“So Maazin was as much of a mystery in Erzos as he was in Laras,” I said quietly, meeting my two brothers’ gazes.
“What is it that you hope to find, Kythel?” Kaldur asked, piercing me with those silver eyes. Mother had always said looking into them was like looking into a mirror. Or azylarr. His eyes reflected souls back. “He was one male.”
“He was a spy,” I said, my tone clipped. “Not just a male. AThrykimale. Sent from across the seas to the Kaalium. To…what? To create division between the Kaazor and us?”
War was coming.
We were in a time of peace, but already fractures were fissuring through it like broken glass.
It could’ve been years away, but I knew deep in my bones that war was coming to the Kaalium. Again. And we needed to start preparing. The Dyaar were ruthless barbarians from across the sea. The Thykri were no better, though they were more cunning. Would the Koro ally with us? Would the Kaazor to the north?
Zyrehas no reason to come to our aid,I thought. My twin brother, Azur, wasn’t worried. He wasn’t worried about the Kaalium standing on our own. We had the best armies on Krynn, after all. Legions of soldiers. But if all the other nations turned against us, it wouldn’t matter how well-trained our soldiers were, we would be outnumbered four to one.
Many Kylorr would die. On all sides.
“Have you considered it possible that Maazin was working alone?” Thaine asked quietly. “He was close with Gemma. He didn’t seem violent to her. All we can say for certain was that he was stealing shipments ofloreand trying to blame the thefts on the Kaazor. That’s hardly a cry from across the seas for war. Maybe it was just greed.”
Gemma was Azur’s wife. He’d married her under…less than ideal circumstances. But now the two were so besotted with one another that it was nearly sickening. She’d trusted Maazin, until she discovered what he’d been doing with theloreaccounts.
“Then why did Zyre find him and kill him in the North? Why did Maazin try to flee to the very people he was trying to frame?” Kaldur asked.
“I need to meet with Zyre.”
The words left my lips like heavy, falling stones. But the truth of them was becoming more and more apparent to me.
Zyre was the leader of the Kaazor. Their king, who’d taken over rule from his father after his death. It was no secret that our relationship was strained, hanging by a thread. The merest flinch could sever that tentative peace completely, and I had worried that Maazin’s death had done just that.
“Weallshould meet with him,” Thaine argued. “Not just you alone. You don’t have to take on the weight and burden for the entire family now that Azur is…occupied.”
Occupied? He was married. He’d married the daughter of the human male who’d killed Aina. Our beloved aunt. My mother’s twin sister. Her death had fractured my family beyond repair.
Azur had married for revenge…until he’d fallen in love with our enemy’s daughter. And truly, I was happy for my brother. He deserved the peace she brought him.
I took a long, long drink from my goblet. The last few months had been difficult. I felt both stretched out so long I couldn’t see where I ended and curled so tight into myself that I wondered if I could disappear.
Nothingwould shake that sensation. Not blood. Not drink. Notlore.
Perhaps a female, then,I thought idly. The last thing I hadn’t tried.
Thaine and Kaldur exchanged a look, one that sparked my irritation.
“What?” I growled softly.
Kaldur’s tone was carefully nonchalant when he asked, “Is it true? About Lyris of House Arada?”
I cut him a sharp look, narrowing my gaze on him. “What did you hear?”
I had only told Vadyn, my head keeper, what I’d decided because I’d had him manage all correspondence between House Arada and myself. Just this morning he’d informed me that I was invited to their House for the moon winds celebration.
“Raazos’s blood, Kythel. You would keep this from us?” Thaine asked quietly. “We’re your brothers.”
“Don’t take it personally. I haven’t even told Azur,” I murmured, not missing the hurt that flashed over Thaine’s feature. I added, “You know I don’t mean it like that.”
“We all know Azur is your favorite,” Kaldur said, a sly smirk on his face, but it felt slightly cutting.
This conversation again.
“Actually, Kalia is my favorite,” I argued, glaring at all of them. “Because at least she answers my Coms. Azur doesn’t even do that these days, much less you two.”
