#warofshallows
## War of Shallows 002: The Cracked Rock
Radiv did not move.
"Look again," Juva repeated.
"I can see it perfectly well from here."
"You are frightened."
"Of a star?"
"Of standing within my reach."
He gave her an offended look, then rose with exaggerated dignity. The tattoos covering his arms shifted as his muscles moved, black curves becoming red lines and then settling into a pattern that resembled thorned vines.
"I'm frightened of many things," he said. "Your reach is only unpleasant."
He took one step toward her.
Then, without warning, he struck Juva across the face.
The punch knocked her from the river rock. Her wooden shoes dug two trenches through the mud before she stopped. Radiv remained above her, rubbing his knuckles.
"Who is the idiot now?"
Juva stood. Slowly.
She was thirteen feet tall, broad through the shoulders, and dressed in a loose robe the colour of dry red soil. Its hood had fallen back, releasing black hair below her shoulders. Her face was round, dark and weather-burned, its fine lines bright beneath the stars. Nothing about her expression suggested injury.
Radiv's smile weakened.
"That was a question," he said.
Juva stepped onto the rock, caught him by his hair and lifted him clear of the ground.
His hair reacted before the rest of him. The green vanished. It bristled like the fur of a cornered animal and darkened to brown.
"Juva."
"Yes?"
"Before you do something unnecessary, remember that I'm the eldest child of the king."
"That's what makes it necessary."
She threw him.
Radiv struck the centre of the stone slab. The crack sounded like a tree splitting in winter. One half of the rock tilted toward the river; the other sank into the bank beneath him.
For several breaths he did not move.
Juva wiped her palm against her robe.
"Does that answer your question?"
Radiv rolled onto his back and stared at the sky. "I have several new questions."
"Keep them there."
He pushed himself upright. He was leaner than most Pilas, and almost nothing he wore came from Pila Land. His trousers were sewn from unfamiliar animal skin. His thin boots bent like cloth but could not be torn. Even his hair had been altered by the Tandens, although Radiv claimed it was an improvement rather than an admission that nature had made a mistake.
He examined the broken rock.
"You know," he said, "when you become ruler, the land will require rocks."
"We will find another."
"And brothers?"
"One has already proved excessive."
Radiv tried to maintain his outrage. A laugh escaped him instead.
Juva joined him. Soon they were both laughing beside the ruin of the place where they had intended to sit, their voices carrying over the river until birds lifted from the far reeds.
When the laughter passed, Radiv lowered himself onto the half of the rock that remained level.
"So," he said, touching the bruise rising beneath his shoulder, "tell me how many stars you can name."
Juva remained standing.
"It is not important what you name them."
"Spoken like someone who knows three."
She pointed again to North Eis.
"I asked what you see," she said, "not what it is called."