Vaintè expressed agreement. “I think you are right — and if you are, we are very close to Alpèasak.”

“Is the city on the ocean?”

“On the ocean and the river as well. The beaches are large, the water warm, the game abundant. It may not be as old as other Yilanè cities but in its youthfulness it has a newgrowth/attraction that many cities do not have.”

The crewmember on watch had been summoned below. None could hear them now when they spoke. There were matters that Fafnepto wanted to know about.

“I have never visited sea-girt Ikhalmenets.”

“Nor will you ever. The snow of winter is there, all are gone.”

“And all in Alpèasak now. Lanefenuu is Eistaa there now, just as you were Eistaa there once.” Vaintè signed agreement. “I will talk with Lanefenuu and she will know of your presence. Before that time I would like to have more knowledge of her, and of you and her, and what will happen when you meet again.”

Vaintè signed understanding. “As to the last — I do not know. For my part I will do nothing, say nothing. But I am sure that she will have a great deal to say. You yourself have told me that an eistaa respects no rule other than her own. This Eistaa commanded me to clear the city of the ustuzou that infested it. I did that. I pursued and killed them as they fled. I had them all between my thumbs, was about to kill them all — when the Eistaa stopped me. I obeyed her orders but I was not pleased. And it would be correct to say that she was not pleased that I was not pleased.”

“Delicacy of relationship understood. Relationship of an eistaa to an eistaa a difficult one. I will not speak of the matter again.” She started to add something but a crew-member came up from below and their conversation was at an end. In the short time before they reached Alpèasak there was no opportunity to resume it.

Vaintè had no desire to see Alpèasak again: she had no choice. She stood on the fin as the familiar landscape moved slowly by. There was the sandy beach where the uruketo had come for them when she had fled the city’s destruction by fire, the trees behind it freshly grown where the others had burned. This was where she had left Alpèasak, watched Stallan die. Watched her city die. There was the river now — and the worn wood of the docks and the dark forms of uruketo. She had left from here the second time, never thought that she would return. Now she had — though not of her own choosing. None of the turmoil of her thoughts showed for she stood rigid and still. Stayed that way when Fafnepto joined her, while Gunugul directed them close. Until the uruketo bumped the dock as the creature sought the food placed there for it.

Fafnepto was without her hèsotsan for the first time, for it was not right to go armed into another’s city. Normally she went unadorned but now, as her eistaa’s representative, her arms were painted with likenesses of the metal bridges of Yebèisk.

“For the moment, Gunugul,” she said, “I would like you to stay with the uruketo.” Gunugul signed obedience to commands as Fafnepto turned one eye to look at Vaintè. “Do you also remain here?”

Vaintè signed a rough negative. “I do not cower in the darkness. I am without fear. I will go with you to the ambesed for I am also a representative of Saagakel.”

Fafnepto acknowledged and accepted. “Then you will lead the way for I am certain that you know where to go.”

They climbed down from the fin and stepped onto the scarred wood of the dock. The commander of the next uruketo was there as well, a Yilanè whom Vaintè had sailed with. She showed shock and confusion at Vaintè’s presence and did not greet her. Vaintè turned away with cold disdain and kept her arms shaped that way as she led the way into the city. The gaping fargi pressed back to let them pass, crowded after them and followed behind. Vaintè saw Yilanè whom she recognized, but she gave no outward sign of this. Nor did they, for all knew of her differences with the Eistaa. Now Yilanè as well as fargi followed in their wake.

The city was as she had known it, for cities do not change. The guarded hanalè was there, beyond it the first of the meat vats. And there the wide and sunny way that ended in the ambesed. Here there was one change as Lanefenuu strove to remind herself of now-abandoned Ikhalmenets. Two males, surrounded and protected by guards, were carving the thick bole of the city tree. The peak of the central mountain of the island they had left was already clearly visible. Lanefenuu herself was supervising the work and did not turn until they were very close. Until Fafnepto stopped and made the politest sound for attention to speaking.

“My greetings to a stranger,” Lanefenuu said — then stopped when she recognized Vaintè at Fafnepto’s side. A flush of crimson swept through her crest as her lips pulled back from her teeth into the position that signified prepared-for-eating.

“You come here, Vaintè — you dare enter my ambesed!”

“I come under the orders of Saagakel, Eistaa of Yebèisk. She commands me now.”

“Then you have indeed forgotten that I commanded you once. I banished you from Gendasi* and from Alpèasak — and from my presence forever. And yet you return.”

The color was gone from her crest, her jaw clamped tightly closed, cold anger in every arch of her body. Vaintè did not speak and it was Fafnepto who bravely broke the silence.

“I am Fafnepto, sent to Gendasi* on a mission from Saagakel, Eistaa of Yebèisk. I bear you her greetings.”

Lanefenuu looked briefly at Fafnepto, then away. “I will greet you and speak with you presently, Fafnepto. As soon as I dispose of this one rejected/returned.”

“I am not one who can be disposed of. I wanted my presence here known. Now I return to the uruketo of Yebèisk. I will wait for you there, Fafnepto.”

There was moaning on all sides as the nearest fargi fled the cold voices and poisonous postures of the two antagonists. Vaintè first stood unmoving after she had finished speaking, radiating lack of fear/firmness of resolve, then slowly turned away. She saw those whom she knew among the gathered Yilanè, but she gave no sign. Expressing strength and hatred in equal parts she slowly paced the length of the ambesed and was gone.

Fafnepto stood rigidly during all of this, remained that way until Lanefenuu could control her seething anger. Before she could speak the Eistaa signed for a water-fruit, drained it and hurled it aside. Only then did she turn one eye towards her visitor — the other still fixed firmly on the exit from the ambesed.

“I greet you Fafnepto,” she finally said, “and welcome you here in the name of Saagakel, Eistaa of Yebèisk. What mission from her brings you across the ocean to my city?”

“A matter of grave concern, of theft and treachery, and those who speak of life but are part of death.”

Lanefenuu signed for courteous temporary silence. These were grave matters and not fit for every fargi to hear or even know about. Her thumb twitched in Muruspe’s direction; when her efensele stepped forward she issued quick commands.

“All but those highest dismissed,” Muruspe ordered with sharp movements of urgency. “This ambesed to be empty.” Only after the last frightened fargi had stumbled through the exit did Lanefenuu speak again.

“Are those you speak of, are they called Daughters of Life?”

“They are.”

“Tell me of the matter then. But know also that there are none here, nor will any ever be permitted in my city.”

“Nor will they ever be permitted to return to Yebèisk. They were there and they fled, and that is what I must speak to you of and ask your assistance.”

Lanefenuu listened stolidly, still moved by hatred at Vaintè’s presence, fascinated and shocked as well by what she was hearing. When Fafnepto had finished there was a horrified buzz of comment from all those who had listened to her, which died instantly as Lanefenuu signed for silence.