"What next?"
She licked her little finger and raising it to Dio's face asked:
"May I try?"
"Do."
Ankhi slowly moved her finger along Dio's cheek and looked to see if the tip of it was red. No, it was not red.
"Strange!" she said in surprise. "How old are you?"
"Twenty."
"How is it you are so young?"
"But twenty isn't old, is it?"
"Oh yes, it is with us. We are married at ten and grandmothers at thirty. But, of course, with you in the north everything is different: the sun makes people old and the cold keeps them young," she said complacently, evidently repeating somebody else's words.