War?
His aunt’s death?
His brother had married a human? I hadn’t heard that. Then again, I wondered which brother. His twin?
I felt discomfort settle, knowing I was eavesdropping, and so I slipped from the shop without another moment of curious hesitation. I tucked the two bottles ofbaanyeinto my pants, hitching my pack higher onto my shoulder, filled with food I’d purchased from the market. I wondered about Setlan, who he was and if he’d found my father. If he was on his way here, even now. Kythel had promised he would have updates for me, but when would I see him next?
Not tonight obviously,I thought. I’d forgotten about the moon winds, but there had been a familiar, energetic buzz in the market, hadn’t there? I just hadn’t connected the dots.
Kythel might be engaged to Lyris of House Arada by tonight.
I wondered what that would mean. For us. If I could allow the feedings to continue, knowing what I knew.
It doesn’t matter,I thought, steeling my shoulders, and I walked down the cobbled road.We made an agreement. He has me until the next moon winds.
Then he would likely be married.
Down the road, I caught a maroon flash at the entrance of RaanaDyaan.
My heart stilled when I saw Lesana, accepting an order from a delivery for the kitchens from a lanky Kylorr with a torn wing. Across the courtyard, her eyes narrowed on me. My cheek still felt tender from her slap. This morning, there had been a faint blue mark from the decorative metal band around her middle finger.
Breaking her gaze, I slipped into Stellara, heading south. Only when I couldn’t see the road anymore did I feel like I could breathe again.
* * *
I’d always enjoyedthe moon winds on Krynn. I loved the bright moonlight, the way it cast everything a blue-tinged silver, and the ferocity of the winds, so wild and violent that you could scream into them and it would get carried away, unheard by anyone.
The Kylorr felt pulled, lured by the moon winds, something a human like me couldn’t understand. My father had described it as a freeing experience. He said that it was when a Kylorr was most likely to be on the edge of a rage, while at the same time having the most control over it. I could never quite understand the duality, and it was one of the few times in my life where I felt completely disconnected from my father.
But tonight…
Tonight was the first moon winds I’d spent at the cottage. And I could admit that I was frightened.
The trees of Stellara funneled the winds toward the cottage, which broke into the clearing like a violent wave in the sea, crashing against the front and back and sides of the house until I feared it would blow down completely. The windows rattled. A crack had appeared in the glass of one, and I just prayed that it lasted through the night, or else the interior would be a complete disaster come morning.
The cottage creaked and groaned. The front door rattled as if some restless spirit was trying to force its way inside. The draft coming from down the stairs kept blowing out the fire I’d created in the hearth.
Not only that but I kept feeling the icy touches of souls all around me. I was beginning to feel claustrophobic, and I jumped, gritting my teeth, when I felt something pass through me, scraping against my bones and making me shiver.
I need morezylarrs,I thought. Kythel had been right. The moon winds were a night where the veil between the realms was at its thinnest, but I’d never experienced this much activity from Alara or Zyos at once.
All the more…I kept remembering that Kythel was with Lyris this night. Possibly making plans with his future bride. His perfect, beautiful, noble future bride.
I wasn’t used to being alone, I realized. Even when my father had been working, I’d always been surrounded by others. In the homes we’d lived in, in the villages, on the space ports. Being alone made me feel restless, afraid.
A pounding came at the door. At first I thought it was the wind jostling the wood in the frame again, but then it never stopped.
“Millie,” came the growl. “Open the door.”
Relief pulsed through me, and I pushed up from my crouched position next to the hearth. I’d been working on patching a hole in the thick blanket I’d purchased from the junk vendor at the market, but my hands had started shaking too much and I’d kept pricking myself with the needle with every window rattle. I still needed to re-stuff the mattress upstairs regardless, so I would sleep on the floor of the kitchen again, where it was warmest.
Fumbling with the bolted lock, I slid it open, and then Kythel was pushing inside like the gust of wind behind him. He slammed the door closed again, but before he could say a single word, I was pressing against him.
I wanted to be touched. I hated this weakness in myself, but right then, I didn’t care. I didn’t want to be alone and afraid in a moon-wind storm, and Kythel washere. He was here when he was supposed to be with Lyris. That must’ve meant something.
Or maybe I was just desperate enough to want it to mean something.
“You’re shaking,sasiral,” came his gravelly voice, one of his warm palms spreading against my lower back, the other gripping my hip. “Are you cold again?”
