Chapter 26They entered the Chamber of Sawan, Lyne grown compliant, shuffling between her captors. He padded closer, careful not to let loose stones crack under his paws, and waited in his chosen corner.
From the centre of the chamber rose the stone slab used as the altar of his transformation, and that of so many of his grandfathers and uncles before him. A bare stone—no candles or cloths or bowls of incense and herbs, only the phosphorescent rock of the cave itself. The spells required were so old they’d become habit and commonplace; no elaborate preparations were necessary.
The Cockerell pointed, and her servant pushed Lyne down to sit on the stone. She looked around her, once, as the torches bobbed in the servant’s hand.
He shut his eyes just before she might have caught their gleam;
