The Claimed: A Clash of Copper and Gold

Chapter 27: Trust

The sun had barely crested the horizon when I left my lodgings the next morning, but the village already hummed with activity, underscoring a boisterous fugue of birds. The representatives from Busk, Bund, and Kulas prepared to leave in a few hours, and the rest of us would leave the next morning.

We had miraculously managed to devise a plan which met the approval of all parties present, yet my mind refused to stop poring over the details, searching for some unforeseen downfall. Apprehension simmered in my gut like the moment before I had pushed Niako into the lagoon.

I didn't know you couldn't swim.

I decided to burn through my anxiety by sword fighting. Swords thwacked and feet scuffled as I approached the pit, but the sounds cut off when I drew near enough to see over the ridge of the pit. Then Trebalda slid her sword back into the rack, strode toward me, and swung up over the top of the ridge. Sunlight reflected off the sweat trickling down her face and neck.

"Good morning, Toom. We were just finishing, but perhaps Lan can stay to give you some competition."

I glanced behind Trebalda to Lan, the guard who had hauled Niako back to the tribe. Dark patches of sweat dappled the tunic clinging to his broad chest, and blonde hair plastered his scalp, contrasting his coarse red beard. I thought for a moment that he looked a bit like Stro, but then I forced the association out of my mind.

Lan tilted his head once to each side in an ambiguous gesture of consent, and I took one step toward the ridge. Then a voice from behind stopped me.

"I'll fight Toom."

I turned back to see Niako sauntering toward us with almost inhuman grace. He held his chin high, and a taunting smile teased the corners of his lips. It was the smile of someone indifferent and unscathed — someone who could watch the world's brutality and laugh. And perhaps that part of him truly existed.

But I knew another part.

"I can't fight you," I said. "You are injured."

"All the more reason for me to practice with a wooden sword before I hold a metal one."

 Trebalda's gaze flicked from me to Niako and back. "I suggested he stay behind, Toom, but he is quite insistent."

I shook my head. "You are Chief, and you will be Queen. Just forbid him from coming."

"Niako is an adult. I won't tell him what he can and can't do."

A lump swelled in my throat, and my words tasted bitter. "You wouldn't tell him what to do when he was a child, either. And how did that turn out?"

Niako took one step toward me. "Back down, Toom. That is not your concern."

"But... but you..." My voice died, and I averted my eyes to the pit, but even as I watched Lan idly flip his sword around, my mind conjured the image of Niako's rigid back, and then his glistening cheeks.

But you are.

You are my concern.

When I forced myself to meet his gaze again, a peculiar blend of confusion, fear, and tentative warmth played in his eyes. He dipped his head in a slow nod.

"Alright, I'll make you a deal... if you can beat me in a sword fight, I'll stay behind."

I hesitated. Though the arrangement could prove my only chance of persuading Niako to stay, I wasn't sure I possessed the finesse to avoid hurting him in the process. But when my mind flitted to our fight a week prior, ending with a dagger at his throat, panic splashed over me. A single jerk of my arm could have ended his life. I did not want someone else threatening Niako — someone who would not hesitate to make that fatal slice.