Oenoe laughed and hid her smile behind a fold of her green veil.

Menelaus said, “That was not bad, but you were supposed to called her, my lover, not my beloved.”

“What happens to be the distinction?” asked Illiance.

“Ugh. I can’t explain it. It has to do with shades of meaning. The Nymphs don’t have a word for virgin, but they have formalities of address for people with whom you have not often had sex, and a different form for people with whom you have often.”

“What of two people who have not copulated at all?” asked Illiance, blinking.

“You have to use a circumlocution for that. They don’t have a separate word for it.”

“Beta Anubis, do you exaggerate for the purposes of entertaining yourself with humor?”

“Sometimes. Quite often, in fact. But not at the moment. Why?”

“Surely no race could be as voluptuous and prurient as this!”

“They did not have television or textfiles, and they didn’t have to do hard labor, and they kept themselves too drugged up to get into fights, so what do you think they did all night? Not to mention morning, noon, and dusk? They knew all the mechanisms of memory and infatuation, so that the next youth or maiden you met would be like your first love all over again, and they could change your glands to make a weary lover go into heat.”

Oenoe straightened up, her weight on one arm, her hips and legs draped in shapely curves to one side, and she pointed regally at Illiance. “Tell the blue child he must promise to understand me if I speak, and cherish my words and delight in them! It will wound me if he hears me with his ears alone, and not his heart!”

Menelaus said to Illiance. “Did you follow that?”

“Yes,” said Illiance. “She imposes a moral obligation on me to have an emotive rather than an intellectual reaction to what she is about to say. But how can I promise to bind my emotional reactions before I know the topic of the data?”

This created a flurry of chirps and hisses between the two Blue Men. Ull said to Illiance in the language of the Locusts: “Take care! Do not remove from the path of simplicity! To conform your emotions to her prescription is an artifice!”

Illiance answered: “I must bring upon myself this risk. Otherwise, she might not speak.”

Ull scowled: “Do you place the balancing network of passion, appetite, reason, and conscience in the hands of a relict from the unknown past? The risk is undue!”

Illiance said: “The present is also unknown. I accept the risk.”

The scowl of the elder Blue Man deepened. “I am no longer responsible for your education. I cannot mentor those who despise my advice.”

Illiance bowed his head. “I am grateful and thankful to have followed in your wise footsteps for so long.” Then, taking a deep breath, he said in Iatric to Menelaus. “Tell her I accept her commission, and will allow myself to be moved by her words, whatever they may be.”

Oenoe sat up straighter during this exchange and whispered in her own language to Menelaus. “Of what do they speak? Why such fluster?”

Menelaus said, “I don’t know. Maybe the old one is afraid you are going to propose to the young one.”

“Propose what?”

“Sexual intercourse.”

“Why would they think that?” Oenoe’s tone was scandalized.

“I told them you wanted to fornicate with them.” Menelaus shrugged.

“Such a lie! If you were a woman, I’d spank you!”

“Um. Thanks. I think. Actually, I am not sure what to make of that comment.”

“It means that I wonder at you! Where are your ethics? If one cannot trust the translator to translate truly, whom can one trust? I cannot seduce if my words are misspoken!” Oenoe pouted prettily.

“Does that mean you don’t want to fornicate with the weird little blue men?”

“Of course I do!” She waved her well-shaped hand at him, a dismissive gesture. “But they are unsuited. I do not sense the proper neurological-hormonal structures in them. I could not make them fall in love with me. Look at their eyes! There is something dead and evil in them!”

“Be careful what you say. The younger one can understand us.”

“I care not!” The eyes of Oenoe suddenly blazed. “He cannot look at me without knowing what he is! I am truly alive, and he is not. I would save him, if I could, but even love cannot reach the unwilling.” And, just as suddenly, her head was hanging, her shoulders hunched, sorrow sculpted into her every curve, and her shining black hair hung down before her face.

“Well, cheer up, ma’am. The younger one just said you can tell him what’s on your mind, and he’ll listen with an open heart.”

“What is his name?” Oenoe’s face lit up with joy, and her beauty was like a sun coming from behind a cloud. “If he is willing truly to listen, I must know and cherish his name.”

“One of his names is Illiance. His title means ‘teacher’ or ‘bard.’ Hold on a second.” Menelaus turned to Illiance. “Preceptor, you told me Illiance was what you called an external name. Do you have an internal name? A first name? She is about to tell you something private, and she wants to know your name to cherish it.”

Illiance touched his fingertips to his ears ceremoniously. “When I departed from the Locusts, I was adopted into the care of a pretend-mother. She called me Lagniappe, for she likened me to those small gifts a merchant seeking the goodwill of patrons might bestow.”

Menelaus turned again to Oenoe. “His private name means ‘Small Favor.’ The word means something given in hopes of attracting future generosity.”

“His favor of telling me that his name means ‘favor’ has won my favor!” she said with a smile. “Because of his kindness, my heart beats rapidly, my breath is short, and my nipples stand erect!”

“Uh, ma’am, while that sounds like poetry and sweetness in Nymph-talk, if I translated it into his language, it would sound like a description of a medical condition.”

“So. In that case, tell him I will plead with the Judge of Ages, when he arises, to spare his life.”

Menelaus sighed heavily and turned to Illiance. “Preceptor, I hope you followed that, because I don’t want to translate it.”

Illiance asked, “Why do you not want to translate it?”

“It’s a Chimera thing. I am not allowed to speak another man’s threats or defiance unless I am willing to pick up his whip and carry them out. What she said sounded like a threat to me, and if I say it, I am legally responsible for acting on it.”

“Your laws are no longer in force.”

“Call it an imposition of a moral obligation, then.”

“I flowed with the drift of the current of her words,” said Illiance. “She is pleased with my false-mother-name, and therefore, in recompense, she will shield me from the Judge of Ages. Is she using a figure of speech, or does she think the Judge of Ages is a real person? Why does she think she will have any sway over his actions?”

Menelaus translated the question.

Oenoe tilted up her chin with girlish pride and smiled a dazzling smile. “Of course he is real. Who built the Tombs, if not he? He built the Tombs to preserve himself, and merely lets others dwell for a time to slumber beside him while he waits. Of course I can soothe the world-destroying wrath that burns and bites his dark and horrid heart. Am I not one high in the esteem of the servants of Nature, and a queen of my kind? The Judge of Ages loves us!”

7. Woe to the Nymph Who Moistens Not Her Lip

O bountiful and generous Nature, breathe into me, that I might breathe out words to stir the soul, and open blinded eyes.

Hear me, then, Little Favor, and I will tell of my woe. As I said, the stream of hedonism is a white and rapid water to row, and requires both discipline and daring. My failure came when I pursued in love a girl I found fetching, for she was willful and glancing-eyed, and she knew my soul as none other did. But she was humiliated at a thiasus for a misstep in the revelry, and yet she refused to dim the memory, preferring to feel scorn and shame. She watered and manured her wrong feelings, until she resolved to leave our today-ness, and seek the tomorrow-ness of the Tombs.