Cold Fire

I handed it to Vai.



His gaze flicked over the words twice. “Tell me if you think she wrote this herself.”



“She wrote it. She quoted the great general Hanniba’al to let me know she wasn’t coerced. Had she quoted a Roman, she would have meant otherwise.”



“Then we have to go.” He went out.



We? I shut the lid and hurried after him to the washroom. “Vai, we can’t trust the general.”



“I know,” he said as he stripped and stepped into the brass tub. “But we can’t ignore him. We discussed all this last night, love. As I hope you remember.”



“That’s not what I remember about last night.” I poured a pitcher of cold water over his head; he didn’t even flinch. But in fact we had talked for a long time about our situation; it was remarkable how pleasing it was to converse with a man in the dark when he was holding you close and you were both quite naked and well sated. I smiled, watching as he soaped down: He was lean but not thin, not short but not particularly tall either, and the view from the back was simply so alluring I had to clamp my mind to Bee’s message and our circumstances.



I said, “It’s easy to talk noble philosophy at the table and then change your mind when you’re in the mud. Even if the general becomes emperor and abolishes clientage, it will take years of war. By then the mansa could have taken his revenge on you by destroying Haranwy.”



“I’m not the only one in Haranwy willing to risk the struggle. Other people in the village have skills as useful in their own way as mine for a radical sort of enterprise.”



“Like your brother Duvai? Is he a radical now, too?”



“Perhaps. Rinse me off and hand me a towel, if it pleases you.” I emptied the other two pitchers over him and offered to dry him off, but he shook his head and took the faded pagne. “Start that, and we’ll never leave. Anyway, I’m not as concerned for myself.”



“You should be!” I folded his dirtied work clothes to be washed later.



“I’m simply too valuable to him alive and as an ally. I have to play that drum. But as long as the general believes you’re going to have something to do with his death, he’s a danger to you.”



“No. I truly believe he truly believes in his destiny. So as long as I’m alive, he’s alive.”



He tied a well-worn pagne around his hips. “Whatever he believes, he’s trying to intimidate you. He will use us against each other to get our cooperation. To me he’ll say: Ally with me, and I’ll spare her life and free your village. To you: Hand him over, or I’ll kill him.”



Outside, he paused in the sun to brush drops of water from his hair. He looked very fetching, and certainly the glance he aimed at me, to see if I was admiring him, fetched me close. I pressed my face into his neck, his skin moist against my lips. The scent of ash clung to him, odd to smell on a cold mage.



“Keep the ice lenses hidden, but take the cold steel in openly, Vai. He’ll respect that. And he won’t know your cold magic makes my sword bloom in daylight.”



“Yes. They’ll be watching my sword, not one that appears to them a cane.”



I rested my hands on his chest and looked up into his face. “The general will have crossbows as well as rifles. That’s what scares me.”



He had a smile that was just for me, intimate and inviting. “You’ll have to watch my back. Like you were doing in the washroom just now.”



Then after all we had to kiss, a slow sweet morning greeting. Obviously the bliss of love deafened me, because when a twig snapped, I was just as startled as he was.



“Kofi!” He grinned with the laughing smile I had often seen on his face at Aunty’s when he was with his friends. He looked so relaxed and appealing I could scarcely breathe for being dazzled.



Stepping away, I gripped the top of my pagne. Fortunately it covered the important bits.



“Yee look like a village man now, Vai. Suits yee.” Kofi walked forward to clasp hands with Vai in the radical manner, after which they slapped each other on the shoulder in a manly way. “Or something have suited yee, that is for certain. Peace of the morning to yee, Cat.” His grin was just too wicked to endure.



“I’ll just go get dressed,” I said in a choked voice, and I fled to the room.



“Tamed her, have yee?” Kofi said in a jocular tone that made my ears burn.



“Tamed her? Why would you want to tame a woman who defied the mansa with only her wits and her determination to live?”



“Yee have it bad. I only mean, usually she is quick to scratch. Instead she ran off.”