The Sleeping Prince - Melinda Salisbury Page 0,106

of it. I promise. But not tonight.”

I nod. “Twylla,” I say hesitantly, testing this new name for her. “When he lived on the farm, Lief was… He never thought about anything but the farm. When we lost it, he was heartbroken. So if he behaved badly, then…” I trail off. “What I mean is, when Lief cared, he really cared. He was all or nothing. So I think he must have really liked you, for a while at least.”

Her expression clouds over, her mouth pursing. “No, Errin,” she says deliberately. “He didn’t.”

Her eyelids flutter shut again and I take a deep breath. I don’t want to know any more; I don’t want her to say anything that might make me think too badly of him. “Did – do you have brothers, or sisters?”

“Both. Twin brothers, older than me. A younger sister, but she died.”

“I’m sorry.”

“As am I.”

We’re quiet for a moment. And then I speak. “I think the worst thing is the way you lose part of yourself.” I roll on to my back and stare up at the dark, speckled roof. “There’s so much that only Lief knew about me. So many memories that we shared – mostly of things we shouldn’t have been doing – but now I’m the last one who remembers them. Times we woke in the night and stole honeycomb from the jars in the kitchen. Times we used to jump into the hay on the farm. No one will ever know me like that again. And what if I forget things? What happens then?”

I turn to look at her, in time to see her wipe her face.

“I’m sorry,” I say again.

She shakes her head. “No, it’s a nice way to think.” She pauses. “I suppose we should try to sleep now,” she says. “Tomorrow is going to be interesting, I suspect.” She stares into the distance, then turns abruptly, facing the wall once more.

I clamber off the bed to wash my face. Then I pull off my boots and change into the nightgown, happy to have clean clothes, before blowing out the candle. I can hear her crying softly.

Lying in the dark, I think of Silas, a few caves away. He knew her name was Twylla. And he expected her to come through Almwyk, was waiting there for her. Was that because of Lief? Did he expect her to come there because of him, or merely because it’s the main border town between the two countries?

Then I have a horrible thought: is that why he befriended me? To get to her?

I sit up in bed, staring into the darkness. Twylla has fallen silent. I’ll ask him tomorrow, I tell myself. And even if that was the reason, does it matter?

No, I decide as I lie back down, it doesn’t. It alters nothing between us.

After a few moments I hear another muffled sob and I clench my fist in the blankets. I feel terribly guilty for whatever it was my brother did to her. Sometimes I don’t think I knew Lief at all.

I’m woken by the sound of footsteps pounding past our room. I can hear voices, too loud for the night, and though I can’t make out the words, I can hear the shrill pitch, the panic, in them. I sit up, turning to Twylla.

“What’s happening?” she asks, rubbing her eyes, and I shake my head, my heart racing.

There is a grating, rumbling sound above us, echoing down through the rock.

“What’s that?” she gasps.

I throw my covers back, reaching for my breeches and forcing my feet into my boots. “Get up,” I say. “Something’s wrong.”

As she pulls on her boots, Silas throws the curtain open. He looks from me to Twylla and then back. “We’re under attack,” he says. “I don’t know if they saw us coming back here, or if they figured it out, but they’re trying to force the main doors.”

“What do we do?”

“You both need to find Amara. She arrived an hour ago. She’s in the ossuary. Listen to her. Then meet me in the hall; I’ll wait there for you. We may need to evacuate, so be ready.”

I look at Twylla, pale and determined in the light from the hallway. “We’ll see you in the hall.”

“Silas!” someone calls from outside the room.

He turns towards the voice, then back to us, speaking quickly. “When you leave here, turn right and place your left hand on the wall to your left. Keep your hand on it and follow it. You’ll know it