I gazed at the massive pnks pulled tight against the stone archway, and watched the men on the ramparts for some sign that she might have arrived. Miyani had said that she’d try to meet me at Praying Mantis.

  Maybe.

  I could wait all night and she might not come. What if she was busy? What if she was making love to that boy right now, lying down on her back and looking up at his face, calling out his name at this very moment?

  My knee hurt from tripping on those steps earlier, but my head felt like it was about to explode. I needed to do something—anything—to free my mind from these chains.

  The mess hall was about a third the size of the one at Carthia with the same open walls, but the ceiling had those fur-like roots hanging down that cooled the air and gave a calming earthy scent.

  Geraln sat with Davod over hammered-copper mugs. He raised his hand and called me over, so I sat. His chubby cheeks smiled, and he poked his finger into my arm. “Tell him it’s true!”

  “Uh…” I looked back and forth between them and assured Davod, ”it’s absolutely true. Whatever it is.”

  Davod’s face was buried in his cup. Geraln expined. “That they’d been taking shots at that guy all day. Jaysa—that’s that guy over there—he missed, even I missed. Your boy Caleb comes up, nails both his feet to the log. Shut him the hell up, man!”

  Davod set his cup down and shrugged. “I believe you.”

  From another table, men erupted in ughter. Ales, Faren, Gino, Jame, Northstar, Jezi, and the three Orca men from Kylen’s group all gathered around Borel ‘More-Bitches-Than-You,’ who had a wisp of a young native woman sitting on his p with one arm draped over his muscur shoulders.

  Another young native woman, average height with a soft build and generous hips, set a hammered-copper mug before me with another each for my friends. She then came closer to brush her hand across my shoulder and leaned in close with an inviting smile. “hewo! I ?em sofiya!”

  “zawa,” I answered. “????de Caleb.”

  Geraln shook his head and chuckled to himself while Davod swallowed hard from his mug. sofiya smiled wide, stroking along the back of my neck, and bent over to allow her pendulous breasts to hang before me; her skin smelt like some kind of wildflower. She passed eyes all around my face and down my chest until she found the ear pendant Miyani had given me. Immediately her face reeled from shock. She stood up straight, csped her hands together and bowed, “kupade! kupade!” before scurrying back to the kitchen.

  Davod doubled over, banging his fist against the table between fits of ughter. Geraln chuckled hard, then squeaked out, “so… Sarina. Here's what you need to do. Go kill an enemy in battle…”

  Davod lifted himself up and chuckled out loud, spping his chair.

  I wondered if some boy would ask sofiya for ‘?mi??ei. Or what about the woman in Borel’s p? She clung to the back of his neck and giggled into his eyes, leaning her lithe body into his and stroked his back. If some boy were to ask her, what would Borel say about it? Likely he’d be man enough to put his foot down over it.

  I sipped my drink. Right away, a dazzling ribbon of fruity sweetness wrapped around my tongue and distracted me so that I almost missed the strong undertone of alcohol as it snuck past my senses.

  Borel called out to us. “You three! Get over here!”

  Davod gnced between me and Geraln and shrugged, then swallowed the rest of his drink and stood. I brought mine over, and Borel held up some coins for sofiya, who took them and disappeared into the kitchen.

  Borel then looked around the table with smug confidence pstered over his meaty face. The young woman on his p probed his chest with her fingers as he began. “I have decided that you all need to know who Massi was.”

  Geraln hadn’t sat. He shook his head and turned to leave.

  “Nah,” Borel snapped, “especially you.”

  Geraln crossed his arms.

  Borel smiled. “He was more than that guy who Diamond ripped his throat out, yeah? Ain’t your fault, man—he had it coming. Sit down.”

  Geraln gnced at me and took a seat next to mine. Jame sat across from Borel. His lean face carried an easy smile and he chuckled, “Massi had it coming a thousand times over—that was before he got here!”

  Borel ughed and sipped from his cup. He turned to me with a serious face. “He’d have stayed with you and Renou, you know. Massi would have stayed behind with you. He’d have told the rest of us chicken-shits to fuck right off.”

