at his son.“But I don’t want to keep you standing here without refreshment. Please allow my son to show you to your room and once you settle in, he can bring you back here for a nice talk.”
“I prefer to talk now, if you don’t mind. Tellme about my men.”
Though his lips tightened with disapproval, Julan inclined his head graciously.“As you wish then. Come and sit beside me, and I’ll tell you about us.” He gestured to a bench next to him and Tarr moved over to it to sit down. He was still supporting a strangely quiet Larsson by an arm around his waist, but when he sat down, he pushed Larsson to a place by his feet. Larsson looked up at him in surprise and then in dawning outrage and scrambled to get up. Tarr pressed down hard on his shoulders and leaned over to whisper fiercely in his ear.
“Will you stop it and just be still? These people are Tygerian and seem to be pretty oldfashioned.You’re supposed to be my nobyo and nobyos sit by their master’s feet. Work with me.”
Larsson shot him a killing glance, so Tarr bent his head near his ear.“Please, baby,” he whispered, and Larsson finally subsided a bit, settling in next to his legs.
Larssondidn’t seem to know what to do with his feet, so he stuck them straight out in front of him, making the other warriors step over him to take their own seats. Tarr smothered a smile and sighed before turning his attention back to Julan.
Tarr was offered tea, which he declined, and shifted impatiently in his seat.“Please, Julan Seneca, explain to me about my men and theirship.”
“Of course. As I was saying, we first came to Ravnia when overpopulation became such a serious issue on Tygeria. We were told we had to give up our wives and take male lovers. Our wives would live in separate sectors. For some of us, this was intolerable. Of course, like all of our race at that time, we were poly-sexual, and liked both men and women. We loved our male nobyos, but some of us were quite attached to our female mates and children as well. We protested the new laws vociferously, but were overruled by the priests, who violently opposed birth control.Our religion, as I’m sure you know, forbids it. For the priests, abstinence was the only acceptable alternative. Inthe end, we weren’t left with any options. Those of us who still vehemently opposed the laws kept opposing and were finallybanished.”
Tarr shook his head unbelievingly.“I never heard any of this.”
“Because the government suppressed it. It’s one way to deal with dissension, you know…just sweep it away and bury it. We were sent to one of the sister planets of Tygeria.” He motioned up vaguely in the sky.
“We were given supplies to last for a year or so. But we were caught in a meteor storm as we entered the planet’s atmosphere and our ship was badly damaged. We were entering the outer atmosphere at extremely high speeds on parallel trajectories with the storm, and we simply got caught up in it all. We sent out a distress call that was never answered, but we managed to pull out of it and land here on this moon. We considered ourselves very lucky indeed to find a moon that was so hospitable, and we’ve been here ever since.”
“And you’ve survived all this time.”
“Yes, and we’ve thrived. We continued to have our females with us and our male lovers. We have no worries about overpopulation, of course, so we enjoy our females as we like. We also take male love slaves.”
Larsson shifted uneasily by his feet, and he put a hand on his shoulder.“I see.” He quirked up an eyebrow.“And is this how my men fit into the situation?”
Julan shrugged.“Over the years our male love slaves died out, of course, and there was no way to replenish our stock. We have had traders who stop by from time to time, usually about once a cycle or so. They bring us certain goods from other worlds, but we have little to trade, other than animal skins and some produce from our farms. On occasion, they bring in male love slaves, and as you can imagine, over the years, they have become quite a prize. We have our own females, naturally, but males suitable to be our love slaves are few and far between.”
“Like the little human I saw as I came in?”
“Oh yes, lovely, isn’t he? He belongs to my younger son, Ranon Seneca. Ranon is one of our very best warriors, second only to my son Rabb. He was able to win him, you see, in a competitionjust after Rabb had mated with his female and expressed no interest in the human.”
Tarr was beginning to get a very bad feeling about all this. “A competition?”
“Yes. A Game. Surely you still have them on Tygeria.That world couldn’t have changed so much. A competition among our warriors for their choice of a nobyo. We have one planned for your men. Your former men, I should say. They—along with your very beautiful nobyo—are now prizes to be won in our Games.”
The next few minutes were rather chaotic and Tarr never remembered afterward if it was he or Larsson who jumped up and took Julan Seneca to the ground. Possibly both of them. All he knew was that when the red haze over his vision cleared, he was locked in a cell in a small, stuffy, hut-like structure, and Larsson had been thrown into a cage nearby. By straining a bit, he could just make out the top of his curly brown hair thrust up against the bars of the cage.He’d tried calling to him earlier, but had gotten no response.He was afraid they’d knocked him out again with another dart.To the best of his knowledge, Larsson had still been fighting when he’d been dragged away by four or five or their warriors.
Just in front of Tarr was a cage holding one of his men.The hut wasn’t large enough to house more than the two cages and the cell, and he was thankful that he and Larsson had been put in the same hut at least.
The man in the cage nearest him was a young Rogernamed Jaxper, a cook in the ship’s galley, if his memory served him right. He was hunched up naked in a corner of the cage, a few big bruises staining his backside had faded to yellow at the edges. He was dirty, and their captors had shoved in a small pan of water for him that he was taking a drink from as Tarr regarded him. Using his hand to scoop it up, Jaxper turned and saw Tarr watching him, and his face turned red.