East Read online

  “Is that bad?” I asked.

  “It will heal quickly.”

  “No, I mean, is it bad I speak freely?”

  “As long as you know to hold your tongue when it is wise.”

  “Like dealing with your uncle.”

  “Yes.”

  “And when talking to you?”

  “You amuse me, goddess,” he said with a faint smile. “You are honest like a horse and delicate like a flower. It is a good combination.”

  I didn’t know how to respond. I’d never thought twice about a horse’s honesty. But I imagined animals didn’t hide things the way people did. He was right about me; I was candid, outgoing and open, for the most part. I liked adventures, or did, until Carter.

  He was probing my elbow with his thumbs before sliding his hand to my upper arm to check for wounds. The lightness of his touch was in stark contrast to how he handled his enemies. I didn’t yet know how such brutality and gentleness existed in one person or how to handle his closeness.

  I shouldn’t … I couldn’t be attracted to him. I’d barely lost Taylor. It wasn’t possible for me to start to like anyone let alone a massacring monster.

  He released my wrist and slid a hand around my neck, nudging my chin up into the air so he could see the damage the choker and leash had done.

  I flinched when his thumb brushed one side of my neck, the side opposite that which Chaghan had been standing when he yanked me the hardest. The pain wasn’t the only sensation I was aware of. Batu was standing close enough for me to feel the heat rolling off his thick form while his touch was light enough to be a caress.

  “Very well,” Batu said and stepped away. “I see no more blood. Any pain elsewhere?”

  I was about to ask if he had x-ray vision to see through my clothing when I glanced down and realized the layer of white silk I wore was completely sheer. I started to laugh, a little embarrassed but more amused than anything.

  “No pain,” I said. “Sorry about …” I waved to my body and bent down to grab one of the heavier layers from the pile.

  “Dressed as such, you can speak to any man any way you please, Moonbeam,” he said.

  I shot him a warning look, and he smiled.

  There was something about Batu I kind of liked. More than I should have. The sense of familiarity I experienced with Carter and Taylor wasn’t there, but neither was the threat of danger. I wondered again if part of my empathic memory chip remained active, because I should’ve feared Batu after the show he gave at the castle.

  But I didn’t.

  “Is Flowers … Monkey safe?” I asked.

  “She is. She is close.”

  “Close enough I can see her?”

  “In time.” Laid back and allegedly a sworn guardian, he was also not about to trust me with the location of the girl he thought was keeping me here.

  What a weird dynamic. To be nice and smiley – but secretly distrusting and occasional of unspeakable brutality. I didn’t know his intentions or even if what he said about being my protector was true. I gazed at him, concerned I was starting to rely on someone I shouldn’t.

  Again. Like John, Nell, Carter and even Taylor. I was too trusting when I left for my first adventure. At least now I was questioning whom I chose to trust.

  “What concerns you, Moonbeam?” Batu asked. He was rifling through a pouch on the table near his bed. Retrieving bandages, he returned and knelt beside me.

  “I’m not concerned.”

  “You are a poor liar.” He sat back on his heels, eyes on my face.

  Ugh. I had grown some during my time in the Old West, but I hadn’t yet mastered the ability to mask my true feelings. “I don’t belong here, which shouldn’t surprise you,” I replied.

  Batu slowly began wrapping my arms with bandages once more. “You left once before, many years ago, after blessing my grandfather,” he stated. “Why have you not returned to the sky if you feared my uncle?”

  “It’s complicated,” I murmured. “And your uncle destroyed my ability to leave.”

  “How?”

  “I had a … tool. It let me do things that might have helped me leave. He destroyed it.”

  “This is good.”

  I looked at him, startled.

  “The Eternal Blue Sky sent you to us. You are meant to be here,” he reasoned.

  “But …” How to explain to him I was from the future … did I even want to go down that road with someone I had no intention of connecting with? “I want to go home. I know you understand that. You want to return to your home on the steppes.”

