Hierarchy (Book Four of the Torrent Skies Saga)

Chapter Fifty: Family

Katerin stood in stunned silence for a moment, and Fykes fought back his stomachs angry pinching. He had never proposed to anyone before, but he felt as though the silence was lasting a little too long.

"Yes." Katerin said it quietly, but earnestly, as she dropped to her knees in the mud and embraced him.

He felt his heart beat again, and laughed as she kissed him. It worked! He wanted to shout, but instead he hugged her and turned to his father. He had never seen him look so happy, out in the fields.

"Introduce me, then!" his father said, in the same deep rumble he remembered.

He smiled proudly. "Katerin Moonshadow. The smartest, kindest, and most beautiful woman I have ever met."

Katerin raised an awkward hand in greeting, a blush coloring her cheeks. "Nice to meet you."

Fykes stood and pulled Katerin up beside him. "This is Durandon Fykes. My father."

"Your sister is going to be over the moon to see you!" His father's voice was raised and boisterous, and Fykes could remember how he could yell loudly enough so that everyone in the fields could hear him whenever he deemed it necessary.

Before Fykes could say anything more, his father was gesturing for them to gather their horses, and he looked almost as if he might run to the hold. As Fykes gathered the reins, Katerin turned an incredulous look on him.

"You have a sister?" she asked, astonished, hurrying to keep pace.

Fykes only nodded. She had been so little when he left, he wondered how much she had grown up. "I think you'll get along. She always was off with her nose in a book as soon as she learned to read."

Katerin kept a tight grip on his hand, as they followed his father, and he found himself lost in all the little ways the place had changed. They had built the roads up, the fields seemed brighter, the houses had been repainted and repaired. Small shops he remembered still had the same names, but there were faces he did not recognize. People had put an effort in, and there were small flower boxes, hunters riding out for their long journeys. And the hold. He remembered it fondly, though it had always felt small. What used to be a wooden building, was now fully stone, with a fence, and several expansions, including a larger root cellar, he noted, as they approached. The door was reinforced, and the rickety stairs he remembered skinning his knees on were much newer, and held no pocks upon them.

His father showed them where to tie their horses and threw open the door. "Liz! Elizabeth! We have company!"

Fykes heard a door close above and weary steps walk toward the stairs.

"Who is it?" a voice asked, no longer sounding so young.

"Your brother! And his wife." Durandon smiled, pointing them toward the dining table, where a fire burned in a large hearth.

The footsteps quickened, and Elizabeth appeared at the top of the stairs, rushing down them, with only enough care to hold up the edge of her dress, so as not to trip. In all her blur of motion, Fykes saw that she still kept her hair long, and that it had the same soft curls as his fathers. She threw her arms around him, only halting, because he caught her.

"You came home!" Liz spoke into his shoulder, almost as tall as he was.

He laughed as she looked up. "I told you I would, eventually."

"I didn't think it would be ten years," she whined. She held him at arm's length.

"So you missed me, then?" he looked over her shoulder, to see his father guiding Katerin around the house, opening every door and talking with his hands.