Page 6 of The Boy Bride

“I don’t suppose you speak the Hawa tongue, do you?” Halza asked fretfully. “I don’t understand a single word they’re saying—but at least that man Tirtu speaks some Zashian. He hasn’t said a word to me, though. I suppose they’re angry with me for following you over the wall. I must tell you, I did it because I thought you needed protection, not because—I mean, I hope they don’t think I’m your, your suitor or some such thing.” His face crinkled with embarrassment. “I assure you, I have a betrothed of my own back in Radush. A girl.”

“I’m sure they don’t think you’re my suitor.” Lill tried to adopt a soothing tone, since Halza seemed worried about this.

Of course he wasn’t sure of that at all. He wondered whether the idea should have occurred to him. It hadn’t, but he was glad to have it dispelled now that it had been raised. It would have been difficult to know how to negotiate such a situation with honour.

He considered what useful information he might gain from Halza. The man knew little of their surroundings, apparently. Still, he must know more than Lill, and he did not have the disadvantage of having hit his head and lost half a day or more to grogginess and confusion.

“Did you grow up in Radush?” Lill asked, thinking that was a question that would sound innocent but might lead somewhere.

“No, it’s my mother’s home village. She moved to Bezavand on the coast when she married my father, and that’s where I was raised. She came back here after he died when I was eighteen. I was studying to enter temple service there. I came to stay with her before writing my exams the, er, second time, and she arranged a match for me with the daughter of one of her neighbours, so … I thought I might stay in Radush, if my wife likes the idea. I can get a post at the local temple—they don’t care about the exams from Bezavand there, or so I’ve heard. I was going to talk to the high priest after I got back from escorting you up the mountain.” He sighed. “I’d have been back by now, if it hadn’t been for all this.”

“I am sorry,” said Lill. It seemed the necessary thing to say.

“It’s not your fault, of course. I didn’t mean that.”

“I understand.”

“I’d never brought anyone all the way up to Umtúshta before, you know. I’ve taken travellers to some of the villages lower down, many times—it pays well, if you’ve got a sword and a bit of skill. Which I flatter myself I do. And these days the pass is surprisingly safe, so long as you don’t actually want to go through it. I came up to Umtúshta once just to look at the place. People from the villages sometimes do.” He shivered. “Never thought I would see the inside of it.”

Lill made what he hoped would be a comforting sound. He could not summon much enthusiasm for the task. His mind was circling desperately around the horrible revelation his companion had just made, so casually: I was going to enter temple service … a post at the local temple … talk to the high priest. He was a man of religion, or aspired to be—had been studying for it. What if he found out, what if he could sense somehow, what Lill was and had been?

Chapter 3

The Lion’s Den

“The boy’s up and talking, my lord!” Tirtu bounded across Vanu’s front room and up the steps to the seating area.

Vanu looked up from the piece of wood and the knife in his hands. He nodded acknowledgement of the good news and gestured Tirtu to a seat on the cushions opposite him. Still, after all this time, the man wouldn’t sit down in Vanu’s presence without being given permission. Yet if Vanu wasn’t mistaken, he’d taken a drastic step recently without permission or even discussion. Vanu didn’t know whether to be proud of him or to worry what this might signal.

“Fair weather, Mikhi,” Tirtu greeted her where she sat wrestling with her spindle.

She muttered something without looking up. Vanu glanced at her and thought it was probably about time to suggest she give up on spinning and go do sword drills or something.

“What are you doing there, my lord?” Tirtu asked politely.

Vanu held up the scrap of wood on which he’d been working out a new braid pattern, though he knew Tirtu wouldn’t be interested.

He wasn’t. He said, “Well, I guess there are worse things you could do.”

Vanu didn’t bother to respond to that, either.

“Right,” said Tirtu. “The boy. It’s good news all round. He seems to have his wits about him—Gurti thought the blow to his head might have addled them, but it seems not, glory to the Blue Heaven. He’ll be back on his feet in no time—just needs a day or two more to rest. And then … ”

Vanu looked at him expectantly. For the better part of a day he’d waited for an explanation of why two men—or one man and one boy dressed as a lowland bride—had come unexpectedly toppling over the wall after three years of nobody so much as poking a head over it. Tirtu had assured him, had assured them all, that he knew what it was about and would explain soon. Vanu had been patient, partly because he was pretty sure he knew what the explanation was going to be.

“And then,” Tirtu repeated, looking pleased with himself, “we can hold the wedding.”

“What wedding?” Mikhi demanded.

Tirtu ignored her and treated the question as if it had come from Vanu. “Your wedding, my lord. I sent for him to make you a boy bride.” He beamed proudly.

Vanu stared at him blankly. His hand holding the knife had gone slack, and the knife slipped from his grasp and landed on the carpet by his knee.

This was not what he’d thought. He’d thought the boy was for Tirtu, some kind of half-brained idea to meet his needs without getting children that they would be hard put to feed in Umtúshta. It had the stamp of the things the man did. Vanu had thought it foolish because he’d never known Tirtu to have a desire for men, and as his own experience went, you couldn’t force a desire like that if it wasn’t in you. But he’d guessed wrong. The boy bride was for him?

Vanu shook his head vehemently.

Tirtu held up his hands. “I knew you would have some objection, my lord, but I beg you to quell it. A bride will be good for you, and you can’t deny that this boy is the kind you like.”