‘Can you stand?’ Liana said as she rushed to Chloe’s side. The eldran crouched and lifted Chloe under the armpits, hauling her to her feet.

Chloe nodded weakly at her friend, her tongue too swollen to talk.

Liana looked the same as ever: a pretty eldran with a heart-shaped face, slight of build, with shoulder-length silver hair and pale-green eyes. Wearing a deerskin tunic and no shoes on her feet, she looked like an eldran in every way. Perhaps she seemed older, her bearing somehow more mature, and there was a shadow in her eyes, but it might simply have been concern for Chloe.

‘Shh,’ Liana soothed. ‘I know this place. There’s a spring. Just a little farther. You can do it.’

Liana helped her over the uneven terrain, taking her in the direction of the small grove of trees. Just past the nearest tree, at the base of a flat rock, was a small pool of water, fed from somewhere underneath. Chloe collapsed onto the ground, her face mere inches from the pool. She cupped her hands and reached out. The feel of the cool water against her skin was one of the most pleasant sensations she’d ever felt.

The wetness only served to highlight how dry her mouth was; she couldn’t even lick her lips as she lifted her hands, moaning as the first touch of blessed liquid moistened her tongue. She missed getting most of it into her mouth, but a small trickle touched the back of her throat and she reached out again and brought more water to her lips, her tongue finally able to move. The next time, she slurped at her hands, gulping down mouthful after mouthful. Her headache faded away in an instant. Sensation came back to her lips. Her tongue no longer felt twice its normal size. Her thoughts became focused on more than her thirst, and she began to take stock of where she was.

‘Small sips,’ Liana said.

Chloe wanted to drink the entire pool to the bottom, but she was a healer and knew the wisdom of the eldran’s words. Forcing herself to turn away from the pool, she sat up and met her friend’s eyes.

‘How?’ she croaked. Clearing her throat, she tried again, speaking more firmly the second time. ‘How did you . . . ?’

Sitting beside her, Liana looked sad. ‘Today is the last day of spring.’

‘I don’t . . . ?’

‘It’s the day of Dion’s wedding. Eiric didn’t want me to go, but I went anyway. And then . . . when I arrived in Xanthos . . . I discovered Dion had vanished, and his bride was captured in Phalesia. They said you’d gone after them. The short, bald man—’

‘Cob,’ Chloe said.