Page 50 of Dark Destiny: A New Thread in the Tapestry

"Who is Burda?" Sari asked.

"One of the women in the enclosure who were told about the escape plan and chose to stay," Alena said. "She's on the older side, and she's like the village elder for the enclosure women. She feels responsible for them."

That about summed it up.

"I need to let Sullha know." Amanda pulled out her phone.

"After dinner," Annani said. "Not now."

"I'll call her later." Kian reached for the wine bottle, refilled his mother's and wife's glasses, and then his own. "Toven asked me to find someone else to talk to Burda, and Sullha came to mind. I'll make her the contact person with Burda. She will be happy to do that."

17

KHIANN

She was not there. He did not need to open his eyes to know it, because everything felt a few degrees colder when she was absent.

Then he remembered that she had told him she would be gone for a few hours. A family event of some sort that she needed to attend.

She had held his hand, told him she would be leaving, and asked whether he would be all right. He had smiled at her and squeezed once in affirmation because she wanted to go and he did not want to keep her from her family, but he missed her already.

He opened his eyes and looked at the strange ceiling with its illuminated panels that were functional but cold. Somewhere to his right, the machine kept its steady rhythm, and beyond that, a male was making incoherent sounds.

The tall male physician passed the foot of the bed without noticing that he was awake, which was fine by him. He needed to take inventory of what he knew. The things his scattered brain had managed to retain.

His name was Khiann, but he still did not feel like it belonged to him. It was the name of a stranger he did not know.

His father's name was Navohn, and his mother's name was Yaeni, and for some reason those names felt like something warm in his chest. It was not familiarity because they sounded as foreign to him as his own name. Perhaps it was the knowledge that he had a mother and a father.

What had happened to them?

The name of the magnificent beauty spending her days on the chair next to his bed was Annani, daughter of Ahn and Nai, and she was a bright flame that warmed his body and illuminated his spirit.

He felt alive when she was near.

A male had visited, the one with the red hair, but he could not remember his name. It was like a frayed thread in his head that remained out of grasp, but at least he remembered the friendly face and the infectious smile and how he had felt when that male was there.

A friend. He had a friend.

He remembered her telling him about three little children that would be at the family dinner, and the way she smiled when she had talked about them.

He also remembered the ring.

Then he moved his thumb and the band turned with it because it was too big. There was something carved underneath, and Annani had told him what it said, but he struggled to remember the words.

He remembered other things she had told him about the ring. There was something about it not being made of gold because gold was not durable enough for a ring meant to last an eternity. It was made from a special alloy that could not be cut, but since it was engraved, that did not make sense. How had the words been engraved in an uncuttable alloy?

She had also said something about where the alloy could have come from that he must have misunderstood. Something about the planet of the gods. Then she had said it was a story for another day, and after that she had said something he had liked very much.

Your father told you things, and you told me.

His father had told him something about the metal or about the planet of the gods, and he had told her, but he had forgotten while she had remembered, and now she was reminding him of what his mind had lost.

She had turned the ring in the light, had held it up so that he could see the inside of it, and he had not looked because at that moment he had been looking at the ceiling and thinking about how it was made. By the time he shifted his gaze to the ring, she had already moved it from his line of sight.

But she had read the inscription to him, and suddenly he remembered it.

For eternity and beyond.