Page 49 of The Witch who Trades with Death

Chapter Forty-Nine

Khana gasped awake, sweat coating her skin as she jerked upright. For a moment, all she saw were the wooden walls of the palace, the curtains over Yamueto’s bed and the silk sheets–

“Khana? Wha – oh.”

Silk sheets. No, she was on furs. And she’d never woken up next to Yamueto; he’d always sent her away when he was done with her.

Sava carefully sat up, not touching her. She had warned him this could happen, muttering about nightmares as they’d drifted off to sleep. He didn’t touch, but crouched in front of her, filling her vision. “Breathe,” he instructed. “You’re not back there. You’re in Pahuuda.”

Khana sucked in a breath, twisting her hands in the moose fur pelt. Sava got up and added more animal bones to the fire, and she wished she could admire his naked form instead of being swamped by cold sweat and fear.

The night had been going so well . Khana had gone to sleep happy and sated and safe . Until Yamueto reared his ugly head in her dreams once again. He’d caught one of his other concubines in a relationship with a noble at court – a male noble. Someone who could upend Yamueto’s carefully crafted family tree of influence and power. Both had been publicly tortured and transformed into night creatures.

By the time the fire was healthy and hot, Khana had her breathing under control, and she wiped her eyes. Sava glanced back at her, awkward as a horse. “What do you need?”

She gave that a good moment of thought. Eventually, she decided that she wasn’t going to let the emperor spoil her night anymore and patted the furs next to her. “Come back to bed?”

Sava slipped in next to her, and she adjusted them so his head was in her lap and she could play with his hair. It was quickly becoming her favorite pastime.

Sava leaned into her touch with a sigh. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“No,” she growled. “He doesn’t get to intrude on this anymore.”

“All right,” he said easily. “A little to the left.”

She adjusted her fingers, scratching the preferred spot. He made a happy little noise, somewhere between a purr and a moan.

“You’re a giant puppy,” she stated.

“Mm-hm.”

She surprised herself once again that night, going back to sleep after a nightmare, Sava’s inky hair twined in her fingers.

Khana drank tea in the kitchen, watching the growing sunlight paint the stone walls pale white, then gold. Despite the nightmare intruding on her sleep, she felt surprisingly well-rested and content. She smirked as she sipped. Take that , Yamueto.

She’d left Sava in her room. He’d grumbled when she’d accidentally woken him as she wiggled out of bed and kissed him on the temple with a “stay as long as you like, but I need to get ready for work.”

Now, he stumbled into the kitchen, yawning, hair mussed up and frizzy around his shoulders. He hovered over her for a second and, as soon as she nodded, slid right behind her, propping his chin on her head, wrapping his arm around her belly, and leaning like she was his favorite piece of furniture.

“Good morning,” she greeted, smiling into her cup and leaning into him.

“Hmm.”

“Not a morning person, are you?”

“Mm.”

She chuckled, but eventually her amusement faded into something more serious. “We should probably talk.”

“Mm?”

“Do we… should you… I don’t want you to have to slog through any nasty rumors.”

Sava snorted and hugged her tighter. “They’re already whispering. At least this way I get to say, ‘Yes, I am sleeping with that terrifying, adorable woman, so you can all shut your jealous mouths.’”

“Aren’t you technically my commanding officer? They might think you’re ordering me around.” She wrinkled her nose. “Assuming they haven’t met you.”

He kissed her temple. “No officers can order their subordinates in a civilian setting. Furthermore, officers cannot order any soldiers outside of their unit, company, or battalion unless it’s the heat of battle or they have permission from said soldiers’ commanding officer of equal or higher rank. So, if I wanted to boss you around, I’d have to ask Chaku.”

“Might want to ask Neta, too,” she offered.

“ You ask her. She scares me. I tried yelling at her for sending you to fight the archers and it did not end well.”

Khana laughed.

Sava adjusted his arms around her and buried his nose in her hair. “In all honesty, Khana, I would love to be able to… court you. Properly.”

She leaned against his chest, letting him rock her in a gentle sway. “Really?”

“Probably not while we’re marching,” he admitted. “You have a point that it could get messy. But when we’re in town?”

He was asking permission. Khana bit her lip. “I don’t know how Ghuran courtships work.”

“It’s different for each couple. Mostly they just spend time together, doing as they please, and if they don’t drive each other mad, go from there. Nothing formal, like I’ve heard other countries do.”

Reguallian courtship was an elaborate dance of gifts and supervised dates and never truly being alone and intimate with each other in any way until after marriage. She’d been too young to learn the customs of the Naatuun Desert.

