With the rains comes the Gathering of the Wind.

Caron should be there already to guard her friends as they summoned the winds that brought rain the Holy City. It was her duty and her honor.

Instead, she stood on the back step of her mother's house, hiding from Madhu and his impossible demands. He would shape her to be something smaller and meeker, whether she wanted it or not. Madhu certainly didn't care that he was as unwelcome as a leech attached to a carp's belly.

No matter what Madhu wanted, Caron was a shark and she wouldn't allow him to turn her into a guppy or for him to ruin the Gathering of the wind.