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EAGLE OF BONE

Jantallian

Dedicated to all those of you who asked for that hug

1

"A-ar-gh! Take it back! Get away from me! I can't stand it!"

Slim Sherman rocketed out of his peaceful bed as harsh screams shattered the air for the third night running. He was alongside the bunk almost before his eyes had opened, grabbing the thrashing man by his shoulders and trying to steady his violent convulsions.

"Jess, wake up! It's alright. There's nothing there!"

Jess Harper twisted against his grasp, trying to curl up into a ball. "It's eatin' me!" he groaned in obvious agony. "Eatin' me alive!"

"Jess, you're dreaming." Slim tried to keep his voice as calm and normal as possible, given that, even second-hand, this repeated nightmare had his own skin crawling. "Come on, partner, wake up." He knew if he could just get Jess out of sleep for a moment, the terror would pass.

"Come on down." He slid an arm under the struggling body and pulled gently but strongly. Jess rolled towards him and half-slid, half-fell off the top bunk, landing in a shuddering heap in Slim's arms.

Slim tightened his clasp, reckoning that the mere feel of human solidity and warmth would help to ease Jess's pain. "Easy now . .. easy. . . relax . ." He rubbed his hands firmly over the rock-hard tension which he could feel in Jess's shoulders and neck. "You're safe. It's gone."

He steered Jess over to Andy's vacant bed, pushed him down into sitting position and draped a blanket round him. The younger man was sweating profusely as if he'd been in a prolonged fight, but his skin was shivering and great shudders shook his lean frame every few seconds. Slim considered the efficacy of coffee at this point but decided that a good, strong hug was more likely to drive away the nightmare attacker. He sat down and put both arms round his suffering friend.

Jess turned into the warm, strong protection, burrowing his head against Slim's shoulder as if he were a tree Jess was trying to hide behind.

"It's ok," Slim assured him gently. "I'm right alongside you. Nothing's going to be stupid enough to tackle the two of us together."

"Horrible!" The whispered word sheered through Slim's attempt at humour but he figured it was the best way to continue.

"You're pretty horrible in this state," he teased lightly. "Or have you just seen -"

Jess's breath hitched and he gave a harsh, strangled moan: "The eagle. . ."

"What eagle?"

"The eagle of bone!" Jess's arms tightened round Slim as if he was terrified of being dragged away bodily.

"I'm with you against the eagle. I'm right here next to you." Slim went on hugging Jess tightly because there didn't seem to be anything else he could do to help. His arms were aching with the strain when finally the ragged breathing began to ease and the shuddering faded away. Jess sighed and loosed his stranglehold a little. Presently Slim was able to lower him gently onto Andy's bed and pull the covers over him.

He stood looking down at Jess's now calm slumber. The Texan had shifted on to his left side, one leg hitched, the way he always did - sleeping ready for action. Just that single habit alone had Slim profoundly worried. Jess could face up to pretty well anything or at least he'd stubbornly try to. Slim was not only concerned for the level of agony his friend had been suffering but for the uncharacteristic way in which he had responded to it. He knew first-hand the younger man's uncanny ability to switch off and ignore pain in the real world. And there weren't many things Jess was afraid of either, or if he was, he used the fear to good effect to keep his skin whole!

This nightmare was provoking a reaction which Slim had never seen before. Of course they all had nightmares from time to time, but Jess's usual habit was to beat a retreat to Traveller's stall and avoid disturbing the rest of them any further. This dream was quite different. The same dream three nights running for a start. A dream from which it was so difficult to wake him. A dream with such real and profound physical effects. Slim was wrenched with a deep pain of his own at his inability to do anything to help.

# # # # #

Dawn the next day bought no resolution of the problem. Slim woke first, as he nearly always did. All he could see of Jess was the usual tangle of dark hair sticking up out of Andy's blankets. He considered for a moment bringing him a cup of coffee in bed, but further thought led to the conclusion that keeping to a normal routine would probably be best.

