He said more and she heard it all, but by the time the Sentinels came to take her down, her mind was far away, and much of what he had said was forgotten. She was glad. She was suffering her own terrible fate, and next to that his miserable utterances were nothing.

THEY PUT HER in a pit. It stank, feces and piss staining the walls, and in one corner a pile of dried bloody matter attracted flies and crawling things. Nomi cried but they took no notice, throwing food down at her until she caught something. She hated doing so, but she ate. And when they lowered a water jug down to her, she drank.

The old man refused to let her go. She suspected that he would also refuse to kill her, should she ask.

But there was always Ramus.

Chapter 19

Chapter 19

SOMETHING TOUCHED HIS face. He felt it from a distance, deep down in sleep or unconsciousness, and it was cool and slick like a living thing's tongue. It moved across his closed eyes and up to his forehead, leaving a chilled trail where it passed. He tried to lift his hand to feel what touched him, but he could not find his arms. Perhaps I'm still suspended there, he thought, even though he was sure that had been Nomi's nightmare rather than his own. Perhaps I'm still being held up and examined, probed, prodded by things I don't want to understand. The sensation faded and he tried to rouse himself. It was not easy. The pain was still thumping in his head, central to everything he sensed. If he went back under he could escape that pain, but if he rose up to face it . . .

“Ramus,” a voice said.

“Nomi,” he whispered.

He opened his eyes and felt that coolness on his forehead again. A shadow moved above him, blurred in his vision. It could have been immediately before his eyes or five miles away.

“Ramus,” the voice said again, and this time he heard relief. “I'll get you something to drink.”

Nomi, he wanted to say, but his mouth was dry and this time it came out as a gasp. Water trickled onto his tongue and he swallowed greedily. The cold thing touched him one more time and he managed to raise a hand, grabbing the arm of whoever touched him.

“It's night,” she said. It was Lulah. Ramus felt a momentary flush of disappointment, but then she said more that shamed him. “I can hear things moving around in the forest, but you're safe here. Understand, Ramus? You're safe with me.”

Safe, he thought. Can she really mean that? Does she know something I don't?

He thought of the Fallen God, and wondered whether Lulah had found its dried, forgotten corpse.