  He paused in the wrapping of my arm to gaze at me. “I do understand.”

  I waited for more. He was pensive. His thigh was pressed to mine while his wide hand all but swallowed mine. His other hand was on my thigh in a move I took to mean he was either comfortable with no personal space or absentmindedly possessive.

  “You said you cannot return home,” he added and resumed wrapping my arm.

  “I can’t stay here.”

  “Where else would you go?”

  The question floored me, not because I hadn’t thought about it, but because it really hit me that I was homeless, lost in time. Without waiting for me to respond, Batu quickly bandaged my other arm.

  “You have no home of your own. I’ll take you to mine,” he said firmly.

  I blinked out of my stupor. “Thanks, but I do have a home,” I said.

  “You cannot return to it. I am going home, and you are coming with me.” He rose. “What other choice do you have?”

  None. It wasn’t his fault I was stranded here, but I couldn’t help begrudging him for pointing it out yet again. I almost wished he wasn’t so rational or conversational, that he had slung me over his horse and taken me somewhere without shooting so many holes in the desperate logic I was clinging to.

  He was different. I didn’t know if I liked that or not about him.

  “Remain here, goddess.” He started towards the entrance.

  “Where are you going?” I twisted, gaze settling on the wide expanse of his muscular back.

  “To inform my uncle he can be expecting censure from the Khan.”

  That’ll go over well. He left. Rather than wait for his uncle to storm the tent, I dressed in my layers of silk and slippers and dug around his belongings until I found a satchel in which I could store some items for travel. If he was lucky enough to return with his head, I didn’t think I’d be so fortunate as to leave here with mine.

  I packed the satchel with some bread, a bladder of water, the knife he gave me and sat back, satisfied I’d done well. Before I had a chance to assess my best plan for escaping, he strode through the entrance.

  I had yet to see Batu in a bad mood, despite his prison stay and slaughtering everyone in the castle. The tightness of his features made me tuck the satchel behind me in case I pissed him off even more.

  “It didn’t go well,” I assessed quietly.

  “It did not.”

  “At least you have your head and … ears,” I pointed out.

  His gaze settled on me. His face was unreadable, and the fire of anger burned in the depths of his eyes.

  “We’re not reconsidering our duty to protect the goddess are we?” I asked uneasily and stood, ready to make a run for it, however futile I knew that to be.

  “No.”

  “Oh. Why are you looking at me that way?”

  “What way, Moonbeam?”

  “Like the wolf is about to eat his lamb.”

  He snorted and shook out his shoulders before falling still once more. “My uncle has given me until twilight to turn you over to him.”

  “Ah.” I gripped the satchel more tightly. “You, uh, planning on giving me a head start to escape?”

  His attention sharpened as it went to the arm I kept behind my back. He approached and stopped within my space, reaching around me to grab the bag. “What do you do, Goddess?” he asked.

  “I figured your uncle was not going to react
well and started packing.”

  He gave me the wolf-about-to-eat-a-lamb warning look.

  “If you plan on turning me over, why would I take you with me?” I retorted at the unvoiced accusation.

  He yanked it free. “I am not turning you over, Moonbeam. You do not understand: this is my duty.” He tossed the satchel onto his bed. “We will not need much more than water and my horses.”

  “We?” I echoed. “You’re going to defy your uncle?”

  “Your gifts are yours to bestow, not his to take.”

  It shouldn’t have, but his words kind of made me feel like crap. I had the ability to heal through no logical explanation of my own and decided to run instead. Batu didn’t seem to be judging me. Not that I cared if he did … although …

  Stop it, Josie! There was no way I was going to be bled to death, no matter how almost decent the intentions of his uncle were! I hadn’t survived this long and been through what I had to let some lunatic to torture me. Unless that lunatic is Carter.

  I was a mess and needed a good cry.

  “Why not just give me a horse and tell him I escaped?” I asked. “Then you don’t have to upset him.”

