Tom Brown's SEELEdays

Prologue: Tom

"I say, Tom...it's getting rather late."

I nodded. It was getting late, and I wasn't sure that the Doctor would believe us a second time if we told him that we got lost during Hare and Hounds. Our rule-breaking during our stay in Lower Fourth had seen to that, if nothing else. Still, I might as well put on a bold front for as long as it lasted.

"Don't worry, East. I'm sure we'll find the scent again in half a minute," I said.

We scanned the forest floor for the soggy bits of paper 'scent', to no avail. If the boys playing Hares had left a trail behind, it had been buried long ago in the mud. At this point, I admit that I was becoming worried. After another half-hour, I gave up the effort and focused instead on finding a dry place to sit down.

"It's like a jungle here," East muttered.

"Cheer up, Scud," I replied. "Besides, didn't you want to join the Company army in India? Just think of it as training for fighting the Mahrattas."

He looked back at me skeptically. I can't say I blamed him.

"Perhaps one of us should climb a tree and get the lay of the land," Tadpole suggested.

"I'll do it," East and I both said simultaneously.

In the end, East prevailed upon me to let him do the honors. As he climbed, I took account of the situation. We were lost in the forest during a rainstorm. The light was failing. We didn't have any food. The safest thing would be to find some dry nook to spend the night rather than blunder about in the dark.

"I can't see a thing!" East called from the treetop.

That settled it.

"Well, Tadpole," I said, slapping him on the back, "it looks like we'll be...my heavens, what's wrong?"

Even in the shadows of the evening forest, I could see that Tadpole's face had paled, and his eyes were bugged out like saucers. For a moment, I thought it was the cold. He raised his hand a few inches and then froze again, as if he was trying to point at something and then thought better of it. I spun around in the direction his half-hearted gesture had been aimed.

It was a terrible feeling, I can tell you. I had no idea what to expect. In that split second, several possibilities raced through my mind, each more implausible than the last. It couldn't be a gamekeeper; some old Velveteens wouldn't have spooked Tadpole so badly. A feral dog? Unlikely. A wild animal? There weren't any dangerous ones near Rugby, as far as I knew. Robbers? Also unlikely, and wouldn't we have heard them ahead of time? Perhaps--?

"East, stay up the tree!" I shouted.

"Eh?"

"Don't move! I don't think it sees you yet."

"What doesn't see me?" he called back. I gritted my teeth and tried to fight the rising panic in my voice.

"Quiet!"

Like the brave little ass he was, East ignored my warning and started climbing down again, shaking leaves and cracking branches in his haste. I rolled my sleeves up and took a few steps toward the apparition watching us from the underbrush.

"Run," I whispered to Tadpole. He nodded, still wide-eyed, but he didn't run either. I couldn't be sure whether it was because he was frozen with fear or because, like Scud, he was too brave for his own good.

Right, then...distract it.

I advanced again. The thing watched me with curious, emotionless eyes. They had an intensity that I hadn't seen before, and I soon realized why: they were red and glowing like coals. The specter was definitely human in its general outlines, but it emitted an odd illumination like foxfire. It called to mind the ghost stories I'd heard in the Vale of the White Horse as a child, and the boy who impersonated a spirit by dipping himself in phosphorous. This time, there could be no doubt about the spirit's genuineness. It glided closer, and my tongue caught in my throat. It was hovering several inches above the ground. That wasn't the only thing that shocked me, though. 'It' was obviously female--and naked.

"Tom Brown," it said. "I require your assistance elsewhere."

"Stay away from him!" someone squeaked from behind me. I turned around and realized that it was East. I'd never heard his voice take that pitch before. He looked well enough, though--it was too dark to see him shaking, and if his tone hadn't betrayed him, he might have convinced the specter that he wasn't afraid. Something told me it wouldn't have mattered, though.

The naked young woman never took her eyes off of me.

"I require Tom's assistance," she repeated.

"We'll see about that!" East replied. His voice had recovered a bit by now, and he started searching the ground for something. The apparition ignored him.

I kept one eye on her and looked back at Tadpole, who was still riveted a few feet behind me.

"Run, you idiot!" I hissed.

He didn't move.

"Found one!" East called. Despite the gloom, he'd located a sturdy-looking stick on the forest floor. He swung the weapon above his head a few times like a shillelagh and walked toward us. "Now let's see you take Tom--"

He got no further. Concentric octagons of light flared up in front of Scud East like fiery tree rings. East rebounded from them as if they were a solid wall.

