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."She is Terran." Glancing around, sheadded, "From Earth."Conversation broke out again instantly, and thoughmost of it took the form of hushed murmurs and wordsI couldn't catch, I still got the distinct impression thattheir reception of me wasn't entirely friendly.Remem-bering what Tychar had said about unrest because ofScalia's progressive ways, I figured it would be best if Iwatched what I said.Bowing my head slightly, I bade them all a firm"Good evening," and took an empty seat across the tablefrom Zealon.I thought that adding something along thelines of, "It's a pleasure to meet all of you," might havebeen a shade on the unbelievable side given the circum-stances, and since I didn't want to come across as eitherfawning or insincere, I left it at that.Actually, I decidedthat keeping my mouth shut except to put food in itmight be my best course of action, but there are timeswhen I tend to blurt out whatever I happen to be think-ing, regardless of my best intentions.As far as I could tell, there seemed to be an even mixof males and females.I was getting better at telling thedifference and the strings of beads some of them worewere a good clue but there were a few present whocould have gone either way small males or rather largefemales.Then I almost shouted out loud as the light fi-nally dawned on me, for it was color, as well as size, thatdistinguished the sexes.The females were green withpurple, blue or mauve highlights, while the males hadeither yellow, orange, or red iridescent tints to their oth-erwise green scales.Rather pleased that I'd managed tofigure that out before having to ask someone Tycharprobably would have charged me a kiss for the infor-mation I must have been smiling to myself, because alarge female a few seats to my left demanded to knowwhat I found so amusing.Just how she knew enough about Terrans to knowthat I was smiling was a mystery to me.I toyed with theidea that she might have been an anthropologist of sorts,but decided against it when I noticed how many beadsand bangles she was wearing certainly not scholarlyattire on any planet! I wondered if she was the wife ofone of the government officials, but decided I'd best notask, since she might have been an official herself, es-pecially given Scalia's statement that the men were toovolatile to be in charge.As always, honesty is the best policy.They mighteven get a chuckle or two out of my lack of knowledgeabout their kind."I just figured out how to tell malesfrom females," I replied."It's the difference in color,isn't it?"She appeared to be rather affronted by this."Thereare many other differences," she said haughtily."I wouldbegin with the fact that males are much less attractivethan females.We are much more refined than they."Scalia laughed heartily."Dobraton!" she said with awave of her arm that set her own bangles to jingling."Do not be too harsh with the girl.She had never seen aDarconian before yesterday." Glancing sideways at herdaughter, she added, "Zealon was supposed to be edu-cating her in the ways of our world, but I can see that shehas omitted some rather pertinent details."As we had mostly discussed music and Scalia'sslaves, I was forced to agree; Tychar had taught me farmore than Zealon had."I suppose it's my own fault fornot asking the right questions," I said equably.I chosenot to mention that the heat was keeping me from beingterribly energetic or sharp-witted or conscious longenough to devote myself to the study of Darconian biol-ogy.Dobraton would undoubtedly have seen my heat in-tolerance as a sign of weakness, and my instincts told methat weakness was something I should avoid showing toher at all costs even if I was only a piano teacher!With that in mind, I decided to make a point of drink-ing water, rather than wine, unless pressed to do so, sincepassing out at the table would be a grave tactical error.Hopefully, I wouldn't be asked to attend many of theselarge gatherings once the novelty of having a Terran inthe palace wore off, though it did occur to me that Scaliamight not tire of it.She might not be able to show off herslaves to just anyone, but I was fair game.As the dinner progressed, I noticed that Dobraton'sideas seemed to run counter to Scalia's on most topics,especially with regard to becoming more open to off-worlders.She was extremely delicate in her phrasingwhen it came to voicing her dissent, but the scathingglances Dobraton sent in my direction led me to believethat if she had her way, I would be among the first tobe deported [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]