Chapter 5
PAIN.
There was pain all around.
Tandor heard women’s voices, but the meaning of their babble floated outside his range of hearing. He couldn’t see who the women were, but one of them had to be Loriane. Lovely, down-to-earth, Pirosian Loriane. The other one was probably Myra.
He couldn’t see where they had taken him, but after days in the cold on the sled, they were now inside. Myra’s house, probably.
Ruko was there, too, a glowering presence on the edge of Tandor’s vision. His figure was a mere silhouette, a dark form soaking up all icefire.
Tandor tried to move, but he couldn’t. Cords of icefire bound his hands to some ethereal substrate that he couldn’t feel.
“Get these off me.”
Ruko came to stand next to him, looking down, his hands behind his back. The recalcitrant l
