Rishi seemed not to notice anything amiss. “Thank you, but no. I find that your wine tends to make me forget myself. Perhaps I could have a glass of water instead?”
Prax’s mother turned to Iphigenia and prodded her daughter to her feet.
Iphigenia brought a cup of water, but she ruined any positive impression of her behavior by blurting out a question. “Are you the woman who took my brother away? I didn’t get to see you before because I had to stay with my other brother who was wounded.”
Rishi smiled at her but ignored the question. “You must be Iphigenia.” She looked around the campsite. “But where is Nikos?”
“Married and gone to live with the Kazanti,” Prax’s mother said.
“How nice for him,” Rishi said.
“Lady,” Prax said again, “why have you come here?”
“I came to see if you’re going to the gathering,” Rishi said. “I’ve been invited, so I wanted to know whether I should look for you there.”
They all stood and stared at her for a second. Whatever answer Prax had expected, this was not it. “You were invited to the gathering, lady?” Having outsiders at a gathering was extremely rare. He couldn’t remember it happening in his lifetime.
“Yes,” Rishi said, maintaining her serenity in the face of their amazement. “Melina the Zemikis invited me. I’m looking forward to it.”
Prax’s parents exchanged glances. Melina Zemikis was Prax’s great-aunt, his father’s mother’s oldest sister. She was also the head of the Zemikis, and, as head of the host clan, was entitled to invite whomever she wanted to this gathering. She was known as a canny old woman, with a reputation for subtle deals unmatched among the Elliniká. Prax noted that neither of his parents made a comment about this invitation.
He moved back from the fire, but stayed standing so that his father could have his seat.
“I am not attending this year,” Prax said. “I’m staying behind with some others to watch the herd. My parents will be there, though.”
Rishi didn’t seem unduly disappointed. She gave Circe a measuring glance, as if she was assessing her for some unknown reason, but she spoke to Prax. “That’s too bad. I would have liked to see you in the knife throwing contest.”
Prax stayed silent; Konstantin smiled; Circe looked alarmed; Iphigenia looked curious.
“But in any event,” Rishi said with satisfaction, “your parents will be there.”
“Praxiteles,” Konstantin said, “it seems a shame for you to miss this gathering, especially since you’ve been gone for so long. Your mother is right; Nikos will want to see you, and Apollo, too.”
“His brothers can wait,” Circe said. “Praxiteles has made a commitment.”
“I could talk to Achilles,” Konstantin said. “Perhaps someone could take his place here? No harm in asking.”
Circe frowned but said nothing.
Prax tried to dissuade his father without appearing unfilial by disagreeing with him. “Surely it’s too late, Father. You leave at dawn tomorrow.”
“I’ll go talk to Achilles,” his father said, standing up.
Rishi rose rapidly to her feet. “I have to go, too.”
Prax suddenly remembered that she had come alone. He looked out into the dark night. “Where is Hari, lady?”
“Waiting for me by the flyter,” Rishi said, using the Standard word for flyter as there wasn’t one in Elliniká. “I told him I’d be fine alone.”
Prax was amazed that Hari had let her come this far without an escort.
Rishi seemed to realize what he was thinking. “I decided I was letting Hari tell me what to do too much of the time.” She gave him a tentative smile. “It is dark, though. Would you walk me to the flyter, please, Praxiteles?”
Prax hesitated. The situation was so unexpected and so unprecedented, he didn’t know what was the right thing to do. He decided he couldn’t politely refuse, so he nodded.
Konstantin held out his hand. “It was good to see you again, lady.”
“Thank you,” Rishi said. She smiled so that her dimple showed again and held out her hand to Circe.
Prax’s mother frowned, but wiped her hand on her apron. She shook Rishi’s hand with grim finality. Iphigenia was friendlier, smiling when she shook Rishi’s hand.
“Shall we go?” Rishi asked, as casually as if they were merely leaving a party on Subidar.
Prax said nothing, but walked to the edge of the firelight and waited. They started to walk in the direction she had come. In a moment, Prax’s eyes adjusted to the darkness and he could see better. The moon was almost full; gatherings were always held during a full moon. There was enough light for Prax to see Rishi’s face.
They walked in silence for several seconds. Finally, Prax repeated his first question, but made it more precise.
“Why did you come to Celadon, lady?”
She said nothing for a moment, and then she turned to him and stopped walking. “I came to ask you a question.”
Prax stopped to stand beside her. “What question?”
She looked up at him, her eyes solemn. “If there was a way you could free yourself of the Mercouri punishment, would you?”
Prax opened his mouth to say it was impossible, but she held up a hand to stop him.
“I’m not asking if you know of a way,” she said. “I’m asking, if I—if we found a way, would you take it—even if it means that you have to suffer pain and humiliation?”
He stared at her. What could her question mean? Did she hope to buy off Eugenie, somehow? She might have learned the language, but she knew nothing of his people if she thought the law could be flouted in exchange for credits. But if there were a way out, would he take it? “Yes.”
She frowned, perhaps finding his answer too easy. “I’m serious, Praxiteles. There’s no guarantee that this plan will work, but I can promise you that it will involve a good deal of embarrassment, probably very public embarrassment.”
