Page 26 of The Boy Bride

“My lord,” said Faru, “your orders regarding the lowland boy have been carried out.”

“I did not give any orders,” said Vanu. “What did you do?”

Faru looked unconcerned, and Vanu considered how it would feel to grab him by the throat and choke him. Gurti ducked her head and retreated into the house.

“I have had him ejected from my stronghold.”

“How?”

Faru met Vanu’s gaze nonchalantly for a moment, then glanced away. “I had him thrown over the wall. Suitably bloodied beforehand so that the cursed lowlanders will know what we do when they insult us.”

“You did what?” Mikhi asked, sounding confused. Faru tended to speak quietly and inexpressively, and she probably had not been able to catch all of what he said.

Of course Faru did not repeat himself for her. And Vanu had heard him well enough.

Either it was a declaration of war, or the man was simply gloating over a victory he thought he had won long ago. Probably it ought to have mattered to Vanu which it was, but he couldn’t bring himself to care even a little. All he could think of was that the lowland boy was dead. Pointlessly killed just because he’d had the misfortune to be chosen as a partner for a man whose short thread of luck had run out three years ago.

Davanu was dead, and Davanu’s last, thoughtful gift had been callously thrown away.

“He killed him,” Vanu signed to Mikhi, because she deserved to know. And because she would show some emotion about it, which he found himself unable to do.

“But you can’t!” Mikhi cried. “Da’s going to—Da wanted to marry him!”

“Keep that girl in line, Vanu,” said Faru coldly, “or I will.”

There was a smugness in his demeanour; he thought he had won here, a clear victory. Maybe he had. Vanu felt rooted to the spot as if turned to stone. If only he could turn to stone—but then there would be no one to look after the girls. If he climbed up to the top of the fortress wall and stepped off into empty air … How long had it been since he’d last thought about doing that? Maybe Tirtu was right. He had let his fire go out, and maybe that meant something.

“When did you do it?” he asked. He hadn’t heard much noise—screams, anything like that.

“It is unseemly,” Faru cut Mikhi off as she began to translate. “Having her present at conversations between men. My own wife has gone inside the house, as you can see. I have long thought it unseemly—and unnecessary. You could simply⁠—”

He was interrupted by someone lurching around the corner of the ruined end of the house at a staggering run.

“My lord! I have—I bring—” Padunu, dishevelled and without his cloak, gasped as he flailed to a halt. “Your sons have—Oh. Lord Vanu. I see that you have already apprised Lord Faru of the situation. Let me assure you that I was not party to the decision taken by Khatu and Barda, and indeed remonstrated with them in the strongest terms. Lord Faru, I must beg your forgiveness—I would prostrate myself, if my status as a conduit for the spirits would allow it—I have failed the trust which you placed in me. I assure you I would have come sooner, but your sons saw fit to confine me in one of the disused houses, and regrettably it took me some time to free myself.”

Faru’s frown was deepening throughout this speech. “What are you taking about?” he asked finally.

Padunu glanced between Vanu and Faru in confusion. “But I thought Lord Vanu would surely have told you … ”

“What’s going on?” Mikhi signed. “I can’t hear half of what they’re saying.”

“I’ll tell you when I know,” Vanu replied.

“My lord,” Padunu addressed Vanu with a faintly reproving tone, “were you not aware that the lowland boy was, er, inserted in your window?”

Chapter 10

In Fatal Fashion

“He what?” Faru cried. “By whom?”

“By your sons, my lord. Before I had the opportunity to stop them. Barda climbed up the exterior of Lord Vanu’s house and … heaved the boy through the upstairs front window. Thereby expressly disobeying your orders, my lord. The boy remained alive and, as far as I could tell, substantially uninjured.”

Vanu couldn’t suppress—didn’t try to suppress—a broad grin. Mikhi looked up at him.

“He’s all right after all?” she signed. “Something about a window?”

“Is this true?” Faru demanded, glaring at Vanu.