  The woman on Borel’s p pulled her face back and scowled at him. Borel bounced his leg up and down and consoled her, “just telling a story, love; that’s how he’d have said it.” Borel sipped from his cup, then continued. “Massi was an abject asshole.”

  sofiya returned with a tray full of cups and set one before me, Davod, Geraln, and several of the other men. I didn’t touch it as I was still sipping my first, but Davod took a generous swig from his.

  Borel continued his eulogy. “One time, there was this kid, real ‘amu?axat?…”

  Half the men giggled lightly.

  “... favorite thing this kid liked to talk about was how his family had all this money, and somehow that gave him the right to treat everyone else like shit. So I punched his arse in the face.”

  The woman on his p pulled her face back. “You punch ass and face, what?”

  “In the face, love.” He kissed her lips and continued, “everyone was there. Everyone saw, including the headmistress. I get hauled off to this dy’s office, and Massi comes along talking like he’s an eyewitness. Kid has the audacity to tell her it wasn’t me!”

  “What?” some of the other men ughed.

  “Yeah man! So Massi’s there swearing up and down it wasn’t me, and this dy’s pissed—she was there; she saw it herself. He says, ‘you old bag, you need to get your eyes checked!’ I’m trying, man, I’m trying; it took all of my strength not to crack up ughing! Oh, she cuts into him so hard, man! She sends me away without even a detention while he gets suspended for two weeks.”

  Several of the men ughed; Davod emptied his cup and cnked it onto the table.

  While Borel took a moment to study his lover’s skinny body, Jame took the baton. “There was this time he really pissed me off. So there was this tournament. Some kind of, uh… charity thing. Winner got a crack at the princess.” Jame looked around the table, “you guys ever id eyes on Davina? The Count's daughter?”

  A few of the other men huffed, while I answered. “I liked her; she used to come by the church all the time.”

  Gino sniggered and smirked at me, “when you were there!”

  Jame shook his head and smiled. “Yeah, well, Massi and I were there, he started talking like he was going to cut a few strands from this other guy’s bowstring. I told that bastard he’d better not. I’m trying to expin to this kid, now you all know, I’d rather lose with honor than cheat. But does he listen? He tries it anyway, gets caught, and we both got kicked out. I couldn’t believe that shit!”

  Flower of the Orca cn, if I’d asked Davina to not give her body to some boy for the night, she’d have obliged me. She probably never heard of the rite.

  Davod tapped my hand and nudged his chin towards the extra drink before me, so I passed it to him.

  Gino took up the eulogy. “I didn’t know him long. I only met him the day we left Kyoen, but in that short time he was a complete shit.”

  Half the table ughed.

  Gino continued. “Man treated Renou like a scab he couldn’t stop picking…”

  Borel cocked his head to the side.

  “... Even as we started through those high mountains, Massi kept picking on the guy. But at night, Renou was cold, and Massi gave him one of his bnkets.”

  Borel furrowed his brow, “when did that happen?”

  Jame answered, “every night after you fell asleep.”

  Gino continued. “One night it was getting te and we couldn’t find shelter. Renou points out some dome-looking thing made of snow, says let’s sleep in there.”

  I gnced at Ales and Faren, who smiled at me in return.

  “This guy,” Gino gave a nod to Borel, “brushed him off, but Massi speaks up, let’s go have a look. That was probably the most comfortable…”

  A loud, guttural croak filled the air, followed by a sequence of low clicks. We all turned. At the end of the table stood a grizzled vita’o lizard creature beside a native woman.

  The lizard had scars about his body with more than a few scales missing and hard, toughened scales on his back, and long whiskers like a beard beneath his chin. He moved with the slowness of an elder, and when he opened his jaws, a handful of his jagged teeth were chipped.

  The woman was petite with streaks of gray in her otherwise white hair. Her legs bore the powerful muscles of a scout, though her worn skin and sagging breasts heralded a great number of years. She'd dressed in a white silk fp over the front of her belt with blue embroidery in the image of a tree surrounded by a circle of animals trying to eat one another. On her left shoulder was a white crescent moon tattoo.

  Immediately, the woman on Borel's p stood, straightened out the fp of her loincloth, and bowed her head low before shuffling off into the kitchen.

