"I believe Queen Corinn demanded that they go," Sire Neen offered, "no doubt to keep an eye on us. The Numrek, too, are loyal to her majesty-"
Calrach stopped him by snapping forth his arm, palm out. He looked for a bare spot on the floor to spit and then did so. "We care nothing about the queen. She is not our queen anyway. She is a bitch who flaunts her tail but doesn't give it up. Instead, she bares her teeth and snaps. We have grown tired of her."
In the silence after this, the two leaguemen exchanged troubled glances. Sire Neen put a hand to his throat as if a cough needed to be soothed down by his fingers. It was a reasonable reaction for any not well acquainted with the Numrek, except that Rialus had spent enough time among these foreigners to know that belligerence was the norm in their speech. They could not be judged by Acacian standards of behavior, even as regarded insulting the queen. He knew this, but so did the leaguemen. There was just slightly too much timidity in their reaction. Noticing it, Rialus figuratively narrowed his eyes.
"But you are still in her service?" Sire Dagon asked.
"We are. There is no reason not to be. If she, through you, allows me to see Ushen Brae again, I am happy to serve her. I will say the words she asks of me." The Numrek leaned back. "Yes, I will do that. She will not be disappointed. But I don't do it because I love the smell between her legs."
A horrible expression, Rialus thought, one that Numrek men and women both used without embarrassment. It threatened to bring with it a flood of memories, but he pushed them back. Keep your wits, Rialus. He took a sip of the wine and tried to remain as unobtrusive as possible.
Mulat, Calrach's half brother, added, "We do it because what is good for the Akarans is good for the Auldek, and we as their cousins want only what is good for them."
Sire Dagon accepted a pickled plum from a servant, and then dismissed him-or her, it was hard to tell-with a flick of his wrist. He held the soft fruit in his fingers, sniffing it. "Cousins, you say? I've never entirely understood the relationship between the Auldek and the Numrek. Did they not displace you, drive you into the-"
"No, no, no," Calrach said, exasperation flaring. He thumped his palm against Mulat's chest with a force that made Rialus cringe, though it did not really seem to bother the Numrek. "Do not test me again, Leagueman! This thing we don't speak of. It does not concern you. Stop finding ways to ask of it."
Hmm, Rialus thought. So the sires had asked about the connection between the Numrek and Auldek enough times that Calrach had noticed. True, Calrach was sharper than his gruff exterior suggested, but if the league had pressed him on it, they obviously did not know as much about the Auldek as they wished. That was interesting, or troubling, to consider.
"My apologies," Sire Dagon said, bowing his head. "Yours are such an interesting people. You cannot blame me for being curious. In any event, you will be an honored member of our delegation. Invaluable, I'm sure."
Appeased, Calrach let his large frame fall back against his chair.
"Excuse me," Rialus said, "but what was that name you used? Ushebra-"
"Ushen Brae," Mulat corrected. "That is the name of our land."
"Oh, I've not heard that before."
Mulat had a handsome face for a Numrek, cut of features better proportioned for human eyes to appreciate. Still, the slightest displeasure made his face a creviced mask that was hard not to cringe from. "That doesn't mean it's not so. You call our lands the Other Lands, but why should we do so? They are not other to us. This place here is other. Now that we are to see our home again, we will again call it by its proper name."
"Should I-"
"Do what you wish," Calrach said. "It makes no difference. Sires, there are two things more about our going on this ocean voyage. One, I will bring my son. Don't protest. It's no matter of yours. But I'll take him to see Ushen Brae. Two, you must bind us."
Sire Neen's head dipped to one side, birdlike, and straightened again.
That, Rialus thought, was the first genuine show of surprise he had seen yet on a leagueman. He went to set his glass down, fumbling when it wobbled and then reconsidering. He took another sip instead.
"Bind you?"
Instead of answering, Calrach shifted, uneasy suddenly. He thrust his chin at his half brother, and it was Mulat who answered. "We abhor the water. In sight of land, as here in the Inner Sea, it's not bad. But the Gray Slopes… these we don't care for."
The sires responded warmly enough. They understood this well. The Auldek did not care for the sea either. They had, in fact, never once seen one of them aboard a ship, a fact that greatly benefited the Lothan Aklun. "This is why you came into the Known World over the Ice Fields. Hardly an easy route."
"It was a feat to make us immortal," Calrach said with a bravado that, even for him, felt a bit forced. "No other has ever accomplished it. We are not so different from gods, yes?"
Sire Neen nodded but did not answer. Instead, he looped back. "Amazing that you fear the sea so much, and yet-"
"Fear! Fear?" Calrach spat, this time without aiming at all. "I know no fear, but the water will not support us!"
"So you cannot swim? Surely, you could learn. Even the smallest child can-"
For a moment Rialus was sure Calrach was going to smash the league-man across his too-thin jaw. Indeed, the Numrek half rose from his seat. He grasped Neen's chair at the armrests and pushed his face close, the muscles in his neck quivering, his jaw tight. "We have heavy bones!"
Sire Neen, straight-faced and nonplussed, asked, "Heavy bones? That's a strange ailment."
"I am iron inside," Calrach said. "Drop me in the ocean, and I will sink to the bottom like an anchor. I would not like that. I would have to walk along the bottom to return to land. I could do it, but the very thought of it makes me angry."
Despite the fact that Rialus did imagine Numrek bones to be nearly as hard and heavy as iron, he had to duck his head and clear his throat to keep his amusement from curling his lips. Angry, indeed! Angry like a child lost in the woods. He had not thought the Numrek so adept at manipulating language.
"So you say we must bind you?" Sire Dagon said. "With chains, you mean?"
Calrach loosened his grip and returned to his seat. "Yes, if you wish to live. I cannot promise we'd not go into a rage out of sight of land. You wouldn't want that."
For a moment, as Sire Dagon spoke and Calrach detailed the strength of the bonds that would be needed to contain his great power, Rialus watched the other leagueman. Sire Neen's bland visage did not quite hide the amused interest with which he listened. His eyes were wide and attentive, his cheeks flushed. This might have been from staring into Calrach's shouting face, but he looked pleased. His mouth hung open just slightly, and the tip of his tongue slipped across the round little nubs that were his teeth.
A moment later, one of the navigators began to brief him on preparations being made for the prince, but Rialus only half listened. And then Rialus understood something that had tugged at the edge of his understanding since he arrived at the meeting. He knew, of course, that not even a single word spoken by a leagueman could be taken as truth. He had sensed in every question and glance and pleasantry that the two men were so entangled in deceptions that their spoken words had only the semblance of truth to them. But all of this was standard. Anybody with a working knowledge of the league knew these things. What Rialus saw, however, was there on the tip of Sire Neen's pink tongue as it slid across his teeth. Rialus could not have explained exactly how he knew it, but an uncanny ability to recognize deceit was his chief skill. Who can explain the gifts the Giver bestows on him?