“You’ll frighten our female if you remain like this.”You’ll frighten me.
Quist’s eyes lightened some and the points of his feathers relaxed but his countenance remained. “I don’t want to but I won’t leave her side.”
“Does that mean you’re staying in the city?”
“Unless she leaves, yes. I’m staying. I promised her no harm while she is within my sight.”
“And yet, she’s not in it now,” Galan said, glancing at the way Sundamar had gone with her. Already, he was being pulled in her direction. His stomach knotted and he took a step toward her before he remembered his brother.
“I don’t know what to do, Galan.” Quist’s voice held a plea.
“About Lusheenn or about Yahiro?”
“Both!” His brother rose and his wings arched out, tense again and scrapping the stone floor. The sound of a hundred tiny screeches filled his ears. “He’s here!”
Galan’s jaw ticked.
“Even if you don’t believe me, he’s here and I want him nowhere near her!”
He approached Quist and placed his hand on his shoulder. “Let’s go to bed, brother. She’ll be safe between our bodies, and once we’re back on the trail and following Sonhadra’s endless dawn, we’ll figure out a plan.”
Their images mirrored in each other’s eyes. Galan squeezed Quist’s shoulder and took his hand back, not liking what the younger valos was making him feel.
Afraid. Quist made him feel afraid.
***
LATER THAT NIGHT, AFTERQuist and Sundamar had fallen asleep upon the pillowed aviary above the throne on either side of Yahiro, Galan paced back and forth. The paper image of Yahiro was bunched up in his hand.
He’d stare at her, sleeping, like a wilted flower, so beautiful it made him hurt, and then he would remember the picture of her, half-destroyed by the horrors of her life. Galan would go from her present to her past feeling at a loss for what he should do.
Maybe if Lusheenn is back...It could be a blessing. His eyes narrowed on the bright stone resting on her chest.I don’t feel him.He looked back down at her picture.
She wasn’t a valos. He knew a lot more about her than his brothers did and knew that she could be killed in a thousand more ways than they could. He hadn’t thought about it, not until Quist had approached him, but he did now.
The rapidly fraying picture of her crinkled further in his fist. The molo took another giant step toward the world-path.
“Everything will be better come dawn.” Galan forced himself to take his own advice and steeled his resolve. With one final look at the picture, he chucked it over the side and watched until it was lost in the night.
