Part 21

The next half hour was... not confusing or muddled, exactly. Merely unimportant.

They walked for a little while in the dark before stopping to listen. David heard the voices and saw the torches of the men looking for him in the distance.

He didn't care.

Nor was it all that interesting when the men drew closer and, in one instance, walked right in front of them at a distance of only a few feet. When the stranger saw them coming, he merely stopped and waited. The men never looked in their direction. David didn't care enough to call out to them. He knew who they were, of course. He recognized them and could have summoned their names with hardly a second's thought.

But why bother? He didn't even watch them go. They held no interest. Nothing did... except for the stranger. David remembered being fascinated by the robed man's magic, but even that had muted to a mild, barely casual interest. Not even curiosity, exactly. But he was by far the most interesting thing in the vicinity, so he followed beside the man and obeyed his instructions, most of which were whispered commands to either "Go quietly" or "Stop here".

Where were they going?

David didn't care.

He knew they were headed west, in the rough direction of his own house... and also noticed that they were keeping well clear of the main road. They were getting further away from it with every step, in fact. Further way from the town. Further out toward... and into... the wasteland.

David yawned and looked up at the stranger.

The man peered down at him, then glanced behind them. He gave the darkness and the not-so-distant town a considering look.

"This way," he said, and set off in a slightly different direction.

David followed.

After a minute they came to a cluster of large rocks with a burnt spot on the ground in front of them. There were easily a half-dozen signs that this had been a campsite recently.

Here, the stranger stopped.

"All right," he said. He sat down on one of the rocks and lay his staff down beside him. He grabbed David's hand and pulled him gently toward a smaller, adjacent stone.

David sat.

It wasn't very comfortable, even for a rock, but David didn't so much as squirm.

"Now," said the stranger. He raised the blackened skull that he'd dug out of the dirt and carried with him. "The living and the dead will speak tonight. I'll know the secret of this place... this paradise. What price do they pay, eh? As if I don't know... as if the dreams didn't already tell me. But not enough... not enough to stop it. For that, I needed to come here in the flesh, and look upon this abomination with my own eyes. Maybe then I will see."

The stranger turned his face to David.

"And you. I suspect... Tell me, boy, do you belong to the town yet?"

David stared wordlessly up at the stranger.

"Ah," said the robed man as he leaned toward David. "Almost forgot. Return to yourself, child" He reached out with his empty hand and snapped his fingers with a loud, dry click.