Free Capture of a Heart by Mya Lairis Page B

wanted and moved toward it. Inside there were several items of fabric, clothing, furs, and blankets. He knelt down and searched through stacks of cloth until he found what he was looking for. The item he required was at the bottom. It was a soft, broad length of a pelt from a rare creature indigenous to the very lands that Shoraya was headed to.
    He brought the pelt over and handed it to Shoraya. “You will need this for your journey.”
    Shoraya gazed up at him with wide, curious eyes, but she took the offering into her hands. “What…”
    “It looks flimsy, but I assure you the pelt of the sun seeker is a wondrous thing. Even in the starkest cold, it will keep you warm with the sun it receives. If you wear it during the day, it will cool you as it stores the sun’s rays. At night it will release its energy.”
    “Gavenas. You…you don’t need to—”
    He waved a hand to discourage any issue with her pride. “I do as I please, warrior. Just as you. Anyway, I have no need of it. It was a gift from the guardian of a desert much like the Pusharak. We do occasionally mingle, my kin and I.”
    “Oh, really?”
    He chuckled at her attempt at jealousy, although it did burn for he wished more of it, yearned for her ownership. With a sigh he returned to the fire, which would undoubtedly be his only lover once again.
    “What do you do in the winter months?”
    “Plenty. While many of the animals sleep, all do not. It is not much different from when the creatures of mountains sleep, I suspect. Even when the snows reach the peaks, some slumber but not all.”
    “Aye, that is true.”
    It was the tone of sadness, her forlorn sigh, that caused Gavenas to break from his moment of self-pity and recall that the decision was no easier for her than it was for him. Still, she had made her choice, and despite the opportunity to sway her presenting itself, Gavenas could not bring himself to such a low.
    As he returned his gaze to her, Gavenas noted she clutched the pelt, smoothing her hands across its length. She looked exhausted, weary…in no condition for a journey. Suddenly he was struck with worry for her safety, and one gift didn’t seem adequate enough. He fetched a box from one of the enclaves built into the wall of his den and set it upon the table. From inside, he drew forth a set of bells and a jar, which he rushed to present to Shoraya.
    In his haste, he forgot himself and sat down beside her, close enough to be teased by her warmth. Yet when she looked toward him, flight was not an option. He showed her the wares he held, hoping to direct her brown eyes away from his own deceitful ones, so ready to beg.
    “With these bells, you will always be able to find your way to water. You only need to hold them up in the air. They will ring if water is near. The closer you are, the faster the tempo of their ringing will be. And this” —he held up his other hand with the jar—“this is a very powerful concentrated antitoxin. It is a cruder version of the one I used with you, but should you be stung or bitten, just a pinch of this mixed in with water will help you to neutralize anything foul. I wish you to take these as well.”
    She parted her lips, and Gavenas steeled himself for her attempts to refute his gifts, but instead she nodded. She folded the cloak neatly and set it aside before taking the gifts from Gavenas’s hands and placing them gently atop the cloak.
    Then might have been a good time for Gavenas to get up, to separate himself from her side, but he did not move fast enough, could not.
    She turned to him, her cheeks flushed, her lips stretched by a brilliant smile, and her eyes like warm dark pools that he could have swum in. “I can’t say thank you enough, Faeyanin.”
    “You don’t have to, child of the Deipma,” he answered, his heart threatening to beat out of his chest. The truth he kept to himself. That if anyone should have been thankful, it was him.
    Her smile widened, and the first hint of tears,