Free Dawnsinger by Janalyn Voigt

broken stairway sent prickles walking over her skin. Eyes gleamed in the shadows, and long shudders traveled her spine.
    Somewhere, something shrieked.
    Shae stumbled on the stone stair suspended between a dark void and a wall of living stone. She called for Kai, but her voice made no sound. Where was he?
    “Find the light and be saved…” The whispered words stirred the air.
    She strained to see in the dimness. Who had spoken?
    And then the broken stairway with its stench and the eyes of death dissolved away. Chest heaving, she lay trapped between waking and sleeping.
    Light flared around the shutters. The pattering rain echoed the thrum of her pulse. Wind rattled the window and whined into the chamber through cracks. Drafts scuttled across the floor and sent the bed hangings swaying.
    Darkness seeped into the room and wrapped around her very soul. She longed to escape, to flee, but her leaden legs would not carry her. Cold tendrils wrapped about her mind, probing, seeking entrance…
    “Lof Yuel, protect me!”
    An inner light flickered, and the weight of darkness shifted.
    She felt it then—a second, quieter soul. Without hesitating, she welcomed its soothing touch. In the daylight, she would likely question everything, including her own sanity. But here in the dead of night, questions would not find answers.
     
     
     
     
     

7
     
    Sword and Scepter
     
    Craelin’s expression reflected Kai’s own frustration as Dithmar, another guardian who had seen nothing and knew nothing, left the gatehouse guardroom with a spring in his step, whistling.
    Like Dithmar, each guardian had seemed innocent under questioning.
    Kai sighed. While relieved to find no hint of duplicity among the guardians, he couldn’t help his disappointment at failing to discover the traitor’s identity.
    A rap at the scarred strongwood door announced the arrival of the last guardian to be questioned, Guaron, keeper of the wingabeasts. Like the other guardians, Guaron did not ask why they summoned him but waited before them with quiet dignity.
    Craelin rose from the bench that flanked the rough table centered in the sparse chamber. “Greetings, Guaron. We have questions for you.”
    Emotion, at once repressed, crossed Guaron’s rugged face. Surprise? Or something more?
    Craelin’s face remained neutral. “Have you noticed anything unusual from the other guardians?”
    Guaron shook his head and his fine hair, straw-colored and cropped at chin level, followed the movement. “I’ve noticed nothing untoward. Should I have?”
    “And the wingabeasts? Have you noticed anything strange about their behavior?”
    Guaron drew breath as if to respond, but checked. His gaze swept from Craelin, who circled him, to Kai, waiting in silence at the battered table. “I think—well, yes I have.”
    Craelin halted. “Pray tell us.”
    Guaron rubbed his chin, and one index finger found its cleft. “Now you mention it, I have noticed a certain restlessness in the stables of late.”
    Craelin’s eyes, nested in squint lines, glinted blue. “How long have you noticed this?”
    “Not long, but it started before the Lof Raelein fell ill.”
    Craelin tilted his head. “Restlessness, you say?”
    Guaron’s glance flitted to Kai. “It reminded me of times in Glindenn Hold, before I came to Torindan, when the horses I tended sensed the approach of garns. Lately it’s seemed…”
    Kai sat forward on the bench.
    “Sometimes I could almost swear…” Guaron’s index finger again sought its rest. “Certain wingabeasts can seem out of sorts for no reason, almost as if… as if something keeps them from sleep.”
    Craelin clasped his hands behind his back. “Have you heard or seen anything to shed light upon such observations? Anything out of place? Any sounds you might have disregarded at the time?”
    Guaron’s forehead furrowed, but he shook his head. “I can think of nothing.”
    “What about yesterday morning? Were all the wingabeasts accounted