I felt a touch on my shoulder. I turned and saw Treise.
“You’re not angry about last night? I get carried away.”
“No.” I took her hand and kissed it. “Let’s do it again, soon. Only this time you will be chained and I’ll do the whipping.”
“Agreed,” she replied. She stretched up on her toes and gave me a lingering kiss on my lips.
A call echoed from the far end of the cave, “Ho, the warders. Come for your supper.”
“That’s our signal,” my uncle said. “Let’s go.” He led the way with a flickering torch through the twists and turns and uncertain footing of the cave’s floor. “Almost there,” he said, breathing heavily. He extinguished the torch as we stepped out under an infinite span of stars pinned to an ebony sky.
“Father Christmas is at the far end of the bay,” said Chalmers. “I’ll signa
