Dreams

by James Erich

  The plague had left its mark on his body—faint scars on his torso, mostly on his stomach, where the blisters had been. He didn’t usually think about them, but now, with Sael watching him out of the corner of his eye, trying to look without appearing to look and failing miserably, Koreh felt self-conscious. But he knew others with scars far worse than his. And at least he had survived. Thankfully Sael had the sense to say nothing about them.

  “Geilin,” Koreh said as he checked the horse’s saddle and the meager bundles of supplies attached to it, “you should be able to ride Sek across.”

  “Very well.”

  Sael helped his master up into the saddle.

  Then, holding his bundled clothing up on his shoulder with his left hand, Koreh took Sek’s reins in his right hand and led the horse and his rider into the water. Sael still looked irritable, but he waded in beside them.

  The water was cool and numbed Koreh’s feet a bit, but after all the walking he’d been doing recently, he found it soothing. The smooth pebbles underfoot felt wonderful. Perhaps when they got to the other side he’d take a few minutes to bathe properly.

  It was when they were about halfway across that Sek started acting skittish. He pulled at the reins, his eyes bulging out as he fought to back away from something. Koreh had to hold on tight to keep him from bolting.

  “What is it, boy?”

  But he needn’t have asked. Something was in the water. Something pale gray and corpselike, with blue-gray tendrils floating around it like hair, slid so quickly by Koreh’s legs that he couldn’t quite make it out. But its touch was cold and slimy and revolting.

  “Get out of the water!” Koreh shouted, but he knew it was useless. They were a good hundred feet from either riverbank.

  Sael looked at him, baffled, his eyes wide and alert. Then, in a sudden spray of water, a lanky gray arm with too many joints reached up and grabbed his tunic. Sael screamed as he toppled over backward, arms flailing, and then he was under the water, slipping rapidly downstream in the creature’s grasp.

  Geilin shouted, “Sael!”

  Without thinking, Koreh swore and dove into the water, dropping both his bundled clothing and Sek’s reins. He kicked hard, his body given added speed by the current. The creature was a better swimmer than he was, but Sael hindered it by thrashing around in the water.

  Koreh reached out a hand and managed to grip the thing by its tail—it didn’t have legs, as far as he could see. The skin his fingers dug into was slimy and felt like the skin of a river eel. The moment he gripped it, the creature thrashed its tail and sent him careening sideways into a large rock. Koreh scraped his side on it, pain searing through his torso, but he managed not to let go of the monster. Still, he was running out of breath and didn’t know how much longer he could hold on.

  Where the water deepened, the creature spun about and tried to swipe at Koreh with its claws. He was struck on the side of the face but managed to grab the thing’s arm to prevent another swipe. This brought him within sight of the creature’s face, a hideous maw filled with tiny teeth—not quite fangs, but they looked sharp—in a fish-like face, with tiny forward-facing black eyes.

  Koreh punched at one of those lidless orbs with his fist, causing the creature to jerk away. Another punch landed on its nose. Then suddenly the water was filled with bubbles as the creature spun about and thrashed its tail again, shaking Koreh loose. He tried to grab at it one last time, but in an instant, the thing was gone.

  No longer able to think of anything but breathing again, Koreh pushed upward and broke through the surface of the river. He gasped, taking in a huge gulp of air and choking on the water that came with it. His arms flailed to keep him above the surface while he got his bearings.

  At last he was able to see enough to realize he was still drifting downstream with the current. He thrust his tired, aching arms and managed to swim to the shallows, where he lay gasping for a while.

  “Koreh!” Geilin rode up to him, somehow still on Sek’s back. “Are you hurt?”

  “Sael?” was all Koreh was able to gasp out.

  “Sael is all right. You saved him.”

  Koreh sat up. He was in a shallow pool not ten feet from the opposite bank of the river—he’d accidentally managed to cross it, despite the creature’s intervention. He looked past Geilin and saw Sael standing on the bank, dripping wet and looking sullen, but otherwise unharmed.

