Chapter Four
The training begins
She had lost track of time. It was dark, she was hungry; but the two of them had managed, despite the chains, to huddle together somehow under the blankets. The workshop door opened and the elfin girl who’d stoked the furnace slipped in, carrying two lanterns. These she hung from a beam, one at each side of the room. By their light she looked small and frail, and pale-skinned. She’d washed, or been washed, and was now wearing a—it could hardly be called a dress, it was more like a short tabard in brown sackcloth, completely open at each side but for small metal clasps at her waist. Yet indecent as it was, it was some form of clothing and Paula found herself envying the girl. As she approached the cage Paula saw she had tattoos—a snake slithering up one ar
