"Ah. Doesn’t count, then, what you do elsewhere, only what you do here." I nodded sagely. "Very convenient."
He hissed briefly. "Convenience has nothing to do with it!"
I laughed at him. "Here you are refusing to soil yourself by setting foot to ground that hasn’t been properly blessed, and yet you carve open the bellies of men and spill out their innards, or lop their heads off. Isn’t that just a little messy?"
Nihko sealed up his mouth again into a thin, retentive seam. He opened it only to say something curtly to the molah-man, whose head was turned slightly in our direction as if he listened closely. The man’s head snapped back around in response to Nihko’s tone. I saw him make a hand gesture, and then he tugged at the molahs to encourage a faster pace.
Something to be learned of Nihko Blue-head, it seemed. And if I got lucky, maybe it was something I could use against him.
Smiling, I relaxed against the woven-limb back and let the sun beat on my face.
TEN
I’d thought this place called Akritara was a village, or settlement. Instead I discovered it was a collection of rooms all interconnected like a bulbous hive, sprouting multiple mounds of arching roofs and rounded domes on half-levels, like a pile of tumbled river stones. The arched roofs were painted white, the domes blue. Perched atop a hillock and surrounded by miles of ground-level wreaths of grapevine, Akritara looked precisely what it was: the preeminent household of Skandi.
So, Prima Rhannet and Nihko Blue-head didn’t just intend to pass me off as a descendant of a wealthy house, but heir to the house.
"Never work," I murmured.
Nihko said nothing to me, though he spoke to the molah-man, directing him in a clipped, authoritative tone. On board the ship, as first mate, he’d been at ease with second-command, accepted by the crew as one of them and yet the captain’s most trusted man. But ever since we’d set foot on Skandi, Nihko had behaved differently. I sensed a coiled power within him, an unspoken emotion, something akin to hostility. The people at the clifftop had clearly been afraid of him, making gestures against him — or perhaps against what he represented, with his shaven, tattooed head and silver brow rings. By admission he was a Skandic priest, and certainly he was treated as something other, something more, than merely a man. But there is a vast difference between being respected for your power, and feared.
"What did that mean?" I asked abruptly. "You said if I ever got tired of feeling sick, I should come to you."
He glanced at me briefly, then returned his attention to the drive before us. "Do you feel sick?"
Startled, I realized I didn’t, and hadn’t for some time. "Not any more."
"Then there is no need for me to answer."
"Sure there is. There’s simple curiosity —"
"Enough," he said curtly, cutting me off. "There are other concerns facing you now than the condition of your belly."
Piecing bits together, I ignored that. "There’s only one thing that has ever exerted that kind of — of manifestation, had that kind of effect," I continued thoughtfully. "Except for the occasional bouts with too much aqivi, or getting kicked in the head. But all of those had cause." Which had happened with more frequency than I preferred.
Steadfastly he ignored me.
I did not ignore him. "And now you say you’re a priest."
No answer.
"But priests can be many things. Men of conviction. Fools. And men of magic."
Sunlight glinted off the silver in his eyebrows.
"Are you a fool, Nihko?"
That got him. He studied me a long moment, measuring my own conviction. Then his mouth hooked down briefly. "Some would say so."
"Magic," I said, "has always disagreed with me. I have some acquaintance with it. It and I don’t get along, much."
"Magic is a harsh and unforgiving master."
"And here I’ve always thought men desired to be its master."
"Fools," he said tightly. "Fools desire such things." And then he called out to the molah-man, and we passed through open gates into a sunny courtyard made less blinding than the white-painted arches by the profusion of vegetation.
Everything everywhere was blooming. There was no subtlety, no careful ritual in arrangement. Things simply — grew. Many-branched, silver-gray trees; taller trees with cloudlike crowns boasting clusters of lavender draperies; long-leaved bushes bedecked by sprays of pinks and whites and reds; a strange, twisting vinelike plant that crawled up and over walls to display its bounty of leaves that, changing from green, were part red and part purple and all incandescence. The white-painted walls, the intensity of the sun, the brilliance of the skies, all combined with the gardens to make a palette of rich color and fragrance almost dizzying to behold.
