The Dove (Prophecy Series) Read Online Free

Adam slipped a hand beneath her elbow as Evan took the other. It was time to go home.
     
    ****
     
    By the time they reached Naaki Chava, it was nearly sunrise and Tyhen was asleep in Cayetano’s arms. He’d waited anxiously for them to return, and when he’d seen her staggering into the clearing, he swept her off her feet and carried her close to his heart all the way home. He loved her so much; it had never mattered that she was not his own.
    “There comes Singing Bird,” Adam said.
    “She’s crying,” Evan added.
    “Thank you for everything you did,” Cayetano said. “Go rest. I will deal with this.”
    They nodded and spoke soothingly to Singing Bird as they passed her.
    From the frantic look on her face, Cayetano guessed Yuma and the others had already told her what had happened.
    “She’s all right,” he said quickly. “She’s just asleep.”
    Singing Bird was crying as she ran her hands all over her daughter’s body. “I was so afraid. I let her go. I let her go.”
    He didn’t often see Singing Bird’s tears, but when he did, they hurt his heart. “You did the right thing. We’ll talk later. Help me get her to her room.”
    “Yuma said Tyhen cut her arm so I called for our healer to come. She’s there waiting.”
    Cayetano didn’t know how to explain exactly what he’d seen. “She saved Yuma’s life with her blood. I don’t know what’s happening with her, but she’s changing.”
    Singing Bird stared at her daughter in disbelief, then shook off the shock and led the way to Tyhen’s room. Yuma was standing by the door.
    “You are supposed to be resting,” she said sternly.
    “Where is she?” Yuma asked.
    “Cayetano comes,” she said, pointing to the doorway.
    Moments later he appeared with Tyhen in his arms. Before she could explain that Tyhen was only asleep, Yuma staggered backward in shock.
    “What happened?”
    “She’s just asleep,” Cayetano said.
    Yuma wiped shaky hands across his face, and when he spoke it was a statement, not a question. “I will sit with her.”
    Singing Bird touched his arm. “You are still weak. You need to—”
    “I will sit with her,” he said again and walked into the room behind Cayetano.
    Cayetano looked at Singing Bird and then shrugged. “It is beginning. Let him. If we don’t, when she wakes up, she’ll go find him.”
    Singing Bird took a deep breath. She’d known since the night Yuma saved her from Bazat that this day would come. Tyhen was without experience, but she trusted Yuma would not cross a line until the time was right. She turned around and led the way into her daughter’s room.
    The healer, Little Mouse, stood up the moment they walked in, and when Cayetano lay Tyhen on her bed, the healer went to work, cleaning the cut on Tyhen’s wrist, then smearing the wound with an ointment she’d brought. She placed two medicine leaves on it and then bound it with a strip of clean cloth.
    Singing Bird touched the tiny woman’s shoulder as she spoke. “Thank you, Little Mouse.”
    “Do I stay?” she asked.
    “No, but do not go down to your home in the dark. You will sleep here in the palace until morning.”
    Little Mouse nodded. She knew where the location of the servants’ quarters because she’d slept there before and scampered out of the room.
    Yuma got his sleeping mat and put it at the foot of Tyhen’s bed, then sat down and crossed his arms as if daring someone to make him move.
    Singing Bird sighed. “Call me if you need me.”
    Yuma nodded.
    Cayetano glanced back as they walked out. Acat, the woman who had been Tyhen’s caretaker since birth, was settling down on her sleeping mat and Yuma was on guard. It should be enough.
     
    ****
     
    Tyhen slept all the way to sundown. She woke up as Little Mouse was dabbing medicine on the cut in her wrist, then sat up and grabbed her hand.
    “Yuma?”
    Little Mouse pointed at the man asleep on the floor at the foot of Tyhen’s bed.
    Tears welled, blurring Tyhen’s