PROLOGUE
Two Months Ago
~ GALL ~
When I opened my eyes, my head hurt, and I was confused.
I looked around and frowned. My eyes blurred, but I didn’t recognize the strangeplace. The wall right next to where I lay looked like the rough wall of a cave. But the rock was reddish-brown. Directly over me, a flaming torch had been fixed to the stone. It flickered, and sent light unevenly up the wall.
The room must be really big, because the end of it beyond my feet was dark, like the light didn’t reach it. But when I craned my head back to look behind me, it was dark on that end too. I couldn’t see any walls or doors.
Was I in a tunnel? Where?And where was my mate?
Jolting in fear for Istral, I sat up, twisting, looking for her left and right—then groaned, and gripped my spinning head in my hands. My heart thumped really fast, and I could feel my blood rushing, throbbing so hard my head banged like a drum. Mybreathing was too quick.I was having a panic.I needed to Be Still. But I couldn’t stop the fear thoughts.
Where was she?
Where was I?
Had I hurt her? Scared her?
Had she left? Or did they find her?
I tried to remember the last thing…
Leaving her hiding in the Shadows of Shade, before I went to join Papa. The messenger had come, and then…
Mygrandfather.
He found me on the trail, after Papa won the battle. He was very excited to know me, and he would help. I was excited, and would have run to the camp, but he pulled me to a halt and said we had to talk first.
I didn’t want to. I wanted to get back to Papa, then go get Istral.
Grandfather never got upset, though. I remembered that. Which was a surprise. Most people lost patience with me quick if I didn’t agree with them. But he didn’t. He just smiled a lot and…
And, nothing. It all went black.
I cursed under my breath, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t remember anything else.
I had to sit there for a while, shaking and breathing too fast. My body was hot, but my hands and feet were cold.
When I calmed a little bit, I managed to sit up properly and throw back the quilts that had been tucked around me, but the cot where I’d been laying was narrow. I almost fell off. I had to sit for more minutes on the edge to breathe, until my head stopped spinning.
When I stopped feeling sick, I gripped the edge of the cot and stamped my feet, to see if my legs felt strong, like Papa had showed me to do if I got hit in the head.
Maybe that was what happened? Maybe I got hit, and now I couldn’t see right?
I didn’t know.
Ihatednot knowing.
While I was still thinking about that, a door opened somewhere nearby. A rectangle of light widened at the feet end of the room. I saw the shape of a very tall, very strong man walking into the darkness. But then the door closed, and I couldn’t see again. I heard his footsteps though and tensed, trying to remember all the right ways to fight with my hands—until the man finally walked into the dim light from the torch behind me. He smiled.
Grandfather.
I was a little bit relieved. And even more confused.
“Hello, Gall. How are you feeling?” he asked.
