Текст книги "Desire in His Blood"
Автор книги: Zoey Draven
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Текущая страница: 17 (всего у книги 24 страниц)
Chapter 36
Gemma
“Oh, Azur,” I breathed. “It’s beautiful.”
It was a week later.
The evening before the harvest ball.
Even though Kalia was running around the keep and the village like a frenzied hare, and even though she’d been employing my help whenever she could snag it, Azur had snuck me out of the keep and flown me across the Silver Sea to a small, forested island far from the coast.
“What is this?” I wondered, in awe.
The island had looked tiny when we’d been high overhead, but upon our descent, I’d seen that it was a forest by design. The trees had been planted in an arch at regular intervals before swirling out in a flourish toward the edges of the island. In the very center of the wall of trees, shielding the waves and the expansive view of Laras beyond, was a round, stone pavilion. Familiar starwood blooms were creeping up the white stone. Little white flowers dotted the moss-covered ground, which was bright blue, instead of green like in the Collis. The moss contrasted sharply with the white stone of the steps that led up to the structure.
There was something eerily beautiful about this place.
Haunting. Quiet. But peaceful.
So unlike the bustle and chaos of the Kaalium keep right now, as keepers under Zaale’s orders rushed to clean and prep for the influx of Kylorr that would be arriving in a little under a day.
Including Azur’s brothers, I thought.
The pavilion was open air with delicate columns that climbed skyward. There was no roof, nothing to protect from a storm. Overhead, the stars were beginning to peak out, and I thought it would be glorious to lie there and watch them glimmer and gleam.
As we ascended the steps, Azur explained, “My grandfather built this for his Kylaira. When they passed, my own mother planted the trees and the starwood blooms in honor of them.”
I tilted my head to look back at him, feeling his wing brush the back of my arm.
“With Kalia barking orders, I figured you might need the reprieve,” he added dryly.
I laughed. I’d been doing that a lot this last week, and I leaned forward to press a kiss to his bicep since his mouth was too high for me to reach.
“Thank you,” I breathed, though I would’ve been happy to have him fly me anywhere. The rush was exhilarating. My hair was wild around my shoulders, my cheeks raw from the wind, but I was grinning.
When I pulled away, Azur’s arm flashed out and he pulled me back, closing the distance himself to take my lips. I sighed into his mouth and then felt his hands settle on my hips, pulling me tight against his hard body.
I moaned and said against his lips, “Or maybe you just wanted to find somewhere we wouldn’t be disturbed.”
“That too,” he said roughly. “It’s hard to properly fuck one’s wife when one’s sister is constantly barging into rooms unannounced.”
I cringed and pulled away. Kalia had walked in on us yesterday in his office, and I would never forget the bulging horror in her eyes when she’d seen that Azur had had me splayed out on his desk. I’d been holding his horns tight, using them to grind my cunt into his mouth.
Kalia hadn’t quite been able to meet my eyes that evening. But this morning, she’d interrupted my Halo orb call with my sisters to demand that I go into the village with her. Something about a food disaster in the keep that seemed to have resolved itself before we’d even reached Laras.
“I should have sent her to live with Lucen when I had the chance,” Azur rasped, trying to pull me back into the circle of his arms, trailing his mouth down my neck.
“You don’t mean that,” I told him. “You would miss her too much.”
He grunted but didn’t deny the words. I was discovering that my husband was truly one big pile of mush beneath his glaring, haughty, maddening exterior. At least when it came to his family.
And maybe even me, I added, feeling a flush burn on my cheeks.
The last week with him had been…
Wonderful.
Truly wonderful.
And no one was more surprised about it than I was. Perhaps even Azur too. I caught him looking at me with this perplexed expression on his face, in the aftermath of sex or in the quiet of night when he thought I was sleeping. Like he couldn’t understand how we’d come to be this.
We’d fallen into a small routine, even with the craziness of the harvest in Laras, whose celebrations I could hear linger on into the night. After the kyriv attack, I’d never returned to my rooms to sleep. I’d stayed in Azur’s bed, waking next to him, usually lying on one of his wings—which I’d found couldn’t be helped. We’d take our morning meal on the terrace together. We’d go into the village afterward to make our appearance for whatever festivities were being held that day. Just yesterday, there had been a blood cake–baking competition of all things with little cooking stations set outside for the contestants. The day before there had been a play—a retelling of an ancient battle, of Raazos, the god of battle and the afterlife, when he’d first clashed with Gaara, the goddess of fertility and healing.