  “I would rather suffer the penalty for defying my commander than let it be known I was defeated by a lamb.”

  Asshole. “I’m not a lamb or a goddess or ugly or anything else you call me,” I said. “What is the penalty for disobedience?”

  “Death.”

  “If you go with me, you’re in trouble.”

  “Only until the Khan’s closest advisors are made aware my uncle is dishonoring the Eternal Blue Sky.”

  I watched him. He gathered up his weapons and rolled them into linen before strapping them to his back. What possessions he chose to take were few: a box the size of my palm, bandages, water bladders, three tiny pouches and a few other items that all went into his pockets.

  He was serious. He was going to leave his uncle, under penalty of death, to help me escape alive. Why did it bother me? Why did I not want the massacring Mongol to die on my behalf?

  “Batu,” I said and took his arm. Turning him to face me, I frowned at him. “You don’t have to do this. You don’t have to risk your life. I’m homeless and lost, but you don’t have to be.”

  Rather than appear grateful or understanding like I expected, he gave me an odd look, as if I’d told him my favorite food was elves.

  “Do you not have duty and honor where you come from?” he asked.

  “Don’t overcomplicate this! It’s far easier just to set me free.”

  “How will you survive a world that is foreign to you, goddess?”

  “I can manage.”

  “How will you hunt? Or find water?”

  I sighed.

  “Which direction will you go?” he persisted.

  “Batuuuu!” I whined. “Why can’t you –”

  “And bandits? How will you defeat them? What if your horse runs free of you? Do you know how to catch it?”

  I groaned. I felt like I was in grade school again being lectured for texting during class.

  “How will –”

  “Stop!” I said and gripped my head. “I don’t know those things! But my point is that you shouldn’t be forced into a position where you can get hurt or killed because of some lost goddess.”

  “You have no point, ugly one.”

  I met his gaze again, ready to set him straight when I saw the twinkle in his eyes and registered the nickname he used when teasing me.

  He was teasing me. Did he take nothing serious, not even his life?

  “Your concern is misplaced,” he added.

  “Can you just say thank you? Thank you, Moonbeam, for being concerned for my life?” The moment the words left my mouth, I realized they were wrong. So wrong. I wanted no connections or personal attachments, and I’d admitted to being worried about him. Granted, he was risking everything for me, a complete stranger, out of some zealous devotion to duty. It didn’t make me any less responsible for what happened if he left with me. It did mean I was failing miserably to keep my distance.

  The same had happened in the Old West, except I was far less cognizant of becoming part of that world. I planned on fighting it tooth and nail this time, mainly because of how hurt I was from the first adventure.

  “It is an honor for a goddess to be concerned for my life,” he said and bowed his head. “Now we go.”

  He swept up saddlebags and slung them over his shoulder, then strode out of the tent.

  I wanted to kick something out of frustration. He was right; I had no sense of duty so deep, I’d leave my family and risk my life for a stranger. It wasn’t my way, but it was so entrenched in his mind, I wasn’t able to protest it.

  With a deep breath, I decided to go with it and stepped out of the tent and almost collided with him.

  “Ah, goddess.”

  I froze at the voice. I knew we weren’t going to escape the madman.

  Chapter Six

  Batu’s arm was extended to keep me behind him. His uncle stood a safe distance away, a crescent of warriors flanking him while Batu’s cousin, Khulutei, stood grimly farther behind the group.

  Batu was tense like he had been at the castle before he started his mass murder spree. His weapons were sheathed, still, which was good. He was a badass in every way, but even I didn’t want to see him take on an entire army.

  “Do you accept my challenge, Uncle?” Batu asked in a hard voice very unlike the one he used with me.

  It struck me how dangerous he was. How I managed to forget¸ or maybe block, what happened at the castle and mouth off to him left me wishing Carter had implanted a cultural sensitivity chip in my brain along with the others. I could’ve been dead a million times over at Batu’s hands. He was serious about his duty.

