Iktome Plains You asked me how long

He lifted his lips in a humoured smile, but had nothing to say about Erzulie. He knew his manman would take great care, as she always had with him and his siblings, and presumably all those who came before. Childbirth and rearing were not subjects with which Sobo was familiar, and he was loath to joke about something that was so personal and integral to women when he was only a man.

Her next words put a chill through him. Had he been so transparent? Sobo tried to keep his grumpiness to himself, wearing it loudly only when in the presence of those who had engendered it, but Rosalyn was more observant than he thought. He sighed lightly.

Dere be not'ing much to talk about, he said, and knew she would see right through his lie. It was heavy in his tone and stretched far further than just Njord and Meerkat. For a long time, Sobo had felt unseen. Not by his mothers, of course — they were incredible — but it was only another tick on a list of little ways in which Sobo and his feelings had been cast to the side. She would see through it, and Sobo did not know how to talk about it without seeming like a petulant child.

Like a whinging man, he thought. That was how she might see it, and he did not want that.