  He probably won’t even thank me, Koreh thought bitterly.

  Sael looked at him for a long moment and then said, “You’re hurt.”

  Koreh looked down at his side to see a large scrape with a bruise darkening around it. His face hurt as well, and when he touched it with his hand, his fingers came away bloody.

  He stood and realized he was also still naked. And he had no idea where his clothes were.

  SAEL did eventually thank Koreh, after the young man’s wounds had been tended to. Geilin was well out of hearing, sitting by the fire Sael had started at the base of the cliffs—they had decided to rest before making the ascent to the top of the chasm, though they had moved as far away from the water as possible.

  Sael approached Koreh, intending to be a man about all of it, but the closer he got to Koreh, the harder it was to ignore the young man’s nakedness, and Sael quickly lost track of what he was going to say. Koreh looked at him expectantly for a long moment, until he at last grew irritated. “What is it?”

  Sighing, Sael finally got up the courage to say, “Thank you for saving me.”

  He wasn’t sure why it was so hard to say it, although the smug look of satisfaction that immediately came to Koreh’s beautiful face was definitely part of it.

  But Koreh didn’t choose to boast about his heroism or Sael’s indebtedness, as Sael had feared he might. Instead he said, “I need clothes.”

  They’d walked downstream a good distance, keeping a careful eye out for the creature, but Koreh’s clothes and the cloak they’d been bundled in were nowhere to be found.

  Sael had been avoiding looking at Koreh’s naked body for a number of reasons. First of all, it embarrassed him to be around someone who wasn’t wearing anything. That never happened in court circles. Priests were almost always shirtless during public ceremonies, but their genitals were never exposed.

  More than that, Sael was finding Koreh’s naked body arousing, and he really didn’t know what to make of that. He wasn’t ignorant of the mechanics of sex. He’d had the finest education the kingdom had to offer, and he’d wager he probably knew more about it than Koreh, from a technical point of view. But he had no real experience. And although he knew some people were attracted to others of the same gender, it was disconcerting to discover he was one of those people.

  And then there was the matter of the scars. They weren’t horrible and disfiguring. He could barely see them, depending upon the light. But they were a reminder of what Koreh had been through and the gulf that separated nobleman from peasant. Sael had been too young to know what was happening during the epidemic; how the emperor and his nobles saw to their own care, leaving the lower classes to fend for themselves and, more often than not, to die. Sael could hardly be blamed for it. But still, he felt ashamed.

  “I only have these,” Sael said, indicating the clothes he was wearing, still sopping wet, “and one spare tunic and breeches.”

  “I’ll take those.”

  Sael found himself growing irritated again. “Then I won’t have anything to wear when these clothes are dirty!”

  “They’re perfectly clean. You just rinsed them out.”

  “Very funny. I was planning on changing into my dry clothes so I could let these dry by the fire.”

  “I don’t want your wet clothes.”

  “I wasn’t offering them to you!”

  “Well, I can’t walk around naked all the time,” Koreh replied. “I’ll take the dry ones. And when you want to change your clothes in a day or two, we’ll switch.”

  It took Sael a second to realize he was j
oking.

  “You’re disgusting.” But he couldn’t help smiling.

  Koreh smiled back, and Sael was surprised to find himself getting warm all over. He dropped his gaze, embarrassed, but then he found himself looking directly between Koreh’s legs. That just made it worse. He quickly redirected his gaze to look at his hands, the rocks at his feet, anything but Koreh’s naked body.

  Still, Sael was forced to admit that a small part of him would regret it when Koreh did finally put clothes back on.

  Chapter 9

  CLIMBING the side of the chasm late in the afternoon was risky. They might not make it to the top before nightfall, and the path was too perilous to navigate in the dark, but none of them was willing to spend the night near the river.

  So after a quick midday meal, Koreh dressed. He’d put off doing so until the very last minute, mostly because it made Sael so obviously uncomfortable. Why he loved goading Sael, Koreh wasn’t sure. But Sael deserved it after being so difficult about sharing his spare clothes. It wasn’t as if they were fine silks. They were just rough linen—part of the disguise he and Geilin had donned when escaping from the city.

