Page 211 of Kingdom of the Two Moons

“Does it matter?”

It’s an honest question, I realize. One that holds no mocking.

“You miss him,” the witcher gathers.

I startle like a deer. “Who?” I ask, covering it.

“Both,” he says.

“Can you read auras too?”

The hint of a smile comes to his lips, genuine. “In a sense,” he admits.

“Tell me what you see in me. Please,” I say, suddenly curious.

“You do know everything Isensealready yourself,” he says, notunkindly. Again, just a fact. “Which is rare, but I assume that comes along with our… talent.”

I watch him. “It feels strange, when someone can read who you are,” I admit. Again, that smile. “I can only agree.”

“I misjudged you, you know,” he adds after a moment of silence.

“In what sense?”

“I thought you crueler, but you are more soft-hearted than I estimated.”

I don’t know what to do with this. His tone tells me nothing either.

“And that is good or bad?” I probe.

“Neither. It just changes things. Or might, in the future.”

“Why?”

He takes a deep breath, looking up at the ceiling. His amber eyes brighten when they settle back on me. “Isn’t it ironic that they say people who can’t love are dangerous? But then, on the other hand, the gravest crimes in this world, we commit for the one we love.”

With this, he turns and disappears back into the darkness. I know he’s staying close, yet all the way back to my room I can neither feel nor hear nor smell him.

His words left me with a strange sensation in my body.

Back in my quarters, I look at my painting for too long, before I fall asleep, imagining that Caryan is watching me like he did that night in his room.

68

Melody

They are away for a week.

I paint a lot, adding a new detail every night, breathing more life into the painting. Sometimes it’s the curves of his lips. The shade of his skin, his eyelids. The arch of his ears or the way his hair curls around them. Sometimes the speckles in the gold, the veins of his irises.

In the afternoon of the seventh day, I feel the Fortress come alive with his power again, and I know he’s back. As if his energy affects my very being, too, I feel more alive than I did the whole of the past week.

As if I’d been sleepwalking and now have woken up to the real world again.

Once Nidaw informs us that there will be a gathering to welcome the high lords back, I can barely hide my nerves at the prospect of seeing Caryan and Riven again.

The latter crosses my path as I’m on the way back from my room to shower and change into fresh clothes. I run toward him when I see him, not caring what anyone else will think. Not caring what he thinks.

But he sweeps me up into his arms and holds me for a long while.

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