They must be even more scared than I am, Maia thought sympathetically.

Within the dim recesses of the chapel, she made out several senior Lamai and the priestess who had come up from the city temple to officiate. Maia envisioned wax candles being lit, setting a flicker the deep-incised lettering that rimmed the stone sanctum with quotations from the Founders' Book and, along one entire wall, the enigmatic Riddle of Lysos. Closing her eyes, she could picture every carven meter, feel the rough texture of the pillars, almost smell the incense.

Maia didn't regret her choice, following Leie's example and spurning all the hypocrisy. And yet …

"Suck-ups," Leie snapped, dismissing their peers with a disdaining snort. "Want to watch them graduate?"

After a pause, Maia answered with a headshake. She thought of a stanza by the poet Wayfarer …

Summer brings the sun,

to spread across the land.

But winter abides long,

for those who understand.

"No. Let's just get out of here."

Lamai clan mothers had their hands in shipping and high finance, as well as management of the city-state. Of the seventeen major, and ninety minor matriarchies in Port Sanger, Lamatia was among the most prominent.

You wouldn't imagine it, walking the market districts. . . There were some russet-haired Lamais about, proud and uniformly buxom in their finely woven kilts, striding ahead of hulking lugars in livery, laden with packages. Still, among the bustling stalls and warehouses, members of the patrician caste seemed as scarce as summer folk, or even the occasional man.

There were plenty of stocky, pale-skinned Ortyns in sight, especially wherever goods were being loaded or unloaded. Identical except in the scars of individual happenstance, the pug-nosed Ortyns seldom spoke. Among themselves words seemed unnecessary. Few of that clan became savants, to be sure, but their physical strength and skill as teamsters — handling the temperamental sash-horses — made them formidable in their niche. "Why keep and feed lugars," went a local saying, "when you can hire Ortyns to move it for you."