Free Blood Seed: Coin of Rulve Book One by Veronica Dale Page B

should be safe in the Seani.” All that they’d done, all these years of separation, was supposed to ensure that.
    “I am sorry. Your son has passed away from us.”
    A long chill slipped down her spine. “Oh Rulve!” she breathed. “Oh God, how could that happen?”
    “It was twelve years ago, on a day in Acorn. Se Celume foretold it, but we” —his gaze shifted aside, as if with a pang of memory, then returned— “I could not prevent it. The Seah — ”
    He continued to speak, but she no longer heard him. Her child, her dark little boy, was dead. Twelve years ago! He would have been only six years old. Why didn’t she feel his dying? Why didn’t she know?
    A cold feeling passed over her. Sheft had known. That nightmare he’d had in Acorn, when he was only six years old—a dream of wings and a bell. He had felt it, felt the same wrenching loss that she was feeling now, and she had paid no attention. Oh God, it was the synchronicity of twins. It must have affected Sheft his entire childhood, and she had never noticed. The sunny day around her drained away, and the darkness she fought so hard began to bleed through everything. Her son was dead.
    “—many summers the Seani was immersed in grief. But now the compound has recovered, and Sheft will soon be summoned home. Rulve has need of him. With Teller gone, he is Shunder’s last hope. He must be educated in the Seani, and his power discerned. Have you told him who he is?”
    Still stunned, Riah could concentrate only on the last question. “No! How could I tell him anything? For years I waited for some word, for some guidance. I needed to see the toltyr. I needed to know everything was real, and not some dream!”
    The falconform raised his huge claw, and it held a leather pouch. She took it and spilled the contents into her hand. Round, made of grey pewter, and attached to a black, tightly braided leather cord, it was the Toltyr Arulve. The medallion was engraved on both sides with what appeared to be the same symbol, but was not. She had not seen the medallion since she left the Seani, eighteen years ago.
    She rubbed the smooth metal with her thumb, and its image blurred with her tears. There were, she remembered, two medallions, one for each boy. Oh Rulve, was Teller wearing his when he—
    Yarahe, his unblinking eyes upon her, interrupted the terrible thought. “You must give this to Sheft. You must tell him who he is. Do this soon, before the season turns. I will come again in Hawk with further instructions.” The falconform spread its formidable wings, which cast a shadow over Riah, and swiftly departed.
    He disappeared into the blue sky, trailing unanswered, hopeless questions that no longer mattered. Only one son now. Oh God Rulve, she had only one son left.
    #   #   #
    When Sheft arrived at Moro’s house, Etane was just leaving in the wagon. He was off to a horse-farm in Ferce, on some business of his father’s, but it was clear that the main object of his journey was a young woman he had met during the summer: the horseman’s daughter, Leeza. Sheft wished him luck, and Etane drove away grinning.
    Mariat’s eyes lit up at the sight of the bee he’d carved, and she set it on the shelf next to the jar of honey, “where it would feel at home.” After informing Mariat that she was invited for dinner, he made himself useful to Ane in the kitchen garden. She asked him to pick the squash before the borers got to them, and then insisted that they take a basket of them back to Riah. Mariat took one handle, Sheft the other, and they walked back through the hayfield.
    When he pushed open the door to his house, he stopped in dismay. Riah sat on the bench at the table exactly as he had left her and looked as if she had been crying. He glanced at the hearth and was relieved to see a pot bubbling there.
    They put the basket of squashes on the floor. “These are for you,” Mariat said to Riah. “Can I help you cut one up for dinner?”
    Riah made a