  Sael didn’t have a spare set of boots, so Koreh had to go barefoot, but that was no great hardship. He was used to running around barefoot in warm weather. It was a little cool, now that fall was approaching, but not enough to bother him.

  Koreh once again led the way, holding Sek by the reins, and this time Geilin rode on the horse. The path was still narrow and treacherous on this side of the chasm, but the old man wasn’t nearly strong enough to make the long uphill trek on foot. They would simply have to be careful of Sek’s footing.

  The climb took longer than the descent had, so they were only about two-thirds of the way up before the Eye set.

  “Sael,” Geilin called to his apprentice. “Light the way, please.”

  Sael had been walking in the rear and Koreh thought he might try to come forward, but he merely closed his eyes and chanted for a moment. When he was done, a bright ball of yellow flame appeared about ten feet in front of Koreh, startling him. It hovered in the air and illuminated the path ahead for about thirty feet.

  Koreh hoped his expression didn’t give away how impressed he was. There was no point in puffing up the little lord’s superior attitude any further.

  “Is that sufficient?” Geilin asked Koreh. He was smiling, and Koreh could tell the old man knew perfectly well that it was.

  Koreh shrugged. “It will do.”

  “I think, Sael,” Geilin said, his voice raised, “that our guide might have preferred a different color.”

  The surliness in Sael’s voice was obvious. “I’ll make it a different color. Then I’ll light him on fire with it.”

  Geilin merely clucked in mock reprimand while Koreh pretended he hadn’t heard.

  WHEN they reached the top, Geilin asked Koreh to help him dismount. Sael dismissed the floating fireball and set about building another fire—on the ground this time. As Koreh took Sek off to feed and water him, the old man joined his apprentice by the fire.

  “While it’s been amusing to watch you two bicker like siblings,” Geilin told Sael quietly, “I hope you realize that the way ahead is still very dangerous. We cannot afford to be at each other’s throats.”

  Sael was surprised by the comparison. He’d never bickered with his brother. Then again, he’d rarely seen Seffni when he was growing up. Their roles in the vek’s household had been too different, and Seffni was nine years older.

  Sael had begun to prepare their evening meal, but grudgingly answered, “I understand.”

  “Good.”

  The wizard chewed on a bit of rawuk root while he watched Koreh tending to Sek, too far away to overhear the conversation. “It seems to me now that I’ve done you a disservice.”

  Sael looked up from his work. “What do you mean, Master?”

  “I’ve kept you in the company of nobility,” Geilin said, “the entire time we’ve lived in the capital. You’ve had no experience with people who are poor, who have had no access to education—people like our friend over there.”

  Sael was tempted to tell the wizard about Koreh’s unorthodox education in the history of the Taaweh and their magic. But his sense of honor wouldn’t allow him to betray Koreh’s confidence, even if he did want to hit the bastard more often than not.

  “I think you’ve educated me well, Master” was all he said.

  Geilin nodded. “I’m glad you think so. It so happens that I agree. But I’m not talking about education from scrolls and classrooms. I’m talking about learning what life is like for people outside the narrow confines of your world. I’m afraid you’ve become a bit of a snob, my boy.”

  “Me?” Sael was scandalized. “A snob? I certainly am not!”

  He was being less than courteous, but Geilin didn’t appear to notice. Sael went on, “My father and Seffni always believed strongly in the obligation of the highborn to care for our social inferiors. I’ve tried to follow their example.”

  It upset him that Geilin didn’t immediately agree that he’d done well on this point. The wizard was peering at him intently, the way he sometimes did during Sael’s lessons. But the conversation was cut short when Geilin turned away and said, “Hush now. Our friend is returning.”

  Koreh walked into the light of the campfire and joined them. But Sael had fallen into a foul mood. He spilled water as he sloshed it into the pan and banged the spoon against the pan too loudly as he mixed. Koreh raised an eyebrow at him, but he and Geilin chose to ignore Sael’s temper as they engaged in a discussion of what they might encounter before reaching Mat’zovya.

