Page 24 of Ties of Frost

She cast me a flat look. “Yes, I remember your dare getting us both in trouble and our penance of meticulously copying two hundred pages of holy texts that was all your fault.” The corner of her mouth twitched, and her steps slowed.

I indulged in a grin. “But a duel on the roof of the dormitorywassuch good practice in balance and environmental awareness.”

“And Instructor Kell was wrong.” She shrugged. “I have, in fact, had to fight on a roof, and since it had buttresses and spires and gargoyles, I’d have been more likely to cause damage to the building if I’d shifted.”

I stumbled. “You fought on a roof?”

Zidra’s cheeks reddened. “It’s less impressive than it sounds. A vacterin family had built a nest in the attic of a justice hall.”

My eyebrows shot up as I pictured Zidra in a rooftopbattle with a horde of sharp-clawed oversized weasels bent on defending their nest. “Perhaps not a particularly glamorous fight, but still impressive. I have a nasty scar on my calf from a vacterin.” Old superstitions associated them with death and misfortune, so rengiri were often called upon to get rid of them.

The shy smile she sent me felt like a victory.

We reached the front of the nave and knelt before the altar. In unison, we fell into the familiar rhythm of the rengir litany, our voices mingling as we recited short prayers of praise and intercession for our upcoming mission. After the last prayer, we fell silent but remained kneeling on the cold stone to offer our personal prayers.

I lifted my head to stare at the stained-glass window. A forest elf girl skipped toward a boy with scales on his arms—an artistic representation of a wyveri. A surprising inclusion given how many people mistrusted the wyveri even now, let alone when the window was commissioned. My gaze rose to the sprawling branches of the sequoia.

Iskyr, I don’t even know what it is I want.The tug of my awareness toward the woman at my side argued otherwise. Unable to recall an appropriate prayer or put my knotted feelings into words, I simply sent a plea for help. After all, those holy texts I’d copied said Iskyr didn’t require grand words to hear the honest cry of a faithful heart.

Zidra stood, and I followed suit. As she turned toward the entrance, a dark shape moving in my periphery caught my attention.

Eleven

Zidra

Prayer usually instilled in me a fresh sense of calm and clarity, but not today. The sense that something unidentifiable was wrong had haunted me since I’d awoken that morning. As I rose to my feet, that feeling did not abate. There was something I had forgotten, or was overlooking, or a mistake I had made that was going to cause a problem at any moment, or…I didn’t know what. I just knew that agitation vibrated through every inch of my body.

I reached tentatively for the heartbond, which confirmed that Iskyr had not granted my request to remove it, either. No reassurances about Iskyr having plans above our comprehension could make me feel better about the current situation.

This heartbond was a problem. Kyrundar’s face had haunted my dreams. I couldn’t recall what had happenedin those dreams, but he’d been there. When he’d opened the door to his room this morning, a sense ofrightnesshad flowed through me—and then I’d seen his toned chest with its faint scars from past battles. I didn’t know how to describe the heat that had rushed to my cheeks or the flurry of confused feelings the sight had stirred.

Why had his state of undress affected me so? I’d seen him and other men without a shirt before. Such things were unavoidable sometimes when men and women trained together or shared sleeping accommodations at the Havens. I’d always averted my eyes and not paid much heed.

But just thinking about Kyrundar leaning against the doorframe, his muscular form looming over me and his bare torso so close to my face… Heat flamed over my face again.

No. I wasn’t going to fall victim to his seductive ways.

“Rengiri, welcome.” The sudden emergence of the deep voice off to the side, past Kyrundar on my left, made me jolt.

I smothered my surprise and turned to face the approaching priest. “Greetings, Respected Brother,” we said in unison.

The priest smiled. “Greetings, my brother and sister.” His unadorned black robes swished around his sandaled feet as he approached and then stopped in front of us. Candlelight gleamed on the dark skin of his shaved head, marking him as a member of the studious Allantine Order. “It is always an honor to welcome rengiri, but an extra honor to welcome recipients of the Emperor’s Merit.”

Annoyance and a twinge of shame went through me. What did everyone truly think of me? The second wyveri member in the history of the Order of the Rengir, and I couldn’t earn recognition without the aid of an elf.

“It’s delightful to see the two of you here together, saying your prayers in unison before setting out on a new shared mission. Do you have any intercession requests?”

“We need to find someone,” Kyrundar said. “Urgently. And we have very little information to guide us.”

The priest nodded gravely. “May Iskyr be your guide, then.” He looked to me. “I feel that Iskyr is prompting me to give you a word of advice. Do not lightly shun his good gifts.”

All I could manage in response was a sharp nod.

Kyrundar looked at me out of the corner of his eye, one eyebrow raised, and then he inclined his head to the priest. “Thank you, Respected Brother.”

“Thanks be to Iskyr for his wisdom.”

“Iskyr, we thank you,” Kyrundar and I said by long-practiced habit.

---