"Who's your
champion?" he asked Kallee.
The Eysie Cargo-master was grinning. He was confident he had pushed them
into a position from which they could not extricate themselves.
"You accept challenge?" he countered.
Jellico merely repeated his question and Kallee beckoned forward one of
his men.
The Eysie who stepped up was no match for Kosti. He was a slender, almost
wand-slim young man, whose pleased smirk said that he, too, was about to
put something over on the notorious Free Traders. Jellico studied him for
a couple of long seconds during which the hum of Salariki voices was the
threatening buzz of a disturbed wasps' nest. There was no way out of
this--to refuse conflict was to lose all they had won with the clansmen.
And they did not doubt that Kallee had, in some way, triggered the scales
against them.
Jellico made the best of it. "We accept challenge," his voice was level.
"We, being guesting in Groft's holding, will fight after the manner of
the Salariki who are proven warriors--" He paused as roars of pleased
acknowledgment arose around the board.
"Therefore let us follow the custom of warriors and take up the net and
the knife--"
Was there a shade of dismay on Kallee's face?
"And the time?" Groft leaned forward to ask--but his satisfaction at such
a fine ending for his feast was apparent.
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