Feeling my future weigh as heavily upon me as stone, I trudged towards the castle as if to take shelter in the past.

Of course, being greeted by Shoshen in the entrance hall reminded me that this was not the past. Things had changed, including the occupants of this castle. It was the whole reason I’d gone to see Rúnwebbe in the first place.

“Quite a storm whipping up out there, my lord! I’m glad you’ve returned safely.”

I grunted, in too foul a mood to form a proper reply. No doubt sensing it, Shoshen shut his mouth and flattened his ears.

I took in a deep breath through my nose, forcing myself to stay civil, to not punish the Sionnachans for my anger, my fate.

“Here, Shoshen,” I said, my voice gruff with the effort it took to remain calm. I took three squares of webbing out of the satchel, leaving only one for the prisoner. “These are for you, Aiko, and Ashken. Put the square into one of your ears, and you’ll be able to understand everything the prisoner says. And anyone else who ever speaks to you in an unknown language, for that matter.”

Since my mother was Sionnachan, and I’d been raised here, I spoke Sionnachan as well as the language of the stone sky, so the fact my staff didn’t currently have any webbing had been no great matter. Shoshen looked stunned by what I’d said, staring at the glowing squares with their interwoven multi-coloured threads. Finally, he reached for the squares, taking two in one hand and one in the other. Looking unsure, but not willing to disobey me, he draped a square over his right ear.

“It has to go deeper,” I growled. I raised my hand, poking the web deep into his ear. Shoshen suppressed a yelp and clapped his hand to his ear when my finger withdrew.

“It feels odd, but it will pass. Don’t shake your head around or try to take it out until it’s dissolved,” I told him. His tail puffed up and twitched, but otherwise, he remained completely still at my command. Eventually, the tension in his body eased.

“It does not feel strange now,” he said. “Thank you, my lord.”

“For what?”

“I... I must admit, I would like to be able to understand her – the prisoner. She has been very cooperative while you’ve been gone. I rather think... I rather think she is trying to be kind to us.”

My mouth thinned into a hard line, my wings pulsing with irritation. After everything I’d been through today, I absolutely did not want to hear about how kind the woman who’d invaded my world was.

“Oh! And her name is Torrance, by the way, my lord. I know you asked Aiko to find out.”

Torrance...

I grunted again, then pointed a claw at the two squares left in his hand. “Those are for Aiko and Ashken. You can explain it to them.” I bit back a sigh at the fact that I would have to be the one to put the web in Torrance’s ear. No matter how kind she’d pretended to be in my absence, there was no way she’d let a Sionnachan insert it into her ear. And I doubted Aiko or Shoshen would have the gall to even try, once she started struggling.

This time, I didn’t hold it back. A heated sigh hissed between my fangs. The thought of going up to Torrance’s chamber now and dealing with her flailing and wiggling exhausted me. The news Rúnwebbe had imparted was the greatest blow I’d ever suffered in my life – even worse than when I’d nearly died. And now I was expected to deal with mundane matters like the prisoner in my tower? A dark realization came over me, the realization that I would not be able to contain my anger around her, control the need to punish something, as well as I had around Shoshen. The Sionnachans were innocent.

She was not.

I will not go to her today.

I would save her webbing, and my interrogations, for tomorrow. When I was in greater control of myself and had had more time to absorb everything that had come to pass today. I was no longer overly concerned about her being ill, either. When she’d woken this morning, I’d noticed that much of the redness in her eyes had gone, and her breathing had returned to normal.

I was about to head into the tunnel that led into the Eve Tower, to spend some time in my old room, the furthest place from where the human was, when my wings prickled with awareness. I whirled back towards the entrance hall’s door. It was closed, and other than the incessant wail of the winds, there was no sound.

But all the same, I knew something, someone, was out there.

“Stay here,” I growled at Shoshen, stalking to the door. I wrenched it open and stepped back out into the white abyss.

This close to the castle, I’d be protected under the Riverdark spell. No one approaching would be able to see me.

Who is it? Skalla? More humans?

I squinted into the sky, now nearly opaque with sheets of slicing snow. Eventually, something emerged from that whiteness. A dark, flying figure giving off a faint red light.

Maerwynne.

I relaxed slightly, then launched into the air to greet him. No doubt he was looking for me, and my castle, but he would not find it from up there.

“Maerwynne!” I called over the sound of the storm. “I am here! Land!”

“Wylfrael! Thank the stone of the sky. I thought I’d have to fly zigzags over this entire world before I found you.”

I led him down to the ground in front of my castle.

“There’s a Riverdark spell on it,” I explained. Apart from Skalla and my father, no other stone sky god had been here before, and Maerwynne wouldn’t have known where to search on Sionnach for my castle. “I’m surprised you got this close in your search.”

“I heard a lot of roaring and crashing noises. It sounded the way you sounded when you were fighting Skallagrim at Heofonraed. I merely followed the sounds into this storm.” He shivered, his red wings shuddering and his long black tail tensing. “Let me inside, would you, Wylfrael? I don’t know how you stand this kind of cold.”

I snorted at that. Maerwynne’s mother’s world, Vizhir, was one of humid heat and belching volcanoes. He burned hotter than most. Even now, his body heat melted snow before it even touched his skin. He was already soaked, as if he’d been trapped in a torrential downpour, not a snowstorm.

I spoke the password, and the castle appeared again. I led Maerwynne inside.

Shoshen had disappeared, likely off to deliver the bits of web to his sister and father. The entrance hall was empty – we could speak freely here.

“What news, Maerwynne?” I asked, turning to him. I untied my hair and shook snow from it before retying it, then brushed the flakes from my clothing before they could melt and leave me as dripping as my visitor. His crimson hair was so wet it looked nearly as black as his hide. He was dressed in the Vizhiri style, wearing a loose, white tunic and trousers that now clung wetly to his frame, accentuating hard muscle. My gaze was drawn, as if with the force of a planet pulling one’s feet down to the ground, to his star-dark hand.

“It is not spreading. Yet,” he said gravely, holding up his hand and inspecting it. The rest of him glowed just as it was supposed to, red constellations like little flames across his skin. “You have had no problems with your star map, I take it?”

“No,” I said, though I doubted that would last much longer. Since I could not seek out my mate, unless another cure for this star-darkness was found, I’d likely lose my star map eventually. If I don’t go mate-mad first.

“I have been to see Sceadulyr,” Maerwynne said, dropping his hand. “I went to confirm what Rúnwebbe told me. His star map is entirely dark, just as she said.”

The mention of Rúnwebbe was like venom in my veins. I clamped my teeth together and let Maerwynne continue.

“He is hosting a gathering of the gods soon,” Maerwynne said. “In the Shadowlands palace.”

“Hosting a gathering when he is so weak?’ I asked, surprised. But then again, Sceadulyr was often surprising. The shadow-wielding god was as unpredictable as he was treacherous.