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Back Witchshadow Save as PDF
Chapters (70)
  1. Title Page
  2. Copyright Notice
  3. Dedication
  4. Map
  5. Epigraph
  6. BEGINNINGS
  7. PART I
  8. ONE
  9. TWO
  10. THREE
  11. FOUR
  12. FIVE
  13. SIX
  14. SEVEN
  15. EIGHT
  16. NINE
  17. TEN
  18. ELEVEN
  19. TWELVE
  20. THIRTEEN
  21. FOURTEEN
  22. FIFTEEN
  23. SIXTEEN
  24. SEVENTEEN
  25. EIGHTEEN
  26. NINETEEN
  27. TWENTY
  28. TWENTY-ONE
  29. TWENTY-TWO
  30. TWENTY-THREE
  31. TWENTY-FOUR
  32. TWENTY-FIVE
  33. TWENTY-SIX
  34. TWENTY-SEVEN
  35. TWENTY-EIGHT
  36. TWENTY-NINE
  37. THIRTY
  38. THIRTY-ONE
  39. THIRTY-TWO
  40. THIRTY-THREE
  41. THIRTY-FOUR
  42. THIRTY-FIVE
  43. THIRTY-SIX
  44. PART II
  45. THIRTY-SEVEN
  46. THIRTY-EIGHT
  47. THIRTY-NINE
  48. FORTY
  49. FORTY-ONE
  50. FORTY-TWO
  51. FORTY-THREE
  52. FORTY-FOUR
  53. FORTY-FIVE
  54. FORTY-SIX
  55. FORTY-SEVEN
  56. FORTY-EIGHT
  57. FORTY-NINE
  58. FIFTY
  59. FIFTY-ONE
  60. FIFTY-TWO
  61. FIFTY-THREE
  62. FIFTY-FOUR
  63. FIFTY-FIVE
  64. FIFTY-SIX
  65. FIFTY-SEVEN
  66. TRICKSTER
  67. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  68. Also by Susan Dennard
  69. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  70. Newsletter Sign-up

And now, free of the ice, she stumbled toward him on long, loping legs. Floppy and golden-furred, her wings dragging and her tail wagging hesitantly. Then she was to Merik and nuzzling against him, bleating like a babe who’d lost her mom.

She needs a master, the strange girl had said. And then the second girl had added, And Sirmaya says that for now, it will have to be you.

“All right,” Merik rasped, his first words in what might have been only hours or might have been centuries. “Let’s leave this tomb and return to life.” As he clambered to unsteady feet, the storm hound helped him rise with all the enthusiasm of a puppy excited to play. And as he shuffled toward the tomb’s narrow exit, she galloped ahead, all memories of her near death forgotten. All fear of the ice erased.

Merik glanced back only once before trudging after her. Three empty holes now rested, gouged into the ice. One had been Merik’s. The other two, he presumed, had belonged to the strange little girls. The fourth and final hole remained filled with shadow.

“I’ll be back for you, Kull,” Merik said. “Come floods or hell-waters, I’ll be back for you.” Then he turned away, tugged at his ice-shredded cuffs, and followed the storm hound into a nautilus-shaped hallway beyond.

Aurora, he decided. He would call her Aurora.

FIFTY-SEVEN

Aeduan found her at the Purist camp. It belonged to the Nomatsis again, and to his initial shock and wariness, Cartorran soldiers were there too. But no one paid him or Evrane any mind. There was too much carnage to clean up, too many wounds to heal for anyone to notice two monks wandering through. So Aeduan and Evrane ignored the Nomatsis and Cartorrans in kind.

After leaving Evrane with a Nomatsi healer to ensure she had no permanent wounds, Aeduan traced through the encampment. Each step made his fingers flex, and for some reason, he couldn’t seem to draw full breaths. It felt as if a fist was closing around his lungs the deeper he entered the camp—and the nearer he came to the silver taler.

Its scent was muddied by other bloods that oozed from wounds or coagulated on corpses. Laced faintly beneath it all was a sky that sang with snow and meadows drenched in moonlight. He knew what that scent was now.

The Sleeping Giant. The goddess at the heart of everything. Iseult called her Moon Mother; Evrane called her Noden; but she was both of them—and more—in the end.

When at last Aeduan found the silver taler, its owner was tucked behind a ruin wall. Alone with her palms outstretched into a sunbeam. Even from here, he could see the skin was puckered and raw. These were the sort of scars that even salves would never erase.