Dawn of the Dreamsmith (The Raven's Tale Book 1) (49 page)

It was only many hours later, when he sat alone in the darkness, that the tears finally dried up. But he would shed many more in the days to come.

CHAPTER 21

W
hen Emmett’s eyes eased open in the darkness, all was as it had been before. He was laying in bed at his home. Around him was the familiar clutter of old clothes and crockery that he never seemed to have the time or inclination to tidy away. And yet, in that first moment of wakefulness, he instinctively knew that everything had changed.

It was the mess that was his first inkling. It irritated him. When had he last felt irritated by anything? He couldn’t recall.

A dim grey glow peeped through the shutters on his window, indicating that dawn was approaching. Emmett rubbed his eyes. It was unusual for him to rise this early, but something had stirred him. What was it? It was then that he recalled his dream. That was unusual in itself. As far as Emmett could remember, he never dreamed. If he had ever needed to describe the period between going to bed at night and waking in the morning, it would be as floating in a warm grey cloud... empty, yet oddly comforting.

But last night, he had dreamed of the young man that had come to the village three days before.
Not come to the village, no
, he told himself.
Brung here he was, and by yourself as well, you old fool
. There had been nothing, just the familiar grey fog, and then the boy, Cole, was standing before him. He’d spoken to him.

Emmett slowly sat up, and kneaded his temples. He tried to remember what the boy had told him. It was important, somehow, he was sure of that.

A wave of pity washed over him when he thought about the young man and his friends. They had seemed like good people. Cole, in particular had been friendly to him. He appreciated that. The people that came to the village weren’t always friendly. Some yelled and cursed, either in the beginning or when they realised what was happening. Emmett found his faith wavering in those moments, but he had never faltered.

The pity he felt for this latest group was his second inkling that something fundamental had changed. He swung his legs from the bed, his mind racing. But just as a couple of loose stones rolling down a hill can precede a catastrophic landslide, an avalanche of memories and emotions suddenly crashed down at once upon him.

With a strangled cry, Emmett collapsed to the floor. He clawed at his face as an endless succession of apparitions paraded past his mind’s eye, of nights beyond count dining at the Baron’s table. Of his own indifference at what was taking place. Men. Women. Children. One by one they came before him, staring at him with silent accusations. He wept freely, unable to hold back the tears. It was as though a dam that had been built inside him had burst at last.

As the ghoulish parade continued, Emmett’s stomach roiled. He crawled back to his bed on all fours, and reached for the chamberpot beneath. Each heave as he emptied his stomach into the ceramic bowl felt as if his body was purging itself. Everything he had eaten the day before left his system, and with it he felt some of the poison that had clouded his mind for so long leave him as well.

When it was over, he stood and staggered to his kitchen on shaky legs. His mind felt clearer now, like an ice cold stream where before it had been a murky, stagnant pool. Emmett remembered now what Cole had said to him in his dream. About his being free and their needing his help. About it being up to him what happens now.

Emmett’s head pounded. Whether from vomiting or all the horrors of his life crowding in on him at once, he didn’t know. With the sound of his blood pumping in his ears, he groped blindly for the cutlery drawer. He rattled through the dull everyday knives and forks until he found what he was looking for. With a shaking hand, he lifted a long, sharp carving knife. It glittered cruelly in the dawn light.
How can I live with myself?
The question raced round and round his mind, until the answer came to him. Emmett knew what he had to do.
Something I should have done a long time ago
.

Emmett raised the knife.

*      *      *

Raven paced restlessly around the floor of their cell. It had been a huge gamble to wait an extra day to put her plan into action, she knew, but there hadn’t been any choice. By the time that ungrateful imp had disappeared into his bolthole, the sun had already begun to appear over the horizon and the sounds of the village stirring floated down to them. There simply hadn’t been the time to do what she proposed.

As she remembered the boggit, Raven turned to cast another glare through the bars of their tiny barred window. It was still lurking in the tree, as far as she could tell. It had spent most of the previous day reclining on a branch, exploring the contents of one nostril with a long claw.

With interest, she saw that a light snow had begun to fall, dusting the ground and bushes outside. If the weather held, then soon all would be buried beneath a carpet of white. The cold air reached down into the cell and brushed her face with icy fingers. She shivered.

Close by, Cole still sat motionless on the floor, his eyes closed and fingers of one hand wrapped around the crystal pendant. She watched him for a few moments, feeling horribly conflicted. She was at once praying that he would succeed, and annoyed that he had once more gone to that place. The irony of it being their only means of salvation was not lost on her.

Just then, Cole opened his eyes. He had been in his strange trance state for more than an hour, she judged. “It’s done,” he informed her.

“Did it work?”

Cole clambered unsteadily to his feet and stretched his back. “I’m not sure,” he replied. “I think so.”

Raven folded her arms doubtfully. “So what do we do now?” She didn’t like the lack of certainty in his tone.

“We wait, I suppose. There’s not a lot more we can do.”

There was something else about his manner that bothered her, a sense of unease. “What happened in there, anything I should know about?”

“It was... different,” he said. “Normally, when I go to the dream-place, I’m alone. At least, as far as I can tell. But this time, there was another... presence, I guess you would call it.”

“Presence?” Raven frowned. In truth, whenever Cole had attempted to describe the place the crystals took him to, she found it hard to envisage. “As in another person, like you?”

“Not like me.” Cole appeared puzzled. “It was strange. I was in a place surrounded by the villagers, but in the middle of it all was this black fog. At first I didn’t think anything of it, but then it moved. It looked like an enormous crag-cat, four or five times my own height.”

“A cat.” Raven didn’t attempt to disguise the doubt in her voice.

