Kazga’s dark face was transforming, melting and dissipating all at once, then scattering in the air, as though beneath her skin she was nothing more than black sand being torn apart by the wind. For an instant, an impression of her face was left in the air – nothing more than a transparent shimmer – but as it began to laugh at him, he realized it was not her face at all, but his mother’s. Dread gripped his stomach and he turned to run, but his legs seemed sucked into the ground by mud.

“Orhan?”

His own name rang in his ears, too loud and too real. Then everything seemed to fall away, and he was in space, in blackness... and on the other side of the blackness he awakened, feeling as though he’d been transported through time. His body jolted involuntarily from the shock, and he blinked in confusion up at Vesti, who stood over him with a concerned expression. His mouth drooped open uselessly and he stared at the mare for several long moments while his sleep-muddled mind tried to make sense of his surroundings. As his rationale returned, he became aware of the rain hammering the surface of the oasis beyond Vesti. A strange sense of sadness overcame him then, that it was rain and sand – and not snow – that surrounded them. His dream may have become a nightmare, but he would have given anything to return to the ethereal snow of the riverlands.

“What is wrong?” he asked, figuring there must have been something that required his attention. Perhaps that damned rattlesnake was back, or maybe there was an intruder to be seen to. Oh, gods, what if something happened to Ana?