Sos agreed, profoundly disturbed. The camp was efficient, but the men were strangers to him. He recognized no more than half a dozen of the hundred or so he saw. It was a strange pass when the closest companion he could find in Sol's tribe was Mok-whose dealing with him had always been brief before. This was not, in fact, a tribe at all; it was a military camp, of the type he had read about, with a military martinet in charge. The esprit de corps he had fostered was gone.
He accepted a small tent on the outskirts, alone, for the night. He was troubled, but still did not want to act until he understood the ramifications of what he had observed. Evidently the dour Vit had been put in charge because he followed orders without imagination and was probably completely trustworthy in that respect. But why the need?
Something had gone drastically wrong, and he could not believe that his own absence could account for it. Tor's tribe was hardly like this. What had taken the spirit out of Sol's drive for empire?
A woman came quietly to the tent. 'Bracelet?' she inquired, her voice muffled, her face hidden in the dusk.
'No!' he snapped, turning his eyes from the hourglass figure that showed in provocative silhouette against the distant evening fires.
She tugged open the mesh and kneeled to show her face.
'Would you shame me, Sos?'
'I 'asked for no woman,' he said, not looking at her.
'Go away. No offense.'
She did not move. 'Greensleeves,' she murmured.
His head jerked up. 'Sola!'
'It was never your habit to make me wait so long for recognition,' she said with wry reproof. 'Let me in before someone sees.' She scrambled inside and refastened the mesh. 'I changed places with the girl assigned, so I think we're safe. But still-'
'What are you doing here? I thought you weren't-'
She stripped and crawled into his bedroll. 'You must have been exercising!'
'Not any more.'
'Oh, but you have! I never felt such a muscular body.'
'I mean we're not- lovers any more. If you won't meet me by day, I won't meet you by night.'
'Why did you come, then?' she inquired, placing against him a body that had become magnificent. Her pregnancy of the year before had enhanced her physical attributes.
'I came to claim you honorably.'
'Claim me, then! No man but you has touched me since we first met.'
'Tomorrow. Give back his bracelet and take mine, publicly.'
'I will,' she said. 'Now-'
'No!'
She drew back and tried to see his face in the dark. 'You mean it.'
'I love you. I came for you. But I will have you honorably.'
She sighed. 'Honor is not quite- that simple, Sos.' But she got up and began putting on her clothing.
'What has happened here? Where is Sol? Why are you hiding from people?'
'You left us, Sos. That's what happened. You were the heart of us.'
'That doesn't make sense. I had to leave. You were having the baby. His son.'
'No.'
'That was the price of you. I will
