Page 112 of The Boy Bride

“Yeah, well, Khatu hasn’t read them. Uh, neither have I, but you know, I’m not fucking ladies in Sakka and telling them I’ll take them back to my stronghold someday.”

“Which is what Khatu told her?” Vanu prompted.

Barda winced. “Yeah, something like that. She could tell that didn’t go with the story about us being blades-for-hire with the lowlander army, but she also thought it was horseshit—which it was. She thinks we’re masterless men, in exile or on the run. She’s thought that for years, it’s why she feeds us and shares her meat with us whenever we go down there. It’s a bit humiliating.”

“A bit,” Vanu agreed dryly.

“So that’s why she hasn’t told Khatu,” said Lill. “She doesn’t think he can afford a wife.”

“Exactly. But you know Khatu—if he finds out she’s carrying his kid, he’ll do the right thing. He’ll want to. Which is where my idea comes in. See, Da has this other girl in Sakka that he wants Khatu to marry.”

“Does he,” said Vanu. This was the first he’d heard about it, which did not please him. What did Faru think he was playing at?

“Yeah, the niece of the village headman or some such. But obviously it wouldn’t be right for Khatu to marry her and leave Otoni on her own, would it? So I was thinking—I could do it. Right? One son’s as good as another—better, even, in some cases—so my idea was, you could suggest it to Da, my lord.”

“Suggest that you marry the headman’s niece,” said Vanu.

Barda nodded eagerly.

“How does Faru think that’s going to work?” Vanu signed, forgetting for a moment that he didn’t have an interpreter present.

But he did. “How does Faru think that’s going to work?” Lill translated smoothly.

“Uh.” Barda glanced between the two of them, momentarily confused about who had spoken. “You mean you don’t think the headman will approve of the marriage, or … ”

“How does he think he can negotiate a marriage alliance with a prominent family out on the mountain without revealing where we’re living?” Vanu signed, and Lill translated.

“Oh, um. I’m not sure.” Barda grimaced. “I daresay … he has a plan. I just don’t know what it is.”

“I think I’d better go speak to him. Is he back?”

“Yeah,” said Barda. “Just now. How’d you know he was gone?”

Vanu shrugged. He looked at Lill. “Come along? I could use an interpreter. Faru never likes it when I bring Mikhi.”

Lill’s eyebrows rose. “I’m sure he’ll love it if you bring me,” he signed. “We get along great.”

Chapter 30

No Time For Salad

They walked over to the great house, with Barda explaining as they went why he was the better choice to marry the village headman’s girl. Vanu wondered whether the girl was particularly pretty or what. But Barda didn’t seem to know her name or to be sure whether she was the headman’s niece or his daughter, and Vanu guessed that her main appeal was that she existed.

“I wouldn’t mind Barda marrying,” he signed to Lill. “It would give me some peace of mind.”

“No doubt,” Lill signed back.

Barda stood at the open door of the great house like a sentry ushering them in, quite cheerful now that he’d talked himself into believing Vanu was going to make his case to Faru.

“Hey, what are you all up to?” came Khatu’s voice from across the gathering place.

He jogged across the pavement toward them. He had a basket of freshly picked greens slung over his shoulder, and his mother was following, at a slower pace, with another.

“Just been helping Ma pick salad,” he explained. “You want to take some? I was going to bring it over later. It’s growing really well over behind the round house, where we had the turnips last year.”

“We don’t have time for salad right now, brother,” Barda announced importantly. “Got business to discuss with Da.”

“Snow in the lowlands! ‘Business with Da’? What’s that mean?”