“Take extra care of them,” Bastion instructed.
Rowan slid into his embrace easily.Bastion set him on the ground.He expected the boy to collapse beneath the weight of his own cloak, but he stood steady, eyes larger than saucers as he looked around.
Satisfied, Bastion unhooked the saddlebags and threw them over his shoulder.He took one look at Ulla struggling to stay vertical and decided to risk her claws.Hiding his own stiffness, he strode over to her and scooped her into his arms.Another boom of thunder shook the sky, and rain began to fall.
At first, she went rigid as a board.Then, she threw her arms around his neck and melted into him.Bastion swallowed, hoping she couldn’t feel the way his heart was thumping or the desperate relief that they were here and she wassafe.
He glanced at Rowan and said, “Stay close.”The boy nodded.
The guard who led them inside kept glancing over his shoulder, eyes hungry with questions.His mustache wiggled, and once or twice, he seemed about to give in to his curiosity.Bastion didn’t doubt that they were three of the most interesting people to walk through Moonwatch’s doors in a long time.
He’d never visited Lord Kyrith’s home, but it surprised him that it contained little ornamentation, as if it had been carved from the rock just yesterday.The condensation clinging to the walls proved otherwise, giving life to a layer of slick moss.The air smelled damp and green as they traversed the darkness between one pool of torchlight and the next, climbing a wide, stone staircase to the second floor.Even protected by the thick stone, Bastion could hear the waves crashing against the cliffs, as insistent as his pulse in his ears.
Finally, the guard opened an ornate wood door and ushered them into a sitting room, warm with firelight.
Three distinctly different faces turned as the door closed.
None of them was Lord Kyrith.
The nearest surprised Bastion–an Yvri man, seated on an antique settee, with skin the color of deep water.His dark eyes alluded to a mind equally deep and thoughtful.He took in Rowan peering around Bastion, then Ulla, his eyes lingering on her face and the cut that marred it.Behind the settee, a tall, pale man turned from a table of spirits, his pudgy fingers gently pinching a comically small glass filled with an amber liquid.He and the Yvri wore matching dressing gowns, the dark velvet drinking up the firelight.
The third person stood near the fireplace, her surcoat glittering with rain.She threw a multitude of black braids over her shoulder as she stepped around the seating area to face Bastion.
Even backlit by the fire, Nesrin’s warm, honey irises glittered in a mahogany face.But that was the only warm thing about her.She’d always been reserved, since the day they met, just before she joined the ranks of prospective knights.The first woman ever to do so in the kingdom of Etruria.
She looked at Bastion with such a critical eye that he had to remind himself they were friends–dare he even say, close friends.
Like Ulla, Nesrin had questions in her eyes.He knew she would ask them later, when they were alone.He set Ulla down and bowed, an automatic response to one of the royal family that he couldn’t smother if he tried.
“Where is your father?”Bastion asked her as he straightened.“I must speak with him immediately.”
“He’s not here,” the man behind the dragon-kin said.His voice carried the steady, melodic timbre of an educated noble with a penchant for poetry.He lifted his glass and took a dainty sip.“Lady Nesrin commands Moonwatch.”
“Bastion, this is my cousin, Lord Lawrence,” Nesrin said.“And…” She seemed to grope for the next words.“Minato.”
Bastion blinked, uncertain which piece of information he should address first.The absence of Lord Kyrith, the lack of resemblance, or the anomaly of an Yvri sitting with the family.
Lawrence picked for him.
“Third cousin, really,” he said, jiggling the now mostly empty glass between his fingers.“Twice removed, if you want to be specific.We have an uncanny likeness, don’t you think?”
The joke brought a smile to Minato’s lips, but Bastion only stared.With their stark difference in age and skin color, at best, he thought Lawrence could be an adopted uncle.Bastion didn’t have time for genealogy.He turned to Nesrin.
“Pirates are sweeping the coast,” he began.
“We’re aware.Father is dealing with them–”
“They’re coming here,” Bastion cut her off.“And they have a weapon.”
“Are you certain?”Lawrence asked, all trace of humor gone.
“Yes,” Bastion answered.“We saw it, and the boy’s father made sure we escaped to deliver this information.”Bastion looked at Ulla and Rowan.Nesrin’s face went ashen.She swallowed.
“Introductions are in order,” Minato said, standing.
The abruptness in subject change startled Bastion.The Yvri had a bearing and grace that reminded Bastion of Lyanthis, the head of the university.However, Minato appeared to lack the arrogance–and perhaps the temper–of the headmaster.
“This is Rowan,” Bastion began.“And U-”
