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But, how had he come to be here? Wherever here was.

He fought the resurgent panic. Panic would get him nothing. He needed to think. He opened his mouth to shout and closed it again. Maybe he didn’t want to attract unwelcome attention. He’d already made so much noise.

‘If there were anyone nearby they’d have come to my assistance by now,’ he gasped, keen to hear his voice.

‘I need to find Sereh and Skaldi. Where are they?’ He lay still. He must re-establish his connection to Skaldi.

‘Skaldi,’ he called. ‘Skaldi,’ he tried again. The dragon would find him. He’d found him in the avalanche. Erann fought waves of nausea. But there was no hint of the dragon’s presence. Skaldi was out of reach.

Abruptly, he made sense of the weight on his back. He had his backpack. Maybe there’d be something to drink. He pulled on the shoulder strap and felt the backpack fall free. He reached behind himself, breathing shallowly through the torturous pain. He gripped it. He pulled with all his strength and felt the pack lift from the floor. Gods, it was heavy.

He slowly pulled it in front. It felt misshapen. Long moments of fumbling with shaking fingertips enabled him to locate the opening catch and reach inside. His fingers greedily sort out his water jar. He clutched it in his right hand and removed the stopper with his left. It felt reassuringly full. He lifted it to his lips and slacked his thirst with greedy swallows of the warm water. He was glad he’d had the foresight to fill his water jar even with Sereh breathing down his neck with impatience at first sunrise.

He curbed his drinking. It wouldn’t do if he drank it all. While he might be able to think about something other than thirst, he knew that it would only be a matter of time before he needed to drink again.

He shuffled backwards on his arse, dragging his legs. He came upon a wall and leant against it, recovering his breath. Hand extended, he realised it felt rough, worn and somehow warm. He wondered at that, briefly, but then worked to straighten his leg. His entire body shook from the pain. Grimacing, he worked his hands down his leg and pulled it into a more comfortable position. A howl of agony ripped from his mouth. He found himself drifting towards the blackness of unconsciousness. He didn’t fight it. The wetness on his hands told him he bled. The pain was one thing, the knowledge he lost blood without being able to stop it, was another. His heartbeat thundered again, his breaths panicked. The pain came in waves until mercifully it dragged him once more into oblivion.

5

SEREH

She woke from her first sleep in the room she shared with Finn, not knowing whether it was day or night, light or dark outside. Finn still slept peacefully, his breathing even. But the moment her eyes opened she grew restive and angry all over again at Skaldi’s betrayal of her right to find Erann. She felt fresh grief, physical in its intensity. She slid quietly from her bed and dressed in the dim orange glow of the lamp. Not even Arrow woke as she sidled through the curtain and into the enclosed passageway.

‘Which way now?’ she muttered to herself, not wanting to wake Arrow or Finn. Everywhere looked the same. She hesitated, uncertain. ‘I’ll just go this way. I’m sure it’ll lead to the common room. Eventually. From there, I’ll find my way to the ledge where Skaldi deposited me. Then, by the Gods, I’ll wait until I see him again. I’ll not stay here, in comfort, without Erann.

‘I won’t eat, sleep or leave the ledge until I somehow managed to communicate with the giant dragon. There must be a way. Emma can do it. Erann could do it.’

She wandered, with purpose, through black passageway after black passageway.

‘Well this isn’t right,’ she murmured, deciding to avail herself of the latrines anyway. ‘That means the common room must be this way,’ she decided, pointing the way she meant. But then she thought of Emma. Undoubtedly, she’d be there, in the common room, and she’d forbid her from seeking out Skaldi. ‘I’ll try this way instead,’ and she turned down the other passageway at the next junction, as she did so, she slowly felt the air around her legs grow colder. ‘It must mean I’m close to the ledge,’ she announced firmly.

Yet, still she walked. ‘Perhaps this isn’t the right way, after all. Perhaps I should go back and get my cloak.’ Only then, she finally noticed a lessening in the orange gloom and stepped out onto the wide, icy ledge. The sun hadn’t yet risen on the frozen landscape. She shivered, and turned to look back the way she’d come. ‘I really should have brought my cloak,’ she complained to herself. But then, cloaks were simply not needed in the warmth of the caves.

She couldn’t risk returning now. Finding the ledge had been down to luck rather than skill. It didn’t mean she’d find her way back again or even make her way to her sleeping room in the first place.

‘I’ll wait,’ she announced decisively. ‘There’s a view and if I get really cold, I’ll step back inside briefly. I can’t miss seeing Skaldi. I need to know where Erann is.’ Before her eyes, she watched dawn breaking over the high peaks of Snaefell. The sun illuminated the massive glacier at the foot of the mountain. She felt her mouth drop open as she marvelled as the sky turned from violet to pink before the sun even appeared – a dull orange orb hanging low on the fretful horizon.

‘Where’s the bright planet?’ she queried, as she finally dragged her eyes away from the view. There was no sign of it in the brightening day. Not even when she risked stepping out, closer to the vertiginous drop, and looking as high above her as she could. Quickly, she stepped closer to the black wall once more, aware her breathing was a little too fast.

‘Does Emma know of its existence? If she does, does she know if it’ll appear again?’ Her voice sounded small with so much vastness around her and yet, she found it comforting to talk to herself. ‘It can’t be a coincidence, can it? It appeared at the time Erann found Skaldi, and discovered the existence of Emma and her people, and Skaldi and his. I need to ask Skaldi about it as well.’ She resolved once more. There was so much she needed to know. It was so frustrating.

Her mind whirled with unanswered questions as the light of daybreak slowly crept across the land, illuminating the shadows and gullies of the vast glacier surrounding them, until it brought her back to the problem of where Erann was. ‘He couldn’t just disappear, could he?’ she shook her head. It felt overwhelmingly incomprehensibly to her. ‘One moment he was there. The next he was gone.’

She grew colder, and yet refused to give up her vigil. Eventually, Arrow pressed up to her side. Sereh knew it wouldn’t be long until either Finn or Emma found her too. Sure enough, Finn dashed onto the ledge, a look of fright on his face at finding her, and she understood no answers would be forthcoming anytime soon. ‘I’ll return tomorrow,’ she decided softly. ‘They can’t watch me all the time.’

‘Morning, Finn,’ she spoke to the young lad, even as she followed the boy along the passageways.

‘Don’t tell Emma,’ Finn whispered. ‘If she finds out, I’ll be in trouble.’

‘I won’t, Finn, don’t worry. And if she finds out, neither of us will be uttering falsehoods if we say I came alone.’

‘Thanks,’ he offered, with a quick glance over his shoulder, and a brief smile. Still, the terror didn’t leave his face. She was unsurprised when they didn’t journey directly to the common room but took a detour to their sleeping room.

‘It was cold out there, and you had no cloak,’ Finn explained. ‘You need to warm up, or no matter what we say, Emma will suspect.’

‘Thank you,’ she replied, collecting her cloak and gratefully wrapping it around her shoulders. Briefly, she wondered why she acquiesced to Finn’s request. She supposed she didn’t want to get him in trouble or draw too much attention to herself. And she needed the freedom to work out some answers for herself. The less suspicions she aroused in Emma the more leeway she’d enjoy. Or so she hoped.

The three finally entered the common room to a chorus of ‘Good afternoons’.