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PART I

THE DREAM

PROLOGUE

ROWAN - 12 YEARS

Colors.

They’re bright yellow and orange, blurring into deep gold. I want to breathe it in. Cinnamon is so rare, and there’s something sweet underneath it. Is that honey?

I know this place.

The market is flooded with visitors. Merchants call from their stalls. Children dart around us, laughing too loud, running too fast, their shoes slapping over the stone.

I want to play too.

But Ma holds my hand, tucking me close. “Stay here, Rowan. It’s not safe.”

Not safe. Not safe.

Why not? I want to ask, but I don’t. Ma never likes answering me.

"You ask too many questions," she always says. Her fingers tighten around mine.

Still, the market doesn’t look dangerous, and the sky is clear, blue stretched wide above Düren.

My older sister Sola walks on my other side, sulking. She didn’t want to come out with us. Ever since she got a boyfriend, she acts like other people are more important than we are.

But Dad made her come with us, and I’m glad he did. It’s nice with her, even if she’s scowling and complaining there’s nothing to do here.

Perhaps she’s right. But here is all we’ve got. Sometimes I wonder what life could be like on any of those other planets that hang low on the horizon. One of them is bright red, and the other has a pink glow to it.

Do people there also have a Ward that protects them from evil and darkness?

On market days, Düren always feels lighter. For a little while, everyone forgets to be afraid.

Somewhere farther off, a small brass bell rings through the noise, thin and clear enough to find me anyway. Again and again. I hear it better than the voices. Better than anything else. It cuts through everything, bright as glass, and every time it sounds, something in me goes tight.

It’s the sound of danger.

But no one seems to hear it the way I do. Everybody just continues their shopping, their laughter, their chattering.

Wake up.

“Look at that!”

Sola pulls on my arm, but I can’t move. For a brief second, my vision flickers and the market fractures, black light caught in its creases.

Then I blink, and everything falls back into place. I know the slope of this street. I know the stalls that come first and the ones that come after. Even when I can’t see him, I know where Pa is because he’s behind us, stopping every few paces to inspect things Ma has no patience for, then pretending he wasn’t looking at them too long. I know the Ward will be visible if I lift my head.

When I do, it’s there. On the horizon, beyond the rooftops and bright cloth canopies, the wall shimmers. Pale as mist. Stronger than stone. Holding the line beyond the city.

I always look for it. What is behind it? What does evil truly look like? No one knows. Sometimes I wonder if it’s all just a tale.

“Rowan. Come check this out.” Sola points toward a merchant’s table.

Ma takes another two steps before realizing I’m no longer beside her. Her hand tugs at empty air, then stills. “Rowan?”