CHERRY WOKE UP, TURNED over, and groaned. She wasn’t unaccustomed to sleeping on the floor—Scythian attacks had destroyed her abode more than once—but there was something about the hard, black surface that they’d used through much of their city that was particularly uncomfortable. The lightweight sleeping bag Alun had given her offered little protection against the heat-sucking, bone-bruising material.
She pulled back the cover that lay over her face. Pitch darkness greeted her. And silence. Utter silence. Over the last two days, the absence of any sound except her own breathing and the slight noise of her movements had begun to grind into her consciousness like the heel of a boot crushing an insect. Several times she’d been tempted to speak just to hear a voice, even if it was her own, b
