Page 35 of Daughter of the Dark Sun
“I ah, I must leave,” he said at last. “I only came to say hello. Adon will spoil you and Lady Ninann with his music and good company in my wake.”
Therat backed away as he spoke, brushing his hand against his twin in farewell. Without waiting for a reply, he turned, using all his willpower not to run away and look a fool.
eighteen
Push and Pull
“Adon’s not often late.He’ll make it worth our time, I promise!” Ninann said, drumming her fingers on the table. “I’m so sorry, Atta. Here I am dragging you out to a place you’ve never been to, waiting for a man you know very little of. We can leave and go back to the Market. The waveweaver Tylei has a show today.”
Ninann’s lilting voice pulled Apattar from her thoughts. She turned back to her twin, trying to ignore the looming presence growing in her mind with each breath.
A dark and foul thing approached.
“I’m sorry, what did you say, my sweet dove? I was only half paying attention.”
“We can leave if you wish; Adon knows how to find me. This is your day as much as it is mine!”
The thought of leaving sent a shudder through Apattar. “No, no it’s fine! Besides, I heard Adon’s twin might be coming. Myris seems to think we’ll become fast friends as well. ‘A twin for a twin’, she said, as if the gods work in such terms.”
Ninann laughed, a sparkling, joyful sound radiating like the sun. “Your little handmaiden has such an imagination on her! Does she still talk as if her life depends on it?”
Apattar chuckled. “Oh, even more so these days! I can’t tell if she’s trying to tire me or herself out, but neither seems to work.”
Ninann said something in reply, but Apattar lost focus on her twin. That hushed, strange melody she first heard in the morning grew louder in her mind. Her empty heart swelled with emotion, feelings she had no names for assaulting her senses. Apattar had never heard such a song before. It combined in perfect euphony with her soulsong, humming through bone and sinew, spreading a cool tingle as it ran its course.
Apattar’s heart quickened. The song pulled her focus to a strange warmth in the void nestled within her core. A tendril of Shadow-weave wove through her restless mind. She found her eyes directed toward two men standing at the far end of the old granary. Tall and black-haired, Apattar recognized Adon’s lean form. Hovering like a guard, thick with muscles, stood the man who could only be his twin.
He turned. It washim.
The man she ran from, whom she never wished to see again.
The man Laisha said she must find.
Muddy brown eyes locked with ones as gray and dismal as the thunderheads that swallowed the ruins of Andeshar. Time slowed as Apattar took in the black-haired stranger before her.
Why couldn’t it be anyone but him?
The man’s muscles rippled with each movement of his deep brown torso: a cougar taut and ready to pounce on unsuspecting prey. He wore a simple gray shawl, doing a poor job of hiding a thin white scar snaking across his chest. Tight black curls and a trimmed beard framed a familiar face, but only emptiness filled his stormy gray eyes.
The void within Apattar writhed in the recognition of another touched by the Shadow-weave. It surged outwards toward the man still staring at the raven-haired woman. In her mind’s eye, Apattar strode across the golden sands toward him. She offered a hand decorated with glittering gold rings and blue tattoos of doves and flaming suns. He took her hand, and his thoughts flickered across her mind.
Hatred, isolation. Intrigue, jealousy, desperation. A lost soul wandering without purpose. Tainted, worthless to the world. Alone, always alone. Only companions the shadows of death, the faces of those claimed by their rage. Cursed, cursed by the gods to kill, and kill again. Begging for death, screaming for ruin.
A chill ran down Apattar’s spine as she pulled herself out of the man’s thoughts. She had not expected to find such raging conflict. Compassion flooded the young woman, recognition of another soul broken by the world. Consumed by her intrigue, Apattar reached out again to the shadow-bound stranger. They lashed out without direction, wild and untamed, full of malice. It reminded Apattar of the moment she lost control, when she killed Tela even while begging the hate festering inside to stop.
How could Laisha think either of them worthy of love, fated or otherwise? Killers did not deserve love.
Why do you call to me?
The man looked to take a step toward her; his twin said something and broke the tenuous connection between the two. He shook his head, curls bouncing in the air in a way Apattar thought strangely mesmerizing. She continued watching him, aware of Ninann speaking but unable to find the will to look away. That irresistible song pulled her forward, overriding all thought.
What is this? What are you doing to me?
Apattar forced her eyes closed, letting her sister’s voice guide her back to the day. She prattled on about some of her newest creations with Adon in preparation for their education in Isneha. The words flowed over Apattar, who feigned interest while waiting for Ninann to take a breath and pause.
“Sister,” she finally interjected. “I wonder if you could tell me about Adon’s brother. That’s him over there, yes?” She gestured at the two black-haired men.
Ninann glanced at Apattar with a curious look but left her thoughts unsaid.
