Alluen beckoned to the innkeeper for more ale. "But what became of the beast after that?"
"It cannot stay in this world for long, we believe. It weakens quickly, fades to nothing, and returns to the nether realms, where it remains until it can renew itself and enter our world once more. Which makes it hungry enough to eat a small family at least, as some of our villagers have learned too well. Most flee, but it finds some of us. Always, it appears in the wizard's house first. So that is where you must stop it. The last wizard, Lennet... failed."
"Why?"
"Alas," Jon said painfully, "I cannot say, though my good wife, you see, and many others, they have their ideas."
"You said you think he did something wrong. Tell me what?"
Jon puzzled over this for a moment. "We think he tried to make a deal with the beast. A partnership of some sort. The power of the Dark is great, and a sorcerer who controls it would be... greater, I think. Some worry that Lennet believed he could succeed where old Kimall failed. Many of us worry the next sorcerer—you—will try to do the same."
Alluen looked closely into the other's eyes. "And you didn't intend to tell me of this?"
"At length," Jon assured her. "But you would have known about the Dark, no matter."
"How?"
"The Dark comes always on Lammas Night. But they say an adept can sense the creature's coming before that."
"Lammas Night is but a few days away!"
"Many are already preparing to leave," Jon said, verifying.
Alluen wanted to know more, every little detail, but she was sure poor Jon could not provide them. He'd finished with this tankard as well now, and his words were getting too rounded to understand. "No doubt, you will be gone in the morning," he said after a time, more or less. "I can hardly blame you. Thella can, and the rest, but not me." He grinned, again holding his head as if it weighed too much.
"No," Alluen said. She had been in too many places where no one trusted or wanted her, sometimes even when their need was great. Places like home. This village would be different. This time. Jon was different, and Lennet had surely been a fool, or not of the Light to begin with. She went round and helped the miller to his feet. "I will be here," she told him. "And I will do whatever I must do. Trust in that."
"Aye," Jon muttered, and nothing more.
Alluen lay in bed that night thinking about all that the miller had said, until finally she slept. She woke in the middle of the night, aware that she was not alone.
He was just there, in the night. And still there, come morning, though he was nothing seen or heard. Alluen was sure the presence was a "he," though she could be sure of little else. Other than the fact that he was following her through the house. Now she remembered the miller's words only too well.
"I am not afraid of the Dark," she said to the entity that seemed to watch her as she dressed, seemed to shadow her as she stoked the fire, attend her as she ate her dinner, and lie just beside her as she went to bed that night. She felt a chill whenever she allowed herself to acknowledge the subtle apparition. She sensed the other's regard, an earnest devotion, perhaps, though there was something cold and empty about it, too, a gnawing hunger.
"What do you want?" she asked, reaching in the night, sensing the presence fade back out of reach.
No answer. She hadn't truly expected any. Lammas Night was still a few days away, after all. It was quite likely that this creature of the Dark, whatever he was, gained substance as the time drew near, that he did not spring fully formed from the nether realms on his birthday like a gift from a box. Good, she thought, steeling herself against the fear that gathered in her throat—telling herself so that she might accept it. Well and good, for this will give me time and chances to learn more of that which I must face. Time to find a means to abrogate its claims upon this world.
She slept lightly, finally, though despite the mild night and several blankets, she never got warm.
In the morning she found fresh water in her basin, and a splash of sweet perfume. Downstairs she found the fire already stoked, a bowl and a cup already placed on the table.
"Perhaps you are afraid of me," Alluen mused out loud. Or you are full of wicked games... the more likely truth. Alluen's father had raised no fool. The creature might well have wooed young Lennet in much the same way—might have been female for him.
Late in the day, when Alluen left the house to visit a woman who was suffering dizzy spells, the presence remained behind. She felt a chill leave her spine as she realized she was free of him. Though soon enough it was time to return. She dreaded the fact, and yet...