“The morning of the funeral, Rhia stood in a clearing with her father, thinking of the weddings, birthdays and solstices she had attended there. Her memories turned as gray as the rain-swollen sky.Only Kalindons burned instead of buried their dead—due to their rocky soil, but also to their desire to unite with the trees and the air in one final act. For the sake of the Asermons, Damen had prepared Coranna’s body as if for burial, wrapping it in strips of scented, ritually blessed cloth.She lay n...ow inside the pyre, which rested on flat stones to keep the blaze from spreading to the grass. A pile of dry juniper branches sat off to the side, and torches flickered at each corner of the pyre.“Damen set all this up in one day?” Tereus asked.“He’s presided over many funerals in Velekos.” Rhia heard her own reply as if someone else had said it. Her mind kept flying down the river to the bayside village where Marek had been rescued, or not, last night. She wanted to scream at the sky to speed up time, for the sun to sink and make it evening, when the Velekon pigeons would arrive with news of their fate.Tereus spoke again, bringing her back to the present.MoreLessRead More Read Less
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