Theos had his doubts, but he put them aside as they started sparring again. And the next day, walking through the gates into the city, he was excited, almost happy. He glanced over at Finnvid, who was looking around at the buildings and finely dressed citizens, and smiled. “Not like the barracks, is it?”
Finnvid shook his head. “It isn’t. This is the city that was here before the Torians took over? The buildings seem more—more refined, I suppose. The graceful lines, the carvings . . . Torians wouldn’t approve of that sort of ornamentation, would they?”
Theos had never paid much attention to the city’s architecture.“It’s the old city. We almost always keep the old buildings. We build up the walls, maybe, and tear down things that clearly aren’t needed, but it’s a lot more efficient to adapt than to rebuild from scratch.”
“But the homes. They’d all be designed for families, and you don’t really have those, do you?”
“Not the same way you do. Not one man and one woman and all the offspring they produce. Usually two or three women will share a house, and they’ll have their youngest kids with them. That’s a family, for us.”
“That’s how you were raised? Do you still see your mother?”
“Sometimes. I get along better with her housemates, though, so I’m more likely to visit them.” It was strange, talking like this. Explaining everything to Finnvid made Theos think about details he’d never spent much time on. He wasn’t sure he liked it.
But Finnvid nodded as if he understood. “I have an aunt like that. My mother’s sister. She’s much—much easier to get along with.” He paused, frowned, and then in a more careful voice added, “Not that my mother isn’t a wonderful woman.”
“Mine too,” Theos agreed seriously, and then he grinned.
And Finnvid grinned back. Just like that. Like they were friends. In that moment, Theos wanted to wrap his arm around Finnvid’s shoulders, not to draw him in for anything more, anything lustful . . . simply to touch him.
But he didn’t dare. Finnvid didn’t want to be touched.
So it was a bit surprising to feel the boy’s hand on his shoulder, gripping tight for a flash of easy affection before they stepped farther apart and kept walking along the street as if nothing had happened.
Theos tried to control his racing heart. Why was he so excited? Because hisslavehad touched him kindly? Had he lost all sense? Just because he’d chosen not to force himself on the boy didn’t mean they weren’t still master and property!
Would Theos have been this excited if adoghe owned had shown him some affection?
Well, that thought calmed him down a little, because he was pretty sure hewouldbe excited about a dog, if the dog had been wild, or an enemy war dog. Theos wastamingFinnvid. That was why he was excited. He wouldn’t push, but if he kept being slow and steady and kind, maybe eventually Finnvid would be tame all the time. Maybe he’d share his secrets, and Theos would finally figure out what was going on. And maybe Finnvid would get over his stupid Elkati ideas about sex and realize that there was nothing unnatural about two people giving each other pleasure.
And maybe then he’d flap his wings and start to fly. But it was festival day, a good day for crazy dreams, so Theos let himself believe this one, just a little.
They reached the market square, and Theos steered Finnvid toward the stall of a healer they’d been planning to talk to. Finnvid needed potions of some sort—Theos had stopped listening to the explanation pretty soon after it had started—and the city healers seemed like the most likely source. So he made the introductions and then stood back, watching the women in the square. And the men who approached them.
“What’s that lineup for?” Finnvid asked from close to Theos’s elbow.
“You done already?”
“She’s gone to get some things from her shop. The lineup?”
“Couples who’ve already decided on their partners for the night. They need to register to be sure it’s an approved match.”
“What? Who makes the approvals?”
“The people in the temple. That’s the building they’re in front of.”
“Why do they get to decide? I heard that festivals were the only time of the year when men got to choose their partners. Are you saying that isn’t really true? Theystillhave to get approval from the temple?”
“Well, it’s harder to get approval from thewoman, really. We get to choose, but they can refuse the choice. Sometimes there’s ten men who all want the same woman, and she picks one. She might make note of a couple others and request them during the rest of the year, but on a festival night she only takes one. Then they have to get it approved by the temple to make sure they’re not too closely related.”
Finnvid made a face. “They wouldn’t justknow?”
Theos snorted. “My father had one hundred and seventeen children, and he died in midlife. There are older men who have even more. The temple puts a lid on them after a while, or else transfers the man or some of the grown children off to another valley; in the meantime, though, people don’t justknow. They can ask, obviously, and figure out if they share a direct parent, but there are complications. I don’t know who my father’s siblings are, or my mother’s, and I don’t know all of my siblings, or the children they may have had. Most people don’t. So the temple keeps track and makes sure everything’s good.”
“Wouldn’t it be simpler to just—” Finnvid stopped. Then he nodded, as if confirming something with himself. “Okay. That’s interesting. So you’ll be approaching a woman today? Do you have one in mind?”
Theos shook his head. “I usually just see what happens. I stand back and watch, and maybe I’ll see someone . . . I don’t know. The last festival there was a woman who was messing with the spit for the roast pork—the thing was supposed to turn automatically, I think, but it wasn’t working and she was trying to fix it—and I got kind of fascinated with the way her arms moved. They were so much smaller than mine, yet she still seemed strong . . .” Again, he was saying more than he usually would. But he’d started, so he’d better finish. “I just liked watching her. So when she was done I went over and we talked for a while, and we got along, so . . .”
“So you went to the temple and got permission?”
