Eyes in the Dark
Fifth Day of the Eleventh Month 293 AC
Sandor Clegane sighed as he looked through the old mill, nothing to see save the old millstone hollow post and trestle now a nest of nice whose squeaking might be confused with the creaking of the floorboards. The smell of dust and mildew hung heavy in the air, and from the dust and bird shit everywhere it was clear no one had worked the mill in months, mayhap years. According to the steward Old Lord Dustin had moved the milling up river, 'where the turn of the pallets wouldn't trouble his sleep' but with the death of Willam in the war no one had actually gone to the trouble of tearing the old mill down. A mill without a miller and it was 'the miller's wife' they were looking for. If someone had told him a year ago that he would be looking under rocks following children's rhymes he would have called them mad, but the Hound had seen stranger things since then.
Fuck, I'm sleeping across the room from a fellow that's all eyes and teeth but sweet as a spring lamb. What's wicked grumpkins to that?
"There is nothing remotely magical in here besides what we brought with us," the auburn-haired wi...
incarnate said. Sandor's thoughts still stuttered over the distinction, but he tried his best. This wasn't like some asswipe of a lordling that'd get angry if you didn't say his fifth title right. She'd been born that way, one of a handful in all the world.
"Find any hidden doors?" he asked, keeping his sword out just in case anything that might be hiding behind those doors decided to take that for a sign to attack.
"Trap doors are the only ones there can be, the place's free-standing and the dimensions match..." Try as they might, the most they found was a nest of rats beneath a rotted board quick to scurry in to the dark, no sign of a miller nor his wife. Hopefully the others were having better luck.
***
Given their place in the household the pot scrubbers and spit-turners of Barrow Hall were a lucky bunch, Danar mused as he righted his rune-carved belt and threw his old dark brown cloak over his shoulders, the one he wore when he wanted wandering eyes to slide off him, not search him out in a crowd.
They got to sleep in the kitchen where the lingering warmth of the ovens would keep the chill from their bones. More's the pity that there were worse things than a nip of chill abroad in these halls tonight.
Wisdom Xor was surprisingly quiet as he followed Danar and Alyssa down the darkened corridors, or perhaps not so surprising seeing as he didn't have any limbs to stomp too hard or knock about with. All was quiet enough to hear a mouse chitter. The click of the stolen key into the lock, the scrape of the heavy wooden door sounded unnaturally loud, but both Danar and Alyssa had done this enough times to know it for an illusion and the far-traveler likely had his own experiences to draw on.
Nothing stirred within, no sound save for the soft breathing of children sleeping heavily, young Alys no less than the others. Hour after hour they waited and they watched, nine eyes peering into the dark until at last as midnight passed over the land something stirred. Whisper soft moth-wings beat in the dark, by sorcery unseen, by skill almost unfelt, and yet it sang as it swooped down:
Eyes to gouge and teeth to swipe
Snitch's tongue and liar's lips
All so precious, and so so ripe
'Neath the Hill new blood drips
The
fey that drew close to the sleeping child had once been a sprite, but it had long since lost the grace of that fairy kingdom, skin gray as a corpse's stretched out over stooped and twisted bones, mouth opened in a mirthless grin as it sang the twisted verse. One had but to look at the gruesome string of eye balls around its neck to guess what it had in mind for the girl.
A ray of pale light from one of Wisdom Xor's stalk-eyed struck the thing in the chest, sending it tumbling right into the sack Alyssa was holding out. They would have their answers soon enough. The children could rest easy again for this night and ever after.
OOC: As usual witting that spinet of verse took an unreasonably long amount of time, but hopefully it's worth it in adding to the atmosphere of the piece and hinting at the mystery.
