Shield's Lady

instinctively took a step backward, even though he hadn’t moved. “Why is it so important to…to link with a woman? You admitted you don’t need to be linked in order to have a sexual relationship.”
    “There are two reasons why a Shield searches very hard for a woman with whom he can link,” Gryph said evenly. “The first is that he cannot father a child with any woman except a true Shieldmate. All other unions are sterile. And even with a Shieldmate, he can only produce sons. No Shield has ever fathered a daughter. The future of every Shield clan is dependent on the sons finding mates among the descendants of the colonists of The Serendipity.”
    Sariana stared at him. “You’re telling me the legend is true? Your class was not among those on board The Serendipity?”
    Gryph lifted his head proudly. “My people were conveniently on hand when the lightstorm took The Serendipity. Without my ancestors, everyone on that ship would have died. We saved them. We saved them a second time on the ground. Someday I’ll tell you the whole story. The important point is that the colonists repaid the Shields by negotiating the Pact. It binds us into their social system.”
    “This is all just a legend. A wild tale concocted by the people of the western provinces. I know it is.”
    “You know I’m not lying to you, Sariana. Look at me. I have never lied to you.”
    For a moment she was trapped by the truth in his eyes. She struggled to resist and became frantic when she could not. Without a word she spun around, seeking escape.
    “Sariana.”
    She stopped but did not turn back to face him. She did not dare.
    “You haven’t heard the second reason why a Shield will go to any length to find a mate,” Gryph said.
    “What’s the second reason?” But silently she was thinking that she did not want to hear it. The answer was already in her head. It had appeared there as if by magic.
    “The second reason is that if he does not find a mate, a Shield will face a kind of loneliness no one else can even begin to comprehend. He’ll know he has missed the special communication that comes through linking with a woman. He’ll face it all the days of his life and when that life is over he will also face the knowledge that he has left nothing of himself to the future. Now do you see why I can’t let you go, Sariana?”

Chapter
    10

    SEVERAL hours later Sariana lay alone in the large ship’s bunk. She was wide awake and very thoughtful. It had been a long while since she had shared an early dinner with Gryph and the handful of other passengers on board the windrigger. She had retired to the cabin prepared to stage a determined battle when her so-called husband came to claim his marital rights.
    But, as usual, Gryph had proven unpredictable. He had not come back to the cabin after dinner. It was almost midnight.
    Sariana gave up trying to sleep and sat up against the pillows. A pale wash of moonlight bathed the cabin in a gentle glow. By western standards the room was quite restrained. Of course, she reflected half humorously, that still left a lot of leeway for artistic license. Some ship’s designer had taken advantage of that leeway.
    The cabinetry was beautifully finished with fine metal fittings and precision carving. The elaborately detailed bed on which she sat was solidly anchored to the deck, unlike most beds on shore. Presumably a suspended bed had been deemed too dangerous for shipboard use. There was a multi-paned window behind the bed through which the moonlight shone in a series of intricate prisms.
    Prisms.
    Sariana shied from the image. It reminded her of prisma crystal and the lock on her husband’s weapon kit.
    Damn it, he was not her husband, Sariana told herself for what must have been the millionth time.
    Unfortunately local law and custom disagreed with her. Sariana was finally convinced that the only way out of the situation was to leave the western provinces and return to the eastern continent.
    But she couldn’t do that just yet. Her future in the east at this point was bleaker than the one she faced in the west. Her mouth curved faintly at the thought that at least here life held a certain amount of adventure and excitement. She would find neither at home.
    Sariana swore softly and climbed out of bed. The fact that she could find something positive about such things as adventure and excitement was probably a sign that she had already been living in the west too long. It reminded her