Daughter of Wolves

Epilogue

Two months later...

Sitting cross-legged on the floor, I placed a small nugget of iron on a piece of fabric in front of me and concentrated. A quick, practised thought melted the metal. I caressed it mentally, savouring its desire to be shaped by me. Carefully I coaxed it to spread out across the fabric, coating the fibres in a thin, barely visible film. For my experiments I had cut up an old tunic and now the faded cloth took on a silvery sheen from the iron.

However, I wasn't finished yet. Holding the entire metal in my mind, I told it to blend with the wool fibres, becoming one, and to harden to strongest steel.

Releasing my breath, I straightened up and stretched. Had it worked? I picked up the piece of cloth and tried to fold it. Yes, almost as supple as before. My first trials had been stiff and brittle, making them useless. I still needed to improve my control, but with more practice I hoped to coat a whole tunic in a thin steel film: clothing that was lighter and much more flexible than armour, yet would stop arrows and cushion sword strokes. I had already demonstrated its usefulness with pieces of test fabric.

I grinned to myself. The abbess of Dancing Crane Temple had at first been scandalised by my ideas. Apparently a lady Metal mage traditionally used her talents to craft beautiful jewellery, not to devise a way to improve armour. However, the deference with which mages were treated here in Sikhand had meant that they had let me do as I pleased. Indeed, Kiarash's cousin Farnaz, the Water mage who had gifted him with his cloak, had even helped me apply the principle of water proofing to working with metal.

I picked up my piece of experimental fabric and put it away, looking forward to showing my progress to Kiarash next time he visited. The room had heated up, so I slid ajar one of the doors that opened out onto the garden. Dancing Crane Temple being of mixed Elements, the grounds were tended by Wood and Water mages, who had dotted little streams and ponds amongst the lush vegetation. The trees and shrubs were placed so skillfully that the garden seemed much larger than it actually was.

It was a surrounding as unlike a Khotai camp as imaginable, yet nevertheless I felt at ease. Of course it helped that my room had been transformed with hangings and carpets into a space resembling the tents of my people. Kiarash had organised it all within a few days of my arrival in Kharshaan, had even found a churn for making butter tea somewhere.

Kiarash... He had kept all his promises: the visit to the tea house with its tables placed on little islands and connected by arched bridges and stepping stones, eating dumplings at the Capering Carp, located in a much more disreputable area of town, spiriting me out of the temple for rides on Shar outside the city gates.

I knew a lot more about Kiarash now, amongst other things that his family more or less ran the province! One of his uncles served as governor of Kharshaan, his father was the commander of the province's border guard and various cousins held important posts in the city administration. To say nothing of Kiarash himself, who was in charge of seven forts along the eastern sector of the province's border, it had turned out – a position from which he had merely taken a short leave to recover Delyth, officially for a hunting expedition.

A couple of weeks ago, he had taken me along to his family's estates and introduced me to his parents. Lord Shahin, his father, had been keen to discuss Khotai customs and my particular application of Metal magic. He possessed an acute intelligence, while in her own quiet way Kiarash's mother had been just as impressive, though she hid her strength behind the mask of a polite, serene hostess.

Yes, I'd seen a lot of Kiarash, and whenever his duties permitted, he sought me out. There was just one thing missing: he had not kissed me again.

I frowned in thought. The Sikhandi did not like to show their emotions in public, and Kiarash was no exception. I thought he enjoyed our outings as much as I did, but though I had done my best to encourage him, he kept our touches to the briefest minimum. Why, he even insisted I always take a guard from the temple along whenever he took me to see some place.