Page 57

‘I must hurry,’ Sereh gasped. Now her words were shorter, sharper, more filled with resolve.

‘Across the pattern, there must be pebbles or stones, I think to represent a dragon claw. They must be off centre, and not touching the right side of the symbol at all.’

‘The right side,’ Erann mumbled, his eyes half closed, as he tried to see what she meant.

‘How many?’

‘Five, like a dragon’s claws.’

‘Five,’ he repeated, but now the vision of him faded, as though they were being dragged apart down a long tunnel.

‘No,’ Sereh shouted. ‘No. No. No. Erann,’ she screamed. She could sense Skaldi, and Arrow, but then something else was there as well. She didn’t recognise their thoughts. But, immediately, she was standing by Erann again, and she saw his relief flash across his face.

‘And then, for every fifth swirl, halfway down, there must be a section that veers aside, not quite complete, like a dragon claw has flicked through snow.’

‘I think I can visualise it,’ Erann announced triumphantly. ‘Both of them, together, side by side?’

‘Side by side. You should feel something when they’re complete. I don’t understand what, but you should know when it’s correct. Erann, please hurry to do this. I miss you,’ she gasped, and this time, as he flickered before her eyes, she knew there would be no way to re-establish the link. She hurried to kiss him, to feel him beneath her hands one more time. He met her embrace just as eagerly, the heat of their touch threatening to ignite.

‘I love you, Sereh,’ Erann called, the sound growing fainter and fainter, as she was wrenched from his arms.

As their link fractured with her exhaustion, he called one more thing.

‘I’ll see you soon, my love. Promise to meet me there.’

And he was gone.

Her eyes opened, and she felt her lips smiling broadly. She felt someone’s hand on hers. Her eyes shot open. Was Erann already with her?

But no, it was Jon. She snatched her hand away. Why was he here? What was he doing in her bed chamber? Angrily, she jumped from her bed and stalked away. Jon needed to leave her alone. She’d made it clear she wanted nothing to do with him. Not now. Not ever.

She loved Erann.

She would get Erann back.

She didn’t want Jon. She’d never wanted Jon.

He needed to understand that.

28

ERANN

Erann was awake. He had been the whole time Sereh had been with him. He understood she was asleep. It was her unconscious mind connecting with him. But the image had been so realistic he’d felt her solid in his arms, and heard her voice. Tasted her lips.

The sensation had been so overwhelming it had taken him time to realise she wasn’t alone. Skaldi steadied the link between them. He’d belatedly realised her purpose wasn’t to torment his tired and abused mind and body. Skaldi was unable to link directly with him. He’d needed Sereh to make the main connection although he’d strengthened it. As had Arrow. He’d suspected Arrow and Skaldi could communicate. Now he knew it to be true.

Sereh’s words had been forced and rushed. He’d struggled to comprehend her instructions, and when he did understand, he hadn’t had time to ask what exactly the symbols would do. She’d slipped from his embrace and been gone before he could do anything other than promise to meet her on the glacier on his return.

He didn’t immediately act on her instructions. He didn’t grab for anything he could find to make them. Instead, as excited as he was at the thought of finally leaving his prison, as Sereh had termed it, he closed his eyes, forming the symbols in his mind. He sought clarity. They were similar, but different. The one filled with extending curling lines, the other simpler, and more, he suspected in a moment of clarity, based on the imprint of a dragon footprint. He feared that once he tried to build the shapes out of the rocks and stones littering the stream and the tunnel, he’d quickly muddle them. If that happened he’d be unable to differentiate between them and Sereh’s endeavours would come to nothing. He couldn’t let that happen. He didn’t know if Sereh would be able to return to him again to inform him with such precision.

At his side, his father slept on, gentle snores reverberating along the black tunnel. It had taken them three days of walking, but his father had finally announced last night, they’d reached the spot he’d told Erann about. Here, he stated, there was a lessening to the blackness.

Exhausted, Erann hadn’t wanted to tell him the truth. This part of the tunnel was no different to the other parts. Now, blinking in the darkness, and after Sereh’s visit, he wondered if he’d been too hasty. The walls of the tunnel did seem to glow slightly green. After all, he’d been able to see Sereh. Perhaps then, it would enable him to find what he needed.

Erann didn’t wake his father. It would be easier to work without him asking questions. Instead, he felt around on the hard stone floor, and collected together the rocks and pebbles his hands skittered over. When he’d built a large pile, he started to place them to form the first symbol Sereh had shown him.

It was difficult. He needed to remember exactly where he’d placed each piece of rock as he couldn’t see them. If the walls did glow faintly, there wasn’t enough illumination to see what his hands were doing.