Slim sighed and got slowly out of bed, for once not rising with his characteristic enthusiasm for the new day. When he rattled and banged around, rummaging through his drawers for clean clothes, Jess growled irritably, as he did every morning, and pulled the pillow over his head.

"Oh no you don't, my friend!" Slim snagged the pillow away as he went out to shave. "Time to face the light!" Before you have to face the powers of darkness again! came unbidden into his mind.

When he returned, far from facing anything, Jess had disappeared completely under the bedclothes. Just like any other day.

"Up, Jess!" Slim ordered ruthlessly, determined not to give in to his instinctive urge to let the dreamer go on sleeping peacefully. "Get! Up! Now!" He grabbed the blankets and dragged them equally ruthlessly to the bottom of the bed. Same as every morning, except that Jess was not in the top bunk. Slim wondered what his partner would make of this.

"Ur-rr-ugh!" The resemblance to a sleeping cougar rashly prodded by some foolhardy soul was just the same too. "Gerroff me!"

"The sun's up. Time to get up," Slim informed the cougar sternly. After all, he had to go through this pretty much every morning and had become innured to such savage reactions.

"Ain't sunlight!" Jess's ability to ignore the forces of nature was remarkable, given that nature won every single day. Slim was wondering whether he would have to resort to the water ewer when the younger man rolled grudgingly out of the bed, his eyes still tight shut. He appeared to find his clothes by some kind of instinct, locating the crumpled pile on the floor with his bare feet. Satisfied that Jess was finally going to make it to the breakfast table, Slim hastened back to the kitchen to brew some extra strong coffee.

Breakfast was never an occasion for detailed discussion of anything, much less an in-depth interrogation along the lines of 'why the heck have you woken me up three nights running in a screaming nightmare you can't escape from?' They'd fixed the work for the day the previous evening, like they always did. Getting Jess out of bed was bad enough without suggesting work was in the offing! Now, after a pint of black coffee, he managed to get on with clearing up the meal, uttering only a token grumble about the amount of washing up.

By the time the first stage of the day had pulled in, the silence between them had become companionable, each of them knowing their own part of the work and how it fitted efficiently with the efforts of the other. Later Slim had a deal of smithying to do and Jess rode out to check the southern boundary and bring down a bunch of yearling calves and their mothers to the safety of the nearer range. There was no opportunity for talk.

Nightfall always came too quickly at this time of year, making completion of the outside tasks a priority. Once it was dark, Jess turned his hand to producing the evening meal while Slim wrestled with the bank records and Stage Company returns. Over the meal they reviewed the day's work and planned the following day. Presently Jess stretched and stood up: "I'll do the night check."

"You sure? I don't mind if you want to stay by the fire." The words were out of Slim's mouth before he had time to realise that they were driven by a profound fear of letting Jess go alone into the night.

Jess stared at him in surprise. "I'm fine."

"In that case, I'll get the bandages out!" Slim quipped, trying to disguise his real feelings.

"Yeah, do that." Jess was automatically buckling on his gun-belt as he spoke. Then he grinned and added: "Unless y' want to come an' hold my hand t' make sure they ain't necessary?"

Since this was, without the hand-holding, more or less exactly what Slim did want to do, he had to feign relaxation as he pulled the couch closer to the fire. "Just offering."

Jess strolled over and looked down at him. "You're the one who needs to stay by the fire. Y' look done in. Bet you're asleep by the time I get back." Then he was gone and the door clicked shut behind him.

There was a horrible finality about the sound, as if an impenetrable barrier had dropped between the two of them. Slim sat bolt upright, listening intently. He heard the usual sounds: the creak of the barn door as Jess made sure the horses were settled for the night . . . the rattle of chains being checked on the other outbuildings . . . muffled thuds on the shutters at the back of the house . . . a solitary squawk from Jess's feathered enemies . . . snuffling and a low growl as he loosed the yard dogs. Then silence. Slim knew he would hear no footfalls: Jess moved as noiselessly as the cougar he so resembled in the morning. Slim held his breath.

The door opened without a sound, making him nearly jump out of his skin, as if he had expected someone or something other to come in. He hastily leaned down to put another log on the fire and missed the curious glance which Jess shot at him as he went into the kitchen to retrieve the coffee pot.

