Page 73 of The Summer Pass

“Absolutely. How can I help?”

He was prepared for an argument, but Vanu didn’t argue. He frowned at the floor for a moment.

“Did you notice how I said ‘we have to find Prince A’?” he signed finally. “I think I meant you and me. I wish I didn’t—you’re hurt, and I want to tell you to stay here in safety—but I’m worried about the prince. And I’ve never known—I’ve never heard of anyone as good at sneaking about as you are.”

“What? No, I’m … ” A legend, Deru had said.

“You were in the middle of my camp, up a tree, all night, and nobody had a clue.” Vanu sighed and pushed back his hair. “I should probably ask what you were doing there, before we got too much deeper into … ” He gestured expansively. “All this.”

“What I was doing … ” For a moment Lill was at a loss. “In the woods? Oh. I was waiting for Deru—not that I knew it would be Deru. The assassin that the Order sent after you.”

“Yes, I met him.”

“I was waiting for him because I saw a camp down the mountain that had been covered up, the way they teach us to cover up after ourselves, only not well enough, obviously, because I could still spot it. And when I found that the camp at the top of the trail was yours, I thought someone from the Order might be lurking around, so I kept watch over your tent.”

Vanu nodded. “And you were out on the mountain in the first place because … ”

“I saw your banner above the fortress and went looking for your camp. I saw you down in the valley with Artayarasha’s guard—I was up on the other side of the stream, at the edge of the trees, looking down, quite far away. I wondered what was going on, and I wanted to see you up close, so I started around the head of the valley, then I found the trail up to your real camp.

“And no, I wasn’t going to talk to you. I just wanted to see you. It sounds insane to say it now. I wasn’t thinking about how you would feel if you’d known I was up in a tree watching you and didn’t come down and … I guess I thought you had gone on with your life and didn’t miss me.”

“I see. When you saw my banner, where were you?”

“Just outside the postern gate, the western one—oh. I’m not telling this story properly, am I?”

Vanu made a face. “Not really.”

“I came over from Tsuruva⁠—”

“Further back,” Vanu signed. “I know you were at Tsuruva and helped look after Firuduna in Nakhana’s house. I don’t know what you were doing in Nakhana’s house.”

“Working at the forge,” said Lill readily. “I know that’s hard to believe because I don’t look like I’d be much use in a smithy, but⁠—”

“I believe it. You’ve got muscles in your arms that you didn’t have in the spring.”

“Do I?” Lill felt his cheeks heating.

“You do. Why the forge, though?”

Lill shrugged, one-shouldered. “Nakhana needed help and had a house for me to stay in. It was a way to live in Tsuruva. And I was in Tsuruva … just to be in Tsuruva, really. Partly to practice hand language. I’ve gotten really good—I wish I could show you. And I didn’t have anywhere else to go, and it was somewhere you used to live.”

“I see.”

“So when Tsuruva was raided, I … ” He stopped as it finally hit him what Vanu was really asking with all this. “I’m not working for anyone. I’d tell you if I was. I swear, Vanu, on—on the Blue Heaven, I would tell you if I was working for someone. And you can ask!”

“Was trying to,” Vanu muttered.

He looked so sheepish that Lill laughed aloud—not because it was funny, but because … He didn’t know; somehow it just made him light-hearted. Then he couldn’t resist scrambling up, the gown slipping off his shoulders as he did, and climbing into Vanu’s lap. He twined his good arm around Vanu’s neck. Vanu hugged him back, his strong, warm arms cinching tight around Lill’s bare torso, and kissed into the curve of Lill’s shoulder.

“You’re staying here,” Vanu breathed against Lill’s skin. “Changed my mind. Can’t risk you.”

“No, but listen. Ask Firuduna how many of the attackers in the second raid on Tsuruva I shot, and whose idea it was to organize a fire brigade after the first raid. I was by the postern gate when I saw your banner because I was coming out from infiltrating Tagra Degra the first time, to rescue my friend Shan-Dall. Oh, and also! Deru defected to you, right? That was my idea—I told him to do that.”

“I know that,” Vanu growled. “‘Tell them I was the real assassin—but Vanu won’t believe that.’ Tcha!”

“Yes, that is pretty much what I said. But that’s not what I wanted to tell you. We always—they always—work in teams, so I knew there was someone else down the mountain who’d be waiting to hear from Deru. And if he didn’t hear from him, he’d come after you in his turn. And there’d be the rest of the team, down at Manáshta, with their commander. I wanted to get rid of them for you, but I knew I couldn’t take them all on. So I went down and found Deru’s partner, Tasin.

“Deru said there were rumours about me, about why I’d left the Order. Nobody talked about the real reason, and I guess … they didn’t think it made any sense that I would have been expelled. There are stories that I’m actually on a mission so secret that even the masters don’t know about it. So that’s what I told Tasin. I said I had orders from, you know, I-Can’t-Tell-You-Or-I’d-Have-To-Kill-You, and the new directive is: leave Vanu Urártu alone and go home. He believed it—I can’t say for certain that the rest of the team will, but it should at least cause confusion and delay while they try to sort out what orders to follow.”