After we returned to the keep, Azur’s attentions would be called away by whatever reports were coming in from the northern border patrol and the accounts he’d taken over for the lore harvest. The border had been quiet since the kyriv attack, as if the Kaazor had retreated for the time being. But Azur had admitted to me, in the quiet of his bed, that the retreat set his teeth on edge. His fangs had been out in full view the last week or so, a nagging worry that he didn’t seem to be able to shake.
He would find me late into the night. Or I would find him, still in his office. He’d take me flying, no matter the hour, which always ended with my dress pushed up to my waist wherever he found a private place to land, with me digging my nails into the back of his vest as he rutted ferociously between my thighs.
Then we’d go back to our rooms, where he’d take me all over again, long into the night. I’d fall asleep and not move until morning. Azur told me I slept like the dead, whereas he was the restless one, not that I’d noticed.
“What is this?” I asked, trying not to let him distract me with his roving hands as I danced away from his grip. There was what looked like a bird bath in the very center of the pavilion. When I looked within it, I saw that it was deep but empty, the bowl glimmering with what looked like a film of silver.
Azur followed after me, dragging his dull claws through the back of my hair, making goose bumps rise along my flesh. Just his touch could set me on fire.
“A zylarr,” he finally answered. “An opening into the other realms.”
I stilled, my heart pumping, but slowly lowered my hands away from the stone bowl. “It is?”
“We rarely use this one,” he informed me. “There is another. At our family’s shrine in Laras. When the moon winds are strong, we can make the bridge to Alara.”
The after realm, he’d told me.
“And Zyos?” I asked. “What about that one?”
“I have tried to reach Zyos more times than I can say,” he said, his expression closing briefly. Going cold. “I have failed every single time.”
“Who is in Zyos that you are trying to reach?” I asked, softly.
He blew out a sharp breath. “Someone lost. Someone lost for a long time.”
There was a gruff softness in his voice. A softness that nearly broke my heart.
Azur took my hand and guided me away from the zylarr, even though I had a flurry of questions flooding my brain.
I had a sick feeling in my gut as he led me back down the steps of the pavilion, heading toward the forest line.
“It’s not your mother, is it?” I asked, unsure if I should. Azur rarely spoke of his mother. Kalia mentioned her often enough. “Your mother isn’t the one who is lost, is she?”
“No,” Azur bit out. “My mother’s soul is deeply rooted in Alara.”
A small relief, then. “Do you speak to her during the moon winds? Through the zylarr?”
Azur’s hand tightened on mine. “That’s not how it works, kyrana. It is only the sensation that they are there, that they walk with you. There is no breaching the realms unless it is through death.”
“But you said it’s like a bridge.”
“The zylarrs are focusing points only. Places on Krynn where the stretches between the realms are already thin. Have you felt the one in the south wing?”
I swallowed. “Yes. I think so.”
“The only reason we haven’t placed a zylarr there is because the hallway is narrow and we’d have to level the entirety of the room just beyond it,” he informed me. “But there are other points. Throughout the Kaalium. Throughout Laras. Here. Which is why my grandfather chose this island to build on. Truthfully, you don’t need zylarrs if the moon winds are strong enough. But using one helps channel the energy to feel the Alara realm, to find the souls you seek. Otherwise, it’s like wading through an endless sea, seeking that one warm spot where you can feel your loved one. That is all it is. A comfort. A small one. And it takes a lot of energy.”
“What about other souls?” I asked quietly. “Other souls that never died on Krynn? Are they there too? Can you find them too?”
Azur stopped walking and turned to face me. “Your mother?” he asked.
“Yes,” I whispered, feeling hope rise in me. “If I could—”
“I’m sorry, Gemma,” he said, cupping my cheek. “I have only ever felt the souls of the Kylorr in the after realm. This is Raazos’s realm. Alaire’s. Gaara’s and Zor’s. I doubt you would find her there.”
My shoulders sagged, but it was the answer I’d expected. I nodded.
“If you’d like, I can help you look,” he said after a long silence. His voice soft and gentle.
Big pile of mush, indeed, I thought, lifting my face to his and seeing the concern reflected in those ember eyes.
“You would?” I whispered, feeling a sensation squirm in my chest that was beginning to feel permanent.
“Yes,” he said, inclining his head.
“I would like that,” I said softly. “It wouldn’t hurt to try, I suppose.”
