Chapter 32: Native Customs Part 3
"That was clever," Trals shoved her under the tent flap.
"What was clever?"
The tent was hot and close, but at least it was shady and she could sit on the skins on the floor. Trals crouched on his own scaly cushion. "Raising the subject of time alone with me. It's bad luck to keep a childless woman away from her marriage tent. Not," he said when he saw Andrea's face, "that now is the time think of children."
"No shit," said Andrea, "that is an argument I do not want to - "
"Exactly. We march against the Slavers in no more than three days."
"Excuse me?" It was too dark to see his face, but it didn't sound like Trals was joking. "I thought we were talking about birth control."
"My enemy, Captain Ngarong of the Ankylosaur, will be making his move, and your allies might soon become difficult to reach," said Trals, who was apparently not talking about birth control. "We have only a handful of days to begin our march back to Fort Alluvia in strength and retrieve them."