The discussion seemed to take forever. Ariadne wasn’t willing to call for a vote until every woman on the tribunal had had a chance to express herself on the question. Since every one of them had an opinion, this took quite a while. Finally, they seemed to be voting. Prax tried to count hands, but he couldn’t tell which way it went.
Ariadne directed everyone on the council back to their seats. She took her place in the center of the line of stools. “Eugenie the Mercouri,” she said, “this tribunal confirms the right of the Mercouri elders to punish Praxiteles Mercouri for the crime of incest. However, we find that you did, by your own admission, forbid him to marry solely to punish him for the death of Zoë Mercouri, even though you never charged him with that as a crime. Since you gave him no chance to answer that charge, and no chance to accept banishment as an alternative, that part of his punishment is not valid.”
Prax stood in shock. They had released him from the restriction! It took him a second to realize that Ariadne was still speaking.
“If you wish to charge him with that crime in future,” the moderator was saying, “there is nothing to stop you from doing so. As to whether it would be within the scope of a clan to forbid a man or woman to marry, we cannot reach an agreement. Be aware that we will take it under advisement for the future.
“Circe Mercouri,” Ariadne called.
Prax’s mother stood up.
“Are you now willing to consider the offer made by Melina Zemikis?”
“Certainly, lady,” Circe said, smiling broadly. Prax wasn’t certain, but he thought he saw tears in her eyes.
“Very well, then,” Ariadne said resolutely, “this dispute is settled. There are no more names on my list. Does anyone else wish to lodge a complaint?”
She waited, but no one spoke. Ariadne waved her hand. “This tribunal is dissolved.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Prax stayed standing where he was, as if he had taken root on the spot. Eugenie turned and shot an angry glance at him, but she walked away without speaking. Prax still had his back to the crowd, so he didn’t see his brothers until they both threw their arms around him at once. They almost knocked him flat.
“You’re free!” Nikos said, pounding him on the back. “They undid the ban!”
Apollo let Prax loose and grinned at him. “Stop hitting him, Nikos. You’re going to knock him down. It wouldn’t take much. I think he’s going to faint.”
Prax let out a deep breath in relief. He felt as if he had been let out of prison. It was all he could do to keep himself from weeping. His parents joined them, and his mother put her arms around him.
“I’m happy for you, Praxiteles,” she said, tears leaking from her eyes.
His father was more guarded. “Don’t celebrate yet. The elders could still charge you with causing Zoë’s death. The tribunal didn’t forbid that.”
Circe gave an exclamation of disgust. “Aphrodite is dead. There’s no one who hates him enough to want to punish him more.”
“I think Eugenie might now,” Prax said. “She didn’t look pleased at being overruled by the tribunal.”
“Let her try it!” Circe said. “I’ll have something to say on the matter!”
“Let’s go,” Konstantin said. “Everyone is looking at us.”
“Let them look,” Circe said, but she walked with them back toward their wagon. Halfway there, they came upon Iphigenia hurrying in the same direction. Her mother called out her name, and the girl turned with a guilty look on her face.
“Where have you been?” Circe demanded. “The Zemikis are nowhere near here.”
Iphigenia went from guilt to defiance. “I had every right to go! He’s my brother, too!”
Circe started to scold, but Prax stopped her.
“It’s all right, Mother. I shouldn’t have tried to keep her away. She was bound to feel left out.”
Circe wasn’t entirely mollified. “Good thing for you we need to make ready for company,” she said to Iphigenia. “Otherwise, I’d have a thing or two to say to you, young lady.”
“Company?” her daughter asked. “Who’s coming to see us?”
“The Zemikis will be coming,” Circe said with satisfaction. “If you’ve all lost your manners, I haven’t. Melina Zemikis has made a proposal. Any minute now, she’ll be coming to hear my answer.”
Prax was dumbfounded. “But that was all just a ruse. Great-Aunt has no desire to see her great-niece married to me. Father can tell you that as well as I can.”
His mother smiled a smug smile. “It may have been a ruse, but it was a proposal, too. I have to answer it.”
“What are you going to say?” Prax asked.
“What do you want me to say, Praxiteles?”
Prax thought it over. What was the best way to say he was most grateful for the proposal because receiving it had resulted in his being able to marry someone else? “I’d like you to say that I’m honored, but that my affections are already engaged.”
“Very well,” his mother said. “If you’re sure. She’s a very pretty girl, you know.”
“I know she is, but I have a prior commitment.”
Circe sniffed again. “No one has spoken to me yet.”
Prax shook his head. “They don’t do it that way on Subidar.”
“We’re not on Subidar,” his mother said sternly.
Konstantin laughed. “Don’t try to fight them, Praxiteles. They always win in the end.”
“I told you to pack your bag,” Apollo said, giving Prax a hearty thump on his back.
Prax was in too good a mood to resent anything. His brothers left the family as they were approaching the Mercouri wagons, heading for their own campsites to tell their wives the news.
Konstantin went off to see about trading some of his leather work for metal goods, and Circe set her two remaining children to work as soon as they arrived at their campsite. She had a pot of tea ready and waiting when Melina Zemikis arrived with Athena.
