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‘Erann,’ she screamed his name as she stumbled through the thick snow.

‘Erann,’ she cried until she grew hoarse but he didn’t turn to her, as he had before.

She howled in fury and as a fiery purple dawn drenched the horizon before her, she collapsed, weak, cold and alone. She reached for the fragment of the marker where Skaldi had left her so many days ago. Now, she saw it afresh, and a jolt of recognition sparked through her body as she touched it but it wasn’t enough to full rouse her. She slumped. Arrow came to her side, and curled her warm body around her frozen figure, but she was only distantly aware of it.

18

SEREH

‘Sereh,’ she heard her name, but couldn’t open her eyes. She was comfortable, wasn’t she? She was sleeping in her bed, wasn’t she? But then she sensed the burn of warmth leave her side.

‘Sereh,’ the voice called more urgently now. ‘Oh hello, Arrow,’ it softened. ‘Good girl,’ the voice praised. ‘But I don’t need my face licking,’ the same person continued. Sereh again tried to open her eyes. It was close to sunset, she was sure of it.

‘Where am I?’ she gasped.

‘Ah, Sereh, good, good,’ the Librarian bent over her. His face filled with worry, his green eyes scouring her, while Arrow’s head was there too, her warm, musty breath heating Sereh’s face.

‘Why are you here?’ the Librarian queried, and Sereh felt herself smiling. She had the same question.

‘Right,’ the Librarian huffed. ‘I need to get you warmed up, and back to the Library. Can you stand?’

‘I can hardly open my eyes,’ Sereh exhaled. She was aware of him coming close to her in order to hear.

‘Arrow, lie there again,’ the Librarian commanded, and once more, Sereh felt the wolf’s heat, and it only grew as more weight settled on her. She cracked open her eyes just a little to see furs being placed all over her. She couldn’t see the Librarian as he worked to cover her because there was so many of them.

‘What are you holding?’ the Librarian could be heard scurrying around ahead of her, and now she felt her arm being moved under the covers, the unpleasant feeling of sensation returning to it making her want to cry out.

She tried to remember what she’d been holding. And where she was? It evidently wasn’t her bed, either in run-ketill or in the Library.

‘It’s a marker,’ she heard the Librarian exclaim, and then silence, until he spoke again. ‘It’s my marker. How did she find it, here?’ She sensed him resting back on his heels as he surveyed the landscape. She kept her eyes closed. The marker. Skaldi. Where was he? He was supposed to come for her. Why hadn’t he come for her? Had she waited all day for him? She wished she could make sense of her clouded thoughts.

She felt two heatstones join the furs by her feet. They were deliciously warm. For now. But like her arm, she anticipated the pain coming, later.

‘Are you hungry, girl,’ the Librarian still spoke to Arrow. The next thing Sereh heard was her wolf-dog chewing noisily, and then liquid was poured into her own mouth. It tasted delicious but it was an effort to swallow.

Briefly, she considered how the Librarian would get her back to the Library if Skaldi wasn’t coming. She’d walked a long way to get here. She recalled that now. Where was the dragon?

She became aware of a rhythmic sound. What was the Librarian doing? It sounded similar to when Ralf had cleared the ice away from their water source. Was the Librarian cutting through the ice of the glacier? Why would he be doing that?

The sound persisted, and she felt a shard of something very cold land on her lips, but she couldn’t form the words to complain.

Instead, she listened to the Librarian.

‘I shouldn’t have allowed it to get so bad,’ he complained beneath his breath. ‘I should have kept it free from the ice,’ he muttered. ‘If I’d come once a year and dug the marker out, I wouldn’t be doing this now. I should have left the sanctuary of the Library, instead of staying locked up tight, with my grief.’ What was he doing, and what was he talking about? The marker?

‘I shouldn’t have stayed with the histories.’ Chop. ‘I shouldn’t have feared to interfere in the future that didn’t belong to me anyway.’ Chop. ‘I’m as much of a fool now as I was then. I’ve learned nothing.’

She could hear his laboured breathing.

‘I thought I was content with my work.’ Chop. ‘I was just as much of a prisoner as this damn marker.’ Chop.

She sensed the Librarian stopping whatever he was doing. He shuffled close to her, Arrow evidently rising from her guard position as well.

‘What’s to be done, hey, Arrow?’ he asked the wolf-dog. ‘We need to get Sereh home or back to Emma. And I can’t carry her from here. If only I could uncover more of this bloody marker,’ he grumbled.

Ah, thought Sereh, so that’s what he’d been doing.

But why? The answer wasn’t long in coming.