“The next strong moon-wind storm will likely come in another three months. Would you like to try then?”
I didn’t answer him. Instead, I pulled his neck down and kissed him gently, having learned to avoid the sharp prick of his fangs, and sweeping his tongue with mine.
He groaned, his fist tightening in the cloth of my dress. He liked me in dresses. Liked how easily he could slip between my thighs, with nothing between us, and so I wore them for him even though I had to keep the material gathered up whenever we flew.
“Thank you,” I whispered, smiling. “How can I show my gratitude?”
He roughly exhaled at my deliberate tease. “I think you already know, wife.”
When Azur pushed me up against the nearest tree and tugged my dress up nearly past my breasts, I fumbled with the clasps on his pants, freeing his cock. He sunk into me a moment later, both of us groaning at the sensation. For some time, there were no words said between us at all. But he held my eyes the entire time, and when we both came, it was together, a wonderful crescendo of sublime pleasure as his fangs sank into the side of my neck. I squeezed my legs around him, clasping him to me as his seal seated deep, that dizzying burn feeling like a relief.
Afterward, we caught our breath, lying in the moss. Above us, the sky was black, the stars bright. Little white gems nestled in the night, waiting to be found. I wondered where the Collis was among them, where my mother was buried and how far souls could stray from their home.
I already knew it was unlikely I would find my mother on Krynn. But it was touching that Azur would at least try for me. That was what made tears sting the back of my eyes.
“Will your father be at the ball tomorrow night?” I asked sleepily, lazing in my husband’s arms as he dragged his claws down my side. He hadn’t torn this dress, for once, and he smoothed the material down my hips.
“No.”
For how close Azur was to his family, he didn’t speak of them much. And he tightened up like a clam shell whenever I pressed.
“Does he live on Krynn?” I asked. There was a gentleness in Azur’s expression that told me he might actually give me the answers I’d wondered about for so long.
“No,” Azur replied, a deep sigh lowering his shoulders. “He lives on Urania. He’s an ambassador for our Quadrant.”
I scrambled up onto my elbow, which sunk deep into the moss, to get a better look at him. “Your father sits on the Uranian Federation Council?”
“Yes,” he replied. I heard the pride in his voice even though it mingled with something I couldn’t identify. Something that made my heart sink for him.
That was…impressive. Greatly so. No easy feat, and yet with a son like Azur, it was all too easy to imagine his father in such an esteemed and highly respected position.
“When was the last time you saw him?” I wondered.
“He came home to Krynn five years ago. For Laras’s harvest. Otherwise, we speak through the Halo when our schedules align.”
“Five years is a long time,” I murmured, with a pang of understanding.
“He’s long held his seat on the council. He’s always been off planet for long stretches of time, though he took on more responsibility after my mother’s passing,” Azur told me gruffly. The relaxation in his face was gone, replaced by a furrowed expression. “He didn’t want to be here. In the keep where they lived together. Where they’d made their home. I understood. It was my duty to step in. My brothers’ duties. He gladly passed Laras to me. He departed for Urania. He very rarely returns.”
My lips parted, hearing so much in such few words.
“When…when did your mother die?” I asked.
“Ten years ago,” he told me. “A strain of blood sickness. A rare disease for our kind. It took her quickly.”
“I’m sorry,” I breathed. A blood sickness? “I’m sorry, Azur.”
He said nothing. His face turned to the stars, and I studied the strong line of his jaw, hesitantly reaching out to run my hand through his hair, spread out on the moss beneath him.
“It must have been difficult for you,” I murmured, feeling like my heart was caught in an ever-tightening vice. “To lose your mother so suddenly. To have your father leave an entire nation behind for you and your brothers to protect and serve. I couldn’t imagine the weight of that responsibility.”
“We’ve managed well enough,” Azur finally answered softly. “The first year was the hardest. Every year since has come easier.”
“Your father must’ve loved your mother very much,” I commented, sighing. “To be bound in his grief in such a way.”
“He did,” Azur said. “He does.”
The words made my chest ache. My father, for all his faults, had loved my mother too. When I’d been a child, I remembered he could make her laugh with his roguish grin, even when she’d been upset with him. They’d dance in our small kitchen on New Inverness, swaying slowly together to music only they could hear. Father would wink at me over her shoulder whenever his face had turned my way, as I’d watched them, bundled up by the fire.
But time had eroded everything, chipping away at my mother’s genuine smile, especially when we’d moved to the Collis, especially in the later years of her life. The vacant gleam in her eye had become more and more commonplace. Even my father couldn’t bring her back anymore.
