Chapter 18
The soft, familiar sounds of life came to him in a wave first distant, then closer as it rose and crashed on a shore of awareness.
Kasik shot out of sleep in a panic, Nina’s name on his lips like a plea.
His hands were bound again, this time behind his back. By some stroke of luck or fate—he couldn’t decide which he preferred—he
was alive.
There had been dreams and voices in his near-death slumber. His mamay’s, specifically.
And Nina’s hands on his face, his name on her lips, her fingers digging in his head and rearranging everything he thought
he knew and wanted.
Vague memories washed over him until he wasn’t sure what was real and what was his mind breaking in half. The room spun, and
he tried in vain to calm his breathing. He would have grabbed on to his achilla if he had hands to do so with. When he finally
stopped to take in his surroundings, he realized he wasn’t alone in the sparsely furnished tent.
Across the way was a bed identical to his, and atop that bed was a small body curled into a ball, dark hair spilling over
the side and brushing the ground. He blinked once, twice to clear his sight, but he would have recognized Nina anywhere and
from any distance.
One hand was tucked beneath her head, and the other hung off, palm up and fingers slack. He had stared at those hands wrapped
around Capac’s seat, and then his arms, and the stick she had used to build a fire. Never had he seen them so open.
Pressure began to build in his chest, an indescribable desire to slip his hand into hers, to feel her heartbeat beneath his fingertips. Just to ensure she’s alive, he told himself.
But he was terrified of the possibility that she wasn’t. That his failure would end up with her dead instead of him.
Kasik gathered what little strength he had gained and slid his legs off the bed, testing his weight on both before standing.
He stumbled toward her and fell to his knees at her bedside. He lowered his forehead to Nina’s and murmured her name gently,
quiet enough so only she could hear, the urgency in his bones bleeding out of him to make her name as sharp as a prayer. “Wake
up, Nina.”
He heard Nina’s voice echoing his words.
His mamay’s voice beckoning him near.
A woman’s voice tinged with fear.
Dreams or memories, he couldn’t tell. It felt as though he was losing his mind.
Beneath his forehead, he felt Nina shift. He pulled away and exhaled deeply when he saw one of her wide brown eyes open through
the curtain of her hair.
“Kasik?” she whispered in awe. The hand that had been relaxed and open came up to touch his eyebrow, soft fingers trailing
along his temple and cheek and jaw, burning a path down his neck and then his chest, where she pressed her palm firmly. Her
other hand pushed aside her hair, and she stared at him as if he were a spirit.
“You’re alive. I did it,” she said, the words filled with a reverence reserved for the gods.
That must have been how he was alive. The poultice she made had worked after all. But it wasn’t himself he was worried about.
“Have they touched you? Are you hurt?” Kasik wished his hands were free to press against her neck, to feel her pulse and warmth
for himself.
“I’m fine,” she reassured. “They haven’t touched me.”
Kasik felt his chest loosen with relief, all the tension coiled within him, the uncertainty, breathed out with his next exhale. “You should consider becoming a healer once we leave this place. Perhaps the emperor can make arrangements for you to study with Master Wara.”
Nina’s brow furrowed, and she removed her hand from Kasik’s chest. He felt adrift without it. “A healer? So, you know?”
“About medicinal plants? We can talk more about it later, but we must go now, before—”
“No.” Nina sat upright, her hair tumbling down to cover her shoulders and chest. “No, we can’t leave,” she said. “Not yet.
Look at you, bound and weak. We need rest.”
Kasik could feel the burn of embarrassment color his neck. It was something Samaq had said gave away his true feelings, something
his tayta had laughed at. Control yourself, Son. Your insecurity is showing.
“I don’t think you understand just how badly we must leave. The emperor will not wait long for us to appear before he comes looking, and then he will find that we’ve been kept
against our will and destroy this place without blinking. If he finds that we’ve purposely extended our stay? The consequences
will be grave.”
The uncertainty in Nina’s eyes made him feel terrible, but the resolve in her shoulders softened into acceptance and he knew
he had won. “One more day. Then we can make up for lost time on the road.” She paused for a moment, eyes going distant in
thought. “They have achipumas. Perhaps we can borrow one.”
“Borrow, or steal?” Kasik asked with a quiet laugh. But nothing about this sat right. They had been ambushed, and Kasik had
been beaten and questioned. He wondered why he was there, in the same space as Nina, both of them alive.
