Plenty to Eat #2
“Ah, like the warrior souls but in reverse. You know what that is? That’s when someone in the mountains is born a girl, but has a fighting man inside.
So he switches—there’s a ceremony when he comes of age.
Funny you don’t have warrior souls in the lowlands, but you do let boys become girls.
” From his expression, he didn’t think it funny so much as pitiable.
“And is that what you want, to be a girl?”
“I? Does Lord Vanu want a girl for a wife?” Again, someone should simply have told him if that was the case.
Khatu considered, head tipped to one side. “Huh. I guess not.”
“Well, good, because I’m not a girl.”
At one time he’d dreamed of it, because it would have been a way out of the life that he was living, which had borne down on him sometimes, a weight too much for him to bear.
He’d imagined slipping into a woman’s dress and being whisked away to marry a nobleman who would keep him in luxury.
His prettiness would have been a good thing then, not a curse.
But he wasn’t a girl—he didn’t know what he was—and would that life have fit him any better than the other? He doubted it.
“Well,” said Khatu, “I guess it’ll be however Lord Vanu wants it.
But you’ll be in girl’s things for the wedding, at least. I wonder if Ma knows about this—she could fix that ripped gown for you.
You’ll need it—there’s nothing else in here fit for a bride, I shouldn’t think.
You’ve got to make your clothes last, in here.
Only Susami and Ma are decent wool-workers, and they’ve got a lot else to do. ”
He got to his feet, rolling his huge shoulders.
“I’d better go. I’ve got work to do myself—drills, to keep fit. You’ve got to, when you’re penned in like this. Vanu always reminds us. When you’re well enough, you can join us, hey?” He chortled. “Toughen you up.”
“Sure,” said Lill easily.
He watched Khatu walk away, wondering how much of his big-friendly-dog persona was real and how much put on. It couldn’t all be real, that was not plausible. But not knowing made Lill inclined to be wary around him, as friendly as he seemed.
The injuries Lill had sustained—especially the blow to his head—were a serious setback.
He was in no condition to assassinate anyone, and he’d arrived as a helpless victim, his knives and even his clothes confiscated.
And who could say what they might have guessed or imagined when they saw the knives.
Who had seen them? He wondered about that.
Then there was the seal. He’d forgotten all about the seal, but it was gone along with his clothes. Maybe gone for good, unless someone had found that too.
He was indebted to Tirtu, who was Vanu’s henchman if he correctly understood the expression Khatu had used, and to the woman Gurti, who must be Khatu’s mother. Could he repay them? Or would this be another dishonour added to the list of those he could never expunge?
As if to make sure he wasn’t forgotten in Lill’s list of problems, Halza called out from inside the infirmary, “Lill? Are you there?”
Lill got up from the bench and came to the doorway. He couldn’t avoid Halza, much as he wished he could. Their fates, for the time being, were linked.
“Yes, did you need something?”
Halza was sitting up on his pallet, laboriously rearranging his pillows so he could lean against the wall. He was in worse shape than Lill; his injury wasn’t dangerous, but it was obviously causing him a lot of pain.
“I just wanted to make sure you hadn’t wandered off or anything,” Halza said, flopping back against the pillows.
He spoke as if he’d appointed himself Lill’s guardian in spite of not being able to get out of bed or even move without gritting his teeth in pain. Lill tried not to return an unfriendly look, but it took an effort.
“I’m going to go for a short walk,” he said. “I need to get my strength back.”
“Are you sure that’s wise? Who was that you were talking to just now?”
“Khatu Gukhártu—the man who shot at us.”
“What?” Halza yelped. “But—but I heard laughter! What was he saying to you?”
“He apologized for the arrows and wanted to know what I’m doing here.”
“You mean he didn’t know?”
“I guess Vanu Urártu hasn’t told everyone.” Lill shrugged. “It didn’t sound as if Khatu’s his favourite person.”
“He came in here earlier today, before you woke up, and threatened to—” Halza shut his mouth abruptly as if biting off a word he had thought better of saying.
