Darkness.
I thought of the priest and what Brook did to him, for me.
There is...
A darkness fringed the dream, and above us great eyes appeared in the sky, two moons glaring down, searching. I'd seen them before and wracked my mind for where, but dream thoughts are as slippery as eels and I couldn't grip them. Brook was quicker, and pulled me to him, a sudden fear in him and now in me.
"He's here...." Brook's voice was mouselike. I held him to me as the scene about us swirled. We arrived in a large, circular stone chamber with a brazier burning at its centre. Before the fire stood the dark shape of a man, tall and broad, his bare torso traced with lines of cold light. He stood facing the fire, gazing into the flames as if hoping to see something in them. At first he seemed not to notice us, but after a few moments his head lifted in a start as if listening, before he turned to face where Brook and I stood, seeming to look through us. Then he smiled as he saw us, the empty smile of someone who had never really laughed, and his dark eyes, those same eyes, now held a look of surprise and cat-like interest.
"So soon?" He paced towards us, slowly, deliberately, before stopping a short distance away, as if uncertain about getting too close. His eyes flicked from Brook to me. "And both of you."
He circled us as he spoke, the lines of light seeming to pulse and grow brighter. His gaze fixed on Brook.
"You, I knew, would come here again in time. Sooner than expected but....you always were precocious." He poisoned the word. He looked to me next, and I felt the heat of his eyes, remembering the dark beast and the priest on the beach. "But you...." Those eyes searched me, but carefully, like he was afraid I would bite. "How did you come here, man of the woods?"
"What do you mean?" My voice echoed about the great space as his eyes bore into me. "Where are we? Who are you?" The man frowned before gesturing to Brook, still in my arms.
"He knows." The man smiled again, teeth glinting in the dim chamber. "Bruadar knows, or soon will." He laughed as Brook began to shake at the mention of that name. "It seems the old man did a poor job of protecting you."
Brook hummed with fear and confusion, the name echoing inside him, banging at the walls as if fighting to get out. "Bruadar, Bruadar...." it muttered and spat and raged as I tried all I could to soothe him. The man had backed away now, but watched intently as Brook writhed in my arms, willing himself free of something.
"He could hide you from yourself no more than he could hide you from me." The man's voice was gloating. "Soon you will remember, and then you will come, Bruadar."
The scene began to spin again as his last words echoed after us. "And as for you, man of the woods...." But whatever came next was lost in the dream storm that carried us from that eerie chamber and dropped us back onto the floor of the room at the inn in Irok, Brook and me glued together with night sweat, now cooling. He was shivering, and not just from the sudden cold of the room.
"Brook." I spoke it softly into his ear. "Brook, Brook, Brook..." The sound seemed to quiet him. He didn't speak and I didn't push him to, I just held him like that and gently said his name to him until the lavender light of dawn began to bloom against the window.
The others stirred, Bess first, stretching the night from her long legs, then Daylen by the hearth, sleepily lifting on fresh wood and kindling. Asprey still slept on the bed. I got up to check on him, pleased to see some improvement to his colour, and that his fever was much reduced. Whether it was the words of the woods witch or a good night's rest in a real bed that was the cause I couldn't say, and didn't care either way.
I sent Brook to fetch water, and to ask the innkeep to send up some breakfast. I figured I'd keep him busy until he was ready to talk about the dream we had shared. He seemed distant, felt distant, as I saw his face brooding, saw him gnawing at the memory, and I wanted so much to hold him again, but there are some things that shouldn't be rushed.
Asprey woke to the smell of food and I was glad to see him eat. I tended his wound and, though it was much improved, he wouldn't be fit to travel just yet. It was agreed that we would stay in Irok for a few days, perhaps a week, as the hermit healed. It would also give us time to provision ourselves and to ask about for news of the road north.
Brook stared at his plate the whole time, barely eating anything until I insisted.
"You need strength for the road." He gave a weak smile and ate a little more.
After breakfast we discussed our plans for the day.
"I want to look into provisions, and some warmer gear." I said. "Brook, you can help me with that. Then I want to try and talk to some of those northern folk outside the village, scout for news."
"I can do that, if you wish." Offered Daylen. "I think perhaps they will talk more freely with one of their own, no offence intended."
"None taken." I said, gratefully, secretly glad to have the task taken from me. I never was one for approaching strangers. "Thank you." I turned to Aspery, who was by now sat up in bed, a small pile of papers already beside him. "Will you be alright with just Bess for company, old friend?"
He smiled in answer and gestured to his work.
"Quite alright, Jack. I shall not even notice you are gone." To prove it he picked up one of the drawings of Brook's tattoo and began to study it. I glanced at Brook and saw that he, too, was looking with a new interest at the drawing, and I saw his lips silently make a word, a name from a dream. He sensed me looking and turned to me in a start and his eyes burned for a moment, before he breathed and became sullen again.
I couldn't blame Brook for his mood, I felt it too. That dream, or meeting, or whatever it was, had unnerved me. I felt I was stumbling lost into a world I didn't understand and where I felt powerless. I had pledged to protect Brook. I had...."It's a sacred act, to give a name." Pa's words again, and Pa's ghost again at my shoulder, lending strength. I shut the door on my fear and I stood behind Brook.
"Come on." I said softly. "Let's see what this town is like in daylight."
Brook seemed to get lost in wonder as we left the inn. The town was larger than the lakeside village, and busier too, with travellers from the north mingling with the locals and those king's lander traders that were still brave or avaricious enough to make the journey here. He stared wide eyed, a dazed expression on his face as he took in the bustle of the market square, a cauldron of life after the bleak journey here. He was about to stumble over a crate of cabbages when I grabbed his shoulder and pulled him aside, and that's when I felt it. I felt what he was feeling.
It was as if the world was no longer just sights and sounds and smells, there was now a deeper sense, one that seemed to beat like a heart through every person about. I felt snatches of emotion as people passed, of joy or frustration, petty glee or utter sadness. They were strands of scent on the breeze, they were distant voices and they were colours I have no other names for. I stood with Brook like that for an endless moment, sharing his wonder until, as if a door was being slowly closed, the voices dimmed and went silent. Brook turned to me, smiling with such naked joy it flooded into me and I grinned back goofy.
"That was...." He was breathless. "That was...."
"It sure was." I agreed. "But what was it?" Brook searched for the words but couldn't quite reach them yet.
