offer all that is in me to give: body and mind, will and
honor, whatever courage is mine. And death itself may not deny the
service I offer, in whatever afterlife is to come."

Cortin had no idea of the words a Sandeman would use in such a
position, but she doubted if Keith would care. She extended her hands,
smiling again. "I accept your service and yourself with thanks,
warrior."

Keith took her hands and rose, then bowed to her. "You do me great
honor, Thakur."

"The honor is mine," Cortin replied. "Are there any formalities that
need to be taken care of?"

"I'll handle those when we finish here," Medart said. "His release
from service, back pay and allowances--but it'll be up to you to notify
his clan and make arrangements for his tattoo."

"When we're done here, as you say." Cortin turned to her new sworn
man. "To give you a status recognized here, I'm commissioning you a
Royal Enforcement Service officer. Now, would you like to test your
theory?"

"Very much, Thakur." Keith paused, then continued apologetically.
"I'm afraid I don't know how, though. One of our strongest customs
forbids any same-sex physical intimacy. Since it seems yours doesn't,
that no longer applies to me, of course--but the fact remains that I
have no such experience."

Cortin chuckled. "That can be remedied easily enough, if you decide
you want to, but for your present purposes you don't need experience.
All you have to do is take hold of him, snugly enough to provide a
friction surface but not tight. The eroticine will make him take care
of the rest."

"That sounds simple enough." Keith reached for the prisoner.

Cortin watched critically as her new sworn man began his experiment.
It went against conventional theory--but then one of her more
spectacular successes had come from the use of a hallucinogen, a
procedure theory said was useless.

Hmm, that was interesting . . . Keith had told her, truthfully, that he
had no sexual experience with men, but he was starting manipulation as
effective as she'd ever seen. That surprised her almost as much as the
fact that he had time to--with such a strong dose of eroticine, she'd
have expected the prisoner to erupt within seconds.

She wasn't quite sure what he'd meant by saying his people's strongest
custom no longer applied to him--his oath, it had to be--but if he
could get the idea this quickly, and implement it, she was willing to
bet he'd enjoy the other parts of ho