Page 135 of Into the Heartless Wood
I give him a grimace that’s meant to be a smile, and then Drystan escorts Rheinallt out of the prison, up into the freedom of night air.
I lean against the cell wall and shut my eyes, but I can’t find the haze of pain anymore. I can’t feel the insistent pull of death.
I can’t shut out the memory of my father’s last breath, of the life winking out of him, of his body going limp in my arms.
I bow my head into my knees, and sob.
Chapter Fifty-Four
SEREN
MY MOTHER BINDS ME WITH BRIARS TO THE HEARTLESStree.
I am pierced, every part of me,
a thousand small agonies.
I bleed and I bleed,
until all the human blood has run out
and only sap pours from my veins.
Even then, she does not let me go.
Even then, she does not kill me.
Around me
the world darkens and lightens
again and again.
I do not know how many times.
I cannot think clearly.
All is pain
and sticky sap.
Once, it rains.
For a few precious moments
I am washed clean
and the pain ebbs away.
But my mother comes hissing with displeasure.
She commands the tree to grow a wide branch over me
so I cannot feel the rain.
She commands the briars to pull tighter and tighter until I scream.
She pulls them tighter still.
