Michelle West - Sun Sword 06 - The Sun Sword by Michelle West Read Free Book Online Page A

when he didn't answer, she leaned up on toe tips, and whispered a
different name into his pale ears. "Jay."
    His expression stiffened; he tried to push her away. But she knew this game;
she knew the price of losing it. She held him fast.
    Called him again. Called Jay from within him. He had healed Jay. He had
called her back from the dead. Some part of her lay over him, like a guardian.
Like a shroud.
    It was a better shroud than the older one.
    The man he had been forced to heal.
    The man that no one named.
    He fought her for just a second longer, and then she felt the stiffness leave
him. When it did, she allowed herself to be pushed away.
    Because that gesture was different; familiar enough to someone who had rived
life in the twenty-fifth holding. Jay
hated
to be touched.
    "He never hurt anyone," Daine said, his eyes filmed now, the rage dissolving
into an entirely different anger. Reaching up, he shoved his hair out of his
eyes—which was unfortunate, because it wasn't in his eyes—and said again, "He
never hurt
anyone
."
    She shook her head. Her own vision wasn't entirely free from the wavering
that water caused. Her palm touched her lips. His, wet, had stained the front of
her dress.
    She didn't want to ask him what had happened.
    And she didn't have to.
    Torvan ATerafin and Arrendas ATerafin, Chosen both, appeared on either side
of him. She thought she glimpsed the play of light off other armor, but the door
would only hold three men comfortably. She was fiercely glad that the other two
were The Terafin's.
    She looked to Torvan; his face was white, his lips compressed into a thin
line.
    She knew that Alowan was dead. If he hadn't been, Daine wouldn't be here; he
would be by the old man's side. He would be beyond them, in the land that the
dead—and the healer-born— walked.
    She didn't want to know how.
    "ATerafin," Torvan said.
    The word steadied her.
    And made her ashamed. Because she knew that only ATerafin could have done
this.
    "ATerafin," he said again, his gaze shifting from her tear-stained face.
    Teller came to stand beside her. Beside Daine.
    He bowed briefly to the Captains of the Chosen. "ATerafin," he said, taking
refuge in formality. "ATerafin."
    "The House has not yet been informed."
    "The House knows," Finch said woodenly. "Only the deaf could avoid knowing.
You—"
    "And The Terafin has not yet been informed. ATerafin," he said again, to
Teller.
    Teller closed his eyes. Nodded.
    Finch would not allow him to go alone. Torvan was grim-faced, shuttered; what
warmth was left him was something a little too hot to invoke. "Daine," she said
quietly, "stay with Angel and Carver. Speak to
no one
until we return,
is that understood?"
    His eyes flashed. Some of Jay in him, she thought. She hoped. But he nodded,
his rough compliance the only compliance she was likely to get.
    "Jester," she said, her eyes on Torvan, "get Gregori. Tell him—"
    "I'm already here, ATerafin."
    "Belay that, then. Gregori, attend."
    He had drawn sword.
    "Sheathe it," she snapped. "We've got The Chosen as escort; we don't need
anyone else."
    He was well-trained. He obeyed without pause.
    "Ellerson?"
    "ATerafin."
    "I think… you should come with us."
    "Are you certain that's wise?"
    "What the hell is wise, right now?" Jay's voice. Jay's voice in hers. She
struggled to find her own. "Morretz will be there," she said at last.
    He bowed.
    Last, she turned to Adam.
    His eyes were wide, his face pale beneath the sun-dark skin. "Finch?" he
said. Torra, Weston, a name was a name.
    "I'm sorry," she told him quietly. "But I think… I think you should come,
too."
    Torra. "Should I be there? The Terafin is—Levec said—"
    "I don't think this would have happened," she said, and unhappily, "if The
Terafin were…" she couldn't say it. She
could not
say it.
    But he heard it anyway; his hand was on her arm. When had that happened? <
    "I'll come."
    They walked quickly. The night halls were alive with far too many