“You and your brother are very welcome in our jetal, love, as you have been this past year. Aaron and I love you as our own.”
I’m not ready for this, Sulis thought as she leaned against her aunt, the hands plaiting her hair bringing her back to herself. I need to learn so much about the Northerners and their great Temple. How do you even get to Illian? How do you pair with a feli? If you pair, does the Temple consider you a pledge? She closed her eyes, letting her aunt’s touch comfort her. She would keep learning. When she was ready, Illian and the Temple would be waiting.
Chapter 1
KADAR UNFASTENED HIS pack from the saddle with a sigh. It had been several days’ travel from the last Northern town they’d traded at to here, the Temple city of Illian. The caravan had entered the city at dawn. He’d spent most of the morning unloading the Frubian silks and goods at their large merchant hall on the main road, then dropped the mules and wagons off at the merchant stables before heading to his uncle’s house. Kadar was looking forward to a real meal instead of travel fare.
His horse stamped impatiently, wanting to join his fellows in the Hasifels’ personal stables for a hot mash. Kadar slung the double pack over his shoulder and patted the gelding once before his young cousin led him away for a well-earned rest. Kadar grinned as the horse practically dragged Simon off his feet in his haste to reach his stall. Kadar’s own stomach rumbled mutinously as he headed around the front of the house. He hoped he had time to grab a bite to eat in the kitchen.
He stopped when he came around the corner. His sister was sitting in the middle of the road, her red-and-orange robes flaring out onto the cobblestones, her pack by her side. Her head was bent low over a giant Temple feli. Like all felines who came in contact with Sulis, it was acting like a kitten—in this case, a kitten the size of a boarhound. Sulis ruffled the fur on its spotted belly while it batted her hair, claws sheathed in its massive paws. Kadar could hear its purr from where he stood. A guard of Voras in a stiff red uniform was speaking to their uncle, Tarik, who looked angry at whatever he was being told. The guard kept shooting uncertain glances at Sulis, seeming disconcerted to see his proud feli act like a common barn cat. Sulis, as usual, did not notice the look the guard was giving her, nor the curiosity of the staring townspeople. An unrepentant eavesdropper, Sulis was probably listening intently to the conversation between her uncle and the guard.
Kadar sighed, retrieved Sulis’s pack out of the dirt, and tapped her on the shoulder. She glanced up at him and stood, her robes swirling around her bare feet. The feli scrambled to sit upright, head tall and proud, tail curled around its paws. The feli’s head came to about the middle of Sulis’s stomach. The great cat bumped her in the ribs as she caressed it one more time behind the ears.
“Off with you, then,” Sulis told it, and turned to go in the house. She did not notice the guard’s outrage that she would treat one of the sacred feli like a common creature. The feli cleaned its whiskers once, gazed longingly at Sulis’s retreating back, then reluctantly rejoined the guard.
Kadar admired the great creature’s grace as it padded away. It had a thicker, heavier body than the wild desert feli he had grown up around, built for power and strength rather than speed. He’d seen wild feli bring down fully grown gizas in the desert. The feli’s deep chests and long legs combined for short bursts of speed that exceeded even those of the rangy horses Uncle Aaron bred for racing.
The house was cool and dark after the full sun of mid-spring, and Kadar shivered. He stopped in the front mudroom and set the packs aside, not entirely certain where their rooms would be. He supposed he would get used to the weather since this would be his home for the next few years as he and his sister finished their trading apprenticeships. At least Illian was perched only a day’s ride from the Southern Territory and Kadar’s beloved desert, instead of in the Northern mountains. Kadar’s first experience with snow, huddling for warmth with a string of