Chapter 39
CARIS
The night enveloped me as I strolled through the woods, listening to the melodic chorus of creatures emerging from their hiding places. The air was warm, and I could smell wood smoke. In between the trees, the glow of a campfire appeared.
Sitting alone by the fire was a young woman with long, flowing auburn hair and light eyes. She greeted me with a smile as if she had been expecting me.
‘Come sit with me, Caris.’ The young woman’s voice was familiar. When I sat next to her, I looked closely at her face.
‘Who are you?’ I asked.
‘Mable, but you call me Mae.’
‘Are you dead too?’
‘No, and you aren’t either.’
‘I am.’ I died in the dungeon with Cillian. ‘Where’s Cillian?’ I wanted to be with him again, looking at the stars together in the woods by the fire.
Young Mae looked at me sadly. ‘You must wake up, Caris.’
‘No.’ I was dead, not sleeping. Cillian would appear through the trees soon.
Mae sighed and shook her head.
‘What’s wrong?’ I asked.
‘For three days, the sun has not risen, and everyone is frightened,’ she explained. ‘We’re trying to keep you safe from people who want to harm you for stopping the sun from rising.’
Why would she think I had anything to do with it? ‘No-one can stop the sun from rising.’ I scoffed.
‘We are stuck in the dark, and you must wake up so the sun will rise!’ she pleaded.
Within the velvety embrace of darkness, I found comfort. It veiled me from the lurking dangers, and its inky depths provided a safe haven. ‘I don’t want to see the sun again,’ I murmured.
‘I know it can feel safe here, but it’s an illusion.
’ Mae placed her pale hand on mine. ‘You’re hurting, and you have suffered a great deal for someone so young, but you are exceptional and your life will be too.
There are people who care about you, and some of those people you haven’t even met yet. It doesn’t end here for you.’
‘Everyone will be better off without me.’ I pulled my hand out from under hers. My mother and Cillian were dead because I had failed them. I had been arrogant to think I could save them. Why did I deserve to live when they were kinder and more worthy than I could ever be?
‘Why would you say that?’
‘I’m the Cursed One.’
‘You are not the Cursed One. You are Caris.’ She gripped my hand in hers again. ‘Fighting will start if the sun doesn’t rise. Torgrin, Atlas and the others are trying to keep you safe while you sleep. They are prepared to die to protect you.’
‘No!’ I couldn’t have any more blood on my hands. ‘Tell them to stop protecting me and let the soldiers have me!’ I cried in frustration.
‘Wake up and tell them yourself, for I will not,’ she said mercilessly.
Mae stood and brushed the dirt from her gown. ‘And if you want to learn about your birth parents and your twin, you will need to wake up and find me.’ She pulled up the hood of her cloak and walked into the shadows, leaving me to sit by the fire alone.
‘Wait! I have a twin?’
My birth parents? Had she known them?
‘You think you’re so smart, don’t you?’ I said to the silence.
If I woke up, Cillian wouldn’t be there. But Torgrin and Atlas would die if I didn’t.
The crackling fire, once a source of warmth, now emitted a cold and lifeless air. The vibrant woods now appeared desolate and barren, devoid of any signs of real life. I was alone in the darkness once more.
?
Inside the cosy confines of a small tent, the soothing aroma of night rain and deep-rooted trees embraced me.
Torgrin’s arm and leg were on top of me as if protecting me even in his sleep.
Careful not to wake him, I untangled myself from his limbs and peered at him in the dark. Wanting to see his face, I opened the tent flap and returned to him.
The moonlight coming in through the opening was enough that I could see the dark shadows under his eyes and a burn around his neck.
I’d done that to him when I turned the noose around his neck to ash.
My heart ached to see that his cheekbones were far too sharp, and as my eyes traced down his shirtless body, I could see countless bruises and scratches.
I felt sick when I noticed brutal teeth marks low on his abdomen.
My gaze flew to his face as he became restless.
His eyes remained closed, but his long, spiky lashes flickered. He was dreaming.
I resisted the urge to touch his sleeping face or his messy dark locks, and quietly searched for something in the tent to keep me warm. Someone had removed my clothes and put me in one of Torgrin’s black shirts. I found my boots and another blanket long enough to cover my bare legs.
The ground outside the tent was freezing, so I hurriedly pulled on my boots and wrapped the blanket around my shoulders.
The night sky was entirely perfect. There was nothing to dim the twinkling of the stars or the full moon’s brightness. However, a knowing inside me told me that dawn was near. I remembered my strange dream – was it a dream? Had there truly been no sunrise for three days?