This wasn’t how prisoners were treated in Vira. It felt like he was many steps behind and missing many pieces. Nina was staring at him, her eyes wide and imploring. Kasik sighed. “One more day,” he agreed, unable to deny her.
It was true that he needed the time. Though he was alive, he felt barely able to stay upright as he was, on his knees at Nina’s
bedside. At the very least, another day would give him the time to figure out where they were, who these people in green belonged
to, and if they were enemies of the empire. Gathering information would be a good excuse should he need to explain their stay
to Emperor Maicu.
“Kasik.” Nina said his name so softly that he felt it like a caress, the scent of her washing over him as she leaned even
closer.
It struck him suddenly, the positions they were in. Her unbound and hovering over him, hair falling to create a privacy that
felt intimate in a way he had never experienced before. Him on his knees looking up at her, throat and chest exposed, wanting
so badly to tear the binds away so that he could use his hands to—
“Good, you’re awake.”
They quickly moved apart as if caught, Kasik spinning around to place himself face-to-face with the man who had interrogated him only hours—or days?—before. He had lost all sense of time, but he knew that voice and that face no matter how many hours
had passed.
The man pulled out a knife and stepped closer. Kasik’s entire body buzzed with anticipation. Nina’s small gasp set his fury
alight. He would rip this man apart limb from limb, somehow. In this life or the next.
“Easy.” The man held up his hands. “I’m just going to cut your ties. Unless you’d prefer to stay bound. We can arrange that.”
Kasik eyed him warily. “I don’t trust you,” he spoke through gritted teeth.
The man smiled. “Likewise. But this isn’t about us.” He glanced at Nina, who stiffened behind him. “Shayim wants to speak
with you again.”
Again? Kasik wondered, but he felt Nina’s hand on his shoulder quieting his thoughts. “It’s okay,” she murmured to him. “They won’t
hurt us.”
How do you know? he wanted to ask, but he kept quiet long enough to consider what it would mean to have his hands freed. Whatever their intentions,
this worked in his favor as well. With a sigh, he shifted his hands as far to the side as possible. The man approached and
crouched before him. Kasik could see a muscle in his jaw jump and knew the feeling well.
Frustration. This man wasn’t in control any more than he was.
Once Kasik’s hands were free, the man stepped away and watched as Kasik shakily pushed to his feet. Nina’s arm wrapped around
his waist, and it was with her strength that he managed to stay upright.
“There are clothes over there to change into.” The man nodded toward a bundle at the foot of the bed. “Come outside once you’ve
changed.”
Nina and Kasik stayed where they were until he was gone, and then Nina was guiding him to sit on the bed. Her hands left him,
and though he felt stronger than before, the loss of her touch was almost a physical ache. His body yearned for its return.
Kasik took a deep breath. He had to pull himself together.
“Where are we?” he asked. Nina shook out the clothes and handed him the larger tunic.
“It’s a camp of sorts. I’m not entirely sure, but I know they won’t hurt us.” Nina’s movements paused. Kasik watched her and
waited for the rest of her thoughts. How strange that he knew her well enough to know there was more. “Shayim helped me. Us. In exchange, I told her I would hear what she has to say.”
“And you believe her?”
Nina slid on a pair of dark green pants underneath her robes and reached for the hem to lift over her head.
Kasik pulled the tunic she had handed him over his head just in time, heart thumping with something he wasn’t quite familiar with.
“I know it sounds crazy,” she said. “But I trust her. And I need you to trust me.”
The thing was, he did. She had come back for him and saved his life as many times as he had saved hers. There was a balance
between them that he couldn’t describe, and he knew that no amount of persuasion would change her mind. He also knew that
he did not have it in him to force her hand.
“At the very least, you can see the camp and plot our escape,” she added.
Kasik looked up to find her dressed in a bold green tunic, the color a compliment to her burnished gold skin. Her eyes trailed
over him, taking in his face and hair that hung loose around his shoulders, lingering on his chest where his heart raced beneath
his bones. There was something like pride in her eyes, as if he were a piece of art and she the artist, and also a spark of
hunger that set Kasik’s skin on fire.
Nina cleared her throat and looked away. Kasik took the opportunity to tug his pants off over his boots, grateful that he
was sitting. Once dressed, he pushed himself up again. Nina rushed to brace him, but he found that he felt stronger than before.
“I’m all right,” he told her gently.
She nodded, their faces close, and smiled. “Ready?”
Kasik nodded, even though he felt anything but.