"That’s enough."
"So you say."
"So I mean."
She nodded. "Then go. This ikepra cannot prevent you. I give you your freedom. Go."
I shook my head. "Can’t do that."
"Because of the woman?"
"Yes."
"There are other women."
I laughed softly. "There is no other woman like this one," I said simply, "any more than there is anyone else like you."
She studied me again. "Well," she said finally, with exquisite matter-of-factness, "of course that alters everything." A hand flicked in Nihko’s direction. "Rise."
He rose.
"Do you know why I beat him?" she asked me.
I shrugged. "You don’t like him?"
A spark of amusement leaped briefly in her eyes, was extinguished. "He insulted my house."
"I assumed something of the sort."
"He insulted you."
"Me?" I blinked. "Why in hoolies would anything he said of a foreigner matter to you?" Enough that she would strike him blow after blow with her own hand.
"Do you know what he is?"
I thought of any number of explicitly vulgar things I could say Nihko was, but restrained the impulse. She probably knew anyway, judging by her contempt. "Not as you mean it, no."
"Ikepra."
I shook my head. "You’ve said that before. I don’t speak or understand the language. I have no idea what you’re talking about."
"Profanation," Nihko said, hushed but not hesitant.
Startled, I looked at him. His eyes glittered, but the tears were gone. He was — ashamed. In that moment, before this woman, he detested himself.
"Well," I said, "there are a lot of things I could call you, but that’s not one of them." I paused. "Why? Who are you? What did you do?" Another pause. "Besides sailing away with a slaver’s daughter to rob and capture harmless Southroners like me, that is."
"Harmless?" Nihko’s smile was ghastly. "A blind man sees neither power, promise, nor danger."
"And this blind man isn’t hearing much either," I retorted. "Fine. You brought me here, told this woman I’m her long-lost heir. We’re done. You can turn Del loose now, and we’ll get on about our business."
"Nihkolara will not do so," the woman said, "until he has been rewarded. That is why he came."
"Not for me," he said sharply. A wave of color suffused his face, then faded; had he insulted the house again? "I serve Prima Rhannet."
"Oh, yes." Smoky eyes glittered coldly. "You would have me receive her. Here."
"She would have it. Yes."
"Is there a problem with that?" I asked cautiously, wondering what in hoolies I’d do if this woman refused to cooperate and Prima Rhannet decided to keep Del.
The metri was displeased. "That would seal her acceptable to the Eleven Families."
"That doesn’t mean you have to like her, does it?"
She ignored me and spoke to Nihko, whom she’d called Nihkolara. He had never named himself in any of the words he’d said to her, or to the kilted servant. But she knew who he was. "There must be proofs."
"Name them, metri."
I frowned. The balance of control had shifted. He was ikepra, whatever that meant, self-proclaimed profanation, but the tension in the room was all hers now. He knew what he was, knew his place, and for the moment he ruled it.
She shook her head. "He is scarred all over. Had the keraka ever existed, it is banished now."
The — what?
"There are things from within the body," the first mate offered, "far more convincing than marks upon the flesh."
She shook her head again. Gold chimed faintly. "There are others in this world who appear to be Skandic, even those with real or falsified keraka. And many of them have been presented to me as you have presented him. Pretenders, all of them." She smiled. "I am old. I am dying. I need an heir of the house. Were I a malleable woman, I would have ten times ten the number of men standing in this room, this moment, vowing with utter conviction that they are my one true heir."
"Look," I said, exasperated, "I don’t even care if I’m Skandic, let alone your long-lost heir. I mean, yes, I suspect I am Skandic — it’s why we set out in the first place, to see — but I’m not vowing to be your heir or anything else supposedly special. I don’t care about your wealth, your influence, your legacy, whatever it is that all these other men want, what Prima Rhannet wants. I just want my freedom." I looked at Nihko pointedly. "And Del’s."
She remained unconvinced. "A clever man will deny a birthright in order to win it."
