I miss the princess who was shy about her lack of knowledge of the area.
“It should be only half an hour to the cave, given our condition. It’s our best bet for protection tonight with the temperature dropping,” she continues.
“It’s getting really cold,” Mare adds, leaning over the princess’s map and considering it like a strategic adviser.
I sigh.
It’s true. Yesterday was our one lucky day, and even then, we almost drowned in mud. We’re at the tail end of the rainy season, and while it’s safer for us not to fight torrential downpours, it also means the heat is coming to an end. The dry season in the Andes Mountains is brutal. The sun burned all day, but the temperature is dropping by the minute.
“It’ll only be worse higher up. That’s why all the food is up there, isn’t it? I don’t want to end up frozen like the jerky,” I say, just to say something in the midst of the princess’s brilliance. She’s magic even without mimicry. She’s a god come down to earth.
The princess rolls her eyes.
“If we get to the cave before nightfall, that won’t be a problem. Trust me, I’ve survived enough nights out there alone…” The princess snaps her mouth shut.
While my blood burns, I’m also begrudgingly impressed. The locked-away princess of the empire, fending for herself in the Andes Mountains. It sounds like folklore, like the many magical creatures we’re likely to encounter after nightfall. The princessin the mountains, she would be the most terrifying thing out there.
She recoups her practiced disinterest and speaks. “I’ll spend the night there alone if you’d rather stay here and let the boy starve,” she says.
It’s a pointed jab, and I hate that it hits me right where it hurts.
“You’re not doing it alone,” I snap. “I’m not going to let you be alone.”
“I know. You need to keep me in your sights so you can drag me to the lake intact. That’s the least of what you’ll do for glory,” she retorts.
“We’re on the same team,” I say. It’s the truth whether she believes it or not. It’s not naivete or foolishness. No. It’s just me. It’s just me wanting to tell her she’s wrong, but knowing I can’t.
“Rei is our hero, Yanami. And you’re our princess. So we need to go together,” Mare says after a prolonged silence. “Yes, together. Right, Rei?”
“Right,” I say, but it doesn’t feel like me saying it. It’s a battle I want to fight, one I have the buzzing energy to take on, but my strategic mind holds me back. The princess isn’t going to give an inch. Stubborn recognizes stubborn. “We’ll go. Mare, tell me if your leg starts hurting at any point, okay? I can’t carry you on my back again.”
“Okay, Rei!” he shouts and gives me a toothy grin, tears long forgotten after a planning session with the princess.
Chapter 16
The kollka isn’t guarded, just like the princess said.
What looked like tiny walls attached to the middle of the mountainside turned out to be giant storehouses, three times my height, and stuffed with food. They’re made of rustic stones bound with packed clay, topped by thatched roofs. They have cutouts that let in the biting wind and make it colder inside than outside. This preserves the food yet keeps us from staying inside too long.
“You’re going to be our lookout. If you hear or see anything strange at all, you scream. Got it?” I tell Mare. He nods and sits on a rock. I leave him with the princess’s chumpi as a blanket. The ceremonial version of the waist belt is long and intricate enough to wrap around him several times. He bundles up quietly, and his silence unnerves me. We’re not close enough to civilization to guarantee that more creatures won’t appear. One night here might be safe, but camping can’t be our only solution going forward.
I hesitate before stepping away from Mare, then shake my head. He can handle himself. I need to trust that.
“Potatoes, jerky, andchoclowill be the only things we can really eat from here. If we can get a fire going to heat them, thatis,” the princess says, while rifling through the stores to get to those products.
She organizes the ears ofchoclo, giant corn, and strips of dried alpaca. The dried potatoes, both the black variety, chuño, and the white, moraya, are the heaviest, but they fit just fine along my chumpi held securely on my waist. It’s an unconventional carrying method, but it’s the best we have. It’ll hold at least enough for tonight and breakfast.
The storehouse is made of narrow corridors filled with a variety of dried foods. The walkway is barely enough for one person, so the princess stays behind me. The princess has long since stopped handing me food, so I walk faster to make it out the other side. Neither of us says anything, and though the time seems to drag on forever inside the freezing storage unit, we’re out of there before the sun is down.
“Give me a sec to readjust this,” I say, already fidgeting with the weighted garment. It’s severely uncomfortable at this point, but no amount of messing around with it is changing that. “Never mind,” I snap my mouth shut at the sight of the princess leaning over Mare to wake him up with gentle strokes on his cheeks. My eyes drag over her body like a physical caress.
The princess clears her throat, and I blink hard, forcing back my focus. I was staring at her waist and legs the entire time. I tamp down whatever embarrassment I might have felt from that and instead focus on taking in the pretty flush on the princess’s cheeks.
Mare is asleep on the ground, chumpi wrapped around him like a cocoon. The air isn’t as biting out here, but it’s starting to cool.
I move some of his hair out of his face, then nudge at his shoulder. His incoherent, half-asleep mumbles bring a smile to my face. It’s been so long since I’ve seen him this vulnerable, thiscalm. I’ve gotten used to him being a bundle of energy, ready to fight at a moment’s notice. Just like me.
“I’ll carry him,” the princess says, voice as tender as Suyai’s when it comes to Mare. I look at her with one eyebrow raised. “So that we get there before the sun is fully gone. Come on.”
