The Life-Giver by Jase Puddincombe

Author:Jase Puddincombe [Puddicombe, Jase]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781953539939
Publisher: The Parliament House

Annelie wasn’t sitting in her chair when Lyam got back from the city.

He was panting, scared from leading Enoch back out to the tunnels, bidding him goodbye at the juncture of the tunnel that led out to the sunlight. The memory left a dull ache in Lyam’s chest—a longing that scared him. He couldn’t long for sunlight. It was wrong.

But Lyam had led an outsider into the library. He was wrong, too.

With a shudder rippling up his spine, Lyam managed to keep himself together enough to nod at the guard stationed outside his hut before pulling the ladder down and climbing inside. When he shut the trapdoor behind him and turned around, he found Annelie sitting on the floor beneath the window blinds, her head down. She’d pulled all her plaits out, so her hair stood up in tight curls around her face. Mima was curled up asleep in her lap.

Lyam swallowed. He settled onto the floor opposite her. “Hey. How are you doing?”

She barely lifted her head to look back at him. She looked exhausted, her eyes half-lidded, her arms hanging heavy by her sides. Her hands were curled into the edges of her favorite red blanket, faded with age, which she’d dragged over to the corner under the window and curled herself under, as if she was a stray tunnel cat herself.

Lyam let out a low sigh. He reached forward and brushed a couple of strands back from Annelie’s forehead, feeling the heat radiating from her skin. He murmured, “You’re burning up. Let’s get you back to your chair, hm?”

Annelie barely acknowledged him. With slow, heavy movements she lifted her head to meet his gaze, her arms twitching by her sides as if she wanted to move them, but the effort was too much.

“Are you sure?” she slurred, her hands buried in Mima’s fur. “I’m not—I don’t…The Dream—”

“I know. We’re going to do our best to keep you safe.” He leaned closer, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. She felt frighteningly frail under his touch as she moved with him slowly, leaning heavily against him.

“Hold onto Mima.”

“…Al…right.”

Lyam slipped his other arm beneath her bent knees and scooped her into his arms, standing slowly with her cradled against him. Annelie buried her head into his chest, Mima cradled under her chin. She was warm, almost too warm, glowing lightly. She was being marked by the Dreams; they were bleeding through into her reality.

Lyam swallowed. It was dangerous. He was scared for her; he had no idea how she’d be able to Dream when she was as frail as she was just then.

Carefully, Lyam crossed their hut and laid Annelie down in her chair. She’d clung onto her favorite blanket so that it travelled with them, and Lyam helped her gently tuck it in under her chin, falling down across her torso and legs and joining the myriad of other blankets that covered her chair. Mima resettled herself on top of Annelie’s stomach, curling up and purring loud enough for the sound to reverberate around the hut.

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