faint surprise she realized it was the first time she had heard her brother speak the girl’s name. She shook like wind chimes in a storm, her bones clashing wild chords as each heartbeat brought new pain lancing through her head. “Sioned!” Rohan called again.
But it was Andrade who answered. “Urival—keep her breathing! Sioned, help me!”
The colors intensified, needles of reds and blues and greens slicing deep into her flesh and bone. Some of them hurt as they were torn away, but others melted into her body and she recognized these as her own.
Tobin became aware that she was propped against someone’s chest and there were hands around her ribs, squeezing rhythmically to keep her breathing. Urival, she thought, not even wondering how she knew. Someone else knelt at her left side, holding her hands, and without opening her eyes she knew it was Sioned. She could sense Andrade just as easily on her right. She sagged back, unutterably weary and desperately glad to be alive.
“Tobin?” Chay whispered, and at last she opened her eyes. He was kneeling by Sioned, the flames shivering along the lines of his face and shoulder. She shifted away from Urival’s support and toward her husband. Freeing her hands, she touched his cheek and smiled slightly.
“Stay right where you are,” Andrade ordered sharply. “I’m not going to tell you twice, so listen carefully. You were nearly shadow-lost tonight, Tobin, and if Sioned and I hadn’t known your colors, you would have died. Don’t you ever attempt to follow a Sunrunner again!”
Milar gave a soft gasp. “Is that what happened? But how could she do it?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” Andrade shrugged. “She has the gifts, Mila.”
“From me.” The princess turned her head away.
“But it was beautiful!” Tobin protested. “It’s nothing to be ashamed of!”
“Of course it isn’t,” Andrade said, casting an annoyed look at her twin. “Just the same, you shouldn’t have been able to do it.”
“It wasn’t her highness’ doing, my Lady,” Sioned whispered, her head bent. “I was the one who caused it. Forgive me. It’s because I’d touched her before, you see. I—I’m not fit to wear my rings. . . .”
Andrade rocked back on her heels, scowling. But it was Urival who spoke in deliberately mild tones, saying, “I thought I taught you better than that.”
“It would seem she was not paying sufficient attention,” Rohan said coldly.
Sioned flinched. But though they all stared at him in shock, no one dared make the retort such arrogant rudeness deserved. He was not brother or son or friend tonight; he was the prince.
Andrade finally broke the silence. “Chay, take her back to the keep and make her rest. She needs time to heal.”
“But she’ll be all right,” he said, not quite a question.
Tobin pushed herself to a sitting position, hiding sudden dizziness. “I wish you’d stop talking about me as if I weren’t here. I’m fine.”
“We’ll see,” Andrade said. “Chay, get her into bed.” Rising to her feet, she took Milar’s arm and returned to Zehava’s pyre.
Tobin submitted meekly as Urival helped her to stand and gave her into Chay’s worried keeping. After assuring himself that she could walk, he didn’t let her; he picked her up and carried her the whole three measures, telling her to keep her mouth shut when she began a protest. She looked back once over her shoulder at her brother, who stood alone and rigid and staring at Sioned’s bowed head.
Tobin managed to stay awake until Chay had tucked her into their bed and made her swallow a cup of wine. After the day’s fasting and the events of the night, the wine hit her like a fist to the jaw. The next she knew, it was morning and he was still at her side. The dark stubble of his beard scratched her cheek as he caught her fiercely against him.
“You scared me to death, you silly bitch,” he growled.
She snuggled into his arms, rightly interpreting this as proof of his love, then kissed his neck and pulled away. “I’m quite all right now. Have you been awake all night?”
He placed her back on the pillows as if she was made of Fironese crystal. “You stopped breathing out there, you know. So I kept count while you were sleeping.”
She bit her lip, then managed, “I’m sorry, love.”
“You ought to be. Turn over and go back to sleep.”
“I can’t. I have to talk to Sioned before Rohan does—and especially before Andrade gets the chance to shout at her. It really wasn’t