“Though, perhaps it was a small blessing that they were not blood mates,” Azur added softly, the unexpected comment making me still. “For surely, he would’ve been driven mad by now.”
“What do you mean?” I asked quietly.
He shook his head. He turned to regard me, a wry smile on his lips that didn’t quite belong. “Nothing.” When I shivered against him, he asked, “Are you cold? We should head back to the keep.”
“Can we stay a little while longer?” I asked quietly, not ready to leave. Not ready to leave the solid press of his body next to mine. It was peaceful here. Even if we weren’t talking about peaceful things. I still wasn’t ready to give him up.
“Yes, of course,” he answered.
As I studied him, I realized he was nothing like how I’d imagined him to be. He could be biting and cold. His temper could run hot, while the ice in his eyes could freeze me in place. But the male I’d come to know this last week was gentle with me. Infinitely passionate. Exceedingly patient.
That wasn’t to say we hadn’t argued this week. Because we certainly had. Just a few days ago, he’d griped at me because I’d pushed into his office, wanting to help him with the lore accounts since Maazin had, effectively, fled the keep. He’d said it was his responsibility to see the accounts investigated, when I’d only wanted to help. I’d called him stubborn. He’d called me maddening. We’d glared at one another over a mound of parchment.
And then we’d nearly torn the stacks to shreds as we’d jumped on one another, clothes flying, clasps flinging themselves across the floor. Our argument had ended in gasping moans and deep groans, with the pleasurable stretch of his seal rooting into place inside me and with his lips at my breast.
Afterward, I’d been too boneless and sated to even care about the lore accounts. Maybe that had been his intention all along.
I wondered which version of Azur was the truest form of my husband. And why there had been such a great discrepancy between them to begin with.
I knew it had something to do with my father. Whether he’d taken money from the Kylorr that he couldn’t repay or pissed off the wrong noble, I wasn’t certain. Now, knowing that his father was on the Uranian Federation Council, I wondered if that had anything to do with why Azur had married me. My father belonged to the United Alliance. The Kylorr had been defending the Pe’ji in the last war. My father would have been their enemy.
What I was certain about was that Azur wouldn’t tell me. I’d hinted. I’d pressed. His eyes would narrow like he knew what I was doing, and I got no further with him.
“Are you ready for tomorrow night?” Azur asked me softly.
“I’m ready,” I told him, not wanting him to know that I was actually very nervous. Nervous and excited. About meeting his brothers. About meeting the nobles of Laras, old family friends of House Kaalium, with deeper ties to this land than I could fathom.
Then again, I’d held off loan collectors who were probably five times as terrifying as any noble on Laras. I could handle it. I knew it.
His brothers, on the other hand…
“Kalia wasn’t exactly my biggest fan when I came to Krynn,” I said softly. “I wonder if your brothers will feel the same.”
“You can handle my brothers, wife,” he told me. “For the most part, they’re more charming than I am.”
I laughed at his obvious tease. Because I’d seen Azur charm the surliest of Kylorrs throughout the last week in the village.
“And what about Kythel?” I asked. Perhaps the brother I was most anxious about meeting was Azur’s twin. He’d said they were close. I wanted to make a good impression since I’d obviously failed with both Azur and Kalia upon meeting them.
“Kythel…” Azur huffed, long and slow. “Kythel will see what you are to me. He will understand. They all will.”
My brow furrowed.
“You have nothing to fear,” he said, his hand lazily dragging across my shoulder. “And if you wish to leave early, we can sneak upstairs to our rooms and let the nobles smoke through the House’s supply of lore in our wake.”
Our rooms, he’d said.
My heart fluttered at that, a dangerous thing.
“I like that plan,” I told him, leaning down for a kiss. “Very much.”
Chapter 37
Gemma
“Azur,” I moaned, my eyelids fluttering wildly, pushing at his shoulders. “You’ll leave a mark!”
In response, he drank even deeper, and I felt my clit tingle, a warning.
He wants to leave one, I knew just as my orgasm crested, blinding and fast. I clutched on to him, my legs shaking, biting my lip to stifle my loud cries because I could already hear the music funneling throughout the keep.
Guests were arriving. The lore harvest ball was underway, and here I was, hidden in a dark alcove on the second floor of the keep, with my husband’s fangs deep in my neck.
