Free Shards of Time by Lynn Flewelling Page B

not to wake Mika, who was asleep in a trundle bed by the fire.
    Alec followed him inside. The chamber was as large as Klia’s, with the same antique appointments. Micum tested the mattress of the massive poster bed. “We might as well sleep out on the ledges.”
    Alec chuckled and went back to his own chamber, which seemed even less welcoming now, even with the lamps lit and a fire crackling on the hearth. The monsters on the bedposts and mantelpiece took on a life of their own in the flickering firelight. The idea of ghosts seemed less amusing here than it had in the sunny Wheel Street dining room. Alec wandered over to one of the tall windows that faced out over the town. Lights glimmered there through halos of fog. A dog howled somewhere close by, and another answered—a lonely sound.
    A tall tree stood near the window, fretting the darkness with its branches. As he watched, a huge owl glided out of the fog and landed on a branch right in front of him. It hooted loudly, then set to work eating the mouse clutched in its talons. The lucky sign lightened his heart a little, and Alec bowed his head respectfully to Illior’s bird, breathing a prayer that their own prey was as easily caught and dispatched.
    With nothing else to do, he explored the room, looking into the wardrobes and chests and checking the paneled walls for secret doors, but found nothing more alarming than a few spiders.
    What was keeping Seregil? He sat up for a while poking the fire, then blew out the lamps and stretched out on the hard bed. Lying with his hands behind his head, he watched the shadows dance and listened to the crackling of the fire, expecting it to lull him to sleep.
    He was still awake, however, when Seregil finally slipped in and began to undress by the door.
    “It’s all right. I’m awake. What did you and Thero learn?”
    “That our poor guard is probably cursed rather than mad,” he said as he crawled into bed with Alec and stretched out with his arms behind his head. “Bilairy’s Balls, this bed is like iron! I never thought I’d miss a ship’s bunk.”
    “The curse, Seregil. What is it?”
    “Terrible visions, terrible fear. Someone doesn’t want him telling what he saw that night. All Thero could get beyond that was the impression of a woman, probably Lieutenant Phania, being pulled into darkness.”
    “By whatever attacked the governor, probably.”
    “Hmmm. Maybe. Whatever it was, Thero wasn’t able to get much out of the poor man before he fell into a fit. In the midst of it he claimed that Thero and I are going to die. ‘Only the dead can walk with the dead.’ That seems like a fairly obvious statement—”
    “Illior’s Light, Seregil! Did he say anything more?”
    “No, talí, he didn’t. He’s not the first to threaten me with death, and as you can see, I’m still here.”
    “Do you think these nightmares you’re having that you can’t remember have anything to do with it?”
    “If I could remember the dreams, I’d tell you.” Seregil sighed. “Thero’s going to find a healer for the man to calm him so that he can get a better read on his thoughts and memories.” Seregil yawned. “That’s all for now. Not bad for a first night’s work, wouldn’t you say?”
    Alec rose up on one elbow. Seregil’s eyes were closed already. Alec nudged him gently with his knee. “I thought you were going to lose your temper at dinner when the mayor mentioned slaves.”
    Seregil sighed again. “I’d lay money on the mayor having had a few in his own household.”
    Alec had suspected as much from Hasen’s reaction. “Insulting him in front of Klia wasn’t going to change anything.”
    Seregil touched Alec’s chest where the slave taker’s fatal arrow had struck him, then ran a finger along his collarbones. “Don’t you remember the weight of that collar against your throat? I’ll never forget, and I’ll never forgive. Not that.”
    “I’m not defending him, but you have to think of what it must