“Yes, but like it was made of smoke.” He scratched his head, looking for a way to better describe what he had seen. “It was like when you see something in the clouds. You know it isn’t solid, but you can still see the shape of it. This seemed alive, though. It was sitting in the middle of the villagers. It had green eyes, like emeralds... or...”

“Or the crystals,” Raven finished. “So what was it doing, this big cat of yours?”

“Keeping watch mainly, I think,” he replied. “It didn’t look friendly, I know that. I made sure I kept hidden behind the orbs of the villagers.” He frowned again. “Those were strange, too.”

“Strange how?”

“They glowed green, but it wasn’t just that. The Brothers were the same. These seemed to pulse though, like a beating heart, and the pulses travelled along these long green tethers that came out of each orb and disappeared off somewhere. Towards the cat, I think. Everything seemed to be centred around that.”

Raven pinched the bridge of her nose. It was a lot to take in. “So, you found a big cat made of smoke and some glowing green orbs. Did you at least manage to reach anybody?”

“As I said, I didn’t want to walk around too openly, it seemed a bad idea to attract the cat’s attention. Luckily, I found somebody I knew quite quickly. I tried to enter his dream, to speak to him like you suggested, but... there was no dream. The orb was empty, like a void, but I didn’t get a sense of fear from him. Quite the opposite, he seemed at peace.”

“I thought you said it worked.”

Cole threw up his hands in exasperation. “I said I thought it had. But that’s not the end of it. I didn’t know what else to do, so I tried to break the tether that was holding him. I didn’t really know what I was doing, so I just kind of pulled at it and willed it with my mind. At first, it was like wrestling a live snake. But then it came free and the pulsing stopped. After the tether was broken, I went back in and spoke to him. He was confused at first, but I tried to make sure he understood.” Cole shrugged again. “Then I came back, there didn’t seem to be any more I could do.”

Raven nodded, digesting what Cole had told her. She hadn’t known what to expect when she suggested that he use his powers to try to reach one of the villagers, who seemed to have a connection to the crystals. As she mulled over his tale, she found Cole’s description of the giant, black cat and the tethered villagers disturbing. In a strange way, it seemed to confirm some of what the Baron had gloatingly told them the previous evening.
I don’t think we’re the only prisoners here,
she thought.

“This cat, could it have been the Baron, do you think?” she asked.

Cole nodded thoughtfully. “It’s possible. Or an aspect of him, maybe. The thought occurred to me as well.”

Then, though it pained her greatly to sit idle for longer than they had already, they waited. The time seemed to stretch on forever. Raven paced. When she wasn’t pacing, she sat down against a wall of their cell until her legs began to protest against the inactivity. Then, she paced again.

It occurred to her how rare it was for her to be still, to have nothing to occupy her time. It seemed to her that for twenty years she had been constantly on the move, travelling around the country. Searching. Asking questions. Fighting.
There has been too much of that,
she reflected. Her quest had been driving her for so long that she’d never had the time to stop and ask whether it should. She had told Cole that her father was still out in the world somewhere, alive. In her heart she still believed it. But was part of the reason why she kept moving so that she could ignore her doubts?
So long, with no sign...

Her face hardened. It was still possible. For twenty years she had had no sign either of the Brother with green eyes. Then suddenly he had emerged from whatever burrow he had concealed himself within, now the Archon no less. He was plotting something, she would stake her life on it, and somehow Cole was wrapped up in whatever was going on. He’d been told he would find answers at Frosthold... well perhaps there were answers there for her also. After that, her road led to Ehrenburg, the heart of the empire, and a meeting with the Archon.

As she paced, these thoughts rolled through Raven’s mind. Cole was dozing in one corner, apparently worn out by his exertions that night. She was just about to rouse him, when she heard the pattering of footsteps in the hallway beyond their cell.

The pattering stopped outside the cell door. Then, there was a soft jangling of metal at the lock; the sound of nervous fingers fumbling for the right key. By the time the lock turned with a loud click, Cole had woken. He came and stood by her side. Neither spoke. Raven held her breath. Their lives hinged on the next few moments.

The door creaked open, revealing a round balding head and nervous expression. Raven could have cried out in joy. She would wager that never before in Emmett’s life had two people had been as happy to see him as she and Cole were now. With a wide grin, Cole stepped forward and clapped a hand onto their former guide’s shoulder. “You came!” he exclaimed.

The older man grimaced. “I... I wasn’t sure if it was just a dream, but even if it had been, I had to do something.” His voice trembled. “When I awoke, it was as though I was seeing clearly for the first time. It was...”

He fell silent, unable to find the right words. Now that the surprise of seeing him had passed, Raven examined the older man more closely. He seemed even smaller than before, hunched over in a weary stoop. It was as if he was bearing a great weight. Then she saw the dried blood crusted in the hair at the back of his head.

“You’re hurt,” she said, approaching him. “Surely you did not fight the guards to reach us?”

Emmett smiled sadly. “I would not be standing before you now, I fear, had that been required.” He was so small and thin that it looked as though a strong breeze could knock him down, never mind the forged steel weapons of the Baron’s guardsmen. “I cut myself, there was something that needed to come out before I could help you.”

He didn’t need to explain further. Cole stared at the ground uncomfortably. He had defended the crystals so staunchly that any reminder that they could be used for dire purposes seemed to embarrass him. Raven moved past the pair of them, and peered cautiously out into the corridor beyond the cell. The narrow stone passage was empty, and as far as she could tell the manor house and its occupants were silent.

“How did you get past the guards if you didn’t fight your way through?” she asked, turning back towards the older man.