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Dove sat on her balcony and watched the tiny, colored figures dance in the air around her. Unfortunately, today not even the kitarung could lift her spirits.
What was it about Saraiyu's visits that left her feeling so ... uncertain? She loved her vibrant, beautiful sister as much as she ever had, for all that they were separated by an ocean most of the year. Saraiyu lit the room around her and, just for a moment at a time, lifted the burden that the rebellion had placed on her shoulders.
Dove had never expected the Copper Isles to be easy. There were spies and court plots to contend with. Even if Aly kept most of them from coming to anything, it was disheartening to have so few people she could really trust. Then Saraiyu came and she could almost imagine that her father was still alive, that she was just a daughter and sister, that Aly was just a cheeky slave, that no gods cared where she went or what she did.
But this year it had been different. Saraiyu and Aly had discussed their children while their husbands traded pointers. Diplomatic relations within Carthak were not so different from those of the flocks, apparently. Her court, at least, was slightly more civilized.
“Dove?”
“Out here on the balcony. The kitarung are dancing. Come see.”
“Oh! How lovely. I miss them terribly in the south. There’s nothing like them in all of Carthak. I keep looking, but the glass dragon was too strange and lizards don’t seem to have the same careless whimsy.”
“They remind me of mother.”
“And home.” Saraiyu smiled down at her. “They mean home to me.”
Dove grabbed her sister’s hand and held it tight.
“You mean home to me.”
“And you me.”
“But you have the children now, not to mention the wretched man who stole you away.”
“Dove, darling.”
“Oh, don’t listen to my nonsense. I’m just lonely when you’re gone, I suppose, and I don’t want you to leave.”
“And I’ve spent far too much discussing the babes with Aly?”
Dove sighed and looked out at the kitarung once more. “It’s natural, I know. She’s like this with all the new mothers. The old ones are tired of listening.”
Saraiyu smiled. “I was so jealous of her the first time I came … after. You two were as thick as thieves and shared so much that I missed, that I didn’t know. I don’t regret leaving, but I do regret losing you.”
“You haven’t. Our rooms are just father apart now we’re older.”
Saraiyu chuckled. “I have missed you, my Dove. Let’s be wicked and stay here a bit, just the two of us.”
“Aly will have a fit.”
“Oh, let her. You’re my sister. Besides, I want to hear all about you and Taybur.”
Dove groaned. “Not this again. What will it take to convince you?”
Saraiyu snorted. “Marry someone else?”
“Saraiyu – “
“Someone needs to knock sense into you. That’s what sisters are for, after all.”
"When has anyone knocked sense into a Balitang?"
"I'm sure Winnamine managed it once or twice."
Dove raised an eyebrow. "Oh yes, at least once."
Old memories rushed in. There was so much pain, so much silliness, and so, so much joy.
Saraiyu squeezed her hand. "I know."