It was, he told himself, a hell of a way for a love affair to start.
And then he caught himself. Yes, he had said that: love affair. Now, how could he be in love with such a vicious, arrogant, murderous bitch?
He was. Much as he hated, loathed, and despised her, he was beginning to love her.
Love was nothing new to Kickaha in this or that other world . . . but never under these circumstances.
Undoubtedly, except for Podarge, who looked just like Anana as far as the face was concerned, and the strange, really unearthly Chryseis, Anana was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.
To Kickaha, this would not automatically bring love. He appreciated beauty in a woman, of course, but he was more liable to fall in love with a woman with an agreeable personality and a quick brain and humor than with a disagreeable and/or dumb woman. If the woman was only reasonably
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attractive or perhaps even plain, he could fall in love with her if he found certain affinities in her.
And Anana was certainly disagreeable.
So why this feeling of love side by side with the hostility he felt toward her?
Who knows! Kickaha thought. Evidently, I don’t. And that in itself is pleasing, since I would not like to become bored and predictable about myself.
The bad thing about this affair was that it would probably be one-sided. She might take a sensual interest in him, but it would be ephemeral and there would be contempt accompanying it. Certainly, she could never love a leblabbiy. For that matter, he doubted that she could love anyone. The Lords were beyond love. Or at least that was what Wolff had told him.
The second day passed more quickly than the first; both were able to sleep more. That night, they were treed by a pride of lions that had come down to drink at a stream shortly after the two humans arrived. Finally, as the hours had gone by and the lions showed no desire to wander on, Kickaha became desperate. Dawn would soon lighten this area. It would be impossible to sneak back into the wagon. He told Anana that they would have to climb down and try to bluff the big cats.
Kickaha, as usual, had another motive than the obvious. He hoped that, if she had any weapons concealed or implanted in her body, she would reveal them now. But either she had none or she did not think the situation desperate enough to use them. She said that he could attempt to scare the monsters, if he wished, but she intended to stay in the tree until they went away.
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“Under ordinary circumstances, I’d agree with you,” he said. “But we have to get back inside the wagon within the next half hour.”
“I don’t have to,” she said. “Besides, you didn’t kill anything for us to eat before we went back. I don’t want to spend another hungry day inside that coffin.”
“You had plenty of dried meat and vegetables to eat,” he said.
“I was hungry all day,” she replied.