I was dead asleep with Hanne on top of me, where she liked to sleep, her leg tucked between my knees and her head on my chest, when someone pounded on the door. “Morco!” They pounded three more times in quick succession. “Morco, get up!”
I flew out of bed and grabbed my pants from the floor.
Hanne jerked away too, breathing hard when she’d been asleep just a second ago. “What’s going on?”
I shoved on my pants as quickly as possible. “I don’t know.” I flung the door open and stepped onto the path barefoot. “What is it?” I looked down the path, seeing the blue color of the dirt, the land on the other side of the lake, the details of the nearby crags that stretched high above. Then I looked at Caius. “What is the urgency? I see no enemy.”
He breathed hard like he had when he’d run from the Knives who had chased him here. But his eyes somehow looked moreafraid than they had before. With utter hopelessness in his gaze, he stared at me for a few more seconds.
I’d just opened my eyes, so I wasn’t fully awake yet. “Caius?”
He raised a shaky arm and pointed to the right.
Irritated, I followed his finger.
In the short distance was a bright light in the shape of a bud. It glowed with sunshine and bathed all of its surroundings in ethereal light. The details of our territory were suddenly in daylight.
Theapricumwas lit.
“Oh fuck…”