Iphigenia served tea, under her mother’s watchful eye. Melina Zemikis looked at her approvingly.
“What a pretty-behaved girl,” she complimented Circe. “I have a grandson about her age. In a year or so, maybe we’ll talk again?”
Iphigenia flushed with embarrassment mixed with pleasure. Prax merely sat and waited. After Melina finished her tea, she set down her cup.
“Well, Circe,” she said. “I’ve come for your answer. What do you say to my proposal?”
“We’re honored that you would think of us,” Circe said, “but after speaking with my son, I find he has already formed an attachment to someone else.”
Melina didn’t seem surprised. Even her great-niece didn’t look in the least perturbed.
“It’s best to let young people have their way in these things,” Melina said. “It’s hard enough to get along with a man as it is, without having problems from the start.”
“I never had any trouble getting along with my husband,” Circe said, bridling at this suggestion that Prax could be a problem.
“Ah, but Konstantin takes after his mother, and my sister was a paragon of virtues,” Melina said. She rose to go, and Athena rose with her. They declined tea when Circe offered more.
“Well, young man,” Melina said to Prax. “You’ve been very fortunate today. For someone who slipped from the path at a young age, you’ve done a good job of making up for it.”
Prax didn’t know what to say.
His mother answered for him. “We’re very proud to have Praxiteles as our son.”
“Doubtless,” Melina said. “Are you going to listen to the singing tonight?”
“Of course,” Circe said.
Melina gave Prax a wry smile. “If you’ve been to one gathering, you’ve been to them all. You might do better to return to the scene of your vindication than to listen to songs you’ve
heard many times before.”
Prax looked at her closely; it seemed a very pointed comment to him. Melina Zemikis turned to go and didn’t look back.
“What did she mean by that?” Iphigenia said.
“Never you mind,” her mother scolded. “You go start getting the dinner ready. We barely have time to eat before they’ll light the bonfires again.”
His mother kept Prax too busy helping her to think too much on what had happened. When Konstantin came back, Circe spoke to him in low tones for a few seconds, and then directed them all to sit down and eat.
They had finished eating and had cleared away the dishes when the sound of a bouzouki tuning up was heard coming from the meeting ground. Circe put on a light shawl against the cool night air and directed Iphigenia to do the same. Konstantin picked up their blankets and a hamper full of wine, fruit, and sweets.
“There,” Circe said, “I told you we just had time.”
“I’m going to stay here, if you don’t mind, Mother,” Prax said. “I can hear the music from here anyway.”
Iphigenia started to protest, but her father told her to be quiet.
“He’s a grown man,” Konstantin said. “He knows whether he wants to go or stay, so let him be.”
Iphigenia looked sulky until her mother told her she was old enough to have half a glass of wine. This near-adult dispensation put her in a better mood, and she followed her parents without further protest.
Prax waited until his family was out of earshot. The scene of his vindication, Melina Zemikis has said. That had to be the tribunal grounds. No one was likely to be there—no Elliniká, at any rate.
Prax started through the lines of wagons. People had left their campfires burning, so he could see quite well. He took a spiraling route to work his way to the outer edge of the wagons; he reached the tribunal grounds from the far side, well away from the meeting ground and the brightly burning bonfires.
Shadows filled the hollow. Prax could barely see in the gloom. He walked down the slope to the place where the line of clan leaders had sat.
A figure stepped out of the dimness and into the moonlight. Rishi wore a gray Elliniká gown and a pink shawl. Her face had a serene expression, not quite a smile, but more a look of contentment.
“Hello, lady,” Prax said in Standard.
“Hello, Praxiteles.”
He stood looking at her for a long minute. He had never thought this moment would come and now it had. Finally he spoke in his own language. “I’m free, now, lady. I’m free to marry if I choose, and I’m free of Zoë’s death.”
“I’m glad to hear that,” Rishi said, stepping closer.
Prax took a step forward. She seemed to glow with warmth, like a fire. He felt like he was coming home all over again. “Are you sure you want me, lady? I have no money, and I’m ignorant of so much of your world.”
Rishi laughed. “Fortunately, I have enough money for both of us. And you know all the things that you really need to know.”
“What things?” Prax asked, stepping even closer.
“Things like how to keep your word, how to love, how to work hard, how to be kind. Things like that, Praxiteles.”
He stood right next to her now. He couldn’t wait any longer. He reached out, pulled her close, and kissed her. Rishi kissed him back with equal fervor.
“Umm,” she said, after a few minutes of enthusiastic kissing. “I’ve missed that.”
“So have I.”
“How soon can we get married?” she said. “I know they don’t ever have weddings at a gathering, but tomorrow’s the last day. How soon after that?”
Prax was surprised. “You want to get married here?”
“Yes,” Rishi answered promptly. “I want you to feel married. We’ll have to register the marriage when we get back to Subidar, but that wouldn’t mean anything to you.”
Prax smiled as he thought about the implications of her suggestion. This would please his mother but complicate the situation. “If you want an Elliniká wedding, then you’ll have to deal with my mother. Marriage is women’s business.”
