Madurasha’s Son
Madurasha’s Son
Akramarran customs for the day after a wedding seemed mostly to revolve around drinking too much.
They spent the rest of the afternoon at it.
They set up the tables in the gathering place again and brought out jugs of wine and beer.
There was more dancing. Khatu and Barda showed off their own renditions of the burira; they were both competent but nothing like Vanu.
They did a different dance that involved strutting like a rooster and thrusting out their hips in an unsubtle way.
They tried to teach this one to Halza, who looked grateful to have the excuse of his bad leg to refuse.
Tirtu scooted along the bench to sit next to Lill some time well into the drinking. Vanu was occupied at the other end of the yard, where Khatu had proposed an axe-throwing contest.
“Bet you were glad of the shaman’s incense yesterday, hey? In Lord Vanu’s bed? They say he’s as savage in the bedchamber as on the battlefield.”
Lill looked up at Tirtu through his lashes. “Who says that?”
Tirtu gave that a moment’s thought. “Well, I say it, I suppose. Not that I know exactly what he likes to do … I’d have told you if I did! But out on campaign, in close quarters at night in a tent, you hear things … whether you’d like to or not! Well, you’re still in one piece—that’s good.”
“I’ve been told I’m tougher than I look.”
Tirtu snorted. “It wouldn’t take much! Beg your pardon.
You know it was my idea for him to marry.
I’m the one who sent for you. Davanu found you, but it was my idea.
I said, you know what my lord needs, it’s a taste of his old life.
He’s wasting away in here, and it won’t do.
We need the old Vanu back. Then we can …
” He didn’t seem to know how to finish the sentence.
“We need him. But how to do it? He can’t go out on raids, can’t face his foes with sword in hand or scheme to bring about their ruin—that was what always brought out the best in him.
So I thought to myself, Tirtu, what else gets a man’s blood stirring? The pleasures of the bed, naturally!
“But he’s a difficult man that way, Vanu.
A complete matchmaker’s ruin, that’s what we call it—no use whatever for women.
I don’t understand that, myself. To be honest with you, Na Riru, I don’t understand it at all.
How a man can want to fuck anyone without a pair of breasts attached—it makes no sense to me.
They’re the best part! So nice, breasts …
But the rest of it … I can’t get too worked up about the rest of it, if I’m honest. That’s why I never felt the need to marry.
It’s nice once in a while, and I’ll never pass up the opportunity to get my hands on a good pair of tits, but a man like Vanu, used to take a different man to bed every night—don’t know what the appeal of that is, by the Blue Heaven!
“That was why I got the idea to write to Davanu. He and Vanu are old friends. Used to be … whattayoucallit.” He flapped his hands euphemistically. “That was a long time ago, and Davanu’s got a wife and family and all that now, but they’ve never made a secret of it. Poor Davanu.”
“Why poor?”
“He’s dead! Did you not know? Dead. Poisoned.”
Several things fell into place in Lill’s mind. So that was what had happened. He wondered how much he needed to pretend a reaction for Tirtu in his drunken state. He decided subdued shock would do.
“No,” he said quietly. “I did not know. Did he have many enemies?”
“What? No, he was a friend to everyone, as far as I know. Why anyone would have wanted to murder him … ” He shook his head. “Probably the invader king was behind it. Davanu was a force for Hawa freedom.”
So he had enemies, in other words, powerful ones. Lill didn’t say that, but he thought Tirtu was a fool.
The man went on, talking about the letter he’d sent to Davanu, recounting word-for-word the description he’d given of the boy he thought Vanu would like.
“Mind you, when I said, ‘beautiful,’ I was thinking of, oh, I don’t know, a sturdy lad with blond hair and ruddy cheeks, a pert little nose, rosebud lips … ”
Lill felt he’d already learned far too much about Tirtu’s private preferences (which frankly seemed rather muddled) and did not want to hear any more of this.
He looked away, down the length of the table, and found himself catching Vanu’s eye, because Vanu had been looking at him.
The axe-throwing was finished, and Vanu was sitting with his chin propped on his hand, gazing down the table at Lill.
He was probably as drunk as Tirtu—though perhaps less drunk than Barda and Khatu, who were brawling on the pavement, or Halza, who was sitting on the table and singing.
“Help me?” Lill signed down the table, nodding toward Tirtu.
Vanu levered himself up from the bench immediately and strolled over to stand behind Lill. He leaned down and curled an arm over Lill’s shoulder and across his chest.
“Excuse us, Tirtu,” he drawled in his rough voice.
