Page 54 of The Boy Bride

Lill waved a hand. “Later, definitely. I’ll—I’ll take a good look.”

“Mmm, looking forward to it.”

Lill laughed again, and a little bit of colour rose in his cheeks.

“Fangs, too?” Vanu was enjoying this line of questioning. He hadn’t felt so inclined to talk out loud in years. He felt like using complete sentences, even, to make his meaning clear. “Am I supposed to have fangs?”

“Don’t you?” Lill pulled down the neck of his shirt as if looking for bite marks. They were there, actually, rosy patches on his white throat and collarbone.

Vanu ran his tongue over his teeth. “They’re worn down after years of use.”

That got a real, full-throated laugh out of his little bride, and it was such a lovely thing. Lill scooted over the cushions, closer to Vanu.

“I should sit close so you don’t have to raise your voice,” he explained, tucking his hair behind his ear, an enchanting gesture. “What else have I heard about you? I have heard about the Tawa Valley. That you defeated White Viper in single combat when you were seventeen.”

Vanu nodded. “Where I got this.” He ran his thumb down the scar on the left side of his face, the mark of a sword cut that had almost taken his left eye. “Learned more about swordsmanship that day, facing him, than any day before or since.”

For a moment Lill was very still, as if holding his breath. Somehow Vanu had the impression that his answer had come as a surprise.

“He was … supposed to have been a great teacher,” Lill said finally.

“Greatest opponent I ever faced, I think. But that school … ” Vanu shuddered. “Horrible place. Well. That story’s true. Did defeat him. Was seventeen. Your age, hey?”

“I’m eighteen. Don’t forget to sign the words for me.”

Vanu had stopped signing because Lill was sitting so close now that he’d been thinking about touching his hair, wanted his hands free for that.

“I was a bit bigger than you at seventeen,” he signed.

“You … were … bigger than me,” Lill translated. “Yes, I can well believe that. But still, he was a master. The Grandmaster. In the lowlands we … wonder how you did it.”

Was it Vanu’s imagination, or was there just the faintest hint of an edge to those words? Was that sentence originally going to end with “we think you fought dirty”? Well, fair enough.

“Show you some time,” Vanu offered. “Remember it well. Split-second thing, you know? He made one mistake, and … ” He spread his hands regretfully. “Didn’t expect it to end that way myself.”

He rubbed his throat. His voice was past overtaxed by now, well into the realm of hurts to talk.

“How about … ” Lill started. “Here’s another thing I’ve heard. Did you ever drink anybody’s blood?”

When Vanu didn’t immediately answer, Lill’s expression became alarmed.

“I thought that would be an easy headshake!”

“Nah, it’s a saying. I’ll drink his blood or I drank your brother’s blood and I’ll drink yours. Don’t use it much myself … Doesn’t feel right in hand language.” He signed the phrase, as if that would make any sense to Lill. “Used to have an interpreter, Darma, he liked that one. I’d say, ‘I’ll kill you’”—He signed it, a satisfyingly violent gesture.—“and he’d translate it, ‘drink your blood.’”

“Oh, yes, I see what you mean!” said Lill eagerly. “The sign for ‘kill you’ is much more effective, especially if you were angry. Much more violent. ‘Drink your blood’ looks positively polite.”

“That’s what it is,” Vanu agreed, impressed that Lill had been able to explain it so clearly. “You’re very clever.”

“I’m very clever,” Lill signed, repeating Vanu, with a little twinkle. His hands looked delicate, but they were calloused—Vanu had already noticed that—and his grip had a bit of force to it. “You are … ” He formed the signs carefully. “Different than I thought.”

Vanu nodded. “Didn’t know I was so handsome. Hey?”

“I had no idea,” Lill said simply.

That made something expand pleasantly in Vanu’s chest. He didn’t need compliments, of course he didn’t, but when they came from the right source …

“Should have guessed,” he said, grinning. “Strategic advantage. You should know.”