“Of course,” Northern-born Alric said, watching his wife work. The children were, as usual, tearing in and out of the house. I’d given up trying to count them.
“Go,” Lena said.
Alric nodded. “Go.”
“No trouble,” she told me comfortably, flour to her elbows.
“None,” Alric agreed, flour on his nose.
I looked at each suspiciously. “Did Neesha talk to you?”
They both turned genuinely puzzled faces to me. In unison: “No.”
And so our daughter’s immediate future was settled. And also my son’s; I need not, after all, have a discussion with him about speaking out of turn.
Not that it would have stopped him.
Alric smiled. “I believe you would do well to have some ale. Apologies. I have no aqivi.”
I waved a hand. “I’m not much for aqivi any more.”
“Just a memory from your youth, is it?” He laughed in genuine amusement when I scowled at him. Then he gestured. “Come on. I’ve got some jugs soaking in the pool. We’ll go sit by the water and exchange memories of what we once were.”
“Stop with the suggestions we’re aging!” I followed him out of the house and fell into step beside him. “Hoolies, Alric, we’re not that old!”
“But our best days are behind us.”
“No, they’re not!” We strode comfortably together. He was a Northerner, tall as I was. We could look at one another eye to eye. “And I’m beginning to think Neesha did talk with you about this.”
Alric shook his head. Blond hair, pale as Del’s, brushed his shoulders. “Truly, he did not. But he’s been fidgety of late.”
“What do Neesha’s fidgets have to do with me? In particular, what do Neesha’s fidgets have to do with age? My age, specifically?”
“The sap is running in him. Running fast and rising.”
I glanced at him sidelong. “Why are we speaking of trees?”
Alric laughed. “It’s a saying we have in the North.”
“You have a lot more trees in the North,” I said, recalling thick forests. And cold. And snow. “We don’t have that saying down here.”
“Our sap,” he continued, “yours and mine, is somewhat more sedate now.”
“My sap is not sedate!”
We’d reached the stream. Alric stepped over the pool surround, bent, found the pegged out twine, and pulled a jug up from the water. As one, we sat down and leaned against the sun-warmed bricks, swigging down cool ale. After a few substantial swigs, I felt somewhat more companionable.
“You may be sedate,” I noted, “but not me.”
“Then let’s say we’re wiser than we used to be, and somewhat more deliberate in certain movements.”
It was true I didn’t leap out of bed in the morning. But then, Del was in it.
“We don’t spend ourselves unnecessarily,” he added.
I grunted. For all my denials, I knew very well what he meant. I even knew what sap was, despite my protestations. I took the jug as he handed it over and swallowed deeply.
“But you may have to,” Alric said.
I took the jug away from my mouth, savoring the robust taste. “May have to what?”
“Spend yourself.” He retrieved the jug from me. “Just come home again in one piece.”
It was true I’d lost a couple of pieces before: the little finger on each hand. I didn’t even notice they were missing anymore. I’d found that by going inside myself, in summoning absolute belief, I felt the fingers when I danced.
“How old are you?” Alric asked idly.
Glumly, I said, “Forty-two.” Which I only knew after my visit to Skandi, where I learned a great deal about myself. And lost two fingers. “What about you?”
“Thirty-four.”
I looked at him sharply. “You’re joking.” I’d thought him nearer my age.
He shook his head, smiling faintly. “Having children keeps you young.”
“Not when you have a litter of them, like you and Lena.”
“Another’s on the way.”
My mouth fell open. “Another one?”
“We’re hoping for a girl.”
“You have several girls.”
“Another would be nice.”
“Alric, you don’t have any boys. Wouldn’t a boy be nice for a change?”
He shrugged. “I guess.”
I hefted the jug, shaking it. Nothing sloshed. “Is there more where this came from?”
“Of course.” Alric picked up the twine and hauled another jug out of the pool. He unwound the loop from the narrow neck and handed it over. This one sloshed nicely. I uncorked it and poured ale down my throat. It was a heavy brew, with a sharp tang to it. Not aqivi but more than drinkable.
I felt a presence behind us. “Uh-oh,” Del said.
I cranked my head around to look at her. “Why uh-oh?”
“You’re drinking.”
“Why, yes. So I am.”
“You’ve had nothing to eat.”
“No, not when I’m dancing. Neesha and I were in the circle.”
“But you’re drinking on an empty belly.”
“Why, yes. So I am.” I held the jug out. “Want some?”
“No.” Del was never one for drinking much. “You’d better come up and I’ll fix something for you to eat before you keel over.”
I grimaced. “Very domestic.”
“And you can bathe Sula again while I do that.”
“Again? I just bathed her a while ago!”
“She’s dirty.”
“She’s always dirty.”
“She got into dog piss.” Del paused. “Fresh dog piss. In the dirt.”
Beside me, Alric snickered.
A thought occurred. I smiled up at her. “I’d best not. I’m drunk.”
Del narrowed her eyes.
“Drinking on an empty belly,” I reminded her.
She glowered at me, hands on hips. “Then you fix the food. That, you should be able to accomplish without risk of drowning our daughter.”
As she walked away, I sighed and thrust the jug at Alric. I got to my feet, as Alric laughed. “Ah, yes. Domestication.”
I said something extremely impolite and swung around to follow Del but stopped short as I nearly ran into Neesha.
“Well?” he asked.
“Well, what?”
“Are you going?”
“Going where?”
“Out.” He waved a hand. “Out there. Out wherever.”
I scowled at him. “Yes.”
“And Del?”
“Yes.”
Neesha laughed, sounding unconscionably pleased. “Hah! I knew you would. That bit about adding luster to the legend…”
But my mind was on other things. “I’ll have to go into Julah…pick up supplies, let Fouad know we’re going.” Fouad was a partner in the cantina Del and I had accumulated along the way. “He’ll be on his own.” Which usually resulted in less income for us and more for him.
“I’ll tell him,” Neesha offered. “I’ll take the wagon and team and pick up supplies. I wanted to go to town anyway.”
Of course he did. He’d accomplished what he’d set out to accomplish. Dryly, I said, “Do examine the latest batch of aqivi, won’t you?”
Neesha grinned. “The only way I know how. From the inside out.”
I watched him walk away: tall, lithe, limber. From behind me, Alric noted idly, “He’ll do.”
So he would. Smiling, I headed for the house. Feeling the ale, I took a couple of off-balance steps. Empty belly. And I’d danced three and one-half dances with my lithe, limber son. Food would be welcome, even if I had to fix it myself while Del bathed Sula.
Two baths in one day. Well, it was better than the three required two days before. Our daughter managed to find the messiest, smelliest things to get into. I suggested once that we put a lead-rope on her and tie her to the bench, much as one would a horse, but Del’s frosty stare suggested the jest wasn’t appreciated. Of course it was only half a jest, but I didn’t tell Sula’s mother that.