  “No one has defeated my champion, Batu,” his uncle said. “You are my sister’s son. I do not wish you dead.”

  “But you wish me dishonored?” Batu returned with no sign he was considering turning me over.

  I didn’t fully comprehend what they were talking about but didn’t ask. It was one of the times he mentioned where wisdom prevailed over candidness.

  “Very well,” Chaghan said with some resignation. “Are you prepared to face him?”

  “I am.”

  Chaghan studied his nephew for a long moment before his gaze slid to me. I held my breath, praying he decided to let us go after seeing the dedication of his kin.

  “Tomeid, fetch our champion. We will meet at my tent,” he said. “I trust you will come without an escort, nephew.”

  “I will,” Batu agreed.

  My heart sank.

  Chaghan and his entourage left. Khulutei remained behind.

  “What just happened?” I ventured.

  Batu faced me. “This is good.”

  “When you say that, you mean the opposite.”

  A flicker of amusement softened his features. “He has given me the chance to defeat his champion rather than condemn me to death. When I slay his warrior, we will leave, with his blessing.”

  I listened. “And if you don’t win?”

  “It will not come to that.”

  “You said the same about him being open to reason about not killing me.”

  “You are funny, ugly one.” He clasped my neck with one rough hand briefly. “I have a plan if it comes to that. You will ride east. There is a crossing point upriver and a village two days beyond. Travel light, do not stop, and remember to take four horses so you do not tire one out too much.”

  It didn’t make sense to me that he was so calm discussing what happened if he ended up dead. It was even less logical that he thought I could escape an army if he couldn’t, not to mention hunt animals or fight off brigands. Hell, I didn’t even know which horses in the herd of thousands were his.

  Twisting, he waved his cousin forward. “Khulutei will accompany you.”

  “You are wise, Batu,” Khulutei said and approached. “I’ve prepared your h
orses. Should the match not go in your favor, I’ll do what I can to help the goddess.”

  “Hang on. You’re talking about dying,” I said, staring up at Batu’s strong features.

  “Only if I fail to win,” he replied.

  “That doesn’t disturb you?”

  “Why should death disturb me, goddess?”

  He was serious. He didn’t fear death. I was unable to understand this mentality, either.

  “Ah, you fear my death,” he said with a small smile.

  “I don’t fear your death.” Hearing the words, I felt my face warm. “I mean, I don’t want you to die, especially not for my sake, but it’s not your death. It’s anyone who dies on my behalf.”

  “I am honored, Moonbeam.” He was amused again. “Come, Khulutei! I have a champion to slay.”

  The two of them started away.

  I stared after them, flustered that he thought once more I was concerned about him. I sort of was … and fighting it hard, because it made no sense. While true I didn’t want anyone anywhere ever dying for me, I also specifically didn’t want him sacrificing his life because he considered it honorable.

  It wasn’t. It was stupid to get into a fight instead of running away.

  “Do you come, Moonbeam?” he called over his shoulder.

  I followed, dreading whatever was about to happen.

  They led me back to Chaghan’s tent in the center of the army. Two neighboring tents had been moved and lines drawn in the dirt to create a space the size of a boxing ring. Warriors already bunched around the place eagerly with the commanders in fur towards the front of the crowd.

  The men parted for the three of us. I moved closer to Batu and Khulutei. One corner was designated as his. The Persian caught my eye and nodded his head. Before I could wave of make my way towards him, Batu rounded on me and took my arms. He bent until his face was even with mine.

  “Listen, Moonbeam. If this does not go in my favor, you must leave before I am dead,” he told me firmly. “Khulutei will take you somewhere safe. You cannot wait for me to be declared dead before you flee.”

  The gravity of his expression alarmed me. “Batu, I don’t like this.”

  “It is not to like or dislike, goddess. It is to survive. Do you understand this?”

  I nodded a little uncertainly. I definitely didn’t want to witness someone’s death.