The Son of Thunder

Chapter 52

Valley of the Star was as Lightening remembered it. Covered in flowers and as soundless as a prayer. It was past dinner and only a few Star Children were outside walking about. The few people added a serenity to the picturesque scene of vegetation in the south end of Valley. The only home that he knew was Rhysya's. How he wished for the knowledge of someone else's.

He hesitated before the door, several Children staring at him. His robes were the same ceremonial robes he always wore when he practiced the Star Child ways. He adjusted the folds, ignored the others, knocked on the door. A child of no more than three annae answered.

"Mana, man," the child called. Lightening barely had time to register that this was his daughter.

Rhysya bent to the girl, whispered to her and kissed her forehead. The child, blonde hair whipping out behind her, darted out the door, a slightly smaller child behind her. He watched their progress. So small and their mother sent them off on their own. Thundonians would never allow their children to wander freely. He shook it away.

Rhysya stood opposite him, one hand on the open door. She looked the same, a little older, no wiser. "Do you wish me to feign an emotion?"

"No," he said.

"What are you doing here?"

"May I come in?"

Rhysya bit her lip, looked to the floor. "If Eternity knew you were here—"

He blurted, "I would not have come, but I don't have anywhere else to go. I know you have remarried—"

Rhysya spun to him. "What made you think that?"

He blushed, fixed on the girls toddling down the lane. "That," he pointed to the younger, "I assume is Remme."

Rhysya folded her hands and went in. She waited for Lightening to follow her before closing the door. "You are my only husband."

Lightening reached to his heart. Adrenaline, he said to himself, but couldn't stop the tear that left his eye. "Do my children know of me?"

Rhysya paced to her shelf of wooden animals and lifted a rabbit. She cradled it at her heart. "Rashana does. Fatelle has corrupted her with stories of you. She has said she would like us to bear a son, but she knows we will not. She would marry our son."

Fatelle was as wild as Magpie in her way. Lightening mused to himself. "And Remme?"

"She's still very young."

"Rashana is young too."

"Yes, but I see you in her every day," she said. "All I see is you."

Lightening adjusted the kinsash at his waist. It was still a relatively new fashion to the Star Children. Few wore them. Lightening swallowed. "I'm sorry we've been apart so long. I should have come sooner."

Rhysya bit her lip, flushed. "I have heard rumors of you too."

Lightening spit out laughter. He'd meant to tell her of Magpie long ago, but somehow it had never come up. "Our relationship is nothing of the sort."

"Did you not entertain marrying her?" Rhysya said, lifting her pointed nose up the way a mammal does when it senses food.

"If our relationship was so serious, I would not have her advise me."

Rhysya's wide eyes opened wider. "A replacement for Beast?"

"Yes," he said, toying with the tassels of the sash. "I bore of Warrior. Magpie is forward, direct and skilled. Her mother would have us paired, but Magpie will not be swayed."