16
In Dreams
Drystan watched his sister set out for her daily interrogation. He and Valen had been washing their knives at the stream after an early hunt when he glimpsed her walking by, Kian on her heels, her red hair like a flame against the emerald and sapphire of the waking forest.
He set his frown to the glare of the rising sun. It cut a hard line between the trees, setting the plum-colored leaves into a spray of colored light on the forest floor. A breeze sent some floral, pleasing scents their way. He’d been here long enough to know precisely which flowers they’d come from. The ones in question were shaped like bells, with tiny arms and feet, like the little people of myth that his nan used to speak of. But it was their color that first caught his eye and still held it, even now.
