He shook his head, so I stood beside him, looking into a valley I didn’t recognise.
‘Where are we?’I turned my head to get a better view of his sharp profile.
‘We are a few days ride north of Capita,’ he replied quietly, his eyes fixed on the horizon.
I’d never been this far north.Was that why it was so cold, or was it because there was no sun to warm the ground?
‘Is it true that the sun hasn’t risen?’
‘So, Mable’s Dream Weaving finally worked,’ he said, still not taking his eyes off the sky.
‘Dream Weaving?Mae is a Weaver?’I asked.She had appeared in my dream.Communicating with me while I slept.
‘Yes.She’s been trying to wake you since we left the city.’
‘Why?’Did he believe I was stopping the sun from rising?The idea was impossible.But then again, I wouldn’t have believed that someone could enter another’s dreams either.
‘You don’t remember, do you?’
‘No.The last thing I remember …’ I swallowed my words.I didn’t want to think about the dungeon.What I had done and who I left behind.
‘Torgrin got you out of the castle and into the city, but King Hared and his army had taken back the gate.’
‘They trapped us in?’
‘Yes.We were about to be target practice for King Hared when you …’ He stopped talking.There was a red glow appearing on the horizon.
General Toro took a deep breath and released it slowly.Had he chosen this spot, knowing he would see the sunrise first?The golden orb crested the horizon, and like a paintbrush, the sun’s rays swept the sky in reds, purples and golds.
‘You turned day to night as if extinguishing a candle flame.’He stared at me now, his eyes no longer fixed on the rising sun.‘You turned hundreds of men to ash in a blink of an eye.’
I shook my head in denial.My lungs laboured to draw in air, as if my windpipe was shrinking.My damaged heart ached, remembering the moment it was torn in two.I couldn’t stop the dungeon ceilingfrom falling and killing the man I loved.There was nothing left in me to kill hundreds and turn the day to night.If there were, I would have saved him.
‘No.’I gasped.Why couldn’t my lungs find their rhythm?
‘Yes.I know what I saw, and others did too,’ he growled.‘Come with me.’He grabbed me by the arm and pulled me down the hill towards a small pond.‘Look.’He pressed me to my knees in the wet, cold mud and then pushed my head towards the water.‘Look!’he demanded.
The morning light was weak, but I could see my reflection well enough.My hair was a tangled mess, sticking out in all directions.But something wasn’t right.I put my face as close as possible to the water and took in my eyes.Flat black pools, so black you couldn’t see my pupils, had replaced my blue-grey eyes.It was abnormal against my pale skin and golden hair.I looked like an evil spirit come to take people to the underworld.The edges around my vision darkened.
Air, I needed air.
‘It’s time you stopped denying what you are.I’ve watched my son do it, and, like I told him when he was twelve, you cannot run away from who you are.’
‘Caris!’Torgrin was calling me.
I stayed kneeling in the mud.I could no longer look at my reflection, but I could not face Torgrin like this.With trembling hands, I clutched the blanket I wore, fighting against my mind’s need to shut down and forget.
‘You’re awake!’His relief was tangible.
‘You might need to quiet down, boy,’ General Toro warned.
‘Don’t call me boy,’ Torgrin snapped.
‘This is the thanks I get for sticking around to ensure your men didn’t tear your woman apart?’
‘You’re welcome to leave now,’ Torgrin replied coolly.
‘You might want to rethink that, because once they get a look at her, they’ll want to string her up on the gallows.’
