Read Stormlost Online Free by M.J. Porter

Her softly spoken words echoed around the huge cave. Arrow looked at her and then made herself comfortable in the hollow next to Sereh’s feet. Sereh had no intention of sitting and allowing herself any ease when she was so angry, but as her wait lengthened her legs ached. She looked down at how snug Arrow was.

By the time an entire day had elapsed, with the sun setting through the slanted passageway, leading to the ledge, her resolution weakened. She slumped next to the wolf-dog, the heat rising deliciously along her back and across her legs. Such warmth felt luxurious. Arrow offered what Sereh thought was an amused expression.

‘Well, I may as well be cosy while I wait. You are, after all,’ Sereh retorted, feeling the need to explain.

Arrow offered no response, merely settling in sleep.

While Sereh had committed herself to remain until Skaldi arrived, she found waiting without any clothes on other than her furs made her self-conscious. ‘I wish I’d gone back and dressed, now.’ But she feared to leave. She couldn’t miss the dragon. She needed to communicate with him.

Once more, she pulled the cloaks tight around her body. Alone, she replayed the events from when she’d woken, naked and with another man next to her. But the more she thought about it the more she realised Jon hadn’t been in her bed. He’d been fully clothed and lying on her furs. She wondered if he’d simply been keeping watch over her and had fallen asleep at his post. The explanation mollified her. Maybe she’d fallen in love with Jon, and maybe he’d let her, even though he’d known the truth. She ferociously hoped he hadn’t let it go too far. She hoped to the Gods she’d stayed true to Erann.

She should ask Jon, but didn’t want to see or talk to him. The more she thought about what she knew – what he knew and what Emma knew – the angrier she became. This cycle had happened before, repeatedly. Jon knew the outcome of his actions. She didn’t. Whatever advances she’d made towards him, because she knew without doubt it was always her who instigated the liaison, he should have turned away. He should have been strong enough.

Emma thought the same. She recalled that now. When Skaldi arrived, she’d tell him. She’d tell him Emma was right after all. She needed to leave run-ketill. Remaining wasn’t aiding them in finding Erann, no matter Skaldi’s hopes.

Finally, Skaldi entered the space, the distinctive sound of his claws over the stone floor rousing her from her reverie. And Emma hurried within as well, her expression pensive. Sereh spoke before she could regret it.

‘I think Emma’s right, after all. I need to get away from here. I don’t want to see Jon again. I only want to locate Erann. I’ll go to the Librarian.’ A strange look crossed Emma’s face at her words so quickly Sereh wondered if she’d imagined it. Skaldi grunted, and Emma evidently listened to the dragon’s images.

‘He’ll take you away from here. You’ll have to walk some of the way, however. Otherwise no one in the Library will understand how you journeyed there. Do you agree?’ Without waiting for her to reply, Emma continued. ‘Take the wolf-dog. I wish you could take Pal, but that won’t be possible. That would be too huge a lie to tell. He’ll need to stay here. Elen and I will have to make him cheerful because he’ll miss you when you’re gone. And so will I.’ Sereh thought it was perhaps the nicest thing Emma had ever said to her.

‘Am I to come back, and if so, how can I do that? How will I tell Skaldi what I discover?’

As Emma conferred with Skaldi, Sereh used the silence to considered all the things she’d need to take with her and how far she’d have to walk. The Long Day would be advancing after her prolonged time in the caverns. She might need to disguise herself because more people would be making journeys and she couldn’t be discovered by anyone loyal to Rankil. She looked at Arrow under the table. It might be best to leave her behind because she was so recognisable, but no. The thought of travelling alone, especially after her last attempt to escape, was too much to bear. Arrow would stay with her.

Emma spoke once more. ‘Skaldi will arrange to meet you where he leaves you in five days’ time, at the marker, on the glacier there. He’ll show you the way to go from that location. It must be five days because he wants you back here in case you have another dream of Erann, and he wants to be nearby. Is that agreeable?’

‘When do we go?’ was her eager response.

‘As soon as you’re ready,’ Emma replied, a rare smile on her lips. Sereh mirrored it. Briefly, she considered whether it was her or Emma who was most pleased she was finally leaving run-ketill.

ERANN

Erann had lost track of time more often than he’d managed to keep hold of it. There was no sense of day or night. To make matters worse, there wasn’t even any impression that the outside world existed any more.

At least during the Long Night, he’d been able to listen to the howling wind and feel the more than occasional draught pass over his body. Here there was nothing. Every day and every night, or what he assumed to be every day and every night, passed the same way. It was a monotony he’d come to despise. He needed something to change. Anything, but there was nothing. He’d walked steadily onwards every day (or night). The constant gloom hadn’t lifted, and there wasn’t even a hint of fresh air. He was tired of inhaling the slightly stale and tangibly warm air. It left him feeling constantly thirsty. Although he had a steady stream of water running alongside him in the murk, it tasted dark and slightly metallic. He was exhausted, despondent and injured. Why was he bothering? He was trapped and more alone than he’d ever been.

He dreamed of Sereh, Skaldi and his family when he slept. Sometimes when he woke in the morning (or the evening), he cried great gulping sobs for his dreams weren’t reality and he was trapped here. Forever.

PART III

SEREH

By the light of Gemini, Skaldi flew her to within a day’s walking distance of the Librarian’s steading. As they travelled, enclosed within Skaldi’s giant claws once more, she picked out landmarks to use as guides in five days’ time in case she couldn’t find Skaldi, so that she’d be able to return to run-ketill. Not, of course, that she’d be able to get up to the mountain hideaway without him.

It was strange to see the world laid out before her from such a height. The first time she’d travelled with the dragon, she’d been too consumed with worry for Erann, and too exhausted, to notice much. And what she had seen had been mostly Gemini. Now she hardly knew where to look first. The sea. The land. Vatna Jokull. It all appeared so small from such a height.

Skaldi landed with a snap of his huge wings, sending up a shimmer of snow from the ground. She and Arrow walked away from the beautiful golden dragon, shimmering in Gemini’s glow. She looked and saw a fragment of a distinctive marker stone, but refused to get close to it. Not after what had happened to Erann.

‘Thank you,’ she said, aware he couldn’t understand her words, or rather the images in her mind that accompanied the words. ‘I’ll see you in five days.’

As he once more took to the air, with a bow of his head in acknowledgement, her spirit instantly soared. It was so much better to be free from run-ketill. She’d spoken to no one but Emma of her plans. Jon, and she shuddered once more in memory of when he’d embraced her, would discover her absence that way. It was for the best, she told the other woman. Emma hadn’t argued.

The Librarian’s home was a large steading near to Hofsjokull, close to the centre of their land. It was, she knew, the same distance to the sea in whatever direction someone travelled. There, the Librarian kept the invaluable records of her people’s past.