The molah-man scurried about, pulling his mat from the shelf beneath the cart. He spread it carefully across swept bricks, and even as he did so two men hastened forward from the shadows of the courtyard to unroll a narrow runner of carpet extending from the entryway. We would not soil our feet on the bricks of the courtyard or the stone of the steps, but be separated from the earth by one poor mat and an exquisitely woven carpet of creamy wool.
Nihko exited the cart-bench, then gestured for me to follow. He led me to the shadowed, deep-set entryway, spoke briefly to the carpet-men, then gestured me to wait. One of the men went inside. When he appeared again, he made way for a second man. A tall, thin, older man, gray of eyes and hair, adorned in sheer linen kilt and a necklet of glass and gold hanging against his bare chest. He was too well-trained to stare at Nihko, but his quiet scrutiny was nonetheless obvious.
Nihko spoke at length. His tone was courteous, but not in the least deferential. The older man listened gravely, never once glancing in my direction. When Nihko was done making his explanations, whatever they might be — not knowing the language placed me at a distinct disadvantage — the man said one soft word, then turned neatly on his heel and led us into the house.
I paused theatrically at the threshold. "What about the floors? Do we dare — ?"
Something glinted in Nihko’s eye that was not humor. He turned from me and followed the older man. Laughing inwardly, I did the same.
We were led into a small, low-ceilinged room through which we could see another much larger room with a high arched roof. The kilted man gestured briefly to shelves set against the wall; Nihko removed his shoes and placed them there. I noted there were several other pairs of shoes as well. I wiggled bare toes again, and succeeded at last in drawing the older man’s attention. He watched me gravely, measuring me in his own quiet way. That I came barefoot to the house meant something, but I had no idea of what; surely Nihko had told him I’d been properly cleansed despite being shoeless. I sensed neither disdain nor fear. He simply looked at me, expressionless.
The ground swayed again, or seemed to. I put out a hand to steady myself against the wall. With the kilted man’s scrutiny so fixed, I was abruptly aware of everything about that hand: its calluses, nicks and scrapes and scars, discolorations, cracked nails, the broad palm-back ridged with tendons that flexed and rolled beneath sun-bronzed skin, the long, limber fingers that felt far more at home gripping a sword hilt than a smooth, flat, cool wall in a house called Akritara on an island named Skandi.
I thought abruptly of Del, being held on a ship as surety of my behavior.
I took my hand from the wall and stood straight with effort, trusting years of training to replace sea-stolen balance. This was a land of tall men, strong men, and nothing about me, physically, indicated I was anything unlike anyone else, save a brief, quickly hidden flicker in the older man’s gray eyes. Not judgment. Curiosity. A need to know.
He gestured then, ushered us into the much larger room beyond. Murals adorned the walls, elaborate and brilliantly colored scenes of boys with strings of fish, of ships asail, flowers, and beasts with horned heads. The ceiling flowed overhead in a high, elegant symmetry pleasing to the eye. I followed the line up, over, and down, marking the spare, simple angles of
ceiling, wall, floor, hollows like windows cut into thick walls to display adornments, the wide doors leading into other arched and domed places. Everything about the room fit, as Single-stroke had once fit my hands. Cleanly, without excess. A perfection of purity and purpose. Like a circle, and the dance.
My breath stilled in my throat. Home. I was home. And all of me knew it.
The back of my neck tingled. I hitched shoulders, rubbed my neck in irritation; felt again the kilted man’s attention. There was a single chair in the large, airy room; neither of us was directed to sit in it. Instead, we were gestured toward large cushions on the floor. Nihko seated himself. I did not. Not even when he told me to.
"Look," I said irritably, "you brought me here. You can tell them I’m a demon or a god, and I can’t protest because I don’t speak the language. Right now your plan is to present me as the heir to this house, and here I am. You’ll have that chance. But you can’t dictate if I stand or sit." Especially since he carried neither knife nor sword, and we neither of us had established who was the stronger.
