'And not for you?'
'Your mother and your grandmother have been kind.'
'Have others been unkind?'
She was reluctant to speak.
'Speak,' he ordered. 'Who has been unkind to you?'
'No one in particular. When I was with the young unmated females I made the mistake of exposing my bud point.'
'So?'
'It's nothing,' she said.
'Something was said?'
'You can imagine.'
He could. In this valley a female's budpoint was unopened until her first coloration. He could imagine the talk among the females, for the word would have spread throughout the valley that this Jai, this outsider, had grafted and had no proper mate. He rose and took her hand and led her back to the village, entered the house of his parents and spoke, his face stern. 'This is my mate. I speak for her, and I take her.' His mother leaped to her feet and embraced both of them. His father clasped Duwan's right arm with his own.
'We will make the announcement,' his mother said. 'A celebration enlivens things so during the darkness.'
So it was done. The square blazed with light. Visitors came from several villages, as if eager to atone in some small way for the vote against going back to the Land of Many Brothers. Duwan moved unsmilingly through the ceremonies, spoke for Jai before many witnesses, and, to the cries and shouts and laughter of the gathering, carried his new mate into his father's house. Without light it was not possible to grow a new house, so they would occupy his old room until Du came again. He did not carry Jai to the room immediately. He waited until his parents and his grandmother came into the room and listened as the older women talked about the ceremony and the various people who had attended. When his father went off to bed his mother looked at him questioningly and he took Jai's hand and led her into the privacy of his room.
She came to his bed displaying some new shyness and he moved over to give her room. She lay on her back beside him.
'Wherever I am, if I am with you, I am happy,' she said.
'Ummra,' he grunted.
'Now I will be warm again as I sleep,' she whispered, putting her arm across his chest.
'They have as little shame, my people, as those who live in the pongpens, and those who call themselves free runners but do not have the courage to fight,' Duwan said.
'They fear the unknown,' she told him. 'Duwan, am I really your mate now?'
'Yes, of course,' he said.
'Thank you,' she whispered.
He felt her warmth against him and shuddered inwardly. His body warmed to her, begged him to relax, to turn to her and embrace her, but he was among civilized people now, and civilized people did not graft promiscuously as did the slaves and the enemy.
She was quiet for a long, long time, until he thought that she had gone to sleep. But then she whispered, 'Duwan, was I wrong, when I fought Noo, to give him such a blow to the belly?'
'No, you were not wrong.'
'I did it for you,' she said.
'For me?'
'Because he took Alning from you.'
