Chapter Twenty-One
The Family officers soon followed Rigel, leaving Kriss with orders to report to Thaylia the next morning. Tevera, no longer confined to quarters—she’d asked, and the captain had granted her clemency—watched them go from where she sat beside Kriss near the fire, the touchlyre between them.
Kriss ran a finger over its gently curved flank. “It doesn’t look dangerous, does it?”
“It’s beautiful,” Tevera said. She leaned over to look at it more closely. “It doesn’t look alien.”
“My father made the outside, the musical instrument, as a disguise, I guess,” Kriss said. “The artifact—I don’t even know what it looks like—is inside. Somehow, he connected them.” His voice was soft. He paused, swallowed, then said, “It’s . . . it’s not the only beautiful thing in the room.”
Tever
