In the darkness, all places seem to be underground. Grima had sat in that darkness all the night through, alternately cursing his cowardice and mocking his pretense at honor. Through the night Eowyn had laid unnaturally still, never tossing in her sleep nor pulling her hand from his. When the sun broke, he could see the room was very high in the tower.
She woke with a start, as though she could hear the sun rising. "Milord, what are you doing here?" Her tone held a terror, and she jerked her hand away from him. His heart constricted, her fear was not from finding herself locked in a strange room, stolen from her home as she slept, but at finding him beside her when she awoke.
Grima stood stiffly and stepped backward a few paces before bowing. "Merely watching you, my Lady. Did you expect otherwise?" Her eyes did not leave his face, but he saw her hand moving about her neck. Finding her gown still in place she relaxed slightly.
"This is a dream," she whispered fiercely. "This place is strange to me, so it must be a dream." Her words were those of a stubborn child, certain the horror would not exist if only it were not believed.
Typical Rohirrim logic, he thought. "It would so appear," he agreed mildly. This could prove interesting.
"So why are you here? Why have you crept into my mind?" she spat.
"That is for you to answer." He spread his hands and inclined his head in a mocking gesture. "Assign me my part and I shall play it to the best of my ability. Am I to be your nightmare...or something else? For as you view me, so I become." Perhaps the truest words you have spoken these many years, he thought. Her eyes were still faintly glassy from whatever drug she had been dosed with the night before. Yet even with her mind clouded and her strength robbed it was still Eowyn, not the empty form that had lain on the bed before him. Grima spun from her quickly, twisting his hands beneath his cloak. The fragile control he held was slipping, already frayed from the long night he had spent at her side.
"Snake, turn and face me." At her words he stilled his expression to calmness and turned on his heel. He watched as she struggled to stir up against the bed frame. "You are my dream, and so you must do my bidding." Her words were thoughtful.
"I am my Lady's servant in all things"
A smile played across her lips and she appeared to savor his answer for a few moments. Then, briefly, her courage seemed to falter. "This is not real?" she asked with a sudden uncertainty.
Grima made no move closer to the bed. "How real is your mind? How real your imagination?" he challenged. She shook her head. Her voice was quiet when it came. "Never before real enough to conjure this." She regarded him for a moment and reached her decision. "Kiss me."
At her words, he returned to her side and stood over her. She met his gaze levelly, as though daring his bravery to be less than hers. Slowly, Grima bent over her and placed his lips against her forehead. He breathed in the scent of her hair, rosemary and cool night.
"Again," she ordered.
In the end he was ever her creature.
Her eyes fluttered shut at the sensations, but he was unable to deny himself the sight of her. He kissed her again and when they parted she chided him in a whisper, "Lovers are supposed to close their eyes when they kiss."
"Forgive me, my Lady, you must teach me such things." She lifted his fingers to the laces of her gown and he obediently untied them, slipping a hand beneath the thin fabric. She was right, his mind insisted, it is a dream. It is a dream, he thought as she shivered under his hands, it is a dream, but it does not matter. Ever a quick study, he learned her well. Soon she was arching beneath his touch. Too soon, too soon, his mind cried out, this moment should be endless. No, he corrected himself, it has been too long, too much waiting had driven them both to madness.
When they were both still she said fretfully, "You will be gone when I awake."
"Perhaps."
She pulled herself up and propped her chin on her hand, studying him carefully. "And will I remember my dream?"
"I cannot say, my Lady." A frown gathered on her face at his words and he lifted a hand to smooth it away. "Perhaps you would prefer that I remember it for you." "
Yes, I believe I would like that very much." She lay down again and her eyes slipped closed. "I wonder what I would dream of if I fell asleep during a dream," she murmured.
Outside he could make out the half-imagined sounds of a battle forming. The world was falling to ruin about them, collapsing beneath the weight of his treachery, he flattered himself. At his side Eowyn shifted slightly in her sleep. Yes, he had been well paid indeed.