Kai lit her lantern, providing a beacon to where she sat cross-legged in the section usually full of Silver Wolf families.
Atsadi lowered to her side, and the air filled with a familiar scent she normally associated with Fala. A healing salve with hints of sage.
“Are you hurt?” she asked.
“Why do you ask?”
“You smell of healing herbs.”
His mouth hinted at a smile. “Only tired and sore muscles. How are you? How’s Fala?”
Kai wished suddenly that the central fire pit was lit. There wasn’t much to focus on in the dark other than him, and he was the last thing she wanted to look at.
“How long do you intend to punish me?” he asked.
“Who said we were doing that?”
“We? Fala stays away from me all on her own? I thought?—”
“You believe I have that much control?” A dark laugh sprang from her chest. “She has more sway over my actions than I do over hers.”
Silence pulled taut between them until he finally broke it. “I wish I knew what I’ve done wrong.”
“We saw you.” She’d thought of little else in the weeks since the clan meeting. Dozens of men had stood in this very room and called for new leadership—maleleadership—but it was Atsadi her mind always went back to. “You and Usti Rising Moon are friends?”
Atsadi twisted to face her. “Is that what this is about?”
Kai started to respond?—
His tattoo had changed. What had been a mere thought before the clan meeting, a promise of what it could be, was fully realized. A pair of mountain peaks filled his chest, one to represent each of his wives. One was sharp, rugged, and fierce. The other was smooth and round. The river flowing between them was more than a connection, but a representation of life and sustainability.
“You added stars,” she said of the two above the mountain peaks. “You never said there’d be stars.”
He looked down, then nodded. “Stars symbolize an eternal connection and hope. Guidance.”
Much of the tattoo was in black and gray, but subtle colors had been added in places. Blue for the river and yellow for the stars.
For a breath, she forgot to be angry. She forgot the betrayal and unease. He’d carved into his skin for them—something permanent, while everything else around them shifted.
“It’s beautiful,” Kai said.
Atsadi smiled. “You know?—”
The distant echo of chaotic voices reached them, and Kai burst to herfeet, hand on the pommel of her sword. Atsadi angled his body before her as if prepared to face an incoming battle.
The shouts and cries mingled with calmer, questioning voices, and soon, the outer corridor filled with more firelight.
Kai released her sword. “Douse the lantern.”
As Atsadi plunged them into darkness, several matriarchs burst into the room like a storm, and a wave of torchlight and shouts crashed through the darkness. Behind them, came females drenched with water and smudged with oil. The two stacked diamonds on their foreheads indicated that these were Shadow Water females—they oversaw the maintenance and operations of the mountain’s pumps and aqueducts, among many other things.
“Shut the doors,” Shadi ordered, then threw a torch into the central fire pit, where a flame ignited a moment later.
“The system is failing,” one of the females cried. “What are we going to do?”
“Did anyone witness the attack?” the matriarch of Second Clan asked.
A stunned-looking Shadow Water female shook her head.
