Chapter 8
The rain was an enemy Kasik hadn’t anticipated.
He was less familiar with this part of the emperor’s road, having been there only once before this mission as a child who
accompanied his tayta on a Harvest. It was then he had met Samaq, both of them young boys chosen to serve as walla, and they
had been friends ever since.
Because he was unfamiliar with the area, he had a harder time deducing where there might be cover. The mountain range was
smaller, the trees thicker, but everything was wet. The canopies of leaves were dumping buckets of water when they became
too full. The ground was soggy. There would be no fire.
Nina’s body was warm against his, though he tried not to think about it too much. She fit perfectly in the space between his
legs, her head tucked nicely under his chin. Though she said nothing about being cold, her body had begun to shake, and it
was that movement that made his decision. They would have to leave the road now.
Carefully, Kasik maneuvered Capac off to the side and through the trees. Nina leaned farther into him, and he knew that if
he looked at her, he’d see her eyes closed tight. But he kept his attention on the narrow path before him, sighing with relief
when a large outcropping of rock came into view. Beneath it was a shadowed space that looked just big enough for the two of
them.
Capac skidded to a stop and Kasik swung off the seat. He grabbed Nina around the waist and slid her down carefully. “There,”
Kasik spoke into her ear, pointing at the rocky cover. She nodded and ran toward it. Once she was safe, Kasik motioned for
Capac to stay, murmured praise into his ear, and then took off to join her.
It was a tight fit. Nina had to shift against the wall for him to slide in next to her. He heard her suck in a quick breath
and turned to her, eyes trailing over her face and neck. The injury on her jaw was darkening in color. “Are you hurt?”
She shook her head, tendrils of wet hair stuck to her forehead and neck. He fought the urge to push them aside and inspect
her further. “I’m fine,” she said, shifting farther away from him. Kasik realized he had leaned closer and sat back as far
as he could without putting himself out in the rain.
Silence grew between them. If it wasn’t for the rain, he knew he would be able to hear her every breath and movement. As it
was, he saw the way she discretely rubbed the tops of her thighs. She was sore, he realized, and wondered why she didn’t say
anything about the pain before.
But he was a stranger. Already, she was trusting him more than she should. Admitting to pain was revealing a weakness, and
he couldn’t help but admire the silent battle she was fighting. What he needed to do was pay closer attention. Her life was
in his hands.
Nina suddenly broke the silence. “You called me ‘the emperor’s property.’ I want to know why.”
Apparently, their minds were in the same place. It hadn’t been made clear what he could and could not tell Nina, so he said,
“The emperor personally sent me to collect you.”
“Yes, I gathered as much from your presence.” She shifted so that she was facing him more, and her knee came to rest on his
thigh. “But why? What does he mean to do with me?”
Kasik didn’t want to be the one to explain this to her, but he hoped that by giving her a small piece of information, she would be more likely to trust him.
It could go a long way in ensuring their survival.
“The acllas are dispersed through Tawantinsuyu, to serve in the households of those loyal to Emperor Maicu, but it was the emperor who chose you to serve him.”
Nina’s eyes narrowed skeptically. “He specifically chose me? Is he usually so involved in the smaller details of his household?”
Kasik scoffed. “I can assure you, a wife is no small detail.”
The girl surprised him again by letting out a sharp laugh. Her hand flew to her mouth. “I’m sorry, what?” she said through her fingers.
“You are meant to marry the emperor and—”
“Yes, I know what a ‘wife’ is, but I am not becoming one. Much less the emperor’s.”
“Haven’t you been trained for this day? Surely, this isn’t a surprise.”
“ ‘Trained’?” She said the word as if it were a curse. “I was taken from my family just weeks ago. The only thing I’m trained for is caring for our cornfields and my sisters.”
Kasik closed his mouth, swallowing the retort on his tongue. It explained why she was older than he had expected, and wilder,
as if she had different expectations on her shoulders. Perhaps they had given him the wrong girl. But no, the matron had read
the emperor’s missive and she had made it clear that she would have given him any other girl if allowed.
“You are who I have been sent for. The emperor was very clear.”
“And I’m expected to simply”—she paused, as if searching for a word—“obey? He can find another girl. There were plenty to
choose from. In fact, I know a girl who would be perfect for the role. Pious, dutiful, quiet,” she said with a wince.
