Even her hands and arms were more feminine than nature’s own design, as her elbows had more than normal range of motion at the joint, that when she straightened her arms they bent slightly backwards, graceful as a willow tree in wind.

Her blush response was likewise exaggerated. A she reclined, her flawless skin shaded from palest gold to lambent yellow like aged ivory to a rose red, and back again. One moment her skin seemed almost tawny, a goddess in warm bronze, but in the next moment her skin was so pale that the blue hint of arterial veins in her bosom could be glimpsed.

She wore nothing but a V-shaped garland of flowering lianas bright with little blue flowers and white, that snaked around her hips like a braided loincloth and fell in two ankle-length sashes trailing in meandering loops between her legs.

Several dog things hunkered near the walls, panting in the sauna-heat. The two Blue Men were seated cross-legged on the grassy floor, calmly sweating, having not removed their coats. The elder, Mentor Ull, regarded the Nymph with eyes as cold as a snake’s, and his half-closed lids gave him a sleepy look. Preceptor Illiance wore an expression of meditative serenity.

The Nymph was agitated, her eyes glancing left and right, and she lifted her hands nervously to toy with her hair now and again, or she swayed from left to right, reclining now on one rounded, marvelous hip, now tucking her long legs the other way to recline on the other. When Menelaus entered the room, she tossed back her hair in the flurry of darkness, her red lips parted, and she looked not quite toward him with hunger, and her dark eyes were like coals, and her pupils dilated hypnotically. He could sense the unscented natural perfume of a woman in heat from across the chamber like a kick to the back of his skull.

Illiance spoke without any preliminary, saying, “Lance-Corporal Beta Anubis, after some consideration, we have agreed to your demand that we depose a woman of the Nymph race. Frankly, we do not see how this will sate the academic curiosity which is part of your purpose in aiding us—she is not from an era of decline. However, Preceptor Ull agrees to host the interview of her, provided you also elicit answers to the questions that concern us. You seek to discover if the Tombs are hindering progress; we seek knowledge of the Tomb origins. Of the Nymphs so far exhumed, this relict is the only one from an era that is most likely to satisfy our mutual interests.”

Menelaus replied in High Iatric, “Preceptor Illiance, you may not know it, but you are afflicting this poor girl. Neither you nor the dog things here are giving her the normal nonverbal sexual cues she is used to, and so her body is automatically trying to become more sexually provocative. She might not even be consciously aware of it. Try to smile or get an erection or something. Give off musk. Do you have any cellular control over your bodies?”

Illiance said, “Our life modifications are almost entirely neurological, with hormonal and circulatory modifications no more than necessary than those to maintain balanced mental functions during high-speed neural activity.”

Ull spoke in Intertextual. “Achieve discreet silence. It is not advisable for the relict to happen to grow aware of our biomodifications and limits.”

Illiance inclined his head toward Ull. “May I reveal sufficient to quell his question? Otherwise the psychological discontent will resonate through the remainder of our dealings.”

Ull flicked his heavy-lidded eyes in a gesture of assent.

Illiance said to Menelaus, “We cannot mimic these subconscious responses. We are based on the Locust template, who, in order to achieve greater social harmony, are genetically imprinted to form lifelong pair-bonds. You may explain this to the she-relict before you ask her about the Tomb origins.”

“And you might explain what is wrong with all you future people? Why is everyone a nudist? She might be able to concentrate if you gave her some clothes. Hell, I might be able to concentrate better.”

“Like you, she seems to have haply refused our gift, and she tore the overalls and threw them at the muzzle of Follower Ee-ee Krkok Yef Yepp in a gesture we found disharmonious. The meaning of this act is obscure to us, and we ponder whether it was symbolic or functional, and in what proportions.”

“Which dog is Eek-Crap-Uck-Yuck-Whatever-the-heck-you-said?”

“Ee-ee Krkok Yef Yepp. Yonder.” Illiance inclined his head toward a stately Doberman Pincer. His eyes were bright, and he was wagging his tail happily.

“You want me to ask her about that too?”

Illiance said, “Our purposes mingle with yours, but do not seek to overpower them.”

“Is that a yes?”

“It may be. What is that loud breathing noise you make with your mouth?”

“It’s called a sigh. The technical term is exasperation. I never thought I’d miss having an Alpha bark orders at me, but at least they told you what they wanted cleaned or who they wanted killed. Learn something new every day, I guess.”

Illiance raised both hands and touched his forefingers, one to each ear, making a gesture that meant nothing to Menelaus. He said with quiet pride, “To lead a soul to new learning, however trivial, sustains the universal imperative of life.”

Menelaus answered nothing to that, but instead stepped forward and knelt by the pool in a slithering rustle of his bulky metallic robes. His face was already red from the heat, and he shrugged one arm and shoulder out of his garb, so that it hung over the other shoulder like a toga. With his naked arm he plucked a lotus blossom from the pond and tossed it lightly toward the Nymph, saying in her language, “For your delight.”

She rose to her feet and came swaying toward him, more graceful than a sinuous snake. “I have much for your delight, young bridegroom.”

He lowered his eyes and held up his hand. “While I am flattered, ma’am, I—” But his tongue failed him at that moment, because she did not stop her ballerina-smooth glide forward, so that his upturned palm was now pressed into the yielding and scenting flesh of her lower belly. Little flowers crinkled under his surprised fingers, and he was afraid to look up for fear of where his nose might land.

Before he could push her away, however, she had stepped around behind him and laid a warm, long-nailed hand on his bare shoulder, almost a caress. “You need not kneel yet to me, young bridegroom, for I wish your homage in other ways. Lift up your head.”

Menelaus stood. Even compared to Chimera, he was tall, and so he towered over her. He drew his bare arm back into his cumbersome cloak and, despite the heat, drew his hood around his face, and held the fabric at his chin in his fist.

She swayed back from him and half turned, giving him a glance over her smooth shoulder. “You importune me! Or do you wish in truth for my delight, which is the root of all benevolence?”

“I am a Chimera. Your race destroyed and supplanted mine. Not that I mind. We were annoying folk, to be honest.”

Her enormous eyes were even prettier when she narrowed them in thought and looked at him sidelong. “Do you jest? You biolinguistic tells are hard to read. Disrobe, and I will learn your muscle-nerve responses.”

“Thanks but no thanks. Like I was about to say, first, I am a married man, and second, I am on duty, and third, Chimera only get to impregnate according to a breeding program.”

“Impregnate?!” said the Nymph, surprised. “I was only inviting you to the love-play. Social harmony is achieved only when everyone loves everyone.”

“My mistake. Here I thought sexual reproduction had something to do with sexual reproduction.”

“Your words fail to kiss my understanding ear, and this diminishes my speech-joy.”

“Sorry about your speech-joy, ma’am. Let me introduce myself. I carry a rock to smash in the skulls of people who annoy me, and that list is pretty long and getting longer, and my name is Beta Sterling Xenius Anubis of Mount Erebus.”