"East!"

I whipped out my pocket knife, cursing myself for not remembering it earlier, and held it up to the specter. It--she--gave me the same bored look that she had earlier.

"That does not appear to be a particularly threatening weapon," she observed. "Do you intend to stab me?"

"Eh? No!" I said. "Old Benjy told me about you creatures. I know you're allergic to iron, so keep away, d'you hear?"

"I am not a fairy," she said. I suddenly found that I couldn't move. It felt like being constricted in an invisible metal suit. She floated over, gently removed the knife from my hand, and tossed it a few feet away.

"Oh..."

"Tom Brown, there is something that I must show you," she said. Without waiting for a response, she touched my temple with her forefinger. I became dimly aware that my body had begun to spasm, but the stream of visions that followed drowned out all other considerations.

I saw huge, monstrous creatures plowing through a city, knocking down impossibly high towers that seemed to be made completely of glass. Metal boxes the size of houses launched impossibly accurate Congreve rockets at an armored giant. Horseless steel carriages raced at impossible speeds along surfaces straighter than any turnpike or macadam road I'd ever seen. They reminded me a bit of locomotives on wheels, except that they didn't spew a stream of black soot. A woman with a red jacket and purple hair -- doubtless the effect of too much silver nitrate -- bled to death in iron hallways of an underground castle. Words in a language I didn't understand babbled at me at a mile a minute. Wait, though--I did understand it. I searched my mind for the language's name. Nihongo. Japanese.

"The Hermit Kingdom?" I wondered aloud.

All of this flew by in a second or two. In the pause that followed, I felt as if I'd just crammed for a Greek recitation. Before I could recover, another vision emerged from the gloom.

A boy and girl sat on a beach, staring at a cyclopean white head that must have been several miles in diameter. The waves shone blood-red against a deep blue sky. A spectral girl -- the one who was giving me these visions, I realized -- floated in the air above the crimson sea, watching the two young people with a look that spoke of despair and eternity. I suddenly remembered a quotation from Apuleius that our master had given us for lines: You will reach the lifeless river over which Charon presides.

The boy sank into the sand and wept while the girl rubbed her throat. I saw that she was heavily bandaged. She growled something to the boy, about how she only had one night before she had to return. When he didn't answer, she pulled her feet to her chest and stared at the ebbing tide. I recognized the look on her face only too well--it was the look I'd worn when Flashman had roasted me in the fireplace. She was struggling not to cry.

"The shape of things to come," the spectral girl said.

I looked back at Scud, who was still lying unconscious on the ground. In an instant, I knew he would be alright. I also knew that he would join the army as he had promised, and that he would die with a sepoy's bayonet in his back in '59, during the Mutiny. Old Benjy had told me once of the Taisch, the power of the Scottish seers to look at men and know the hour and manner of their deaths. I realized now that it wasn't as grand a power as I'd imagined it would be. With some difficulty, I avoided the morbid temptation to glance at Tadpole as well.

"I'll do what I can," I said at last.

She nodded with what I guessed was appreciation.

"Very well."

"But...see here, how do you expect me to do anything? I don't even understand your world."

"Our world," she corrected.

"Yes, very well then; our world. Our future. Whatever it is."

She stroked her chin and stared into the distance.

"The memories I have given you will be sufficient. As to the rest...you must trust me."

A horrifying thought struck me.

"Wait a moment! Will I ever see my family and friends again?"

She nodded.

"If you do not die, yes."

That scared me, but there was nothing for it now. I took a deep breath, steeled myself, and did my best to look brave.

"All right. I'm ready to go. Just..."

She cocked her head to one side like a curious basset hound.

"What is it?" she asked.

"Ah...ahem...You do wear clothes in the future, don't you?"

She stared at me with a look of equal parts surprise, contempt and indifference. I didn't dare to take my eyes from her face, though. Looking anywhere else would likely be...distracting.

"Perhaps I should have chosen Stalky instead," she muttered at last.

"Who?"

A white light engulfed us, and I felt the Rugby forest fade around me as if I was waking up from a dream. They were slowly replaced by the outline of a seat and cabin a bit like a coach. Before the vision coagulated into solidity, I heard her voice again.

"If you are successful, you will not meet me in this form again. If you will excuse me, I must see Ikari one last time. I think he is waiting by the payphone..."