It was just after lunch, Lei was clearing the few crumbs from his tunic from the meal and enjoying the afternoon sun, when he noticed their guest stirring on the bed. He reached out, adjusting the cool rag on Eric's brow once again, a gesture he'd spent most of the night doing. The fever had broke but the nightmares had not, leaving the boy sweating out his fears.

  Now he let out an unholy shriek, sitting bolt upright, causing Lei to jerk his hands back for a moment. The cloth slid down, obscuring the young man's eyes and prompting Lei to soothe him. "It's alright. It's alright. You're safe. It's just a wet cloth, hold still." Gently, he pulled the cloth away, smiling softly. He could see his reflection in those muddy brown eyes, backlit by the golden light from the window.

  The door to the room swung open with force, sending dust motes scudding through the air like clouds caught in storm winds. Mir's head poked in, the beads in his braids clicking off each other as he glanced around. "I heard screaming. I take it the patient is awake?" His obsidian horns glittered, light catching on their spiraled ridges, and his searching gaze pinned the miller's son, raking over him in a brisk assessment.

  Eric, newly awake, shuddered. That single golden eye of the alchemist seemed to stare right through people, like he was reading the intent of their souls. It gave him the willies. Still, compared to what he'd seen in the village over the past fortnight, the pale man was practically a safety blanket. "You have to help us! You have magic!" His desperate words burst out of him, cutting off anything else either of the other men might have said. "It's horrible!"

  Mir and Lei shared a look, a whole conversation passing in the lift of an eyebrow and the roll of shoulders. When you'd been in each other's lives as long as this pair had, nonverbal communication came as naturally as any other language. A useful skill now as Mir stepped back to lean in the doorframe, letting Lei take the lead in questioning their guest.

  The dragon reached out, gently taking the youth's nearest hand, his smile as soft as spring rain. "Eric," Lei's voice was soft, lulling, "start at the beginning, please?"

  The miller's son took a gulp of air and shuddered, eyes staring ahead into the middle distance. His words were halting as he forced them out, achingly slow. "It started just after your last visit. A proclamation, all the way from Kingsreach, telling us Holly-on-Green had a new Lord. Our lands were part of a newly made Barony and our newly made Baron's name was Alastair Greystone, Baron Bedivere." His tongue moistened his trembling lips, hand tightening where it held Lei's.

  "His men followed. Said that they were preparing the way for his arrival and that we needed to understand things would be different. My Da and the others, they said it just meant we'd pay taxes to his Lordship now instead of to the King's taxman. We thought it meant we might get a priest to replace Father Thom, maybe a different faith was all." Eric shuddered, shaking his head as if trying to chase away the upcoming thoughts. "But it wasn't that. It wasn't any of those things. They hadn't been here three days before they came looking for men to help out at the old Manor on Black Mountain. Needed extra hands to help fix it up."

  A glance passed between Mir and Lei, one that Eric missed. Prior to that morning day before yesterday, there'd been no 'old Manor on Black Mountain'. There'd been no 'Manor' on that mountain or any other near Holly-on-Green. No wonder there'd been corruption in the energy of the Old Road, their new neighbor had been laying an incredibly complex foundation for his new home. Not just simply carting in designer stonework and questionable ornamentation, but altering the memories of the peasantry and making them believe it had always been there! How ambitious!

  "You went to the old Manor?" Lei's soft prompt got Eric moving again, patting the back of the poor young man's hand. He was trembling like lake water in a windstorm.

  Eric nodded, fisting his free hand in the quilt that covered his legs. "It was okay at first. We were just doing the heavy work. I was part of the group helping the Groundskeeper revitalize the gardens. Carrying bags of exotic soil and saplings with sacks around their roots for planting. Sculpting a hedge maze and a garden full of expensive roses. But others? I watched them haul the furniture inside. And- And- One day... one of them didn't come out. They counted the roster four times and searched the Manor well into the night, but he was just gone." His voice cracked, and he looked at Lei with agony in his eyes. "They gave his family gold but gold doesn't fill an empty chair at the dinner table. It doesn't hold a hammer and mend a fence. It buys things. It doesn't replace a person."

  Another grounding squeeze to Eric's rough hand, Lei now reaching forward to pat the young man's knee. "You're safe here, Eric. Take your time."

  The miller's son tried to breathe deeply, his shoulders heaving as his chest rapidly expanded, but they were more panicked and less placating. Eyes squeezed shut for a moment, then opened again, ending up fixed on Mir's face. The expression the alchemist wore reminded the young man of a snow-covered mountain face, white and perfect until the avalanche buried you alive.