"A clever woman, an old, dying, desperate woman"— I made it an irony between us —"would discern the attempt and discount it."
"Metri," Nihko said, and then added more in Skandic.
When he was done, her face was taut and pale. She looked at me, hard, and was old abruptly, older than her age.
"What did you say?" I asked sharply. "What did you tell her?"
"About sickness," he said. "About the weeping of your wrist"— he touched his throat —"and the burning of your flesh."
She gestured then, cutting us off. I saw the minute trembling in her hand as she stretched it toward the kilted man and spoke a single word.
He placed a small knife in her palm.
I stiffened. "Wait a moment —"
"You will see," Nihko said quietly, "and so shall she."
The woman rose. Her steps now were not so steady, though there was no less purpose in them. She walked to me, touched me briefly on the wrist as if in supplication — or apology — then raised both hands to my neck. She was a tall woman, nearly as tall as Del. I felt her touch, the coolness of her fingers, the trembling in her hands. There was no pain, only a deft cut in something I thought was hair, until she lowered her hands and I saw a strip of braided twine with a single ornament attached, a thin silver ring worked into the weave.
"What — ?" I put my hand to my throat, curling fingers around the leather thong with its weight of sandtiger claws. "Where did that come from?"
"Here." Nihko brushed a finger against his left eyebrow. "When you lay on the deck after I dragged you out of the water, vomiting up the ocean, I attached it to your necklet."
"What in hoolies for?"
A single long step and he put a hand on my chest. "This," he answered gently.
I didn’t get sick. I didn’t vomit up the ocean, or the contents of my belly. I simply lost control of every working part in my body: of the eyes, the ears, the voice, the movements of my limbs, the in- and exhalation of my lungs, the beating of my heart.
And died.
ELEVEN
I jerked bolt upright, sucking air into starving lungs in one long, loud, spasming gasp. Once I had it, I held the air so as not to let it out again, to know the horrific helplessness of simply stopping. I clutched both hands over my heart, blind to the world until I felt the steady, if pounding, beat, and then I became aware that I was no longer in the big, arch-roofed reception room, but in a smaller, round room with a dome huddled atop it.
And in a bed. With people around it.
I let my breath out and fixed the blue-headed first mate with a baleful glare. "What in hoolies did you do to me?"
Casually he replied, "Killed you."
I thought that over, reassuring myself that my heart yet beat and my lungs yet worked. "Then why am I alive now?"
"I resurrected you."
"Can you do that?"
"You are breathing, are you not?"
"How did you do it?"
His lip was swollen from where the woman had struck and split it. "I am ikepra," he said simply, "but there remain those things of the Order of which I do not speak."
I noticed then that the Stessa metri sat in a chair beside the bed, hands folded in her linen-swathed lap. Beyond her, leaning casually against the wall, was Prima Rhannet.
The first shock had worn off. And I knew… I whipped my head to the right and saw her there, waiting. "Bascha!"
She w
as unsmiling, but the relief in her eyes was profound. There were many things I wished to say to her, but I offered none of them now. Not until we were alone again. But she understood. We both of us understood. It’s handy when you know someone well enough, intimately enough, that many things pass between you with no need for actual words.
Relief brought with it an outward rush of released tension. Feeling wobbly, I scootched back in the bed and leaned against the headboard. A quick automatic self-inventory within a moment of waking had told me I was still unclothed, but modesty was served by a linen coverlet, which I yanked up over my lap as I noted Prima Rhannet’s crooked smile and laughing eyes. And why was she looking, anyway? I scowled at her; was rewarded with a wide, mocking grin.
The Stessa metri sat very still in her chair. I looked at her, weighed the extreme degree of self-containment evident in her posture and expression, and sighed. "I take it you paid them."
Her gaze was steady. "Nihkolara proved beyond a doubt you are Skandic," she said. "Whether you are my grandson is as yet unknown, but I dared not take the chance."
I blinked. "Grandson?"
