Back in the lodgings where we slept the previous night, Tug ties my hands and feet to the bedpost and goes to stand by the dark slatted window. He has his knife out, flicking it back and forth in his wrist.

"This is a dangerous game," he mutters. I do not know how to answer. He could end it now. The power is in his hands. All he'd have to do is take Kel and me back to the forest. But I know he will not. "Who is he?"

I bite my lips together. I cannot decide whether the Prince's identity will encourage or dissuade Beast-face. Better to say nothing.

Surprisingly, he does not force my answer. "I must return to the Pit." He gathers a piece of cloth and comes and kneels before me. His thick fingers untie the gut string holding the bloody rag to my neck. He tears another piece of cloth from some fabric with his knife.

"The man is too unpredictable," I say, hoping to plant a seed of doubt. Tug's steady eyes stare at me. I open my mouth to water the seed further, and his large fingers stuff the cloth against my tongue.

Once he is gone, there is no use struggling against the ropes around my feet and hands. Tug's knots are the kind you'd have difficulty cutting your way through with a knife. I watch the candle whittle down, leaving a creamy pool on the round table.

Two hours pass, perhaps longer. And with the hours, worry and hunger fester, rising in me until I am fraught and desperate. I fear Kel's reaction to his sale. I fret Tug will discover nothing about the man who buys my brother, and his and Brin's memories of the transaction, if I can find them, will be useless: a nameless face, one of millions in the Carucan Kingdom. Isn't that the whole point of the Pit? Isn't it designed to protect the identities of investors as well as sellers?

I long for anything to break the silence and darkness, even the sound of Tug's boots thumping up the stairs.

Eventually, they come.

He enters along with the mouth-watering odour of rabbit and leek stew. My stomach clenches with hunger. Tug lights a candle in the sconce by the door. I scowl at the thought of him and Brin spending the last hour or two drinking and feasting, celebrating the money they have received from trading my brother, like they would the pelts of hunted deer. Like he could ever belong to them!

The stiff leather of Tug's boots creaks as he lights candles about the room. Then he crouches beside me and unties my hands. It is unsettling how he does not meet my glare. Fear crawls through me. Did something go wrong? Has Kel been hurt?

I watch him rise and walk towards the door. He returns with a large platter of breads and cheeses and a wooden bowl of the rabbit stew. My parched mouth salivates until I'm practically dribbling.

I should resist. Tug is clearly taking up the Prince's suggestion to bribe me. But it has been too long since a proper meal passed my cracked lips.

I raise the soup in shaky hands and slurp. It is still warm! My taste buds explode with the mix of rich meat, tangy leek, thyme and nuts. I savour this small happiness, forcing myself to eat slowly. After the bowl is half-empty, my stomach almost full, I notice Tug is gathering our packs and stacking them by the door. The soup in my stomach turns into a messy, uncomfortable slosh.

He has made his decision. We are leaving.

I nibble on bread until he comes to untie my feet.

"Sit," he says, gesturing to the edge of the high double bed. A lump lodges in my throat. My heartbeat begins a wild dance in my chest as I push up on shaky legs. Images tumble through my mind like they're scrambling to get away. The bed, alone with Beast-face, the coupling of the man and woman we heard near the Prince's rooms.

I want to fold my shaking hands out of sight, but dare not, in case I need them to claw him off. He stands an arm's length before me, six-foot two inches, shoulders as wide as a river.

"What took so long?" I ask, hoping I sound calmer than I feel.

"You'd better tell me who he is," he says.

"Kel..." I croak. I need information about Kel, but his name is all I can utter.

An image bright and vivid appears in the mind-world. A shadowy cave-like room. Four giant guards with metal bands around their necks and arms. A tall man with brown and gray-peppered hair empties a velvet pouch onto the black table. Glimmering gold coins roll out. Kel stands in a corner shaking, but he holds his head high, chin jutting out in defiance.

Thank the Gods! I stare wide-eyed at Tug. He has pulled up a memory with total clarity and exactitude. He can dip into his own mind and reveal in the now-time whatever recollection he chooses. My father could do this, but it was something that came with practice and, I believed, because of the close bond between us.

"How did you do that?"

"I want his name, Mirra."

"A man's face tells me nothing. It is useless if I don't know where to start looking."

"I can tell where a man is from by the cut of his boots, his coat and his accent."

"If that were true you would not need me to answer your question."

"Our wealthy acquaintance has no remembered identity," Tug says. I meet his wolfish eyes. There is something restless about him tonight. "It makes it easier for him to mimic others," he continues. "His clothes are from a small town to the east, near the tundra. His native accent is from the Red City, mixed with the middle country around Lyndonia and a trace of something I have not come across."

