‘The curator believes there might be answers in Ephemeros.’Mae raised a thin brow, assessing my reaction.
‘So, you know about the deal I made with General Toro?’I asked.
‘I may have guessed,’ she said vaguely.
‘You mean you read someone’s mind?’
She shrugged with a smile.
‘You can travel into people’s dreams too?’I asked.
‘Yes.’
‘You looked different in my dream.’
‘I don’t feel like an old lady, so I don’t see myself as one,’ she admitted.
‘You told me if I woke up, you would tell me about my parents and twin.’
‘Ah, you remembered that.’She smiled ruefully.
‘Did you know my parents?’
She nodded.
I was finally going to discover the truth.Why did they send me away?Why wasn’t I worthy of their love?
‘Your mother was a Mind Weaver like me, but instead of being able to enter dreams, she could influence a person’s thoughts.A rare gift.Mind Weavers can communicate without words to other Mind Weavers, and that’s how I came to know what I know now.’
‘My mother spoke to you with her mind?’I was absorbing her every syllable, desperate to know anything she could tell me about the woman who gave birth to me.
‘It was the only way she could communicate by the end, and she wanted you to know everything.She asked me to show you.’Mae gestured to her bedroll.‘Lie down.When you’re ready, I will begin.’
My palms became sweaty as I did as she asked.
‘Close your eyes.I need you to relax for this to work.Try emptying your mind.’
How?My mind was never empty, especially not now when I was on the cusp of getting the answers to questions I’ve been asking my entire life.I tried to ignore the scratchiness of Mae’s bedroll and the lumpy ground that pressed into my back.She really should find a flatter surface to sleep on.
‘Try taking a deep breath, hold it for two counts, and breathe out for three.’
I breathed as Mae counted and felt the tension begin to leave my limbs.Her hand gently stroked my head, and to my surprise, I grew sleepy.
†
Sitting at a gilded dressing table, a woman admired her reflection as she brushed her radiant, golden hair.Grooves formed between her wide green eyes, and her full, rosy lips tipped down at the sides as if she no longer liked what she saw in the mirror.It was a young Queen Yaris, and she looked like she did in the portrait that hung in the Warwicks’ rooms in Capita Castle.
Reflected in the mirror, a young man climbed through the large window behind her.She turned towards the intruder with a gasp.
I recognised a young King Hared, with his brown hair and tall frame, but then the image shimmered, and the illusion was gone.The man in his place was also tall, but he was more robust, with rounder shoulders and a broader chest.His hair grew longer and turned a bright auburn.How had he changed his appearance?Could Weavers do that?I had thought only women were Weavers.
Queen Yaris threw herself at the man, and he swung her around with a joyful laugh.
‘What are you doing here?’She looked up at him with adoration.My heart ached to be able to hear Queen Yaris’s voice for the first time.It was soft and a little husky, just like mine.
‘I want you to run away with me,’ he joked.
‘Very funny,’ she replied with a smile.
