"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 ...