"Us," I corrected.
Prima's brows arched. "You and me?"
"No, not you and me …" I jabbed a thumb in Del's direction. "Me and her. "
The captain affected amazement. "But I thought you were having nothing to do with one another!"
"There are times," Del put in, "when we don't. Then there are times when we shouldn't, but we do."
"And times when you do because you think you should." Prima nodded, slanting a glance at me. "I thought as much. But did you really believe it would work, that performance?"
"Stupid people fall for a variety of things," I mentioned.
"Is that to be taken as flattery?"
I cleared my throat, aware of increasing frustration and a faintly unsettled belly. "Returning to the point at hand…"
"Oh, yes." She nodded, bright hair aglow in the sun. "What happens to you."
"Us," Del amended.
Hazel eyes were laughing at us. "But there will be no 'us.' "
I drew myself up in what many consider a quietly menacing posture.
This time the captain laughed aloud. "Do you believe I would permit you both to go ashore? Together?" She paused. "Do you believe that I do not believe you would not try to escape?"
"I don't believe I care what you believe," I retorted. "The simple fact of the matter is, if Del doesn't come ashore with me, I don't go ashore with me. Or, for that matter, with you." I smiled at the petite woman. "And I don't think you're strong enough to throw me overboard."
As she shrugged, her blue-headed first mate appeared.
I promptly turned and latched onto the rail with both hands in the firmest grip I commanded. "If you have him try to toss me overboard again, I'll take a piece of your ship with me!"
Prima Rhannet looked worried. "No," she murmured, "we could not have that."
Whereupon Nihko closed thick arms around Del and tossed her overboard.
I heard the blurted cry of shock, followed by the splash. I still hung onto the rail, but not because I feared to follow her. Because, shocked, I couldn't let go. This I hadn't expected any more than she had.
I saw her head break the surface, then pale arms. She slicked hair back from her face and squinted up at me. Whereupon I grinned in immense relief, then turned upon the captain my sunniest smile. "Del, on the other hand, can swim. And now we're not all that far from the shore."
That stripped the smirk from Prima's face. She glanced sharply at her first mate. "Nihko, go."
I spun in place, blocked his way, jammed a rigid elbow deeply into his abdomen just below the short ribs. As he began to bend over in helpless response, I brought the heel of my right hand up hard against the underside of his chin. Teeth clicked together, eyes glazed over, and he staggered backward.
It was beginning as much as ending. Prima was a small woman, no match for a man as big as me, but she knew it. Which is why she did not attempt to threaten me with her knife. She simply stabbed me with it, cutting into the back of my thigh.
I yelped, swore, started to swing on her-but by this time Nihko was upright again. He caught me before I could so much as see Prima's expression. I was slammed hard into the rail and bent backward over it. One broad, long-fingered hand was on my throat.
He did not squeeze. He did not crush. He did not in any way attempt to strike or overpower me. He simply put his hand on the flesh of my throat, and it began to burn.
I heard Prima say something about throwing a rope down. I heard her shout to Del, something about rejoining us if she knew what was good for me. Briefly I thought Del should just swim for it, but I doubted she would; and anyway, I had more on my mind than whether Prima would fish Del out of the water or if Del would condescend to be fished. My teeth were melting.
I thought my head might burst. Not from lack of air, because I had plenty of it. But from heat, and a pressure on the inside of my skull that made me sweat with it, gasping at the pain. It was if someone had set a red-hot metal collar around my neck.
Nihko murmured something. I didn't have the first idea what he said, because it was a language I didn't speak. Something muttered, something chanted. Something said.
Then he took his hand away, the heat died out of my head, and I fell down upon my knees.
"lo," he said.
I put one trembling, tentative hand to my neck, expecting to feel blood, fluids, charring, and curled, crusted flesh. But all I felt were the sandtiger claws upon their leather thong, and healthy flesh beneath.
"lo," he repeated, in satisfaction commingled with anticipation.
"Go to hoolies," I responded, though the voice was hoarse and tight.
"You go," Nihko suggested.
I recalled the rash around my wrist, triggered by his touch. And now the heat in my head, the blazing of my flesh. "What are you?"
The rings in his eyebrows glinted. "loSkandic."
"And what precisely does that mean?"
He displayed white teeth. "Secret."
I got my legs under me and wobbled to my feet. "The word means secret, or it is a secret?"
"Nihko," Prima said, and he turned from me.
A rope hung over the side, taut against the rail. The captain glanced at me, then at Nihko; he leaned over, grasped the rope, pulled it up even as Del herself clambered over the rail. Fair hair was slick against her skull, trailing down her back in a soaked sheet. The ivory-colored leather tunic, equally soaked, stuck to her body and emphasized every muscle, every curve.
Prima Rhannet stared. Nihko Blue-head did not. That more than anything convinced me the captain had not lied: the first mate was not, as men are measured, a man anymore. And the woman was more than a little attracted to the woman who slept with me.
I had seen it in men before. With someone who looks like Delilah, it's a daily event. But I had never seen the reaction in a woman before. Generally the women of the South are shocked and appalled by Del's sword, her freedom of manner and dress, her predilection for saying what she thinks no matter how it sounds. Some of the younger women were vastly fascinated, even if they had to be subtle about it lest they alert or alarm their men. Or they are intensely jealous. But no woman I'd ever seen had looked at Del the way a man looks at Del.
Until now.
And I hadn't the faintest idea how to feel about it.
There were jokes about it, of course. Crude, vulgar, male jokes, men painting lurid pictures with words, suggesting activities for women with women designed to titillate. And of course there were men who preferred men, or boys, who also prompted jokes. But seeing a woman react to a woman the way a man reacts to a woman was-odd.
Should I be jealous? Angry? Insulted? Upset? Should I say something? Do something?
Did Del recognize it?
Maybe. Maybe not. I couldn't tell. She was wearing her blandest expression, even sheened with water. And would a woman be aware of another's interest? Did Del even know such things existed?
For that matter, did Del have any idea what kind of reaction she provoked in men? I mean, she knew they reacted; how could she not? Most men aren't very subtle about it when everything in them-and on them-seizes up at the sight of a beautiful woman of immense physical appeal. There'd been enough comments made about and to Del that she couldn't be oblivious. On the whole she ignored it, which didn't hurt my reputation any: the gorgeous Northern bascha was so well-served by the Sand-tiger that she neither noticed nor looked at another man.
But then, for a long time I hadn't known she'd even notice or look at me.
The way Prima Rhannet was looking at her.
"Well," I said brightly, trying to sound casual, "just what did you have in mind, then? You and I are to go ashore and go visit this old lady?"
Prima blinked, then looked at me. "No. I will stay here, aboard ship. It is best that Nihko goes as my representative. Him the metri will see. And once she understands what I have to offer, she will see me as well."
"And why will this-metri?-see him, but not you?"