Page 16 of Prisoner of Darkness and Dreams
There’s a long silence before she answers. “You don’t know that.”
“No,” I say. “But it’s not over yet. Help might still come.”
We lapse into silence until I think she might have fallen asleep. I try to sleep too, but it doesn’t come easily. Whether or not I convinced Lafia,Idon’t think help is coming, and my fear weighs on me.
And yet, as I slip into a fitful sleep, a pair of fathomless, gray eyes find me in my dreams.
Chapter 5
Leon
“I’m still not sanctioning a mission to the holy city without more of a plan,” Harman says.
“Last time I checked, I don’t needyoursanction,” I growl.
“Here we go again,” Tira sighs. She sits with my soldiers at a table in the rebel’s cave. It’s the best place in Tread for us to hold large meetings, and Harman has called up all the key members of the Hand for this gathering.
My first emotion when I saw them all was resentment. It’s no business of theirs how we go about finding Ana. But then Alastor reminded me how much Harman regrets her capture, and that includes going overboard by asking everyone in his network to pull together and help in the search.
If forced, I’d admit that we could benefit from their input. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to take orders from any of them.
“No one’s telling you what to do, captain,” Alastor says. “But you have to accept that we’re operating blind here. All we know is that Ana’s in Qimorna. We’re looking for a needle in a very dangerous, cleric-filled haystack.”
“So?” Tira says, crossing her arms. “If that’s what it takes to find Ana, then I say we get digging. We’ll go through the people of Qimorna one by one if we have to. Eventually, one of them will be able to tell Alastor something.”
Alastor told Harman about his sensic ability—withoutconsulting me. I look at him now, wondering not for the first time whether this new friendship between my friend and the Hand’s leader is going to cause me problems.
“Or we could go straight to the heart,” Mal, the half-dryad rebel, suggests. “Let’s start at the high temple. There’s got to be someone there who knows where she is.”
“That place is more protected than the palace at Elmere.” Harman shakes his head. “We’d never get out of there alive. Whatever we learned would die there with us.”
I consider this idea. Bringing the entire building crumbling down is certainly tempting, but I can’t ignore that it would probably start a war between Filusia and Trova. And more importantly, would it be the fastest way to Ana?
“I agree with Harman,” I say. “Striking at the high temple would be a waste of time. The bearer in Hallowbane said she wasn’t there anymore, and Caledon will probably move her again if we announce ourselves.”
Alastor makes a choking noise, and I look at him with concern.
“I’m sorry,” he says. “I thought I just heard you agree with Harman.”
“Desperate times,” I comment archly.
Our banter breaks some of the tension in the room. A few of the rebels laugh, and Harman hides a smile behind his hand.
“Alright, so we still need to narrow down our search area,” Esther, Harman’s first lieutenant, says. “And we need to do it as efficiently as possible.”
I share a look with the serious woman. I like her. She’s smart and to the point, and it’s clear she understands Ana probably doesn’t have much time left. There’s only so long Caledon will hold her before he won’t be able to resist taking her power for himself.
“Now you have a better idea of where she is, can’t you use your sensic abilities to find her?” she continues.
I have, on occasion, been able to sense someone’s dreams even when they were many miles from me. However, I must be very familiar with their mind and have at leastsomevague notion of their location.
“I’ve reached out to the city, and sometimes I think I get close,” I say. “But the connection’s not strong enough.”
Every night, I search the dream realm for her. Every now and again, I sense an echo of her mind, but it’s like trying to pick out a single melody in a room of a hundred orchestras.
Every day, I’m forced to wake up with the knowledge that I’ve failed her again.
“And what if we got closer to the city?” Harman asks. “Would that help?”
