Notes: I apologise for the delay in this chapter folks… I have had a time out to do some other things and have only just got back into fanfic (but with a vengeance!) if you like please check out my new Harry Potter fics as well! Since the last update I have read Melting Stones, so I apologise for the lack of Luvo in the last chapter as I knew next to nothing about him.

Family Ties

Chapter 3

After Briar's apology, everyone except Niko seemed to be satisfied that his little outburst was over and would not reoccur. Briar could feel his former teacher's eyes on him all through the dinner, but tried to ignore it in favour of enjoying conversation and laughter with people he would like to see more often. Evvy in particular always cheered him up. After dinner, Luvo made his appearance and Evyy lifted him onto a chair. Briar liked Luvo, but still found him a little strange. "How are you, Briar?" the little rock-creature asked, craning around to see him.

"Fine thank you," Briar said politely.

"I hear your business is going well."

Briar knew that was Luvo being polite, as he usually had little interest in commerce. "I get by," he replied.

"He's being modest, Luvo," Evvy said teasingly. "He's setting a trend for shakkans. It's all the Earth Dedicates can talk about lately."

He grinned at her fondly. "I hope you don't try and put them off by talking about rocks."

This started the age-old plants versus rocks argument, which kept them entertained up until the point where Niko had to leave. He did not, to his credit, make any further enquiry into what had happened, though Sandry insisted on walking him down the garden path, and Briar guessed she was going to ask him about Tris, as she had threatened. He doesn't know anything, she told him and Daja when she got back.

Big surprise, said Briar.

Not long after that, the Ducal coach came to pick up Sandry, and Comas escaped up to his room. Briar and Daja stayed for a while longer, Daja pulling Lark aside for a private conversation. Probably about the baker's daughter, Briar thought with amusement. Evvy took Luvo back to her room, and then Briar realised too late that this left him alone with Rosethorn.

"So?" she prompted, as he helped her tidy away the dinner things.

He gave her an innocent look. "So?"

"Don't play games with me, Briar. What's happening?"

There was no way around it. He told her the whole story, only leaving out the more intimate details of his dream, which he still remembered as well as when he had just woken up. To his surprise she didn't seem as concern as the girls. "It may just have been a nightmare," she said. "You are prone to them."

"Thanks," he said, more than a trace of sarcasm. "I've never had one like that before, though. And how do you explain the girls showing up in it?"

"That I can't explain, but then we've always said the four of you, connected the way you are, are unexplainable. For now, I would consider it just another strange and unique mystery."

"Rosethorn, you hate mysteries."

The look she gave him was her best I'm-your-teacher-I'm-always-right face. He gave up.

The sun had gone down by the time Daja was ready to go, and he drove the cart back in near-darkness. By the time they got home, Briar was exhausted. At least there won't be any more dreams tonight, he thought as he performed his check of the shakkans and collapsed into bed.

He was wrong.

You had to be in a gang. Roach knew this, even though he was only six years old, at best, and a lot of the street politics went over his head. He knew he was the lowest of the low, a street rat not affiliated with any gang, only answerable to the Thief Lord and as such, easy prey to bigger and stronger boys. It didn't matter that he was a good thief, that he had nimble fingers and had already mastered the art of moving silently, that he was getting better and better all the time. When he got anything good, they took it, and passed it off as their own. The Thief Lord must know this was happening, but it didn't matter.

This time they had taken a purse he had taken from a pocket of a nobleman - a phenomenon rarely seen in Sotat and a great prize for any thief, let alone one so young. Roach had made his way back to the Thief Lord's lair by the dark back ways, knowing that such a prize would bring him great reward. For once, he might eat well tonight, perhaps even from the Lord's own table.

But they had found him, and taken his prize, saying, why should such a little kid like you get all the glory? And Briar, bleeding from the mouth where they had hit him in the struggle, was forced to go home empty handed again.

The Thief Lord was angry. He let his personal servants take Roach and beat him. Roach held his hands over his face as they kicked at his head, his back and his legs, and bit his lip hard not to make any noise. But one of them smashed his foot down on his fingers and crushed them into his face, and he cried out then. And they took him and threw him into the deepest part of the sewer, and he was so little that he could barely stand up in it, and they left him there.

He crawled out, using all his strength that he had left with his one good arm. Then he curled into a little ball and cried. He had to be in a gang, this he knew with all his heart. Then no one would hurt him like this, then his prizes would count towards the gang's prizes, then the Thief Lord wouldn't be disappointed in him…

There was a noise, somewhere down in the tunnel. He sat up, his body protesting every movement. What was that sound? Then everything went very dark and he found himself gripped with a paralysing fear. Something big, something dark and terrible was coming for him. In the distance, the far far distance, he could see a pair of glowing red eyes.

He got up and ran. Ran through the sewers, bumping into other gutter snipes on the way but not caring, not able to stop, hearing all the time the roaring of the creature. Then he tripped on something and went sprawling, back off the ledge and into the icy water. Down here the water was running and he fell beneath the surface, thrashing and reaching up with his hands, but no one would come, because he wasn't in a gang. He tried to shout and got a mouthful of dung water for his pains, it went down his throat and choked him, his vision was black, his head was pounding and he was sure he would die, and if the water didn't kill him then he could feel the creature coming for him, up, up through the sewer -

"No!"

He was lying on the very edge of the bed. His sheets were twisted all around him again, sweat-soaked. Someone had screamed, and that had woken him… he shuddered as he realised it had been his own voice that had rung out in the night.

Briar?

It was Sandry, very quiet. He lay there for a while, letting the pounding of his heart recede, letting the cool power of his shakkan calm him from where it sat on the windowsill.

You all right?

Daja, this time. At least they weren't shouting in his head like the previous night. He wasn't sure how he would have dealt with that. He hesitated, his mind-voice on the verge of speaking the same lie he had before, but immediately realised such a lie would be futile.

I don't know, he said finally. Were you there?

Yes, came back Sandry's voice. We were all there. We called to you but you couldn't hear us.

That was horrible. Tris sounded shaken, very unlike her usual snobby self. What was that thing?

I don't know, Briar said truthfully, shuddering again as he remembered it afresh. It was the same thing from last night, I think…

It can't be a real monster, Daja said, somber. You would remember a monster like that, wouldn't you?

Yes, Briar had to say truthfully. He remembered that day the gang had taken his stolen purse, when the Thief Lord had had him beaten, and being thrown in the sewer. But he didn't remember any red-eyed monster that seem to spell terror into his very heart. He was sure he would have remembered that. But it's a nightmare… not a memory.

I really hope that doesn't happen again. Tris was firm on that point. You better go see the mind-healer again.

Briar grimaced at the thought. Sharing his most intimate and personal thoughts with a total stranger, even if they were a Winding Circle healing dedicate, had not been a fun experience the first time, even if it had helped with the dreams. If I have time, he said, noncommittally.

Can we get some normal sleep now? Sandry asked, and Briar imagined her curling up in her big fluffy bed up at the Duke's palace, squishing her face into the pillow in a most unladylike way.

Yes please, Tris said, and was gone.

Briar - Daja sounded like she wanted an argument. Honestly he would have thought Sandry would be the one to start something.

See you tomorrow, Daj', he said firmly. There was a soft thump from upstairs as if she had turned over violently in bed.

He stripped off the sheets again, wondering what the maid would think of him, needing fresh ones two days in a row. Something embarrassing, probably, but he was too tired to think about it now.