Chapter One

It is not night, but she is dreaming. There is a girl standing next to her, watching quietly, and rhythmically swaying from side to side. The girl's lips are moving, and a tall, angry man beside her is shouting. The girl is Alcanta, seer of Akkanen, the man is King Yis, and the girl dreaming is Fern.

She is listening to the girl tell her of the history of Akkanen. There are three birds by Fern's bookshelf that are whispering about angels and in front of her there is a woman, dressed in light, shimmering material and shrieking, trying to banish Fern.

Some Slights do not wish to be looked on long after they are dead. Her attention is split between these, her lips, thin and blue, are parted slightly as if speaking to all of them. The woman before her, the one with the eyes that hold 20,000 years of hate, is fading away. Fern raises a hand and waves distractedly towards the seething woman. One word crosses the ages, too wrought with power to be ignored. It is in a language she does not know. It is brushed away like cobwebs and her attention turned to the girl.

"She is deadly," the girl whispers. "She destroys anyone who crosses her."

Fern gently touches the girls hand, the woman is too dead to hurt anyone; power as old as that can only haunt. The girl nods, not believing, eyes full of power. Alcanta predates the woman by ten thousand years and still has potent powers. The girl touches her friends small shoulders and returns her attention to 30,000 years ago.

The air smells of putrid flesh. The sky above her bed seems to be made of butterflies, and a chair of a strange red metal is empty where it sits in her mind. She thinks there might be a moment of peace in which to sleep.