Lyra had lost track of time in the darkness. It could have been minutes or hours since Kalem had bound her to his bed and left. The ropes around her wrists and ankles did not hurt, but they held her firmly in place. The blindfold blocked out all light, leaving her in perfect blackness.
Her heart would not slow down. It hammered against her ribs in a panicked rhythm, and her breathing came too fast and too shallow. She tried to calm herself, tried to think, but her mind kept spinning through terrible possibilities. What were they going to do to her? The first Hollowing had been brutal enough, but at least she had been able to see. At least she had known what was coming. This—being bound and blind and helpless—was somehow worse. Her imagination filled in the gaps with horrors.
'Breathe,' Wyn urged in her mind. 'You are panicking for nothing.'
'For nothing?' Lyra shot back silently. 'I am naked and tied to a bed. What exactly should I be calm about?'
