Page 94 of The Boy Bride

“What are you doing?” Vanu’s voice was sharp, a rasp in the darkness.

“I—wanted to know what was in here.”

“Think about asking, hey?”

“I didn’t think you’d tell me.”

Lill tried not to squirm. Vanu’s hand was still on his shoulder, his touch very different than on their walk back from Tirtu’s house.

“’Cause you thought it was a secret. It is a secret.”

Suddenly, probably because of the wine he’d drunk, Lill felt an answering little flare of anger of his own. Was he not Vanu’s wife—Vanu’s “whatever you are”? Why was this a secret from him?

“It’s your tunnel out of Umtúshta,” he shot back.

“Not a tunnel.”

Vanu propelled him out the door of the hut, and Lill was mustering his sluggish thoughts to protest when he saw that Vanu had taken down one of the lanterns from the wall and was marching him over to the banked fire in the outdoor kitchen at the back of the house. Lill stood waiting without a word while Vanu lit the lantern. He knew how to take punishment uncomplaining. Whatever Vanu planned to do to him, he could bear it.

In fact, though, Vanu no longer looked angry, just sterner than usual, as he led the way back to the hut with the hole in the floor. He started down the stone stairs first, holding up his lantern, and reached back for Lill’s hand. His grip was firm but no longer like iron.

Vanu had to duck to get through the irregular entrance, but Lill was short enough to stand upright. The first dozen steps curved through a fissure in the yellow-grey rock, which crowded close on either side of them, brightly lit by the glow from Vanu’s lantern. Then, abruptly, a yawning darkness opened in front of them. Lill caught his breath.

Vanu stopped a few steps down from the opening to this larger space and swung his lantern high so its light bounced off hanging tendrils of rock and shallow steps continuing down around the side of a large cavern. Dark mouths of further tunnels opened off it at the bottom.

“It’s caves,” Lill breathed raptly.

“It’s caves.”

“Do they go all the way down?”

Vanu shrugged. “This system comes out near Sakka—village halfway down the pass. Probably others that go further. Don’t think about wandering in here. The way isn’t marked. You could easily lose yourself.”

“So this is how you get out onto the mountain.”

“It’s how Khatu and Barda and the others get out. I don’t go out. Too many people know my face.”

He turned back toward the entrance and motioned upward. Lill turned reluctantly away from the enthralling dark space in the heart of the mountain.

“I thought you’d dug a tunnel after you were walled in,” he said as they climbed back up to the surface, “but General Mathista really imprisoned you in a stronghold that already had caves under it going halfway down the mountain?”

“To be fair, I didn’t give him a lot of choice. I knew about the caves. Why I brought the girls in here when he was chasing us.”

Back in the round hut, Vanu extinguished his lantern and returned it to its hook on the wall. They went out, and Vanu closed the door and replaced the lock. He tapped it.

“Lock’s because the girls used to be scared of the caves. Atari still is. And to keep the cat out.”

“Not because you’re scared of the caves,” Lill said, trying feebly for a teasing tone.

“And that.”

“What? You—you’re not really.”

“Scared of a black maze of holes going down into the mountain? Sure I am. Not even ashamed of it. That’s not why I don’t go out—I can go down there when I need to, but I don’t like it.” He looked at Lill for a moment, frowning. “You probably would like it. Bit of a twisty black maze yourself. But don’t go down there by yourself. I’ll get Khatu to take you sometime.”

“You were angry because you were worried about me.” The words popped out of Lill’s mouth.

“Yeah,” said Vanu, as if it should have been obvious. “Came to check on you and found your room empty with the balcony door open. Also don’t much like you sneaking around picking locks instead of talking to me.”