“I may not always be wise, but I know you. I know you sometimes better than you know yourself.” Rogan broke off with another cough. “Occasionally, Ella, you have to take a chance on life. You grew up an orphan, and you were all alone in the world when Brandon died. You’ve always accomplished everything on your own; you had no other choice. You’re brave and intelligent, but you’re also a fool and a coward.”
Rogan’s words shocked her. He wasn’t holding back. “I’m sorry,” Ella said through her tears.
“Don’t be sorry,” said Rogan. “You haven’t had an easy life. I want you to do something for me. Talk to Killian, Ella. Tell him the truth. Tell him all those things he doesn’t know about you, the secrets that you think are yours alone. Then let him talk, and listen, girl—listen well. Will you do that for me?”
Ella nodded.
“Good,” Rogan said. “Come here.” He kissed Ella’s cheek, and she kissed his in return, feeling his skin cold on her lips. “I love you, girl, as does your brother, and all your friends. But there are different kinds of love. There is the love a man bears for his woman, and the love a parent bears for a child. You need to find that out.”
Rogan drew a shaky breath, and Ella saw tears gleam at the corners of his eyes.
“Now go,” Rogan said.
Ella stood and looked down at him. “Rogan,” she whispered, “I love you too.”
“I know,” he said.
Ella left the room and closed the door behind her. Her vision was a blur between her tears, and she was barely aware of crossing the room to stand beside Shani and Bartolo. Shani took Ella’s hand, her face filled with concern.
Miro entered the room after Ella, and he was gone a long time.
He finally came out and looked at Amelia. “He wants to speak with you,” Miro said.
Amelia entered to speak with her husband, and she was also gone for a long time. Finally, Amelia came back out of the room. She looked at Ella, and her reddened eyes met Ella’s for a moment.
Ella gasped as Amelia shook her head.
“Please, everyone leave,” Amelia said. “I want to be alone with him now.”
68
“Shani,” Bartolo said as he entered their room and closed the door behind him.
“Hello, soldier,” Shani said, arching an eyebrow. Lying on the bed, she raised her burgundy dress to her upper thigh. “What is it? Come to give homage to the goddess of love?”
Bartolo sat next to his wife on the bed. “I want to be serious.”
Shani sighed and sat up to sit cross-legged beside him on the bed.
Bartolo took a deep breath. “We need to talk.”
“Here we go.” Shani rolled her eyes.
“Please, Shani, this is hard enough as it is.” Bartolo took Shani’s hands in his own. “The war is over. Where are we going to go? I have a life in Altura, and you have a life in Petrya. Which will it be? I don’t want to be apart from you anymore. Frequent visits aren’t enough. The position of blademaster is there for me in Altura, if I want it. No one else can do it.”
“Blademaster?” Shani said.
Bartolo nodded. “There are recruits who need training. Altura needs bladesingers. After the war with the primate, we never regained the numbers we once had. One day we may face another enemy, and we need to be prepared.”
“Do you think it would be difficult for a bladesinger to wear the cuffs of an elementalist?” Shani grinned.
“Shani, please, I’m trying to be serious.”
“So am I. Perhaps we could both be teachers. It’s about time we began to share lore between the houses.”
“But can you leave your homeland?”
“That’s the question, isn’t it?”
“Shani!”
“I’m playing with you, bladesinger. You make it too easy.”
“Just speak plainly. Will you come to live with me in Sarostar?”
“Listen,” Shani said gravely. “I love my homeland. But Petrya’s a harsh land, and change will only come about slowly. They’re talking about building a new road to properly connect Altura and Halaran to Petrya, rather than using that treacherous Wondhip Pass.”
Bartolo nodded. “Of course I would expect you to visit your homeland, and I’d come with you. I want to get to know your lands, just as I want you to come to know mine.”
“There’s also something else we’ll need to consider,” Shani said. “Petrya’s no place to raise a child.”
She met Bartolo’s eyes, gazing at him meaningfully as she smiled broadly. Bartolo looked at her and frowned in puzzlement, and then his eyes widened. His mouth dropped open, and he looked down at Shani’s belly and then up at her.
Shani nodded.
Bartolo’s grin spread slowly across his face, dimpling his cheeks and crinkling at the corners of his eyes. “I’m going to be a . . .”
“Yes,” Shani said.
Bartolo’s deep laugh rumbled throughout the palace.
69