Someone was touching Anthē’s arm. Someone was touching Anthē’s arm. She sat bolt upright with a sharp intake of breath, wrenched out of the deepest, dreamless sleep. Ready to scream, she was surprised when she looked straight into the face of one of the most beautiful women she had ever seen. The woman had a finger pressed to her lips, asking for silence, and Anthē knew at once, somehow, that she was not in any danger. Something told her that this woman was not going to harm her, and she felt strangely compelled to acquiesce to her request.

“Hello, Anthē,” said the woman. Even by moonlight you could see that she had golden hair, which curled magnificently over her face and fell by her shoulders. Even when she was whispering, she had the kindest voice. “Do not be afraid,” she spoke, and Anthē was not afraid. Though she was slightly confused. She rubbed some of the sleepiness out of her eyes.

“How do you know my name?”

“Here, take my hand,” spoke the kind voice.

The woman helped Anthē to her feet. Anthē checked that Tromo was alright, and not too far away from Zantheus, who was lying sprawled on his back with his mouth open, which made her chuckle. She thought that she should probably be more worried, or at least ask the woman where she was being taken, but she let herself be guided anyway. Maybe this was a dream. If it was, it was certianly an interesting one. The woman led her further up the bank and into one of the woods that lined the river. Moonlight glanced down off the boughs and fractured, clothing her in irregular light, mingling the night with silver. They went on, deeper into the wood.

“Where are we going?” asked Anthē.

“Don’t worry, you’ll see.”

The woman led her through the trees, under the branches and into a small glade where they found a man lying on the ground. Here the boughs threw the moonlight down in shafts which dressed him in an eerie white, illuminating his skin so that Anthē might have thought she was looking at a ghost.

That was when she realised who it was—Leukos! She looked for the quill and, sure enough, there it was, tucked away, shaking at his side. But, to her amazement, he was asleep! She left the clasp of the woman’s hand and ran to kneel down next to him. His face looked sad. Anthē almost felt guilty for catching him at this vulnerable moment. But she wasn’t going to pass up this opportunity. She knew the first thing she had to check.

It was hard to see, but from what she could make out his right hand was just tracing a series of endless squiggles on the paper. There were no discernible words or letters on the page for her to read. She knew by instinct this could not be all that he had written, and she could see one of the other pieces of parchment peeking out from underneath the top page that confirmed this. Not wanting to wake the slumbering author, she carefully extracted it from the pile. The ink was not too difficult to read against the bright white background.

It said

At this point, Anthē, who was feeling a lot better for food and water, decided to steer the conversation in a different direction.

She was surprised to see her own name. She read on.

“Yes, and isn’t it amazing, Zantheus, how we ran into Leukos again?”

All eyes now turned on Leukos, who had his own eyes on his writing, which he attended to while balancing it on his right thigh while sitting cross-legged and eating his food with his free hand. He had not said anything yet. Zantheus made a point of not answering Anthē’s question.

Anthē dropped the paper and remained still.

The woman, whom she had now completely forgotten about, took her hand again and walked her a short way from Leukos, so as not to wake him.

“Don’t worry. It’s alright,” she said. “He’s just writes what’s happening. That’s all. That’s the best way to think of it.”

Anthē realised how sleepy she had been, because now she woke up a bit more.

“Who are you?!” she asked the woman, a question that she reflected should have occurred to her earlier.

“I am the one that he is chasing.”

“The one that who’s chasing?”

The woman looked down.

“Leukos? He’s chasing you? Why is he chasing you?”

“Well, that is a long and complicated story. He could fill a whole book trying to explain that.” She smiled.

“I thought he was leading us to Qereth?”

“That’s what he’s telling you, yes. And in a way he is. So far his chasing me and taking you to Qereth have, for the most part, coincided. But don’t be fooled. He may tell you he’s taking you to Qereth so that you can start a new life, or so that Zantheus can climb Awmeer again, or so that Tromo can find his family, but really it’s just because he’s chasing me.”

“I don’t believe you,” said Anthē. But something in her heart said that the woman wasn’t lying, that she wasn’t a liar. She could also see why Leukos might be interested in chasing her.

“Do you remember when he disappeared when you were ambushed by those bandits? That’s because he wanted to keep himself safe and continue pursuing me. Do you remember when he left you with Conn and Feanna for a while in Choresh? That was because he thought he could leave you with them for a while while he chased after me.”

“How do you know about Conn and Feanna?”

“Oh Anthē, I’ve been with you every step of your journey, though Leukos has not yet succeeded in catching me. I’ve been just ahead of you the whole time. I’ve been keeping an eye on you. I’ve even helped you along a couple of times. I was there when Zantheus and Tromo washed up on the sea-shore to pull them out of the water. I was there to help Zantheus out of the Hamartia plant when he gave up. Who do you think it was that Leukos saw to make him run out of that lecture at the Academy? He is chasing me.”

Anthē looked at the woman. There was no deceit in her face.

She went back over to Leukos and gazed down at his sleeping form for a moment.

