When her nostrils flared with anger but she said nothing, Kasik turned, dismissing her, and spoke to the acllas who had held Nina’s arms. “Where can I find him?”
Neither of them spoke up. “Now,” Kasik yelled, the word echoing off the stone walls, and one of the girls jumped. There was a moment of regret before he reminded himself why they were all there in the first place.
“He guards the perimeter. The one with the shorn hair,” the girl said quietly.
Of course.Kasik should have known the moment he saw the disgrace displayed about his shoulders. “You both may go,” he said to the acllas. They glanced at Mamakuna Dusi for permission, which set his teeth on edge, and then they fled. “Are you hurt anywhere else?” he asked Nina.
Her nostrils flared, but she shook her head.
“Stay here, if you please.”
“I’d rather not,” she responded quickly, and it was that small act of defiance that sealed his opinion of her. Perhaps she was brash and unfit, just as the mamakuna had proclaimed, but she was also brave. Full of righteous anger that he could break and mold to further their empire.
And if the thought of breaking anything in this girl gave him a twinge of regret, he told himself it was only because he remembered what it had been like to feel broken and lost. It was not because he admired her fortitude, and certainly not because he questioned the emperor’s choices.
Kasik couldn’t afford to fall prey to emotions. He had one job only—to deliver Nina to Amaru Kancha—and he intended to execute it flawlessly.
7
The emperor’s property.
The words echoed in Nina’s head as she followed the stranger called Kasik out the doors of the acllahuasi. No one stopped her, though Mamakuna Dusi was hot on her heels, the utterances of prayers like a chant from her lips. She hadn’t stopped rubbing that strange stone on her wrist since she started. It was black in some light, iridescent in others. A hue that was at once strangely familiar and entirely foreign.
“Call to him,” Kasik demanded. They had come to an abrupt stop in the middle of the grassy yard. The tree line where Nina had failed to escape was so close. If she tried to run again, would she make it?
But another attempt might land her back in that godsforsaken cell where she could feel the spiders seeking her warmth and planning for their new home within her bones. Where she had too much time to think, to remember what she had done all those weeks ago, when two boys had fallen to their knees at her feet.
Even with the tea they so graciously continued to provide, her mind seemed incapable of dwelling upon anything else. The memory was tainted with the illusion of power, and a strange sort of craving had begun to grow in her chest.
Those boys might have died because of her, and it was only her uncertainty that had stopped her then.
Nina would not allow that same uncertainty to ruin this opportunity. The walla seemed bent on proving some sort of point that looked as though it might free her from the acllahuasi, and who was she to question that?
To her surprise, the mamakuna obeyed, though her voice was strained. There was a rustle of brush and then a man in red appeared, a blade hanging loose at his side.
The man began the descent down the small hill with a light step. He was entirely unaware of his oncoming punishment, and Nina gained a sick sort of satisfaction from it. She could still feel his hands around her wrists. The way his body had hardened against hers as she lay helpless beneath him. Even his blood had tasted foul, as if he were infected from the inside.
“Mamakuna Dusi,” the man said once he was before them.
“This is Kamayuq Kasik. He has a question for you.”
Ekko turned to Kasik, chin high, shoulders back. It was like watching a bird preen itself before its mate. In direct opposition, Kasik slid his hand around the hilt of a weapon at his belt, each of his movements controlled, unbothered by the posturing before him.
The whine of metal echoed through the air as Kasik released his blade from its sheath. The tip caught the light and winked. Ekko’s face paled, and his gaze flicked past Nina to the mamakuna. Nina couldn’t help but smile at him, jaw throbbing as a reminder of what he had done.
“On your knees,” Kasik demanded.
“What is the meaning of this?” Ekko stuttered, stepping back. Kasik raised the blade to his throat and Ekko raised his hands in response. “I’ve done nothing wrong,” he insisted. But his eyes betrayed his lies when they shifted to Nina.
“On your knees, walla. I will not say it again.”
Whatever Ekko saw in Kasik’s eyes made him obey. He slowly knelt on the ground, head tilted up to keep the blade below his chin and his eyes pinned on Kasik.
“This is your last chance,” Kasik said softly, the words just for her, “to walk away and avoid witnessing this.”
But Nina knew, from the resolve in his broad shoulders and the steadiness of his hands, that there would be no avoiding this. It would happen whether or not she bore witness to it, and it felt important to ensure that she did, if only because it seemed he was doing it in her name.
“I’ll stay,” she reassured him, and Kasik nodded before turning back to Ekko.
