Trust Me #2
“I have not seen her. I could not say, unfortunately.”
“What are you doing with those arrows?” a man asked suspiciously.
“Weren’t you Arakhu Vinu’s hearthman at one time, Shaman?”
“Yes, he was, wasn’t he!” a woman cried shrilly. “He’s with the raiders!”
“I assure you I was never the hearthman of Arakhu Vinu!” Padunu pitched his voice to carry above all the others, the way he did. “On the contrary—”
“No, I remember it clearly!” The woman with the shrill voice was more than a match for him. “He was Vinu’s household shaman on Korokhura Peak!”
“I most assuredly was, but if you think that means—”
“Did you hear that? He said he was—he admitted it!”
Vanu buried his face in his hands. The crowd forgot all about looking for Otoni and seized Padunu—gingerly, because they were afraid to hurt a shaman—to haul him back to the village.
He protested but did not struggle, and since he had already admitted that he had been Arakhu’s man, nobody was listening to the rest of it.
Any minute he would begin explaining how he had accidentally fucked Arakhu’s wife, as if that was proof of his innocence.
“We have to go after him!” Halza hissed.
Vanu shook his head.
“What? But—” Halza swallowed his protest, looking up at Vanu with an expression that seemed caught between fear and anger.
Vanu looked at him, thumb scraping reflexively along the scar on his cheek. In some ways, Halza was clearly a brave young man. He’d thrown himself off the wall of Umtúshta to try to rescue Lill, which should make Vanu feel kindly toward him.
“Can’t go after him right now,” Vanu said aloud.
“Too many people down here know me on sight. These men—” he indicated the dead man at Halza’s feet “—I couldn’t let them live once they’d seen me.
Fine, they were fuckers, set an innocent woman’s house on fire.
Those people?” He jabbed a finger after the retreating crowd.
“Not the same. Not going to kill them. Don’t want them telling the whole mountain the Lion of the Summer Pass is back, either. ”
Halza drew a shocked breath. “I—I didn’t think of that. I didn’t realize. Can … can … ”
“You and Tirtu go? Sure, but what’re you going to say? Give him to us ’cause he’s our shaman? Sure, and who are you, then?”
“Right, right. No, I see we can’t do that. But—we just abandon him, then? My lord?”
“Didn’t say that. Got a plan. Come on.” He pointed at the dead man again. “Finish your job there, hey?”
They returned to the trail to rejoin Tirtu, and here at last they had a piece of good luck.
A horse was coming up the trail as they approached.
It had no rider but was pulling a litter, with a boy walking beside it.
Vanu was planning to commandeer it even before he recognized the thin voice calling out from the litter.
“Can’t you keep this wretched thing from jolting so much, you stupid boy? I am in agony!”
It was Faru.
“And who are you, then?” Otoni asked in a friendly tone as they walked up the trail.
“Lord Vanu’s wife.”
“But you’re a … aren’t you a … Oh! Like in the lowlands. What do they call it—a boy bride?”
“That’s what I am.”
“How fun. I’m a lady hunter, which has a bit of the same ring to it, hey? Umtúshta’s a nice place—I used to go up there pretty often, before Lord Vanu was captured. But now he’s out!”
Something about the way she chatted was familiar, and Lill realized she reminded him a little of Khatu. Surprisingly, he could see how they would make a good pair.
“He’s not exactly out,” Lill corrected her. “He is living in Umtúshta, and he doesn’t want it generally known that he has a way out.”
“Ohhhh, I see. Heart of the Blue Heaven, I’m surprised Khatu and Barda were able to keep that secret—aren’t you?”
“Er, yes.”
“Is it lovely being married to Lord Vanu? He’s so handsome.”
“Yes, he—he’s a very good husband.” He could do better than that. He tried again: “When I came up from Radush, I didn’t know what to expect. But when I first saw him, I … I couldn’t believe … how lucky I was.”
That was of course a lie; he’d been horrified. He’d thrown up with terror the second time he saw Vanu. But he had thought Vanu was beautiful.
“I’ll bet!” Otoni said cheerily. “Nomi’s not too heavy for you, is she?”
“I’m not heavy!” the little girl protested, tightening her arms around Lill’s neck.
He hoisted her up carefully. She was about the weight of a full campaign pack, but squirmier. He wasn’t sure how much longer he could go on carrying her.
“You are a bit heavy,” he admitted, “but I can manage.”
They had not gone much further before Lill heard horse’s hooves on the trail behind them. They barely had time to move toward the trees before the rider overtook them. It was Vanu. He reined the horse in beside them.
Lill felt an absurd desire to tell Vanu how good he looked on horseback. It was a big grey draught horse, well-sized for him, and he rode like someone who’d been doing it all his life. Lill caught himself smiling foolishly. He stopped when he realized Vanu wasn’t smiling back.
“Padunu’s been taken prisoner,” Vanu signed. “But we’ve found Faru. I need you to come back with me.”
“Right. Change of plans,” Lill said to Otoni. “You and Nomi wait here, off the trail. We’ve got to go back to collect one of our friends.”
“Got it. We’ll be right here.”
“Time to get down, Nomi.”
Lill dropped to a crouch so that the little girl could climb down from his back.
She squeezed his neck and refused to let go until her mother came and plucked her off.
Vanu held out his hand to help Lill up onto the horse.
Lill grabbed it and put his foot on Vanu’s boot to hop up, then hesitated. Should he get up behind Vanu, or …
“Up here,” Vanu said, pulling Lill forward to sit in front of him, between his strong arms.
He turned the horse and set off down the trail.
“All right?” Vanu asked.
Lill looked up at the side of Vanu’s face, so close in the dark. “Yeah. I got to carry a little girl on my back for the first time.”
Vanu wrapped an arm around him and kissed the top of Lill’s head. Lill thought he should return the question, ask if Vanu was all right, but he wasn’t sure Vanu would want to talk about it. He did seem to want to hold Lill, though, and maybe that helped.
Lill leaned back against Vanu’s chest and wished that they had a long ride ahead of them to enjoy this.
And then, at the end of it, a bed to lie down in together, where Vanu’s big hands would slide under Lill’s clothes, stripping him bare, claiming all the secret, sensitive places that he had explored that afternoon.
Others, even, that he hadn’t touched yet. There were probably others.
It was ridiculous to be thinking such thoughts now, but he couldn’t seem to help it.
“So,” he said, sitting up straighter and trying to act as one should on a mission, “what is the plan as it stands now?”
Vanu sighed slightly. “Padunu’s got himself taken by some villagers because he’s got ties to one of the raiders.”
“Not the man whose wife he slept with?”
“That one.”
Lill groaned.
“Can you go into Sakka and find out what they’re doing with him?”
“Of course. Then you want me to go down to Dukka and find Khatu. Right?”
“That was my plan.”
“Of course,” Lill said again. He had thought—hoped—that was what Vanu had in mind. “You can trust me.”
“I know,” Vanu said quietly.