Spittle mixed with blood came flying out of his mouth. He missed.
'I pay my debts,' I told him. 'If you don't like it, take your complaints to the metri.'
Rage contorted his features. Even if he had been quick enough, skilled enough, he was so angry now any attack would have been ineffective. Breathlessly he loosed a string of teeth-gritted invective that undoubtedly would have scorched my ears had I understood the language.
Then again, maybe not. I've been sworn at by the best. And she was far preferable as company than the metri's brother's wife's brother's grandson.
I waved farewell at him. 'Come see me in the morning.'
FIFTEEN
IT WAS conveyed to us by the kilted servant that the metri would have us all in to dinner. I got the impression this was a rare occurence; not that guests weren't hosted properly, but that two of those guests were renegadas.
Ah well. After my discussion with Herakleio, I was primed for a more interesting atmosphere.
Which is exactly what I got. Del and I were escorted into a large, airy dining chamber already peopled by Prima Rhannet, her first mate, Herakleio, and the metri herself. Who, standing quietly beside the door, greeted me courteously, then smashed the flat of her hand into the side of my face.
The shock of it drove me back a step. Instinct took over instantly, and I trapped her wrist in one hand before she could strike again, though she did not appear to intend it.
I rubbed the knuckles of my other hand against my stinging cheek. 'What in hoolies was that for?'
'Punishment,' she said crisply, 'for striking Herakleio.'
'Now, wait just a moment-'
'It was required. I am the metri. Discipline is dictated by me.'
'And what about Herakleio trying to strike a guest in the metri's household?'
'Herakleio has been punished as well.'
I glanced beyond her to the table. Herakleio glared back at me. Yes, his left cheek bore a ruddy spot high on the bone.
I released her wrist. 'If you intend me to make a man of him, it's going to require more than sweet words and soft caresses.'
She inclined her head. 'I give you leave to do what is required.'
'At the risk of getting smacked around by you?' I shook my head. 'That's not in the contract.'
'We have no contract,' she answered at once. 'This is a debt, which you intend to discharge.' Her eyes glinted. 'However, the point has been made and need not be repeated. Now, seat yourselves at my table and enjoy the bounty of the house.'
I turned as she moved through the door away from the table. 'What about you?'
She paused. 'There are things to be settled among you. It were better done without my presence, so you may speak freely.'
And then she was gone, leaving Del and me staring in bemusement at the others.
Prima snorted, poured herself wine from ajar. 'Neatly done,' she said. 'Why soil herself by eating in the same room as renegadas?'
'What about me?' Herakleio shot back. 'I am left to eat in the same room as renegadas.'
'But you are already hopelessly soiled,' Prima retorted. 'You slept with a renegada.'
'You weren't one then!'
'No,' she agreed. 'I was the daughter of a slaver. Likely the metri believes that every bit as bad.' She gulped wine, smiled through glistening droplets painting her wide mouth. 'Herak, you are such a child sometimes. But pretty, I will admit.'
He recoiled. 'Pretty!'
She waved a hand in my direction as Del and I took our seats at the table. 'All you Stessoi are pretty. Even the women.'
'You would know,' he sneered. 'Though no Stessa would ever demean herself and dishonor her family by-' A pause. '-cohabiting with such as you.'
'Such as I,' Prima said silkily, 'come from the best families.'
'Not yours.'
'Oh, mine is a family of slavers. But what of the original Eleven Families? Can you swear there is no other woman such as I, nor a man who might prefer another man in his bed?' She smiled sweetly. 'One such as you, perhaps.'
Beneath his tan, Herakleio turned pale as bleached linen, then reddened nearly to purple. He was so shocked and outraged he couldn't summon a voice to speak with.
Prima laughed at him. 'No, Herak, I do not suggest your taste runs in that direction. Be at ease. I only meant that certain men may desire you even as women do.'
Clearly he had never considered that. But then, neither had I. I knew of such men, such interests, of course, but had never really contemplated how I'd feel were I the object of another man's interest.
Prima Rhannet, having plunged both Herakleio and me into mutual black scowls and deep thoughts, grinned at Del. 'Men are such fools, sometimes. They think they are that which dangles between their legs.' She lifted her cup as if in salute. 'While we women know the only truly important part of the body resides within our skulls.'
'Perhaps,' Del agreed, dipping a chunk of bread into olive oil, 'but that need not mean we are better than they.'
'Women are better than men.'
'Some women are better than some men,' Del countered quietly, and filled her mouth with bread.
I had poured myself some wine. Now I stopped the cup halfway to my mouth. 'That isn't what you claimed when we first met!'
Del arched brows at me and continued to chew.
'It isn't,' I repeated. 'You told me men were nothing but beasts driven by lust and violence.'
She hitched a shoulder. 'The men I knew were. I had gone South, remember?'
'What about me?'
She didn't answer, which was answer in itself.
I set the cup down with a thump. 'If I'm that bad-'
'You were,' Del said. 'But you aren't anymore. I have leavened you-' She grinned. '-like bread.'
'Thank you for that, bascha!'
'You inspire me.' Prima took off a chunk of bread from the loaf in the center of the table and sopped it in olive oil. 'The truth is, all men are born fools,' she declared, 'and if you forget, they remind you.'
Nihko was being conspicuously silent. I fixed him with a hard eye. 'What have you to say?'
He had bypassed the bread and was serving himself a large fish from the platter. 'I? Nothing. I know better.'
'He has heard it before,' Prima said.
Herakleio's color was high. 'And he has little to say for men, anyway. He is missing a significant portion of those parts Prima repudiates so eloquently.'
It was purposely cruel. It was also a killing offense, though Nihko simply began stripping meat from the fish.
Prima wasn't smiling or laughing anymore. 'He will not provoke,' she said. 'But I will, Herak.'
Herakleio feigned fear, then looked at me. 'Did Nihkolara explain why he is-without? How he came to lose that which he most adored, and wielded most assiduously?'
'Enough,' Prima said.
'How he alone seemingly intended to people several islands with his byblows,' Herakleio continued, 'and
