He wept. He heard a soft voice speaking to him through the fog of nightmares. And then he woke. *** ‘Are you okay?’Cloud blinked, wiping his eyes as he looked around for the source of the voice that had brought him back to the waking world. He was curled in the stinking corner of a small, dark room, where streams of condensation trickled down the walls. There was only one window, and the single square of light did little to alleviate the gloom. The travelling cloak he was wrapped in smelled of rats and mould.‘Are you okay?’ the voice asked again.Cloud considered the question. His whole body ached, which was little surprise considering he had recently been poisoned by a hydra and was lucky not to be dead. His head was fuzzy, and his tongue felt too big for his mouth.‘I’ve been better. Who are you?’A shadow on the other side of the room detached itself from the wall, and sat beside him in a rustle of silk clothing.‘My Lady,’ he said, recognising Lady Citrine’s face in the meagre light from the window.
