He heard the shuffle of a boot a heartbeat before the tent flap parted and a man strolled through. Kasik stilled. He didn’t want to give the man any reason to run him through with the tumi at his waist.
The man prowled closer and stood over his head. “What is a walla doing deep in the Tuta Kulla?”
They didn’t know who he was, then. Kasik had removed his tunic for Nina to clean his wounds, and his armbands were tucked away somewhere on the forest floor. Any evidence of his station was gone. Kasik inspected the stranger, from his shorn hair and the lack of achilla on his person to the green tunic that he wore that was not the emperor’s red, or the loyal’s blue, or the gods’ purple, or even the foreigner’s black. Who did they belong to, and what did they want with them?
“Where is she?” Kasik asked, tongue heavy.
The man tutted at him. “Iam the one asking questions. How did you find us?”
If Kasik played this right, he might be able to get answers while also stalling long enough to free himself from the binds. They were tight, but he wasn’t unwilling to break his hands and squeeze them through if necessary. “I’ll tell you everything you want to know if you let me see her.”
Head tilted, the man smiled wide, teeth almost glowing in the semidark. “Smart boy,” he said. “But I am not stupid. Answer my questions, and I won’t have her killed.”
“If you touch a single hair on her head,” Kasik seethed, “Iwillkill you. Slowly and painfully.”
“Big promises coming from a boy tied up like a boar ready for the spit.” The man straightened and came to stand near Kasik’s stomach. “I’ll ask you again; what are you doing so deep in the Tuta Kulla?”
Kasik kept his mouth closed and stared straight ahead. He wasn’t prepared for the blow that stole his breath, or the vomit that surged up and almost choked him. On his side, his wrists burning above him, he spat into the dirt and sucked in a ragged breath.
“How did you find us?”
Before he got the chance to answer, another kick landed squarely in his abdomen. He felt something give way under the man’s boot. A sharp crack that made the world spin again.
“What does the emperor want?”
Kasik smiled through bloody teeth. “You’re going to have to kill me,” he whispered. “If you keep me alive, you will regret every second of it.”
“We’ll take our chances,Kamayuq.”
Guess I was wrongwas Kasik’s last thought before there was a flash of agony, and then everything faded away.
15
Nina woke with a gasp. She was lying on a bed, curled into a ball, her temples throbbing. She was alive and, as far as she could tell through her pulsing vision, alone.
The walls of her enclosure were green and cloth-like, but they were pulled taut all the way to the ground. The space was large enough to hold the bed she was in, a table across the way, and a humble firepit in the middle. Above it, the room had a small opening to let out the smoke.
There was nothing to indicate where she was or who her captors were.
But it mattered little. Her only objective was to escape and find Kasik. Hopefully alive. She slipped off the bed and began crawling around the edges of the room. She saw nothing she could use as a weapon and no way to leave the tent without ripping through it. If only Kasik had given her the small blade, then she could have easily cut her way to freedom.
“Good, you’re awake.”
Nina shot to her feet and spun toward the voice, heart in her throat. The same man she had come face-to-face with in the forest stood before her, with his shaggy hair and shrewd eyes and fake smile.
“Don’t come any closer,” Nina warned, voice shaky but firm.
The man raised his hands in surrender but took a step closer all the same. “I’m not going to harm you.”
“It’s too late,” Nina argued. The bruises forming on her arms could attest to that. “Where is Kasik?”
At his name, the man’s face hardened. “He can’t hurt you anymore,” he said, taking another small step forward.
“Hurtme? The only people who have hurt me areyou. Kasik, he—”But she didn’t know how to finish that sentence. He technically hadn’t hurt her, but hewasholding her against her will. “What have you done with him?”
“Don’t worry,” the man said, which made Nina worry more, “your walla is perfectly contained.”
The words were vague and ominous, but she ignored them. “What do you want?”
