A man stood before seven men and women. His eyes flashed gold in the light of the candles in the chamber and his face was alight with eager passion.1
‘I have found her.' The words hung in the air, each the weight of a world.2
There was silence amongst the figures seated in shadow around the table. ‘How can you be sure?' The hard-faced man in the large, carved chair leaned forward. His expression was unreadable. The undulating glow from the candles threw the harsh planes of his face into sharp relief. 3
‘There have been so many.' The ethereal tones filled the room, but their owner remained seated in the gloom. There was only a pale flash of hair to suggest that she was there at all.4
‘All the signs are there, Elder. She is the one. I have watched her, she displays odd behaviour for an Earthly woman and she is of age.'5
There was a soft murmur from the figures in front of him. The shadows seemed to deepen, and in the high rafters, he thought he heard a raven's croak. The sound made him shiver, almost as if it was some kind of eerie foreshadowing.6
‘It is true that there have been many, always we have had hope, and always that hope fails as each new child is not our Haithra.' The hard-faced man shook his head. ‘Perhaps she does not exist.'7
‘She exists! I have seen her myself when she was no more than a babe in arms.' The woman at the end of the table leaned forward into the light. Her voice was strong, belying the aged look of her face. Her expression was set in stubborn conviction. She looked far younger than her 1,000 years. ‘The times are desperate, now more than ever, Fane needs her queen. The threat grows daily and soon we will not be able to outrun it.'8
There was a moment of hesitation before the man came to a decision, and gave a cut nod. ‘Very well, Emissary. You may venture to the Earthly world and bring back this girl. You have one more week.'9
The Emissary bowed deeply. ‘I shall not fail, Elder. You have my word.' He drew the cowl of his cloak about his face and strode from the room. As he left his eyes flashed a deep, dark blue that was almost triumphant.10
The clock struck three. Its chime echoed through the house. The fire in the hearth had burned low and in the high-backed chair, a girl slept. The last chime stirred her from sleep, and feeling dazed, she rose from her chair, and walked to the window.11
Brushing aside the heavy velvet drape, she stared out at the night. The snow had stopped and all around the world lay in white. The whiteness had plunged the world beyond the window into a smothering silence. The stars hid behind their cloaks of night-cloud, but the moon peaked out, illuminating the darkness with cold, eerie light.12
The heavy thud of the brass knocker, shaped like a rayed sun, did not surprise her, even at this late hour. As if in a dream, she left the room and walked to the door of the house. It did not seem to matter that there were strangers on the moor at this time of night. She had had the sense all day of expecting something, or someone. At last the waiting was over, something had finally happened. The handle turned under her hand, and hardly knowing what she was doing, she opened the door and surveyed the man on her doorstep.13
Snow swirled in at the door as she opened it, covering her bare feet in icy coldness. As soon as he stepped across the threshold, she felt something change. He raised his head and pulled back the hood of his cloak. Snow scattered from his shoulders to settle on the carpet where it melted into the soft fibres. She drew in her breath sharply; this was not the man she had been expecting. Before her eyes she saw him change. He grew taller, his hair became longer, and his features seemed to swirl into a blur of nothingness before they finally settled into those of an older man.14
The door slammed shut and she jumped. The stranger's eyes flickered between green, grey and brown. ‘Rebecca?' He stepped forward and took her hand in his. She pulled back instinctively.15
‘I am, but who are you? You're not David.' Her voice was calmer than she would have expected, she felt dazed.16
‘I am someone who means you no harm. What I have to say to you will seem difficult to believe, but you must listen to me.' His voice was deep and gentle, reminding her of somewhere far away that she could not quite remember. 17
Almost without realising it, she found she was at the door of the sitting room. He had her backed into a corner. She was alone in the house and there were no other neighbours on the moor for miles. She had no choice but to follow what he said and hope he would not hurt her.18
‘I'm not sure I understand.' She said carefully, as he strode past her into the room. He seated himself in front of the fire and stretched out his hands towards the dwindling flames. The fire flickered and then roared into life. Daenan rubbed his hands together and turned to look at her as she seated herself opposite him.19
‘I am sorry I have had to deceive you, but I had little choice.' He turned fully towards her, his eyes now amber, seemed full of regret. ‘David does not exist. He has never existed. My name is Daenan and I am come from a world far from here. I assumed a more normal form and befriended you.'20
A chill went through her, a mixture of anger, fear, and some other emotion she could not identify. She did not know whether to believe him, but she had seen him change in front of her. There could be no disregarding the feeling upon seeing his face; she had felt both afraid and yet a sense of deep recognition. Nevertheless, to know that all the weeks she had spent in his company were a lie, to know that the man she thought she knew did not exist, and to know that she had been cheated in such a way, that was almost beyond enduring. 21
She sat wordlessly, with no idea of what to say to him. She knew that he was telling her the truth; she knew from the way his eyes changed in tune with his emotions and she knew because she had seen him age and change before her in ways no normal human being could.22
He was staring at her intently and that look made her find her words. ‘You had no right.' There was more anger and force in her voice than she had intended. She tried to calm herself, but found she couldn't. ‘You lied to me, pretended to be another man, and why? What possible reason could you have for deceiving me in such a manner?'23