“To what?” Lill prompted. He came back into the room and sat down on his own pallet. He clearly was not going to be allowed to go for a walk just now.
“To cook me and serve me to his lord,” Halza finished finally, his expression very grim.
Lill put his hand to his mouth to stifle a startled laugh. “That was a joke, Halza.”
“I assure you, he looked deadly serious.”
“I mean it was a joke to him—I don’t guess he wanted you to find it funny. But you know they’re not eating people in here.”
“Not anymore. He said they haven’t had fresh meat in more than a year. But they’ve been in here three years. They must have killed all the weakest among them in the first two years and eaten them, and now only the strong are left—they’ve had no more victims for more than a year.”
Lill looked out the open door at the sunshine on the ground outside.
Everything looked bright and normal, and when Halza stopped talking for a moment it was very quiet in the mostly empty village.
The idea that it was mostly empty because the remaining residents had eaten those who were missing loomed grotesquely in his mind.
The familiar feeling of being exposed, in danger of ambush, crept up on him. He shook himself.
“The stronghold had been breached and the people surrendered. The villagers left—there wasn’t anyone here but Faru Gukhártu and his family when the king’s men drove Vanu in here.”
“How do you know?”
“I heard it from the same man who told you he was going to cook you because they’ve run out of people to eat.”
Halza looked as if he didn’t know what to make of that. “Don’t worry, they won’t eat you. You’re too valuable as Urártu’s bride. And if they want you to eat me, once they’ve, you know—don’t feel bad. You need to keep up your strength to—”
“They have ducks! And goats, and all kinds of vegetable gardens. And there are only nine of them—three of them young girls. They have plenty to eat without resorting to cannibalism.”
“Perhaps they acquired a taste for human flesh when—”
“Now you’re just making things up.”
Halza slumped against his pillows, giving Lill a worried look as if he thought him painfully na?ve.
“Wait—did you say there are three young girls in here?”
Lill nodded. “Vanu’s daughters, apparently. I was surprised too.”
“But that’s monstrous!”
“I don’t know about that—they’re safer in here than outside without their father’s protection, I’d say.”
“But … ”
“But they’ve been forced to eat people,” Lill finished for him. “No, they haven’t.”
“I wasn’t going to say that,” said Halza unconvincingly. “I was going to say, ‘But their father is a monster.’ You know the stories of what he’s done.”
“Of course.”
But Halza wanted to repeat them anyway. “He put a whole village to the sword—men, women, children—because someone there signed the Eye of Envy when he was riding past. A cousin of mine told me.”
That did sound monstrous; it also sounded tactically stupid, risking your men’s lives over a trivial insult like that. Lill wondered if it was true. Nothing he had heard about Vanu Urártu had suggested he was a bad tactician.
“He destroyed those temples at Alazani,” Halza went on, “and slaughtered the priests when they tried to flee. I heard about that in Bezevand. And you’ve heard how he wiped out the Kuro clan, haven’t you?
Relentlessly hunted them down, every last one?
They say he drank the blood of the youngest son after he killed him.
He carried the father’s severed head around and—”
“That’s enough,” Lill cut him off irritably.
“I’m sorry. I know. You think you have to give yourself to him, but … Holy God, I wish I’d stopped you before you climbed that ladder.” Halza was doing the closest thing to wringing his hands that Lill had ever seen a strong and hearty young man do. “I blame myself.”
That was just insulting, and Lill half wanted to point it out. He settled for getting up and walking out the door, ignoring the plaintive questions about where he was going that followed him.
He felt better than he had when he came out earlier, and he was determined to push himself.
It was true that he needed to get on his feet and regain his strength, but he also needed to orient himself to the village.
Get the lay of the land, his training reminded him.
Know the terrain. He wanted to do this properly.
He wanted not to think about a man who drank blood and razed temples and did whatever it was Halza had been about to say Vanu did with people’s severed heads.
A man whom even his admirers called a beast. Lill needed no convincing.
And he would have to face the man soon enough; there was no need to dwell on the details now.