Lara stopped first in the children’s room to gaze a moment on Eshav.
The torches in the hallway threw just enough light on the rows of sleeping children on their beds of fur skins, boys on one side, girls on the other. Between the ages of three and ten, the children stayed in this large room. After the age of ten, each child went into the girls’ or boys’ rooms until marriage.
She knelt beside the boy, now in his seventh year. He had his mother’s red hair and green eyes, and his father’s strength and bravery. No other child could hop around on the crags quite like Eshav, who also took every opportunity to barrage his older half-sister with questions about her training in magery.
Her heart ached as she gazed on the small, sleeping form, already missing him. Eshav’s wiry little body releas
