Page 66 of The Summer Pass

“It looks good,” Padunu repeated. “Er, my lord, I know that you are more than able to tend to Lill’s needs yourself. So it occurs to me that I could make myself useful by going out with the others and rallying some of the inhabitants of Tagra Degra to our side. There are those who would be swayed by the word of a shaman, after all.”

Vanu nodded. “Good thought,” he said aloud. “Don’t go by yourself. Don’t want anyone wandering around alone.”

“I can go with him, my lord.” That was Tirtu; Lill recognized his voice and opened his eyes to see Tirtu standing behind Padunu.

The shaman looked for a moment as if he might object; then he shrugged and said nothing.

“Be careful,” said Vanu to Tirtu. “They know you as my hearthman.”

“Right, we’re off!” Barda bounded up, looking about as ready for a stealth mission as a drunken wedding guest. At least he wasn’t wearing the horned hat.

“We need you to show us the other exit you mentioned, my lord,” said Firuduna, clapping Barda on the shoulder.

“Oh, right!” Barda slapped his own forehead dramatically.

Vanu slipped his fingers out of Lill’s hair and released his hand and stretched.

“That’s gonna mean getting up, yeah?” he signed, looking down at Lill.

“Yeah,” said Lill, not moving. “Probably. Do you… not want to get up?”

Vanu gave him a look that was hard to read. “Of course not. I want to sit here with you. Make sure you’re not going anywhere.”

Lill’s breath caught in his throat. “I’m not going anywhere, Vanu. I’m not. Truly.”

“Shh-shh. I know. I know. Didn’t mean to upset you.”

But the truth was, he didn’t know; he couldn’t. There was no way for Lill to make things right now, not entirely. He hadn’t gone back to Vanu when he’d had the chance, and now the chance was gone.

That was precisely what Vanu didn’t want him dwelling on, Lill thought, so he tried to stop.

Vanu didn’t think, if he’d been chilled to the bone in an underground stream, beaten, hung up by his arms, and shot twice, he’d be primed for sex after napping for a few hours. Maybe when he was Lill’s age, though—and if he’d had as little sex at that age as Lill had. Anyway, Lill sure was. Vanu could see it all over him. What he didn’t know was whether the thing Lill’s body craved was what his mind wanted too.

There were a few other things he didn’t know, and he needed to ask about some of them. He sat back down beside Lill on the couch.

“Usually,” Vanu signed, “when they hang prisoners up in the river chamber, they want something from them. Did Darma want something from you?”

Lill gave that a moment’s thought, his expression serious. Vanu realized too late that he’d probably made this feel like reporting back after a mission or some Order-type shit.

“Not really,” Lill answered before Vanu could take the question back. “Well, he did want me to tell him who I was working for. I made him think it was General Pantaresh by denying that the hardest. And he didn’t even ask if I was from the Order, he just told me he’d worked out that I was. I said I’d never heard of the Order, which is what we’re supposed to say, and that seemed to convince him that he was right.

“I was at a disadvantage because I didn’t know exactly what your family had told him about me. But he knew I had something to do with you, which obviously I didn’t want.”

Obviously? “Why?”

Lill looked confused. “I … Because that was my real mission, and you’ve got to conceal your real mission, I guess. Also I didn’t want him to learn anything from me about where you were camped or how many troops you had. I thought if you were hiding from him, there was a good reason.”

Vanu nodded. He believed all of that, though it didn’t explain everything.

He needed to know something else. “Did they do anything to you that was especially hard to bear?”

“No! They just hit me. I’m trained to take a lot worse than that.”

If that was meant to be comforting, it didn’t work. Vanu felt sick to his stomach.

“I’ve been wondering,” Lill said, obviously changing the subject. “How did you know I was in here? I didn’t think to question it at first—you just showed up like an angel to rescue me, which seemed like something you’d do. But how did you know to come?”

Vanu shook his head. “I heard Darma was boasting about having a Zashian spy … The message said ‘your little spy.’”