Rishi didn’t seem worried. “All right. I’ll talk to her as soon as I see her.”
Prax shook his head. “No. There are rules you have to follow. You must invite her to call on you. Then when she comes to see you, you wait until everyone’s had tea or food or something. Only then can you actually bring up the subject of marriage.”
She chuckled. “Maybe I’ll make Hari stay for the meeting, and Thulan, too, just for moral support?”
Prax’s jaw dropped. “Thulan is here?”
Rishi chuckled. “She said if I couldn’t talk you into coming back, she would try.”
Prax visualized a confrontation between Eugenie and Thulan and decided it was just as well there was a language barrier. “That reminds me. How did you persuade my great-aunt to help you? She’s not interested in money.”
“I didn’t make the mistake of offering her money. I asked her what she wanted for her people. She said she wanted to have the energy weapons taken away from the bandits.”
Prax could believe Melina Zemikis would ask for such a boon. “But how could you do that? You can’t send an army to wipe out the bandits. ThreeCon would never allow it.”
“No,” Rishi said, “but I put a lot of pressure on ThreeCon to do it themselves. Not wipe them out, but disarm them. The weapons aren’t supposed to be here in the first place. They were smuggled in by local big shots. It was just a matter of making ThreeCon see it as enforcing the Non-Interference Directive instead of violating it. Hari helped me. He still knows people in ThreeCon. So does Parnochh, and he called in a few favors. ThreeCon agreed to start moving on it. It might take a while, but they’ll do it.”
“I knew she had a reason,” Prax said. “Great-Aunt Melina never does anything without a reason.”
Rishi snuggled closer. “Enough talking! Kiss me again!”
Prax pulled her to him, heedless of who might be watching. He kissed her passionately and she seemed to soften in his arms, as if she were melting against him.
“Lady,” he said, “don’t tempt me like this. It’s been too long, and I love you too much.”
Rishi didn’t heed this warning. If anything, she grew more insistent, running her hands under his shirt and caressing him all over.
Prax was breathing fast. “Lady,” he said urgently, “we must stop. We have to stop.”
“Why?” Rishi asked. She was breathing just as hard as he was. “It’s not like we haven’t done this before.”
Prax reached a decision. He grabbed her wrists and held them firmly. “Lady! We have to wait! This is not the right time or place.”
Rishi sighed regretfully. “You’re right.”
Prax released her hands.
She put them around his neck. “When will it be the right time and place?”
“When we’re married. If you want an Elliniká wedding, then you must have an Elliniká courtship. There are rules.”
Rishi chuckled. “I think we must have broken a few rules tonight?”
“Maybe a few,” Prax said. “I almost ruined my life once, by breaking the wrong rule. I don’t want to do it again.”
Rishi’s eyes glittered as she looked up at him. “All right. I’ll wait.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Prax took a deep breath. The heat of the day had lessened but the grasses and wildflowers still scented the air. This would be his last evening on Celadon for a long time. Tomorrow night he would be back on the Golden Hawk.
In the Mercouri encampment around him, the preparations had been made. Six days of frantic activity had given way to order. A series of bonfires had been laid in a circle, near the center of the encampment. His family and friends stood around the circle, watching expectantly. His grandmother, Antigone Mercouri, took her place in t
he center. She had asked to be the Mercouri delegate to the wedding, and Eugenie hadn’t cared to say no to her.
Prax’s father carried a torch lit from their own campfire and handed it to Prax’s mother. Circe took the torch and walked the circle, from fire to fire, lighting each in turn. After the last one was lit, she pitched the torch into it and moved to the center of the circle behind her own mother. Konstantin joined her, and they waited.
The moon was just rising, low on the horizon. It was only a little more than half full, but it looked large and luminous in the night sky.
In a few minutes, there was the sound of a shuttle circling. They could see the running lights as it landed. A cluster of people emerged and walked in a block towards the circle of bonfires. Someone at the back of the group carried a portable light high overhead to illuminate their path. When they drew close, Prax could see that it was Tinibu.
Hari and Thulan came first, with Lidiya behind them. Chio and Ogilvy walked behind her. Tinibu was last, with Rishi in front of him. Prax couldn’t see much of her because she was too short and the others were in the way, but Tinibu’s light shone on her black hair.
The group stopped at the edge of the bonfires and waited. Antigone stepped forward to greet them.
“Welcome,” she said.
The group split into two lines, moving sideways in opposite directions, leaving Rishi alone to step forward into the ring of bonfires. Prax felt his heart beat faster when he saw her face. She was wearing a traditional Elliniká wedding dress, the white fabric embroidered from hem to neckline with floral designs in the colors of the plains, orange and pink and yellow. The Trahn emblem, echoed on the uniforms worn by Hari and the others, was embroidered on the bodice. Her head was uncovered, and she carried a small clump of wildflowers.
“What do you ask of the Mercouri?” Antigone said to her.
“A husband,” Rishi answered firmly.
Circe lifted her hand in signal, and Prax walked forward to stand beside his mother and his sisters.
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