"It is possible," she said calmly.
"Grandson," I repeated, astonished by the complexity of emotions that single word — and its context — roused. "But —" But. There was nothing to say. I just looked at her, stunned, and shook my head.
One dark eyebrow rose a fraction. "No?"
No. Yes. Maybe. I don’t know. Ask me later.
Hoolies.
I focused on something else. "You paid them, so why are they still here?" I flicked a glance beyond her to the red-haired woman in the corner. "You didn’t seem too enamored of the idea of receiving a slaver’s daughter in your home."
I was rewarded by the slow bloom of color in the freckled face. Prima glowered at me, all trace of mocking amusement wiped away.
"And so I am not," the metri replied. "But there is more involved in this enterprise than coin."
I glanced at Del. "Get your feet washed?"
That baffled her utterly. "My feet — ?"
Prima Rhannet laughed harshly. "We were denied the honor," she said in a clipped tone, "but be certain the floors shall be cleansed when we have gone, and the carpets reblessed."
"But…" I looked now at Nihko. "I don’t get it."
"I am ikepra," he answered steadily, "and all know it. But they had rather take no chances."
"Any more than I," the metri put in quietly.
I cleared my throat. "So. Here we are." I glanced around, marking faces one by one until I came to hers again. "What happens next?"
"You shall be accorded the hospitality of my house, you and your woman."
"And your new friends," Prima said pointedly, a certain amount of malicious glee underscoring her tone.
The metri didn’t miss the point. "As well as your companions."
"Now, wait," I said. "They aren’t my companions. They are my captors. There’s a difference."
"But of course there is not," replied the woman who might — or might not — be my grandmother. "Because if it is true you are my heir, then of course your companions must be treated with honor, received as my guests before the Eleven Families of Skandi."
"Kind of a rock and a hard place, isn’t it?"
The spark flickered in her eye, was gone. "Such braises heal."
I grinned. "So they do."
"As for now…" She rose. "I will have your companions conducted to rooms worthy of their status, while you and your woman reassure yourselves that you are indeed both whole."
Even Nihko and his captain capitulated and followed her out of the room. With their departure I felt the last bit of tension drain from my body. My skull thumped against the wall. "Gods, I’m tired." I stretched out my hand; Del took it. Tightly. "Was I really dead?"
She hitched a hip onto the bed and perched beside me. When I tugged insistently at her hand, she moved closer, finally matching her length to mine as she settled shoulders against the headboard. "You weren’t breathing when I came here, nor was your heart beating. If both of those symptoms constitute death, then yes, you were dead."
I felt at the flesh of my chest, seeking answers. The heart continued to beat, and I was aware of steady breathing. Not dead, then. Now. "I don’t understand. How did Nhiko do such a thing?"
"Let us be more concerned with the fact he undid it," Del suggested. "It took him two days."
"Two days?" I stiffened. "You’re not saying I was dead for two whole days!"
"I am."
"No."
She shrugged.
"This is impossible, bascha!"
"Be grateful it’s not," she replied, "or you would likely be buried somewhere on this rock."
"Oh, no. If I’m buried anywhere, it’ll be in the South."
She slanted me a sidelong glance. "You might be somewhat rank by the time we got you there."
"Too bad," I retorted. "At least I don’t have to smell me!"
"Of course, I could have you burned," Del said consideringly, "and take you back in an urn. That would be more convenient."
"Oh? And what kind of urn would be appropriate for a man who is also messiah?"
Her expression was guileless as she looked at me. "Likely an empty aqivi jug."
"Empty!" I glared at her aggrievedly. "Hoolies, bascha, if you’re going to drag my remains around in an aqivi jug, at least let it be a full one!"
She broke then, laughing, and turned hard against me, setting her head down into the hollow of my shoulder. I hooked an arm around her and contemplated the immensity of being alive after one has been dead. And the simple, unadorned joy of having this woman here beside me, as glad of it as I was.
