Page 112 of The Summer Pass

The pacing was good, because it meant Dorang had finally started turning his back on Lill at regular intervals, for predictable lengths of time. This allowed Lill to saw away undetected at the rope around his wrists. He was using his grandfather’s knife, the one with the snake handle, which fit snugly and discreetly in the top of his right boot.

Barda had found the boots, along with Lill’s knives, in the dungeon after they’d retaken the great house. It was good to have them back.

He’d thought about using the knife rather differently, when Dorang forced him through the door of this house, and he saw the previous occupants on the floor with their throats savagely cut. But Dorang had overpowered him and lashed his wrists together, wrenching Lill’s injured arm behind his back, before Lill could make a move to stop him. He’d prodded Lill up the stairs, and they had been waiting here ever since.

Lill went over again in his mind what he’d told Nakhana, after the inconsequential stuff about delivering arrows. “There may be a threat to Vanu’s daughters. Get them inside the great house and make sure they’re guarded well. Gurti, Otoni, and all the rest of Vanu’s household too.” Had he done enough? He hadn’t wanted to lose Dorang, who could easily have melted away into the fortress rather than continuing to follow Lill. He was glad it was Nakhana who had been closest; he would take the warning seriously, and Susami and Atari would trust him. But it was maddening to be trapped in here and not know for certain that they were safe.

Was the reason that Dorang’s team hadn’t reported in because they had been killed trying to get to Vanu’s girls? Or because they were biding their time, waiting for a way in?

It was unclear, from the sounds outside in the fortress, whether the siege was over or not. There was no celebrating in the streets yet, but everything still seemed quiet. There was no active assault going on. Were negotiations happening somewhere? That would be Lill’s guess.

And what if he’d been wrong, and the mission wasn’t about threatening Vanu’s family at all but something more conventional, opening the fortress gate to let in the enemy? He’d done nothing to counter that, if that was the plan. He’d just acted on instinct, seeing Dorang slinking around the gathering place where the girls were working and assuming the threat was to them.

Dorang hadn’t said much in the hours they had spent waiting here, but enough for Lill to gather that they were waiting for two others who were completing the first part of the mission, and that they would report back to do something else, with Dorang, when they had finished. Also that there was another team out on the mountain, with the Zashian army—an ambush team, not a stealth team—and they had a related but different mission. Dorang was glad not to be on that mission, apparently. He said he didn’t think it would succeed. Lill was trying not to think too much about what it was, because he had a feeling he knew.

(How many men were part of that mission? How many did they think they needed to throw at him to take him down? Dorang thought they didn’t have enough, but there had been a battle. He would be tired. What if he was wounded?)

“I remember it,” Dorang said suddenly, turning mid-pace.

Lill froze, knife clutched behind his back, hoping the deepening shadows in the room would have concealed any movement from Dorang as he turned.

“I remember,” Dorang repeated, pacing back toward Lill now. “Yeah.”

“You remember what?” said Lill irritably. It was dangerous to sound too insouciant, dangerous to look frozen with fear. A knife’s edge you had to walk. But he’d had years of practice.

“I remember they sent you away instead of killing you because you’re White Viper’s grandson. You fucked somebody.” He snorted and rolled his eyes. “No, what am I saying? Tried to get somebody to fuck you—I mean, look at you. Yeah, that was it. One of the masters told me. He heard it from somebody else. If you’re on a mission, it’s not for us. So who are you working for?”

“You insult me like that and then expect me to tell you?”

Dorang shrugged and turned to walk back toward the window. “I daresay there are plenty of people who would hire you for the skills we taught you. Of course, you damned yourself in the Great King’s service. I wouldn’t be in your place for anything.”

Cold horror sluiced over Lill. To hear someone else voice the terrible thing that had haunted his own thoughts ever since he rode away from the gates of the Order—maybe it shouldn’t have made a difference, but it did. Dorang was leaning in the window embrasure now, looking out, but Lill couldn’t move to continue sawing at the rope.

“Ah!” Dorang’s voice rang with a fierce satisfaction now. “They’ve done it at last. Fucking bunglers, but they got it done.”

Lill looked, but all he could see out the window from where he sat was the sky. It was the colour of a ripe apricot, not blue at all right now, but it was still the heaven that the Hawakhaba swore by and worshipped, presumably. Somehow, for no reason that Lill could explain, seeing it just then was comforting.

He had no guarantee of how long Dorang would stay looking out the window, but he had to act now. If the team’s first task was complete, the others might be back soon for the rendezvous, and then it would be too late. Lill sawed as hard as he could at the remaining rope around his wrists, and finally the last strands parted.

He eased himself carefully to his feet, stiff after having sat on the floor for so long, both his arms sore. He allowed himself only a moment to roll his shoulders, and then he ran lightly across the room to Dorang and slid White Viper’s knife into his back.

He was downstairs to meet the two returning members of the team when they arrived, a short time later. The first one was Kush, a man Lill had gone on missions with in the Order, a lifetime ago. He gave what was presumably a secret knock, and Lill unlatched the door, while standing with his back pressed against the wall next to it. He let Kush get a step inside before he tripped him and stabbed him on his way down. He couldn’t afford to take chances when he was outnumbered.

The third member of the team was Tasin. He saw Lill standing over the body of his colleague, and he froze, eyes wide with recognition. His hand went to the hilt of his dagger, but he didn’t draw it.

“Where’s Dorang?” he asked.

“Upstairs. Dead. But I’ve been authorized to let you live,” said Lill. “If you can show me proof that you’ve completed your mission.”

He needed to know what it was. It was something Dorang had been able to see from the window, so it couldn’t be what he feared; he told himself that, as he’d been doing over and over since he killed Dorang.

“The first part,” said Tasin readily, accepting this as credulously as he’d accepted Lill’s story out on the mountain. He took a step back from the doorway to point upward. “Look, you can see the flag flying from the tallest tower now.”

Lill stepped into the doorway but didn’t take his eyes off Tasin. He felt like his knees would give out with sheer relief. A flag? Who cared about a flag? What kind of a mission was this?

“So,” said Tasin uncertainly, “have you already secured Urártu’s daughters, or are the two of us going to do that now? Because it was supposed to be Kush and Dorang, but … ”

“Give me your dagger, Tasin,” said Lill. “You get to live, but you don’t get to leave.”

To Be Continued …