The rain had grown stronger, and they were yelling to hear each other over it. Kasik tried to think of words that would settle
her, tried to put himself in her position, but he failed to understand her hesitance. “You are who he chose, Nina. This is
a great honor.”
But Nina wasn’t listening. Her wild eyes surveyed the small space, then the woods past them, as if contemplating her escape. “This is a mistake. This can’t be—”
“The emperor does not make mistakes.”
“I doubt that,” she insisted.
“You will be well taken care of. All your wants and needs will be met. You are acting as if this is a death sentence. It will—”
“Death would have been preferrable to this,” Nina spat.
“You’re being unreasonable.”
“ ‘Unreasonable’? I was forcibly taken from my home, made to fear for my and my sisters’ lives, caged behind stone walls,
and then thrown into a cell without food or water, and now I am told that I am someone’s property. I am the unreasonable one?”
“The emperor has saved you from that fate. He has chosen you, the gods have chosen you. This is a privilege.”
“This is a gilded cage.”
At some point in the conversation, they had turned to face each other fully. Kasik’s back was to the opening of the small
cave, and the watery light lit Nina’s face. Her lips were pursed, and her brows were furrowed angrily. A drop of rain hung
off the tip of her nose.
Kasik took several deep breaths. If he opened his mouth, he would shout, or he would apologize, or he would say something
stupid about the way her eyes held his gaze so fiercely.
The silence between them was thick enough to take up space. It might push him out of their cover, if he allowed it. She might push him out if he wasn’t careful. “Everything is a cage,” he finally said quietly. “Gilded is better than not.”
The concept of bars around his life wasn’t foreign to him. Kasik lived his life within a strict set of expectations, most
of them there because of the choices he had made, all of which erected a new bar. A new boundary.
There were the expectations of his tayta, who he disappointed at every turn, no matter how hard he tried not to.
And then there was his emperor, who demanded his loyalty without question.
Samaq, who expected nothing, which made Kasik want to give him the best bits of himself.
And Master Wara, who treated Kasik as though he was capable of so much more than even Kasik believed.
All of it a weight around his shoulders. Shackles around his feet. Oftentimes, it felt like the walls of the kancha were closing
in. But it was his duty. Everyone had a role to play in the empire. Why did Nina believe it was acceptable to shirk hers?
“This cage is of your own making,” she replied, as if she had heard his thoughts. “It appears I won’t have that same luxury. Only those your emperor has decided to hoist upon me.”
Kasik stilled at her dangerous words. There was no one else to hear them, but sentiments carried far and lines were easily
crossed in the wrong company. “Be careful, Nina. He is your emperor as well.”
At his tone, she abandoned whatever else she was going to say and leaned against the rock wall. Only then did he realize that
he was no longer cold. In fact, he was sweating underneath her scrutiny.
“He must pay you well for this caliber of loyalty.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “Murder, abduction—what other atrocities
have you committed in his name?”
Kasik’s heart was beating fast. The air was too warm to breathe, and Nina’s judgment was too heavy to bear. “That’s none of
your concern,” he replied shortly.
“That’s what you believe, right? Even though this is my life, my freedom—that it’s none of my concern?”
“You act as though you will have no freedom whatsoever. He isn’t stripping you of your will.”
“He may as well be. That’s the point that you are refusing to see.”
They both fell quiet, chests heaving as if they had been running across valleys.
The quiet of their alcove magnified their anger, their differences and disagreements.
Kasik was loyal to the emperor and the gods.
Nina was loyal to no one but herself, it seemed.
She couldn’t be argued with, and it was a waste of his time to try.
“We’ll start moving again as soon as the rain stops.”
There was no response, but he didn’t need one. The look in her eyes was enough to tell him exactly what she thought.
Hours later, when the rain finally stopped and the sun had begun its descent,Kasik wasn’t surprised when Nina refused to ride
Capac with him again. It wasn’t as though he was particularly excited about being pressed against her after their argument,
so he had decided to walk beside them and swallow the worry about the time they were wasting.
If only Illari hadn’t been stolen. If only the acllahuasi had transportation of their own. If only he had left for Tullumay
one day earlier, then all this could have been avoided.