“Who?” Aloisia shouted, though her words would be lost. “Who? I couldn’t save her. You know I couldn’t!”
The wisp vanished and Aloisia turned back to the shadow creature, realising her attention had been away from it for too long. As she spun slowly in a circle, fighting her hair away from her face, she could not find it. She turned and turned, both creatures now gone.
Then a flash of movement to her left. She bounded after it as it flitted between the trees. Finally, she came upon a clearing. In the centre was a woman, facing away from her.
No.
It was Brighde.
She turned to Aloisia, her face ashen. Her hands were closed around something in front of her. A blade. Blood bloomed across the white of her dress, the blade protruding from her stomach.
“Brighde?” Aloisia ran towards her as she fell to her knees.
But before she could reach her, someone emerged from the shade of the trees.
Aloisia slowed. “Inari?”
Again, her words did not seem to reach them through the wind. Inari, oblivious to her presence, traced a rune on his forehead in a deep red substance. In his other hand, he raised a blade over Brighde’s head.
“No!” She burst into a run.
The blade descended.
And there was only darkness.
Aloisia woke with a start, her heart pounding and sweat dripping from her brow. The furs atop her bed were soft around her, the early light of morning filtering in the window. Her left palm stung, and she tightened her fingers into a fist over the marking there. She didn’t dare look at it, unsure what it could mean. It hadn’t hurt since it had happened, and she didn’t think it stinging now was a good sign.
She pressed a hand to her chest and closed her eyes, willing her heartbeat to slow. Behind her lids, images left over from the dream danced anew. The Forgotten God stalking closer, words of warning drifting across the gale. Brighde, a blade sunk deep in her belly, with panic on her face. Inari.
Inari.
She opened her eyes, casting her gaze to the Dead Woods, lit with the soft pink glow of sunrise. What had it all meant? Aloisia remembered the words of the Forgotten God.
Blood will release him.
Blood will bind her.
None of it made sense.
Though it had only been a dream, it clung to her like smoke, weaving its way through her thoughts, ensnaring her fears. She knew little of Inari. And she had vouched for him to the high priest the night before. She had to trust her instincts were right, that Inari could help, that he would not betray them.
“Lis!”
Aloisia started at the voice, recognising it as Kaja’s, and she had half a mind to sink back into the furs and ignore her.
“Lis! Are you awake?”
She lifted her fur blanket over her head in the hope Kaja would just leave.
“Don’t make me climb up there. I know you never close your shutters.”
With a sigh, Aloisia scuttled closer to her window, peering down to see Kaja, arms laden with plates and cups.
“How do you expect to climb up here with all that?” she called down to her.
Kaja shrugged. “I’d make it work.”
Aloisia rolled her eyes. She didn’t doubt she would. “Give me a minute and I’ll open the door for you.”
