Lunar Fire

As they walked, the night danced with activity and anticipation. Women were comparing their adornments with one another. Men nervously brushed down their tunics or sauntered with studied nonchalance. Children were weaving between the crowd escaping from their parents’ hands, racing one another and shrieking with adventure.

The warmth of the night was unbelievable to Lahana, the lightness of her dress. She watched the beautiful, rich colours of the fabric flow with her movements, silk moons and stars dancing over her in shuddering orbits.

Once through the doors of the meeting house, Phebe hurried across the floor to greet a friend. Lahana remained at the entranceway, overwhelmed by the beauty of the setting. Every reveller was cloaked in a finery of light and colour as the lanterns flickered across the crowd and graced them.

Sha’han watched Lahana gaze across the room. His dark eyes lingered over the high angles of her face and the richness of her hair in the firelight. He watched the weaving of the indigo and violet constellations swathe her form and scatter from her in the fall of the silk shawl at her arms.

Sha’han hesitated a moment and then another. The musicians began a new song. Lahana turned her head and met with Sha’han’s eyes, and he walked towards her. “Do you like dancing?” he asked.

***

The drummer laughed as she held up high the leather-covered hoop and led the rhythm into exuberance. One of the flute players stamped his foot heavily and called out the beginning steps of the dance. Lahana, unsure of the movements, kept to Sha’han’s guiding steps. The other dancers whirled about her, laughing and grinning in high spirits, some calling out whooping cries overhead of their fellow dancers.

The musicians drove the dancing faster. Lahana spun and felt the beauty of the silk stars and moons spinning also, her mind slipping into the glorious colours. Yet in her heart, the silk felt around her so like the simple linen dress she had worn on her wedding day. She closed her eyes as she spun and turned. Then meeting again the amber-flecked blackness of Sha’han’s eyes, when – for a heartbeat – she had expected to see Keelan’s green.

She drew back unsteady, and Sha’han reached for her. He placed the palm of her hand flat against his and drew them both upwards. He stepped closer to her until they were with their faces side by side, with the back of her hand resting at his cheek and his at hers. 

Lahana felt herself reach into the swirling eddies of the Earth and the true stars beyond. She felt herself already in the far places of the night sky, she felt Sha’han there with her. A deep pool seemed to exist in the space between them, fed by a wellspring ancient and eternal. Lahana felt a part of herself setting off, like a raft from the shore, and float peacefully out into the waters, drifting back to a long-forgotten beginning. 

The music softened and became an accompaniment to the harvest feast. People gathered at the many tables and eagerly looked to the long benches set with the prepared meal. The music quelled and then ceased. At the head of the room, Rānae rose from her carved wood throne. She stood holding a jewel-encrusted golden snake in her left hand and a fresh branch of the Cyprus tree in her right. She wore a crown of thick, plaited gold that wound its way across her brow. Her body finely clothed in long silk woven with fantastical designs of strange, thin trees circled by birds who wore flames as wings.

Her voice was steady and clear. “We thank the Earth for her love of the Sun. We thank the Sun for his love of the Earth. May our bodies rejoice and our hearts be sated with gratitude for the richness of their union.” 

Rānae bowed to the room, and across the hall, the people rose and bowed to their queen. Rānae took her seat again beside Kaj.

Once the feast began, Lahana noticed Arun at his table. Surrounded by revellers, he was mainly talking with the woman – bright and sharp as the Moon in her beauty – who was seated beside him.

“His chosen name is Bear.”

“Bear?” repeated Lahana, raising her eyebrows.

“Yes,” said Sha’han. He leaned forward, brushing against Lahana’s arm as he pointed to his brother’s raised chin.

“See the scar just beneath his jawbone, hidden in the curve of the bone. Do you see it?”

Bear’s laughter rolled across the room as he flung his arm across the woman’s shoulders and tipped his head back further.

“I do see it,” said Lahana.

“He was a youth on his first hunt when it happened. A formidable creature, greatly scarred itself, killed two grown men and left my brother with a deep cut to his neck.”

“And a new name?” said Lahana.

“And a new name,” replied Sha’han, looking into her eyes.

Lahana raked her mind for something to say. “Will Bear keep that name when he becomes king?”

Sha’han shrugged, drawing attention away from the grimace that glanced across his face. “He shall do as he pleases. He is the first-born child of our leader. It is his right to lead.”

Lahana caught the nuance of his words. “And if you had a sister?”

“If she were the elder, then she would have inherited the leadership.”

Lahana was quiet a moment, puzzled. “I assumed your mother gained her status through marriage.”

“No. Our father was of the Shaeri, the people who brought you here. He was Shonnat. A great warrior – that is how Kaj describes him. My mother says he was a fine man and a good match for her. Bear resembles him more than I do.”

Bear’s laughter rang out above the crowd.

“Do you think Bear will make a good leader?” Lahana asked.

Sha’han looked at her keenly and allowed a smile to curl the fine lines of his lips. He looked over to his brother. “He is a powerful priest. More powerful, I think, than any among us. The woman beside him is a priestess, Riva.”

Lahana watched Sha’han lean forward, his dark hair a smooth river down the length of his back. She regarded the aquiline form of his face, his hands and arms, his body slender and strong. The firm grace he moved with. His beauty made her feel breathless, and she was certain that at any moment, another woman would catch sight of it also and beckon Sha’han away into forgetfulness of herself.

He turned his head to look over his shoulder to her. She remained silent.

“He foretold of you, you know.”

Lahana blinked at him, taken aback. “And what do I portend?” she said, feigning an arch mirth.

Sha’han smiled, “It was unclear.” 

Lahana shrugged her shoulders. “It always seems to be that way. Was this when Riordan sent word of me?”

A shadow cast itself over Sha’han’s eyes. “It was before then, long before. When Bear was initiated into the priesthood. A woman like a northern wolf was how he described you.”

Lahana raised her eyebrows, “A wolf?”

“Yes.” Sha’han’s gaze lingered over her. “The colours in your eyes and your skin. The wave in your hair, different from ours.”

“You must have seen many of my people or other travellers of a similar nature to me.” She laughed with self-consciousness. “I cannot be the first wolf-woman to wander into your path.”

Sha’han’s gaze turned direct. “I recognised it when you arrived here. I saw the wolf look back at me.”

Lahana glanced away and brushed her hand over the smooth silk edge of her shawl. She looked over to Bear’s table. “What more did he say, your brother?”

Sha’han breathed in deeply. “That the magic running through your blood will hold open the gateways to the Other World, far beyond our forgetting of them. And that which runs through your blood is why we forget. Too ancient, too forceful: a bringer of change, a catalyst.”

Lahana turned to face him, “That does not sound like something I would expect you to welcome.”

“We are not fearful people,” said Sha’han.

Lahana held her fingers lightly to her neck. “I think, seeing as you have seated yourself beside me tonight, perhaps you do not see much to believe in your brother.”

“I believe in his power,” replied Sha’han. “But there are two meanings in his prophecy.”

“The people I come from do not like uncertain things,” Lahana whispered.

Sha’han leant closer to her. She could feel the warmth of his breath glide across her cheek. “My people are not afraid to reach for the meaning of things. We will do so for all our lives if required.”

✴︎

from LUNAR FIRE by Tamara Rendell, available July 20th

Epic Fantasy Romance for Adults