This was a vow Kasik could easily make. “As you command,” he said with a fist to his chest.
Sleep evaded him, so Kasik found himself walking outside to clear his head. The sun hadn’t risen yet, and the morning air was wet and brisk. The kallankas just past the training ring were quiet with sleep. Soon, the walla would be up and preparing for the day, and his men for their journey north without him. He intended to work out his frustration in the training ring and was just about to step into the empty space when he saw a shadow dart away from the side entrance of the kallankas.
A familiar face. Kasik relaxed and went to call his name when he realized Samaq was not heading in his direction. His friend glanced back furtively and then disappeared around the corner. Two heartbeats later, Kasik was following at a light jog.
A chill settled over him that had nothing to do with the shadows. This part of the kancha grounds was empty. There was a small storage building behind the kallankas and then beyond that, the walls that separated the kancha from the rest of the mountain.
Kasik pressed his back against the stone wall and slid sideways. Carefully, he peeked his head around the corner and narrowed his eyes.
Samaq and Empress Chaska stood together in the shadows of the storage building. They spoke too quietly for Kasik to hear, but the familiarity between them was plain as day. Chaska placed a hand on Samaq’s arm, and Samaq ducked his head to listen closely. Then he nodded and they hugged.
Kasik whipped around and went back the way he came, refusing to believe what his mind was trying to convince him of. The empress was too smart to get involved with a walla. Too powerful. And Samaq was too kind. There had to be something else going on, but Kasik could not, for the life of him, think of an explanation.
It didn’t matter. Maicu was sending him away, and anything beyond his mission was no longer his responsibility.
Kasik abandoned clearing his head and went straight to MasterWara, who was exactly where he expected the scholar to be—in the small room off the kancha library, dangling off a tall stool in between sheets of quipu, his finger tracing over the knots on strings as his lips silently formed the message.
It was any wonder Master Wara knew where to find what he was looking for. The room was positively covered in stories and records. Years and years of information filed in only a way his teacher could understand. Fond memories washed over him as Kasik watched him read. The man was more of a tayta to him than his own, and Kasik was loathe to think about what would have become of him without such an influence.
“I’m told you have provisions for me,” Kasik finally said.
Though he was in his fifth decade, and a scholar who barely left this room, he was a robust man full of health and life and an obscene amount of knowledge that could bury a simpler man. Knowledge that he did not hesitate to impart on Kasik every chance he got.
Master Wara parted a thick sheet of strings and found Kasik by the door. “Ah, just in time, my son.”
He was alwaysjust in time. Kasik had begun to wonder if Master Wara had any concept of time at all. Perhaps the man needed more sunlight, but he seemed perfectly content as he began to collect items from various shelves around the room and place them into a thick cloth bag. Kasik leaned against the doorframe, dedicated to staying out of the way.
Finally, Master Wara held the bag out to him. “The missive for Mamakuna Dusi and the tea leaves for the girl. It’s imperative she drink a full cup of it every single morning.”
“Is she very used to having her morning tea? Shall I also bring herbs to calm her nerves?”
Master Wara gave him a baleful look. “The tea will help her transition. Routine is important. You, of all people, would understand that.”
It was true enough. The upheaval of his carefully laid plans was giving him a throbbing pain in his temple. Kasik peaked into the bag and pulled out a silver cylindrical case. It was cold against his palm.
“That will give the mamakuna all the details she needs,” Master Wara explained. “But speak nothing else on it.”
With a sigh, Kasik collapsed into a nearby chair. “Another wife, and so soon after marrying Chaska? It has hardly been a year. What is the meaning of it?”
“You seek meaning where there is none. It is simply your duty to obey, Kasik, and understand that there are forces at work that you cannot fight.”
“I am here, am I not? There is no fighting to be seen.”
Master Wara leaned forward and jammed a finger into Kasik’s chest. “In here, my son, there is fighting. I see it, even when you try to hide it. I seeyou.” He moved his hand from above his heart to his cheek and patted gently. “Return to us, yes?”
Kasik met his teacher’s eyes and frowned. “Of course,” he reassured him. What other choice did he have?
3
For three days, Nina was forced to chew the bitter leaves twice a day. Their group stopped only to let her relieve herself and to water the achipuma. The beasts were quieter and calmer than she had imagined them to be from the stories she’d heard. If she had been in her right mind, she might have tried to befriend one and convince it to carry her away, promises be damned. But all she wanted to do was sleep, and when she did, all she did was dream.
At first, she dreamed of her brother, Samaq, as he was the last time she saw him, that he was on the achipuma with her, holding her head as it rolled from side to side. She would cry and he would brush her hair away from her face, shushing her, soothing her, and when she woke to find he wasn’t there, it hurt more than she could describe.
Then she dreamed of Sacha, the other half of her soul, though they were an entire year apart. Their mamay said that Nina was a miserable baby until Sacha came. Then they were inseparable, always aware of where the other was, what the other felt and thought and needed. In her dreams, Sacha was scared and alone and Nina was running through the dark to find her, guided by nothing but a feeling that continued to lead her astray.
At one point, the walla and kunay had a tense conversation. Nina heard words likeinform the emperorandchanges everything, and then the kunay departed their group in a hurry. She watched him follow the path until he was nothing but a dot in the distance and tried to decide if any of it—their soft words, the singing wind, the laughing trees, the swirling dark—was real.
By the time they made it to the acllahuasi two days later, Nina had entirely lost her grasp on reality. They dragged her off the achipuma and dumped her lifeless body onto the ground. It was dark, but the moon above was full and bright, casting everything in a gray-blue hue that swallowed any semblance of familiarity. Even the air smelled different. Earthier and thicker. Wet dirt stuck to her cheek, and she was shivering so hard her muscles ached.
