"What're you doing?" I asked.
"Assessing what he has done to you." He tossed the bandages into the fire and studied the inside of my forearm.
I didn't want to look. Images of them sawing off my arm after I contracted gangrene from the poor sanitary environment flashed through my head.
"They are not deep," he said and lifted my arm.
I winced and peered at it. Stripes three inches long marred my arm every inch or so. The cut in the palm appeared the deepest and angriest.
Okay, so I'll only have my hand sawed off. The thought made my breath catch. I tugged my hand away and stepped back.
Batu snatched it back.
"I don't want to assess the damage!" I told him.
"It must be done, if I am to request permission for punishment."
"What're you talking about?"
He eyed me and took my other wrist, unwrapping the bandages. "The punishment for hurting or stealing or other crimes against another in the Empire is nine times the crime. You are given special protections. To punish a man of my uncle's standing, I must know exactly what to request."
"So you're going to ask for permission to knife him?" I asked.
"Yes."
"You killed forty people without permission!"
"They were not Mongol."
The simple logic rendered me speechless. It never occurred to me they had rules in a society such as this or that, having rules, they'd follow them.
He glanced at me, and there was a sparkle in his dark eyes. He found me funny. Or maybe he laughed at everything. I didn't know him well enough to know. I wanted to think being so close to a barbarian like him was causing my stomach to churn but … meeting his gaze, I began to think there was some other reason I was distracted by his scent and low, gravelly voice.
Aware of his long look, I kept my gaze on my arm.
It's not possible for me to like someone like this. I had seen him lop off ears and heads with no more concern than someone peeling bananas. This world … it could never become mine. What if I don't have a choice?
The reminder that I had no way home, no way to communicate with someone who could help me, rattled me.
"You were going to swim with no clothes but a crown," he observed.
"I like the crown."
"It suits you." He flicked the pearl on my forehead with a forefinger. "Every goddess should wear a crown."
"I'm not a goddess, but I'm keeping the crown after all this."
"You speak your mind freely."