"Ours is the Black Land," the first healer said. (Kemet is black in their speech.)

"I know. But other people have other names for it. Anyway, I told him we would go there to trade, and he was welcome to sail with us if he wanted to. His wife wanted to come along, too. I told her it was impossible-a ship has to have special arrangements for women, and we didn't have them. She said she would come anyway. I told her she would be in a lot of danger. You understand."

The first healer nodded.

"Somebody would lift her skirt, then kill her so she couldn't tell Lewqys. Because Lewqys would kill him sure. He's a terror with that crooked sword. When I was to be sold, they had two men guarding us, and he killed them both before they could draw breath."

"His wife is not with you?"

Muslak shook his head. "He came down to my ship in the harbor when we were nearly loaded, but he came alone. I think he must have written his law on her as soon as I left. But what's wrong with him? That's the point. Why can't he remember?"

"I was not merely inquisitive," the first healer explained. "A wife often knows things a man's friends do not. I hoped to question her." He clapped his hands. "I want to consult a colleague of mine."

"You think we're all rich," Muslak said. "Let me tell you that it isn't so, and until I can sell my cargo I'll have very little."

A boy came, and the first healer told him to bring Ra'hotep.

While we waited, the first healer talked with me, asking my name. I gave it, and he asked how I knew it. I explained that Muslak had told me.

"Would your wife call you so?"

"I don't know," I said. "I did not remember that I had a wife until now."

"When we are born, we do not know how to talk. You remember how to talk, clearly."