Oh.
My.
Fucking.
God!
“What?” I cried and she shook my forearm.
“Circe, quiet! Listen,” she hissed. “This is important.”
I was trembling and I was listening. Hard. So hard my ears hurt.
Narinda carried on. “They will hunt us and they will claim us.” Her fingers gripped my forearm and she pressed closer. “They will claim us like any husband claims his wife on their wedding night.”
Oh shit. Oh God. Oh shit. OhGodohshitohGod.
She kept at it. “They will bring us back to the village, na**d and claimed.”
OhshitohGodohshit.
“And then the wedding rite will be held before the Dax.”
I didn’t want to know. I really didn’t
But I asked, “What’s that?”
“Settle, my lovely,” she said softly, hearing and reading my tone even over the loud beat of the drums. “It is whatever the warrior wants it to be. Mostly, they just present the Dax with their bride. Then there is dancing, drinking, eating and revelry.”
“Do we…” I swallowed, “do we get to put clothes on for this, uh… revelry?”
She nodded. “After presentation to their king, we will be clothed in clothing our warrior provides us.”
That was good.
But I wasn’t going to get to that part.
Not me. No way. I was going to run. I was going to hide. I was going to fight. I was going to do whatever I could do to get away, find out what in the f**k I was doing in this crazy, freaking place and get my ass home.
“I see you are frightened,” Narinda called my attention to her and my eyes snapped to hers.
“Well… yeah,” I bit out.
“Do not, Circe, listen to me now, do not do anything foolish,” she said quickly, her eyes again scanning the crowd, the lit space getting closer, I could see the urgency on her face.
“And foolish would be?”
“Do not fight the claiming. Don’t. It is their tradition. They don’t see anything wrong with it and look at the Korwahk women. Circe, look at them. They can’t wait.”
I looked at the Korwahk women. It was true. It was insane but it was true.
They obviously couldn’t wait.
Then Narinda went on to advise, “Take your warrior and endure the claiming and hope, hope, my lovely, with all your heart, that you get a warrior who is soft under all that hardness.”
I was trembling head-to-toe and I wanted to bolt. I wanted to run.
But it was too late.