Page 101 of The Boy Bride

Still, when he woke that morning after a better night’s sleep than he’d had in months, he felt as if he could do this. He knew he wanted to do this. Vanu Urártu deserved death; everyone knew that. And Lill would be proud to be the one to kill him.

Arsha came up with fresh bread and sausages for breakfast, sat on Lill’s bed, and talked desultorily about life at Shawa House, without addressing any of the details of the mission that Lill wanted to hear. Not that he needed to know why he was being hired to kill Vanu Urártu, but he did need at least some guidance about how.

Presently they heard voices down in the street at the front of the house, and Arsha got up and looked over the parapet to see who was there.

“Shit,” he muttered under his breath, dropping down. “Uh. Lill, breakfast can wait. We need to go down now. Lord Davanu’s arrived home early. I’ll do all the talking, you understand? I mean, obviously.”

Lill had been giving him a wide-eyed, incredulous look at the idea that he might need to be told to stand respectfully silent in front of the master of the house.

Why had he said it, actually? As Lill followed Arsha down the stairs, he wondered if there was something Arsha was trying to hide from his patron.

Lill had never been hired for a mission before, so he had no idea what he expected a man who hired assassins to look like, but somehow Lord Davanu wasn’t it. He was a tall, bulky man with greying blond hair and a disorderly grey beard, laugh-lines around his bright blue eyes, and a cheerful, booming voice. He wore Zashian clothes and jewellery, but as his name suggested, he was from the mountains. He was one of Vanu Urártu’s people. Why did he want to kill him?

Arsha had called Lord Davanu his patron, but the way it looked to Lill, watching from the edge of the courtyard as the household greeted the returning master, Arsha was more of an adoptive son. He went up to Davanu along with several girls of different ages and a Zashian woman who seemed to be their mother, and there was a lot of chaotic, undisciplined hugging and affection, of which Arsha seemed very much a part. In fact, Arsha got extra attention, because Davanu’s wife, after giving her husband a kiss that Lill found startling in its intimacy, herded the girls away and left Arsha alone with his patron.

Arsha turned and beckoned to Lill, who came forward obediently.

“This is Lill.”

“Hello, my dear,” said Lord Davanu, faintly puzzled. He looked at Arsha. “Is she a cousin of yours? I know you don’t have any sisters.”

“No relation,” said Arsha, a touch impatiently—there was just a hint of an eyeroll that Lill thought disrespectful. “And he’s a boy.”

“Earth’s heart, I am sorry!” Lord Davanu boomed, and looked it, which startled Lill. No one had ever apologized to him for such a thing before. “I see it now, of course. My eyes aren’t as keen as they used to be. So you’re no relation to Arsha here—I daresay that’s just an old mountain man still not being able to tell lowlanders apart after all these years. I’m hopeless, clearly.”

Lill began to see why Arsha had felt the need to warn him not to speak; Lord Davanu was the sort of person who invited informality.

But Arsha took over before Lill could be too tempted. “You know how you’re looking for a boy bride for Lord Vanu?”

Ah. So that was their plan for getting him into Vanu’s stronghold. Why hadn’t Arsha just said? Did he think Lill would object?

Davanu was frowning, a mixture of doubt and disapproval. “You haven’t been going to the hostels looking for boys like Tirtu suggested, have you? That’s much too—I don’t need you concerning yourself with this, Arsha.”

“But—”

“Where do you work?” Davanu asked Lill, ignoring Arsha.

It was a direct question, which he would have to answer, unless Arsha did it for him. But Arsha was busy glaring at his patron, behind his back, with a look of dark loathing.

“I am … available for hire, my lord,” Lill said, hoping that he had understood the question. “I was trained in the Order of the Sworn Defenders.”

“You were—” Davanu let out a huge laugh. “You’re joking! You’re not joking. Pretty but deadly, hey? You may do very well!” He looked back at Arsha, who managed to compose his face into something merely sullen rather than openly murderous. “I think you’re onto something here, my boy.”

* * *

The sun was beginning to go down; the little bit of sky that Lill could see outside his window was a brilliant pink with streaks of blue cloud. He was lying on his back on his bed. Vanu had gone off after dinner to read his letter alone—he’d said he knew who it was from and that there might be things in it that he wouldn’t want to share with the girls immediately—and Lill had gone to his own room to wait for him.

To wait for him? Yes, that was what he was doing. He was lying on his back on his bed, hands tucked under his head, hoping that when Vanu was finished with his letter, he would want to mess around again and would come knocking on the door.

Except that Lill had heard the front door open and close some time ago, which probably meant Vanu had gone out. Maybe he had to talk to Tirtu about something in the letter. Maybe Lill should get up, while there was still light, and do something useful.

He hoped the letter didn’t contain bad news. Did he hope that? It could be inconvenient; he didn’t need Vanu having to deal with a crisis just now. Though perhaps if it was bad news, he’d want comfort, and so …

Lill pulled his braid over his shoulder and started lazily undoing it.

How many betrayals had Vanu actually suffered? There was Madurasha, who had been an ally and then participated in an ill-fated ambush; he’d certainly turned on Vanu, but Vanu himself thought that might have been because someone else betrayed him first. Lill remembered the name sign Vanu had used—a modified form of the sign for “wild boar”—for the person he thought might have turned Madurasha against him with lies. Lill could show it to Mikhi and ask whose name it was. He’d bet she knew, because he’d bet it was the name of her predecessor, Vanu’s old interpreter, Darma. So he didn’t really need to ask.

But what about Davanu? He had been Vanu’s friend, Vanu’s lover, and had he hired Lill to kill Vanu?