But Ikhalmenets was more of the sea than of the land. Uruketo lined the shore, mixing with the smaller fishing boats heavy-laden with their catch. Erafnais called down instructions to guide the uruketo through the rush to a berth at the dock. Vaintè stood aside as the crewmembers climbed down from the fin and made the creature secure.

“All to remain on board,” Erafnais ordered as she prepared to leave. Vaintè listened, then was careful to express no antipathy when she spoke.

“Is your order addressed to me as well, commander?”

Erafnais was immobile with thought; then she spoke. “I do not wish wild accounts of what occurred in Alpèasak to be spread through the city. I will talk with the Eistaa first and await her commands. But you—I cannot command you Vaintè. I can only ask you to—”

“The need to ask is superfluous/close-to-insult, commander.”

“Never my intent!”

“That I realize, so no insult is taken. Vaintè does not gossip in the ambesed.”

There was a wheezing behind them as Akotolp pulled her bulk to the top of the fin, laboring even harder as she hauled the protesting Esetta< after her. She signed dutiful-request to Erafnais.

“It is required that I relieve myself of the burden of this male creature. Your discussion was overhead, so take my assurance that in the doing of this labor in the city none shall hear from me of Alpèasak’s destruction.”

“It will be my duty to aid you,” Vaintè said. “The male shall proceed between us to the hanalè. This will cause the least amount of disturbance/attraction among the fargi.”

“I am in Vaintè’s debt,” Akotolp said with pleasure-of-gratitude. “A single male is a sight rarely seen. I do not wish to arouse unseemly emotions.”

Erafnais turned her back, closed her mind on the matter. The stories would get out soon enough, though not from Vaintè and the scientist. But her crewmembers would be quick to gossip. Before this happened she had to seek out Lanefenuu, the Eistaa of Ikhalmenets, to report everything that she knew, everything that she had seen. It was a burden for an eistaa not for her and she yearned to be free of it.

While Akotolp climbed slowly down, Vaintè waited on the scarred wood of the dockside, her nostril flaps open wide to the drifting smells of the city, almost forgotten during the days at sea. Pungent odor of fish, warm breath of fargi, hints of decay from the undergrowth, while over it all lay the lush embrace of the growing city itself. Unexpected pleasure to be ashore moved through her body.