(A/N – More glorious reviews. Thank you to Alix and Ravensong. You're thoroughly good eggs. Here we go, short and not so sweet...)

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Chapter Ten

Mai's gaze followed the dance of the flickering light. A tear slid to catch in her hair. Despair. Always despair in these maddening hours. She turned a small, glass phial between her fingers, curved them around its reassuring familiarity. Spiked cramps of fear dug within her when she thought about what had happened but she refused to heed them. How could it matter that he had seen it? What difference did it make? All the same her hand closed protectively around the phial, as though seeking to preserve its secret.

She was becoming more and more entangled with these people. They were discovering things. Mai envisaged a shell around her, vulnerable yet protective, a veil of ice. It served to remind her that she was not the same as others, no matter how much she wished it. Oh the deceit pleased her at times, could sometimes even fool her into believing she were ordinary. A bitter smile played upon her mouth. The pretence was a cruelty, for when the moments of normality ended she felt the solitude all the more keenly.

It would be a torment to stay, a burr in her brittle shell. It would be the end of her.

She eased onto her side and unclenched her hand. The small phial glinted, the diminishing liquid within swaying softly. If she continued to draw as much of the tincture as she required then it would not last. But if she failed to use it...

Right now she would give her very all to awaken to the soft glow of morning.

Mai sat up, rubbing at the tears. Taunting herself was not going to help. Hunger pains gnawed through the fear. She had hardly eaten for days, could not recall a time when she had last craved food for the simple pleasure of eating. Mai reached for an apple from her nearby bag and paused when an unfamiliar streak of red caught her attention.

Mai narrowed her eyes. A hiss escaped her as bare feet met the cold ground and she shuddered as she slowly edged towards the strange object.

She stood above the curious thing, head tilted. Inexplicably, her hand trembled as she reached out. The thing felt cold and heavy in her grasp, as though some strange frost had touched and claimed it.

The red hair that had caught her gaze was bright against the shabby disrepair of its clothes. One green eye stared at her with a flat gaze. Its companion rested on a misshapen cheek, swaying on its stained thread. How long had this been here? Surely, she would have noticed it before. Perhaps one of the men had a little one. She clasped the strange doll to her before quickly jerking it away. A feeling of revulsion had slicked though her at such close contact with the thing. Chiding herself, Mai forced herself to smooth the rough wool that served as the plaything's hair.

'I suppose you think me a fool, little one.'

The doll simply stared with that single eye. In the dim light it seemed to almost wink at her.

Starting at shadows…you are a fool, girl.

The cold of the frigid ground was seeping into her calves. She was moving to her blankets when the sound came.

It was furtive, scrabbling, as though some unknown being were scratching at the canvas of the tent. Mai bit at her bottom lip. A vole. At worst, a rat. Nothing more. And yet she shivered. Chiding thoughts did little to quell the deep thrum of unease.

She did not have to strain for the next sound. The cry of a child, that was all. She let out a sigh; one of the men must have a youngling, and nearby.

It is lost, that is all.

Mai crouched before the tent opening, began to fumble at the lacings with fingers still trembling with chill and an echo of dumb fear.

A small sob, soft and weak. Mai swore, fighting the laces until they came free to reveal the intruder.

It was a child. A girl, her slight body hunched. Red hair obscured her face. Small shoulders hitched.

'Hello.' Mai's voice was soft and languid. A sense of release had fallen over her, soothing away her stupid fright. 'Have you lost something?'

The child stiffened, tips of her tangled hair trembling.

'Do not be frightened. I have your doll, it is not lost.'

Mai reached her hand to push the child's hair aside.

A small hand struck, entwined cold fingers with hers.

I am sickening. I am weak from fever...

Raw nails bit into her flesh. The girl raised her head, crimson hair spilled from her face like a bloody sluice.

A green eye met hers. Mai was not surprised that the other was not there, or that in its place should be a puckered hole. The child's lips stretched impossibly wide.

It's face closer now, closer still, a parody of a child imparting a secret to her dearest friend. A reek of decay. A mouth, toadstool cold and wet, moved against her ear.

Remember.

Mai jolted upright, blankets crammed against her mouth to stifle the scream.

The candle had guttered. Wide gaze flitted in the darkness, desperately searching as she strained to hear in the silence. No scratching sounds, no cries.

Mai scrabbled frantically through her bedclothes for the small phial now missing from her hand, nearly cried with relief as her fingers met cool glass. Prying the cork from the small bottle she quickly placed a drop on her tongue, grateful for the bittersweet tang.

She carefully stoppered the bottle and placed it beneath her pillow before hooking her arms around her knees and clasping them to her shivering body.

It was losing its strength, she understood that now. Soon it would be gone. Lowering her head to trembling hands, Mai wept.