Page 116 of The Boy Bride

“Absolutely not!” said Gurti.

“No,” said Faru at the same time.

“I’d prefer if nobody went on a raid tonight,” said Vanu. “But since you’ve got yourself into this situation, you’d better get yourself out of it.”

Lill did not conceal his pleasure as he translated this.

* * *

Lill said nothing on the way back to the house, leaving Vanu to his thoughts. In fact, he stayed silent once they got inside the house, until Vanu looked sharply at him, wondering if something was the matter. But it looked as if he was just waiting for permission to speak.

“You can talk,” Vanu signed.

Lill started. “Sorry. You looked angry.”

Vanu sat on the edge of the seating platform, stretching out his legs. “Furious. Not with you.”

“No … I realize.” Lill hopped up to sit beside Vanu, an adorable manoeuvre. “I guess it’s just my instinct to stay quiet when I think someone looks angry. I thought at first all that was quite funny, that situation they’ve got themselves into. But in fact it’s serious.”

“Nah, it’s funny too. And they deserve it. All of them except Gurti.”

“Why did you say that to her—‘not that business’?” He signed the words Vanu had used.

He’d forgotten all about that. “She was afraid I was going to reveal her secret. She’s sleeping with Tirtu.”

“Oh! She is, isn’t she?”

“You knew that?” Vanu was impressed.

“No. I heard … uh. Tirtu with somebody—or two people in Tirtu’s house anyway, having … you know. This was a long while ago, when I first got here. I never found out who it was, but it makes sense that it would have been them.”

“So it’s been going on a while. I thought so.”

“How much of a danger do you think this Ganda person is to us?” Lill asked abruptly.

Vanu looked at him for a moment. Was it his imagination, or was he right to think that if he said, “He’s a grave danger,” Lill would offer to go down the mountain and kill Ganda Dugundu in his bed?

Or would he not make the offer—because that would reveal too much—would he just do it?

“Not much,” said Vanu honestly. “He knows who Faru is and that there’s a way out of Umtúshta—he knows roughly where the mouth of the caves is, and possibly he could follow one of those halfwits through the woods to find exactly where it is. But he couldn’t navigate the caves on his own, and I don’t know why he would try. The real harm he could do us is by telling the king’s men that I’m not trapped in here. And from what I remember of him, I can’t see any reason for him to do that. He may have had a falling out with Faru, but he didn’t with me.”

“He could have heard that you wanted to stop the raiding,” Lill pointed out.

“Could have. But then he’d’ve gone to the king’s men weeks ago, wouldn’t he, instead of all this business about Khatu marrying his daughter.”

“That’s true. If he really wanted an opportunity to do you harm.”

“Think he just wants to mess with Faru, really.” After a moment, Vanu admitted, “What worries me is he’ll tell people in Sakka, maybe by accident, and word will get to the king’s men that way.”

Lill nodded gravely. “If that happens, we’ll flee through the caves. We’d be able to get to safety.”

Vanu looked up into the rafters of the house that he’d called his for the last three years.

“Don’t want to flee through the caves,” he said aloud. “I’m happy here.” He looked down at Lill again. “Never more so than since you came.”

Lill’s eyes widened in that frozen look of terror that Vanu had seen more than once before when he’d offered some bit of affection. The difference was that this time it wasn’t quickly shuttered away. Lill just went on looking at him like that, nakedly afraid.

Vanu leaned down and kissed him softly. Lill kissed back eagerly, clumsy in a way that went straight to Vanu’s heart—and from there on down to his cock.