Page 155 of Sun Warrior

Nik had come to a halt and was staring at her. “Laru!” he called, and the Shepherd, who had been padding several yards in front of them, checking for wolf spiders, sprinted to his side. Nik squatted beside his Companion. “Could you send Mari a feeling?”

Laru’s tail wagged, and suddenly Mari was washed in happiness.

She giggled. “That’s really nice, Laru! Thank you.”

Nik stared up at her. “You felt it, too?”

“Sure—happiness. Laru’s a sweetheart.”

Nik stared from Mari to Laru, finally blurting, “Why are we just now finding out Mari can accept emotions fromanyCompanion?”

Laru barked twice, sharply. Then Nik and Mari spoke at the same time. “Because no one asked before now!”

Mari laughed again as Nik took her in his arms and kissed her hard and quick. “You are magnificent!”

“Well, thank you, Nikolas.”

“As far as I know, and all members of the Tribe of the Trees learn our history—whether we want to or not—never in the history of theTribe has there ever been an account of a Companion being able to receive from other canines, let alone afeline.”

“Huh. I’m glad I didn’t know that before. I probably would have been too shocked to focus and draw down the moon.”

“I doubt that. Mari, I think you can do anything you set your mind to.”

Nik took her hand and Mari was so happy she felt as if her feet hardly touched the ground the rest of the way to her burrow.

***

“Nik! What did you do?”

Mari had stopped at the entrance to her home. She’d expected it to look different. They’d spent the past days going back and forth from there to the birthing burrow, carrying medicines, cookware, clothes, and supplies—leaving only what was needed for their last night. What she hadn’t expected was to step into a fragrant wonderland of color.

Nik had collected flowers, hanging fragrant lavender upside down from the ceiling and placing colored flowers in roughly carved wooden containers. There were brilliant maiden pinks, bursting with color, white star showers in another, with the gorgeous blossoms dripping from clusters of small, emerald stems, orange daylilies that were as fragrant as they were beautiful, a magnificent cluster of hard-to-find purple and yellow irises, and interspersed among all of them were bouquets of honey-scented forget-me-nots.

Mari went to a bouquet of the unforgettable blue flowers. She lifted a shaking hand, touching the velvet petals as she inhaled their familiar honey scent.

“Do you like it?”

Mari turned to Nik, tears washing down her face. “I love it.”

“Then don’t cry!” He pulled her into his arms. “I wanted to make you happy, not sad.”

“These are happy tears—mostly. Did you know these blue flowers are called forget-me-nots?”

“No, but I thought you’d like them because Rigel took me to them.They cover the little clearing above your burrow, totally surrounding that pretty Goddess image. But you already know that.”

“They were Mama’s favorite flower. They’d never bloomed there until I buried her beside the Goddess; then all of a sudden the clearing was filled with them.” Mari sniffed and wiped her eyes. “The Great Goddess loved Mama. I think that’s her way of showing me—though I already knew it.” Then Mari noticed what was sitting in the center of her sketching table, and she went to it, picking up the little figurine and exclaiming, “Oh, Nik! This is exquisite!” She turned the figure over and over, studying its graceful lines and its strange beauty.

“It’s a better version of the equine you asked for,” he said. “I’ve been working on this one in secret for days.”

“The detail is amazing!”

“My mother used to draw them, so I’ve been intrigued by them since I was a little boy.”

“And she said the same thing Antreas has been telling us—that they’re big enough to ride?”

“Absolutely.”

“It’s hard to imagine,” Mari said.