042

*4*

There was a knock at the door of her cabin.

"Enter."

The door opened slowly with a creak. An old hand wobbled into view and gripped the door frame tightly before guiding an elderly body in to the room. The green plumes of his headdress were bent with moisture, some of which dripped onto the old man's face.

"Itzi, please come in and dry yourself off."

"Masu Malina Ochitl"

The woman seated at the desk waved her left hand across her body from the right to the left. "Honorifics aside please Itzi."

"Yes empress."

"Aside Itzi please. We have been out of the court for two moons now, I need plain speech again when we are together. The ears are quiet, we have this cabin."

"Yes Malina, thank you."

"Please sit." She gestured to the seat on the other side of the desk from her. "Have a glass of wine please. And feel free to remove your headdress before you get water on my maps."

"Yes of course, thank you Malina."

Itzi rose from his seat and placed his still dripping headdress by the entrance to the cabin. He walked across the cabin slowly as the creaking floor of the ship dropped low from a wave. One moon in and the man had yet to find his sea legs. The best man at court, but so far on of the worst on a ship.