“Yes,” added Dayn, leaning down to whisper, “but they aren’t all seeking mates. Some are simply seeking a partner to warm their furs for the solstice.”
Shearah slapped him on the arm. “Stop looking so closely, Dayn. Or should I be seeking someone else to share my furs?”
His growl was instant. “I’ll blind myself, female, if it makes you happy. But I’ll gut anyone who dares to touch you at this solstice, or any other.”
He dragged her off to the side for a kiss, which urged me onward on my own. While the dancers held most everyone’s attention, I noticed that Redvyr’s was solely on me as I walked up the stone steps to the platform. He sat at the very end, which I realized was one head of the table, with an empty seat beside him, and Behrvyne sat on the opposite end.
While Behrvyne had been polite and civil, Tessa had warned me not to expect a grand welcome at the solstice gathering. She confessed to me that she had been shunned by most beast fae her first time here. It wasn’t much better her second time, either. This was the third year since she had joined the Vanglosa clan, and while she had borne a child to add to their clan numbers—something that was still rare among beast faekind—she didn’t much care to join in the celebrations.
She had told Bezaliel she wanted to stay in their tent and rest from the long journey. Bezaliel was encouraging her to come atleast for a little while as they walked away to their own tent. I’d wanted to beg off and stay with her, but I thought it would make me appear cowardly. That wasn’t how I wanted to present myself as the future wife of the beast lord of Vanglosa.
So I mustered my courage and sauntered across the platform. I felt eyes on me, which I expected. Redvyr had already announced clearly to Behrvyne and a group of his warriors that I was his mate, and I was an outsider. Not only was I a light fae, but I was skald fae—the race who lived farthest from them. I imagined that most of those here had never seen a skald fae, much less have one join them at their table.
Redvyr stood as I approached, my heart pounding fiercely by the time I reached him. Bezaliel was in the seat on my other side, thank the gods. He stood as well to greet me. I exhaled a sigh of relief as I settled, smiling at Tessa with Saralyn sleeping in the sling crossing her chest. It seemed Bezaliel had convinced her to come to the feast anyway.
The beast fae male across from me drank from a giant goblet that appeared to be made of black glass, a flower carved at its center. He stared at me keenly.
“Won’t you introduce us, Redvyr?”
“Aye.” He reached under the table and squeezed my hand, offering some comfort. “This is my mate, Jessamine Glenmyr.” He gestured with his free hand to the lord staring me down. “Jessamine, this is Walgar. Lord of the Stol clan. They keep along the Bluevale River to the east.”
“Hello, Lord Walgar.”
If he was surprised that I addressed him as lord, he didn’t show it. While this lord was equal in size to the biggest of their kind, only two horns curled out of his head rather than four. They also curled lower over his skull. Gray streaked his hair, hanging loose to his shoulders, except for several thin braids at the front that fell along his temples. His eyes were a piercingorange, runes cascading from his forehead down along his jaw and the sides of his throat.
He may have only two horns, but he obviously had proven himself to the gods with so much rune-sign.
“You are the daughter of a king of your kind, are you not?” he asked brusquely.
“I am,” I answered evenly, noting the woman at his side, her hair silky black and also streaked with white, though her bronze-brown face showed little signs of aging. She was strikingly beautiful, her pale, gold eyes watchful.
“I find it strange you are so far from home. So far from your kind.”
A low growl resonated from Redvyr, but I squeezed his hand. He didn’t say anything, thankfully. I didn’t want him fighting anyone and everyone who seemed to disapprove of my presence here. I had to do some of my fighting on my own.
“I can imagine you do.”
I glanced out at the clan members milling around the other campfires with cups of ale and hearty laughter, the bathka having ended their dance. I could see the subtle differences in the clans, mostly by their clothes and how they chose to wear their hair. Sorka and her guild had a particular style of stitching and tailoring that I could spot easily in a crowd, and the other clans had their own unique way of tailoring and decorating their gowns with beads and metal. The Vanglosa clan mingled with all of the others, an easy camaraderie that I would never witness at my father’s court.
“Tell me, Lord Walgar. What do you see when you look out there?”
He frowned, his back to the crowd and campfires. The woman who must be his mate turned to look behind her. Reluctantly, he did the same.
When he turned back to face me, he said, “Beast fae. Drinking and talking.”
My gaze caught on Bes dancing with a young beast fae male, obviously in his teen years like her, his body tall but still very lean, his horns not as thick and long as the adult males. He held her hands and guided her in a circle, bending their knees to the beat of the drums. Their movements were awkward next to the adults dancing with their partners in a similar fashion, but there was joy on their young faces. Sorka watched from nearby, smiling.
Not far behind them, sitting on a thick log near one of the campfires were Tylok’s children and the wraith fae boy, Gershal. Leifkyn knelt next to them, a rough wooden game board in front of them, pointing to parts of the board as he talked. He was teaching them to play kings and bones, a game I’d seen many regulars play in the corner booth at Haldek’s tavern.
Walgar’s woman at his side, most likely his wife, then added in a soft, serene voice, “I see many clans celebrating together. Old friends greeting one another. New ones being made. Lovers finding partners.”
I couldn’t help but smile. “Yes, my lady. All of those things at once. What I see-”
I stared past them where Brohm was throwing his head back in laughter, two other males I’d never met before gesticulating wildly as they both seemed to tell a story at once.
“What I see,” I said again, “is an interconnected people who not only support one another to survive, but they come together in fellowship and celebration so they might thrive.” I met Walgar’s gaze, his expression pensive. “That is not something I have ever seen before. Not in my father’s court, and not in the nearby townships that we visited a few times. It is a treasure I recognize as valuable.”
His wife smiled, her eyes crinkling in the corners.
