Redtail Rise kouri

Mireille confessed she didn’t know much about the lunar cycles. The new moon will be about fifteen sleeps after the full moon, she added, in case that helped. She hoped her maman might fill in the rest, so they could meet in a timely manner.

Her new friend queried about brothers, like an afterthought to their conversation about sisters. Druid thought of Worripa, even Astraeus. She understood more now about bloodlines; she knew neither one of them actually shared parentage with her. Unlike with Heda, Druid acknowledged the distinction.

No, she said slowly, feeling a brief sense of guilt. But it was the truth. I don’t have a father either, she shared in the next breath, thinking of Mahler. He was certainly a father figure but she understood he wasn’t the man who had planted his seed in Sequoia, nor had she ever attributed that title to him.

Just then, it struck her how the Graf was really the only man she held in any kind of esteem, partly because she knew so few but also because the ones she did know simply did not evoke the same love and loyalty as did the women in her life. Druid made note of this before tucking it into the back of her mind for later contemplation.

Do you? Have brothers? she questioned.