Call the Rain Read Online Free PDF Page B

You know the risk.”
    “I barely remember what it is like to be me. To walk on my own feet and touch with my own hands. Do you never feel that way?”
    Quarie exhaled as the thunder of more explosions rolled over them. “I took my bloodstone off, only once. Do you remember the cove where we stayed in that first spring? Before we joined with the Ken Segra?”
    Illista nodded. They had lived with a small family group of Waki there after fleeing their home.
    “I never told you. I couldn't help myself. The sea felt like...it felt like mother's embrace. It felt like home.” Quarie's voice sounded dreamy, far away. “I only did it once. You were asleep. It would have been so easy to just stay right there. Right by the ocean.”
    Illista nodded, thinking she understood. The water in the Segra's sacred lake was so sweet. It tasted like freedom and security. But she knew that was a lie. The waters here held only danger for her. “You were the one who hurried us to the plains.”
    Quarie released a shuddering breath. “I had to. The Waki we stayed with didn't trust us. Their leader suspected something. He tested me. He tried to demand that I marry one of their men. I couldn't do that.”
    Illista gulped. She had no idea. Quarie had kept all of it from her, every detail. The sea, the argument with the leader. So many secrets. “Why didn't you tell me?”
    Quarie fixed her with a pointed look, the reflection of the fireworks glistening in her eyes. “You were forever defying the leader. Forever forgetting to be a Waki. Forever making foolish decisions. If I told you that I had succumbed to temptation once, you would have stripped that pendant off in front of the whole clan and they would have turned us over to the hunters.”
    “But--”
    Her big sister squared her shoulders, the heavy muscles stiffening next to Illista's. “No but's. I promised Mother that I would protect us both. We left the sea. We left the water because I could not even trust myself. This is the only place that is far enough from temptation for me.”
    Illista licked lips that were suddenly parched. She hadn’t known. She was so young when they fled their home, barely into adolescence. Quarie barely on the verge of true womanhood. Quarie always seemed so sure of herself, so dependable. To think she had fought a temptation and run away from it. “And what if this is not far enough away to keep us safe from the hunters? Safe from temptation?”
    “It has to be. We are Waki now. That is the only way.” Quarie tucked an arm around Illista and drew her close. “I promise that we are safe here.”
    With a cacophonous thunder, dozens of firestars of every color of the rainbow exploded overhead, dazzling Illista with their light and power and drowning their voices. She watched and wished. Wished for a true rainbow of mist and sunshine. Wished for her mother. Wished to wear her own face in front of the world. Wished for rain.
    She watched and wished that Joral's kiss had been intended for her. For her true self. For the Illista of the lake. Wished that he had kissed her out of affection, of admiration, of love. Wished that his kiss was not a hallucination borne of poison. Illista huddled closer to her sister feeling farther away than ever.
    The light faded into a cloud of diaphanous smoke floating up and away, but the thunder remained. And grew louder. Not thunder, horses. Their hooves pounded past the tents toward the heart of the camp.
    Quarie gasped and pulled the fur up, half covering Illista’s face with the fur blanket.
    “What is wrong?” she asked, shoving herself free for a look. In the deepening night, all she saw was their dust.
    Her sister trembled beneath the furs. “They are not Segra.”
    Before Illista could ask what Quarie meant, Nunzi appeared before the sisters. “You are needed to serve the Chieftess again. We have visitors.”
    ***
    Joral stood by his mother's side, arms crossed over his chest. He wore his finest linen shirt, and hard