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It was a gut-wrenching realisation that she was no longer by his side, and the weight of that loss was crushing.
Tracking outside, he crashed into an expansive leather lounge on the skyward terrace and brooded.
Seeing yet unseeing as dawn crept higher, chasing nýkhta’s shadows.
Casting a mellow orange glow over the clouds and mountain peaks stretching as far as the eye could see.
His hawkstone flashed.
He ignored it.
As well as the flutter of wings and the faint tread of feet on approach.
‘Kíríga.’
Killen’s head remained bowed.
‘Kíríga.’
Killen didn’t stir at the soft voice that echoed across the deserted and windswept patio.
‘May I join you, Killen?’
He lifted his head, eyes red and dry, face pale, beard matted. ‘Why?’
‘We need to speak.’
Killen’s eyes tracked to the mountains and lingered. ‘Fine,’ he rasped after a beat. ‘Come closer too, for fokk’s sake.’
His short temper, a frequent occurrence in recent days, flared.
‘Sorry, I shouldn’t have snapped at you,’ he muttered, scrabbling a glass of water to quench the burn in his soul. To no avail.
‘De nada.’ The shrouded figure stepped forward from the shadows of the kíota’s overhang. ‘You have much on your mind.’
Killen leaned back, pushed a hand through his silver hair, and breathed out. ‘Do you have more news?’
Kamilla spoke from the gloom in a whisper, still waiting to be invited into Kíríga’s presence. ‘Naam. Of Kultur. He dispatched Kalila a kw?l, which I intercepted.’
‘What did it say?
‘It told of his disappointment in Kalila’s encounter with you over Kos. He blamed her for fumbling the attack on you and Sana’a. What’s more important is how she reacted.’
The Kíríga shifted and sat up. ‘Pray to tell?’
‘With fury. She’s livid. She’s sent word for Kassian to march his army to Kos. She also instructed Kultur to head to Mount Karth to start transmuting the captive she holds.’
‘The fokkin’ what?’
‘The hostage she intends to use to resurrect a King.’
‘Khiron, from what Kesia shared.’
‘That might well be, Kíríga. For Mount Karth is his graveyard.’
Silence fell between them until Kamilla spoke once more.
‘Koreau needs you to know one more thing. It turns out Kultur has a slightly different agenda to Kalila. He wants to use kízakan to control Katáne and bring back the age of the Ilki, the first eagles to rule the skies of Katáne.’
