Page 23 of Ties of Frost

Something about the crisp way Zidra saidwomancaught my attention. I directed my consciousness toward the heartbond. Her irritation pummeled into me with a distinct hint of…

A lopsided smirk stretched my lips. “She’s afriend, Zee. No need to be jealous.”

“I’m not jealous!” Her voice went up a pitch. She winced and glanced down the hallway. “I’m wondering who she is.”

“Mmm, you forget I can feel your emotions.” I leaned down closer to her and dropped my voice to a huskymurmur. “You’re jealous.”

Zidra’s ears turned red. “Donotflirt with me. I’m not one of your admirers for you to play games with. And stop spying on my emotions. You’re not even interpreting them correctly. Go get dressed so we can meet this person, find Rouven, and get this over with.”

Her words and the disgust rippling through our bond made me straighten. My arm dropped back to my side. “Play games with?”

“Please. Unmarried women of an appropriate age—and probably some of an inappropriate age—from here to the corners of the empire throw themselves at you at every opportunity.”

I furrowed my brow. “Hyperbolic, but even if they did, how is that my fault?”

“You encourage it!” She tossed her hands up. “With your flashy uses of magic and sensuous voice and all of your winking and smirking and—all of your flirting!”

A door opened down the hall, and another elf poked her head out. Her dark hair fell over half her face, and her visible eye was half closed. “Unless there is an emergency,” she said in the forest elf dialect, “there should be no shouting before midafternoon the day after a party.” She retreated back into her room without waiting for a response.

Zidra glared at the closed door for a moment before turning back to me. I didn’t bother translating—in addition to being fluent in common Laedreshian and Vethalric, the ancestral shifter tongue, she also knew passable Elvish. “Is that why you aren’t dressed yet?”

I blinked. “Are you going to accuse me of having slept with her from another room?”

“I meant were you up late partying, but now I’m wondering if you’ve also been breaking your vow to not have intimate relations outside of marriage.” She peered past me as if she suspected me of hiding a woman in my bed.

“I didn’t know you thought so little of me,” I said through gritted teeth. Leaving the door open so she could observe my empty room, I went and threw open the curtains, then fetched a clean tunic from my things. “Where is your pack?”

“Downstairs. Something was poking into me. I’ll go rearrange it while you get ready to leave. Hurry. Please.” I glanced over my shoulder at the unexpectedplease, but Zidra was already striding away.

I sighed and glanced at the wooden rafters. “Iskyr, grant me patience.”

I rushed through getting dressed and putting on my lightweight leather armor, doing my hair, and getting everything placed back into my travel pack. I almost headed out the door before I remembered to strip the bed, place clean bedding on it, and take the dirty linens to the laundry room, where gracious volunteers would clean them for any rengiri who didn’t have time to do the washing themselves. Despite my best efforts, by the time I got downstairs, Zidra was nowhere to be seen. Afen, a panther shifter whose coily hair was woven into rows of tight braids, looked up from mending a stocking and jerked his thumb toward the front entrance.

“Eilmaris left a couple minutes ago. She asked me to tell you to meet her at the cathedral.”

“Thank you.” If I hurried, I should be able to catch up to her, especially since she would be traveling on foot. The streets were quieter than usual for the hour, but many people were still on holiday—and many were probably still in bed after spending the night carousing. I created a disk of levitating ice and sped off in search of Zidra.

There were three cathedrals and a dozen smaller sanctuaries in Laedresh, but only one wasthecathedral—Vairdros Cathedral, a short distance away from Harcos Academy. Of the thirty mighty warriors who’d helped Emperor Syrzin defeat Ascadrion, twelve survived the battle and formed the Order of the Rengir. Their general, Alexys Harcos, established the most prestigious military academy in the empire. Clairya Vairdros, the last heir to her noble human family’s immense wealth, was elected the Order’s first archon, or religious leader, and used her riches to commission the first cathedral in the new capital. Vairdros Cathedral, lovingly referred to as Rengir Cathedral, was where every rengir took their vows, and many of us considered it our spiritual home. No rengir left Laedresh without praying for Iskyr’s protection and guidance at Vairdros.

I spotted Zidra’s voluminous brown curls and hopped to the ground, letting my ice disk dissipate in a swirl of snowflakes. “Zee!” She didn’t pause or look back. I trotted up to her side. “Why did you leave without me?”

Her nose wrinkled, and she didn’t break stride. “Afen was asking too many questions about where we’re goingand why and acting like he suspects we’re courting or something.” She moved so close our arms brushed, and then she whispered, “It’s exceedingly rare, but old wives’ tales claim some shifters can sense a heartbond. I doubt Afen can, but I didn’t want to risk him getting the wrong idea and spreading that around.”

“Thinking we have a heartbond wouldn’t be wrong,” I said dryly.

Zidra pulled away and glanced around at the few other people on the street. “Shh. I’m sure we won’t for long. Once the curse is dealt with, that will go, too.”

If that was going to be her attitude about it, I hoped she was right.

As we walked into the long shadow cast by the towering spire-topped structure of Vairdros Cathedral, Zidra’s pace increased. Given her shorter legs, I kept pace easily—but I deemed it best not to mention that when she was already on edge.

Wood reliefs carved into the towering double doors of Vairdros depicted Emperor Syrzin and his mighty warriors facing down the hulking dragon Ascadrion on one side, and the warriors kneeling in prayer while Syrzin prophesied about Ascadrion’s eventual return on the other. Giant sequoias were carved into the marble doorframe, symbols of Iskyr due to their imposing height and longevity, and because they do not change with the seasons.

As usual, the small door set into the right door, amid the kneeling warriors, was open. I followed Zidra inside, and a sense of peace filled me. The scent of incense fromthe morning service wafted on the air, tendrils of smoke still drifting amid the beams of the soaring vaulted ceiling. A multitude of candelabras illuminated the nave of the cathedral in a warm glow. At the far end above the chancel, sunlight streamed through a twenty-foot-tall stained-glass scene of children of every race playing in the shade of a sequoia.

Our footsteps echoed as we walked between rows of prayer cushions toward the altar at the chancel. I glanced over at one of the semicircular side chapels, then nudged Zidra with my elbow.

“Remember copying holy texts for hours together in that chapel?” I whispered.

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