The Forbidden Library (25 page)

“At least this one’s much nicer,” he said, though he immediately regretted saying it.

Lu Bei slapped Turesobei on the back of the head and turned back into a book. Kemsu shook his head in wonderment. 

Iniru sighed. “Sometimes you make me feel so … Oh, never mind. Let’s build the snowhouse.” She looked at both of them. “And if either of you think I’m sleeping in a snowhouse by myself to meet some moral code the people of this land have, you can forget it.”

Motekeru set the final block in place. “I would stay with you, my lady.”

“My lady?” She snorted. “Just call me Iniru. Please.”

“No. It would not be proper to do so.”

Turesobei chuckled silently. Iniru didn’t give up a fight easily, but Motekeru wasn’t easy to argue with. The lack of facial expressions was worse than his intimidating build. He didn’t inflect his voice much either. It was hard to judge his moods.

Iniru eyed Motekeru cautiously and then shrugged. “Oh … Okay. Thank you for the offer, but I’d rather snuggle up for warmth.”

“As you wish,” Motekeru said.

Turesobei smiled, until he noticed Kemsu was smiling, too. Then they both frowned at one another.

With the snowhouse finished, they climbed in. As they did, Turesobei noticed Iniru wince. 

“You’re injured,” he said.

“I was about to say,” she replied. “Honestly. Do you have the strength to heal me?”

“I always have strength enough for you,” he said. 

Iniru slapped him lightly on the cheek. “Awww, is that why you’re trying to marry another girl?”

They stretched the sleeping furs across the floor of the snowhouse. With the wind blocked out, the star-stones glowing, and their body heat trapped, the warmth inside grew steadily. By morning it would be an almost tolerable cool. Narbenu claimed a proper snowhouse carefully made was almost as warm as their village underground, but Turesobei found that difficult to believe. After a small meal of cheese and dried sonoke strips, Turesobei meditated for an hour, blocking out his worries and drawing in kenja to replenish himself. 

“Okay, I’m ready. Who has injuries?”

“Take care of yourself first,” Iniru said. “If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that you’re indispensable. You can do things no one else can do.”

“Out here,” Turesobei replied, “Kemsu is the indispensable one. I don’t know this land well enough to survive on my own. Not yet, anyway.”

Kemsu bowed his head. “Thank you, but I’m fine. Banged up, some deep bruises, exhausted, scratches. Think they jarred a tooth loose. No big problem.”

Turesobei frowned. “I can fix all of that with a simple spell, but if you were to somehow get seriously injured in the next few days, I wouldn’t be able to help you.”

“I’ll suffer through it then,” Kemsu said. “I’ve been attacked by a snow bear cub before. That was a lot worse than this.”

Iniru snorted. “A cub?”

“Don’t laugh,” Kemsu told her. “The cub was nearly as big as Motekeru.”

She twitched an eyebrow dubiously then shrugged. “If you say so … Sobei, I’ll take the healing. Those knobs cracked three of my ribs. Maybe some torn cartilage, too. That could take weeks to heal on its own and I’d like to be full strength when we face … whatever it is we’ll face this time.”

Turesobei nodded. “I figured as much the way you winced, and I can tell you’re struggling to breathe.”

Kemsu shook his head. “How do you do that, Iniru? I couldn’t even tell something was wrong with you. It’s amazing.”

“It’s really not all that amazing,” she said. “I’ve been training since I was a little girl. One of the first lessons I learned was how to block out pain. And you really don’t want to know how they train that.”

“Sounds terrible,” Kemsu replied.

“I had a choice. I didn’t have to be a qengai.”

“I kind of doubt that,” Turesobei told her.

“You think I’m lying?”

“No. It’s just that I was given a choice to be a wizard. It was a formality. It’s not like I could really say no.”

“Oh, I had a little more choice than that. I mean, it would have cast shame onto my family, but if I didn’t want to or couldn’t handle it once the training started, they would have shipped me off to a peaceful maka centered on farming.” A maka was a k’chasan tribal village.