Khana hummed, thinking. She was still saving up for crossing the tundra. Every time she earned coin, that was the first thing she thought about. But that idea had grown less and less appealing. She found herself wondering if Heimili would find someone else to work at the inn and if they’d remember which customers preferred their tea boiling hot versus a never-ending stream of mead. Who would keep Haz and Itehua out of trouble? What new histories would Yxe uncover? If Lueti would get to own a brothel to train and protect younger workers and how Xopil’s son was going to grow up and whether Neta’s Cituva relatives would ever appreciate the gem that she was.

And now, this.

“What if I don’t know if I’ll be staying in Pahuuda?” she whispered.

Sava shrugged. “We’re soldiers. Either of us could die any day. I’d like to enjoy whatever time we have.”

“Cheery.” She looked up and kissed his fuzzy jaw, the only part of his face she could easily reach. “I’d like that.”

His whole face lit up, like she’d offered him the world.

“Aw, rats,” Haz said, walking in. “If you two had waited a week I’d have won ten coppers.”

Khana huffed and turned to their interrupter. “Good morning.”

“Not so good now,” he grumbled, coming into the kitchen and snagging a loaf of chuta. “That money’s going to Lueti, gods dammit.”

“You are such a terrible gambler,” Sava commented.

Heimili limped in, glanced at her and Sava, and said, “I suppose I won’t be charging you for a room anytime soon.”

“Don’t say that,” Haz said, biting into his breakfast. “He’ll need to sleep somewhere the first time they argue, and he doesn’t immediately take her side.”

Khana snorted. Sava gave him a wide-eyed look. “I would never be so stupid.”

“They all say that,” Heimili teased. “Congratulations, but unless you’re willing to help with morning chores, you’ll have to–”

Something shrieked outside.

It wasn’t human, and it was no animal Khana had ever heard. Her gut twisted when she realized what that meant.

“Night creatures,” she said, tearing out of Sava’s arms. In the space of one heartbeat, they were no longer a couple and a pair of teasing interlopers, but three soldiers and a civilian. “Haz, get your shield!”

“I’ll call the troops,” Sava said, sprinting out of the building. “Meet in town square!”

Swearing, Haz ran after her upstairs. Outside, people screamed. They had no time to get into full armor, not if the Reguallians were already here.

We should’ve seen this coming, she scolded herself, tugging on her boots and grabbing her shield. She didn’t even bother looking for any of her weapons – her witchcraft had proven far more useful.

She and Haz burst outside. They couldn’t see Sava, already gone to rally the other soldiers. The few people on the street in the pre-dawn glow took shelter against buildings, looking up.

The shriek sounded again, rattling Khana’s eardrums. Like a dozen bats’ squeaks and horses’ screams and men’s yells all in one. A massive, winged beast flew over their heads, soaring over the town, its giant body longer than a whale. She gaped at it, pressing herself against the stone.

Yamueto had always wanted flying creatures that could carry men into battle. Now, it seemed, he had them.

Or rather, one. That was the only blessing Khana could see in this: there were no others in the sky.

She ran down the street, after the monster.

“What the fuck is that ?” Haz demanded at her heels.

“Night creature. A new one.”

“What type of animal could he possibly have gotten that from?”

“I don’t know.” Some combination of bird and horse, maybe? Or perhaps bird and whale, given that that thing was big enough to hold at least six men.

The streets filled with more and more soldiers in various stages of armed and armored. They followed orders relayed of “Town square!” and “Chief’s in the square, go, go!”

The beast circled around the town. It didn’t attack, just flew. Squinting through the pre-dawn gray, Khana could make out one rider on its back, wearing ebony and glowing a myriad of colors. A white flag of truce trailed behind him.

Phramanka stood in the middle of the town square, at the foot of the statue of their founding chief. She was in a nightgown and wolf pelt, helmet on her head and spear in hand. Sava and Thriman stood on either side of her; someone had given Sava a bow and quiver. Khana and Haz pushed their way to the front of the crowd. Sava’s eyes met hers briefly before he went back to tracking their trespasser.

“Everyone hold,” Phramanka ordered. “This is a diplomat.”

The beast circled close. Phramanka ordered a spot cleared in the square. The beast landed, close enough that Khana could see that its fur and coloring was similar to a horse, with even a mane trailing down its long neck.

She also recognized the rider.

Every muscle locked up. Her lungs froze. She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think, as the rider slid off the beast’s back and strode up to Chief Phramanka, not even glancing at the armed men and women around him.

“You have something of mine,” said Emperor Yamueto.