Unable to endure the sight of him muzzled and in chains any longer, I closed my eyes and surrendered to the pull of spirit to living flesh. Rising to consciousness, I rejected the idea of seeking out the dreamtrails, for although I had let the dark power form into chains that would bind my secrets, there was a residue of it remaining inside me and I had no idea how it would manifest on the dreamtrails. Safer to let it fade away before I made any attempt to reach Atthis; safer to do it when I was alone.

Coming to full consciousness, I relinquished my spirit-form and felt the slippery flow of the silver thread as it returned to the mindstream, then I was within my own warm, heavy flesh and the languid weight of Rushton’s human arms were about me. I took comfort in their warmth but I had no desire to sleep. My senses told me it was deep in the night, and I could hear rain pattering lightly on the roof, though I could no longer hear the growl of thunder or see flashes of lightning. I stretched and found my body ached in familiar and unfamiliar ways and I thought with wonder of our lovemaking and the golden link it had forged between us. I thought of the bear in chains, and its eyes full of acceptance.

Inevitably I thought of Angina and Miky. I was now certain that the link between the twins’ spirits was draining the life from Miky, and I was equally certain that Angina had come to me in spirit-form to seek help for his sister, though he was no futureteller. No doubt Angina had taken on an unconscious spirit-form, as people did sometimes when they slept very deeply or were dangerously ill, but being locked in sleep, his spirit-form had gradually become conscious. In this state, he had obviously seen the cord binding him to his twin, and recognised that it would drag his sister to her death when he died, and been determined to break it. How he had come to think I could help him, I did not know, but given what I had done inside Rushton’s mind, I found I could not doubt that he was right. A power capable of killing a woman or of chaining a spirit must also be capable of severing a spirit link.

But even if I had the capacity to use that dark power within me in such a way, had I truly the right to sever that which Elkar had reverently called the goddess bond? Thinking of the exquisite golden link that now connected me to Rushton, I felt I would die before I would allow it to be severed.