  The old scout's eyes followed her before turning to face me directly. She then extended her hand and made a come-hither with the stub that remained of her index finger.

  Without speaking, she led me towards a far corner of the mess where just outside, the yellow-and-gray stones of the curtain wall rose up to the dense clouds above, and off to the side the sounds of children pying filled the courtyard. Beyond that, the gate still hadn’t opened for anyone to come in. The elder lizard raised his snout to my arm for a slow sniff.

  The old woman was Miyani's height and had a scar about her right arm just above her elbow not unlike the one Blue had given me. She gnced at my wrist and smirked, then lifted her face and addressed me in Herali with a thick accent, “I'm Pu'iyo. I’m the quarte?maste? at P?aying Ma?tis. Yu a? Kaleb of Gaθ?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Is it t?u that yu allowed a? e?emy tau?te? tu eskape?”

  xat?. “Uh…” I ran a hand through my hair and twisted a lock around one finger. The woman looked up into my face and questioned me further with her yellow eyes, not speaking a word.

  “Well…” I tried to excuse myself. “It was a difficult shot. It had to be at least three-hundred-sixty yards; at that range I’d be lucky to hit anything…”

  “Yu ?ot him i? the f?t. The? to make you? poi?t klea?, yu ?ot him i? the othe? f?t.”

  I lowered my eyes. “I don’t know that I was trying to make a point…”

  “The?, I’m told, yu st?d by a?d ?efuzed tu kill him…”

  At that moment, Davod threw his arm over the back of my neck and leaned his weight on me, staggering to stay upright. He looked at the woman and slurred, “you got a problem with my man?”

  The quartermaster squinted at him. The old lizard brought his snout close to Davod’s breath and sniffed, then groaned and twisted his head back and forth and gave a low chirp. Pu’iyo scowled at Davod. “How much did yu d?ink?”

  Davod chuckled and looked away.

  She then called out to our waitress. “sofiya! p? xewek?seza duvuθ?yu!”

  sofiya gnced at my friend and nodded before picking up several cups from an empty table.

  Davod slurred, “z… zero? Zero drinks? Is that what that means?”

  The woman raised one white eyebrow high above the other while stroking the elder lizard gently on his neck and pointed back to our table. “Davod. I wa?t yu to chooze o?e ma? f?om you? u?it.”

  He turned and gave a big, dumb smile. “Geraln! Get over here!”

  Geraln came up and gnced between us, then settled his eyes on the quartermaster.

  Pu’iyo expined. “Hee? iz what yu kan expekt. That ma? yu let go, he's going tu heal. He'll get bette?, ?etu?? to ?u?i?g ops, setti?g amb??ez, all that g?d stuff. A?d ?ow,” she poked Geraln in the center of his chest, “yu'?e ded.”

  She passed her yellow eyes between me and Davod, “a?d yu get tu live wiθ that.”

  With that, she turned and walked with her lizard companion out of the mess and out of sight.

  Geraln smirked and turned to Davod. “Come on, man, why'd you have to get me killed?”

  Davod ughed and shook his head, “I'm sorry, man, it won't happen again!” The two of them ughed it off and went back to sit down with the others.

  I wished I could have done the same, but my mind tormented me. Where was Miyani, and what was taking her so long? What if she was making arrangements with that boy? God, what if something happened to her along the way, and I never saw her again, and my selfish arse couldn't stop bthering about that damned boy? What if I did speak to her, and she refused to make any concessions on any rites and rituals? What if this turned out OK, and there was some other weirdness in her culture that was even worse? What if the old woman was right and that man I spared ended up killing her?

  What if I never saw her again?

  Outside, goats browsed tufts of grass near the stone walls that rose up all around the muddy courtyard. About half a dozen native children ran around while Rock chased after them. He had a red colr around his neck, and every time he got close, they ran away and ughed.

  One little girl who couldn't have been more than six wasn't fast enough to escape. When Rock tagged her, another boy pointed and taunted, “you got the p-ague! You got the p-ague!”

