Page 262 of The Dryad Storm

Sorcha looks at Astrid, and Andras does, as well. His mother is eyeing Sorcha with those shrewd, piercing eyes of hers, but there’s no censure there, just a look overflowing with compassion.

Andras’s mother turns to him. “Go,” she prods, gesturing toward Sorcha as she holds her arms out for Konnor. She glances up at the Xishlon moon and takes hold of the child before giving both Andras and Sorcha a slight smile. “The Goddess works in mysterious ways,” she says. “Who knows, perhaps the Lupines are correct, and the deity at the heart of everything is a shape-shifter. Maybe sometimes She’s anAmaz goddess with snake and deer and white bird familiars.” Astrid glances wryly up at the moon. “And maybe sometimes She’s a Xishlon dragon who sends down purple light from the sky.”

And then, Astrid Volya gives Andras and Sorcha an exuberant smile before she turns and walks away, hugging Konnor and murmuring happily to him as she points toward the purple moon, fireworks shaped like giant dragonflies now winging by it.

Andras turns to Sorcha, a storm of emotion upending him as he gestures toward a narrow path leading away from the dock and down toward the river’s edge. Sorcha falls in beside him, and Andras’s heart crowds his throat as they stride silently down to an isolated rocky outcropping, the purple-tinged waters of the Vo lapping at the stone where they pause.

Face-to-face.

Sorcha holds up a quivering hand, the image of IV imprinted there. “I waswrong, Andras,” she says, voice cracking as a purple-tinted tear streaks down her face. “I love you. I havealwaysloved you.” She chokes on her tears, her chest heaving as she breaks into sobs. “And I love our child. Ineverstopped thinking about you. And Ineverstopped thinking about him.”

And then she drops her face into her hands, sobbing into them as Andras feels the warm slide of tears down his own face and tastes the salt on his lips.

Love for her breaking through the years of pent-up anguish, Andras steps toward her then reaches up to caress her heaving shoulder. He draws her into an embrace, and she inhales a great breath, her arms coming tight around him as she sobs against his chest. “Shhh,” he says, the pain in his heart overwhelmingly dwarfed by the fierce love rushing in.

“The trees showed meso much,” Sorcha tells him in a broken voice. She lifts her tear-streaked golden eyes. “I wasso wrongto putanythingabove my love for you and our son.”

“The trees showed me so much, as well,” Andras tells her, her beautiful face wavering through his tears. “They showed me the history of the Amaz and what led them to band together.” He grimaces from the remembrance. “Thehorrorsinflicted on womankind by men. The trees revealed to me how men’s cruelty fueled this division. I understand more of your struggle, now, and the struggle of the women of your family. I forgive you, Sorcha. And I haveneverstopped loving you.”

Sorcha’s lips tremble as she gazes up at him, vulnerability in her eyes, twin Xishlon moons reflected in them. “I’m not going north.” She motions toward thecrystalline-blue stylus sheathed at her hip. “The Forest... it’s given me back my Urisk geomancy. I’m staying right here, as part of Queen Freyja’s circle of geo-sorcerers. And I would giveanythingfor another chance to be with you and our child.”

Andras smiles, all the love of Xishlon flooding through him. He glances up at the moon. “Xishlon night is a good night for new beginnings,” he says before stepping back and holding out his hand. “Come. Let’s go spend time with our son.”

Chapter Two

Xishlon Tea

Tierney Calix

Western bank of the Vo River, Noilaan

Xishlon night

Waist-deep in the violet-marbled waters, Tierney stares over the purple-moonlit Vo River, the city of Voloi just beyond. Xishlon-amplified love for her River courses through her as fireworks sparkle overhead and small, silver-flecked minnows happily swirl around her.

Her River’s love for her eddying straight through her heart.

Joy bubbling up inside her, Tierney turns, reaches out and lovingly strokes the purple, striated bark of the Eastern Cypress tree rising from the shallow water beside her, the tree’s aura of affection rippling through her magic along with her River’s love, this newly established Cypress Forest, like Gareth and Marina’s expanding Mangrove Forests, all working to anchor the coasts and bring Balance to the weather above and the land below.

Fighting back against the Shadow chaos massed in the West,increment by hard-won increment...

Tierney draws in a deep breath and glances south, toward Voloi. IV’s great purple canopy is spread out over the entire city with sheltering might, its usual verdant mist turned Xishlon purple as it winds around the huge Balance-anchoring tree. Her beloved younger brother and newly Dryad’khin adoptive family are out there somewhere, enjoying the holiday festivities, her Asrai’kin having opened up water tunnels under the Vo to allow everyone to experience the beauty of the underwater Natural World.

Xishlon fireworks shimmer into being over the water, drawing Tierney’s attention as they fleetingly form the luminous image of hundreds of Xishlon moonsbefore coalescing into the sizzling shape of a giant, violet dragon.

Tierney smiles at the hopeful show, reveling in the company of her river-loving tree kindreds and in the feel of her River’s sheer Matrix-anchoringpower. Wry amusement lights as she lifts her free hand from the water and notices, not for the first time this eve, that her hue this night is a bright, swirling Xishlon purple.

She can imagine Or’myr’s reaction to her overwhelmingpurpleness. She’s eager to finally take him as her Xishlon’vir, after he finishes his work reinforcing the geomancy imprisoning the always-straining-to-escape Shadow Wand, everyone set on keeping this Xishlon safe from the Shadow’s cruel grip.

And Tierney holds out hope that it will be.

Even the Vo seems caught up in the Xishlon moon’s pull, its waters lapping affectionately against her purple-kelp-clad form. A trace of melancholy edges in as her thoughts slide to last Xishlon, not far from this spot, deep in the Forest with Viger and deep in his Deathkinkisswhen Vogel’s Shadow hell rained down upon the East.

Vogel’s demonic tide slithering across her beloved River.

Emotion shudders through her. It was such a close call for the Vo. And for the whole of Erthia.

But the world haschanged.

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