now, and somehow I felt like I should know it, that the answer of what it was should have been obvious, and yet I had not even the slightest spark of what that answer was. I could almost taste the warmth of it, like drops of sunlight on my tongue. I could touch it now, even though I was still too afraid to let my mind completely free once more. It was still too hungry. But that bright, burning life was so close now. And if I just reached a little—
Suddenly, I was being lifted into the air, my body rising from the cold ground, strong arms under my neck and in the crook of my knees, my feet and hands dangling like loose rubber. I didn’t open my eyes. I didn’t have to. Tommy was carrying me, and I could feel the tension in his body as he tried to handle me as though I were made of cracked glass and would shatter were he to breathe too deeply. I could feel my people all around me, hovering and speechless, filled with alarm and concern over my still body.
“We must get her to the van,” I heard Queen Camillia say, as if only the safety of my life were important. “Follow me.”
And then we were moving. No one had even asked a question. I felt their total agreement singing out to me, as though I was standing in the center of some gentle tornado, its force tugging and pushing at me from every direction.
But the sun. I want to see the sun. I want to touch it. We must wait.
My companions stopped in their tracks. Because of Camillia I knew that the van waiting for us was only some twenty-five feet to our southeast; but that sun, or whatever it was, was approaching us from the east. That’s the way I wanted to go. It made no sense, was possibly the stupidest thing to do right now, but that’s where I wanted to go.
That way. Take me that way.
Tommy immediately began moving east. The others followed. I still didn’t lift my head, didn’t open my eyes. Didn’t think I even could. Then I felt something so familiar… so unmistakable, and I jerked so hard in Tommy’s arms that he would have dropped me had he not been so… aware of me.
The sensation was mighty, fierce, almost painful. It struck me the way that a wave strikes the shore, loud and sudden and breaking. My eyes flew open wide, and I saw Tommy staring down at me, the lines of his face silhouetted and shadowed by the moonlight, which swathed his pale hair like a golden halo. His eyes were so clear a blue that I could see the reflection of my own inked eyes in their depths. All of the sly posture and façade he usually wore so closely was gone, and his truths were all open to me, as mine were to him, to all of them.
Another of those awful, nauseous waves crashed over me, making my body spasm once more in Tommy’s arms, which had tightened almost painfully around me, crushing my shoulders sideways against his chest. I was vaguely aware of a sharp, serpentine hiss escaping my throat, and then words passing through my lips and sounding nothing like my own.
“He wakessss.”
They didn’t have to ask. I had reined my mind back in, afraid to let it out for fear of what it might do—just maintaining contact with these eight people was hard enough, some part of me wanted desperately to tighten my hold on them and squeeze and squeeze and squeeze until they were no more—and I had stopped battling King William to replace a thread of shredded leash on the beast that lived within me; stopped holding King William’s consciousness under water. And he was waking up.
And we were still heading east. Away from the van. Away from escape.
But that sun. That warm, soft and delicious sun is so close now. Sssso closssse now…
Above me, the canopy of tree branches had given way to the open night sky, and stars hung above like white freckles on a black, endless face. I closed my eyes as the heat of that brilliant, golden force drew nearer and nearer at a speed that seemed incredible. And for a moment, the growling
Suddenly, I was being lifted into the air, my body rising from the cold ground, strong arms under my neck and in the crook of my knees, my feet and hands dangling like loose rubber. I didn’t open my eyes. I didn’t have to. Tommy was carrying me, and I could feel the tension in his body as he tried to handle me as though I were made of cracked glass and would shatter were he to breathe too deeply. I could feel my people all around me, hovering and speechless, filled with alarm and concern over my still body.
“We must get her to the van,” I heard Queen Camillia say, as if only the safety of my life were important. “Follow me.”
And then we were moving. No one had even asked a question. I felt their total agreement singing out to me, as though I was standing in the center of some gentle tornado, its force tugging and pushing at me from every direction.
But the sun. I want to see the sun. I want to touch it. We must wait.
My companions stopped in their tracks. Because of Camillia I knew that the van waiting for us was only some twenty-five feet to our southeast; but that sun, or whatever it was, was approaching us from the east. That’s the way I wanted to go. It made no sense, was possibly the stupidest thing to do right now, but that’s where I wanted to go.
That way. Take me that way.
Tommy immediately began moving east. The others followed. I still didn’t lift my head, didn’t open my eyes. Didn’t think I even could. Then I felt something so familiar… so unmistakable, and I jerked so hard in Tommy’s arms that he would have dropped me had he not been so… aware of me.
The sensation was mighty, fierce, almost painful. It struck me the way that a wave strikes the shore, loud and sudden and breaking. My eyes flew open wide, and I saw Tommy staring down at me, the lines of his face silhouetted and shadowed by the moonlight, which swathed his pale hair like a golden halo. His eyes were so clear a blue that I could see the reflection of my own inked eyes in their depths. All of the sly posture and façade he usually wore so closely was gone, and his truths were all open to me, as mine were to him, to all of them.
Another of those awful, nauseous waves crashed over me, making my body spasm once more in Tommy’s arms, which had tightened almost painfully around me, crushing my shoulders sideways against his chest. I was vaguely aware of a sharp, serpentine hiss escaping my throat, and then words passing through my lips and sounding nothing like my own.
“He wakessss.”
They didn’t have to ask. I had reined my mind back in, afraid to let it out for fear of what it might do—just maintaining contact with these eight people was hard enough, some part of me wanted desperately to tighten my hold on them and squeeze and squeeze and squeeze until they were no more—and I had stopped battling King William to replace a thread of shredded leash on the beast that lived within me; stopped holding King William’s consciousness under water. And he was waking up.
And we were still heading east. Away from the van. Away from escape.
But that sun. That warm, soft and delicious sun is so close now. Sssso closssse now…
Above me, the canopy of tree branches had given way to the open night sky, and stars hung above like white freckles on a black, endless face. I closed my eyes as the heat of that brilliant, golden force drew nearer and nearer at a speed that seemed incredible. And for a moment, the growling
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