Chapter four
Pindaen ProxThey show him their treasures — crystalline leaves, their shapes pleasingly familiar. When the leaves sing he is comforted, and so, it seems, are they. For twenty heartbeats there is silence. Then they bring him the thing he has been searching for.
She has a mind, but is shallow; unformed. Her guardians cluster round her, offering their protection until the moment she must depart. Ben’aryn takes her hand. He knows the time has come for her to leave the Darkness behind. The Gyre is calling.
* * * *
Gwenn blew on a spoonful of thin gruel before she brought it to Arkady’s lips. He sat in bed, propped up with pillows, in one of Dawa’s upstairs bedrooms. His hazel eyes, though half-open, stared blankly, and Gwenn knew he could not see her. Nor did he ever speak, tho
