Page 114 of The Boy Bride

Lill nodded.

“I understand you’ve arranged a marriage for Khatu with a young woman in Sakka?”

Faru stared at Lill, as he repeated Vanu’s words, as if he were an animal that had suddenly spoken. Vanu felt the old urge to bash Faru’s head against something, this time with a new flavour to it. Luckily for Faru, he quickly shifted his glare from Lill to Vanu.

“The daughter of Ganda Dugundu, the famed raider from Korudukha Peak, who has recently arrived in Sakka. An excellent match for Khatu. Ganda and I have spoken extensively of it.”

“Who does Ganda think you and Khatu are?” Vanu asked.

Faru appeared physically pained by having to listen to Lill translate for Vanu. It was much worse than his reaction to Mikhi.

“Ganda Dugundu is an old friend. He is well aware of who I am and the honour which a marriage with my son would convey.”

Vanu stared at Faru in disbelief. Had the man actually thought he could keep something like this from the rest of them? Did he not realize what he had just said?

Khatu and Barda had paused for breath in their brawl, and they stared too, blinking in confusion. Gurti dropped her basket of greens. Lill signed, “Shit.”

“So what you actually mean,” Vanu signed slowly, “is that Ganda saw you in Sakka, recognized you, and is blackmailing you into marrying Khatu to his daughter in return for keeping our secret.”

“Faru, no,” said Gurti despairingly.

“Really, Da?” said Khatu, sitting up on the pavement and shaking hair out of his face.

“Certainly not! I would not describe what happened in that manner.”

“What did happen?” Gurti demanded. The way she was looking at her husband, Vanu wondered why Faru didn’t go and bash his own head against something.

Instead he glared around at the assembled residents of Umtúshta. Finally he said, “Ganda happened to arrive in Sakka when I was there, two weeks ago.”

“When you were sulking down the mountain avoiding your responsibilities at home,” said Gurti, with such bitterness that Vanu almost flinched. Faru glowered.

“That would have been right around the time of our wedding,” Lill remarked aloud.

“We were down in Sakka a lot around then,” said Khatu, “but we didn’t run into him.”

Barda had picked himself up by this time and was dusting himself off. “I remember everyone talking about a famous raider from Korudukha. I didn’t know he was a friend of Da’s.”

“No, because Ganda was very circumspect,” said Faru, as if this was a point in his favour. “He realized that we were incognito and did not publicly reveal that he knew us.”

“But privately?” Vanu prompted.

Faru scowled again. “Privately, he spoke to me and said that he had heard I was walled into Umtúshta with Lord Vanu. He is aware that there are caves—he was an ally at one time,” he added furiously as Vanu raised a hand to begin forming a response to that unwelcome news. “He didn’t know that the caves had an exit on the mountain, or where it was, but of course, seeing me in Sakka, he was able to work it out.”

“Oh, Faru,” Gurti moaned.

“He was an ally,” said Lill, homing in on the important point. “What is he now?”

Faru sneered, obviously deciding he would pretend not to hear anything Lill said that wasn’t a translation for Vanu.

“Answer him,” said Gurti.

“You forget your place, woman,” Faru snapped. “And that one”—jabbing a finger toward Lill—“forgets his.”

Vanu covered the ground between himself and Faru in two strides, seized Faru by the front of his shirt, and hoisted him off the ground.

“Knows his place just fine. Don’t talk about him like that. Answer the fucking question.”

Faru gulped and flailed feebly, going red in the face. “Ganda’s a—we had a falling out. Years ago. Put—me—down!”