Sasha (78 page)

She shook her head in faint amazement. The grammar was appallingly vague, by human standards. But then, humans were empirical. Serrin made imprecision into an artform. Serrin words. Serrin thoughts. Serrin worlds. One door closed, another opened.

“What are you saying?” Sofy pressed with intrigue. “Oh please, don't talk Saalsi without me! I need to know what you're saying!”

“You need to know what
everyone's
saying,” Sasha told her. “The Princess of Gossip. It's an addiction.”

“Something old and wise and extremely dirty,” Errollyn told the younger girl.

“Don't tease me,” Sofy sniffed, with a haughty angle to her slim jaw. “I'm very frightening when I'm angry.”

“Finish your wine,” Sasha told her with a smile. “The night's only young yet. Father may get you back, but he won't get you back so pure and innocent as he'd like.”

Sparks swirled and climbed into the night sky from the fire, mingling with the sparks of many surrounding campfires. Sasha watched them rise into one of the few constellations bright enough to brave the light of the rising moon. Hyathon the Warrior, with his belt, sword and helm. The hero of Lenayin, clear in the night sky above the Valley of the Udalyn—brave, proud and free.

J
OEL
S
HEPHERD
was born in Adelaide in 1974. He has studied Film and Television, International Relations, has interned on Capitol Hill in Washington, and traveled widely in Asia. His first trilogy, the Cassandra Kresnov Series, consists of
Crossover, Breakaway
, and
Killswitch.