Alianna settled back into bed, pulling the covers over her and closing her eyes.
The pillow next to her smelt faintly of Rionan.
She breathed the scent in, fighting tears, telling herself that he would come back.
He had promised.
It was not goodbye.
As Alianna repeated those words to herself over and over again, she found herself drifting off to sleep, her body caving in to the rest it so desperately needed.
52
Whispers In The Dark
Alianna’s usual nightmares did not find her.
She did not see Ulreah being impaled on the talons of an Amassa.
She did not see him falling from the sky.
She was not being chased by Rannirr, with fear pulsing through her veins.
Instead, she was floating.
Alianna was floating, being wrapped in an embrace of pure electric energy. Her eyes were closed, a small smile on her face, and she felt whatever held her in place pressing in to her. Its warmth soaking into her body. Becoming part of her very being.
Her veins crackled with the feeling of life. Of bliss. Of strength. A rush that she had never experienced.
Opening her eyes slowly, Alianna found herself engulfed in a sea of red. It was not scary. No – this felt almost sensual. Like something was awakening in her. Something that had been lying dormant, desperate to break free.
As swirls of red caressed her cheek, twin to the sensation vibrating from within her, she heard a voice. It spoke into her mind. The voice was not male or female, neither young nor old. The voice waseverything and nothing, all at once, whispering into her mind like a lover.
Come home.
The words were soft, quiet, like they were being mumbled between kisses. As the voice repeated the words again and again, Alianna felt her body fill with energy. A sense of rejuvenation washed over her. The headache, which she experienced even within dreams, snapped away like it had never been there at all.
Come home.
The words were growing louder now. No longer a whisper in the dark, but a command in this pulsing sea of red. It strucksomething within Alianna that she did not know had been there.
The words built in to a crescendo in her mind, as the vision of floating amongst this red energy left her. Now, she could only see one thing.
A Well.
A Well, standing amongst a desolate wasteland. Alianna stepped towards it tentatively, peering down. She had seen a Well like this before. Rionan’s. Except this one was different. This one felt – cold. This one was pulling every fibre of her being towards it, pushing into her mind in desperate request.
Come home.
Come home.
Come home.
Come home.
Come home.
