I was in a daze as I watched, unable to take my eyes off him. I’d never seen anyone fly before. Very few alien species that I knew of could.
Before I could blink, Rivin joined him, another burst of energy rippling across the ground, sending stray pebbles rolling.
“Kylaira,” came a gentle voice. I felt a grip on my wrist, but it was soft and warm. “I will show you to your rooms.”
I said nothing, allowing Ludayn to pull me forward. When we reached the set of doors into the keep, they were both just a speck in the distance, dark spots against the setting sun.
“Your rooms are on the upper floor,” Ludayn informed me as we entered what I assumed was the private entrance of the keep.
Inside, I was met by soaring ceilings made of the same white stone as in the courtyard below and a grand, wide, curving staircase in front of me. The inside of the keep was hollowed out, though I could see the individual floors stacked neatly above, winding around in a circle before branching off into wide hallways, into rooms beyond. There were decorative and intricate stone railings protecting anyone from the falling down to where I stood.
Though on second thought, a Kylorr wouldn’t fall. They would fly. Which was why I saw openings in the railings at various intervals.
“Ludayn, there you are! Is Azur back yet?” came another female’s voice from three levels above, echoing in this atrium of a place. A core. The center. When I craned my neck back, I saw another Kylorr was stepping up to one such opening…before she jumped. My heart was lodged in my throat. She was hurtling too fast to the ground. She was going to hit—
Her wings flared wide at the last possible moment, making her hover above the ground where we stood before she landed gently and neatly. The female was smiling at Ludayn as she tucked her wings back. She was beautiful, I couldn’t help but notice. With gleaming black hair and bright red eyes.
When the female saw me, however, it was difficult to explain the expression that came over her features. She hadn’t seen me, I realized. I’d been hidden behind Ludayn and the archway above me. But when this female locked eyes with me, something dark and cold shuttered her gentle smile.
“Oh,” she said simply, looking down the stretch of me. A familiar look. One Piper had often given me when she hadn’t liked a dress I had chosen that day. Then she ignored me completely, turning to regard Ludayn, her tone strange and tight as she asked, “Where’s Azur?”
“He went to meet with the patrol at the northern borders,” Ludayn said. She added, “With Rivin.”
“Where are you taking her?” the female asked stiffly, discomforted, barely glancing at me again.
“I’m Gemma,” I cut in before I could think better of it. But my hackles rose, and I didn’t like to be spoken over as if I wasn’t even there. If I allowed that, it would make me feel smaller than I already was. “Gemma Hara. Pleased to meet you.”
The female stiffened. Oddly, when she looked at me, I saw her eyes fill with unexpected tears.
“Kalia,” Ludayn gasped, reaching forward to take her arm, “are you all right? Do you need—”
“You belong to House Kaalium now,” the female, Kalia, spit out. “Do not forget it, Gemma Hara.”
I was too shocked to speak, watching a sudden tear trail over her cheek. It was silver. Her tears were silver, like mercury.
Kalia sniffed, wiping angrily at her cheeks, and then she pushed passed us.
“What in Raazos’s name is wrong?” came Zaale’s voice as Kalia nearly bowled him over in her attempt to get outside. “Kalia.”
Only, the female never said anything, and Zaale pinned me with a long, unreadable look. My tongue felt glued to the roof of my mouth.
Then a weathered huff burst from Zaale. “Take the Kylaira up to her rooms, Ludayn. Just as the Kyzaire asked of you. And keep her there until his return.”
“Yes, of course,” Ludayn murmured, limping forward, tugging me farther into the atrium and toward the wide staircase that rose high into the keep.
My new prison, I couldn’t help but think as we ascended.
Because for all its beauty…that was exactly what it was.
Chapter 8
Azur
The wind slid through my hair and traced its fingers over my cheek. Cold and refreshing, it filled my lungs, and I dipped my left wing to catch the edge of it, letting it propel me farther as the keep came into view.
Rivin had stayed behind at the northern border for the night. No sightings of the Kaazor since I’d left or of their kyriv, but the lack of anything put me on edge. When the Kaazor went dormant, they were preparing. For what? I didn’t quite know. Laras had a strong army. With my brother’s armies, most of which could be here within a day, I didn’t fear that the Kaazor—and their leader, Zyre—could overrun Laras, the capital of the Kaalium. They had tried before after they’d broken the treaty and had failed miserably.
It was the kyriv, truthfully, that could do the most damage if one managed to reach Laras, or if they hit the city walls from the eastern pass. The lore harvest was approaching too. The fields were vulnerable.
My home glittered like a beacon as I circled around it. The sprawling villages of Laras stretched beyond it, spreading to the west, the east, and the south. The Silver Sea reflected Krynn’s moon, which rose high in the northern sky.
For a moment, I savored it. Hovering in the sky, my wings working to keep me stationary as my gaze ate at the view. I took in the villages—the lights that flickered in individual homes, the long stretch of fields to the southeast, the thick, lush forests just beyond. In the air, I breathed in the north winds that funneled down from the mountains.
I swiveled around to look at the keep. The home I’d grown up in. There was a part of me that envied my brothers. That they had spread out among the Kaalium, each overseeing a different territory.
They’d received something new, something untainted.
And me? As the eldest son, I’d received Laras. I’d received our keep, the great keep of House Kaalium. With all its memories. With all its triumphs. With all its grief.
My eyes narrowed on the east wing, zeroing in on a specific stretch of windows.
My body felt depleted. Flying took much of our energy. It was why there was a blood giver encampment on the northern border, so our patrols and soldiers wouldn’t have to return to Laras to feed, to renew their strength when they’d been in the sky for hours on end.
Drinking from my wife was inevitable.
How could I begin to set things right for Aina’s soul unless I nourished myself with the blood of our enemy?
Raazos demanded it—the god of battle, protector of the three realms. If I strengthened myself on Hara blood, maybe I could reach out to Aina in Zyos. Maybe I could find her and tether her back to us.
But without her soul gem, without the vessel for her soul to fill, created from her very bones…maybe it would be a wasted effort.