The Broken Crown

Chapter 41

Asha

 Asha watched from a distance as Anaïs and the strange man who went by no name except for shadow walked together. He was carrying lodges of firewood and she had just returned from collecting medical herbs for Talia. They walked closely together, Anaïs smiling almost reminiscently. Asha found it strange that the man had not yet left. He had not seemed very eager to stay. Apparently, Anaïs was in a habit of making men change their minds.

 Asha remembered returning to the Yaguars. The Kahari – her father – had never favoured one woman for a long time. Yet Anaïs had still been the first thing on his mind two years after having brought her south. And now him – the shadow.

 It was strange, because Anaïs was not very good at making friends, especially amongst the women. She kept to herself most of the time, only speaking to Talia and a young woman by the name of Jhakari from time to time. The men, however, were more than willing to stop her in her duties just to speak a few words to her.

 Even Equem, it seemed. She watched as he stopped momentarily, saying a few words to the young, dark-haired woman before smiling when she replied. Then he nodded and looked to Asha. First, she thought it was something that Anaïs had said that caused him to look to her, but then Anaïs was walking away and he was heading to her.

 “Kahari,” he said, and she was reminded of her duties. She was also reminded of how frequently she failed to live up to them. He, of all people, knew how often she failed, and she winced at the memory of her first, big failure. The one he had witnessed.

 This was why she had attempted to avoid him as much as she could this past year since she became Kahari. She forced away the memory and nodded. “Yes?”

 “I thought we might go hunting,” he suggested. They used to do that, before the Yaguars were called north and she decided to stay. Back then, however, she had been nothing but a child, not yet Kahari, and he had been her trainer.

 She pursed her lips, embarrassed that he thought she still needed training. “I can go on my own,” she told him.

 “But we’re hunting partners,” he objected with a small smile.

 That was what he had called them when she was a child for him to lecture. “I’m not a child anymore, Equem. I don’t need training.”

 He sighed. “You’re eleven summers old,” he reminded her. “And you have been gone for more than two years. Even if you were a grown woman, you would be needing some help.”

 “I’m not a grown woman,” she said. “I’m the Kahari.”

 Equem looked around him impatiently, checking to see if anyone were nearby. “Is this about the jaguar? The one I killed years ago?”

 “Of course it isn’t,” she hissed, lying through her teeth. He could not know that was the reason for her anger, or he would think her even more of a child.

 “Good,” he said. “Because anyone would have needed help in that situation, even your father. And I could tell you weren’t going to even try to kill that cat.”

 She furrowed. “Of course I was.”

 He smiled wryly, and she felt, once more, like a child. “You’ve always loved the jaguars, and I could tell you would not have harmed that one for the world.”

 “There was no need,” she muttered. She could still remember its molten gold eyes, its penetrating stare. She knew it could tell that she was not a threat, that they were the same. “It wouldn’t have attacked me.”