Mamakuna Dusi sighed. “You lasted longer than expected, but alas, not long enough.” She turned away from Nina. “Take her to the keep. And you, go bandage your hand. You are embarrassing yourself.”
There was movement, the sound of crunching grass, and then Nina was being lifted. Someone threw her over their shoulder like a sack of corn she would watch her tayta haul away. Waves of nausea crashed into her, and the burn of vomit filled her throat before spewing out of her mouth. The man cursed but kept moving, down the slight hill, across the grass, and back through the front door of the acllahuasi.
Back to her prison.
Nina’s head bobbed with each step, arms dangling uselessly. The taste of defeat was so much more potent after sipping freedom. A trail of warmth cut across her forehead and into her hairline. Tears, she realized embarrassingly.
After some time, she heard the clank of metal and the grind of a door opening. Boots shuffled across the floor, and then she was being shifted. Her back and head hit the floor again, and it was the last thing she felt before the dark swallowed what little light there was.
6
When the acllahuasi finally came into view, Kasik had been traveling for fifteen days, most of which were uncomfortably wet and tense. A thick layer of fog had crawled down from the mountains, settling over the forest and road. Visibility was low. Capac’s stride had lengthened, and his ears were constantly shifting forward and back, listening for things that Kasik could not hear.
Kasik held a weapon in hand at all times. When he slept, he kept Capac at his back. He did not light a fire for warmth or for food. He did not travel too far from the road, and he tried his best not to let the resentment he felt for this mission fester and grow.
The years he had spent training, the injuries he’d sustained, the men he had lost—all of it boiled down to these fifteen days spent traveling to collect a child bride. If Maicu delivered what he had promised—the freedom to lead his men—then all of it would be worth it. But the silver case pressed against his chest had begun to feel like a knife in his back, and the sight of the acllahuasi did nothing to lift his mood.
It was hard to imagine that this building was a place where the empire’s chosen ones were raised. The exterior was dull, the lack of color shocking in comparison to the bright green foliage surrounding it. There was what looked like a main door and receiving room in the middle of the structure, and then wings of the building that shot off on either side, and each of those portions had wings.
A stone labyrinth. A smaller version of the emperor’s home, but Amaru Kancha was designed to keep people out. Kasik got the sense that the acllahuasi was designed to keep peoplein.
The wind picked up as he considered his next move. Capac sat quietly beside him, his head tilted to the sky and the first peak of the sun they had seen in many days. It wouldn’t last long; in the distance, just below the melodic call of the quetzal and the rustle of leaves, was the low rumble of thunder.
Another day of rain. Just what he needed.
“Let’s get this over with,” he told Capac. Of course, the achipuma said nothing in return. They might have been an ancient race of animals created by the gods, but they couldn’t talk, as far as he knew. However, Kasik could have sworn that Capac sighed before slowly rising to all fours.
A few more steps down the road, and then Capac was slowing, his body dropping into a stalking prowl and a low growl building in his throat. Kasik palmed the blade at his hip just as he heard the creak of a bow string pulled taut. From behind, the shuffle of leaves alerted him to a second person.
Two men circled to his front, one with long hair tied back and an arrow notched in his bow, another with shorn hair and a curved blade held in a bandaged hand. No gold adorned their red tunics or their arms. Their weapons were simple, practical, and the achillas around their necks hung loose for all to see. A sign of their fealty to the emperor and the gods.
Most noticeable was the gleam of envy in their eyes as they took in the gold disk at Kasik’s chest and the revered creature by his side.
Kasik flicked a hand to Capac, who immediately dropped into a subdued crouch. Technically speaking, Kasik could have pulled rank on the men and had them on their knees begging for forgiveness, but he was in no mood to play. The sooner this was over, the sooner he would be home. “I’m here on behalf of Emperor Maicu. Mamakuna Dusi is expecting me.”
The disgraced walla with shorn hair narrowed his eyes. “Go on, then.” He gestured to the path with his blade. Kasik swallowed a command—Wedon’t point with our weapons—something he often said to the young boys he trained, and walked past them, motioning for Capac to follow. He didn’t trust either of them with his companion.
The guards eyed the achipuma warily, and then Kasik heard them follow closely behind, the tension between them thick enough to cut.
The door to the acllahuasi swung open before Kasik was within spitting range of it. A woman walked out, her long hair loose down her back, the gray a sharp contrast to the purple robes she wore. Her face was heavily lined, and her lips were pressed into a frown, as if she was already displeased. But Kasik was used to the displeasure of a different mamakuna at the golden temple in Vira, the seat of Tawantinsuyu. Anytime he walked into Qorikancha, she gave him the same frown. The matron of the acllahuasi did not scare him.
“Mamakuna Dusi.” He inclined his head.
“Kamayuq Kasik. You are early.”
“Yes, well, the emperor expressed the importance of this retrieval.”
“You know more than I do, I’m afraid.” The way she said it made it clear she was not happy with that. Kasik didn’t bother to correct her, only produced the silver case from his breast pocket and watched as she unrolled the frame, the strings of knots pulled taught between them. She ran her fingers over the words. Halfway through, she gasped. It was more emotion than he’d ever seen from a woman in her position.
“Awife?” she asked, looking up. “Surely, there are other girls more suited to his tastes. This one, she—” The mamakuna paused and seemed to collect herself. “She is brash and unfit.”
Kasik felt a surge of annoyance at being questioned. Beside him, Capac shifted closer. “She is who I have been sent to collect. If you would bring her to me, we must be on our way.”
It seemed as though Mamakuna Dusi might argue further, but then her brow furrowed, the wrinkles like empty rivers through a valley, andshe sighed. She extended her arm toward the acllahuasi in invitation. An achilla swung from a leather cord on her wrist. “It will be but a moment. She must be prepared. Leave yourpetwith Jullan and come in and sit.”
There was no sense in correcting her—Capac was the furthest thing from apet—or arguing. The matron was right. Hewasearly, and he could understand that a young girl might want to make amends with her home before leaving it. Resigned to wait, he motioned for Capac to stay and then followed the woman into the stone labyrinth. She led him down several halls, past many closed doors, and into a small room that might have also been a workspace.
A simple set of shelves leaned against one corner opposite a narrow bed. There was no window, and the only light came from a torch on each wall. “Sit,” Mamakuna Dusi ordered, pointing to a small chair across from an even smaller table.