He shook his head seemingly in awe, the ghost of a smile curving about his lips. ‘You are so like your mother.'24
‘Well there you have me at a disadvantage. I never knew my mother; she died when I was a baby.'25
‘Where I come from, there is not a single person alive who has not heard of your mother.'26
‘Heard?'27
Daenan let out a small sigh, his eyes shifting from palest amber to darkest blue. He took her hand in his again, and it felt very small and frail in his larger one. Gently, almost reverently, he placed her hand on his forehead.28
She tried to pull away, but he held her tighter. A white-hot heat seared through her flesh. She cried out in pain and the room vanished.29
She was alone, on a high hill, looking down upon a city, vastly different from any earthly city she had ever seen. The stars above her were starkly different and the twin moons showed her quite plainly that this was in a different world. The city lay in black and smoking ruins, people fleeing it in droves as something stalked the streets wrapped in darkness. 30
She knew that darkness. She had lived with it intimately all her life; in her dreams she saw it. Saw them. Vague and shadowy shapes that reached out for her. Now, they seemed full of substance and much nearer. 31
Pain seared through her hand, the world melted away, and she was back by the fire with Daenan staring at her carefully. The room seemed to sway slightly; everything was infused with a grey tinge. She could smell the acrid tang of smoke and taste ashes in her mouth. The inside of her head was fizzing as if she had pins and needles. Her hand still burned and she glanced at it. Etched into the palm in livid red lines was a rayed sun; the same symbol was now fading on Daenan's forehead. Her skin seemed to tingle with unexplained warmth. She was acutely aware of the crackle of the fire, the measured tick of the old clock on the mantelpiece and her own ragged breathing.32
‘What did you do to me?' The words came out in a breathy whisper. She felt drugged.33
‘I let you see. I wish I had time to explain it all to you', he said, ‘but time is short. As you have probably guessed, I am not from this world. I belong to another world, a place called Fane. It is far away from your small universe, not if you travelled the cold darkness of space for a thousand years could your people ever reach my world, nor all the worlds beyond it. Your mother was our queen and you were her last child and her only daughter. An old and ancient evil returned to plague our land. Your mother banished it, but died herself in the process. You were sent away in fear that harm would befall you. The doors between our worlds were sealed and you were safe in the custody of two loyal servants forever to be exiled from Fane. They were charged with raising you, teaching you of your heritage and preparing you for this day.'34
He stared at her face, marking how young she was and how achingly like her mother, and yet how like her father. Her lineage was written in the lines of her face and the cool grey eyes. To him, she appeared a fairy tale brought to life, a myth sitting in flesh before him.35
‘Those two servants, posing as your parents, were killed when you were only a child. Others have had charge of you, but meanwhile, hundreds of years have passed on Fane while only 20 have passed here. Fane has been rebuilt, but that evil returns to stalk our lands. It is quiet now, but is growing ever stronger. I have been commanded to find you and bring you home.'36
Rebecca had sat quietly throughout this speech, trying desperately to understand it. The sun symbol had faded from her skin, and she was trying to make sense of what she had seen and heard. Anyone who had not witnessed what she had would have dismissed this instantly as idiocy. She could choose to denounce it as foolishness, or she could believe that this man had perhaps drugged her, but she knew that not even science or logic could explain everything that had happened to her tonight.37
‘I am home.' She said simply. It was the only thing to say.38
He shook his head, his expression pained. ‘No, this is merely bricks and stone. This is not your home. Your home is far away, further than you can yet imagine.' 39
‘It's madness, I can't just...leave.' She felt uneasy about following this stranger to some unknown place. He could be anyone, he might not be as friendly as he seemed. This could be part of another trick. 40
‘Do you believe then that I am not telling you the truth?' His eyes bore into hers. ‘Tell me, how is it that you could have dreamed of things unknown to any earthly person, worlds that have never been seen, night after night after night.'41
She looked into the fire. She had told him herself, thinking him another man, of the dreams, but not their content. She knew, just as he did, that the things she had dreamt of, she had seen in her vision. She wrapped her arms around herself, shivering despite the heat of the fire. The room seemed oppressive suddenly, the dark panelling suffocating, and the intensity of Daenan's gaze more than she could bear. ‘I know.' She said softly. ‘I know you are telling me the truth.' She shivered again. 'They're getting closer?'42
His expression changed abruptly, alarm furrowing his brow, and his hands gripping the carved arms of the chair until the knuckles were white as he leaned forward. ‘They?'43
‘I dream of them, every night, I have done since I can remember. They were nothing but shapes then, I could sense them, but not really see them. Tonight, for the first time, I saw them, they felt real, and they were close.'44
Daenan sat back in the chair. ‘We do not have much time. I have until the dawn. You must make your decision then. Until then, perhaps some rest would be in order.'45
She hesitated for a moment, plainly, he meant to stay in the house, she didn't feel afraid exactly about this, but it did make her feel slightly uncomfortable. He waved away her obvious discomfort. ‘Do not distress yourself, I will not sleep, and I will not trouble you.'46
Reminding herself that he had once been David, her friend, she nodded and turned away for bed, leaving him sitting by the fire, deep in thought.47
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