CHAPTER 58
“I like her,” Penrys told Najud, after Rubti bounced out of the kazr. “Are they all like that in your family?”
Najud laughed. “No, she’s special. Of course, I don’t know the last two very well—the youngest wasn’t even born when I started my travels. But Rubti fastened on to me every time I came home, and it got so I didn’t feel right if she was somewhere else. It’ll take me a while to think of her as a tushkzurtudin, but don’t tell her that.”
“Munraz,” Penrys called, and waved him over to join them. He rose from his quiet spot and sat down closer to the stove.
“I just realized I don’t know much about your family. Are you the oldest? Do you have brothers and sisters?”
“I was the only child of my mother born alive,” he said, “before she died.”
Penrys’s mouth dropped. Before