It was a small campsite, and I tiptoed past the few tents I saw and headed towards the figure who stood looking over the ridge.
An ominous feeling filled me as I spotted several dark figures along the way, keeping watch. We were still in danger then.
I hesitated when I recognised the lone figure was General Toro. From the back, he looked very much like his son. Like Torgrin, he was tall with a lean, muscular build, but it was his unyielding posture that made them so alike.
He stirred to see who was approaching. The general was wearing a black cloak over his leathers, and he had twisted his black and grey hair into a knot at the back of his head.
Many of the men from Ephemeros seemed to have long hair and preferred to wear black.
I couldn’t discern his feelings about my presence – just like his son, General Toro was a closed book.
‘Do you mind if I join you?’ The question hung in the air, my uncertainty palpable.
He shook his head, so I stood beside him, looking into a valley I didn’t recognise.
‘Where are we?’ I turned my head to get a better view of his sharp profile.
‘We are a few days ride north of Capita,’ he replied quietly, his eyes fixed on the horizon.
I’d never been this far north. Was that why it was so cold, or was it because there was no sun to warm the ground?
‘Is it true that the sun hasn’t risen?’
‘So, Mable’s Dream Weaving finally worked,’ he said, still not taking his eyes off the sky.
‘Dream Weaving? Mae is a Weaver?’ I asked. She had appeared in my dream. Communicating with me while I slept.
‘Yes. She’s been trying to wake you since we left the city.’
‘Why?’ Did he believe I was stopping the sun from rising? The idea was impossible. But then again, I wouldn’t have believed that someone could enter another’s dreams either.
‘You don’t remember, do you?’
‘No. The last thing I remember …’ I swallowed my words. I didn’t want to think about the dungeon. What I had done and who I left behind.
‘Torgrin got you out of the castle and into the city, but King Hared and his army had taken back the gate.’
‘They trapped us in?’
‘Yes. We were about to be target practice for King Hared when you …’ He stopped talking. There was a red glow appearing on the horizon.
General Toro took a deep breath and released it slowly. Had he chosen this spot, knowing he would see the sunrise first? The golden orb crested the horizon, and like a paintbrush, the sun’s rays swept the sky in reds, purples and golds.
‘You turned day to night as if extinguishing a candle flame.’ He stared at me now, his eyes no longer fixed on the rising sun. ‘You turned hundreds of men to ash in a blink of an eye.’
I shook my head in denial. My lungs laboured to draw in air, as if my windpipe was shrinking.
My damaged heart ached, remembering the moment it was torn in two.
I couldn’t stop the dungeon ceiling from falling and killing the man I loved.
There was nothing left in me to kill hundreds and turn the day to night. If there were, I would have saved him.
‘No.’ I gasped. Why couldn’t my lungs find their rhythm?
‘Yes. I know what I saw, and others did too,’ he growled. ‘Come with me.’ He grabbed me by the arm and pulled me down the hill towards a small pond. ‘Look.’ He pressed me to my knees in the wet, cold mud and then pushed my head towards the water. ‘Look!’ he demanded.
The morning light was weak, but I could see my reflection well enough.
My hair was a tangled mess, sticking out in all directions.
But something wasn’t right. I put my face as close as possible to the water and took in my eyes.
Flat black pools, so black you couldn’t see my pupils, had replaced my blue-grey eyes.
It was abnormal against my pale skin and golden hair.
I looked like an evil spirit come to take people to the underworld. The edges around my vision darkened.
Air, I needed air.
‘It’s time you stopped denying what you are. I’ve watched my son do it, and, like I told him when he was twelve, you cannot run away from who you are.’
‘Caris!’ Torgrin was calling me.
I stayed kneeling in the mud. I could no longer look at my reflection, but I could not face Torgrin like this. With trembling hands, I clutched the blanket I wore, fighting against my mind’s need to shut down and forget.
‘You’re awake!’ His relief was tangible.
‘You might need to quiet down, boy,’ General Toro warned.
‘Don’t call me boy,’ Torgrin snapped.
‘This is the thanks I get for sticking around to ensure your men didn’t tear your woman apart?’
‘You’re welcome to leave now,’ Torgrin replied coolly.
‘You might want to rethink that, because once they get a look at her, they’ll want to string her up on the gallows.’
‘What the fuck are you talking about?’
‘You know it’s not safe for her kind in Pedion? Some can’t hide what they are so easily.’