Thank you,I mouth to him, only for him to shrug like it’s nothing. But it’s not nothing. Not to me and not to Kyor either. I know the prince well enough for that.
‘We should stick by the river,’ Thessa says as we pack our belongings and mount the horses.
‘Ohnowyou’re giving us directions,’ Caz teases.
Thessa laughs, and I realise it’s the first time I’ve heard her make such a sound. I could have easily believed that Sanrott didn’t just take their magic from them, but also their ability for joy. Caz catches my gaze, and the glimmer in her eyes is enough to warm my heart.
‘Not directions,’ Thessa continues, ‘but if the tide is good, we’ll be able to fish in the river.’
At Thessa’s behest, we point our horses towards the wide river. I have no idea what counts as a ‘good’ tide, but what we find is a fairly low level of water, little more than hip deep, and Thessa seems pleased.
The water is clear and we can see the rocky riverbed below.
Although it’s barely been an hour since we started up, we drop from our horses and tether them to nearby trees, ready to follow the Sannings’ instructions.
‘So … how did you say we do this?’ Caz asks Thessa with more than a hint of excitement in her voice. ‘You need us all in the water, right?’
‘Yes. The cold will hurt, but it’ll be worth it. But only step on the rocks, you hear? Only rocks. If you step into the mud?—’
A wave of fear and panic hits me so hard that it steals the air from my lungs.
‘The Rose?’ Stide speaks behind me, but her voice barely registers.
I need to flee. I need to leave here. I have to get out, but I can’t. I can’t.
This is my end.The miserable thought rattles over and over in my head.This is my end. Stuck here.
‘Rose.’
The shake on my arm is just like the one that pulls me from my nightmares, and yet this time it has no effect.
Because this isn’t a nightmare.
These feelings, that inability to escape … I’ve felt something remarkably like it before.
With the kraken in the fourth trial.
The fear is so overwhelming that it threatens to consume me entirely. But whose fear? The feeling surges again, and my knees buckle, but Kyor’s there, catching me before I can fall.
‘Rose?’ he asks. ‘Rose, what is it?’
‘He’s so afraid,’ I blurt, and I’m shocked to feel tears slip from my eyes. ‘He doesn’t want to die.’
And heisa he. I know it, though I have no ideahowI know it.
‘Who?’ Kyor asks. ‘Who’s doing this to you?’
I shake my head and dash the tears streaming from my eyes. This isn’t his fault. He doesn’t want this. He doesn’t want to die.
Forcing myself to my feet, my gaze drifts upriver. And I’m not alone. Both Elska and Loch are frozen, their attention fixed on the same point.
With the rest of the group stopped by my panic, they follow the direction of our gazes.
‘Is that …’ Benny whispers, his sight picking out what’s there before the others can.
‘By all the Gods,’ Kyor murmurs back, his voice trembling in shock and horror. Without a word or a glance in my direction, he releases me from his grip, and before I can utter another word, he and Elska are sprinting, an unexpected name on his disbelieving lips.
‘Fen!’