He pulled Lill gently backward. Lill swung his legs over the bench and got up to follow Vanu, tucked under Vanu’s arm like he belonged there.
They walked slowly away from the table in the direction of Vanu’s house.
“Making you uncomfortable, was he?” Vanu asked aloud. His voice sounded hoarser than yesterday, but it seemed to be working again.
“No, just—um. Maybe a little,” Lill answered honestly. He couldn’t see a reason to lie.
Vanu nodded. “Glad you told me.” He didn’t sound remotely drunk. He looked down at Lill. “Do you drink wine?”
“No.”
“Me neither. At least—not supposed to. Rule Susami made for me. Used to drink too much.”
They had reached the door of Vanu’s house. Back in the well yard, Halza’s voice soared in the chorus of a popular Zashian song: “By moonlight I met my love … By moonlight I lose my love … ”
“Think we should keep him as our household bard?” said Vanu. “He’s good.”
“He’s betrothed to a girl down the mountain,” said Lill.
“Is he? Interesting. Let’s go in. Want to talk to you about something.”
“All right, but don’t overuse your voice as you did yesterday.” Lill wondered why he’d said that. What did he care if Vanu hurt his throat again?
They went in the house, and Vanu gestured toward the seating platform in the front room. Lill climbed up and sat on the cushions. He moved so prettily, like a girl and not quite like a girl. Dancing with him had been a delight.
Vanu took a seat opposite Lill, instead of snuggling beside him as he’d have preferred.
“What did you want to talk about?” Lill asked pleasantly.
Vanu felt strangely off-balance for a moment. The little fortress was putting on a show of openness, but Vanu guessed the defences were all still in place on the inside.
“Do you know what happened to your father?”
“My father?” Lill’s expression went blank for a moment.
“Madurasha Kuro. He was your father, yes?”
The boy’s black eyebrows rose slightly. “Yes. How did you know?”
Vanu turned and reached up to take the green cylinder seal down from the shelf where he had put it. He held it out in his palm.
“Na Gurti found this in your clothes and showed it to me. Here, take it.” Slowly, Lill did. “I recognized the seal. Your father and I used to be friends.”
Lill had been studying the seal in his hand, but now he looked up at Vanu, his expression sharp. “Friends?”
Vanu nodded. “It didn’t end well, though. Do you know how he died?”
“In battle.”
“In a duel on the battlefield. With me. I killed your father.”
After a long moment, Lill said, “I did know that.”
“I thought you did. Hoped you did.” Assumed he did, then panicked when another possibility occurred to him … It was too complicated to explain. “You know why I fought him?”
Lill shook his head.
“He … ” How could he say this in a way that Madurasha’s son could allow himself to hear? “Changed his allegiance. He was an ally—became an enemy.”
“He betrayed you,” Lill translated, his voice flat.
Vanu shrugged. “Maybe. He sided with his kin, his people. I’ve done the same, most times. But he was a friend, before that, and I’d have preferred not to fight him.”
“Did you have to kill him?”
Vanu drew in a breath on a hiss. “I think I did. He was an excellent swordsman, and I was fighting wounded … yeah. I think I did have to kill him. I go over it in my mind sometimes. Could I have disabled him and taken him prisoner?” He shook his head. “I’m sorry.”
How could he have imagined this would not cast a dark cloud over everything between them?
Had he become that much of a fool? And then it occurred to him, as surely it should have much earlier, that maybe this was behind Lill’s reluctance in bed.
Of course. Lying down with his father’s killer, and discovering that maybe he liked it?
Earth’s heart, what a fuck-up this had all turned out to be.
Lill said, “What about my brothers?”
“I don’t know what happened to your brothers.”
“You killed them.” He spoke coolly, dispassionately.
Vanu hadn’t expected that. “I don’t think so. Not intentionally. Did they come after me for revenge? Secretly? Because I’ve killed assassins—or, men who were trying to be assassins. But if they were your brothers … I didn’t know.”
Lill thought about that for a moment, his expression inward. A little crease formed between his brows. “I was just told that you killed them. Maybe it was as you say. Certainly they were bent on revenge.”
“Did you come here thinking I’d killed all your male kin on purpose?”
“No … ” He didn’t even try to make that sound convincing.
“Lill … I did fight your father and kill him. If I had been more skilled—or less angry—maybe I could have spared him. I don’t think he’d have wanted me to. He … he couldn’t’ve survived that battle with honour. If your brothers died at my hands, it was never my intention, and I am truly sorry.”
Lill looked at him with his head tilted to one side. “Are you always so honest?”