“The Scholar agrees, because he loves the Sister more than anything. When he goes, he leaves a piece of his heart with her, and when the Adviser kills the Girl after her Son is born, the Scholar loses another piece of his heart. But slowly, the Son mends the holes left behind. The Scholar’s purpose has never been clearer.
“Until ten years later,” Master Wara said, his voice so low that Nina had to lean forward to hear him, “when the Adviser has another dream of another girl with attay like he has never seen in a place far from Vira. He goes to collect the girl, but comes back without her. She was hidden from him, somehow, but the Emperor has collected many boys to fight for his cause, and he is very pleased.”
Nina’s breath caught in her throat. She felt tears on her cheeks butdidn’t bother to wipe them away. She was afraid to move, afraid to break the surface of truth she was walking toward.
“As predicted, the Adviser has been cruel to his Son, but he has been very careful to groom the Emperor’s youngest son for service. When the Emperor dies from the same illness that stole his tayta’s life, we are told that the eldest son takes his own life in misery.” Master Wara paused, as if to give Nina time to contemplate the blatant lie. “It is the Adviser who places the youngest son on the royal seat. And it is one year later that the Adviser dreams again.”
“I think I know how this story ends,” Nina whispered past the lump in her throat. Master Wara’s hands found hers on the table. They were rough from years of knotting and interpreting threads, and they reminded her of her tayta. Warm, and steady, and strong. It only served to deepen the ache that the absence of her family left behind.
“This is not the end.” He emphasized the last word with a squeeze. “But you are not alone, and you are not so easily defeated. Now, listen closely. There is—”
A knock on the door forced Nina back into her seat, fingers tingling with dread. Master Wara stood so quickly that his chair almost toppled over. “Come in,” he said, and then he shot Nina a look.Stay quiet.
She didn’t turn when the door opened, and it only took one heartbeat to know who it was. Nina felt Kunay Atik’s presence before she saw him. The room grew colder and her power stirred angrily within her.
“Kunay Atik,” Master Wara greeted. “To what do we owe the pleasure?”
“Can’t a man visit his favorite scholar?”
Nina still hadn’t turned to face him. Was hoping he would ignore her as he had done thus far.
But she wasn’t so lucky. She could feel his presence like a harbinger of death, and it was like a blade through flesh when his hand settled on her shoulder. If she wasn’t aware of her own power, she would have thought shewas dying right then. That her innards were being torn out and twisted.
Except, there was no blade and no blood. It was only her attay being stolen right from underneath her beating heart.
Master Wara’s eyes didn’t so much as drift toward her as he spoke to the kunay. Nina wasn’t sure what else was said, only that Master Wara’s movements were stilted, and he came around the table as if to hide what was on it.
But Nina was drowning in a sea of nothing. She was searching for air only to find that she had ceased to exist, and though the pressure from Kunay Atik’s hand disappeared, the presence his touch left behind was a bloody wound that only time could heal.
Each heartbeat that pounded as he stood there was a moment lost. A step closer to an undesirable end to her story.
“Nina?Nina?” Master Wara was bent in front of her, his eyes peering worriedly into hers. “Breathe, Nina,” he said, and Nina obeyed, sucking down air as if she had been without for too long. “Good. Now, listen carefully. You must remember that even when you feel powerless, within you is the ability to choose love.Thatis the greatest power there is.”
Nina heard his words but did not understand them. She was only capable of nodding, of offering a quiet “yes” when he asked if she could find her way back, even though it felt like a lie. The halls were unfamiliar, and Nina’s body felt unlike her own. She stumbled away from Master Wara’s until she found a walla who carefully guided her back to her room.
There, she collapsed onto her bed and curled into a ball, as if she could hold the pieces of herself together that had been exposed. She fell asleep with Master Wara’s story in her mind, and she dreamed that she was the Girl, and it was the Adviser’s blade in her belly, and she was powerless to stop him.
40
It had been one week since Kasik asked Nina to leave with him, and each day that passed left him raw with uncertainty. Nina was withdrawn, but the emperor had assigned a second guard to her, so they didn’t have a moment alone. Kasik had been instructed to leave at night so that he could go back to his room and rest, which consisted of tossing and turning until the sun rose. As much as he wanted to disobey, he remembered Nina’s words.Nothing can be amiss.
It was unexpected when a knock came at his door late that morning. He opened it to find the emperor’s errand boy, disheveled and breathing hard as if he had run the whole way there. “Emperor Maicu would like to inform you that the celebrations have been moved up. Our guests will begin arriving today.”
Kasik looked at the boy as if he was mad. “Inti Raymi?” he asked. The boy nodded.“Today?”
“Yes, Kamayuq. You must dress and receive them as soon as possible.”
Kasik slammed the door, his mind fractured as he dressed in his ceremonial uniform. How had Maicu managed to move an entire festival that happened at the same time every year for centuries? If it was true, it would have been planned weeks ago to give guests time to make their way to Vira. There would have been early collections and extensive rearranging.
Kasik paused. Weeks before he had been told he was going to Taqsay to collect Nina, his tayta had disappeared. Which wasn’t strange in and of itself, but he had been gone for longer than usual, and when he had returned, he had brushed by Kasik without a word and then sealedhimself with Maicu in his rooms. A few days later, Kasik had received his mission.
Maicu had planned this long before today. He had purposely kept it from Kasik, and Kasik got the sense that it was because Maicu did not trust him.
He had to tell Nina, but first, he had to greet their guests.
Typically, the three days before Inti Raymi were spent fasting and preparing for the grand feast, which was followed by a parade through the streets of Vira the next morning, and performances and dancing into the night. But he and Nina would sneak away during the chaos of the feast, when their guests—nobles from the absorbed ayllus spread across Icosa and Amaru—were drunk off chicha and stuffed with rich foods.
Before that, he would have to stand shoulder to shoulder with his tayta on the steps of Amaru Kancha and welcome their guests. His first year doing so as a kamayuq. Kasik rushed through the halls and made it just in time, nostrils flaring with heavy breaths. The kunay gave him a sideways glare but said nothing.
