Page 29 of Stormlost

Sereh bent. ‘Good girl,’ she murmured to her. The wolf-dog loved the boy’s attention but knew where her ultimate loyalties lay.

They both moved together towards the passageway leading towards their sleeping room.

‘Good night, Elen, Finn, Brand and Gunnar,’ she called, but Emma’s name died on her lips.

She overheard an angry hiss from Emma. ‘It’ll happen tonight. Promise me you’ll take precautions.’ Sereh’s step faltered, but she managed to keep walking, her hand resting on Arrow’s neck.

‘What would happen this evening?’ she mused to Arrow, her words soft and not reaching into the common room. All she same, she couldn’t help fearing it was something to do with her.

13

SEREH

Sereh woke slowly, aware of both a lingering sense of desperation and a deep heat running the length of her body. It promised the safety and security that her dream had robbed her of. She smiled and rolled further backwards into the arms that held her. The room she lay in was wonderfully warm, lit by the same dull orange lamps that illuminated the rest of the cave system. A soft gurgling noise rose from the crib nestling close to where she lay. Pal slept, but would wake shortly. She’d have to leave her cosy den and see to his needs. For now, the warmth was too inviting. She turned to look at the man who shared her bed.

Her smile froze in place.

She hurtled to her feet, tangling her limbs in the furs and pulling them half away. That wasn’t Erann.

She snatched her cloak from where it lay discarded on a handy stool and fled the room, otherwise naked, her heart pounding.

In a frightening moment of clarity, she remembered everything that had befallen her in the last few weeks. A sickening dizziness swept through her. Even against the warm stone, her feet felt chilled. She shivered violently.

Darting along the dimly lit passageways, tears blinding her, she realised her nightmare was real. Erann was gone. How could she have forgotten him? How could she have let that other man share her bed? How long had she been here?

She’d only come here because Skaldi had insisted. She’d meant to leave the next day to search for Erann.

Why hadn’t she? What could have distracted her from those plans?

She shook her head, trying to dislodge tears from where they threatened to turn solid on her cold cheeks. Her aching feet carried her along unfamiliar passageways. She broke onto the ledge and stumbled backwards. This was where she’d first arrived with Skaldi. So high up, a biting wind tugged at her cloak. She pulled it closer, stepping out onto the glacial precipice, and yet she felt almost no chill.

She let her cloak fall slightly from her shoulders, her feet pressing into the warm fur as opposed to the frigid black rock. Her view was illuminated by the glow of Gemini. It enabled her to see far and wide, as though her entire homeland lay before her. Even the shimmering reflection of Gemini was mirrored in the Eastern Sea, projecting the planet’s image back on itself.

Forlornly, she sank to the cool floor, finally allowing less rational thoughts and more concrete memories to percolate her fractured mind. Where was Erann? Even now, after all this time, he remained lost. Why hadn’t Skaldi found him yet? Where was he? Could he even be found? What had she done, allowing that man to share her bed? Why had she even welcomed his advances, let alone such closeness? She and Erann had only slept side by side, encased in all of their clothes, and with furs. And Arrow keeping a firm guard on them.

Tears streamed down her face.

Abruptly, her sight wavered, as though she looked through the surface of thin ice over water, and suddenly she was somewhere else, far from the high peak, far from run-ketill, far from anything she’d ever experienced before.

Terrible sorrow engulfed her. She’d never imagined loneliness like this. She was abandoned. She was lost. She’d never be found.

In her mind, she howled for Skaldi and Sereh and then with a jolt looked around. She’d felt something.

She wasn’t alone.

Someone was with her. Joy surged. Her sobs turned from grief to rapture. She grabbed her backpack, and limped as she ran, so determined to escape and be found, the thoughts of going home to her friends and family pushing her on despite the pain from her leg.

For what felt like days, she ran and ran until weariness and frustration took root. Her breath panted. Her chest felt tight.

‘Hello,’ she called. ‘Hello? Is someone there?’ But there was no response.

After all, she was abandoned, and had been forsaken. She slumped to the floor, asleep without even realising.

Sereh felt warm hands rubbing her arms, and she blinked. Abruptly, the view before her was what it had been before. There was Vatna Jokull. There was the Eastern Sea.

She blinked and blinked again, her throat roar from shouting. What was happening to her?

A thick fur was being wrapped around her frozen body. The warmth, after being so cold, was unbearably painful. She tried to yank the fur away. The hot hands battered her frozen digits to stop them from peeling away the added layer. She mewed in pain. Further sweltering furs were draped around her. She turned to see who’d disturbed her, the pre-dawn gloom of a new day building on the horizon now Gemini slept. She squinted upwards. Emma hovered there, her face tight with worry and anger, tutting.