AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Lio leaned his elbows on his knees, meeting her gaze. “Cassia, the tragedies Phaedros’s victims suffered are far from the normal experience of new Hesperines. I wish I were qualified to describe it. Nodora could tell you more about it.”
“Nodora is very kind.”
Lio still sensed the weight on her heart. He held her gaze. “Cassia, do you think my mother would have submitted to the Gifting while pregnant with me, if she had believed for a moment it would cost us our lives?”
Cassia let out a long breath. “Of course not.”
“A Gifting is a time of happy anticipation. Family and friends begin the evening with a celebration and welcome gifts for their new loved one. I’ve often attended Gift Nights among our Ritual tributaries to offer the well-wishes of Blood Komnena.”
“So on your very first Gift Night, you receive presents.”
“That’s right. Everyone gives with confidence. We wouldn’t have such a party if mortality rates were high.”
That roused a chuckle from her.
“After gifts,” he went on, “the newcomer may announce his or her Hesperine name, if moved to choose a new name for a new life. Then friends and family withdraw to pray for an easy and joyful transformation, and the newcomer goes into seclusion with those who will perform the Gifting.”
“You explained to me once that the only way to receive the Gift is to drink a Hesperine’s blood in considerable quantity.” She took a little breath that soughed in her throat. “Who actually provides this blood?”
Lio’s heart beat faster. So she had not left it to his mother to explain the finer points. It would still be his task—his pleasure—to fill in the details.
“Sometimes,” he said, “an adult receives the Gift from his or her Ritual parents.”
Disappointment sank her aura. “I see.”
He leaned closer, brushing her hair back from her neck to fetch her gaze to him. “However, if you choose to stay in Orthros with someone who cares for you, it is your lover’s blood that welcomes you into eternal night.”
She swallowed. The first stirrings of desire perfumed her scent.
Lio smiled slowly. “Your Gifting is your first feast. When your hunger overtakes you for the very first time, your lover is there to sate you with blood and pleasure. You transform in your lover’s arms, with your bodies joined.”
“There can be no death in such an act of love,” she breathed.
He shook his head, lowering his mouth to her throat. He buried his hand in her hair, ready to ease her face against his own vein.
The bleat of a goat reached his ears.
Cassia sat back, flushed but grinning. He gave her a rueful look, rubbing his mouth, and limited himself to holding her hand.
An instant later Zoe came around a bend in the path. All Lio could see of his sister and her two pets were their faces, peeping out of her silk mantle.
“Zoe,” Cassia exclaimed. “We were just coming to see you.”
Zoe cast an uncertain glance at the sky, then joined them in the shelter of the bearberry bushes. The quiet suckling hopped up on the bench between Lio and Cassia. They settled their arms behind her, still holding hands. The goats scrambled down to lay by the bench with Knight.
Lio smiled at Cassia over Zoe’s head. “I was just telling Cassia how Giftings work. Why don’t you tell her about yours?”
Cassia appeared apprehensive. “Only if you want to, Zoe.”
Zoe smiled. “Everyone brought me so many wonderful presents. That’s when Mama and Papa gave me my goats.”
Cassia’s smile returned. “What did Lio give you?”
Zoe pulled out the spyglass he had made her. It was collapsible to a size that fit easily in a suckling’s pocket, but the magic on it was big enough for her to grow into. She extended the instrument to its full length and held it out to show Cassia. “Lio crafted this for me. It’s not just any spyglass. He asked Mak and Lyros to make the metal parts and came up with the lenses himself. But he also put a spell on it, so when I look into it, it won’t just show me what’s up ahead. It will show me the way to whatever I’m looking for.”
Cassia cast a wondering glance from the spyglass to Lio. “This is a powerful artifact.”
“Well,” Lio said, “it did require quite a combination of mind, blood, and light magics.”