  She started to cry, but Rock crouched down to her level. With a big smile he fitted a red colr around her neck so that they both had one, and pointed at the boy who'd mocked her, speaking low and gentle. The girl sniffled. Then he held up one hand and drew lines and circles on it with his finger. A moment ter, she ran after the boy with a big smile on her face. The boy turned and stuck his tongue out at her until Rock crept up behind him and tagged him as well; he already had a colr in hand for him.

  Across from them, Queen y down in a bed of shredded coconut-husk and arched her long neck to gnaw at the human leg-bone she'd held beneath her talons. By then she'd already stripped the person's flesh away but for scraps of meat in their foot. Yumi reclined against her lizard friend's side with her knees up, butterfly beads at the end of her long, white braids, and she was entranced in a book. The title was Herali: His Forbidden Lust.

  A man called out from the ramparts, “open the gate!”

  My heart smmed against my chest. Heavy chains rattled, and the massive wooden door creaked as it began to fall open. The old lizard zoomed past me carrying the quartermaster on his back and raced up to the gate. “Eve?yo?e iz i?! What's goi?g o??”

  Men filed into the courtyard from the mess, and children stopped their games to watch.

  As the massive wooden pnk lowered, a lizard’s snout peeked in from outside to reveal a blue-yellow eye with a bck vertical slit. A vita’o face appeared, with a blue stripe down the length of his snout and down his neck. He chirped loud and croaked, and Miyani’s face appeared. Her adorable yellow eyes found me, and her whole face glowed.

  Pu’iyo gnced at me, then back to her, and then to me again before she erupted in ughter, only to dismount from her aging vita’o and return from whence she’d come. Everyone else went back to their business except one, the man who’d been on the roof with me earlier, Ude. His face beamed with joy.

  Blue leaped onto the massive wooden pnk before it could drop down all the way and skidded down into the courtyard by the time it thudded to a stop. He raced up, then turned his lizard face back and forth between me and Ude, still carrying Miyani’s giggly self on his back. He looked at me, he looked at Ude, looked at me again, then him again, and I nearly ughed. Then he strode up to him and rubbed his lizard face in the man’s cheek.

  Miyani gnced at me with a warm smile, not peeling her gaze from me for a second as she dismounted. Then she held up a hand and nodded, and turned her attention to Ude. Blue smothered him in affection, wrapping his long neck around him and pulling him in close. He rubbed his body into his shoulder, chirped, and bumped into him again while Ude ughed and tried stroking him in reply. Miyani stood ughing and tried to step in herself.

  Finally, Ude freed himself from Blue’s affections and pulled Miyani in for a hug.

  She embraced him in kind, and a jolt shot throughout my body. My heart thundered, and not in a good way. This man wrapped one arm around her waist, his other around her shoulders, and he wiggled her back and forth. I froze. My blood boiled. Seeing this man embrace her like that, after all the shit going through my head over that boy, I felt like I was about to explode.

  Blue thrust his face in front of mine and chirped. He broke my trance and rubbed his face in my cheek, pushing into my skin with effervescent enthusiasm, then continued to brush his body against mine and chirped again. I took a deep breath and tried to rex, and ended up stroking the smooth scales of his neck. He pushed in some and brought his snout towards a spot on his shoulder, so I stroked him there. He yawned his mouth wide and gave off two more chirps, twice tapping the tip of his nose to the same spot.

  “Oh,” I smiled. “Like this?” I pushed in some and felt the muscles beneath his skin, massaging them down to a tendon deep within. He let out a string of clicks, and so I pressed in deeper and worked out a tense spot just behind his shoulder. Blue tapped his foot against the ground excitedly and clicked some more. Meanwhile I watched as that man held her arms in his hands, and the two of them spoke softly, deep into some serious eye contact. I clenched my jaw trying to contain what was welling up inside me.

  After far too long, he released her. I stepped up immediately and took hold of her arms, pulling her in close and leaning down to kiss her lips. I felt her smile as she pecked at my lips a few times and reached her arms over my neck, and I reached behind to grasp at the full roundness of her arse, making sure Ude wouldn’t miss that.

  Miyani pulled from me briefly and traced her fingers down my chest, peering up into my eyes and giggling. “You like!”

  I shot a gnce at Ude, only for him to tilt his head to one side, ugh, and turn around, shaking his head as he walked back to the mess.

