They went to the family solar, a wide chamber with doors thrown open to a high balcony that looked upon the tower for the beasts. The night wind moved the curtains.
Aelyria took her place before the lyraβstring. The others plopped on the couch. Vaelior and Rhaelys sat shoulder to shoulder, still bickering in whispers.
βHush,β said Lady Aelys.
Laeryn sat apart at the end seat.
Aelyria glanced back at them with rosy cheeks. βI made this forΒ kepaΒ andΒ muΓ±a.β
βThat is lovely, sweetling,β said Aelys. βGo on.β
Aelyria turned to the strings. Her fingers plucked the cords, and her voice began, light as the gold in her eyes. She sang of a love between kepa and muΓ±a, and of riding with them on his dragon, a childβs bright tale set to the heavy air of Oros. The room quieted at once.
For a moment Laeryn saw his mother as she had been, and the sound of her songs came back to him, and the feel of his own small hands clapping in a saddle before her. His chest tightened. When he looked at Aelyria he saw loss more than kin. He felt far from her song, far from the faces softening around her.
He did not hate her. He hated what he had become. What he tried to burn within, yet the emotions still stirred in him. Despite being the warrior he had made himself to be.
The chamber suddenly felt tight. He could not stay among them. He lifted as quietly as he could and turned for the end of the hall.
Aelyriaβs hands faltered. She looked up and swallowed when she saw him go. Rhaemarysβs face hardened, almost ready to bid him back, but Laeryn was already in the passage.
βGo on, daughter. Do not stop,β he resorted.
βYes, kepa,β she whispered, and found the notes again.
As Laeryn went down the hall he heard a note go wrong on the lyraβstring. He did not need to turn around to know tears streaked her face.
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