Jakoven. I’d been in Jakoven’s mind. Though the scent was dissipating, I could still smell the magic that had overlaid my room when I awoke. Whose magic, I could not tell, but I decided it meant that I had dreamed true. Those thoughts could not have come out of my head, not from me.

“They did not,” said the Tamerlain from the corner of my room. “You dream true dreams sent by Aethervon. They are meant to aid you.”

Gods,I thought,Jakoven is after a child.

“I owe you thanks for your help,” I said, wiping my mouth with a cloth lying on a small table next to a basin of water. “And for the dreams, if I can get to the boy before Jakoven does.”

She purred and rolled over like a playful kitten. “No thanks are necessary. It is we who are the debtors.”

She left before I could say anything in reply, and I stared at the place where she had been. I wanted nothing more than to slink back to Hurog and hide in the snow-shielded hills until the gods called me to my rest—but I would not leave a boy to Jakoven’s clutches, nor would Jakoven leave me in peace.

It was a long time before I crawled back under the covers and tried to get more sleep.

I was troubled again with dreams, but these were more normal nightmares born of the Asylum. I dreamed of terrifying monsters that attacked me over and over while I tried to hide in straw that fell away from my fingers. But a soft voice that reminded me of green apples and clean rain drove the beasts away and guarded me while I hid in safety.

I dreamed of a gem that hovered in the air above me and dripped red blood on my chest. I tried to roll away, but I was restrained on the leather-covered table. The blood became a flood drowning me, and I awoke with a gasp.

“It’s safe, Ward,” said Tisala’s voice from the darkness of the room where I slept. She shifted uncomfortably and I made out the outline of a wooden chair set against the wall opposite my bed. “Go to sleep.”

Somehow, knowing that she was there allowed me to do just that.

9
WARDWICK

Survival is not a pretty business.

IAWOKE IN A BLACK MOOD.YESTERDAY IT HAD ALLseemed so unreal, but this morning I remembered bleakly all of the humiliations of my captivity. I didn’t remember everything clearly, mostly bits and pieces, but that was enough. I remembered losing control of my body in every possible way, remembered pleading with Jade Eyes both to stop and not to stop. I felt filthy and used.