Page 7 of The Summer Pass

Lill had been married to Vanu for less than a month, during most of which time he’d been plotting Vanu’s murder. Enu had known Vanu since they were boys and had a child with him. Even the other men of Tsuruva had known Vanu longer than Lill. Who was Lill to say what Vanu would or wouldn’t do? He filled his bucket from the well and walked back to the house behind the forge, feeling empty and foolish.

On his doorstep he thought of another objection to Enu’s theory. The Boar? Would Vanu really call himself that? The name Lion suited him so well, with his gold hair and powerful grace. Boar was a ludicrously bad substitute.

Chapter 3

Ill-Advised Marriages

Before they set off further down the mountain, they stayed two nights at the great house in Dukka. It had suffered in the last raid by Sakka, and part of it was in ruins. Khatu joked, rather feebly, that it made him feel at home.

“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about,” Vanu said.

He had summoned Khatu after dinner, and they sat on the balcony at the back of the great house, with Mikhi to interpret. It had been easy to fall back into the habit of summoning and dismissing, where a few days ago he would just have walked across the village to seek out Khatu. Easy, and yet uncomfortable, like a garment that still fit but was stiff with dried blood.

Khatu looked politely baffled.

“Your father gave me the lordship of Umtúshta before his death,” Vanu reminded him gently. “Otherwise it would have passed to you now.”

“Oh, huh. Yeah, I suppose it would.” He looked like he had truly no idea how to feel about this.

“You’d still not be able to stay there, of course. I assume that Otoni understands how things stand.” He meant that as a question, but Mikhi rendered it aloud as a statement—which might answer the question, actually. Otoni and Mikhi had become good friends over the summer.

“Yeah, probably,” said Khatu. “She’s smart, Otoni.” He beamed proudly.

“I also assume that your family’s holdings on Korudukha will have gone to Barda as the youngest son.”

“Nah, we don’t have anything up on Dukha anymore. Da lost all that.”

“He did?” Vanu said aloud. He’d had no idea of this. That was why Faru had never mentioned it, then.

“Yeah, that’s why we came down to Umtúshta in the first place. Da avoided the place usually. Hated it there.”

“Is there … any unsettled business on Korudukha that I should know about?”

“Unsettled business? Oh, you mean with his enemies? Yeah, no, I think they were satisfied with seizing his farm and driving us off the mountain.”

Vanu nodded, not reassured. So neither of the Gukhártu brothers had an inheritance to speak of. When Faru, shortly before his death, had asked Vanu to “take care of Gurti and the boys,” Vanu should have asked him exactly what that meant. He’d been distracted by the thought of soldiers coming through their gate at any moment, but it had been foolish of him all the same. Or maybe not, because he would have given Faru his word anyway. He sighed.

“I will speak to your brother later, but now I want to talk of your future. Will you serve as my hearthman?”

Khatu gaped. “My lord, of course! I am honoured. I—Heart of the Blue Heaven.”

Perhaps it struck him then, how much everything had changed and was still changing, how different their lives were going to be from now on. He became quite grave suddenly. Mikhi, who had heard Vanu say that he planned to offer Khatu this, showed no surprise.

Vanu had no great hope that Khatu was going to be much use as a hearthman, but he had to offer something for disinheriting him. He had to look after the whole family. He would give Barda a title and a job too, and he would talk to Gurti about what she needed.

“I plan to travel down into the Tawa Valley and assemble my allies at the stronghold of Ara Tawa. I do not plan to start a fight, but I want it known that I’m back and that the Hawakhaba will follow me.”

“I would be honoured to stand by your side!” Khatu blurted, eyes shining, and Vanu recalled wearily that he was, after all, very young.

“Hegga from Korumundi has promised to bring all the men he can raise,” the lord of Tawakhura went on, “and my messenger says Hegga’s stronghold seemed well garrisoned and there are many more farms in the foothills there now. ‘All the men he can raise’ may be a good number.”

Vanu nodded. He was trying to keep his attention on the lord of Tawakhura and not be distracted by what was going on in the yard below the balcony where they were sitting. But the lord of Tawakhura was an old man who spoke very slowly, and most of what he was saying Vanu already knew, having heard it from the messenger that morning. And down in the yard, Halza had come sidling up to sit on the bench opposite where Susami and Atari sat sewing. He was at it again.

“I agree that these troops from the Steppes will prove a great advantage,” the headman was saying, scratching his beard thoughtfully, “provided we can get them through the pass safely.”

Vanu tapped Mikhi on the knee to recall her attention, which had wandered in the same direction as his, only more fixedly. She started and sat up straighter.

“They travel fast,” he signed. “With luck, they’ll be at the Dry Falls before the raiders down there hear that they’re coming. I’ll send word to Gurtmunu, all the same. He has influence in those parts.”