Lian glanced around the osphena. “Where are your ssobroke?”
Kayluth rolled his eyes. “Bjorn dragged them out of here thiss morning. Ssomething about pressentss.” He turned to Ivar. “Iz there ssome ssignificansse to twenty-three ssycless I am unaware of? We did not do any of thiss when Ssundrake turned thirty-one.”
Ivar shook his head. “No. I suspect it’s just Bjorn being Bjorn.” Ivar grimaced. “Actually, that’s not true. He’s changed so much over the last sun cycle. He’d taken Manning’s presence for granted, and when you took him aboardReykr, it was Bjorn who heard his distress message first. He was the one who ordered ships to seek Manning out and sent messages to the nearby planets and stations in the hopes he’d turn up there. Dagr and Tore were considerably less distraught, if at all. In truth, that’s when my allegiance to Dagr began to slip.”
Kayluth gripped Ivar’s upper arm. He didn’t need to acknowledge where Ivar’s allegiance now lay. Ivar’s love for Lian and his continued friendship with both Moondrake and Sundrake were all Kayluth needed to trust him.
The door slid open again, framing Svandis and her sobroke, Vakel and Makbjorn. Kel and Mak each carried a small, wrapped present for their “adopted” son. Kayluth was grateful they accepted Svandis’ firstborn into their family with no resentment. The two Drakken could have made Moondrake’s life difficult, but their love for their sobroke extended to all of her, including her giving Moondrake to his biological father after he was born.
“Where iz Margarreg?” Svandis asked, entering the room. She liked to use Moondrake’s birth name, and while Kayluth had some reservations about it, Moondrake didn’t mind. Per his sobroke, allowing her to use it was a simple way to keep their relationship on a growing course.“No sense rocking the ship over something so insignificant,”he’d explained. Kayluth also believed Moondrake liked having a Drakken name, though he himself would never call his sobroke by it. Moondrake was the name he’d given his sobroke, and so it would stay.
“With hiss brother, of coursse,” Kayluth said. “I am ssure they will be here ssoon.”
She harrumphed. “Thiss party iz for him, yet he iz not here. Ridiculouss.”
Kayluth ignored the spat, more interested in watching his daughter approach her Drakken grandmother.
“Tassina?” Raisa pulled on Svandis’ floor-length tunic.
Svandis gazed down at her granddaughter. Her braids, dotted with golden gemstones, fell like a curtain across her face, blocking Kayluth from seeing her expression. “Ssu, Raissa?”
“Did you bring me a pressent?”
Svandis crouched, bringing herself to the same height as Raisa. “Thesse pressentss are for your father, but…” She slipped her hand into a hidden pocket and withdrew a three-pronged, gem-studded, copper hair stick. “I thought you might like thiss.”
“Oh, Tassina… It’ss beautiful.” Raisa blinked her big, blue eyes at Moondrake’s mother. “Will you put it in my hair for me?”
“Of coursse.”
Raisa turned around, and Svandis swept up the braids from Raisa’s temples. She gave them a single twist before pinning them down with the new hair stick.
“> Kayluth thanked his mother-by-marriage, “> He admired the delicate swirl of metal and the white, pink, and red stones fastened to it.
“How do I look, Father?” Raisa asked, looking up at him.
“Beautiful.”
She beamed, thanked, and hugged Svandis, then scampered across the osphena to show her gift off to Kayluth’s fathers. As theyoooed over the new hair stick, Kayluth saw Reykos pout.
“>”
“>” Svandis winked at Kayluth, removing two plainer hair sticks. “>”
Kayluth grinned. >”
Her gasp of surprise wasn’t unexpected. He’d never called her Mother before. It was a gesture of respect he’d withheld until now, until he was sure of her intentions. She smiled and dipped her head. “>
Manning
“Bjorn, this is ridiculous. Everyone is expecting us back for the party,” Manning groused. His brother had led him and Brandt on a merry adventure for the last two arns, but with the grains of sands slipping through the hourglass, Manning was growing restless to return to his sobroke and children. He didn’t even have to confer with Brandt to know his husband felt the same.
“I know, I know, and I didn’t mean for our trip to the temple to run long, but this is part of the surprise. Those ancient records were amazing, weren’t they?” Bjorn was acting like a little boy bouncing with excitement, his eyes bright with happiness.
“They were. Kay’s fathers are going to be thrilled. I’m surprised they haven’t seen them yet.”
“Ivar only found out about them a few days ago, so I was able to add them to your surprise.” Bjorn stopped inthe middle of the hall that led to the triple-guarded treasury. Three sets of guards blocked the narrow hallway.
Brandt slipped his hand into Manning’s. “I can’t imagine anything topping finding those scrolls detailing the early years of the Drakken kings.”
