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By Root 380 0

had named Karakhnir, and she spoke the words of power. Fire roared to life beneath the belkagen's body, flames the same color as the sunset consuming the shell of her friend. She forced herself to watch. The old elf's hair, the hoary gray mixed with glistening silver, lit at once, curling and blackening in bright, tiny blue flames that produced a thick, black smoke. The skin tightened, shriveled, and blackened. Amira could hear it sizzling. Bile rose in her throat, but she would not let herself look away. The old elf had risked his life for her and died protecting her son. She would not look away from his death. The flames quickened and soon she could see no more than a dark form amid the flames.

Lendri half-spoke and half-chanted a long string of words in his own tongue. When he was finished, Gyaidun translated for Amira and Jalan.

Flames of this world,bear our brother's flame to our ancestors.

Kwarun burned bright.His exile is ended,his rest assured.

The five of them stood in silence, watching the smoke in flames, then Lendri spoke again. "Lady, someone must take fire to the omah nin, that the other pyres might be lit."

"Me?" said Amira.

"Gyaidun and I, we are hrayeket. We cannot."

Amira tore her eyes away from the fire and looked to the omah nin, standing several dozen paces away over the body of his younger brother. Leren stood beside him.

"After all you did," said Amira, "risking your lives. Still he stands behind his honor"-she made no attempt to keep the bile from the last word-"rather than beside his firstborn."

"Your ways are not our ways, Lady."

"Indeed," said Amira. "Let the omah nin get his own damned fire."

Lendri scowled. Amira looked to Gyaidun and caught the flicker of a smile before the sternness returned to his face.

"Lady," said Lendri. "That is… most discourteous."

"My ways are not his ways."

"Lady-"

"I will take it."

Everyone turned to look at who had spoken. Erun. He still bore the scars of his… ordeal. Amira felt stupid calling such torture an "ordeal." Monstrous, she had named it to Gyaidun. Blasphemous. Even those words seemed to fall short. Yet already the young man showed signs of recovery. Whatever being had come to him-no, Amira corrected herself-through him, much of that strength remained. Yes, his cheeks were still sunken like a corpse-far beyond the natural thinness he'd inherited from his mother's people-his bones showed under his skin, and much of his color had not yet returned, but there was a light in his eyes. Not burning, precisely. But smoldering. A glow of promise, perhaps, like the bright sky before sunrise. Looking at him now, standing next to his father, Amira thought it would be a wonder indeed to see what would happen when the sun fully rose in him.

Erun stepped forward and pulled one of the larger sheaves out from the bottom of the pyre. Half of it was already well ablaze. He stood, his back straight, and looked to his father. "My grandfather will take fire from me," he said, and Amira heard a deeper meaning in his words.

She watched him walk away, strength and confidence in his gait, and in that moment an image struck Amira-Arantar, wise and powerful, walking the steppes. She turned to Gyaidun and saw a dark look on his face.

"What is it?" she asked.

"What is what?"

"You look as if you just saw your own death."

Gyaidun looked her in the eye. "No. It…"

"What?"

He returned his gaze to his son, walking without fear to the omah nin. "Things happen quicker than I thought they would."

"Things?"

It hit Amira then that in the past day-the joy at being reunited with Jalan, the grief at finding the belkagen, funeral preparations, not to mention being tired beyond all rational thought-she had forgotten to ask Gyaidun exactly how he had turned up on the shore of the Great Ice Sea knowing what had to be done. Standing over the pyre of her friend, she remembered Gyaidun's argument with the belkagen, asking why he could not seek Hro'nyewachu if she knew something about Erun.

"You did it, didn't you?" she said.

Even Lendri and Jalan turned to look at Gyaidun. Durja,