Page 11 of Dark Destiny: A New Thread in the Tapestry

The baby wasn't coming anytime soon, so the crib wasn't urgent, but Tula wanted it ready, and pleasing her mattered more than anything else because it wasn't good for her to get upset. It affected the baby.

He really shouldn't have wasted time carving those damn faces.

He hadn't decided to do that. He'd reached for the leg, picked up a block of cedar instead, and then done it again, and then twice more. Now the sun was coming up, and there were four small heads lined up on his table.

It didn't make sense.

He didn't know which four guards had been selected to accompany Khiann, and he hadn't been invited to the clinic to take a look at them, so where had this obsession come from?

Were the Fates trying to tell him something?

The heads weren't good work, not only because they were crude and unfinished. He had no idea whose faces he was carving, so how could he get them right?

Esag put the knife down and rolled his shoulders.

Behind him the door opened, and Tula stepped into the doorway, barefoot, which she wasn't supposed to be in his workshop, with all the wood shavings on the floor. She stayed there, one hand on the frame and the other on her belly.

"You didn't come to bed."

"I'm sorry. I've been possessed." He waved at the four figurines. "They wouldn't leave me alone until I carved them, and now they're complaining about the shitty job I've done."

He hoped the humor would soften her temper, which was legendary, and pregnancy hormones were making her even more irritable than usual.

"Who are they?" She came the rest of the way in, and he knew better than to comment on her bare feet and the wood shavings on the floor, or, Fates forbid, rush to swoop her into his arms.

He would get the silent treatment at best, or the dreaded icy glare at worst.

"I don't know. Those are the faces my hands produced, and sometimes they know better than my mind."

She nodded. "You carved me, and you didn't know why."

"That was a cosmic connection." He smiled. "I doubt that's the case with Khiann's guards."

"Who knows?" She chuckled, picking up one of the heads, turning it over, then setting it back down.

"You know what bothers me?"

Esag braced for the scolding. "That I get obsessed with my work and forget to go to sleep?"

"Yeah, that too." She leaned against his worktable, arms crossed over her belly. "But that wasn't what I was going to say. It occurred to me that I was sleeping above them for decades. The Fates could have at least let me dream of them, so I would know, but there was nothing."

"The Fates were merciful. You couldn't have helped them, and the knowledge would only have given you nightmares. Sometimes it's better not to know."

"I'm not upset." She reached over and straightened the third head so it lined up with the others. "I'm just sharing my thoughts with you. You don't need to say anything."

Esag stifled the urge to roll his eyes.

He never knew when Tula wanted him to offer advice or solve her problems, and when she just wanted him to listen. He wished she would just say it plainly so he wouldn't have to guess.

He picked up the fourth leg. "I should focus on finishing the crib."

"The crib can wait. You should go see them."

"They didn't send for me." He reached for the sandpaper.

"Do you have to wait for an invitation?" She arched a brow. "Can't you just go?"

He shook his head. "No one is allowed in there except the medical staff, Annani, and her children."