After a moment they heard the lock turn and Alec opened the door with a blanket pulled around him, Thero’s golden amulet glinting among its folds. “It’s all right,” he whispered. “Seregil just had a bad dream.”

“Another one?” Micum said, concerned.

“It’s nothing!” Seregil growled.

Glancing past Alec, Thero saw Seregil standing naked at the window, arms crossed so tightly across his chest that his shoulder blades stood out under the skin.

“It was just a dream,” he said. Turning, he snatched a dressing gown from the end of the bed, struggled into it, and stalked over to join them. He was wearing his amulet, too, the wizard noted with relief. “Just a dream. Go back to bed.” He was trying to sound annoyed, but Thero could see that he was pale and sweating.

Thero exchanged a worried look with Alec; it was clear the younger man was equally unsettled. “There are dreams, and then there are dreams,” he said. “And you of all people should know that, Seregil. May I come in?”

“We have an early day ahead of us. It was nothing. Good night.” He turned and went back to bed, lying down facing away from them with the coverlet pulled up to his ears. It reminded Thero eerily of Sedge in that cell, after he’d told them they were going to die.

“We’ll talk later,” Alec whispered.

“No, you won’t!” Seregil called from the bed.

Alec shrugged and closed the door.

“He has plenty of reasons to have nightmares,” Micum said at last, not sounding fully convinced.

“I’m sure if there is anything we should know, he’ll tell us.”

Alec sat down on his side of the bed, still wrapped in the blanket. Seregil had stolen the rest of the bedding. “You must remember something, Seregil. The way you were yelling, you sounded terrified.”

Seregil rolled to face him and sat up, keeping his distance. “I told you, Alec, I don’t know what the dreams are about. Maybe Illior is toying with me, or protecting me. I just know they scare me and it takes a lot to do that. Please, talí, try to understand.”

“When you had the dreams about the Helm, and Nysander, you knew what they were.”

“Yes, but I didn’t know what they meant until it was too late, did I?” He rested his head in his hands and massaged his eyelids with the heels of his palms. “I can’t control my dreams. And I don’t know if these are the same kind of prophetic visions. I haven’t had them for a long time. If I have another one and you’re aware of it, wake me up any way you have to, before I have a chance to forget. Will you do that for me, Alec?”

“Of course I will. Can I have some of the covers now?”

Seregil gave him a wan smile. “Thank you.”

The rest of the short night passed uneventfully. Seregil fell almost at once into a deep sleep but Alec found he couldn’t keep his eyes closed. Lighting a candle, he sat in an armchair by the bed for a while, trying to doze and keep an eye on Seregil at the same time. When sleep still eluded him and Seregil seemed at ease, he took the candle and made a circuit of the room, looking for something to do. It was too dark to work on the arrows he’d been fletching, and he had nothing to read. With a last look at his lover, Alec headed downstairs, determined to grab up whatever was left in the pillaged library and carry it back as quickly as possible. Light showed under the door where Sedge lay under Micum’s watchful eye. Thero’s room was dark.