Alien god

Feeling my future weigh as heavily upon me as stone, I trudged towards the castle as if to take shelter in the past.

Of course, being greeted by Shoshen in the entrance hall reminded me that this was not the past. Things had changed, including the occupants of this castle. It was the whole reason I’d gone to see Rúnwebbe in the first place.

“Quite a storm whipping up out there, my lord! I’m glad you’ve returned safely.”

I grunted, in too foul a mood to form a proper reply. No doubt sensing it, Shoshen shut his mouth and flattened his ears.

I took in a deep breath through my nose, forcing myself to stay civil, to not punish the Sio

“Here, Shoshen,” I said, my voice gruff with the effort it took to remain calm. I took three squares of webbing out of the satchel, leaving only one for the prisoner. “These are for you, Aiko, and Ashken. Put the square into one of your ears, and you’ll be able to understand everything the prisoner says. And anyone else who ever speaks to you in an unknown language, for that matter.”

Since my mother was Sio

“It has to go deeper,” I growled. I raised my hand, poking the web deep into his ear. Shoshen suppressed a yelp and clapped his hand to his ear when my finger withdrew.

“It feels odd, but it will pass. Don’t shake your head around or try to take it out until it’s dissolved,” I told him. His tail puffed up and twitched, but otherwise, he remained completely still at my command. Eventually, the tension in his body eased.

“It does not feel strange now,” he said. “Thank you, my lord.”

“For what?”

“I... I must admit, I would like to be able to understand her – the prisoner. She has been very cooperative while you’ve been gone. I rather think... I rather think she is trying to be kind to us.”

My mouth thi

“Oh! And her name is Torrance, by the way, my lord. I know you asked Aiko to find out.”

Torrance...

I grunted again, then pointed a claw at the two squares left in his hand. “Those are for Aiko and Ashken. You can explain it to them.” I bit back a sigh at the fact that I would have to be the one to put the web in Torrance’s ear. No matter how kind she’d pretended to be in my absence, there was no way she’d let a Sio

This time, I didn’t hold it back. A heated sigh hissed between my fangs. The thought of going up to Torrance’s chamber now and dealing with her flailing and wiggling exhausted me. The news Rúnwebbe had imparted was the greatest blow I’d ever suffered in my life – even worse than when I’d nearly died. And now I was expected to deal with mundane matters like the prisoner in my tower? A dark realization came over me, the realization that I would not be able to contain my anger around her, control the need to punish something, as well as I had around Shoshen. The Sio

She was not.

I will not go to her today.

I would save her webbing, and my interrogations, for tomorrow. When I was in greater control of myself and had had more time to absorb everything that had come to pass today. I was no longer overly concerned about her being ill, either. When she’d woken this morning, I’d noticed that much of the redness in her eyes had gone, and her breathing had returned to normal.

I was about to head into the tu

But all the same, I knew something, someone, was out there.

“Stay here,” I growled at Shoshen, stalking to the door. I wrenched it open and stepped back out into the white abyss.

This close to the castle, I’d be protected under the Riverdark spell. No one approaching would be able to see me.

Who is it? Skalla? More humans?

I squinted into the sky, now nearly opaque with sheets of slicing snow. Eventually, something emerged from that whiteness. A dark, flying figure giving off a faint red light.

Maerwy