I do not laugh, as you know, nor smile readily. I kept my ugly old face as hard as a bower anchor as Rukker, the Kataki, said, “He was flogging me, not you, apim.”
“If you wish him to continue I will call him back for you.”
“By the Triple Tails of Targ the Untouchable! Were you a Kataki I would understand!”
Fazhan leaned forward and looked up past me. “But for this apim Dak, you would have been beaten, Rukker.”
“I know it. But it would be best if you did not mention it again.”
“Ah,” said Fazhan ti Rozilloi, “but it is worth the telling, by Zantristar the Merciful!”
The swifter shook and a shudder passed through her fabric. In the next instant, to the accompaniment of distant hailing above decks, we all understood we had pushed off from the wharf. A long, slow gentle rocking made us a
