Allissa

Thorin ran warm now.

You could feel it standing next to him. A clean, dry heat, like stone that has held the sun. He was quieter than he had been. Not sad. Only listening. On the last night of the journey he told me why. Sideways, half asleep, like it was nothing at all. “The fire hums now,” he said into the dark. “Like it’s listening to something far away. It’s not scary. It’s like... somebody left a door open somewhere, and the wind through it is warm.” Lyra had already ...