heard a voice both weary and ecstatic, grasped for the fading colors. She knew who this man was, remembered the elegant pattern from years ago—but he eluded her, escaping on the thin unraveling moonlight even as she struggled to hold the weaving together. He was gone—but not before he had told her what she had to know.
“Sioned!” she screamed. “Goddess, no!”
Urival caught her up in his arms and ran headlong for her tent. Safely within the blue silk walls, the moonlight lost its hold on her. Urival placed her on the cot and crouched beside her, chafing her hands. “Tell me,” he rasped.
“Find Sioned! Tell Rohan—Roelstra has her, he’ll—”
“How do you know?”
Above them in the night the dragonsire shrieked again, and Andrade shied away from the imagined feel of his wings against her face.
“Dragoncry before dawn—Urival, he’s dead, the Sunrunner is dead—died telling me—don’t let Sioned die, too!”
Chapter Sixteen
Rohan stared down at the shirt he had just dropped onto the carpet. No, too much effort to pick it up again—and dangerous besides, considering the condition of his head. It was a good thing Sioned had not been in her tent, for he would not have been much use to her tonight. He made a mental note to abstain from anything stronger than water during his wedding feast. He would have enough to worry about without that happening to him as well.
Yawning and stretching were risky ventures, too, and after the attempts he stood very still until his head stopped spinning. His lips were numb; so was his nose. He wondered if his mother had taught Walvis any cures for a morning winehead. Come to think of it, where was his squire? The one night Rohan actually needed someone to help him to bed, and the boy had vanished. He sighed, pitying the poor prince forced to take off his own boots, and collapsed on the bed to consider trying it.
The dragon’s cry shuddered through him as if he had never heard the sound before in his life. What was a dragon doing over Waes at this time of year? The scream came again and he braced himself against it, the echo staying with him as he fell back against the pillows. In the profound silence he heard his gasping breaths and the rapid pounding of his heart that had little to do with the quantities of wine he’d consumed that night. The third piercing call was like a sword through his skull and he wrapped his arms around his head, his whole body flinching. A dragon, far from the usual flight paths, traveling at night when landmarks below were only dimly lit by the moons—
“You there! You can’t go in now, my lord is—”
“Get out of my way!”
He recognized Urival’s voice and struggled to sit up as the faradhi burst into the tent. “What—”
“Listen to me,” the Sunrunner said in rough tones. “Roelstra has Sioned.”
The effects of the wine vanished as if a searing wind off the Long Sand had swept through his body. He surged to his feet and pushed past Urival into the night, looking up involuntarily at the dragon shadows. Urival grabbed him from behind and spun him around.
“Think! As much as you may want to kill him, you can’t! Rohan, think!”
The dragonsire shrieked again above them, and Rohan stiffened as his flesh cringed again with the terrible cry. Urival was shaking him, fingers digging into his shoulders. “Take your hands off me,” he snarled.
“Listen! Andrade felt the renegade Sunrunner call to her on the moonlight. He died giving her the warning. But it may be a trap.”
Did Urival believe him unaware of the way Roelstra’s mind worked? “Damn you, I can think! Now let me go!”
The older man looked narrowly into his eyes, then relaxed his grip. “Good. I’m coming with you.”
“Just don’t get in my way.”
He didn’t run. His heart was pounding too fast, and he couldn’t seem to breathe properly around the knot of rage in his chest. But he could not give in to it. Urival was right. He could not afford to kill the High Prince. But if Roelstra had put so much as a finger on Sioned—he rejected the image. He must not consider it. He must think.
Urival’s status as a high-ranking Sunrunner got them past guards who would not have recognized Prince Rohan in the half-naked young man accompanying him. A flash of jeweled rings and they were bowed to without challenge until they were within Roelstra’s silent camp.