The wind raked its desperate fingers through her tresses, its icy touch sharp to the point of pain as it pierced her damp coat and began to chill her from the outside in. The place she had come from had been warm and mild, filled with life in the heat of summer, but summer never did come to Tinuvel, and the frozen landscape remained mostly barren. Merete shivered. She was coming home. The wind raked its desperate fingers through her tresses, its icy touch sharp to the point of pain as it pierced her damp coat and began to chill her from the outside in. The place she had come from had been warm and mild, filled with life in the heat of summer, but summer never did come to Tinuvel, and the frozen landscape remained mostly barren. Merete shivered. She was coming home. For a while she wandered the desolate land, pausing here and there to look for familiar landmarks that might serve to jog her memory. Nothing could erase the memory of Tinuvel from her mind, but the constantly drifting snow and ice sheets throughout the seasons masked the island’s features. Besides, how long had it been since she had last set foot on the island where she had taken her first breath? A decade? Something like that. She sighed at the thought, and turned her tawny gaze in the other direction. The treeline on the horizon caught her eye – perhaps she was simply on the wrong side of them, and the land they were hiding would provide better directions. Determined now, she turned her course towards them. If nothing else, they would provide some respite from the cold, to which her resistance had waned over the years. Merete slipped inside the foliage, following a natural gap in the trees which seemed to form a path that had been used before, judging by the trodden ground and the broken branches she passed. So somebody lived on this island at least, despite the lack of inhabitants she had encountered so far. There had been a time when she could hardly take a walk halfway across the Arch without running into at least a handful of her father’s harem. What was the place like now, she wondered, and whose hands did it rest in. Had Rook continued the family dynasty? The thoughts flitted through her mind, occupying her as she made her way along the trail, looking for the next convenient exit. Soft light filtering through the trees ahead suggested there was an opening there, and she followed it until she came out into a small clearing. Much to her surprise, it was not empty. She announced her arrival with an abrupt snort, her eyes moving carefully over the figure of the stallion who rested before her. “Who are you?” she asked bluntly. |