Chapter 18 #2
It upset him, and it upset me, probably more than it should have. But I hadn’t reached the highest rank for my age back then, and the free days I had, I spent training. I didn’t understand how he couldn’t see the importance of that.
Now that I’m here, I still don’t. I shake my head, trying to get back to the present.
“You don’t know what you’re getting into by bringing us here.”
He laughs, a mocking sound. “You think I can’t immediately tell you’re bringing trouble?
You don’t know how to run away from what’s bad for you, Rei, and what’s going down in Lima, it's bad. Yet, you’re here wearing rags with Mare and no Suyai, of course I know this is more than I should be getting into. ”
My eyes never leave the princess. She turns to look at us with narrowed eyes, and I assume she’s trying to figure out exactly what Muna means. I glance up at her hair, slicked back with crusted mud and hidden by a rag acting as a veil.
“You really don’t know,” I say.
“It’s to do with this girl. I’m not stupid.”
“This girl can hear you,” the princess snaps, then shuts her mouth tightly. He’s too close. He could catch sight of her canines at any moment and then connect the dots.
He looks away from me to take a good look at her, and I shift my body to block her without thinking. I don’t want him to look her up and down. I tell myself it’s for our safety. Yanami’s face is still inflamed, but we can never be too sure. The burn in my gut challenges that.
Muna rolls his eyes.
“Possessive as ever. Whatever. Look, use the washroom and make sure those injuries don’t get infected. Then we can talk. You look half dead and stink. Don’t think I didn’t notice the blood on Mare either. He’s a kid. Get him bandaged up properly–”
“You think if I had the chance to, I wouldn’t have,” I interrupt, my temper flaring. I don’t like it when he talks about Mare or Suyai.
“Just.” He breathes deeply. “Just follow me to the washroom, okay? I’m trying to help.”
Try harder, I think but don’t say. Those are words that would have been normal in the past, but they’re too confrontational even for me now.
As he walks forward, the princess holds my hand to keep me back.
“Tell me why I should trust him,” she commands.
I don’t really have an answer to that. I think about what Muna said. Possessive as ever.
“You shouldn’t. I’m asking you to trust me to keep you safe.”
My heart blooms when she nods her head.
“I don’t want to know what you’re doing, but I want you to stay here,” Muna says once we’re all washed up, Mare in the poncho I bought and the princess and I in white blouses Muna offered us.
The princess whispers something under her breath along the lines of good luck with that.
I have to agree with her. No force on earth is stopping me from fulfilling our original plan to trek to the princess’s lakes, just like there’s nothing that will keep me from Cusco.
Not that we’re going to explain all that to him.
But maybe we can explain a part.
“We need to go to Intiraymi in Cusco,” I say.
“Oh, for heavens’ sake,” he responds immediately.
I can’t help but smirk at that, though the expression falters a little once I truly look at him.
The playful energy I felt on the way here is gone.
It’s replaced by weariness, like he’s trudging through this conversation.
I remember the soldiers out in the plaza.
Their exhaustion. Muna did a good job hiding it, and I know it’s only out now because he wants me to see it.
He wants me to see the weight on his shoulders, the way gravity is pushing him down.
He’s always wanted me to tell him it’s okay, that we can stop and rest. He needs that, but I never gave it. In my worst moments, I called him a coward, but I know that’s not true. He just doesn’t want things as much as I do. Not him, not Suyai.
Just me and my mother.
I fiddle with the chair he pulls out for me as a chance to look away.
Then, I catch sight of the princess, fresh out of the shower yet still glistening despite the dimming light.
She’s back to being dead-faced and prim, her chin up and mighty, her eyes looking down on us from her standing position.
I want to see her hair. I want to know how the strands would feel under my hands.
I want so many things, and that’s what Muna never understood.
We sit at a garden table next to a fountain shaped like a fish, and the gentle sound of water adds to the allure of this fairytale place. Then I remember how it’s the same water used to wipe the blood off Mare’s leg, and the scenery falls apart.
“We’re going to go no matter what. Kick us out if you don’t agree,” I say.
“Don’t be ridiculous. That’s not what I meant,” Muna says with a shake of his head.
“Then say what you mean, so we know if we need to figure out somewhere else to sleep tonight.”
“What I mean is that all the soldiers out there are demanding that refugees register so they can keep track of who’s in and out of the city.
You don’t get it. It was chaos when I first got here from Machu Picchu.
It only took me two days, but the damage was done.
They’re doing this to keep people calm, and I agree with them.
But,” he stops to take a breath. “But I want you to be safe more. Why were you trying to leave the registration line?”
“You said you didn’t want to know.”
He rubs a hand down his face. “Okay, I give. Tell me what you can, and please, I hope whatever you say doesn’t make me regret bringing you here.”
I have another petty remark on the tip of my tongue, but I bite it back.
He tried to tell me what to do, and I’m letting it get to me, but a voice that sounds suspiciously like Suyai reminds me it’s not the time for that.
I weigh the options of what to tell him.
I need to tell him the least amount of information that will get him to trust me enough to help.
I won’t say anything about the princess after that announcement.
He swore an oath to protect the Inka just like I did.
I won’t out her, but I’m strong enough to out myself.
“I am the princess’s champion,” I start with the general truth. I see the princess’s eyes widen and mouth trust me. Yet again, she settles into her seat, and I feel a deep burn of satisfaction.
Muna’s eyes track my movements. He wasn’t high up in the army enough to know this, but he doesn’t show a lot of surprise either.
“I’m fulfilling a mission for the Inka and Panaka. My friend is essential to that, and Mare got caught up with us during the attack. We need to complete this before I can return to Lima and find Suyai.”
Suyai’s name adds validity to my story. Muna barely knows me, but he knows that I would never leave Suyai behind if it weren’t for something important.
We wait in silence, the slow-moving seconds making me fidget.
“You somehow get into more trouble every time I see you, Rei,” he says with a strained chuckle that confirms he doesn’t fully buy the story, but he won’t ask questions either.
That’s good enough for me.