lada-dragwlya

Did you do this?___here are other ways to beat someone than with fists._ Radu poked her in the side with a finger.She surprised him by laughing. He stood up straighter, a proud grin at having surprised and delighted Lada bursting across his face. She never laughed unless she was laughing at him. He had done something right!Then the lashings began.Radu__ smile wilted and died. He looked away. He was safe now. And Lada was proud of him, which had never happened before. He focused on that to ignore the sick feelings twisting his stomach as Aron and Andrei cried out in pain. He wanted his nurse__anted her to hold and comfort him__nd this, too, made him feel ashamed.Lada watched the whip with a calculating look. __till,_ she said. __ists are faster.

What is wrong with you?_ Radu sounded on the verge of tears. __hy do you have to destroy everything good we have here?___ecause,_ Lada said, voice flat with the sudden wave of exhaustion pulling her heavily to the ground. __e have nothing. Can you not see that?___e have Mehmed!__ada looked up. The stars were static, still and cold in the night, all the fire gone from the sky. __t is not enough,_ she said.

A brother,_ she said, her voice soft.The baby started to cry, a weak, garbled sound that worried the nurse. Lada__ scowl deepened. She slapped a dimpled hand over his mouth. The nurse pulled him away quickly, and Lada looked up, face contorted in rage.__ine!_ she shouted.It was her first word.The nurse laughed, shocked, and lowered the baby once more. Lada glared at him until he stopped crying. Then, apparently satisfied, she toddled out of the room.

She swung her fist at Nicolae__ head. He raised an arm to block the blow, and she delivered a killing stab with her wooden dagger.Nicolae laughed, staggering dramatically to the ground. __ead, again, at the hands of the ugliest girl in creation._ He stuck out his tongue, face contorted in a grimace.Lada kicked him in the stomach. __ am no girl. Who is next?__he other Janissaries, gathered in a loose circle around Lada and Nicolae, shuffled their feet and avoided eye contact. Nicolae pushed himself up on an elbow. __eally? Cowards!___ still have bruises from the last time.___ cannot sit without pain.___he fights dirty.__van did not even respond, having never forgiven Lada for besting him when they were introduced. He refused to fight her and rarely acknowledged her presence.Lada laughed, showing all her sharp teeth. __ecause when you are on the battlefield, honor will mean so much. You will die with a blade between your ribs, secure in the knowledge that you fought with manners._ She picked up her dull practice sword, abandoned on the edge of the circle, and swung it through the air, sweeping it across the line of the Janissaries_ collective throats.

None of them are real to me._ He paused again, placing a hand flat against the door. __ou are the only real thing in my life.__adu gasped with the sheer physical pain the words sent through him. But the sound of his agony was covered by that of the door opening. Mehmed reached in and pulled Lada out to him, and then his mouth was on hers and his hands were in her hair and he was holding her so tightly, so tightly, and they stumbled back into Lada__ room and closed the door.Radu tripped forward, feet dragging, until he stood outside the room. He wanted to be inside it. He wanted to be the only real thing to Mehmed, just as Mehmed was the only real thing to him.He wanted__o, please, no.Yes.He wanted Mehmed to look at him the way he had looked at Lada.He wanted Mehmed to kiss him the way he had kissed Lada.He wanted to be Lada.No, he did not. He wanted to be himself, and he wanted Mehmed to love him for being himself. His question, the question of Mehmed, was finally answered, piercing him and leaving him shaking, silent, on the floor.He did not want this answer.