Page 94 of The Summer Pass

Vanu waved away the suggestion. “Firuduna’ll be back soon. You rest.”

“I’m fine really,” Lill mumbled as he laid his head back down.

He should offer to interpret for Artayarasha too, he thought. The prince and Vanu had difficulty understanding one another. He’d just pretend to sleep for a little while, to placate them, and then he’d open his eyes and make himself useful. It didn’t count as pushing himself; he was lying down, after all.

He opened his eyes to realize he had actually been asleep. The light was fading outside the hall’s narrow windows, and lamps had been lit inside. The light glinted on the swords on the walls, the gilded furniture, and the gold and silver vessels on the tables.

Vanu was standing a short distance away, nodding as a white-haired Tsuruvan man told him how good it was that he was back. The hall seemed to be full of people. Lill saw Gurti and Otoni in one place, Enu and Nakhana in another, along with many others he didn’t recognize.

“Lill, you’re awake!” said Firuduna from the neighbouring couch. “We need you to settle a bet.”

“It is not a bet,” said Padunu severely. “Shamans are not permitted⁠—”

“Well, it is if I lose,” said Firuduna. “I’ll pay up. Here’s the thing. Shaman Padunu thinks you didn’t know that Prince Arta-tuh-whatever is your father until today, and Vanu didn’t know either, and I say that’s nonsense. Obviously you knew, and you would have told him. Right?”

Lill pushed himself up with his good arm and yawned. “I hate to have to say this, I really do, but Padunu is right.”

Padunu snorted and looked as if the joke at his expense pleased him. Firuduna just looked confused.

“Really? I thought it was another secret you were keeping from the rest of us, but that Lord Vanu must know because … ”

Padunu shook his head. “But why would he—why would both of them—have kept that a secret from any of us? What would they stand to gain? When, as we’ve just seen, the revelation is so useful.”

“But then … that means that Vanu just accidentally married into the royal family of Zash?”

“Evidently.”

“You know I’m not Artayarasha’s legitimate son,” Lill felt the need to point out. And offering someone your son as a boy bride was different from offering your daughter, anyway, in ways that were too complicated to explain to non-Zashians. “They’re pretending it’s a bigger thing than it is.”

Neither Firuduna nor Padunu looked convinced by that.

Vanu glanced back over his shoulder and smiled when he saw Lill awake. He signed something polite to the white-haired man and came across the hall, picking up a gold cup from the table as he passed. He stopped in front of Lill’s couch and leaned over to kiss Lill.

“All right, love?”

It still startled Lill whenever Vanu called him that, so casually. He wondered if he would ever get used to it.

“Yes, I … didn’t think I’d fall asleep.”

Vanu gave a shrug which Lill took to mean that he had thought it. He took a drink from his cup.

“Want something?” he asked. “This is water, but there’s wine. Beer. And food’s coming.”

“How long was I asleep?”

“Hour or so.” Vanu sat on the couch beside him. He handed his cup to Lill so he could sign. “Everyone has questions about you. How we met, whether your father arranged the marriage. I’m saying our marriage was arranged, but not by your father, and that we were married in Umtúshta. Nothing untrue.”

Lill nodded. “Yes, I guess that is all true. If you need to make anything up … ” He wasn’t sure how to finish that sentence. I won’t mind? Just tell me, so we can get our stories straight? “You’re probably not going to, though, knowing you.”

“Mm. Halza’s been going around explaining boy brides to everyone who’ll listen. Though as Enu said, ‘What’s to explain? It’s all in the name.’” He signed in a very good impression of Enu. “He’s been telling everyone you beat him in a sparring match. I suppose that’s true?”

“Uh. Yeah.”

Vanu grinned. “Well, he’s in competition with Halza for chief chronicler of your legend, from what I can tell. Halza’s a bit miffed that your da asked his girlfriend to interpret and not him.”

“Did you ever find out what those three are doing here?”

“I did. It’s a long story—I’ll tell you later.” He bumped his arm very lightly against Lill’s good shoulder. “You were wonderful out there this afternoon.”