Crystal Shadows by Joy Nash

Author:Joy Nash [Nash, Joy]
Format: epub
Published: 2010-02-13T07:15:00+00:00

White Otter stepped closer. “I am sorry I frightened you. My curiosity got the better of me. I was eager to meet the woman who had come through the web.” He turned to Derrin with an impish grin. “I must confess, though, I had not expected her to look so ordinary. I would have thought such a woman to be more…” He made a gesture of exaggerated womanly proportions.

Gina’s eyes narrowed. She was about to make a choice retort when she caught the two men looking at her with identical expressions of male mischief. She rolled her eyes instead. “Is it much further to the village?”

White Otter let out an exaggerated sigh. “I have this effect on all women.”

Derrin regarded his cousin with mock sympathy. “It’s hard to imagine what Kaila saw in you.”

“That is true enough.” White Otter laughed, then sobered. He regarded Derrin for a long moment, and Derrin returned his gaze steadily. A palpable emotion flared 131

Joy Nash

between the two men, a mixture of past unity and painful loss, and the unexpected renewal of both.

“By the stones and the sky, it is good to see you again, vohar,” White Otter whispered.

“And you, my brother.”

Then, as suddenly as the emotion had swelled, it vanished. White Otter turned to Gina, a smile on his lips. “You must come to my dwelling to dry your clothes. Derrin, Kaila is even more beautiful than she was at our joining—do you remember? We have two daughters. They are the image of their mother.”

Derrin clapped him on the shoulder. “I’m happy to hear it, my friend. No girl should be burdened with your features.”

White Otter grinned and started toward the village.

The morning fog had vanished. Sunlight slanted through the green canopy and sparkled on foliage still bedecked with drops of water. Derrin’s cousin led the way along a narrow, twisting route. The terrain was difficult in some areas, but much less steep than the slope Gina had scaled the previous day.

She looked ahead, searching for signs of the villagers’ dwellings. It wasn’t until she stood in the center of the village common area that she realized the Wind Clan didn’t live in huts at all, but in a series of caves carved into the rocky mountainside. Terraces of the higher dwellings formed the roofs of those below. An intricate arrangement of stairs cut into the hillside, providing access to the upper levels. The lowest tier of dwellings faced a level common area. Beyond the gathering space, the ground sloped toward a wooded valley.

White Otter’s partner, Kaila, greeted the travelers and exclaimed over the men’s injuries, shaking her head as she tended the worst cuts. Her older daughter, a girl of about nine, brought food and water. Another girl, a few years younger, stationed herself next to Gina and chattered cheerfully.

Gina met Derrin’s amused gaze over the top of the girl’s head and smiled.

* * * * *

The Voice of the Goddess called into the midnight sky.

Gina fought the urge to shift her legs.

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