Chapter 72

Gradually, the edges of the world began to soften. The flames of the lamps grew brighter and more keen, but rather than driving back the darkness, they instead seemed to be absorbing what little light remained in the room. They grew bigger, whiter, until they were curling and dancing in the air like the tails of snakes. Awed, Netya reached out to try and touch one, but her fingers were unable to grasp it.

“Is this the spirit world?” she whispered. A noise rumbled from behind her that no longer sounded like Adel’s voice.

Forgetting why she had asked her question, she stared into the dancing flames again, becoming lost in the light as the cave walls rolled past until she was staring up at the roof, then the opposite wall, and then herself as her spirit came loose from her body and drifted away into the flames.

Netya gazed in wonder as she watched herself sitting cross-legged against a great tree that had sprouted from the middle of the chamber. Its branches were curl