Lizzan looked up at Aerax in amazement as there was a silence that was not quite silence, but instead filled with a wet and breathy sound so familiar to their first kisses. Yet although there was amusement in his dark gaze, there was concern, too.
“Did you get enough rest?” he asked softly.
There would never be quite enough after this night. But she nodded.
“There,” said Seri, slightly breathless. “I have kissed you. But are you dead?”
“I think I have just begun to live,” Tyzen said in awe.
Kelir, who’d been wiping tears from his cheeks, lost himself all over again.
“But we cannot do this,” Seri told him, exasperation clear in her voice. “I hope to serve on Yvenne’s Dragon. You are Yvenne’s brother and serve her. Will you not always?”
“I will. And so we will always be near to each other.”
“Too near,” Seri said. “If I serve on Yvenne’s Dragon, I must take a vow to always protect her first. Yet if I marry, I must vow to protect that person first. If my duty takes me away from a spouse, no conflict is there—but if we are always close, because they also serve the Ran? The day may come when I have to break a vow to the Ran or break a marriage vow, and I become an oathbreaker either way. Do you never wonder why my brother and Ardyl always keep someone between them? It is because that person is always Ran Maddek.”
“He has been between them?” Tyzen sounded taken aback.
“Not in that way . . . or if he ever was, not since they were all young. But they always knew he would be Ran, and that they would serve as his Dragon. So it is their duty that lies between them, for they love each other and will never love another in that same way. Yet even their moon night, they shared someone between them. Despite all the strangers that they have taken to their bed, never have they been with anyone but each other—yet never have they really touched each other, only the person between them. And they are content and happy that way. It suits them. It would not suit me. I could not share you with anyone.”
“Then I will only be yours.”
“And if one day I must decide between saving you and saving your sister? It would tear my heart apart. So do not ask this of me.”
Laughter over, Kelir sighed, staring up into the darkness above. Ardyl nudged his shoulder with her foot, and he smiled slightly, hand sliding companionably up her leg to grip her knee.
Stubbornly Tyzen said, “If I can tear your heart apart, you must feel something.”
“That I love you? You are a fool if you do not already know. But we cannot be more than we are now. Not with Yvenne between us.”
“Then you will be more with another?” Tyzen gave a bitter laugh. “And I shall be as Preter, secretly in love and heartstricken every time Kelir and Ardyl take another to their bed?”
Groaning, the monk buried his red face in his hands.
“I am taking no one to my bed!” Seri shouted. “But the Destroyer is coming and I’m asking you not to make me choose between you and Yvenne. After he’s been defeated . . .”
“After?” Tyzen’s voice rang with hope.
“Would you wait for me?” Sudden uncertainty filled the girl’s reply. “Even if it is years?”
“I will wait forever for you.”
The breathless wet sounds came again. With another heavy sigh, Kelir said, “I ought to have ordered her to stay with the Kothans.”
“You did as you should,” Ardyl told him. “She will be a great warrior, but not if she is never allowed to test her nerves or push herself to the edge. And this night will merely be a story that she tells when she is old.”
Silently he nodded, though his expression was still weighed with guilt and worry.
Ardyl looked to Preter, who stared straight ahead, obviously wishing for the wraith to come through the door at that moment.
“Kelir and I will tear you apart,” she said quietly to him.
He cast her a wry glance. “That is what I hope.”
She grinned, though it slowly faded. “We are generous with our hearts, and so we might come to love you. But Seri spoke truth. Our duty is always to Maddek, and when we no longer protect Tyzen, to Maddek we will return.”
“As I will return to Toleh and to my studies—and one