Page 141 of Into the Heartless Wood
But now—
What?
My mother is dead, ash in the wood.
My father is gone, buried somewhere in the cold earth.
Awela is out of my reach.
And Seren isn’t here.
She isn’there.
I wish she were.
I wish she would have told me, when there was still time, that she was Seren. That she’d come back to me.
But would I have listened?
I pace the cell. I count the stones in the walls. I trace constellations in the spots of rust on the bars.
I’m afraid for her. I think the Gwydden pulled her back into the wood. I think she’s in danger. But I’m powerless to save her—we are, both of us, on our own.
I dream one night of the king, sailing through the stars, the Gwydden lashed to the prow of his ship as a living figurehead. Below the stars the wood is burning.Serenis burning. The flames eat the silver-white form of her; her skin and hair pop and crack like peat in a fire. Violets shriek and shrivel. She turns all to ash, and the wind blows her away.
I wake with a start to the distant pulse of drums. The brassy call of a trumpet.
And, a little while later, boots on stone, coming toward me.
I jerk upright, pulse raging.
But it isn’t the king.
It’s Baines and Rheinallt, a torch held between them.
Istare.“What the hell are you two doing here?”
Baines takes the torch while Rheinallt fumbles with a ring of keys.
“Came to rescue you, idiot,” says Baines.
Rheinallt fits a key into the lock, but it’s clearly the wrong one. He curses and tries another one.
“Where’s the guard?” I ask.
Rheinallt finds the right key. He unlocks the door. “Drugged him. Come on.”
I feel a pang of regret for Drystan, if he’s the one on duty. I don’t move. “I’m not getting you in trouble.”
“It won’t matter,” says Baines grimly. “We’re going to war against the wood. Didn’t you hear the drums? No one will notice if you’re not here.”
“Thekingwill notice. And if he finds out who let me go—he’ll tear you apart.”
Rheinallt utters a string of increasingly colorful words until Baines claps a hand on his arm to stop him.
“You really want to stay there?” Baines says.
“I don’twantto.”
