She straightened her shoulders. “Thank you.”
Her gratitude was a surprise. So was the moment she slowly lifted one flowing sleeve to his mouth and used the fabric to stroke his skin. The blood was sticky against the silk, grabbing at it. He must look like the beast he’d unleashed.
Again, that galling sense of shame. He forced it aside, as the last of his primitive temper cooled. He wanted her discredited. That was a given now. Why was he having anything more to do with her? He could take her to the Council to stand trial. But what had she done? There was no proof that she’d broken laws worthy of imprisonment in the high Fortress of the Chasm.
Staying with her had nothing to do with the way she cleaned his face.
Nothing.
Tallis batted her hands away. “Don’t try tricks that have worked in the past, goddess. I’ve learned them, and I don’t appreciate being condescended to.”
Without waiting for her reply—too stricken by the hurt on her face—he followed the woman in armor. She was a third of the way down the mountainside. The Beas River carved a wide ravine that ran from the highest reaches of the Pir Panjal down to the Punjab Basin. They might camp soon, down among the river-fed trees. Or Tallis might leave soon. He continued moving for the sake of moving.
What if she really had meant to present those Leaders? What if they’d been ready to work toward ending the Indranan civil war?
Tallis was left to his thoughts. Yes, the Sun had fallen. Her reputation among her kind would never be restored. But what if his personal revenge had led to Pashkah’s discovery of her presence—and to those murdered men? Would Kavya have been able to protect them had she been readying herself behind the altar, preparing to greet the cult with genuinely hopeful news?
No. She would be dead.
That knowledge was as clear as the river below, and just as chilly. No matter Tallis’s actions, she never would’ve taken to that altar except to kneel and die. Pashkah would’ve been nauseatingly satisfied and incomprehensibly powerful.
Tallis had saved her life. After all, he hadn’t wanted the Sun dead. Only ruined. That sense of having accomplished his mission returned, yet it felt oddly hollow. He breathed deeply and exhaled so much tension. The morning would see his senses clear and his life restored.
That sealed it. He wouldn’t camp with the Sun and her bodyguard. Instead he would leave them on the low mountain pass with her shredded reputation as company.
But the animal lurking deep in his soul protested Tallis’s decision.
—
Kavya reached the river’s edge in time to see Tallis turn to the south and keep walking. Where is he going? she silently asked Chandrani.
He didn’t say. Just finished his descent. Didn’t even look my way.
“After all that?” Kavya’s wrath surged into something powerful and unknown. She’d been angry before, but this was anger born of insult. “Travel on. Put distance between us and the valley. Make what camp you can. I’ll be back soon.”
With long strides, she strove to catch up to Tallis. The wind whipped through her silk sari, chilling her bone-deep. She had intended to don a heavier sari for the evening’s announcement, one without the turquoise of the North or the cobalt of the South, and without her customary gold.
Plain black. Neutral. For a people united.
No longer. She was going to freeze to death, but not before she wrecked Tallis of Pendray.
“You ruined everything, and now you’re leaving? What in the Dragon’s name sort of man are you?”
He didn’t stop. His pace remained even, as if he hadn’t heard her at all—or worse, as if he would just ignore her indignation. She wasn’t used to being ignored. Arrogance or not, she wouldn’t let go of the right to speak her mind and be heard.
“Do you know what will happen now? You said you wanted to discredit me, that you didn’t want me martyred, but my brother knows me now. Knows my face and the patterns of my mind. There was no time to disguise my appearance. I can’t read you. I couldn’t read Chandrani because of your blow to her temple. In the chaos, I had no one else to draw from. I was bare-faced and he saw me. He saw all that he’ll need to hunt me down.”
Jogging the last few steps, she placed her feet carefully. Her ceremonial slippers wouldn’t last long on the slippery, muddy shoal. She grabbed his arm with more force than she thought she possessed.
Tallis jerked in a semicircle and clutched her neck—one fluid motion. “Do you court harm? Is that it?”
He squeezed until every fingertip found a pressure point. Black spots flitted against a night sky that wasn’t dark enough to compete with the oncoming loss of consciousness. Indranan were helpless when unconscious. They were susceptible to mental influences, or might let a Mask slip. Kavya hadn’t slept soundly or for long durations in years. For that reason and many others, she traveled with trusted people like Chandrani, just as they traveled with her. Kavya’s youth hadn’t offered any assurances. Sometimes she wondered how many of her memories were her own and how many had been left behind by predators who’d used her sleeping mind as a playground.
He tightened. She gagged.
And she kneed him in the crotch.
Tallis let go and stumbled back, cursing. “Is practicing that move a hobby among females?”
“Some old ways are still the best.” She rubbed her neck. Her voice was roughened. “Now answer this Dragon-damned question: What do you think will happen to the Sun Cult or whatever you outsiders call it if I’m murdered by my brother? Martyrdom isn’t the right word for it. I’d be sainted.”
“That won’t happen. Girls like those turncoats would make sure of it.”
“Turncoats, eh?” She threaded her fingers together at her waist and aligned her knuckles. Mountains and valleys. Calm. Breathe. “Does that mean you disagreed with their choice? Interesting.”
Tallis stood. She didn’t miss the way he shook his left leg, subtly, as if to protect his pride while easing the sting she’d inflicted. “Let’s pretend your brother parted your head from that delicious little body of yours. Then what? Just another case of sibling-on-sibling violence. There would always be the suspicions that you’d colluded in that bloodbath. The lure and the heavy. And then—an alliance broken down.”
Her teeth began to chatter just when she wanted to appear unrelenting. “ ‘Delicious little body’ is even more telling than calling those girls turncoats.”
“I already told you that I want you.”
They stared at each other. Tallis’s expression was generally so open as to be off-putting. He behaved with too many human mannerisms. But with that sentence, he closed off every readable emotion.
“Another slip.” She touched his cheek where night shadows made a stripe of dried blood look like dirt. “You’d meant to say something about animals or beasts or Pendray berserkers. You don’t want me.”
He took both shoulders in hand and pinched. His kiss crashed down on her. Lips were enemies—fighting, not working together for pleasure. Kavya found pleasure anyway. She was jarred soul-deep by the aggression of his embrace, with his arms crossed behind her back. She was thrilled by the shock. Telepaths were rarely shocked, which had made that afternoon all the more terrifying.
Some surprises weren’t terrifying until after the fact, when thought returned and she would regret enjoying his mouth on hers.
Later.
With more assurance, she took what he offered and made demands of her own. Tongue against roughly pebbled tongue. He nipped with his teeth—a reminder of the force contained within his lean fighter’s body. He was a beast in a man’s skin.