  Blue chose a stall directly adjacent to where Yumi sat with Queen and nuzzled his body down into a mass of bedding. A small, gray opossum snuck out from a hole in the wood and sniffed over the lizard’s skin. He’d had a few patches of tiny brown clusters that I hadn’t noticed until the opossum started nibbling them off him.

  Miyani undid the strap about his waist and hung it on a hook next to her neckce of giant wooden beads when I mustered the courage to broach what tortured me. “ki’i ??godi.”

  “Mmm?” She faced me and tilted her head to the side, furrowing her brow.

  “We need to talk.”

  She nodded, still smiling. “ki’i ??godi, ti. I undastan. z?bixase ?uve?”

  My heart thundered. My breath quickened. “I don’t want you to do amishudi.”

  She pulled her face back in shock. “‘?mi??ei?”

  “Right,” I said. “v? ‘?mi??ei. I forbid it. No.”

  I heard a stifled giggle off to my side. I fshed my gaze at Yumi, and she returned her eyes to her book as soon as I did.

  Miyani stared at me, blinked her eyes for a bit, and came back. “kaye?”

  “Kaye?” I shook my head. “What’s kaye?”

  “Eh… boy at cafe. Nem kaye. He want.”

  “God, you already know! Absolutely not! No. Tell him, I said no. I forbid it. No amishudi.”

  “Eh…” she scratched her head. “No ask.”

  My fingers trembled. “Well, tell him no. I said no.”

  Miyani raised her eyebrows and stared at me bnkly. I caught Yumi once again staring at us from the corner of my eye. She smiled wide and shook her head, then went back to her book.

  Miyani squinted at me and asked, “you odo?”

  “Odo?”

  Miyani crossed her arms. “?? ‘as?sedu?”

  “Yes, I order you. Uh…‘as?… v?…”

  Miyani shook her head and scowled. Yumi sniggered under her breath and watched. I kept at it, though. “I forbid it. I cannot. Tell him I said…”

  Miyani held up a hand and shook her head, “no, no. No this way I like you talk. No. I no like.”

  “That’s great, but this amishudi thing is…”

  “No,” she pursed her lips and shook her head. “Pn-to I suk dik at you, then no. No I like this way you talk.”

  That froze me in pce, and I felt like an idiot. “I… I don’t want to interrupt your pns…”

  “v?!” she shouted. “z?ta xoso ‘imogadesa ?a v? tuv?de! mama! poke v? tuv?de? woθo ?a’ukase ??godu? ?? ‘amu?axat?se? p? te’a’ese!” She turned to our neighbor, who grinned wide watching this exchange, “yumi! Please transte for me?”

  Yumi giggled and shook her head; she couldn’t stop smiling. “kupade! v?.”

  Miyani scowled at her.

  Yumi excused herself, “‘u?i you don’t understand each other ?a poke k?mavisu? kupade. v?. You guys are too funny.”

  I stepped closer to Miyani, “I…”

  “Go away!”

  I pulled my face back in incredulity. “What do you mean, go away? I need to talk to you…”

  She waved her hand at me and turned her attention to Blue, who’d rolled over and was busy rubbing his back in the mass of shredded coconut-husk. She turned back to me. “Go away.”

  And so I stepped off. My brain was numb, and I managed twenty paces towards the mess when an idea materialized. I wished I could just start over, and so that was exactly what I intended to do. Somehow. I needed a better way to approach her, and so I pondered the matter. What would Sarina advise me to do?

  Caleb, I’m going to sit right here with Yumi and watch because she’s right; you guys are too funny.

  If I’m being honest, that’s exactly what she’d have said. She’d probably break out a wine skin for the two of them to pass back and forth while Miyani and I argued through a nguage barrier.

  Alone, I went back to the stall, trying to act like I was just strolling along. Miyani held her arms crossed and didn’t break her deadly scowl.

  “Oh,” I tried to act surprised, but dragged my words out slowly to give her time on each one. “Miyani! I, didn’t, know, you, were, here! When, did, you, arrive?”

  Yumi giggled and continued to watch. Miyani raised one eyebrow high above the other and pulled her lips to one side.