Page 42 of The Witch who Trades with Death

Chapter Forty-Two

It was easier going into the mountains this time. The air was warmer, the ice almost completely gone. Khana gave in to temptation before lunch and pulled out her lute. After some brief tuning, her fingers played a familiar warm-up rhythm, one of the first she’d learned in court.

“Oh, thank the gods, you’re actually good,” Itehua cried. “I was so worried you wouldn’t be.”

“So little faith,” Khana chided, still playing.

“If you don’t play at the inn, Baba is going to be very disappointed,” Haz warned. He was still glum with the death of his grandmother, but he carried on with the rest of them. It meant Heimili was left alone, but he’d booted both of them out with bags full of chuta and tea.

“I’m not a professional.”

“You’re telling me you’ve never played for an audience at that fancy Reguallian court?”

Khana squirmed. “That was different. Those were group performances. If I’m solo, everyone will know when I make a mistake.”

Haz shrugged. “I’ll sing along with you. That way you can just blame me.”

“I didn’t know you sang,” she said.

“I don’t. That’s why it’ll be easy for you to blame me.”

They marched through the day, Khana fiddling with her lute. Itehua convinced her to play less classical songs, instead switching to melodies she’d heard in taverns, inns, and brothels, which he, Lueti, and Xopil sang to while Haz kept a clapping beat. A couple of other units joined them, one with a flute-player and another with a drum. Khana almost forgot that they were marching off to war.

They made camp for the night. Khana rested her buzzing fingers, wrapping them around a burning bowl of stew as she peered over Yxe’s shoulder, Lueti sandwiching him from the other side for their reading lesson. The rest of the unit played dice, Itehua and Neta taking Haz and Xopil’s money and trying to topple each other. Their campfires lit up the side of the gray, muddy mountain, and she’d say it looked like the stars if the actual stars weren’t a hundred times more breathtaking. A few scouts from Blue Battalion made their way over, boots crunching through the thin layer of snow that stubbornly remained despite it being well into spring.

Khana could see the exact moment the scouts noticed her, veering off-course to approach the Poison Dart Frogs. “Heard you playing earlier,” one of them said.

“It sounded good, I hope,” she replied, not quite at ease. Despite fighting for the same cause, militarily supporting each other, and even grudgingly respecting each other, Blue and Red Battalions tended to stick to their own.

“Surprisingly good, for a frog,” the other said. “We heard Sava gave it to you.”

“He and my unit.” She tipped her head to the others.

Haz raised his hand. “My family, too! Itehua, stop cheating.”

“I’m not. You’re just really bad at this,” Itehua retorted.

“Uh-huh,” one of the scouts said skeptically. “You know the chief will never let you have her son, right?”

Khana blinked. “What?”

“He’s our pride and joy. And you’re a frog bitch from the enemy empire.”

“Ex cuse you?” Lueti demanded, pulling away from Yxe.

The scout’s friend clasped a hand over his shoulder. “What he’s trying to say,” he said soothingly, “is you can’t sleep your way to the top, even if you are a witch.”

The unit around the campfire was dead silent.

Then half of them burst into laughter. Itehua rolled onto the muddy snow. Yxe went so red under his yellow wool hat Khana thought he would burst into flames.

“Leave,” Neta said, her mouth twitching.

The scouts quickly followed her order. Itehua brushed the snow from his armor, still chuckling. “I love how twisted the rumors get sometimes.”

“That’s an actual rumor?” Khana squeaked.

“Oh, yes,” Lueti said, brushing gray bangs from her face. “It exploded last week, after you two danced together.”

“ What ?”

“It’s just like how me and Tlastisti were when we were courting,” Xopil sighed dreamily. “We always danced together at festivals and weddings. Everyone thought we were sleeping together long before we actually were.”

“I can’t blame the rumors,” Haz added. “I was a little surprised he didn’t come with you to the inn.”

Neta lost her composure enough to gape. “Wait, he didn’t?”

“I know!”

“Why would he go to the inn when he lives at his parents’ estate?” Yxe asked.

All six of them stared at him.

Yxe turned even redder before he burst into snickers. “Sorry. I couldn’t resist.”

“You little shit!” Haz cried, throwing a handful of muddy snow at him. “I thought I’d seriously have to explain that to you!”

Khana hunched around her bowl of half-eaten stew that she suddenly didn’t want to finish as Haz and Yxe got into a proper scuffle, Itehua and Xopil cheering them on.

Lueti scooted closer. “What’s the matter?”

“I wanted to,” Khana admitted. “I wanted to at least kiss him, but… Haz was able to find company for the night, but I couldn’t do it. I’m not brave.”

There had been a moment, at the end of the last dance, where she and Sava had been inches from each other. Her whole body had been humming, flush with music, and she’d thought of kissing him…

But she’d pulled back at the last moment and thanked him for the dance. He’d smiled back at her, but she couldn’t help but sense that he was a little disappointed. She certainly had been, later following Lueti’s advice on “self-care” in her bedroom and wishing it was Sava’s fingers curled inside of her.

“Picking up a man is not brave. That’s just a different response to trauma,” Lueti stressed. “I’ve known hundreds of people who have gone through experiences like the two of you, and they all respond differently. Some swear off sex, romance, and anything remotely like it for the rest of their lives. Others fuck anything that moves. And then there’s everything in between. None of them are more brave or cowardly than the others. Everyone has their own pace. Regardless of what they’ve been dreaming.”

Khana huffed into her knees. “Probably for the best that mine is so slow. I don’t even think he really likes me.”

“Oh, he does,” Lueti promised. “He’s probably just waiting for you to take the first step.”

“He’s not shy. He’s friends with everybody and practically a prince around here.”

“Which is precisely why he’s waiting for you,” she pointed out. “He knows your history and is very aware of the power imbalance between the two of you. And with the drama surrounding Bhayana and Haz? Of course he’s not going to push. He’s probably scared to even show clearer signs of his interest in case you misinterpret them as an order to get into his bed. He wants to be sure that you’re with him because that’s what you want, which means he’s not going to do anything until you do.”

Khana pondered that. She had told Sava she didn’t like to be touched, and he’d followed her desire to the letter since then.

“What if you’re wrong?” she whispered.

“I rarely am in these matters,” Lueti said. “Neta and Haz know him more personally, so you can ask them if you want. They’re quite likely to agree with me.”

Khana looked up. Haz had managed to pin Yxe in the snow, although given how hard he was breathing it hadn’t been an easy victory. “I heard my name?”

Neta rolled her eyes. “Honestly, I’m a little more concerned about the war and that we may all die tomorrow than Khana’s relationship drama.”

“Thank you, serji, I’d almost forgotten,” he sniped.

“I find this type of drama calming,” Xopil said, a wide smile on his face. “Young love is precious. It’s one of the things we’re fighting for.”

“I’m fighting for a bag of coin that I can spend on one of Lueti’s trainees,” Itehua retorted.

“You’re going to need a much bigger bag,” the whore deadpanned.

Yxe pulled his head out of the snow. “You can make him work security at your future brothel. Then he’ll get a discount.”

Itehua pointed at him. “That. I like the sound of that.”

Khana chuckled. Everything Lueti had said swam in her mind, making her somehow both more afraid and more interested. Maybe she could make the first move.