Quelline passed her husband a wry smile. “You just want to keep the glory to yourself.”
“Can she sit by me?” little Ceris asked, jumping beside Quelline. “Please?”
Quelline grinned. “Of course, my dear. It would only be proper, to sit by your namesake.”
The genealogy was put away, the chairs filled, and stories shared late into the night. I was happy, but my gaze kept wandering to the window, looking for a midnight jay.
We talked a long time. Ruthgar worked in construction, half of his wages coming from a landowner in the city who hired him to do repairs on various houses and shops. He and Quelline had met at church as adolescents. Quelline’s family lived on the north side of the city; her parents were deceased, so she’d lived with her aunt, uncle, and cousins in her youth.
Ruthgar, Argon, and Yanla did their best to describe grandparents and great-grandparents from memory while Quelline put on dinner. I tried to help her, but everyone insisted I rest and talk, and so I did, telling them about becoming a star mother. The story had been passed down over the centuries, but the details had warped and changed.
“No, I was not married, but I was betrothed,” I said, correcting Argon’s telling. “The two strongest contenders were Anya and Gretcha . . .”
Nostalgia filled me, making me feel top light and bottom heavy. For me, the events I related had happened only a year ago. For them, it was, as Quelline put it, a fairy story.
The whole tale spilled out of me, including the part Ristriel had played, all the while trying to ignore the sinking feeling in my gut as I relayed his part in my coming here, leaving out a few incriminating details.
“I’ll show you my daughter before we go to bed,” I promised once I’d finished. “She is lovely.”
“And the horse man?” little Ceris asked, a smudge of creamed corn on her chin. “Where is he?”
I opened my mouth to answer, but I wasn’t sure what to say. Just outside, though that may not have been true. He went home, but Ristriel didn’t have a home to go to.
I set down my spoon, my appetite suddenly gone.
What was it that I wanted? My time back? A promise of paradise?
A fugitive godling who smelled of winter and shrunk in Sunlight?
Reaching over the table, Quelline set her hand upon mine. “I’m sure Surril is lovely.”
To Yanla, Argon asked, “Where’s that spyglass?”
And then the room went dark, and thunder rolled through the sky.
My heart launched into my throat. Little Ceris shrieked. Quelline and Ruthgar both scrambled for candles. I stood, my appetite suddenly gone. I knew that sound. I’d heard it once before, in a field near Tarnos, when the moon had vanished from the sky.
“Gods help us,” Yanla whispered.
Ruthgar snapped, “Gods are the problem.”
I turned to Quelline, who said, “It’s the war. The gods are feuding.” So it had reached even Nediah, then.
Argon murmured, “Maybe it’s real thunder this time.”
“Third time it’s happened,” Quelline whispered, even as I heard running feet in the street outside. Not simply fleeing citizens, but heavy steps, clinking with armor. I thought of the guards I’d seen earlier and rushed to the window, though the view was poor from the house.
“Before,” Quelline continued, “it was far off. We just saw lights in the sky. The next time it was closer. We saw the lightning, the fire. The Sun and moon, warring for the sky.”
Ruthgar shook his head. “Storms. Just storms.” He sounded as though he were trying to believe his own words.
I wrenched the door open and stepped outside, both startled and relieved to see Ristriel there, standing as a man, staring up at the sky. “Ris!”
“They are celestials.” Ristriel responded as though he had heard the others’ conversation, and perhaps he had. His tone was matter-of-fact. “They were created in opposition to one another, and Moon has never been happy with less. The workings of mortals are beneath them.” He glanced from me to the Parroses crowding behind me. “They will tear this city apart.”
Yanla fainted. Argon didn’t move fast enough to catch her, but he grabbed her arm, slowing her descent to the floor.
“You’re still here,” I whispered, my insides twisting in a different pattern.
Quelline was frozen as a game piece. She said something, but I couldn’t hear it over the boom overhead, so loud I had to cover my ears. My teeth clanked against each other. The noise rattled from my skull to my toes.