Page 19 of Dark Destiny: A New Thread in the Tapestry

He moved the thumb.

The band moved with it, turning loose all the way around, and he could feel the inside of it slide past the pad of his finger. There was something carved into it. He could feel the faint ridges passing under his skin.

He turned it again and thought about the young god in the garden and about the goddess standing on a bench to reach his face. He could not make the two things fit together, and he was not certain they were supposed to.

Then she returned and stopped beside his bed. She leaned over him, so beautiful that it took him a moment to hear what she was saying.

She was small and blazing, and her hair fell forward over her shoulder and hung between them. She was worried. It showed in her mouth and in the way she held herself.

"Good morning, my love," she said.

He understood.

"You have been asleep for three hours," she said. "The healer says that you are doing exceptionally well, and I have told her that this does not surprise me because you have always been exceptional in every way."

He understood every word.

She kept talking. She told him the chests had been cleaned out and that things had been found at the bottom. She said the word for rings, and he understood that too, all of it, one word after another after another.

She took his hand between both of hers, moving her thumb over the band on his thumb.

She had put it there.

"You are looking at me as if you understand me," she said. "Can you understand me?"

He tried to answer her, but nothing came. His throat worked, his jaw moved, and the room stayed as quiet as it had been.

"Squeeze my hand if you understand me."

7

ANNANI

Khiann's fingers had closed around hers.

Annani did not move.

Did it mean anything?

Had he really understood her, or was he just asking her mutely not to leave?

His eyes had been following her across the room, so he was aware of her, and he seemed to enjoy her presence, so maybe that was it.

Khiann was looking at her now. His eyes were open and pleading, but she did not know for what.

"If you understand me, squeeze my hand again," she said, keeping her voice exactly at the same level as before so he would not be influenced by the urgency she felt.

He did it again.

It was not stronger than the first time. If anything, it was weaker, but it came at the right moment, and he had relaxed his fingers when she had stopped speaking.

Her glow intensified. She felt it first, then saw it illuminating Khiann's face.

It happened when her emotions were strong, and she knew how to mute it when it was not wise to be luminous and project what she was, but there was no reason to dim her glow now.

Across the room, Julian noticed. "Did something happen?"

"I think Khiann understood me."