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‘I will not do anything so barbaric. Those old ways are why I left Katáne.’

‘Then needs must,’ he sighed. ‘To be truthful,Kinti, you do me a great service. There is little to return to, and weKiamaare like sparks within the cook fires. One by one, we are going out, and so shall I. For if I cannot return without you, I will not return at all. ’

The hawkman’s lips curled. He pulled one of the chromed feathers from the nape of his neck. With a grimace, he turned it onto its serrated edge and, without preamble, sliced his neck as Riv jolted.

The Rider took an instinctive step forward, but a long feathered plume stopped him. He glanced at Élisa, meeting her lilac gaze as she shook the silver and violet-tinged crest on her head.

‘Leave him be. He must cross thekanda, the bridge and channel between life and death, in dignity and as he chooses.’

Silver blood poured out as the hawkman fell to the ground, landing with a heaviness. First to his knees, then his whole body collapsed, plumes and all, stirring up a small storm of sand and small pebbles.

The three surviving Devansi raiders bailed in terror and took off down the mountain.

Silence fell.

It was broken with Riv’s curse as he gazed in wonder at Élisa transmuting back to her human form.

She strode to her feathers still hovering mid-air, thekoyaas she’d called them, and plucked them with a sigh on her lips.

She shook off the blood as she studied the fallenkhorasurrounded by dead pillagers. ‘Such afokkin’ waste.’

Still astounded, Riv strode to her side as Élisa sank to her knees before her fellow Katánian. ‘I remember him now,’ she said, eyes searching the hunter’s face, lost in the past. ‘His name was Koroi. He was a statesman, a ritual elder. Not akhora. Why would he bow so low to become a dark hunter?’

She gazed up and into the distance. ‘Something doesn’t read right. If I remember well, he was on theKiama, the council of elders. His place was in theKathi, the great council house, not here in the wilds of Devansi, fighting battles usually assigned to young hawkmen.’

‘Perhaps things have changed?’

She sucked her teeth as she reached a hand to close the hawkman’s open eyes. Then she pulled his robe over him. ‘He will die with honor here, his flesh and bones picked apart by the chasm’s vultures and storks, the fiercest carrion eaters. It is the way we Katánians enter the hereafter.’

Riv pushed a hand through his Galician locks, feeling ever more lost.There was so much he didn’t know, hadn’t known about her.

He found his voice soon enough. ‘I take it you dispatched the pillagers that attacked the house to the rear.’

She gave him a soft smile as she shook the blood from her feathers, the red trails falling clean off the burnished surfaces of her serrated chrome feathers that she’d calledkoya. ‘Without a problem. However, I was in human form when I did, and I disarmed them and then sent them packing. I only transmuted when I sensed thekhora’spresence.’

‘Majestic and yet menacing at the same time,’ he murmured, staring at her lethalkoya.

Élisa half rose to her feet. ‘And you, Ribau? Are you hurt in any way?’

He reached a hand to help lever her upright. ‘I’ll live. My suit may need some repairs, but all in all, I’msawa. On the other hand, you were,’ he inclined his head in wonder, ‘magnificent.’

She gave him an almost shy smile and tilted her head as she contemplated him. ‘Does it put you off seeing who I am?’

He gave her a wry smile loaded with respect. ‘Never. You were glorious. Scarily so. Have you always been able to transmute like that?’

She waggled a finger. ‘It’s an ability that only comes into fruition as a full adult. It manifests for Katánian K?str?l women after we give birth. When we can turn our energies from raising young children to battling with our partners.’

That explained it.

‘Help me roll the raiders into the chasms,’ she interjected into his thoughts. ‘Like we Katáne who sacrifice our bodies to the sun and storks, it’s the tradition of the sand rustlers to bury their own in caves. We tuck them away so their people can find them and retrieve their bones.’

Riv gave a huff. ‘It’s so barbaric.’

She shrugged. ‘It’s the way of life here. Remember, these are the wilds of Pegasi. We are not in the ordered planets of Eden II and Rhesia.’

‘Ah, but it can be just as wild in the city streets. The reality of life and death is just more stark here.’

They worked in rhythm, pushing the Devansi raiders out of the sun and letting their corpses fall into the dark crevasses below.