Nihko opened his mouth to answer with some heat, but shut it again as he glanced briefly at the older man. He was clearly displeased, but could say nothing now. Instead he sat stolidly on his cushion, shaven head bowed slightly, and prepared himself to wait.
Once upon a time I was good at that. An impatient man makes mistakes in the circle, dangerous and occasionally deadly mistakes. I knew very well it was best to conserve strength and energy by remaining quiet, by steadying the rhythm of my breathing, by letting my body rest. But circumstances precluded that. I was a prisoner to this man, to his captain. As much as I was a prisoner of uncertainty and self-doubt.
This moment was what I had come to Skandi for. And I was frightened of it.
Oh, bascha, lend me your strength.
But Del, as much as I, was a prisoner to people who planned unknown outcomes for equally unknown actions.
Not my choice, to be in or of this moment. But I was helpless to alter it.
The kilted man glided quietly from the room. I expected Nihko to speak to me now, but he didn’t. He simply sat there, head bowed, eyes closed. Praying? Maybe. But I wasn’t certain I wanted to know anything about his gods or his priesthood, or the content of his convictions.
I walked. I paced the length of the rectangular room with its arching, airy ceiling and counted my steps. Back again to the other end of the room, where the low doorway led into the entry chamber containing no more than shelves and shoes.
Beneath my bare feet lay stone, cool stone composed of tiny square tiles of similar but subtly different hues. My soles were callused from years of fighting barefoot in the Southron sand, so my flesh wasn’t sensitive enough to mark pits and seams and hollows. Merely stone to me: tiles carefully cut, shaped, and laid with precise attention, grouted and fitted together into quiet, soothing patterns. The walls and ceilings, the doors and the floors formed a subtle variety of shape, and shadow, and structure. My body knew this place, knew the appeal of purity, answered seductive symmetry. It knew without knowing; there was no way it could know, any more than my mind could embrace the comforting familiarity of a place I had never been.
I walked. I paced. I stopped only, and at last, when the woman came into the room.
Nihko rose at once. He caught her eye briefly, then instantly fixed his gaze on the patterned floor. I, on the other hand, merely waited. I folded my arms, set a shoulder against the wall, hooked one ankle casually over the other as I leaned, and waited.
Now I could be patient. Now it mattered.
Nihko said a single word. The one I knew. Not precisely what it meant, not the infinite possibilities of semantic subtleties, but I knew as much as I needed to know.
"Metri," he said.
This, then, was the Stessa metri, the woman who would be so desperately grateful for the return of the long-lost heir that she would grant Nihko Blue-head and his impulsive, slaver-reared female captain the welcome, the status, the wealth both desired.
I looked at the woman. I marked her stature, her posture, the cool and calm smoky gray-green eyes, darker than my own, and I realized what a fool Nihko was, and Prima Rhannet, and even Del, who had told them enough of me to make them plan this plan.
She wore sheer, sleeveless linen that fell to the floor, bleached nearly white. It made her skin seem darker than the warm copper-bronze it was. Around her waist was doubled a bright green sash, and over it a soft-worked leather belt chiming with golden circlets and brilliant blue beads. Larger circlets rang softly against both arms, depended from her ears, encircled her throat. Her hair, swept back from her face and fastened into a thick tail by a series of gold-and-enamel clasps, was darker than mine. There was silver and white in it just as there were threadings of age in her face, her throat, her hands, but nothing about this woman suggested she was old. Not in body, not in bearing, nor in the clarity of expression.
"Metri," he said again.
She seated herself in the single chair. The kilted man glided silently into the room and set down upon the small table beside her a delicate crockery jar and one cup. He poured, he lifted, he offered; she accepted. And all the while she looked only at Nihko. There was no indication she was aware of me at all.
So much for desperation. So much for a dying, weak old woman badly in need of an heir. I doubted the Stessa metri would allow anything so insignificant as death to defeat her will and purpose.
