“When I was a child of nine years, Lord Pardos sat feasting with his captains one night. All at once, he stood up with a look of agony on his face, then fell in a swoon.
Master Saheed, who was then the principal surgeon, came just as Lord Pardos awakened to discover that he could not move his left arm or leg.
“It was shortly afterward that he had himself borne to the Council of Captains and, before them, formally adopted my father as his heir. Later, he exacted promises from the senior captains that they would all support my father and me after him. Six months later, Lord Pardos died and my father was acclaimed Sea Lord.
“And you became the same, upon your father’s death,” Mara added, finishing for him. “But your lady-mother, what of her?”
Alexandros grinned. “Mothers, Mara, don’t forget my father had two wives and I honor them both. Mother Kahndees died one night in her sleep soon after father died. Mother Ahnah is now wed to Senior Captain Yahnekos, whom you met.”
“Only one husband?” smiled Mara mischievously. “Who comforts her while Yahnekos is out raiding?”
Alexandros chuckled. “She is only forty, Mara, and still a handsome woman. I am certain that she wants not for ‘companionship,’ for it is not as here. Her lovers have naught to fear from Yahnekos.”
Mara became serious. “You are, then, of a lusty people, Lekos. Yet, while you have been my guest, noble women have thrown themselves at you and you have been offered the usual slavegirl-bedwarmers. You have refused one and all. Tell me why — and don’t give me the put-off that so charmed those sluts at Lady Joanna’s orgy, either.”
His black eyes bored into hers. “But what I said, that night, was completely true, Mara,” he said slowly. “There is but one woman in your court who stirs me, but. . . she is wed to a powerful lord. And your mainland customs differ from ours.”
Mara steepled her fingers. “Not entirely, Lekos. The Ehleenoee’s do, yes; but the Horseclanswomen have many freedoms, since most clans have always reckoned descent through the mother. In the settled life the tribe is now leading, their customs are undergoing slow changes, but clan matrons are still free to couple with the men of their choosing — so long as they do not overstep discretion and are careful of degrees of kinship.”
She leaned forward, saying, “Lekos, Undying Goddess I may be to the tribe, but I am still a woman. And I will admit that I am dying of curiosity now. Who is ‘this lady of my court who has so enthralled you that you will have no other if you cannot have her? Tell me! You have my sworn word that I will tell no other person—man or woman.”
Feeling that he could not express himself adequately in words, Alexandros mindspoke. After a moment, Mara’s eyes first softened, then misted, and she reached out to take his calloused hand in both of hers.
“Lekos, oh, Lekos,” she spoke aloud, a catch in her voice, “there is so much that you do not understand. If I make love to you, it will not be to you that I am making love. I will be reliving a physical contact that ended eighty years ago. Alexandros of Pahpahspolis was the Lekos I loved … and love still, though I saw him die forty years ago. And I was already ten times his age, even as we loved, though he knew it not.
“Dear Lekos, despite my appearance, I have lived for more than three hundred thirty years. From what you have said, you must be an Ehleen Christian. Know you not what your own priests say of such as me, that we are Satan’s own folk, deathless sorcerers and witches, cursed by God? Are you not afraid of ensorcellment and eternal damnation?”
“I can see and feel nothing of evil in you, Mara,” said Alexandros bluntly. “As for the persecution of your kind by Christians, Father Vokos had an explanation that I have always remembered. He said that ignorant men, when faced with a person or situation or object they could not understand, first fear, then fear breeds hate, then a means is found to justify that hatred.