Page 109 of The Boy Bride

“Of course not, but⁠—”

Vanu shut the door behind him. “Listen,” he said, trying to speak over both of them, which was difficult. “I don’t care.”

“My lord?”

“I said: I don’t care. Heart of the Blue Heaven. Did you really think I would?”

In fact, saying he didn’t care was understating it a bit. But he wasn’t sure how Gurti would react if he said he was delighted to know she was cuckolding Faru, who deserved cuckolding more than anyone he’d ever met.

“We’re always very careful, my lord,” Tirtu felt the need to say. “Only when Lord Faru is out of the stronghold, and always … ”

Gurti made another despairing noise. Maybe she’d been hoping Vanu would think it was a one-time thing.

“Happy for both of you,” Vanu said, setting down the pail of milk and opening the door. “Carry on.”

And he ducked out and shut the door before Tirtu could tell him more, which he’d looked primed to do.

He was happy for both of them, though, if they were enjoying themselves. By the Blue Heaven, they deserved some enjoyment, especially Gurti.

When Vanu got back to his own house, he found Lill in the yard doing sword drills. Vanu stood under the overhang by the back door, watching. At some point Lill surely noticed that Vanu was there, but he did not stop until he had come to the end of the drill.

He had found the Chiddang-style practice sword that Vanu had made for Mikhi, a light, wooden weapon which was just about the right size for him. He moved with fierce concentration, graceful as a dancer but serious as death. Slice, kick, spin, and drop into a crouch, his braids swinging behind him. Then he was up again, spinning into another precise sequence. He had lightness and a kind of flow—there was probably a name for it—that would have been all focussed, in a real fight, on evading his opponent. It would have to be. None of his attacks had any real power behind them. He was operating right on the edge of what you could do with a body like his.

He finished the drill, standing at attention the way he had after his display of shooting prowess the other day. After a moment he relaxed and looked over at Vanu.

“You’re good,” Vanu signed. “I’m not surprised.”

Lill shook his head as if the compliment bothered him. “I’m out of practice.”

“I could help with that.”

Lill looked him in the eye for a moment. “But you’re not feeling well … ”

“Think that will give you an unfair advantage?”

“Uh. No. Probably not.”

Vanu grinned and pushed away from the post he had been leaning against. “Probably not.”

He picked up his favourite practice blade, a heavy short sword, sized to match his proportions and made of a dense wood that gave it a weight nearly equal to a real sword. He trained with a variety of other weapons, but that was mostly for fun. When he had real fighting to do, this was the kind of blade he used.

“Try attacking me,” he suggested.

Lill nodded smartly. He was deep behind the walls of his little fortress now, and Vanu wondered suddenly whether this was a terrible idea. If this reminded Lill too much of that wretched school—that was the last thing Vanu wanted to do. Putting himself in the position of the master? No.

There was no help for it now, though. Lill took a moment to prepare himself, his stance perfectly neutral, giving no clue what attack he planned—very impressive, but really not surprising—and then he was flying at Vanu with a beautifully executed attack, brutal and direct, not like the flashy stuff he had been practicing earlier.

Vanu brought his sword up, and Lill bounced off it. A flicker of surprise crossed his face, which was fair—an attack like that really deserved to land.

He came on again without being prompted, which pleased Vanu. A low approach this time, trying to get in under Vanu’s guard—smart, considering Lill’s size. Vanu sliced down, and Lill’s practice sword clunked on the ground.

Lill hooked the hilt with the toe of his shoe and flipped the sword up to catch it. Then, probably hoping Vanu had been distracted by that little manoeuvre—he certainly could have been—he plowed into another attack. This one was sloppier, and Vanu side-stepped, letting the blunt edge of his sword skim Lill’s side just enough for him to feel it.

Lill spun to face Vanu, guard up, taking his time again. Again he gave barely any hint of how he was going to attack—just enough for Vanu to block the low, left-hand slice when it came. Next he attacked high. After that he tried lunging. He spun. He kicked—trying for distraction again, Vanu thought, because he looked gorgeous doing that.

After the fourth time he’d had to retrieve his sword from the ground, Lill stepped back, breathing hard, eyebrows drawn down in a frustrated frown.

“You keep smiling.” He sounded confused.