Shadows on the Border

Prologue: Through the Shimmer

Prologue: Through the Shimmer

Fenn

The air was moist in Fenn’s nostrils and it smelled of unfamiliar chemicals. They had pushed through the Shimmer and were crouched on a firm surface, the fading remnants of kias twisting around them and leaving a lingering taste of iron on their tongue. The earth was cold and hard and wet underneath them and they pressed their palms down on to its steady familiarity and breathed deeply to ground themselves. The Shimmer was still there in their peripheral vision and they took reassurance from its presence.

They still had the bag with them, thank the Graces, slung across their body where they had arranged it for safe keeping. Fenn took additional reassurance from the heavy weight of it against their chest. Their gable-stone was on its thong around their neck, warm and familiar and inert. And Alaress was strapped across their back, securely fixed with leather sheath and straps. They had timed this arrival for the dead of night, in a place the Ternants had ascertained would be without people. Fenn had time to find somewhere secure to nest before daybreak and settle themselves to formulating the rhythm of their search.