"Del —"
She breathed it into my neck. "I know."
"Del —"
She put fingers across my lips. "If you say anything, you will regret it."
I extruded my tongue and licked her fingers purposefully. She removed them hastily. I grinned. "Why will I regret it?"
"Because I’ve seen you when you’ve had too much to drink. You get sad. Sappy."
"Sappy!"
"And the next day you’ve forgotten it entirely, which is no more flattering than you wishing you hadn’t said it."
"I never wish I hadn’t said what I’ve said to you." I reconsidered. "Well, maybe sometimes. When we have disagreements, though those are extremely rare." I was rewarded by the crimped mouth I expected to see. "But hoolies, bascha, I just came back from the dead! Doesn’t that allow me some latitude to say what I want?"
"But then the Sandtiger will have divulged a portion of himself he wants no one ever to see."
"His sappiness?"
Del laughed. "You have survived by letting them think you are not soft."
I grunted. "Softness doesn’t survive in the circle."
"So I have said." A strand of silken hair trapped itself against stubble and claw scars. "But I know what you are. You needn’t say it where anyone else might hear."
"At the moment what I’m feeling has nothing to do with, er, softness."
Del patted my lap. "I know."
I couldn’t help the startled reflexive twitch of every muscle in my body. I caught her hand, gripped it, fixed her with a forbidding scowl. "Gently, bascha!"
"No," she said. "Fiercely. So I know, and you know, you’re very much alive."
Oh. Well, yes. I could manage that. Being brought back from the dead does give a man the motivation to make certain all the parts still work.
Some hours later, the silent, kilted servant led me out of the house to a small, private terrace tucked into one of the niches between domed room and arched. Akritara appeared to be full of such places, cobbled together over the years from a set of chambers into a sprawling assemblage of them. And here I found an array of potted plants, all blooming so that the air was rich with fragrance. I was startled to see that a rising breeze blew the hedges along the low wall into tattered fragments; this must be the wind Nihko had mentio
ned, forcing the people of Skandi to train their grapevines into baskets.
I squinted against the dust, then turned back toward the house as the servants touched my arm. And there was the Stessa metri, seated in a chair. The linen of her belted tunic rippled slightly, but her chair had been set back into a niche that the wind only barely reached.
Her eyes appraised me coolly. "Do you feel better?"
I ran a hand down the front of my tunic. "A bath, fresh clothing, a meal — what more could a man ask?"
"I referred to none of those things."
I blinked, then felt my face warm. Which in itself annoyed me; I haven’t blushed in, well, so many years I couldn’t count them.
"Well?"
"Well what?"
"Do you feel better?"
"I’m just glad I’m alive to feel anything."
Her gaze yet probed me. "Did you not release your seed in her?"
I looked around for a chair. Didn’t find one. Looked around for the servant in hopes he might bring one, but he was gone. So I sat down on the nearest portion of knee-high wall, in the wind, and smiled sweetly at her. "Aren’t you a little blunt for a woman of your, um, maturity? Or are you just trying to shock me?"
One brow rose slightly. "Do you shock?"
"Not often."
"I thought not." She smoothed a fold in the sheer linen of her tunic skirts with a deft hand. "Did you?"
"Did I what?"
"Release your seed in her."
I considered her. "Do you want me to believe you’re a woman who takes pleasure in hearing bedroom tales of others?"
"Tell me," she said only.
I stood up then, left the wall, took three strides to her. Leaned down, looming, so that my face was but a thumb’s length from hers. "Yes," I said. "Anything else you want to know? How many times, who was on top, how long I lasted?"
She did not recoil from my closeness, or my tone. "My heir," she said quietly, "must be capable of bedding a woman. Of what use is an heir if he can sire no children?"
I straightened, startled. "This is about children?"
Her gray-green eyes were smoky. "Do you wish to believe I’m a woman who finds pleasure in hearing bedroom tales of others?"
I opened my mouth, shut it. Could find no response.
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