“There’s no need of that!” Xeno protested, and Andros half-pushed himself off the stretcher.
Theos was behind the boy now, but Finnvid didn’t move. He stayed crouched by Andros’s head. Then Theos took half a step closer, and the boy leaped to his feet, whirling toward Theos with a bottle in his hand, ready to smash it into Theos’s skull.
As the boy swung, Theos dodged inside the arc just as he had with the other prisoner days earlier, but this time he didn’t punch the Elkati’s nose. Instead, he caught the boy’s wrist, twisting it behind his back until the bottle dropped, unharmed, into Theos’s free hand. The attack had been doomed to failure, and had clearly been a desperate last attempt to survive. Theos wrapped his arm around the boy’s throat and leaned forward until his mouth was right by the boy’s ear. “You speak Torian,” Theos said gently. It was the only way the boy could have anticipated his actions.
Finnvid’s body stayed rigid for a moment, then slumped. “Elkati are educated,” he hissed in Torian, his words practically accentless. “We bother to learn things about our attackers.”
“Your ‘conquerors,’ you mean.” Theos made sure he was angled well away from Andros before he shoved the boy into a graceless sprawl on the frost-whitened grass. “You wanted to be well-placed for a position in the new society once we take over. That makes sense. If I were a weaponless coward like you, maybe I’d have made the same decision.”
“I was laughing at you,” the boy retorted. “All the time with your silly gestures and your little shows, trying to make me understand what you meant, when all along I’d understood every word.”
“Yes, yes, very humorous. You, my captive, off to live in slavery in my empire, completely under my control . . . you found a tiny, pathetic way to feel powerful. That’s nice. If it helps, you can imagine me as an ant tonight as you sleep, and in your dreams you can stomp on me.” Theos smiled, showing his teeth. “None of these games will change your reality, of course.”
“You understand nothing! You’re a brute, a thug!”
“I’m Sacrati,” Theos corrected. He didn’t need to make any more arguments, not with evidence like that behind him. “Now, let’s go back to pretending you can’t speak. I’ll even do the entertaining hand signs, if you like.” He pointed at the boy, then used both hands to cover his own mouth.
“Be nice,” Andros croaked from his blankets.
Theos snorted at him. “Why? Because you think he’s pretty?”
“Because he saved my life.”
“Not yet,” the Elkati said, his mouth twisted in a sneer as he echoed Theos’s earlier words.
Theos moved fast, grabbing the boy by his hair and half lifting him off the ground. No flinch, a part of Theos’s mind noted with approval, but most of him had no time for compliments. “The promise still stands,” he growled. “If Andros dies, all the other prisoners die too.” He ran his fingers along the boy’s jaw, noting how soft the hair of his beard still was. “But not you. Not right away. If Andros dies, you live for a little bit longer than your friends. Long enough to see them die, and long enough to learn your lesson. You understand?”
The boy raised his lips in a wordless snarl, and Theos tossed him backward onto the grass. The Elkati had understood.
Theos stalked over to his abandoned fish and flopped down beside it.
“Nice to see you making friends,” Xeno said lightly. He leaned in a little so no one else could hear. “And, iyatis or not, if I hear you talking about Andros dying again, anywhere Andros can hear? I’ll cut out your tongue and shove it up your ass.” He eased away then, but his eyes stayed locked on Theos’s.
Theos had beaten Xeno in every sparring match they’d had since they were youngsters. But sometimes a threat didn’t have to be frightening to convey a message, and Theos made himself nod. “Understood.”
Xeno held his gaze for just a moment longer, then said at normal volume, “Good catch on Finnvid. I was getting pretty tired of acting everything out for him.”
“You’re saying it wrong,” Finnvid said from his spot back by Andros’s head. “It’s Finnvid, not Feenveed.”
“Careful,” Theos warned. “If I decide your name is Dickless, that’ll be your name. So, ask yourself: is Feenveed really all that bad?”
The boy didn’t answer, which Theos took as a victory. He finished his fish and tossed the remains into the pot over the fire. Xeno did the same, with a thoughtful frown toward Andros. Maybe Xeno was finally remembering that Finnvid was the enemy, and shouldn’t be completely trusted. Shouldn’t be trusted at all, really.
But Xeno didn’tsayhe’d changed his mind about Finnvid, didn’t suggest that they try feeding Andros something solid, and Theos decided not to push it, not yet.
He took the first watch that night, standing guard on the edge of camp as Xeno retied Finnvid’s hands and feet and then settled beside Andros. Achus and Elios had finished their fish and were staring at the flames, sitting close enough together that Theos knew what they’d be up to before they went to sleep.
The night was quiet, guard duty a formality rather than a necessity, and Theos found his attention being drawn to the Elkati.
By the time Xeno replaced him on watch, Theos had drawn some conclusions. When he saw Andros awake, staring at the flames of the fire Xeno had just rebuilt, Theos sank down next to him.
“He’s the leader. He’s the one who ordered the surrender that first day.” It was strange to think of this boy in charge of a band of soldiers, but it fit what Theos had seen.
Andros didn’t seem surprised by the idea. “He kept trying to look after them. Set up that escape, and did his healing.”
“That healing might be his chance.” Theos wasn’t sure if the boy was asleep or just pretending to be, but Theos wasn’t saying anything secret. Actually, it might be good to say a bit more, to be sure the boy understood his position. “If he can prove he’s good for something, he can earn his freedom.” If Finnvid had been a woman, he’d have had lots of choices. Women ran the city, controlled the trade, crafted the tools and weapons, and grew the crops. Even if the incoming prisoners had no skills, they could usually get pregnant and contribute through the production of new Torians. Any woman bearing a Torian child simply had to take an oath of fealty and she’d be made a free citizen. As her child grew up in the Torian Empire, her maternal love was expected to keep her loyal.
For men, though? There was only war.
