Herbalists' Cache sleeping mist

aahhhhh

each word a barb.

he thought of star eater as the blows to ego fell, as his shoulders grew more and more tense. like the brother who had come and who had died, he wished to rend blackfell, to tear him with as much imagery as surely grew in the man's mind.

the information freely given by blackbird man and dark snow were weapons. he was able to tamp himself only for he now knew that blackfell had lost all dear to him, had been trampled. and it was from this humiliation that he spoke now. he wished to prove himself again, but he faced a man who had never once been captive.

chieftain's breath was fetid, his breath quick, nostrils flared as he struggled to rein himself. a muscle leapt along his jawline, but it was the starwife gathering resentment in the corners of his mind. and suspicion, yes. she had urged him to go to this man, to speak as if they might be companions. had she foreseen this?

had star eater meant for blackfell to attack?

it was a supreme effort not to rip into blackbird. it was an effort which cost him intensely; it was an effort for which his wife would pay.

the disgraced gave himself away, confirming what the saatsine man had suspected but not known. and now at last he did glance to black hawk. "we will not be here forever. if you understood more than a girl's thought, then you would know he stole nothing from any mouth."

a step back; another an effort.

morwenna. why did you tell me to seek him?

he gave to blackfell a hardened look. "not if the woman is mine." for that was something more he had which talon man did not; the promise of a future. a sharp call then, for @Star Eater and for @Gjalla.

"remember when you complain of gjalla, that i told you to take lanzadoii woman," he said loudly when they had come. a shoulder jerked toward black hawk. "you have one."