Page 50 of Sunsplitter

She brought her horse to a halt beside them. The beast snorted, flaring finned ears.

“What’s wrong?” Antal asked.

“A busy day on the Winter Plane,” she said in pointed daeyari. Her boots thudded stone as she dismounted. “Another daeyari has been spotted in the Glacier Crest Valley. The telegram just came through. They need you. Now.”

“Another daeyari?” Antal reeled. Unheard of. Any visiting daeyari should have come directly to Thomaskweld to make their intentions known. His kind didn’t skulk in each other’s territories without permission. They knew the penalties: imprisonment, banishment.

“Yes,” Fionamara said. “A real coincidence, don’t you think?”

Yme scowled at Fionamara’s accusing glare—flinched, when Antal matched it.

“I had nothing to do with this,” she said, indignant. “I camealone, Veshri as my witness.” She touched the highest tip of an antler.

Antal huffed. Subterfuge or rotten luck, either way…

“They saidnow,” Fionamara ordered. “Let’s go, Antal.”

Yme bristled at the command.

Between daeyari partners, such things were encouraged, equal dominance seen as healthy for lasting bonds. But Fionamara wasn’t a daeyari. She was a human, daring to speak so harshly to her better.

Antal could gnash his fangs over the hypocrisy later.

“I beg your leave, azaevi,” he said curtly. “It was good to see you. Perhaps, as you said, we can talk more later.”

Yme’s mouth was tight as she nodded.

Fionamara held out her hand, impatient. Antal took it and visualized dark roofs, the rutted clearing of the Glacier Crest Market.

They were gone in a snap.

They emerged to frozen mud. Shoveled snow. The Glacier Crest Market filled the narrow valley, a cliff of ice looming overhead, warmth below, the sheltered ravine packed with shops and trading carts, humming with people—not haggling like usual. Humans huddled in defensive groups beneath the tarps.

A man emerged from the crowd.

“Lord Daeyari,” he greeted. “A swift response. Thank you.Thank you.”

“Mayor Peryate.” Antal met him with head bowed. “You’ve spotted a daeyari? Where?”

He pointed to the trees.

Antal and Fionamara set off alone up the snowy path. They climbed toward the ridge, shiverpines dark above them, a smell of ash on the air.

Fionamara bristled. Her energy simmered, a current teasing her fingertips as she gripped the hilt of her sword. Too eager. Antal would have to keep an eye on her. He’d prefer to settle this peaceably, depending on why the other daeyari had come—

They both froze at a clearing.

A lone figure stood amidst trampled snow. His antlers, high and sharp. His robes, dark as pitch. The familiar smell of hoarfrost and old stone, enough to paralyze Antal.

No. By the endless reaches of the Void, nothere.

The visitor turned, and Antal bared his fangs.

“Ah,” Avroz greeted. “The Lord Daeyari has arrived already? Your humans are swift.”

Antal felt Fionamara’s stunned silence in his bones, felt the same hot panic in his chest.

But then, the rage of seeing his father here. On his Plane. His territory. Land and people Antal had sworn to protect. He drew himself up, claws at his sides. The display earned him a quirk of Avroz’s brow.