merely choose not to sleep with them.'
He colored up again. 'You slept with me. '
Ah. More and more interesting.
Prima grinned. 'It passed an otherwise long night.'
'But-'
'And it served to show me my preferences were other.'
I blinked. She said it so blandly, without pointed offense, and yet no man could help but take it as an offense.
Herakleio did, of course, and responded by hissing something of great emotion, though he said it in Skandic so I couldn't understand. Prima merely laughed at him. Nihko, perhaps wisely, kept his mouth shut.
I frowned at him. 'What is your stake in this?' I asked. 'Do you fit?'
It instantly diverted Herakleio. 'Oh, he fits. Has he not told you what he was, and is?'
'I've heard a word,' I said clearly. 'I've even heard sort of a definition. But I haven't the slightest idea what any of it means.'
'Ikepra,' Herakleio sneered, glowering at Nihko. 'Tell him, Nihkolara.'
'Tell him yourself.'
Always an impressive response. I sighed and exchanged a speaking glance with Del. She was as much at sea as I.
'Ikepra,' Herakleio declared curtly, as if I should discern from tone and posture all the complexities of definition. 'He should have been thrown from the cliff.'
'But then I would have flown,' Nihko countered mildly.
'You sailed,' Herakleio gibed. 'You sailed with her. ' A finger punched air in Prima's direction.
'And have not regretted it.'
This time it was Del who cut off the conversation. She looked at the metri, who was watching both Nihko and Herakleio with an unfathomable expression, and asked what undoubtedly should have been asked at the very beginning. 'What do you mean to do with us?'
The woman arched one eloquent brow. 'Decide.'
'Decide?' Herakleio asked suspiciously, who knew this woman better than any of us.
'I have two heirs, now,' she answered. 'Only one may inherit.'
'Two? ' Herakleio exploded. 'How is this possible? He is a pretender-'
'Is he?'
'Am I?' I fixed the metri with a scowl. 'Is he kin to you?'
'This boy?' She smiled. 'Oh, yes. He is my brother's wife's brother's grandson.'
I gave up trying to work that one out. 'Then you don't need me or anyone else. You've got your heir.'
'Male,' Herakleio pronounced darkly.
I raised my brows at him. 'Is there some doubt as to that?'
'He means he descends from the male line,' Prima supplied.
I shook my head. 'So?'
'The male line,' Herakleio gritted between clamped teeth.
I sighed. 'In case you've forgotten, I'm not from around here.'
'We are counted from the female line,' Nihko explained.
Prima nodded. 'And from the gods.'
I stared at her. 'You think you're descended from gods? ' So much for my self-description of Herakleio as a godling being effective sarcasm; irony doesn't work if you believe it's the truth. 'This is ridiculous. You're people just like everyone else!'
Prima slid a veiled glance at Nihko from beneath lowered lids. 'Some of us are-more.'
'Were more,' Herakleio corrected pointedly with intense scorn.
After a moment I just shook my head in disbelief and looked again at the metri. 'I think it's time I left. I've got no stake in any of this, and no time to sort it out. I'm not your grandson, and I'm certainly not a godling!'
'Jhihadi,' Del murmured.
As quietly I retorted, 'You're not helping.'
'But you may be,' the metri said quietly, 'and I cannot afford to lose you if it be true.'
'You can't very well keep me,' I shot back. 'You bought my freedom from renegadas-'
'Precisely,' the metri confirmed. 'There is a debt between us now.'
'Debt?' I was incredulous. 'How in hoolies do you expect me to pay you back?'
Unsmiling, she looked at Herakleio. 'Take this boy and make of him a man.'
In the ensuing hubbub-Prima was laughing while Herakleio sputtered furious protest-I turned on my heel and walked out.
Del followed me right out into the courtyard entry. There she stopped, as if surprised I hadn't. 'Where are you going?'
I swung at the gated entrance, stiff with frustration. 'Away.'
'Away where? '
'Just away. I don't belong here. I don't belong with these people. I don't want to have anything to do with these people!'
'Not even if they are your kin?'
'I disown them,' I answered instantly.
Del examined my expression. 'I think the person with no coin or property can't disown anyone.'
'Then I repudiate them.'
She nodded. 'You can do that.'
'Good. I do. I have. Let's go.'
She was by all appearances stuck on one question. 'Where?'
'Out of here. I've had enough of Skandi, metris, blue-headed priests, women ship captains, women ship captains who sleep with other women, and wife's brother's grandsons.'
'Have you coin?'
'No. Where would I get coin?'
'Where indeed?'
I glowered at her. 'Are you suggesting we stay? '
Del assumed her most innocent expression. 'The metri did pay for your release… but I merely suggest we devise a plan before we go anywhere.'
I opened my mouth to answer, shut it as I saw Nihko come out behind her, stepping from shadow into sunlight. 'Plans are useful,' he observed. 'Have you one?'
I switched my scowl from Del to him. 'I have done very well making a living in this world without any plans. This situation is no different.'
'But it is,' Nihko disagreed politely. 'You don't even speak the language.'
'You speak mine,' I said. 'So does Prima, so does the metri, so does Heraklitus.'
'Herakleio,' Del corrected, and I shot her a ferocious glare.
'We speak it,' Nihko said, 'because we have been made to. My captain and I sail to foreign ports. The metri deals with merchants and traders of other lands, and to be certain dealings are honest one must speak the language. Herakleio has learned because the metri required it of her heir.'
'Then he is her heir.'
'He is her kin,' Nihko elaborated. 'But male-descended. It matters.'
'Why does it matter?'
'This is Skandi. Things are-as they are.'
'And you?' I asked curtly, angry enough to offend on purpose. 'What exactly are you, ikepra?'
Nihko did not provoke. He wasn't Herakleio. 'Ikepra,' he answered. 'Profanation. Abomination.'
'Why?' Del asked.
He did not flinch from it. 'Because I failed.'
'Failed what?' I asked.
'The gods,' he said, 'and myself.'
