Stranger Skies (The Borderlands Saga #1)

24. Copper Love Letter

20th Rew, 709 years after Landfall

When Alaev arrived home it was in the dead of night, with another boy from the army. He didn't speak, right away, of what had happened, but Brinna could see it had scarred her brother to his bones. Even in her state, she could see that.

She came out of her room a bit more than she had in the past months, feeling guilty for how she'd treated him before he left. Now he was back, and she could rectify her bad behaviour.

At some point she'd stopped caring about her younger brother as she should. That needed to change. No matter what sort of torment she was in.

After a week, the other boy — Reandif, his name was — left. Back home to Caegdeer, he said; he'd been away long enough. He and Alaev embraced by the door, and then the taller boy was gone.

Alaev turned to his sister. She stood by the fire, arms wrapped around a now-thin body. She hadn't been eating properly. Couldn't muster up enough feeling; couldn't feel like she should care.

"What happened, brother?" Her voice was soft, gentle. Alaev looked away as if she'd slapped him.

"We ran," he said at length. "Like cowards."

"You defected?" This was not the brother she knew.

"I suppose. Is it defection if all your unit isn't alive to see you do it?" He looked at her directly, and a chill struck the very core of her. Brinna was suddenly very happy that Scoas and Natai were at market, that it was just she and her brother sharing such secrets.

He crossed the room and went down the hallway to his room. Brinna didn't know if she should follow him or not, but a moment later he emerged, holding something in his palm. "I have something for you," he said, holding his hands out to hers. She reached for the thing she could not see, and in the next moment cool copper rested against her chapped palms.

She drew her hand back, away from the protective cover of his. Thalaea's pendant — the one J'th had given her — rested in Brinna's hand.

"She sends her love." Alaev's voice held no anger, no betrayal, no accusation as he spoke of Thalaea. Something had changed.

A million questions flooded Brinna's head, but they could wait. She put the necklace on, nestling the pendant against her skin, and looked up at Alaev, smiling through her tears. Brother and sister embraced, and for the first time in months Brinna felt as if she could live again.

Thalaea was alive. Whatever the strange woman was to Min, to Brinna she was beloved — and she lived and still thought of Brinna.

"We should make some food," she said at length. "I'm hungry."

Alaev laughed happily and picked up his sister and spun her. "You have no idea how happy I am to hear that."

With gladdened hearts and a renewed fraternal-sororal bond between them, brother and sister set about the kitchen, making what both would remember as the best meal they ever shared together.