The woman set down the cup, then flicked a finger in Nihko’s direction. He began speaking quietly and steadily, putting little emphasis in his words. I knew nothing of what he said, what lies or truths he told, but his tone did not suggest coercion or contrived charm. Perhaps he was, after all, as aware of her strength as I.
When he was done at last, the woman retrieved the cup and drank again. Still she did not look at me. Her expression was unmoved. I’ve been in the circle with men less suited to hiding their thoughts. Serenity was not her gift, but she knew how to be quiet. She knew how to still her mind so her judgments were sound — and absolutely unpredictable until she declared them.
Eventually, the woman looked at me. She spoke a single accented word, and this one I knew. "Undress."
I blinked. Then bestowed upon her my most charming smile. "You first."
Nihko was on his feet instantly. Even as I came off the wall onto the balls of my feet, he struck, spewing anger and invective in a tone thick with shock. It was a blow with the flat of his hand designed to catch me across the face, the way a man strikes a slave, but I moved quickly enough to avoid the power of it. I clamped one hand around his wrist and held it.
Before I could do anything more than stop him, before I could even phrase a response, the woman rose from her chair. In three long strides she reached Nihko, and her blow, unexpected and powerful, rocked him on his feet. Shocked, he staggered back, one hand to his face. I released his wrist, wondering warily if I might be her next target.
But I was not. It was Nihko.
With timed, meticulous blows, using the flat of her rigid hand, she drove him to the ground. He knelt there, shoulders rounded in submission, tattooed head bowed before her as she spoke with quiet, vicious emphasis. When she stopped speaking, stopped striking him, when he raised his head at last, I saw the blood. The tears.
The palm of her hand was reddened from the blows. She turned to me again, and again said, "Undress."
I stared back at her, matching determination, then grinned slowly. "Hoolies, woman, all you had to do was ask."
She waited.
I untied the sash, dropped it; stripped off the tunic, dropped it; undid the drawstring and let the baggy trousers fall. I stepped out of them, kicked them aside, offered a cheery smile. "I detest red anyway."
From a distance of two paces, she studied me. I’ve been examined before: by slavers, by sword-dancers, by enemies, by sorcerers, even by friends. Certainly by women. But her perusal of my nudity was uncannily different. There was no sense of ownership or impend
ing purchase; no sexual hunger, no arousal, no predatory promise; no assessment to weigh my worth as a man or a sword-dancer hired to do a task. She simply looked, so intent as to be unaware of surroundings, the way an artist might study the line of bone and shadow, the play of light on flesh, the fit and function of form. To see how the body was made, how it worked, in order to recreate it — or to recognize it.
I expected her to gesture me to turn, or to demand it with a curt command. She did neither. She walked beyond me with smooth, measured strides and stood at my back.
Nihko remained on the floor. He was watching her, not me, making no effort to wipe the blood from his split lip, to erase the drying tears. He knelt there, knees doubled up beneath him, green eyes transfixed by the woman’s actions.
"Getting an eyeful?" I asked lightly.
She caught a handful of hair and lifted it briefly from the back of my neck. Then let it fall as she moved from behind me. She returned to the chair and seated herself quietly. "What have you been," she asked in a cool, accented voice, "to deserve such punishment?"
"What have I been?" I hitched a shoulder, wondering what Nihko had told her. What he expected me to tell her. What she expected me to tell her.
I gave her the truth. Briefly, explicitly, without embellishment. Naming off the names of the tasks I had done, the dances I had won, the enemies defeated. All the truths of my past, despite the ugliness, the brutality that had driven a terrified boychild into tenacious manhood.
Her voice was uninflected. "How many years have you?"
I shook my head. "No idea." Still the truth.
Her eyes narrowed slightly. "Guess."
I laughed then, genuinely amused. "Better to throw the oracle bones. The odds are better."
She flicked a glance at Nihko, then returned it to me. "Has he told you, this man, this renegada, this ikepra, what you would gain if I accepted you?"
"Yes," I answered bluntly. "My freedom, and the freedom of the woman who travels with me."
"No more than that?"
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