He shook his head. “I can’t imagine what you mean. But I can tell you if there is any way I can stay an Elliniká but be free to leave here with you, I will do it.”
She nodded once, then took his hand and started walking again. “Why did you leave Subidar without telling me goodbye?”
Prax let her hold his hand. There was no one to see them. “I was afraid to tell you I was leaving. You might have been able to talk me out of it.” Conscious of a guilty conscience, he changed the subject. “How did you learn my language?”
She looked pleased with herself. “I had my local agent find an Elliniká who had gone to live in Pireaus. I paid her to come to Subidar to teach me to speak Elliniká and tell me about your customs.”
Prax could see lights ahead, and the dim outline of a flyter. It wasn’t the sleek shape to which Prax had grown accustomed on Subidar. Prax recognized the figure standing by the flyter door.
“Hello, Prax,” Hari said, as they approached.
“Hello, Hari,” Prax said. “You should take Rishi home.”
Hari laughed. “I’ve been trying to do that for the last two weeks. It hasn’t worked yet.”
“No one is taking me anywhere except back to Agnios,” Rishi said. She turned to Prax. “I’ll see you tomorrow at the gathering.”
Prax shook his head. “I don’t know. It depends on what Achilles says.”
“If he doesn’t approve, then I’ll see you when the gathering is over,” Rishi said. She stood on tiptoe and gave Prax a kiss on the mouth. He was startled but he didn’t draw back.
“Goodbye until tomorrow,” Rishi said, and she stepped into the flyter.
“Good luck, Prax,” Hari said as he climbed in behind Rishi.
Lights came on, and Prax could see that there were two other people in the back of the flyter cabin. He wasn’t certain, but it looked like Chio and Tinibu. Prax stepped back as th
e flyter took off.
Prax stood and watched until the flyter lights disappeared. Then he turned around and walked back to his family’s campsite.
When he got there, his father hadn’t returned from visiting Achilles. His mother was washing pots and dishes. She didn’t speak to Prax. She worked briskly, with her back to him, disapproval written in every line of her body. Iphigenia was helping her. The girl had a subdued look, as if she had been rebuked sharply for something.
Prax tried to help his mother empty the dish pan, but she brushed him aside.
“I can manage,” she said. “You go see to your things. If you’re going to go after all, you’ll need to be sure you’ve got everything ready.”
“Achilles might say no,” Prax said.
His mother merely sniffed in disbelief. In a few minutes, she was proved right. His father came back to the fire and told him that Achilles had found someone else to take Prax’s place watching the herd.
“Timotheos didn’t want to go to the gathering, anyway,” Konstantin said. “His mother had talked him into it, but he was eager for an excuse to say he couldn’t go. After I left Achilles, I stopped by Penelope’s wagon and told her you’d be going with us and not staying with her.”
Prax’s mother banged the pans together as she put them away in their crate. Konstantin exchanged glances with Prax.
“Why don’t you take Iphigenia with you when you check the alogos, Praxiteles?” his father said. “There’s a nice moon, and she might enjoy the walk.”
Iphigenia didn’t protest, so Prax walked with her to the area where their team was tethered along with their neighbors’ beasts.
His sister wasted no time in coming to the point. “Why did she come back here, Prax? What does she want this time?”
“Don’t you know anything about how to behave?” Prax demanded, frowning. “It seems to me you’ve learned nothing while I’ve been away.”
“I learned that if I don’t ask, no one tells me anything,” Iphigenia said impudently.
“Sometimes they don’t tell you even when you do ask. This is one of those times.”
Iphigenia smiled a little smugly. “I suppose I’ll find out at the gathering.”
Prax didn’t answer. He checked each alogos’ hobbles, to be sure it couldn’t get far if they wandered. Then he stood and stroked their long noses for a moment.
“It’s getting cool out here,” Iphigenia complained. “Let’s go back now.”
“Not just yet,” Prax said. “Mother and Father need a few minutes to be alone.”
Iphigenia tilted her head inquiringly. “Are they kissing?”
“I don’t know. It’s none of my business. Maybe they are. Maybe they’re just talking. Just give them some time, and don’t be so nosy.”
“All right,” Iphigenia agreed. “I’ll wait. But only if you tell me about your adventure.”
Prax frowned again.
“Oh, don’t worry,” she said. “I don’t need to know how many times you slept with her. Tell me what her world was like. Is it true there are people who aren’t really people at all?”
“Yes,” Prax said, relieved that she had asked an impersonal question. “There are several kinds of aliens. The ones you see most are Shuratanians and Milorans. They can live on the same worlds that we can. I saw a couple of other species on one of the ships coming back—several Tryffs and a couple of Jhuobans.”
Iphigenia wanted to know what each species looked like precisely. Prax told her as best he could. He was willing to talk as much as she wanted about the wonders of the galaxy so long as she didn’t probe into his personal life.
“Why did you come back here?” Iphigenia asked. “Why would you come back to this place where nothing exciting ever happens?”
Prax started to tell her to mind her own business, but decided there were some things she should know. “You said that Mother told you what happened between me and Zoë. Did she tell you about my punishment?”