  “During the time of the Empire,” Geilin said, stretching out his legs to bring his robe, still a bit damp on the bottom, closer to the fire, “the lake was larger and Mat’zovya was about a league further west than it is now. Over the centuries, the marshlands claimed more and more of the lake, until the town was forced to relocate to its present position.

  “The old town,” he added, “was left to ruin. And our journey will take us directly through it.”

  Koreh glanced at them both before stating, “You sound as if this could be dangerous.”

  Sael snorted contemptuously and Geilin nodded. “Yes. It could be very dangerous. The ruins have become a haven for vagabonds of all sorts. As I understand it, they have no laws to speak of and no central authority. Merely rival bands, controlling different parts of the town. We might be allowed to pass. Or we might be robbed or even killed.”

  “I’m not frightened of men,” Koreh retorted.

  “Sometimes it is wise to be.”

  The porridge Sael was preparing had begun to boil. He tore some herbs into fragments and dropped them in. “If these ruins are so dangerous, Master, why go through them at all? Why not go around them?”

  Geilin shrugged. “Perhaps we can. We shall see when we get there.”

  A bit later, the conversation turned to lighter topics as they ate. Koreh told humorous stories of his younger sisters and brother, before the plague came, and Sael, his dark mood having finally lifted, told of the games he used to play with the other apprentices. At one point he began to talk about the royal fencing tournaments he’d competed in, but he caught Koreh giving him a skeptical look and dropped the subject. He wasn’t in the mood to challenge Koreh’s low opinion of him right now. If the young man insisted on believing that Sael was helpless, then fine.

  When it grew late, they settled down to sleep near the fire. Geilin wrapped himself in his wool cloak and fell asleep quickly.

  Sael started to do the same, but Koreh knelt beside him and said, “Are you going to make me sleep in the cold?”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “My cloak is gone. And the night air’s growing chill.”

  “What do you expect me to do about it?” Sael said, trying to keep his voice low so he wouldn’t wake his master. “I only have one cloak.”

  “Let me wrap up in it with y
ou.”

  Sael was so shocked he couldn’t immediately think of a response. He’d never had to share a bed with anybody. Ever. And this would be much more snug than a bed.

  Koreh stretched out on the ground and slid up against him. “Come along. Let me have part of it.”

  “You’re unbelievable!”

  “Why? Because I don’t want to freeze to death?”

  “It’s not that cold.”

  “Cold enough. Come on.”

  Sael sighed and opened up the cloak. They were still both clothed in their tunics and breeches, but when Koreh slid inside the cloak and pressed their bodies together, Sael’s breath caught in his throat. It felt so intimate to have his chest against Koreh’s back; his crotch pressed against Koreh’s buttocks. He could feel his crotch stiffen slightly and was horrified that Koreh might be able to feel it too, even through both their breeches.

  Koreh stretched the cloak around his front and tucked it in. Then he turned slightly toward Sael and whispered, “Good night, little lord.”

  “Just go to sleep, will you?”

  Koreh laughed at him and then turned away.

  He drifted off to sleep quickly, but Sael lay there for a long time, breathing in the smell of the young man’s hair—slightly musky, mixed with the smell of wood smoke. And he cursed himself for liking it.

  Chapter 10

  KOREH awoke with a rush of excitement just as the sky was beginning to lighten. He’d had another dream, and he’d learned something. Not exactly a new spell, but a refinement to one he already knew, and he desperately wanted to see if it really worked. He moved to get up.

  That was when he noticed that, in his sleep, Sael had snuggled up against his back and put a protective arm around Koreh’s waist.

  Koreh hesitated. He was anxious to try the spell, but at the same time he found himself reluctant to break the contact. How long had it been since another person had held him? He couldn’t remember. He’d been touched, on occasion, by vile men in ways that made him feel filthy afterward. But this was different. It felt good, even though the person touching him was the snotty son of the vek.