Page 4 of The Summer Pass

“So was I,” she said, beaming.

Lill found himself smiling back. He’d wondered if that was what it was that he sensed about her. He suddenly had many questions and no idea how to ask them.

“Shan and I met when we were just kids,” she said. “I knew I wanted to be with him before I knew I wanted to be a woman.” She looked at her husband. “I think it was when I got dressed for our wedding that I was sure of that.”

“You used to say you wanted to wear girl’s clothes, but you didn’t have a good excuse. The wedding was a good excuse. And then,” he went on, turning back to Lill, “we sort of pretended that I insisted after that. You know, because I’m such a traditional man.” He rolled his eyes, and they giggled.

“But it was good enough for people,” said his wife. “Some of them felt sorry for me, having to live as a woman, but of course you have to do what your husband wants. Then we left the city and went on the road, and our new friends, some of them know that I used to be a boy, and some of them don’t—and that suits me well.”

“I see,” said Lill, still at a loss for words. “And is … I never met any other boy brides. Is that how it usually happens?”

“You mean, do most of us do it because we want to be women? No, no. There’s all sorts of reasons. We know a few other couples, don’t we?”

“Yes, there’s Vash and Uditi—she was living as a woman before they were married.”

“She wouldn’t tell you she was a boy bride, though.”

“No, that’s true. She’d be upset with me for using her as an example. Forget I said anything.”

“But my point was, we know others who aren’t like that. Bagadata and Karva are both men—do you even know which of them was the bride when they married?”

“Um … it was Karva, but I think they drew straws or something. And Bagadata is the one who keeps house and looks after Karva’s sister’s kids. There’s your cousin, too.”

“Yes, I was going to say. My cousin in Satasparsa, where boy brides are popular, he took one, along with his three regular wives—he’s from the wealthy branch of the family—and this ‘boy’ … I mean, there were some raised eyebrows in my family. He was taller than my cousin when they married, muscles like an ox—he’s certainly not going around in skirts and headscarves.”

“And everybody calls him ‘he,’” Shan clarified.

“Well—except for one of my aunts, but she’s just being rude. Anyway,” she said, turning back to Lill with a conspiratorial smile, “what I meant to say is that we boy brides are a varied lot. And I’m always happy to meet another of us.”

“So am I,” said Lill. It was so interesting, in fact, that for a moment he’d forgotten that he wasn’t really a bride any longer. He’d given back the ring and everything.

“Seeing as you’re one of us,” she said, “I should give you my name. I’m called Zaraz.”

It was a Zashian woman’s name. She must have picked it for herself, Lill thought. His own shortened name was not of his choosing; it had been forced on him by the boys of the Order who didn’t find him worthy of an old-fashioned Chiddang man’s name like Lillang. But he had grown into it.

“I usually go by Lill,” he offered.

“Oh,” said Shan. “Interesting. Could be short for Lillang or Lillill, right?”

“Ooh,” said Zaraz, and she sounded so much like someone who’d just spotted a new bird in the wild or seen a book in someone’s library that they’d always wanted to read that Lill had to put his fingers to his lips to keep from laughing.

“Have you heard about the warrior souls of Hawakhaba?” he asked quickly, to forestall any further questions about himself.

Nakhana came back with food for dinner just as Lill was beginning to wonder what he should feed his guests. It was a relief to find that apparently they weren’t to be his guests, even if he did seem to be in charge of entertaining and explaining things to them.

“Did everything go all right with your aunt?” he signed tentatively as Nakhana flung himself down on the seating platform.

The smith gave the hand language equivalent of a grunt, a sign that, as far as Lill knew, was unique to him but was somehow very easy to interpret.

“You’ll see her before long yourself. She says she doesn’t want anything to do with her son—something to do with his divorce, I can’t be bothered to remember the details—but my ma will talk sense into her.” He flapped a hand at Zaraz, who had been hovering over the basket of food, waiting for permission to begin unpacking it.

“Here, I’ll help,” said Lill, popping up from his seat.

They unpacked bread, cheese, cured sausages, and three different kinds of stewed vegetables pungent with spices and vinegar. Nakhana was a bachelor who could cook perfectly well for himself and never went to his mother’s house solely to be given food, but he did go to his mother’s house almost every day, and almost every day he came back with something incredibly delicious. Lill wasn’t sure why he didn’t just live with his mother, which would spare him the trouble of carrying the dishes back and forth.

Now Nakhana was making up a plate for his cousin, and since Lill was already up—and because he was curious about the newcomer—he offered to take it to him.

“What’s his name?” he asked before stepping down from the seating platform.