Peace. Peace for both of them in the after realm.
Peace in Stellara.
With its haunted whispers and phantom touches. Where the wispy curtain between the realms was thin.
I pushed up from the floor, my legs numb and prickly as I gently laid my father’s cloak on the back of the chair, and hobbled over to the damp pile of wood in the corner. I snatched the blackened logs, disrupting them from their place, leaving a darkened outline of muck and mildew in their wake.
It took eight trips to remove all the logs from the cottage. They lay in a strewn pile on the edge of the forest clearing, and my hands and arms and clothes were covered in grime at the end of it.
The moon was sliding over Stellara. It would be midnight soon.
But I was just getting started.
CHAPTER11
KYTHEL
“Itwhat?” I asked quietly, staring at Vadyn.
“The South Road was attacked by raiders,” my head keeper repeated, ever patient, though his expression was grim. “Kaldur just sent a message through the main Com line. He’s detouring there now on his way back to Vyaan.”
My nostrils flared. I raked a hand through my hair and then stood from my chair.
“He’s handling it, Kythel,” Vadyn added. “It happened on his side of the border. It’s not your responsibility.”
“What was taken?” I asked quietly, going to the window and staring out over Stellara. The moon was sliding across the sky. It was late. How long had I been cooped up in my keep? The last I remembered…I had taken my morning meal.
My wing joints felt stiff, my back aching.
“Credits, mostly,” he said. “The workers were robbed of anything valuable. They took some tools, all the rations and blood stores. They couldn’t take the stone. Too heavy.”
“Alert Dulan,” I decided, turning to face my head keeper. Dulan was the keeper of the soldiers and guards stationed in Erzos, who oversaw their assignments, patrols, and training. “Tell him I want fifty soldiers sent down there in the morning. We’ll get a rotation going until the road is complete. We can’t afford any more interruptions. The workers will feel safer with soldiers at their backs. At the very least, it will keep raiders away.”
“I will,” Vadyn said. “Kaldur…”
“I’ll Com him later tonight,” I assured. Then, noticing he was hesitating, I asked, “What else?”
“Kaan of House Arada,” he began, and immediately my shoulders tightened, “would like to meet with you. He sent a messenger earlier this afternoon.”
My lips pressed. Kaan was Lyris’s father.
“About?” I asked.
“He didn’t say.”
“Decline it,” I told him.
Vadyn sighed. “Is that wise?”
I leveled him a sharp look. “I’ll be seeing him in six days for the moon winds celebration regardless. Anything he’d like to discuss can be discussed then.”
“Likely, he doesn’t want to discuss business at a feast.”
“Business,” I repeated softly. More likely, it was that Hanno was in his ear, telling Kaan he needed a contract with me for Lyris’s hand andsoon. I’d made no such promises to House Arada. Hints, perhaps. But nothing written indravablack metal and blood. “My mind is made up. Tell him no.”
“Yes,Kyzaire,” Vadyn said before he left my office, sealing me shut inside again. He was displeased.
One more thing,I thought, tired. Restless. I slumped back down to my desk, scrubbing my hand over my throbbing eyes.
