Chapter 2

Tony noticed the nervous girls looking at him while he held the sobbing Terry. Motioning them toward him Tony had them sit down. "I'm sorry I haven't spoken to you before. I'm Tony and this is my first wife, Terry. I accept you as my responsibility." Both girls looked relieved at hearing his acceptance of them. They moved in to cuddle Terry and held her. Suddenly Yana sniffed and pulled away. Running back to the fire she pulled away several of the flat breads that had been baking. Tony smelled the odor of burnt food and realized why she had run away. Lissil reluctantly pulled away as well and went to help.

By this time Terry had gotten to the sniffling stage and watched them trying to save breakfast. Turning to Tony she looked at him, "What did you mean, your first wife?"

"Let's face it, we are the only ones here who could understand each other. I don't think I could handle one of the women here as a first wife. Consult what you remember about the women here and tell me what you think."

Terry concentrated for a second then nodded, "They are really repressed. It seems they have been brought up to never argue with a man and accept treatment that no one I knew on Earth would accept. They expect to be told what to do." She frowned and looked Tony in the eyes, "You try that on me and you will regret it."

"Don't worry. I was brought up to expect a woman to speak up when she has something to say." He looked at the two women and continued, "I need you to tell them what you want them to do. If I had to tell them everything then I'd loose my temper after a while. Besides, my memories tell me that it's the job of the first wife."

Terry nodded thoughtfully, "I remember that as well. I'm going to be trying to make them more self-assertive though. I won't be surrounded for the rest of my life by women who are afraid to do anything on their own."

"Are you sure that's a good idea? This culture has been static for a long time. I'm not too sure how it will accept change."

"Are you saying that it's better that the women continue being nothing but property? They seem to value horses more than women here!"

"No, I don't like the way they treat women here either. I'm just saying that you need to be careful about it. Until we get more settled and have more status we are not going to be able to do much." Tony stopped talking then, as Yana brought over some of the flat bread they had been baking. When he bit into on he was surprised to find it was some type of mashed tuber instead of the grain bread he had been expecting. At the same time it felt normal. Thinking about it he realized that he had not had anything with grain in it since he had gotten here. Everything they had eaten was greens, tubers, meat or an animal byproduct.

When Tony had finished eating, Yana offered the plate to Terry, who chose several of the pieces and then returned the plate to her. Yana returned to the fire and only when she was certain Terry had all she wanted did she and Lissil begin to eat. Tony remembered that this society was hierarchical with men at the top, followed by first wives then the other wives with servants and children at the bottom. During the not infrequent times when food was scarce, people were fed in that order as well. Children were not even named until they reached five years old, as so many of them died before that. Only then were they considered a member of the family.

Tony frowned as he thought about the number of people who died as children on this world. Even though the people were mainly herdsmen, the land should be able to support more than the number his memories told him lived off the land. Terry nodded when he mentioned the number of deaths and frowned herself.

"A lot of the deaths are caused by a lack of hygiene, you know. We need to introduce soap and the concept of cleanliness to this society as well." She looked at Yana and Lissil and headed in their direction with a determined look in her eyes.

Tony shrugged and went to check the horses that the bandits had been using. They looked better but he decided that they would need another day before he would feel comfortable going very far with them loaded as they were.

For most of the day they remained in the camp relaxing and making sure that they got the horses as ready for movement as they could. As they sat around the fire following the noon meal Josh's head came up and he growled while looking in the direction that the girls had come from. Tony grabbed his sword and a bow while Terry grabbed another bow and pulled the girls behind some of the packs.

He saw the dust first, followed shortly afterward by the sight of a banner. He relaxed somewhat as this had to be whoever had been chasing the bandits. Soon afterwards a troop of horsemen came into view. When they saw the horses they raised a shout and began riding toward him. They looked like they intended to attack when an older man in the front ranks held up his hand, causing the men to pull up their horses.

They milled around for a short time then formed up again and stood still while the older man and a boy about twelve came forward alone. They stopped about ten feet away from Tony and looked at him for a moment. The older man looked around at the horses and then back at Tony again. "You seem to have some of our property," he announced.

"If you are out of Linnel, I may. Bandits attacked us two days ago. They failed and I ended up with two women and these items."

"The women are yours, of course. We want back the items stolen from us though. I would prefer not to have to fight to take them. What would you take to ransom them?"

Tony considered how best to handle this. He could fight but there were too many to win against and he really didn't want the goods anyway. He decided, "If I can have the horses and whatever the bandits had on them, the rest is yours. I would like to ride with you to Linnel as well."

This began the bargaining and after several hours, during which the troop set up their camp and the women began cooking a meal for everyone, the bargain was finally sealed. Tony kept half the horses and the coins taken from the bandits together with half the jewels. The horses would be used to carry the goods while the troop escorted him to Linnel.

The older man sat back and stretched his arms over his head. Tony could see the troopers relaxing when they saw that and realized that Terry had been near her bow the entire time as well. Once he turned and nodded to her she moved out from the packs and headed toward the other women. The older man looked at her appreciatively and then turned back to Tony. Abruptly he spoke, "I am Tim Abrahamson, of the family Abrahamson." Tony introduced himself and he nodded. "I do not know your family but I can see that they must be of high status," Tim said as he gestured toward the goods and Terry. "You know that you will be challenged in Linnel as soon as the other newly married men see what you have. We control what happens in Linnel and all challenges must be done as custom requires."

Tony nodded as he remembered that that meant that he would have to accept challenges from men who could equal half the goods he had been given as his inheritance. Whoever lost would have to surrender half his goods and a wife to the winner. The man who lost all his wives remained unmarried; unless he was given a concubine by the head of a family/tribe that he was permitted to join. This did not happen very often since it required the man to pledge allegiance to the head of the family/tribe and give up whatever goods he had left. He would have little status but at least was a member who could depend on the family/tribe for protection and support. If the loser died, then the family/tribe who sponsored the fight received the remainder of the goods. The cities had set up elaborate arenas for this purpose and made sure the fighters were equally armed and the fight was fair. This helped distribute the wealth and made sure that no one family dominated Ain.

Outside of the cities the terms of the fights could be different, depending on where the two men fought. The members of tribe/family tended to be favored over outsiders and the rules often showed this. Custom was a strong force though and tended to limit the favoritism.

The requirement that challengers had to have half as much goods tended to keep the social order somewhat static, but a good provider sometimes managed to obtain enough goods to allow his sons to challenge higher status individuals. This was rare but did occur. For the most part higher status individuals were free to challenge anyone, but the possibility of facing a better fighter meant that men tended to pick and choose whom they fought. This kept the gene pool open and the requirement of the year long matrimonial journey for newlyweds made sure that only the fittest of the young men survived to breed the next generation.

Over the next five days as they rode to Linnel, Tony spoke often to Tim. They discussed many topics during the days but tended to end up talking about the falling number of newlyweds that appeared each year. Tim spoke of the will of the gods while Tony couldn't resist talking about how his mythical family had found that keeping things clean and using something called 'soap' had helped his family increase by reducing the number of deaths through disease. Tim appeared not terribly interested but listened politely.