Page 51

The Librarian walked to the corner of the symbol and bent down, to place a small line running between two of the tightly packed swirls. An eerie stillness crept over the land, raising the hair on the Librarian’s head, and disturbing Skaldi’s tightly furled wings.

‘That must be it,’ the Librarian whispered into the stillness. And then he started to laugh, loudly and gleefully. Skaldi felt the same ecstatic emotions he projected. They made him feel happy too.

Now we must share these with Erann.

‘Yes, I think we’ve done the easy part.’

Can you draw these on your animal skin?

The Librarian nodded and once more hurried inside. ‘My ink is within,’ he called over his shoulder.

Skaldi couldn’t deny being pleased with what they’d discovered, but there was still the problem of informing Erann of this. He couldn’t seek his mind to share the images. The only person who could was Sereh.

Thank you for your help, friend Skaldi thought as the Librarian offered him a large bag, in which he placed the tiny script. I’ll return and tell you when I’ve found Erann. We’ve much to talk about. Skaldi extended his wings with a snap only to feel a swirl of emotions hit him from the Librarian because his mind was elsewhere, on Erann, and not as guarded as it needed to be.

I’ll show Sereh, he promised the Librarian, and with a huge back wing, launched himself into the air.

Erann has been gone long enough. It is time to rescue him. Only then could Skaldi consider what else must be done to save these people he’d begun to realise were more friendly than the Speaker who’d gone before him, and the one before him, and so on, all the way back to the First and Second Speakers of his kind, who had determined what he should believe about Erann and his people.

23

SKALD DREKKI

As Skaldi landed on his ledge, darkness stretched out behind him, cloaking the glacier and everything else as well. He walked into his cavern, unsurprised to find Sereh waiting for him. She was curled in a tight ball, sleeping within his huge warm, stone bed, Arrow at her side. This time, it didn’t upset him, as it had before.

He idly wondered how long she’d been waiting for him. It was probably all day. Perhaps, he should have taken her with him to see the Librarian. But no. There was much he needed to share with the Librarian, and the Librarian with him, that would have been too complicated to include Sereh in. The Librarian had his secrets. Just as he did.

Sereh didn’t stir at his arrival. He left her to sleep. Arrow opened a sleepy yellow eye, saw him, and then returned to sleep.

Emma, he called.

She arrived in front of him quickly, as though she’d been awaiting him, using the interior tunnels. She cast a wary eye towards Sereh and Arrow but said nothing, despite the uneasy expression on her face. He was getting better at understanding her emotions.

I have visited the Librarian. We have devised a means of rescuing Erann. But it is not easy. I will need your help. And Jon’s, I suspect.

He endeavoured not to be distracted by the torrent of emotions hurtling through her mind, as she understood the Librarian’s role in his story.

I will need to communicate with Jon. He stated, when she made no move to call him. Perhaps then, his instructions needed to be more specific.

‘I will send him to you when Sereh is gone from here.’ She replied aloud, but the images in her mind weren’t in agreement. He decided it would be best not to make reference to them. ‘The Librarian…’ she began.

He has sent you a message. I will share it with you. It is contained within the backpack.

Quickly, Emma hurried towards it, and grabbed it from the backpack, only to pause. He watched her. He could tell she wanted to read it. Desperately. And yet she held back. Finally, she retrieved it. Skaldi couldn’t help thinking the Others were sometimes impossible to understand.

She hurried from his presence, tears falling down her face, the rolled animal hide in her hands. He turned away from her grief. He couldn’t help but think that five hundred rotations was a long time to be away from the person you loved. And that was what the two shared. A bond that had withstood five hundred rotations. He could hardly contemplate so long, even though his kind lived longer than Erann’s.

He dozed where he stood, not wishing to wake Sereh by moving her, and able to settle comfortably enough, but she startled him awake only moments later, her dreaming thoughts crashing into his mind, as she was consumed with sorrow for Erann’s absence, even while she slept.

Quickly, he sent a flurry of images of where Erann was, and how he could be rescued, but only if she could dream of the symbols he needed to form.

He sent images of how the symbols should be crafted, both circular, both embodying drekkikind and the Others. Still, Sereh put up a great deal of resistance, even while she dreamed, as she had before, but Arrow opened her yellow eyes and focused on Skaldi. He redoubled his efforts. The wolf-dog shared a connection to Erann, or so he recalled.

Yet, from what Skaldi had seen of Erann’s imprisonment in Sereh’s dreams, he knew it wouldn’t be easy. Knowing how to escape was one thing. Being able to construct those means, in the dark, was quite another.

Finally, Sereh roused.

‘Skaldi, where have you been?’ she demanded, yawning. He looked to Arrow, who looked to Sereh, and then she hurried towards the backpack, eyebrows furrowed, retrieving the animal skin. Sereh’s forehead furrowed, and he watched her uncurl the rolled animal skin. For a moment, he thought she wouldn’t understand, but then a smile touched her cheeks, and she ran from the chamber, dashing onto the icy ledge with Arrow behind her. He shook his head. Didn’t she know of the inner tunnels? Perhaps not.