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There was a smoke hole within the granite rock, but it was closed off so it simply sucked the fumes and smoke from the room, and didn’t allow the cold in. The surrounding rock was well sealed. Heavy curtains hung over the passageways so what chill air did penetrate this deeply into the cave system couldn’t enter their personal space.

Sereh took the cup gratefully.

‘Thank you,’ Sereh murmured, drinking quickly.

‘Here.’ Emma poured a large amount of chilled water from the weathered jug on the table into a wooden cup. This she handed to Sereh who again gulped it down.

Emma watched Sereh take in her surroundings, her expression reminding Emma of one her children used to pull when they were young.

‘Come with me,’ she murmured. ‘I’ll show you where to go.’ She offered Sereh her hand. Sereh stood slowly and shakily, making a grab for Emma’s hand when she realised her feet were entangled in her discarded fur. Emma steadied her and gave her a moment to regain her balance. She led her by the hand towards one of the curtained off passageways. Arrow rose on her paws and extracted herself from Finn.

‘Arrow,’ the boy tried to call her back, but Arrow slipped through his outstretched arms and sidled up to Sereh. Sereh reached down hesitantly and pulled the wolf-dog’s ears.

‘You go back to the boy, Arrow. I’m just off to relieve myself. There’s nothing to worry about.’

Sereh’s voice sounded rough. She coughed to clear her throat. Arrow stopped and looked at her quizzically, her head to one side, yellow eyes intelligent, before turning and going back to Finn who was hopefully and noisily banging more meat into the wolf-dog’s bowl. Never one to turn down food, as Emma knew only too well, Arrow was more than happy to munch her way through whatever she was given in Sereh’s temporary absence.

Emma led Sereh into the passageway and spoke softly. ‘It’s not far. Just around here,’ and guided her down one passageway and into another where the latrines were housed.

3

SEREH

The latrines were housed in a small cavern off one of the numerous passageways that seemed to wind through the cave system. Behind another curtain there was a room from which steam escaped.

‘That’s where you can bathe,’ Emma explained.

‘Really?’ Sereh questioned with surprise. A single room. Set aside just for bathing. She’d have liked to ask more, but she was almost jiggling with desperation.

‘In here,’ Emma offered. ‘I’ll wait for you.’

Sereh shuddered in the cool latrine, so similar to those within Rankil’s steading, although everything was made from rock. And smelt far more pleasant. She could only imagine where the waste went. Certainly, it wouldn’t need to be removed in the warmer weather.

‘Can I bathe?’ she questioned eagerly, on exiting. The thought of being clean, after half a rotation, was too good an opportunity to miss.

‘Here,’ and Emma swept aside the curtain. The steam immediately warmed Sereh. ‘There are soap and towels. I’ll return shortly and escort you back, so you don’t get lost. Enjoy yourself,’ Emma finished, and swept away once more.

‘Thank you,’ Sereh called, but Emma was already gone. Sereh couldn’t help sensing resentment from Emma, despite her words and actions to the contrary.

Alone, Sereh took in the room, even while her mind thought about her current predicament. The thought of bathing was almost intoxicating, but so was her uncertainty about where Erann had gone. Would she ever see him again?

She wanted to weep white, hot angry tears. She didn’t want to be faced with a roomful of strangers with their querying eyes and awkward questions. She didn’t know the answers herself and so couldn’t offer any to those people. Yes, she could now see Skaldi. But she couldn’t communicate with him. Emma clearly could, and yet appeared reluctant to do so. When she was clean she’d press Emma for answers.

The bathing room, unlike the latrines, was warm and slightly acidic in its smell. It was, of course, the same uniform black as the rest of the cave system. The bath itself appeared to have been carved out of a chunk of midnight stone. It had no visible water source and yet stayed continually full, even when she stripped down from her smelly clothes, which she’d worn for more days than she cared to admit and entered the deep pool. She must stink worse than the wolf-dog! Water sloshed over the sides.

It was as wonderfully warm as she’d anticipated. She stood, neck deep in the middle, feeling the soothing water work into her aching and battered muscles. Around her, the uniform orange of the lamps illuminated what she was doing. To either side of the oval pool there were graduated steps and after a long time standing she went and perched on one of the slightly higher steps, grabbing a slab of rough soap and a bundle of herbs to clean herself with. It felt as though she’d stripped layers and layers of dirty flesh from her body.

There was the filth of another Long Night endured at Rankil’s. There was the sweat of her exertions when she’d escaped from Rankil, and also the smell of her fear from when she’d plunged through the icy crevasse to what she’d thought at the time, was her death. And the smell of her body as she’d healed having been rescued by Erann. And Skaldi. The thought sent another stab of sorrow into her, and her tears flowed freely in the warmth.

‘Where are you, Erann?’ she murmured through her sobbing. ‘Where are you, Skaldi?’ she muttered more mutinously, drying her tears. She needed to see the dragon. ‘Who even is Emma and those with her, who clearly live here?’ So many questions. There was so much she didn’t know.

As she worked the soap into her hair she gasped out loud as handfuls came loose. Then she relaxed. It wasn’t that her hair was falling out. Far from it. It had been so many rotations since she’d bathed herself, completely, she was just losing layers of long dead hair.

She again rubbed soap into her hair for so long her arms began to ache from being held high above her head. A pleasant lethargy worked its way up her legs. Her stomach loudly complained, and she knew it was time to leave her temporary refuge and return to Emma and the others.

She had questions. Many, many questions. She delayed as long as possible because in here she didn’t need to think about Erann. She didn’t have to face the knowledge her heart was frozen in the sealed ice forming rotation upon rotation, as on Vatna Jokull.

She didn’t have to wonder that she could function without him and that life moved on whether he was with her or not. They’d spent so little time together, and yet his absence made her feel as though she was missing part of herself.