River Pale and Flash of Stars
The river was close, Dunk could say it by the roar… and just this. The thick mist enveloping everything did not let him see his fingers when he extended his hand. He could see no inns, no houses. Certainly not the river.
"Come on!" Egg urged and tried to urge his mule forward but the animal was more reasonable than the boy: he tosses his head this way and that – at least that was what Dunk deduced, judging by the steam of exhaled air hitting him as he led Thunder forward – and did not change the slow, reluctant rhythm of its hooves.
"Hold back, boy!" Dunk ordered. "With this cloud hiding everything, you may find yourself deep to the neck in this river and then I'll give you a clout in the ear."
"Only if you see me, Ser," came the cheeky reply and Dunk had to admit his squire had the right of it. He could make Egg's whereabouts by the sound of his voice. Perhaps. But the boy would not stand still and wait for the clout.
Another echo broke the night. Hooves. And a cart. The night air and the proximity of the river made the rattle sound ten times more powerfully until Dunk felt that he had to press his hands against his ears. He could not, of course, because he had to keep Thunder.
The sound came close, breaking the feeling that Dunk, Egg, and the two animals were the only living things in an endless night. He had heard that Dorne was scarcely populated but this was too much. Had they gotten the village wrong? This was supposed to be the fishing village from which the boats to Starfall left. Not that Dunk would board a boat right now. But this village was supposed to have houses and inns and he could not see anything. On the other hand, he could not see anything.
The yellow circle of a lantern cut through the thick veil of shimmering white and Dunk blinked. The light was close to him and somewhat… down. The lantern hung on the donkey's neck.
"The Seven keep you!" a deep voice spoke. "Are you headed for Starfall?"
Dunk could almost feel how Egg tensed. Since Dunk had agreed to take the boy to visit Egg's mother's place of birth, the boy had showed surprising eagerness and alacrity. Really, what would another day matter? The huge knight remembered to himself that he could not, in fact, know. A mother's name – which was all Egg had – was still more than the nothing he had.
"Are you coming from the Prince's Pass?" the man asked after agreeing to lead them to one of the inns from where they could take a boat in the morning. "Is it true that there is a terrible disease decimating the people of the realm?"
"We heard something like this before we passed," Dunk replied and felt the recoiling, the fear. To the man's credit, he did not renege on his promise to take them to a place with a ceiling. There was honour to this one.
As they advanced, the roar of the Torrentine became more furious. The closest they went, the more capable Dunk became to hear the different strings to it. This must be a hell of torrents clashing there, he thought and strained his hearing for the desperate wails of an unfortunate soul caught in this invisible, swirling white hell…
The moment they entered the inn, the mist gathered about their persons turned to water and started pouring all over the stone floor. It had been a while since they had last bathed and Dunk would have appreciated the cleaning if he was not so damned cold. His teeth clattering, he headed for the fireplace, filled with logs burning huge and nice. Dorne was supposed to be the hottest place in Westeros, yet each night seemed to be colder than the last one.
Egg stood next to him, extending his hands towards the fire to get them warm. Overall, he looked better accustomed to this cold than Dunk. Perhaps it was his mother in him? Dyanna Dayne had been born here. To her, such weather and impenetrable mist would be all she had known in her early life. A night like this was extremely conducive to summoning wraiths from where they lived. Out of habit, Dunk looked around, almost expecting to see the lady's wraith rise from the rushes on the floor.
It did not. Instead, the only other guest, a man sitting at one of the tables glanced at them and then his look intensified, focusing on Egg. Dunk felt a familiar stir of worry that only intensified when the man rose and came to the fireplace. In the light of the flames, his hair looked as silver-white as Prince Maekar's or Aerion's. Despite the mud on his boots and cloak, his clothing was finer than everything Ser Arlan could have afforded. And these eyes, still on Egg… too focused. Dunk's hand stole to his sword.
The man laughed. "I wasn't going to do anything," he said and Dunk realized that he had not been as stealthy as he had thought. Dunk the Lunk and nothing else. "Dare I suppose that the two of you might be headed for Starfall?"
Egg sharply turned his head to look at him. Dunk would have gladly given him a clout in the ear but he could not. Not when the man was looking at them. "No, m'lord," he said. "We were headed for…"
"Sunspear," Egg finished quicky, although Dunk could see his reluctance. He appreciated the loyalty, though. "We're looking for employment with some lord, us being poor wanderers and all," he added.
The man raised a fair eyebrow. "Well, I can have some use of you, me being the Lord of Starfall and all," he replied and nodded, as if he had made up his mind. "Yes, you're coming with me."
Dunk could see the joy on Egg's face and then, the suspicion. The boy could not fail to notice what even a thick hedge knight had realized: they could go but would they be allowed to leave? "I don't think so, m'lord,"he said. "I don't think your employment is what we're looking for."
The Lord of Starfall huffed. All of a sudden, Dunk realized what made him distrustful. With this fair hair and the slender refinement of his features, Lord Dayne was a second Aerion, just older.
This fact did not instill Dunk with trust.
"I don't think you understood me, Ser Dunkan the Tall," Lord Dayne said in a low voice. "I am not offering you my employment. I'm telling you what we're going to do if the two of you are to survive the next months. Three days ago, all passes and ports were closed. Dorne will wait the end of this plague out. But there have been enough travels and traders passing by already, so there will be people checking all our areas to make sure that the sickness had not made it in. At such moments, brigands abound. I will not have Aegon roam about with only a single knight as his sole company. So you're coming with me… and in the meantime, you can tell me how the two of you ended up with each other."
'No," Egg said flatly.
Lord Dayne merely shrugged. "As you wish," he said. "We can just listen to the river instead. I did it often, together with your mother, when we were your age."
The boy did not reply but listened to the voice of the river more intently, stared out through the window of stretched bull-bladder. For a mere moment, an arrow of thin light shot through the mist, revealing a vast expanse of rippling white just beyond the window. The Torrentine. Dunk noticed the expression that both the man and the boy followed the falling star with and wondered what they were thinking about.