Page 148 of Sunsplitter

“Oh, whocares?” Fionamara said. “Let that cowardly bird run. We’ll track her down again, now that we’re learning their tricks. For now, wegot one.”

Ixli considered, tail swaying against the leaves.

“We… did,” she said.

Her laugh started soft, light as early snow. Growing bolder. Louder.

Until they were all laughing. Together. A cacophony wreathed in Autumn leaves, an impossible victory sealed in gold.

“You’re fucking brilliant with that spear,” Fionamara told Ixli. “A menace. Anartist.”

Ixli grinned. “If I’m an artist, you’re a monsoon. You had that aedari quaking, human.”

Fionamarablushed, her grin feral. “And Antal?” She shot him an even more devious look. “Excellent job not being useless.”

“Vicious woman,” he said. “And so uncharitable. I helped plenty—”

Static snapped his tongue. They all looked up.

At Avroz: staring, burgundy eyes wider than Antal could recall in recent memory.

At Syvr: one step behind, brows raised to the stars.

“Well, crack my antlers,” they said in a hush. “Look at that.”

“Welcome, izaevi.” Antal swept a magnanimous arm at the felled aedari. “Your timing is, once again, awful.”

He hadn’t spoken so blithely to his father since velvet coated his antlers. He’d lacked the confidence to stand upon. But a dead aedari was some kind of confidence.

It felt good.

“You did it?” Avroz wore his guarded tone, stepping closer to inspect the corpse. Deliberate movements. His politician’s guise. Did he not believe his eyes, even now?

Ixli stood, her bowed head more formal than Antal’s. “There was a second aedari. A magician.”

Avroz hardened. His scowl was subtle, fit to wound in every deep way Antal knew. Ixli flinched.

“A second?” Avroz demanded. “Where?”

“It… got away.”

“Can you track it?”

“We barely caught this one. The trail… it’s probably not enough…” That was shame in Ixli’s voice, tail low, drowning her previous mirth.

Antal would have none of it.

“We’ll find it again.” He parroted Fionamara’s words, her confidence, as he faced Avroz. “Later. We’ll never pick up its trail if it was teleporting so quickly. But for now? This deserves celebration, doesn’t it? Your kezri has achieved a great feat.”

Ixli deserved to celebrate her first aedari kill, not be chastised for missing the second. She slipped him a subtle grin.

Avroz lifted the aedari’s severed head, eyes hard as he inspected the features. His hesitation was striking, even by his stalwart standards. Certainly, Antal wouldn’t want to be the one returning to the Daey Celva, informing them there was still one aedari loose.

But at his core, Avroz was a creature of tradition.

This occasion demanded recognition. A ritual passed through millennia, for any daeyari skilled enough to fell such quarry.

Avroz gathered himself, a slow breath as formality slid over his posture. He held the aedari’s head over his hand, draining golden blood into his palm.