‘She says the route up ahead is fairly flat,’ Kyor continues as Elska begins to walk. ‘Easy for the horses.’
‘That’s good,’ I reply, realising how detached my voice is. And for once it’s not to do with him. It’s just my head is too full to add whatever’s going on with us into the mix.
Besides, easy is great, but what I want to know is whether it will lead to my mother’s ring. I know that this detour has taken longer than any of us wanted, but every time I think about abandoning it, that pressure returns to the base of my spine as if it’s pushing me towards it. And the thought of giving up, when I can feel in my bones how close we are, causes an ache – a deep ache that starts almost as soon as we move out of the camp and isn’t helped by the rain that begins almost immediately.
‘I think we’re going the wrong way,’ I tell Kyor as water runs down my face.
‘This is the way to Galreck,’ he tells me. ‘Elska knows where she’s going.’
The pressure strikes again, this time so sharp I have to fight not to gasp.
‘No, no we need to stop. I need to … I have to …’ I release my grip from his waist, sliding to the ground before Elska even has a chance to pause.
‘Thorn!’ Kyor yells after me as I race away from the group, water splashing in my footsteps.
‘Rose!’
‘What’s going on!’
The others yell after me, but their voices are blocked out by the pressure that’s now heightening into something entirely different. Something almost euphoric. My heart is all the way up in my throat, adrenaline surging through me and blocking out the cold chill of the rain as it beats down around me. I’m near it, I know I am.
With a feeling like bright white light filling my spine and abdomen, I drop to the ground and run my fingers through the waterlogged leaf litter only to come back empty, once and then again. Ineedit.
I can feel it more than ever. I need the ring. William and Kay need me to find this ring.
I don’t know how I know it, but I do. My pulse drums in my ever-drying throat as my fingertips finally brush against cold metal. Triumph and relief surge through me as I lift my mother’s ring up from the sodden ground it rested in.
‘By the Mother … you found it.’ Caz stands over my shoulder as I rub the mud from the piece of jewellery, revealing the stone beneath it. The blue is even more beautiful than I remembered. ‘You actually found it.’
‘I did.’ The words slip from me as a whisper as I slide the ring onto my middle finger. Another surge of that white energy ripples through my body, this time strong enough to make me gasp, and my sight is lost, a crisp, icy pattern burning into my retinas. William’s skin. It’s the pattern on his skin, I’m sure of it.
‘Rose?’ Caz questions.
‘It’s fine.’ I shake my head, trying to brush the moment off, though the vision remains a fraction longer. ‘Just … happy. That’s all,’ I lie, my eyes fixed on the stone.
I’ve never worn it, I realise suddenly. I’m not sure why the ring passed to Kay, as I don’t remember it being an explicit bequest from my mother, but maybe it was because she was the one of us who cared most about pretty things? Regardless, it’s the one piece of jewellery Kay wore day and night without question. But if she ever felt anything more than simple sentimentality towards it, she never told me.
So either this, like so much that’s happening to me right now, is new, or Kay has been keeping things from me since before the Retterheld. Strange as it is, given recent events, I’m still leaning towards the former. She wouldn’t hide this from me.
As I stand, Caz looks at me with her brow creased. ‘You know this means that these things that are happening to you – visions or slips, whatever you want to call them – they’re real. They reallyaretrying to tell you something.’
I stare at the ring. She’s right. I can feel it in my bones.
For once, I’d love it if whatever the Gods were trying to tell me was clear-cut, like words on a letter. No games. No guessing. No risk to my family or me.
I guess that’s too much to ask for.
‘I’m just glad I got it back,’ I tell her.
While the rest of the group remained on their horses, they’ve all seen what I’ve found, and no one speaks as I head back to Elska.
The rain is yet to let up, though the wolf’s dense fur is still surprisingly dry, and this time I sit in front, Kyor’s body sheltering mine from the worst of the inclement weather.
It’s far more dangerous for my heart, even if his arms rest perfectly respectfully at his sides.
‘Those are some pretty steep hills in front of us,’ Ruben says after a while. ‘Are you sure the horses are going to be able to make it up there?’
‘We’re not going that way,’ Kyor responds curtly.
