Her eyes blinked open, and he saw the cloudy look directed straight in front of her, empty of sight. Her seemingly sightless eyes still bothered him, even knowing she actually could see, if only in black and white. “We did, Prue.”

“All the people from the village dead, all of them gone forever. It doesn’t feel as if we won.”

“Drink this,” Aislinne interrupted, holding out the water skin.

Prue groped for it in a way that suggested she was struggling with her muscle control. “Put it in my hand, Pan.”

“What’s wrong?” he asked, doing as she requested and watching her take a long, slow drink. “Are you hurt?”

She finished drinking and held out the skin for him to take. Aislinne took it instead, giving Pan a worried look.

Prue’s laugh was soft and unpleasant. “The King of the Silver River warned me there might be something more taken away. He as much as told me to plan on it if I did what he asked of me. I didn’t pay enough attention to what that might mean. I didn’t want to. I only wanted to help you.”

“You did help me,” he told her.

“Attacking the demon to distract him long enough for you to fight back cost the scarlet dove its life—if it possessed any real life in the first place. I don’t think it did. I don’t think it was real. I think it was a part of me. So when it was destroyed, another part of me was destroyed with it.”

Pan shook his head, bending close to look in her milky eyes. “What are you talking about? What’s been destroyed?”

She gave him a small smile, and her hand found his cheek. “It doesn’t matter, Pan. It isn’t your fault.”

“Prue, you have to tell me. What’s been destroyed?”

Her eyes filled with tears. “My sight, Pan. When the demon tore the scarlet dove off its face and smashed it, I lost the rest of my sight. Now I really am blind. Completely. I can’t see a thing.”

Chapter Thirty-two

BY MIDDAY, FOLLOWING THE MORNING THAT WITNESSED the end of the Drouj threat, the news of the Elven victory at Aphalion Pass had reached Arborlon. A messenger dispatched by Haren Crayel, captain of the Home Guard and commanding officer, had spread the word freely on his way to give his report to the Queen, and the city had erupted in cheers of jubilation and relief. Impromptu gatherings quickly escalated into full-scale celebrations that spread throughout the entire city, and by noon there was virtually no one who hadn’t heard the details.