Page 148 of Keeper of the Word
To do so stung as she ne’er would have imagined.
“Are you certain ’tis me?” Tolvar broke her concentration.
“I am. I have Seen your fortune, Sir Tolvar. You are the man of the moon and stars. A knight of honor and redemption. You helped carry your Sloane to victory, and you shall carry victory once again. Even if ’tis not what any of us envisioned a victory to be or look like.”
“I did not keep my word. I promised you a knight’s protection, and I let my own consumption of…” Did the Wolf have tears in his eyes? “…vengeance obstruct that word. I am most sorry.”
Elanna did not know how many occasions the man known as the Wolf had uttered an apology. It could not be many. Moons ago, she’d Seen him and wondered if she could save him. At this moment, she thought, aye, she could. Even if there were still a great many tasks ahead of them.
“And,” Tolvar said, “I do not think I have the faith you search for in the man who can carry this. I am not a praying man.”
“Do you wish to save the Capella Realm, Sir Tolvar?”
Tolvar nodded. “Of course. I am a knight of the realm.”
“I know you trust yourself as such. Trust thatthisis the most crucial duty you shall e’er carry out as a knight.”
“As a knight.” He focused on the Edan Stone with a new expression.
“Bow your head, Sir Tolvar. And let us begin.”
Chapter
Fifty-Five
TOLVAR
No sooner had Tolvar bowed his head than the memory of praying with Sloane on the Falling Leaves Moon entered his mind. He stared at his hands, so perfectly recollecting how Sloane had guided them into the Deogolian prayer position. “Hands. Heart. Head,” she’d uttered.
I wait for you.The vision of her in his dream was far too real.
Elanna had not instructed him what to do with his hands, so he folded them the way Sloane had demonstrated. Simply clasping his palms together, as many Lenforese did when praying to the stars, did not feel correct.
The StarSeer’s stillness disconcerted him. Yet, she’d commanded him to bow his head, so he did not raise it to discern what she did.
’Twas a long time, and Elanna did not stir. The night’s breeze gently swayed the moonbeam flowers, and Tolvar watched their heads bob. A few crickets chirped. Tolvar let out a sigh; his healing thigh ached to shift from a kneeling position.
The Edan Stone laying in the clover did nothing.
His eyes roamed as his boredom grew.
Then,Tolvar.
The voice. ’Twas Sloane’s voice.
“Keep your head bowed, Sir Tolvar,” Elanna whispered.
He almost asked Elanna if she’d heard Sloane’s voice, but as he was uncertain if he was allowed to speak, thought better of it.
She must have heard it,he decided.
With ears primed, Tolvar anxiously waited to hear Sloane’s voice again.
Instead, he recalled her frightened face transforming into an undaunted expression in the alley where they’d first met. He recalled Sloane try and try again to pierce a target with an arrow. Her fearless countenance before she sought the goddess of the Azure Moon. And the last tender gaze she’d gifted him before galloping away on Kenn. To her doom. To her glory.
Sloane would know how to receive thewordfrom the stars, even if she was a woman of the moon faiths. She would know.
Tolvar, you are the keeper of the word.
