Qeya River [m] horn lance

it was not the way of a lanzadoii man to lay with his wife at such a time in their lives. old wise women cautioned against these things, fearing injury to mother or child, or worse, the arrival of early labor. men were frightened early by these things, by stories of evil spirits entering an open womb to twist the children within, and sun eater was not immune to the socialization of those boyhood fears.

still, he was also very much a man, and with a man's unaddressed hungers. he descended upon star eater, pillaring her body between his four legs, and his breath was warm upon the curve of her belly.

desire warred with cold. "i want to know something." he teased her skin with a tongued kiss, finding her eyes thereafter. "there is a new feeling in saatsine, and it begins with blackfell. who is he? and the others. star eater." he smiled down into her rapturous eyes; "i killed to take this river. i will kill any who does not follow me. follow lanzadoii. who thinks against me."

he did not know the word for 'plot,' but that day of education with gjalla had entered a new suspicion into sun eater: that all one worked for could be stolen.