“I wish I was. No – I’m sorry. Sorry I said that. God, you’ve got a rage, Elsha I only came to be your friend. If I fire you up that much, I’ll go.”

He stopped, and slung my bag to the ground. “I’ll see you back at the house. Or maybe I won’t. So you want me to give the high lord a message from you?”

I stood still and stared at him, my heart in pain, and heavy. So heavy “Yes, please. Tell him I’m sorry. Tell him I need time to think.”

He came close to me, and took my shoulders in his hands. “Now let me farewell you properly, like a friend.” He kissed my left cheek, and his beard felt rough and warm. He kissed my other cheek, and I felt his breath on my neck, hot and moist. He kissed my mouth, and I was all confusion inside, and chaos, and dark. And out of the darkness I saw the flame I had seen in the vision, and heard the words my lord had said last night. I fought my way out of the dark, and pushed him away.

I was no longer confused, about Alejandro or my road.

“We’ll go hunting after all,” I said, smiling, my heart suddenly light. “And tonight I’ll cook my lord a raven in his favourite sauce, as a peace offering for him. But there’ll be no more kissing between us, Alejandro.”

He grinned, and bent and picked up my bag. “It would be sweet, Elsha, to give you covering,” he murmured, “but I hear your words, and shall obey. Besides, something tells me that you’re on a different road, one to do with fire. And your fire and mine are different.”

He slung my bag across his shoulder, smiled, and put his right arm around my neck. “So, we’ll hunt then, Elsha. That poor bird of yours got almost squashed, and tore a hole in my arm. Oh, it’s nothing to worry about. I won’t bleed to death. I’m the sort who’ll die of a broken heart, nothing less.”

We did hunt with Kallai. And all the time he flew, Alejandro and I talked. Since I would not talk about myself, he told me all that he believed. I learned that day that the things I believed about the Quelled and Chosen, about equality and truth and myths and humanity, were shared by a young Chosen man with eyes of green, who looked in my face straight, and had a heart like my own.