"Quit worryin', will y'?" Jess poured a mug and handed it to Slim, before dragging his favourite chair closer to the fire. "Are the books not balancin' or something?"

"It's tight," Slim admitted, not sure how to open the subject of 'or something'. "It always is at this time of year."

"So - if it always is, y' ain't gonna change anything by losin' sleep over it, are y'?" Jess admonished with indisputable logic.

Slim seized the opening: "Are you losing sleep?"

Jess grinned affectionately at him. "With you doin' the books? Ain't got no reason to!"

"No, I mean having a disturbed night -?" Slim hesitated, but opted for being straightforward: "You know – a lot of dreams?"

A slight frown drew Jess's black brows together and then he shrugged dismissively. "I don't recall any."

"Are you sure?"

The frown turned into a scowl. " 'Course I'm sure! What's gotten into you this evening?"

I'm afraid of what's got into you! Slim did not dare give voice to his ill-omened thoughts. Instead he said, "You were worse than ever this morning! Talk about getting out of the wrong side of the bed."

The scowl transformed into a laugh. Jess didn't like getting up, but he enjoyed giving Slim a hard time over it. "Ain't no right side for me."

"Yeah, I know that! But did you actually notice which bed you got out of?"

"What d'y' mean?" Jess looked very faintly uneasy.

"You spent half the night in Andy's bed."

Jess shrugged and stated again: "I don't recall doin' that."

"Jess, think hard! Can you remember me hauling you off the bunk?"

"Not since the last time y' did it in the mornin'. I had a hell of a hangover then, that I do recall," Jess admitted with a wry grin.

"Well, I did it last night."

"Why? Ain't no call for y' to be man-handlin' me in the middle of the night!" Jess protested indignantly. Not only did he dislike being woken up, but his sleep was sacrosanct and had the total abandon of a child-like trust in the security of the place which had become his home.

"Jess, you were calling out."

"I was? What did I say?"

Slim took a deep breath. There was no way to soften the horror. "You were screaming. You were crying out that something was -" he gulped, "- was eating you alive."

Jess looked puzzled, rather than shocked. He said a third time: "I don't recall." After a pause, he added: "You're makin' this up, aren't y'? Pullin' my leg, 'cause I won't get up at dawn?"

"I'm not fooling around. Last night was the third night in a row."

Silence fell between them. Slim stole a glance at his partner. Jess looked absolutely normal, rocking gently in the rocking chair, an empty mug clasped in his hands. Slim picked up the pot from the hearth and gave them both a refill. If Jess couldn't or wouldn't talk about the dream, trying to force him would only make this strange situation worse.

After a while, when the coffee had been drunk, Slim said apologetically, "I was trying to help."

Jess looked up and smiled the crooked half-smile which always went straight to Slim's heart. "I know that, part'ner! Just seems odd that I don't know . . ." His voice trailed off uncertainly.

"Do you know what you meant by 'the eagle of bone'?"

There was no response. It was as if a thick cloak had been dropped over them, muffling every sound. Jess had stopped rocking and was sitting utterly still. His face was remote, expressionless. He might have been carved out of bone himself, cold, dark, lifeless bone, old beyond the age of the world. When he finally spoke his voice was smooth as silver, a sound like the colour of bone in the moonlight, speaking from far beyond the edge of life:

"The one who bears the eagle's claw must walk the road between life and death. What has been shared must be restored. This is the law."

The words fell into the fire-lit living-room, like chilly drops of water falling from a great way above. Slim did not dare move a muscle. He could hardly stand to look at Jess, so great was the feeling of separation. It was as if he were alone in the room and Jess was alone following a cold, inimical trail and nothing could ever bring them together again.

Slim was sitting with his eyes shut, praying wordlessly, when he heard the sound of the rocking chair beginning to move gently. Jess sighed and murmured, "I must be tireder than I thought. Guess I'll turn in." He yawned mightily, stretched and stood up. "G'night, part'ner. Sleep well."

And Slim was alone beside the fading fire.