The Continent (The Continent #1)(59)

The kiss is endless and momentary all at once, and when at last we break apart, I rest my hand upon his chest and take in the sight of him. He is beautiful. Everything about him is beautiful. The lines of his face, strong and masculine, his lean, muscled body. His almond eyes, smoldering and black in the pale white light of the moon. The beating of his heart beneath my palm, the pulsing throb of the veins in his neck. Alive. Here. With me.

“I worried for you when I was away,” he says softly, tucking a lock of hair behind my ear.

“You worried for me?”

“Every moment.”

“Why were you gone for so long?”

His face tightens. “Let’s not talk of it tonight.”

“Noro, are you hurt?”

“No, miyake.”

I don’t know this word, but I don’t ask what it means. I can hear the fatigue in his voice. “You need rest—you must sleep now,” I say.

He begins to rise, but I pull him back. “Stay, Noro.”

“This is not proper for you,” he says. “To be alone here with me.”

“According to the Aven’ei?”

“According to your people, I think.”

I kiss him lightly on the cheek. “Stay.”

He hesitates for a moment, but moves to the spot beside me on the bed. I draw the quilt around us, turn onto my side and tuck myself into the curve of his body. I doubt that I will be able to return to sleep, but the soft, even sound of his breathing is like a lullaby, and after a few minutes, I feel myself drifting.

“Noro,” I say, my voice tinged with the heaviness of impending sleep, “did you call me ‘Vaela’ when you woke me?”

“Yes.”

“Not ‘girl’?”

“I called you Vaela, miyake.”

My eyes flutter, the lids heavy. This word again. “What does miyake mean?”

His arms pull me closer and I feel his breath upon my hair. “It means ‘my love,’ for that is what you are, Vaela Sun.”

Sleep beckons, and I go to it with a song in my heart.





CHAPTER 20





NORO LEAVES BEFORE I WAKE IN THE MORNING, as I expected he would. The council always requires an immediate report upon his return, and I sensed that whatever happened during Noro’s trip was of some consequence.

He knocks on the door around noon, just as I’m preparing to take a loaf of bread from the oven. My baking has improved, but I wouldn’t say it’s anything special just yet. Noro looks entirely different this morning; gone is the soiled, sweaty black garb of the itzatsune. Now he is scrubbed clean, wearing fresh clothes of deep brown linen. I smile at the soapy scent of him as he steps through the door.

“How did it go?” I ask, setting the bread on the table to cool. He bends over the loaf and takes a deep breath, a small smile on his face.

“You’re becoming quite domestic, Vaela Sun. Is there anything left of the spoiled Spire girl I first met?”

“You’d be surprised,” I say, ushering him out of the kitchen and gesturing to the sofa.

“Still on about the toilets?” he says.

“Don’t change the subject. I want to know what happened with the council, and why you were away for two entire weeks.”

He sits down with a sigh and stares ahead, his shoulders tense. The light seems to have gone out of him completely. “I should have been able to return after only six days. I tracked the men I sought to an area just south of the Kinsho mountains—very near to where I found you. Perhaps fifty miles or so from the village. I accomplished what I set out to do, and I was in good spirits.”

I try not to think of what he must have accomplished. “What happened?”

“I thought to go west, if only to satisfy myself that the region was clear. We do not see many Topi there, for their settlements are far to the north. But Topi rangings in the south have become more frequent, and I could not put the matter to rest in my mind. I truly did not expect to find anyone west of the Kinsho.”

My heart catches in my chest, and I stiffen. “But you did find Topi there.”

Noro turns to me, his brows drawn together. “Why do you say this with such certainty?”

My throat is dry. “Because they have settlements in that region, Noro—far to the west. I have seen them.”

His eyes narrow. “That is not possible. We thoroughly scouted the area at the dawn of winter and it was wilderness, as it always is. The Topi prefer the hard ice of the north and the protection of the mountains—they have never dwelt in the south. Not ever.”

“I would not say such a thing if it were untrue.”

He looks at me for a moment, and then presses the bridge of his nose with his fingertips. “This explains much.”

“What happened? What did you see?”

He drops his hands to his lap. “Ordinarily, the Topi we find in this region are here merely to keep abreast of our movements—they send scouts, like the ones you encountered. They retain the bulk of their forces at common areas of dispute, sending men to other regions as necessary.”

“I have seen this, too,” I say, recalling the battle to the east of the Riverbed.

“But after only two days of searching, I found a group of not two or three Topi, but twenty-five strong. Moving along inside the southern valley, in the direction of the village. They turned back not fifteen miles from here.”