"Laira is the strongest woman I know," Jeid replied. "And for that I worry. She deserves more than to be a chieftain's wife."

Bryn sat down beside him. They stared south together at the misty landscape. Bryn pulled her knees to her chest and laid her chin upon them. "I lived in a village somewhere beyond the horizon, I did. Tended to sheep and all. Lived in a little hut with a leaky roof. Sometimes I gathered berries in the forest, walking barefoot like a beast. But Laira is a great leader of a great tribe; she will now become a queen of two tribes." Bryn smiled softly. "A queen of two tribes! What could be greater in the world?"

"To be a queen of Requiem," Jeid said firmly.

Bryn looked at him. She raised an eyebrow and smiled crookedly. "You are Requiem's king; would you have her be your wife instead?"

"That's not what I meant," Jeid said. "I mean that Laira is one of us—a Vir Requis. The first one to have joined my family. She suffered, fought, and rose to power, and now . . . now Requiem loses her."

The wind ruffled Bryn's curly red hair. "I had a boy I loved once. Foolish thing, he was. Wandered aimlessly about the village most days, charming girls when he should have been tending to crops. I chased him for years until he married another." She sighed and tsked her tongue. "Sometimes they get away."

"That's not what I meant!" Jeid repeated, feeling his cheeks flush. Of course he didn't want Laira to be his own wife. It was preposterous. First of all, Laira was far too young for him, only half his age. Secondly, Jeid only loved one woman—his late wife, the beautiful and wise Keyla, her hair golden, her eyes kind. He loved Laira as a friend, as a great light of Requiem, and he wanted more for her. He wanted her to fly at his side, a leader of dragons. Not to surrender herself to Oritan, to sacrifice her joy for her kingdom. That was all . . . wasn't it?

He closed his eyes. He thought back to the first night Laira had come to him—starving, wounded, half-dead and half-naked, a waif covered in cuts and burns. He had healed her. He had slept with her in his arms. He had loved her from the first moment she had stumbled into the escarpment. He had watched her grow from that broken, dying girl into a strong woman, a leader, a great warrior for Requiem.

And now she will be his wife. Now she will belong to a stranger.

His throat constricted.

I love you, Laira, he thought. And I can't bear to lose you to him.

Bryn was looking at him, her eyes soft, and Jeid had the strange feeling that she could read every thought in his mind. She wiggled closer and placed her hand on his knee.