When he was finished, he pulled away, licking his lips. I was flushed, panting, staring at him with a half-lidded gaze. There was an odd scent drifting in the air, one that smelled strangely like cinnamon but spicier. One that made me feel dizzy, that made my heart speed and the muscles in my thighs quiver.
Azur had been leading me down the stairs, his hand presumptuous and wandering over the dress he’d purchased for me. The most beautiful thing I’d ever worn. The Hindras clothier was truly skilled to craft such a work of art. The material was human-blood red and light as air, skimming close to the curves of my body. Yet it was sturdy enough to hold the silver metal that had been hand sewed into it, metal that had been shaped into delicate swirls and curving lines in the bodice and sweeping down toward my hips.
The neckline was low, showing the expanse of my upper chest, the valley of my breasts, and the line of my neck. Ludayn had swept my hair up in a soft, braided bun, pinning it back with silver pins encrusted in ruby-like gems. The final touch was the headband of silver flowers—which resembled starwood blooms—that she had been eager for me to wear.
I’d felt a thrill go through me when Azur had first seen me. He’d stilled, his nostrils flaring, those fiery eyes roving. A low, unconscious growl had reverberated up his throat before he’d swallowed it down. That sound had made my toes curl in my silk slippers, and I’d just narrowly managed to dodge his lunge for me, laughing breathlessly because I hadn’t wanted us to be late.
And I’d known that if my husband had gotten his hands on me, we would’ve been very late indeed.
He’d behaved until the second floor.
Now he peered down at his bite with a smirk that nearly made me whimper.
“Perfect,” he purred, his hand cupping my cheek. “You’re beautiful, wife.”
My throat burned. I’d never heard that before. Not once in my entire life. It was my sisters who other people had called beautiful.
But the way Azur was looking at me…I knew he meant it. He truly meant it.
I wasn’t very good at accepting compliments, but I smiled at him, managing to hold back my tears. “Thank you. You’re very handsome tonight too.”
My husband, however, had likely heard compliments his entire life from females who’d clamored over one another to reach him. Azur was dressed finely in a black structured vest that molded to him and black pants. The material of both was strong like leather but held the supple softness of suede. Similar metal work was sewn into his vest, though the accents highlighted the breadth of his shoulders and the width of his chest. He wore his gauntlets, gleaming and freshly polished. A dagger—the same one we’d used at our marriage ceremony and to cut our hands again the night of the moon winds—was sheathed at his hip.
His shoulder-length black hair was left down and unbound, completing his roguish look.
If we’d met at a ball like this, in another place, I’d likely have been unable to keep my eyes off him.
To think that he was my husband, that he was mine…it was hard to wrap my head around. Once, I’d been terrified of him. I’d recoiled at the sight of him, frozen in place, fearful of what my fate with him might be.
Now I skimmed my hand up his chest and leaned into him as he studied his obvious bite mark with masculine satisfaction and primal pleasure.
I was falling in love with him. Swiftly and hard. It didn’t scare me as much as I’d thought it would.
“Brute,” I whispered, teasing. “What is it with you and marking me? Now I’ll feel everyone’s eyes on it tonight.”
“Good,” he rasped, taking my hand and continuing on our way. “At least the males will know to keep their distance.”
The nerves kicked up in the notch of my throat the closer we drew to the front of the keep. There were two keepers stationed at the private hallway doors that led to the main foyer, making sure no guests strayed into the private areas of the house. After they inclined their heads at us, they opened the doors, and a flood of noise and light and laughter briefly startled me enough that I forgot my fear.
We entered the foyer with little fanfare, slipping among the growing crowd, who were waiting to be let into the extravagant, massive dining room just beyond the entrance doors. A dining room that we never used, which had been cleared of the table that must’ve sat nearly a hundred guests.
I heard the murmurs as our appearance registered among the crowd. Villagers from Laras. Nobles too. Travelers from all around the Kaalium, for an entire portion of the village had been cleared for their traveling tents. The keep kept its doors open on this night for any who wished to attend, but that meant the line went out the doors and down the tree-lined path toward Laras. It meant Kylorr guards were out in full force tonight, guards I’d seen patrolling throughout the village on occasion, in case trouble arose, and who I’d later learned had dealt with the aftermath of the kyriv attack.
Azur smiled and greeted all who called out to us. And when we bypassed the line to step into the dining room, which had been transformed by Kalia and Neela into a ballroom, I was too entranced by the beauty to notice that most guests turned our way when Azur guided me inside.
