The Inheritance Trilogy Omnibus(454)

They looked at each other, Erem suddenly squirming. “This is just servant gossip, Lady,” Erem said. “We shouldn’t have brought it up in front of you. It’s nothing of import.”

“I’m forty days old,” I said solemnly, and they blinked. “Oh! Forty-one. Everything is important to me.”

They stared, then giggled behind their hands. I smiled, too, even though I didn’t think it was that funny. Finally Juem sighed. “Mikna’s a who, not a what,” he said. “She’s another enulai practicing in Darr, one of Fahno’s protégés.”

“But not the only other enulai practicing in Darr,” Erem interjected. “Darr is blessed with three, though we’ve only got maybe seven godlings altogether living in the country.”

“Two again,” said Juem. “Fahno’s retired.”

“Oh. Right.”

“Mikna,” I said, hoping they would get to the point.

Juem chuckled at me. “Mikna is by all accounts the better enulai. Older, stronger, with a bigger stable of godlings. And she’s old Darre—from an old clan, that is, with conqueror roots and traditional ways. Always had a bit of magic, but a few years back a godling took up with a boy from the clan, and decided to make a daughter with him. Godlings aren’t much for raising demons, so she gave the child to the clan, and they’ve been enulai ever since.”

I nodded. “Eino.”

“I was getting there!” He huffed at my impatience. “Eino’s old enough to be married off, see. More than, but Fahno-enulai’s better than most clan matriarchs; she didn’t want him going off to be a father when he was barely more than a boy himself. But he’s just gotten prettier with the extra years, and word’s out about how strong his magic is. That usually means his demon blood is strong, too—which makes our Eino the perfect sire for the next generation of enulai, in any clan.”

“But then there’s the other enulai clan in Darr,” said Erem, leaning forward so I would know that what he had to say was important, too. “That’s Lumyn’s people. Lumyn’s not much for the enulai art; the blood runs weak in her, probably because they’ve been breeding with foreigners for years. Amn and such.” They both grimaced; I nodded, though I had only the vaguest idea of what he was talking about. “Lumyn even trained outside Darr, down somewhere in Senm. But she’s of marrying age, too, and she came a-courting Eino as well—and Eino seems to like her better.”

It was a little confusing, but I understood. Sort of. “If they both want babies from Eino, why doesn’t he just give them both babies?” It seemed the simplest solution.

They both stared at me. “They want husbands, not just the children those husbands will make,” said Juem, finally, once he stopped looking appalled. “Who else is going to bathe the children and feed them and teach them the ways of two clans, and protect them if the home’s invaded? Women risk their lives enough to bear children and provide for them by tool or by blade; the least men can do is handle things after that.”

“Oh.” I frowned, wondering if Eino was much interested in feeding babies. He would be really good at protecting them, though!

“So,” Juem continued, reaching for more serry juice, “now there’s two clans fighting hard for our little Eino. And he doesn’t want the one his beba’s picked.”

“It’s done,” said Erem, shaking his head. “If you said she’s picked Mikna—”

“Now, when have you ever known Eino to give in to what somebody else wanted?”

Yeah, that didn’t sound like Eino at all.

But—“I don’t know if Eino wants either of them,” I said, frowning to myself. I thought maybe Eino really just wanted to dance, and maybe be an enulai himself, and do other things that men long ago used to do. Maybe men got married back then, but if so they got married when they wanted, and it sounded like Fahno and these other women wanted Eino to marry now.

Erem belched. “He doesn’t have a choice. Fahno’s got no heirs, see.”

I must have frowned in confusion, because Juem explained: “She had three sons, but they went off to marry into other families, like boys do. She had a daughter, Tehno, but Tehno didn’t get much of the blood—the demon blood, you know? Not enough to become enulai after Fahno. But Tehno married Arolu, and they made Eino, who did have it. It’s a throwback sort of thing like that sometimes.”

“OK,” I said, trying to parse it all.

“And that would be fine; Tehno wasn’t an enulai, but she’d proven herself capable of bearing children with the gift, and that would’ve been enough for her to inherit. But then Tehno went off and got herself killed a few years ago, trying to do business with the Litaria.” He sighed. “Damned criminals.”