Page 48

"This is the first night you have been here," she said, with a smile playing on her lips. Her long receptors caught in the last glint of light from the sun.

Ryziel frowned deeply at the female. She wasn't supposed to be here.

He couldn't remember her name, and it clearly showed on his face and with his silence because she let out a soft laugh and said, "You don't remember me, but we met at a gathering at the Third House, my home. I am Tazeen."

Tazeen, yes, he remembered now. He remembered how she looked at him from across the room, her eyes always meeting his, her smile always there to greet him.

"What are you doing here?" he asked.

She stepped closer, and Ryziel's first reaction was to step away. He backed away one step then stilled.

"I wanted to see you."

He didn't believe it, not at first. He turned from her then, ready to leave her. "Did he send you?" he growled.

"Who?"

"My brother."

Another little laugh. "No, I come of my own will."

Still, he found that hard to believe. "What do you want?"

He felt her approach behind him, felt her come close, too close. Still, he didn't dare move. "If my father sees you, he will punish us both."

Her hand touched his lower back, and he nearly hissed. The gesture was too intimate for strangers. But it told him enough.

She slid her hand upward. "Are you not allowed to be with another? Are you forced to be alone?" she said.

"Yes."

That stilled her hand. "No one needs to know. I want you, Ryziel."

Ryziel refused to move. In the back of his mind, he remembered this conversation well. This memory stirred him even now. He could stop it if he wished, but he didn't.

"No," he said. "You don't know what you want. You don't know anything about me."

"I know enough."

He almost laughed at that. It was as he suspected. She was lured by his darkness, likely by the rumors about him. He heard enough of what they said from his brother. Most nillium women feared being in his presence. But there were those few, just a few, who wanted the danger and nothing more.

He remembered clearly what he had said. "You’re not afraid?"

"I'm still here, aren't I?"

Ryziel's frown deepened. That, however, he did not remember her saying.

He turned back, and Tazeen was gone, and Aly stood in her place. She smiled at him. "I'm still here," she repeated.

"Why?" he asked.

She put her hand in his and he was surprisingly calm, his Drega remained sleeping.

"Because I am home." She turned her arms out, showing her wrists to him, showing him the smatterings of bruises along her hands and arms. "I'm home."

Ryziel stared down at them then back up to her and saw bruises along her neck. She smiled at him again, and all he could do was stare, confused and disturbed till the vision went black before him.

Ryziel opened his eyes and saw the cave ceiling above him, realizing he was lying on his bed now and must have somehow fallen asleep. He sat up and looked around the room that held nothing more than a bed and a chest with his things. He got up and pulled back the curtain, closing off his room to the great chamber beyond, seeing the ship before him and Nar nowhere to be seen. He wouldn't sleep again, not after that dream, so he left the room and headed for the ship to work on it alone.