Motekeru groaned.

“Something wrong?” Turesobei asked him.

The jagged face stared at him. “I do not like discussing choices. I am going to shut down for a while.”

The fires in his eyes dimmed and his head sank until his chin touched his chest. 

“What was that about?” Kemsu asked.

Turesobei shrugged. He had no idea.

“Have you ever seen him do that before?” Iniru asked.

“No,” Turesobei said. “But look at him. He’s taken a lot of damage since he came back. He’s tough, but the yomon and the Deadly Twelve, the reitsu, the knobs … He deserves a rest. Lu Bei, have you ever seen him rest before?” The fetch didn’t answer. Turesobei felt the spine of the diary then breathed a sigh of relief. He could feel Lu Bei’s kenja heartbeat. “I think he’s exhausted, too.”

“Well, let’s get to healing me,” Iniru said.

She grabbed the bottom of her shirt and lifted it up slowly, revealing the downy fur that rippled across her muscled abs. She pulled the shirt up further. A deep splotch of purple showed even through the fur on her ribs. She pulled farther, bringing the shirt right up to her small breasts. 

“Whoa!” Turesobei’s spun around. He slapped Kemsu on the shoulder, but it wasn’t necessary. He had turned around, too. Of course, Turesobei didn’t want to be turned around. But he should do the right thing. Although, was it the right thing if he was an adult here? And Iniru was considered an adult by her people. No one was here to stop him from looking … she didn’t mind … surely that made it okay … but still … he couldn’t … could he?

“Turesobei, I’m waiting.”

“You — You didn’t have to … you know … remove your shirt,” he replied.

Iniru sighed. “You’re such prudes. Both of you. You can turn around.”

“But, Iniru, I —”

“I didn’t take my shirt off, dummy.”

Turesobei turned back. Iniru had rolled her shirt up so that it fit tightly against her small breasts, leaving her stomach exposed.

“For starters,” she said, “it’s still way too cold in here for stripping down. For seconds, I know your cultures are weird about topless girls. I only rolled my shirt up because I remembered you saying that healing magic worked better on bare skin … or fur in my case.”

“Well, it does, but it’s not a huge difference.”

“I’ll take what I can get. Now heal me. This hurts really bad and I’m not in the mood for your silliness.”

Nervously, Turesobei slid over to her. “I have to warn you, this healing spell … it’s not pleasant like the other one. Lean back a bit … please.” 

Still kneeling, she bent backward, far enough that it made Turesobei’s spine itch. He was certain he’d break if he tried doing that. He chanted the
spell of winter healing
. A silvery fog formed just under his hands, drifted down onto her fur, and seeped in. Her ribcage glowed. Her eyes turned to saucers and she surged up. 

“Kaiwen Earth-Mother!” she shouted. She stuck her claws into his neck, seizing him tight. “That hurts!”

“Ow! So does this,” he said.

She retracted her claws and released him. “Sorry.”

Turesobei, his palms still glowing with some of the magic, slid his hands up along her ribcage. He’d forgotten how soft her fur was. They hadn’t been this close since they’d crowded into a tiny tent in Batsakun while a storm raged over them. He slid his hands up a little further. He caught himself and pulled back.

“Sorry,” he said.

“Don’t be,” she purred. “Ah … finally … the pain’s stopped. It’s just cold now.” She leaned forward, took his head into her hands, and pulled him into a deep, passionate kiss. He squirmed, feeling overly self-conscious. Kemsu was right there.

She rolled off and shook her head. “Feeling a bit dizzy.”

“It’s the spell,” Turesobei lamented. “As the cold spreads you start to relax and become groggy, maybe even a bit disoriented for someone exhausted already.”

“Well … that just stinks,” she replied.

Turesobei, despite his excitement, was relieved. This wasn’t the time for … He didn’t know what it wasn’t the time for, just that it wasn’t.

Iniru spotted Kemsu who was fidgeting and looking highly uncomfortable and highly disgruntled.

