The Girl King (The Girl King #1)(88)

Looking around the circle of strangers, he saw more than a few pairs of eyes had softened. The Tigress was human, after all. Nasan, though, just looked baffled. Nok lowered his hands.

“I’m fine,” he told the princess as she released him. “Really.”

His sister shook her head as though to clear her confusion. “You’re fine, she’s fine. We’re all fine.” She stepped forward. “Are you satisfied, big brother?”

“Brother?” Lu repeated, eyes widening. “This is your little sister? That sister? You said she was dead.”

“It would appear I was mistaken,” Nok said. Lu left a hand on his shoulder, as though she were afraid the others might try to tear them apart again.

Ony stepped forward toward Nasan. “You wanted to see her weapons?”

“Bring them here.” Her voice tapered into a low appreciative whistle as Ony placed the sword in her hands.

A breeze stirred the trees overhead and a pale glimmer of light fell through, dancing along the length of the blade. The steel flared white like a flame set to oil. Around them, the others fell silent, as though their voices had been sucked out of them.

“Well, this is a pretty thing,” Nasan said. She lifted it, her movements delicate, almost reverent. Even so, Nok could feel Lu’s body seize up beside his as his sister swung the blade in a slow, languid arc, testing the weight of it.

“The craftsmanship is incredible, Princess.” She stroked a finger along its edge and hissed delightedly when it drew a bead of blood. “I wonder how many of us you could cut down if you got your hands on it—”

“She wouldn’t,” Nok interjected.

“Wouldn’t she?”

Nasan looked up at him curiously. She pointed the sword skyward and cocked her head as though considering it. Then without warning, she tossed it toward him.

Instinct took ahold of Nok and he leaped aside, the cold weight of steel cutting through the air where moments ago his ear had been. A cry went up through the assembled, though whether it was one of dread or amusement he couldn’t tell. The sword, still upright, fell toward the ground—

And landed hilt first in Lu’s hand with a reassuring smack.

For a moment no one moved. Then, all at once, a hodgepodge of makeshift and scavenged weapons materialized in the hands of his sister’s people.

“Ay!” Nok yelled, instinctively leaping toward Lu and pushing her sword hand down. “She means no harm!”

He turned to Lu and hissed, “Put the sword down. Down now. On the ground.”

The urgency of the situation, it seemed, had not yet dawned upon Lu. She looked positively livid, though she at least had the wherewithal to whisper as she rounded on him. “This is a four-hundred-year-old sword. One does not throw it on the ground.”

“They do now.” Nok grabbed her by the wrist and her fingers opened. Down fell the sword, impaling itself in the damp earth. “Nasan, call them off. She meant no harm! It was just an accident.”

“An accident?” Nasan was looking at Lu. There was something shivering behind her eyes—a hungry infant thought, clawing its way toward the light of day. Then she smiled, looking pleased as a cat. He knew that look. No good had ever come of it.

“Clear off,” his sister called abruptly. “Everyone back to work, except Lieutenants Ony and Matton. You’re coming with us.”

Two of the others—Ony, and a boy who must’ve been Matton, moved forward as the rest of the crowd dispersed in a flurry of excited whispers. He got a better look at Ony now, small and stocky, with a black plait streaked red and gold falling down her neck and the clever face of the Ungor fox etched upon her arm. She grabbed Lu roughly by the collar and shoved her in the opposite direction—back from where Nok and Nasan had come.

The boy Matton took Nok’s arm, almost companionably.

“Where are we going?” Nok demanded. Matton grunted in response.

“He’s not being rude,” Ony said. “The imperials cut out his tongue.”

Nok looked sharply at Matton, who opened his mouth in an exaggerated manner, waggling a scarred pink stump.

“Oh,” Nok said politely. Matton had no tattoos—perhaps he was one of the ungifted orphans his sister had mentioned.

Nasan led them back toward a large, central tree house. She immediately began climbing, swinging herself up barely visible footholds carved into the trunk. Nok and Lu were taken up in the pulley basket by the others.

As soon as they were safely inside with the door closed, and Matton and Ony stationed outside, Nasan rounded on the princess.

“My brother tells me you’re headed north.”

Lu’s eyes flicked toward Nok. She seemed to weigh her options, but he knew she wouldn’t try for denial or weak deception—it wasn’t in her nature. “We were. What does it matter to you?”

Nasan was pacing, regarding her with wary, calculating eyes.

“My brother also tells me you’ve got no love for our new emperor, this Set,” she said. “Rumor has it, he’s coming up this way with some forty thousand troops to help ‘expand’ the northern territories. Within a month, this whole encampment—our home—will be nothing but a wasteland. The trees fodder for your factories.”

“What does that have to do with me?” Lu asked warily.