Dreams of Darkness Rising Read Online Free Page A

by the soldiers,” he said. Leaning forward, hesitantly, he showed his bloodied scalp.
    “They cut it with a knife?”
    “They said footmen with long hair carry lice.”
    Emelia looked away, shaking her head. The pair stood in silence for a minute.
    “C-can I ask, are you the one they call star eyes?” Emelia started as he switched to their native tongue to speak her other name. It was risky speaking anything other than Eerian.
    The lad stared at his feet as he spoke.
    It had not been until her ninth year that Emelia had seen herself in a mirror. She had accompanied a chambermaid named Halgar to the rooms of Lady Erica, the Ebon-Farr’s daughter. Erica’s vast chambers, located on the floor above her parents, were jammed with mirrors to such a degree that it felt as if you were in but one of an endless row of rooms that stretched away to infinity.
    Emelia had looked with fear at the looking glasses as Erica was dressed and pampered by Halgar. It had been a moment of discovery as she gazed upon her face and in it saw a pair of glittering eyes, quite unlike those of anyone she knew.
    “Yes, that’s right. Star Eyes,” she said in Eerian. “What else do the boys say?”
    “I-I wouldn’t know. I don’t listen. They are different to me—they are from other lands…lands like the Isle of Thieves.”
    “Probably best not to listen anyway.”
    “Yes. Look, I’m sorry; I didn’t mean anything by it. I think they’re…well they’re beautiful. They’re like a mermaid’s eyes.”
    That day in the mirror she had seen eyes of the palest blue, so diluted as to be near white. She had turned her face and they glittered like the frost of the winter’s dawn.
    “So it would seem. Mother Gresham told me one night that one of my ancestors must have lain with a Subaquan. If I’d inherited something useful such as the ability to swim away from the Preparatory House when I was six I’d have been happier.
    “Anyway, I really need to get to the upper Keep or I’ll be caned senseless. Look, come with me, won’t you? I’ll make sure you don’t get de-loused on the way to Lord Uthor this time.”
    The boy laughed in spite of himself, before setting off after Emelia as she moved up the stairs.
    They reached the lord’s corridor. To the right the stairs continued upwards for another two stories until they emerged in one of the four turrets on the roof. The boy hesitated for a moment. A lone soldier stood guard on the landing. His chainmail was well oiled and covered partly by a dark red tunic. The silver emblem of the eagle, symbol of the Coonor city guard, adorned its front. He held a spear. A slim sword was strapped to his side. Emelia glanced at the boy, nodding that he should keep going.
    Emelia smiled at the soldier and he nodded gruffly in return. She thought his name was Sarik and she recalled that Gedre was sweet on him. The boy and she slipped past and down the long corridor towards the lord’s chambers.
    Daylight streamed into the corridor through a large window at the far end. Tapestries, old shields and swords adorned the walls. The Keep had stood in some form or another for a thousand years and with that came an endless source of antiques and tarnished weapons for the servants to dust and polish. Adjacent to the door to the lord’s chamber was a narrow sideboard and a small alcove—the opening of one of the numerous dumb waiters that ascended in the stone of the Keep.
    “The door you need is at the bottom on the right,” Emelia said. “Just be careful. Lord Uthor can be…”
    “I have heard. ‘The Jackal.’ Thank you. You won’t say anything about me… crying?”
    “No. We all need our secrets in this place. Something that’s just ours.”
    The boy nodded and slouched off down the corridor. He neared the door, turned and whispered hoarsely.
    “I’m Torm, by the way,” he said, then added in the Island tongue. “From Ruby Isle.”
    Emelia smiled and her hand drifted to the rough texture of her