“I don’t understand,” she whispered. “Why would he lie to us? Why would he go on this journey with us if he didn’t care about us?”

“Oh, I never said that he doesn’t care for you,” the woman whispered back. “He likes having you around, I know that. He has a kind heart really, and I’m sure he wants to see you get to where you’re going. And, of course, you give him something to write about while he’s chasing me.”

“You still haven’t told me who you are. Why is he chasing you?”

“What’s the best way of explaining it to you...” The woman thought for a moment. “Well, I suppose that you will find out sooner or later. Leukos and I both come from a faraway country called Larakia, over the Aythian mountains, where people have certain...gifts. We met there a long time ago. For some time he has been convinced that he is in love with me. But few men love as Leukos does. One of Leukos’s gifts is imagining: There are not many boys in this world who are capable of spinning such thick, unreal dreams as his and still fewer that will dare to tread them so intensely as he. But somewhere along the way his dreams got tangled up with the darker parts of him; something went wrong. Since then he has been confused about his love. That’s why he’s always writing. It’s his way of trying to allow himself to be de-tangled, to work out what’s real and what’s not. Most of all it’s a way of finding out whether his dreams are real, whether he is really in love, whether his love for me is real or if he just dreamed it all up.”

“How does writing do that?”

“I’m not entirely sure myself. I think if you’re a writer then you understand.”

“Do you love him?” asked Anthē.

“Certainly I do,” said the woman, and Anthē believed her. “But perhaps not in the way that he would like me to. Really I just want him to finish his story. I want to help him detangle himself. Sometimes I come and write things while he’s asleep.”

“Finish his story? But what good will that do?”

“Like I said, Leukos believes that when he finishes his story he will have detangled his dreams from the truth, he will know if his love is true.”

“I still don’t understand.”

“I wouldn’t expect you to…” The woman sighed. “He is a very strange boy after all…”

“What’s your name?” Anthē came out with all of a sudden. She wanted to know.

The woman looked at her for a long time. Then she said “Sophia.”

“Sophia, why do you let him chase you? Why don’t you just stop and talk to him?”

“Anthē, these things are complex. Let me try to explain. A little while before Leukos and I met you we had just been on a journey to Shul together. We had something important to do there, but it went wrong. When it went wrong I decided that we had to go back to…Qereth. But Leukos disagreed, he wanted to stay where we were. So I left, and now he’s chasing me. He’s going to chase me all the way to Qereth. I want him to get to Qereth. I want all of you to get to Qereth. And he’s learning while he chases.”

“He is? What’s he’s learning?”

“As I say, he’s getting de-tangled. He’s learning that it’s not really me he wants. He chases me, but I’m not the person he’s looking for. He hasn’t really fallen in love with me, just with his idea of me. As he chases, he writes, he learns, he de-tangles.”

“Who is he really looking for then?”

“Anthē, I can’t tell you that.”

“Why not? You’re full of riddles! You sound like him!”

“Do I? Well, I can’t tell you.”

“I don’t understand. Why not?”

“Because I don’t know.”

Anthē was confused. This had been a very surreal episode for her. She was not used to receiving so much new and perplexing information at once.

“Why did you come to me, Sophia?”

Sophia answered Anthē’s question with gentle calm. “I thought we should meet. And I have one more important thing to tell you before I go, the most important thing. Listen carefully: Leukos is in danger. For whatever reason, there are some people who want him dead. That’s why he’s brought Zantheus to himself, for his protection, I think. But the danger is greater than he realises. I’ve tried to warn him about it but he’s not been paying it enough attention. Even as he chases me, there is someone else chasing him.”

Anthē remembered something, from what seemed like an age ago. “The man dressed in black?”

“Yes. Do not worry, you will be perfectly safe. And so will Leukos, if he keeps his concentration. But take care. He does not seem to be acting as cautiously as he should lately. I thought that I should let you know, I felt that you had the right to know, I felt I owed you that. It has been good to talk to you, woman to woman. I’m not quite sure why he brought you along as well, but he must have his reasons. Try not to tell anyone else about our meeting. Not even Zantheus. Telling him will only put you all in more danger. Everything will be alright for you in the end, you’ll see. Go well. I will see you again, one day. Perhaps soon.”

“But—”

“I have to go now Anthē. Just remember, don’t tell anyone. Everything will be alright in the end.”

“But—”

“I can’t tell you any more. I need to leave now, I’m sorry.”

At that, the beautiful woman started to recede. She paced off into the trees and faded slowly out of sight, to leave Anthē blinking on her own with the sleeping writer just nearby. She resisted the urge to go after her.

Anthē was thoroughly confused. Had that all really happened? Yes, this was real. Would she be able to remember it tomorrow? She hoped so. She took a deep breath, and with one last look at Leukos made her way back to the boat. She lay on the ground, even daring to position herself a bit closer to Zantheus than usual.

After a few moments, she edged a bit closer still, so she could feel him breathing on her cheek. To her surprise and secret delight, he put his arm around her in his sleep.