“Aw, poor, poor Kemsu,” Iniru cooed. She leaned over and patted his face. “Don’t be jealous.”

Kemsu shifted and tried to look away. “I — I — I’m not.”

“Yes you are.” She scooted up and kissed him on the lips.

She lingered!

Turesobei’s heart thundered. His head throbbed. Time slowed to a standstill. What — What in Torment was that?

Iniru ruffled Kemsu’s hair. “That better?”

“I — I mean … um …” Kemsu couldn’t think of anything to say.

Turesobei wanted to shout at Kemsu. Maybe hit him. And Iniru … he wanted to tell her that she might lose out to Kurine, that he might choose her instead because that would … make her jealous? Would that even work? Or would she just get incredibly mad at him for being mean? He didn’t understand what was going on and dealing with Iniru … It was like casting a dangerous spell that he could never understand.

Iniru smiled, self-satisfied, grabbed up the blanket and snuggled up with her back against Kemsu. She motioned to Turesobei. “Come on, scoot over. Don’t let all the body heat go to waste.”

She held out her arms and he snuggled into her embrace. He started to say something, anything, but she put a finger to his lips and shook her head. Then she fell asleep instantly, snoring or purring — it was hard to tell. Turesobei craned his head back and shared a brief, incredibly awkward look with Kemsu.

Turesobei was so incredibly tired. He wanted to sleep. But his head swam with confusion and his heart pounded. He stared, open-eyed into the darkness. She had kissed Kemsu. Why? Because of his engagement to Kurine? Because she liked Kemsu, too? The k’chasans did have weird rules about marriages with multiple partners. He’d read a little about it, and Iniru had tried to explain it to him. It never sank in. He just could never wrap his head around it 

It was very late when exhaustion finally overtook him.

*****

They ate breakfast at noon and pretended everything was normal. Or at least he and Kemsu pretended everything was normal.

“I’m going out to hunt,” Kemsu said. “I won’t go far.”

Turesobei cast the
spell of sensing presences
. “I’m picking up some small creatures not far off to the east. No sign of the reitsu. Is it too much to hope the wraiths stumbled into the knobs?”

“You coming with me, Iniru?” Kemsu asked.

Iniru patted her ribs. “I should probably avoid doing anything unnecessary today.”

“Right,” Kemsu replied. He hovered, reluctant to leave, then finally stepped out.

Motekeru followed him outside to check on the sonoke and keep watch out in case Kemsu ran into trouble.

“What was that?” Turesobei said to Iniru now that they were alone.

“What was what?” Iniru asked.

“Last night.”

“Oh, that. It was nothing.”

“It was a lot more than nothing,” Turesobei said. “It was most definitely … well … something.”

Iniru kissed a finger and touched it to his nose. “You’re so cute when you’re flustered.”

“I’ve been flustered all night! I don’t get it. Do you like Kemsu?”

“Don’t you?”

“Not really. He’s okay. I mean …”

“What
do
you mean?” she asked.

“You know what I mean.”

“No, I don’t, or I wouldn’t ask you.”

“You do know, and you’re having fun at my expense, and I’m tired of it.” He stood, but she grabbed his hand and tugged him back down.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “That wasn't okay with you?”

“No, it wasn’t.”

“Well, it wasn’t okay with me when you kissed Kurine. Twice. It was just twice, right?”

“Well … it was … three times … I think.”

“You think?” she asked. “You
think
? I’m really not sure that you do. If you can kiss other girls while you’re in love with me and then betroth yourself to them, then I get to kiss any boys I like. That’s only fair, don’t you think?”

“I guess — Wait, no, it’s
not
fair. I just want to be with you and I didn’t intend all that with Kurine. It’s not my fault. I mean, the second kiss … and the third … sure, those were my fault. I was stupid.”

“Yep, you are. But you
do
like her.”

“She’s okay,” he replied.

“I’m not clueless, Sobei. Whether you admit to it or not, you like Kurine … a lot. Maybe not as much as you like me, but a lot.”