Prologue
It was so unbearably cold she almost couldn't stand it. The primal urge to drag herself away from the ice assaulting her, drowning out everything else; but the wet rock was leeching all the warmth from her body on contact alone, leaving her shaking uncontrollably and too weak to move. Her teeth clattered together painfully; shivers so violent she felt like her bones were going to break. She sat in the dark with her knees pulled tightly against her chest because she lacked the strength to do much else. In the distance there were sounds of boots scuffing rock and as they grew louder the sounds of digging grew more hurried.
Levy couldn't see her older sister in the blackness, but she knew she was there, fingernails clawing against rock, trying to reopen the passageway that would lead them into the main caves. The path to their freedom. But the tremors from the castle above had collapsed the ceiling before they could escape. Leaving them trapped with an army of men currently looking for them. So much of the day had been nothing more than a blur to Levy. A horrible dream that she couldn't wake herself up from. She was vaguely aware that Maeve was speaking but was too tired to listen, what did it matter, the elder of the McGardens' was always talking. Too mouthy for a thirteen year old girl, their mother would always say, but Levy was certain she was just teasing. Their parents loved them.
Images flashed across her mind and she recoiled from the searing pain of the memories. She held up her small hands and despite the darkness, she could still see the blood on them. Despite the silence, she could hear the sounds of her mother pleading for her life; hear the sounds the soldiers' swords made when they passed through bone. When they hacked away at her father's already dead corpse. She must have whimpered because her older sibling stopped digging and there was a sudden source of warmth at her side. The cold was a thing that no longer effected her. It was simply there. Dizzy and nauseated, seven year old Levy leaned into her sister. Unable to weep and much too young to understand why the tears wouldn't come.
"Are we going to die?" She asked. It was a concept that even at her age, she was familiar with. Though, she now had so many terrible images to go with it. Death wasn't necessarily the peaceful slumber she'd been told. Sometimes there were screams, and thrashing limbs and terrifying sights that came with it.
"No. I just have a little more to go and then we can fit. It's much too small for anyone else," Her voice didn't waver and Levy was grateful for the lie.
She swallowed and licked her dry lips, tasting salt.
"Maeve? I think I'm bleeding," Her voice came out as little above a squeak. The comment was nothing more than an absent remark, devoid of any kind of fear or pain. If they were going to die anyway, what did it matter beyond a simple curiosity?
Her sister gripped her tightly to her and wept, while Levy sat still, un-moving and numb. The small girl wrapped her limp arms around her sisters waist and smiled into the damp fabric of her tunic. "Don't cry," She whispered.
And she did. Levy felt her eyes begin closing; her body sinking heavily into sleep. Briefly, the thought crossed her mind that she might see her parents again and that made her happy in an odd way. She didn't want to hurt anymore. She didn't want to see anyone else hurt. She wanted to just let go. But something was holding her back. Like an invisible thread that had snagged on something in the living world and refused to let her drift away. That's when she heard Maeve singing to her. A lullaby favorited by their mother. Levy felt the magic wash over her like a bath of warm water. Soothing the aches and the pains, driving out the cold. She opened her eyes and the darkness receded in a halo of ethereal light, briefly allowing her to see the trickle of blood run down from her sister's nose, passed her lips and chin; her eyes fluttering drowsily before they focused again.
The bootsteps that they'd been ignoring for the passed few minutes quickened their pace and Levy could hear their pursuers yelling now. There was a moment of panic that felt like it came out of nowhere, considering the numbness that had preceded it and Levy cried out in terror.
Sweaty, dirty hands pulled her to her feet and dragged her a few steps before pushing her against the smallest crevice in the rock. As tiny as she was, her body just felt enormous in comparison to the gap her sister was trying to squeaze her through. She was never going to fit.
Suddenly the voices were with them and Levy shrieked in sheer agony as her sister's hands became forceful to the point of injury.
"Don't forget that we love you."
Maeve gave one more almighty heave, popping something in her sister's shoulder and suddenly Levy was falling through the gap in the stone.
With desperation born of terror, she scrambled to her cut feet and ran as fast as she could, her dislocated arm clutched uselessly to her chest. Unable to remember the sound of her sisters voice, beyond the screams she left behind. The last sound she could remember Maeve making.