Lissie dreamed.
She dreamed she was a thousand horses on the Plains.
She dreamed she was a candle on a table. All around her were other candles, and they were all lit. As she melted, her wax spread and touched the wax of all the other candles. And she was all the candles. And she was so bright.
Do you want to save him?
She dreamed she was drowning. She was in the crevasse again, and there was water pouring in from above, and it was rising. Her arm was broken again, and she was pinned, and the water was rising. It was choking her. She looked for Niko’s blue hands, waited for the earth to tear above her, but the water covered her head and she could see nothing.
She dreamed she was under the dome of swords. Mother sat before her a young girl, and she was broken. Her body was twisted and wrong.
You can, you know.
She was in her room again. She was awake. She sat up in her bed, and there was Nelli, sitting on the stool, her hand on the empty bottle of brandy.
I’m still dreaming.
“No, child, you are finally awake.” Nelli’s voice in her ears, not her mind. The Dust Woman pushed the bottle and it crashed on the stone floor, sending glass everywhere.
“How would you have me save him?” Lissie’s eyes were narrowed. There were no windows, and no candles burning, but she could see everything in fine detail.
“Let me teach you. Let me teach you to Ride the Wind. And to Drink the Earth. Let me teach you.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
Nelli stood, and Lissie looked at her. She was wearing an open black robe with nothing underneath it. Her body was muscled, and her bones were showing through her skin. Her face was drawn. The wisps of white hair sneaking out of her hood were glowing. She threw the hood back, and Lissie gasped.
The skin on her skull was patchy, and she could see fragments of the bone through it.
“I need something in exchange.” Nelli stepped towards her, walking on the broken glass.
Lissie felt a hand on her heart. She felt fingers crawling over it, searching it.
“I believe you need many things.”
“Yes, but I can take most of them without permission, this you have to give me freely.”