"How much do we have," he asked, "that isn't already allocated?"
Varok considered."Between the supply wagons—"
"All of it."
Varok blinked."Great Khan—"
"All of it."
The courtyard was open to the sky, the night clear above it, stars visible past the torchlight.The assembled company arranged themselves around the perimeter.
Azul entered from the far end.The red of her robes caught every torch she passed, and the gold bodice made her seem as though she were made in the image of the gods.And she was—Ragnar thought—extraordinary.
The music began.She picked her starting pose, and as the beat dropped, so did she.Her body fell to the floor smoothly before coming up on her knees to dance.
It was nothing like anything he had seen on the steppes.Her body tracing patterns in the air that he didn't have the vocabulary to read.Her waist was like a viper's; her hips, wrapped with beautiful coin scarves, beguiled him.
The first coin hit the ground.
Azul smiled softly as she heard the familiar clink.She turned in her dance to look at her patron, a way of saying thank you.Like that, her attention passed to those who threw more coins; the louder, the longer her attention stayed.
But then she heard a loud crash.
She turned mid-movement, and for a moment her composure slipped.She looked down at the gold spreading across the courtyard floor—thousands of coins.She glanced up, confused, as she forced herself to keep dancing.They were from the Valthorne.
Nyraxa stood at the edge of the crowd with such a pained expression, as if she was watching something precious being taken from her.Azul looked up then, to the source of her honour.To the man who would receive her attention as long as he honoured her.
Ragnar stood watching her.She couldn’t quite see his eyes from her position below, but he could see her.
The gold kept coming.
It spread across the stone until the stone disappeared entirely.Her feet could no longer find stone.The courtyard had become gold from wall to wall, making the entire scene glow as though her hair were made of fire.
Something moved across her face that Ragnar had not seen before.It started at the corners and took over entirely.Bright, genuine and helpless.
She had been caught unprepared this time, and her reaction was one she had failed to account for.
She laughed.
Ragnar felt it move through him, forcing through every bone, every muscle, and every inch of his soul.Consuming him, dismantling him, destroying him.
This was the sound she made when something had gotten past all the management; it was the most beautiful thing he had heard in his life.
He was aware, with deep clarity, that he would spend however long he had left trying to be the reason for it as often as she would allow.
And oh, how badly he wished to kiss her.
Azul found Borji at the edge of the hall afterward, where he had retreated with two cups of wine.
He handed her one without being asked.
She took it.They stood together in the relative quiet of the hall's edge, the noise of the banquet continuing without them, and for a while neither spoke.
"You're going to leave, aren’t you?"Borji said eventually.
Azul looked at her wine."You don't know that."
"I know.I've known since the shrine.Maybe before."