These are easy guesses. The Red City is the capital of Caruca. And the middle country is near the fort where the Prince wishes to take me for his test. But I wonder how Tug recognizes the extent of the Prince's memory loss.

"Is it common for the Carucan cleansing to take away a man's whole past?" I ask.

"It is the first time I've seen it," Tug says evenly.

"How do you see it?"

"One does not need the sight to observe. For example, the old man with him is a trusted tutor from his boyhood, who comes from the Deppawieden town a day's ride from the Red City."

Tug could be making it up, but I have no way of knowing. I decide to believe him. I want to believe him. His knowledge of my brother's future whereabouts depends on this skill.

If Beast-face has already decided to accept the Prince's offer, then revealing Prince Jakut's identity won't change anything. Perhaps it will even give Tug pause to reconsider.

"Our wealthy acquaintance is Prince Jakut of Caruca," I say.

To his credit, Tug's jaw doesn't drop open. "You are sure of this?"

I nod.

He roams the room, grabs a piece of hemp, empties the bread and cheese platter into it and thrusts it into my lap. There is a new fire in him as he tidies, gathering the last remaining furs. It scares me more than the cold impassiveness.

"Time to go," he says. "Brin and the horses are waiting."

Burning flushes up through my throat. "Please... I cannot leave Kel. I will not perform in the Prince's test." I scramble off the bed, clinging onto the hemp parcel as though for dear life. "If I do his test my skill will be discovered. We will all be hanged."

Tug blocks the doorway, arms folded across his chest. "Your brother is in the hands of one of the Lyndonian fort's inner royal guards."

I freeze, struggling to piece together his words. "You sold Kel to a Lyndonian?" Kel is with a Lyndonian and the Prince is going to the Lyndonian fort.

"I thought you might need an incentive."

My limbs go soft. The bag of cheeses and bread slips from my unfurling fists. "Kel is going to Lyndonia?" I gaze at Beast-face.

For some reason, I remember the girl with the chestnut hair and the emerald robe and how well hidden he has kept her in the fortress of his mind. I know he is not doing this for me and Kel, but I cannot help despise him a little less. He is risking his life, along with ours. Why? Not for the gold. It cannot be simply for gold.

"Lyndonia is a royal fort?" I ask.

"It is under the King's brother, Prince Roarhil's protection."

The knowledge that Kel will travel to Lyndonia at the same time as us, that while I am there being tested, I will be able to hunt for him, makes my body pulse with hope. The tight knot in my stomach loosens and a new kind of anticipation rises through me.

For years I've been waiting for something to happen. Surviving in Blackfoot Forest is not the same as living.

I used to dream of a town built from sparkling white rock; a beautiful place filled with people connected by their sight and their deep understanding of one another. I would wake with a fleeting sense of peace and comfort. And while I knew Auran, Island of the Rushing Winds, had crumbled to the seas over a century ago, I had not accepted spending the rest of my life in a miserable hinterland village among people who despised my sight. I had not accepted that I would always have to hide my true nature, or spend my life feeling cursed and freakish until the day my heart stopped beating.

Now I will venture further from the glacial mountains than I've ever been. I will see the Carucan kingdom's wonders with my own eyes. I will enter the poisoned realm of the royal family who have turned my people into slaves, outlaws, nomads, when we helped them win the Great Carucan-Etean War.

I worry for Kel. Whatever happens, I must find him quickly. But my blood vibrates at the prospect of knowing my enemy. An enemy known is an enemy that can be fought. The tundra mine guards, mercenaries and bounty hunters are the limbs of a beast, but the royal family is the head.

Tug throws Brin's pack at me, (it is twice my size), and straps on his own. "Brin waits for us at the edge of town. We must cross the Hybourg. It is worse here at night. And there are those who saw us in the Pit. I need you to focus."

I nod. I am ready. It is amazing what a decent meal can do to clear one's head and boost morale.

Hi guys, thanks for being here. Now I know it's kind of confusing, but you won't be able to read the next chapter until Friday April 10. Shadow Weaver was posted on Wattpad 4 years ago. It then got published about 2 years ago and publishing restrictions meant it had to be taken down. Now I am able to put it back up for a short time, in advance of a book 2 being published, (which will also be available on here before it is officially published.) I know, it's complicated. this is what you need to know: New chapters are being published on Tuesdays and Fridays. I will notify followers when there posted so that you can continue reading :) thank for your time!