Page 111

Aruna raised his eyebrows. “You?”

“You need to go back to Kuda Varai,” Vaara said to Nero. “You’ve lost your will to fight because you’ve been away for too long. Even a half-blood needs to go back and visit the forest occasionally. A reconnection to the Goddess will renew your vigor.”

“He has plenty of vigor,” Zara said under her breath. Aruna looked amused, but Vaara scowled.

“You know that’s not what I meant.”

“I have spent enough time chasing Paladins,” Nero said. “Maybe too much time. If they come back, we’ll deal with them. But I have spent long enough avenging the lives we lost. It’s time to start a new life instead of just wishing for the old one.”

Zara had already known he had lost his passion for warring with Paladins. So had she. It took a lot of energy to hate something. Their anger had served its purpose, and now it was fading away, slipping from their grasp like water.

It was not a bad thing. It was a kind of blessing. It was peaceful.

“You still need to return to Kuda Varai,” Vaara said. “You don’t know what you’re missing because you’ve not been back in so long, but you’ll understand what I mean when you go there.”

“Maybe I will,” Nero said, shifting a glance at Zara. The hair on the back of her neck raised at the thought of going back to Kuda Varai. She feared what kind of welcome they would have as a former slave and a half-human, but she longed to return.

She nodded. “We will go back one day. When we are ready.”

Zara and Nero quieted as the conversation moved on, Devana and Naika still signing drunkenly to each other as Novikke and Aruna talked about their journey to the village. The weather had been the cause of their delay, the snow and ice making roads difficult and transport hard to come by. Tahir had taken the children to bed while Basira hovered over the table, listening to Novikke with interest and asking questions occasionally.

Zara clutched Avan’s letter in one hand and Nero’s hand in the other. And she was happy.