“She said they beat you and they put you in the prison wagon. I remember you being away for days, and then coming back very sick, but no one would talk about it. It wasn’t fair.”
“I was guilty. If Zoë had lived, they would have punished her, too. But she died, so I owe the clan a life. The elders decreed that I can never marry. I must stay here and make up for the loss of Zoë.”
Iphigenia stared at him. Two tears welled up in her eyes. “Oh, Prax! That’s not fair at all! Why should you give up your life because Zoë killed herself? It’s just not fair.”
“She died because of what I did, Iphigenia. Remember that.”
“No!” His sister almost spat out the word. “She died because she chose to die. She could have lived and taken her punishment like you did.”
“They would have taken the child away from her,” Prax said softly. “You know that.”
Iphigenia nodded. “Of course I do. But if she wanted it that badly, she could have run away to the city to live. She didn’t need you for that.”
“That’s enough on the subject. We’ll go back now, and I don’t want to hear you mention it again.”
“You sound exactly like Mother,” Iphigenia said.
“I hope you listen to her better than you listen to me.”
They walked back to the campsite together. Their parents were sitting side by side on a bench by the fire. Prax saw his father move his arm from around his mother’s shoulder, and he smiled.
They all went to bed soon after since they would have an early start. Prax remembered how Rishi had looked standing in the firelight in her Elliniká dress. He fell asleep, wondering what she planned to do at a gathering of his people.
Chapter Twenty-One
Under the bright, clear-blue dome of the sky, Prax helped his father find a place for their wagon among those of the other Mercouri who had come to the gathering. The wagons had been parked in rows, four Mercouri wagons to a row, with an aisle on either side between them and the next clans. The Mercouri were already six rows deep by the time Konstantin reined in his team. As the rows got farther back from the center, they would add wagons to each row to form a giant semicircle.
Prax saw his grandmother getting down from his aunt’s wagon in the next row, and ran to help her.
“Thank you, Praxiteles,” Antigone Mercouri said. She gave him an appraising look. “So the woman has come back?”
“Yes, Grandmother,” Prax said. He didn’t ask how she knew. News could travel faster among the Elliniká than the Golden Hawk could travel through space.
“Maybe that’s good?” his grandmother said. “Better to have everything resolved.”
Prax said nothing. He couldn’t openly disagree with her, and he wouldn’t lie, either. It would be pointless, anyway, because Antigone was empathic.
“How is your mother taking it?” his grandmother asked.
“She’s upset.”
Antigone nodded. She knew her daughter very well. “Don’t let her bother you too much. You come around to our wagon if she fusses at you.”
Prax made an effort to hide his skepticism. His Aunt Leda was less abrasive with him than his Aunt Aphrodite had been, but she was convinced her sister had died from sorrow after Zoë’s death, and she held Prax responsible. His grandmother knew this, but chose not to acknowledge it. “Yes, Grandmother.” She would know he didn’t mean it. Antigone always knew what the people around her were feeling.
“Run along,” she said. “You haven’t been to a gathering in years. Go find your brothers and have some fun.”
His father said almost the same thing when Prax went back to help set up camp.
“I can handle this,” Konstantin said. “Go find Nikos and Apollo. Remind them to come see their mother and their grandmother later.”
Prax went looking for Nikos first. The order of the clan sites was the same from year to yea
r, changing only to give the host clan the prime place. The Kazanti always camped just two clans away from the Mercouri. Prax found his younger brother’s wagon with no trouble; it still looked new. The boardwood of the sides hadn’t weathered yet; the pale green wood stood out among the silver-gray wagons around it.
Apollo was with his youngest brother. They were deep in conversation when Prax walked up. From the way the discussion ended so quickly when they saw him, Prax knew he must have been the subject of it.
“Praxiteles!” Nikos called out.
They both embraced him in turn. Nikos slapped him on the back. “I thought I’d never see you again!”
Prax shook his head. “I’m back.”
“We see that,” Apollo said with a grin. “You look well enough.”
Prax nodded. “No one mistreated me, in spite of what Mother says.”
They both smiled sympathetically at this reference to their mother.
Prax wanted to know how Nikos had healed from his wounds. Nikos proudly showed him the scars across his back from the outlaw’s energy weapon.
Both Nikos and Apollo were curious about life away from Celadon. Prax walked with them across the meeting ground, the flat, open area where the contests would be held, and the bonfires lit at night. He talked while they walked, telling them what it was like to travel in a starship, and how different Subidar was from their home. Like their sister, Nikos and Apollo wanted to know about aliens. They listened with fascination to Prax’s description of sparring with Qualhuan.
“I’d like to see Janos take on this creature,” Nikos said. Janos Kazanti, his wife’s brother, had been the victor in the wrestling tournaments for the last several gatherings.
“Even Janos couldn’t move Qualhuan,” Prax said, “unless he wanted to be moved.”
They had reached the site of the knife throwing competition. They sat on a small hillock and watched as three men set up targets and measured distances.
“You worked with this strange being?” Apollo asked.
Prax explained that Rishi was so wealthy that she had her own security force to guard her estate and her person, and that he had worked at that task. Apollo and Nikos exchanged glances.
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