"I don't think so. What you hear are just the inhabitants of the city—going about their daily business up there."
"Queer business it must be," Regis said curiously, and as we walked along the mossy, needly forest floor, I told him something of the trailmen's lives. I had lost my fear. If anyone came at us now, I could speak their language, I could identify myself, tell my business, name my foster-parents. Some of my confidence evidently spread to the others.
But as we came into more and more familiar territory, I stopped abruptly and struck my hand against my forehead.
"I knew we had forgotten something!" I said roughly, "I've been away from here too long, that's all. Kyla."
"What about Kyla?"
The girl explained it herself, in her expressionless monotone. "I am an unattached female. Such women are not permitted in the Nests."
"That's easy, then," Lerrys said. "She must belong to one of us." He didn't add a syllable. No one could have expected it; Darkovan aristocrats don't bring their women on trips like this, and their women are not like Kyla.
The three brothers broke into a spate of volunteering, and Rafe made an obscene suggestion. Kyla scowled obstinately, her mouth tight with what could have been embarrassment or rage. "If you believe I need your protection—!"
"Kyla," I said tersely, "is under my protection. She will be introduced as my woman—and treated as such."
Rafe twisted his mouth in an un-funny smile. "I see the leader keeps all the best for himself?"