Page 47 of The Summer Pass

If he knew that, why did he run away? Might as well ask why he was doing any of this. What Vanu needed to know was what he was going to do next—because it was probably something he needed to be stopped from doing.

He addressed his men, speaking as loudly as he could. “Get word through the camp. Make sure everyone hears. If anyone captures the other assassin—the little one—they’re not to harm him. Bring him straight to me. Don’t harm him.”

It wasn’t that he thought any of them would be able to lay hands on Lill, wherever he was. But if he was still nearby, if he was hiding in the trees listening, even now, Vanu wanted the message to get through.

Chapter 19

The River Chamber

As the sun climbed toward mid-morning, Vanu headed down the trail to the camp of the Protector’s Guard in the valley. He found the discipline and matching uniforms of Artayarasha’s troops soothing. He had put on a shirt and taken out the heavy gold earrings that had begun to make his ears hurt. He didn’t need to dress up for these men. As far as they were concerned, he was a mountain savage no matter what clothes he wore.

“Da, I can’t stay with that girl any longer,” Mikhi announced dramatically when she met him at the entrance to the tent she was sharing with Artayarasha’s daughter. “She’s impossible!”

“She’s worried about her father,” Vanu signed back sternly. “She’s very attached to him. You should have compassion on her.”

“I’m trying, but she’s horrible. She’s got that thing, that creature, and do you know what she’s trained it to do?”

Vanu drew a deep breath and rubbed a hand over his face. It wasn’t as if he had anything else pressing to do. Artayarasha’s regimental commanders were awaiting his instructions, but there was nothing for them to do, and they knew he would tell them that.

“No, what’s she trained the monkey to do?”

He heard out Mikhi’s side of the story, then went in to see Artayarasha’s daughter. He still didn’t know her name. She was refusing, in true Zashian style, to tell Mikhi what it was, and her father had never mentioned it to Vanu. He remembered that highborn Zashian women had two names, one for friends and family and one used among strangers. For all he knew, royal women had three or four and didn’t let commoners use any of them.

“Lord Vanu! God guard your coming and your going.” The princess popped up from her seat on the cushions to greet him. “Is there any news of my father?”

“I’m afraid no. But they will take good care of him there. They know he is a valuable hostage.”

She nodded. “Should they not have demanded a ransom already? I thought that was the usual practice in such cases.”

“They may have made demands to Pantaresh already, but we have not heard. I have sent a messenger to bring us news. He should be back soon.”

While they talked, the princess’s monkey had been prowling around between the cushions with its tail in the air. Now it had found what it was looking for: Mikhi’s bedroll, wadded up into a sloppy bundle at the edge of the tent. It began pawing excitedly at it and chittering like a squirrel.

“Pajar!” the princess called sharply. “Leave Meeky’s things alone! He likes her,” she explained to Vanu, and she didn’t add, “I don’t know why,” but she didn’t need to. “That’s why he won’t leave her things alone. I have attempted to explain. Perhaps you could tell her that when I say, ‘He likes your scent,’ I am not implying that she smells bad.”

“Right,” said Vanu.

He might as well get involved in a dispute between two girls over a monkey, he thought. He wasn’t doing anyone else any good at the moment.

He couldn’t ask Artayarasha’s men to take part in an attack on Pantaresh’s regiments, which was what Vanu’s own men wanted to do. An assault on Tagra Degra was out of the question, though whoever was in charge there was acting contrary to Vanu’s interests in several ways. He wanted his family out and safe, Artayarasha freed, Tagra Degra back under his control, and the king’s men to fuck off. He was damned if he knew how to make any of that happen.

He spoke with the princess a little longer, making sure she was being taken care of and had everything she needed. She had her servants with her and her own contingent of guards, hand-picked by her father, so Vanu wasn’t worried about her, but he felt it his duty to check. He had left Mikhi with her because he was impressed by the security arrangements Artayarasha had made.

Of course it would have been much more secure for the princess to be at home in a palace somewhere instead of out here with her father’s men. But apparently she had persuaded her father to let her tour the province with him four years ago and become a fixture in his entourage ever since. That reminded Vanu so much of Mikhi that he was surprised the two girls didn’t get on better together.

He left the princess’s tent and was met by the commander of her father’s guard and the messenger they had sent to General Pantaresh’s camp, one of Artayarasha’s uniformed couriers, returning with news.

“My lord, there is no word yet of a ransom for his Highness,” the courier reported. “But there was a message from the fortress, early this morning. They claim to have captured a spy and boasted of holding him in their dungeon. General Pantaresh disclaimed all knowledge of any spy.”

“Bravado on his part, most likely,” said the commander of the guard.

The messenger looked respectfully unconvinced. “I would not have said so, sir. I would have said Pantaresh was puzzled by talk of a spy and truly knew nothing of it.”

“Ah. Then perhaps this is a further sign of dissension within the fortress. They cannot agree on what to do with his Highness, and they are imagining their own people are spies.”

That sounded plausible to Vanu, and he wished he could believe that was all it was. But another possibility occurred to him, a terrible one that struck him as all too likely.

“Did they say anything—in particular—about the spy?” he asked the messenger.