  "After that, a, I want to call it a shadow. Yeah, it was like a dark shadow fell over the village. Nasty folks on the road, coming from all points, it seems. Lots of my neighbors say that there are eyes in the woods, whispers from the trees. It doesn't feel right to go fetch timbers anymore. Old Aunt Peg, she started saying that it was wickedness itself, come all again like the bad old days. People started going back to church, but without a priest to pray for our souls, nobody feels comforted or protected. No matter who leaves the alms. The worst, though, the worst happened three nights ago."

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  Three nights ago. The night before, they'd noticed the manor house arriving. Say what you would about their new neighbor, he worked his Evil quickly.

  "Old Baor had been complaining about rough men in the Pot and Kettle. Worse than usual. It was late, he was almost in bed, when he heard the horses in the stable all panicked. He'd thought that one of those bastards, pardon my language, but that's the word he used, was trying to cause problems. So he goes out to see what's the matter, and he saw it. The Baron's coach." Eric's breath caught, throat bobbing as if he were choking on the words. When he did manage to speak, the words were forced out low with every breath. "A black coach pulled by four black horses and driven by a coachman wearing a deep black cowl. It was quiet, no noise from the wheels, passing like a plague-carrier. All he could do was stand there and watch as it rolled past, heading for the Old Road. Said he said he saw the lights going on in the old Manor's windows."

  So three nights ago, their Dark Lord had revealed himself and settled on the location of his lair. Three nights ago, he'd strolled through the town and doled out these false memories, seeding the terror. No doubt some of these incidents were true, after all, their new neighbor had been lurking around for a while now, muddying the energies. He'd been luring his minions and expanding his influence, weaving that into his narrative that the peasants all now believed. How much was real? Neither Mir nor Lei could speak to that yet.

  "So, Baor came into town and told you that the Baron bought his carriage second-hand from a funeral service and arrived in the dead of night like some ghoul? It's all in poor taste, but it's not something you come sprinting up the mountain demanding we magic away. Even magic gets taxed." Mir begrudged every coin they paid, but that too was the price of being retired.

  Eric shook his head so violently that it looked like he was trying to fling it from his neck. "NO! You don't understand! It- it was the next night. I-I-I was out. I was out indulging in some scrumpy with friends. Nothing bad! Honest! Arthur had gotten his hands on a jug of it, and we were just gathered and talking on the village green. We weren't hurting nobody but old Baor had everyone scared and we- we were just... you know!" He stared desperately between them, hoping they got it because he wasn't explaining himself further! "It got to be late, and we said our goodbyes. I've walked from the village green to Da's mill a hundred times. Two hundred times! But this time he was there. The B-Baron. And he- he- he-"

  The young man was practically sobbing now, knees up and head down, one arm wrapped over his head as if to protect it. Only the hand Lei still held hadn't been pulled in to help hide himself.

  "He bit you, didn't he?" Lei's voice was soft and coaxing, free of judgment.

  "...he looked into my eyes, and my head went all fuzzy. Then his arms around me like- like-" The boy broke off, shaking his head, and it was a long time before he could lift it again. He looked between them, begging with silent eyes. Everyone in the village knew these two men were paired together, the only couple of their kind in these parts. Eric was at a loss for how to describe what the Baron had done, but he knew if anyone understood, it was these two. Still, he couldn't very well say the Baron had wrapped his arms around Eric like a pretty maid and then drank from him like an alcoholic does a wine skin.

  "I woke up in my own bed. Thought it was the scrumpy, playing tricks with my mind. But I was still wearing my shoes, and they were all covered in road dirt. And I had marks where my neck meets my shoulder, and blood on my shirt collar. I felt dizzy. Tired. That's when I knew that I had to come here. To get a potion, a tonic, or a remedy of some kind. Because I didn't feel right, I felt sick, I needed help..." Despite being half dead, he'd set off at his best pace, following the road till the bridge that crossed the Ribbon River. Instead of crossing the bridge, he'd taken the little path that led up the mountain, the path that came to this valley.

  "Please... help us?"

  The look on Mir's face had to be indescribable in that moment. He held up a hand, forestalling any further questions in his direction. "A moment, please." With a light step and an easy grace, he ducked out of the doorway and shut the door behind him. The hinges creaked, the catch clicking softly, the sounds of Mir's stride slowly fading as he crossed away from the room.

  Lei watched his husband go, brows furrowing, not understanding quite what Mir was doing. Until the cursing started. Explicatives and vile phrases thundered forth in the other room, ripping free in every language under the sun and some that sunlight had never seen. It was a blistering tirade of undiluted filth that had Eric turning red and both of Lei's eyebrows raising into his hairline.

  "Is he going to be okay?"

  The dragon sighed, retrieving his hand and rubbing his temples. "Oh, of course. He just has some... very strong feelings on this subject." The hands came away from the temples, and Lei favored the miller's boy with a fair smile. "But don't you worry. There's nobody in this whole world who is going to solve your problem better than my husband can. Just wait and see."