Overhead, there was a projection of a starry scape. Gone was the towering, vaulted white-stone ceilings of the keep. In its place was the indigo night sky, dotted with twinkling stars that looked so incredibly real. The orb lights were soft and dim as they weaved and swayed around the room. Candles had been brought out too, old fashioned and tapered, black in color with golden flames.
Haunting music echoed through the ballroom with instruments that sounded like human harps and violins but were somehow muted, their notes drawn out and wispy like smoke. Beautiful. Couples were dancing on the floor, swaying and gliding across the stone. I was relieved to see that it looked like a universal dance, the basic steps of which I knew well.
Flowers spilled from all corners of the room. Decorating the food table or perched on tall columns, vines trailing down like ivy. Beautiful blooms. Starwood blooms, I saw too, likely in remembrance of their mother, mixed in with creamy white flowers with large, velvety petals. They had a wild look about that, but the effect was glorious. It looked like we’d stumbled onto a ball deep in the woods of Krynn, lit up golden and glittering in the night.
“Kalia has outdone herself this year,” Azur murmured.
“Neela too. It’s beautiful,” I said. I took a deep breath, finally registering the multitude of eyes on us and the speculative expressions on their faces as they whispered behind hands. I swallowed hard, squeezing his forearm, finding his presence next to me comforting. “Are your brothers here?”
Azur scanned the crowd, moving me forward, skirting the dancing couples and making his way toward the left side of the ballroom. He wore a cool expression, seemingly unfazed by the sheer amount of looks being cast our way. As if this were a common occurrence in his daily life—which, perhaps, it had been. Kalia had told me their mother had thrown all kinds of parties and dinners at the keep in her time as Kylaira.
I wondered if the same was expected of me. Somehow, the idea of it made a stone lodge in my belly. It didn’t appeal to me. At all. It was what human women were expected to do when they took over great houses just like this one, when they married into wealthy, respected families. I’d much rather be deep in the records room up to my ears in numbers or flying across the sea with Azur. Or pruning gardens and visiting the village and walking the terrace walls, admiring the crash of the waves below, with Ludayn and Kalia.
“Kythel and Kaldur are likely in the smoking room,” he told me. The smoking room? “I don’t see Lucen or Thaine. Mm, there’s Kalia and Rivin.”
He pulled me toward his sister, who was dressed in a stunning midnight-blue dress, the first dress I’d ever seen her wear. Simple and delicate and understated, but I saw the eyes of Kylorr males practically glued to her, males I recognized from the village.
Males who averted their eyes the moment Azur stepped into their path, and I bit back a smile.
“Alaire’s mercy, look at you,” Kalia breathed, practically squealing with delight when she saw me on her brother’s arm. “Estee’s shop will be booked for months after tonight.”
I flushed at her praise, sliding closer to Azur. Rivin, who had shown up at the keep just a few days prior, gave me a wide grin. “Kylaira,” he greeted, and I couldn’t help but notice that his eyes dipped to the bite mark on my neck before that smile widened. “Shall I claim your first dance of the night?”
“Only if you wish to greet Raazos,” Azur cut in smoothly, clapping his friend on the back, making Rivin wheeze. My husband bared his fangs, which he hadn’t retracted, and added, “Behave and keep your hands off my wife while I go make the greeting to our guests.”
Kalia stifled a snicker but took my hand as I watched Azur stride away, making his way toward where the musicians were plucking away on their instruments on a raised dais at the front of the ballroom. He signaled for them to stop and turned to face the crowd with a charming smile that didn’t quite match him as the noise quieted considerably.
“Welcome,” his voice rang out once the room fell silent. I could feel the energy pulsing in the room, the buzzing. The Kylorr, I’d found, loved the harvest season. Everywhere we went in the village, there had been a childlike merriment and joy in the festivities. “Welcome, friends of House Kaalium. You honor my family by being here tonight, whether you have traveled near or far.”
Heavy feet stomped on the ground, a trembling roar in the room. A way of clapping, I realized, for the Kylorr, as their wings began to flurry in time with the beat.
“This was a year of blessings for our country. Our greatest lore harvest in our history. For Erzos, for Kyne, for Vyaan, for Salaire, and for Laras.”
Choruses of cheers rang out when Azur listed off his brother’s territories—cheers from their residents who had traveled to be here tonight—but the wing flapping and foot stomping when he said Laras drowned them all out. Azur waited patiently until the noise died down once more.
