Kai’s stomach twisted, and to her surprise, it had less to do with the desire to shelter Fala from this male. She wanted to be as at ease within their triad as they seemed.
Second Daughter, Sitsi, plunked down beside her and peered around to watch Atsadi and Fala whisper.
“How’s that going?” Sitsi asked quietly.
“I’ll tell you after you tell me how things are with Niabi White Spirit. Does Mother know you’re sleeping together?”
Sitsi’s round eyes narrowed to slits. “You see too much.”
“Your secret is safe.”
“She and I are having fun. At least we were until an hour ago.” Sitsi pulled her long braid forward and twisted the end around her hand. “Shethinks you chose her for the Stormguard Legion forme. She won’t even look at me now.”
Kai snorted. “You know better, I hope. I love you, but whose thighs you spread mean nothing to me.”
“Talk to her for me?”
Kai squeezed Sitsi’s knee. “I will.”
Sitsi’s face lit with a smile. “Thank you, sister.”
Sitsi bounded off the lip of the step and entered the throng of their immediate family, where she stole their eldest niece from Doli’s arms. Tse spun his second wife around and into his arms, causing her to burst into surprised laughter. They kissed, and Kai’s heart exploded with warmth. After all these years, they continued to love each other. To be so blessed?—
The prickles of attention rose to Kai’s skin.
Atsadi and Fala, hands clasped atop his thigh, smiled at her.
“What?” Kai asked, shifting her weight from one numb buttcheek to the other.
“Nothing,” Fala said with a shrug. “We were just admiring your lovely smile.”
The clan matriarchs rose to the dais, saving Kai from a response, and silence unrolled through the hall. Near the roaring fire, the music ended, and the females lowered their instruments.
Shadi caught Kai’s eye as she sat in the center, her chest rising with a deep breath. “Quiet, please,” she said, her voice carried by the room’s natural acoustics.
“Honored clans,” Shadi went on once the hall quieted, “we, your matriarchs, wish to address the unrest stirring within our sacred mountain. We would offer you wisdom and guidance, as we have for generations, before these words of dissent divide us and all that we have built.”
“I agree we need wisdom,” a male shouted into the hall. His words came down like a blade. “But how can you do that when it was you who put us in this predicament?”
Whispers tore, wild, through the cavern.
The male rose from his place within Rising Moon’s clan—the same male Atsadi had been speaking to before they walked in.
Atsadi stiffened.
“Who is he?” Kai asked.
“Usti Rising Moon,” he whispered. “First Son of Inola Rising Moon.”
Rising Moon’s matriarch.
“While you sit at the head of your council,” Usti went on, “a right our foremothers passed on by blood, what actions are you taking to protect us from starving?”
“Usti.” Inola gripped the arms of her chair and leaned toward him, spitting her words. “Is it you stirring this fear and distrust?”
“I speak the truth that you and the others would hide.” His smile didn’t reach his eyes. “Tell the clans how I lie. Better yet, you should have that honor, Misae White Spirit.”
The White Spirit matriarch sat with her back stiff, chin high. “You do not command me, Usti Rising Moon.”
