It’s peaceful, a true mountain oasis. Butterflies flutter about, birds sing, and it’s like the world outside is a myth and this is the only reality.
“See what you’ve been missing out on?” Muna says, and for once in this surprise encounter, we don’t have an audience. Mare has let go of his vendetta and run to pet some cats, and the princess, well, I could stare at her complex expression all day. It’s a mixture of awe and suspicion. It’s cautious, yet brazen, like she wants to relax, but something is telling her to prepare to fight. It’s my favorite look on her so far.
Though I know I should take this time to talk to Muna, I don’t particularly feel the need to address his passive-aggressive comment. I’ve exceeded my limit of shutting up, though.
“It’s beautiful, but–”
“Not your place,” he finishes for me, and that gets a smile out of me. It was a response that used to end with him in a petty mood, but now he says it with an uptick of his lips.
Because I know this house, at least from stories. He invited me every year, starting before we got together for the first time, but I never accepted. He described it as peaceful, a place of rest, and every time I’d answer the same way.Not my place.
It upset him, and it upset me, probably more than it should have. But I hadn’t reached the highest rank for my age back then, and the free days I had, I spent training. I didn’t understand how he couldn’t see the importance of that.
Now that I’m here, I still don’t. I shake my head, trying to get back to the present.
“You don’t know what you’re getting into by bringing us here.”
He laughs, a mocking sound. “You think I can’t immediately tell you’re bringing trouble? You don’t know how to run away from what’s bad for you, Rei, and what’s going down in Lima, it's bad. Yet, you’re here wearing rags with Mare and no Suyai, of course I know this is more than I should be getting into.”
My eyes never leave the princess. She turns to look at us with narrowed eyes, and I assume she’s trying to figure out exactly what Muna means. I glance up at her hair, slicked back with crusted mud and hidden by a rag acting as a veil.
“You really don’t know,” I say.
“It’s to do with this girl. I’m not stupid.”
“This girl can hear you,” the princess snaps, then shuts her mouth tightly. He’s too close. He could catch sight of her canines at any moment and then connect the dots.
He looks away from me to take a good look at her, and I shift my body to block her without thinking. I don’t want him to look her up and down. I tell myself it’s for our safety. Yanami’s face is still inflamed, but we can never be too sure. The burn in my gut challenges that.
Muna rolls his eyes.
“Possessive as ever. Whatever. Look, use the washroom and make sure those injuries don’t get infected. Then we can talk. You look half dead and stink. Don’t think I didn’t notice the blood on Mare either. He’s a kid. Get him bandaged up properly–”
“You think if I had the chance to, I wouldn’t have,” I interrupt, my temper flaring. I don’t like it when he talks about Mare or Suyai.
“Just.” He breathes deeply. “Just follow me to the washroom, okay? I’m trying to help.”
Try harder, I think but don’t say. Those are words that would have been normal in the past, but they’re too confrontational even for me now.
As he walks forward, the princess holds my hand to keep me back.
“Tell me why I should trust him,” she commands.
I don’t really have an answer to that. I think about what Muna said.Possessive as ever.
“You shouldn’t. I’m asking you to trust me to keep you safe.”
My heart blooms when she nods her head.
“I don’t wantto know what you’re doing, but I want you to stay here,” Muna says once we’re all washed up, Mare in the poncho I bought and the princess and I in white blouses Muna offered us.
The princess whispers something under her breath along the lines ofgood luck with that. I have to agree with her. No force on earth is stopping me from fulfilling our original plan to trek to the princess’s lakes, just like there’s nothing that will keep me from Cusco. Not that we’re going to explain all that to him.
But maybe we can explain a part.
“We need to go to Intiraymi in Cusco,” I say.
“Oh, for heavens’ sake,” he responds immediately.
