14 - Meeting the Zon

Kyrus went all the way under when the naked teacher woman came strolling in.  White women’s nipples are very very pink instead of galanal nut dark.  And they have freckles.  All over their skins… everywhere… Ilax and her… Elemfias were just talking as if they weren’t both naked in the same tub of water.

“Lad.  You look faint.  Too-hot baths can make you light headed.  Go fetch a glass of water.”

It was the Zon speaking.  He fixed his eyes resolutely on her face.  “Yes, Zon.  But I don’t know where the well is.”

“Ah,” Ilax said.  His naked arm came up out of the water to point.  “Over behind that row of cubbies… before you get to the door of the showers… there’s a basin and a tap you turn to get water.  There should be a cup on a chain there.  Rinse it out when you’re done.”

“Yes… N… Ilax.”

At least I can imagine that the water has made me flush, not that even my backside is blushing. The rock and the wall of wooden cubbies distorted the sound and made their voices wobble and fade and then, when he figured out the tap thing, the pounding of water under pressure was loud enough to drown out everything.  Despite the anxiety he was feeling, he was charmed by how easy it was and had to turn the tap on and off several times just to watch.

The water was cold enough to make his teeth and head ache fiercely for a moment but tasted so clean, so good.  Even if it were melted out of snow it must have been filtered a dozen times to make it taste so good.  The water pumped from the river had time to settle out but still had to be strained through bleach-soaked nearcotton twice before it could be drunk.  If you were lucky enough to own a Raghnall tree you could tap the tree and drink the water filtered through it, instead.  But that was if you were a terrace farmer… or had a water garden in your loggia.

He heard the slosh of the two getting out of the bath.  “Kyrus, you slept in those clothes,” Ilax said.  “Put them in my family bin here.”

“But I can’t go anywhere naked!”  He didn’t manage to keep his voice quite from rising a bit and coughed as if it were phlegm instead of outrage that made him squeak.

“There’s good clothes here for you at the school.  Elemfias has them here.  Sometimes students forget to bring their clean ones.”

“I don’t understand,” was all Kyrus could say when he was handed a stack of Milari felt.

“I’m on laundry this week.  In a city this size we have communal kitchens as I explained about the ceekits.  We also have communal laundries.  Since I have access to the school, I and my family do our laundry with the school, not our section.”

“Do?  You do your own laundry?”

“And for others at the school… students and teachers.  It’s only a few days rotation… I do less when the Unity is sitting.”

“I should hope so,” Kyrus blurted out and Elemfias chuckled.

“Young bee-eater, we don’t see ourselves diminished by working for each other.”

She looked like a human war bird with a beaklike nose and a wide mouth and her stare felt as dangerous as one.  Kyrus didn’t argue.  “I guess then I should do my share of the chores, at the very least,” he said.  He felt very satisfied when both her eyebrows bounced up her forehead.

“Indeed.  Laundry, kitchen, snow… tending the cities working animals… things like that,” Ilax said.  “Sometimes we actually do wood splitting bees, sewing and mending, baby care…”

Kyrus gulped and closed his eyes.  “I’ll hope that no one thinks I’m going to eat their precious babies and drink their blood.”

“No.  Most people have let the war go, really,” Ilax said, but Kyrus caught the look that Elemfias threw him and the way she shook her head.

“Ilax, you’re an idealist,” she said and waved them both out of the tub room now that they were dressed and into her office.

“So, bee-eater,” she said as they all sat down on cushions next to her low desk.  “You are going to feel awful at first,” and Ilax nodded confirmation. “It’s my job to drive you away if I can. If I can discourage you, you are not meant to be a warrior. I hold no favorites, nor scapegoats.”

“Yes, Zon!”  At last something he understood.

“You will be starting with the rest of my beginners and you will be careful of the children, they are half your age.”  One eyebrow went up and she smiled.  “Do you have a problem with being taught with the babies?”

She obviously thought he had pride.  “No, Zon!”

“Good.”