Dream d2538-s: The Covered and the Correct

I had a dream where...

I had a dream where I came to Mistgarth's quay at the hour the tide was lowest, and the mooring posts were standing straight, and the boats were there. Sixteen of them. Each one covered.

Lano walked the planking before me, nose down, then settled near the water's edge. I started at the first boat and moved toward the last. Cover tied at the bow, cover tied at the stern, hull mark readable under the lamp I carried. I wrote each number. Lano waited. When I moved, she moved.

The boats were not the problem. The seeing had been the problem - the Hall's reach to these outer places had gone wrong tonight, and Mistgarth was one of four it could not read. I had been sent to read it in the Hall's place. The Convener's hall was already shut, the Scriptorium's annex already shut; of the seven I carried on my sheet, those two were settled and would not be counted tonight, but the other five needed their entries, and Mistgarth was one of the cold ones.

I reached the sixteenth boat. Cover tied, mark recorded. The count was sixteen and the count was correct.

I wrote sixteen at the bottom of the sheet and folded it. Lano pressed close to my leg while I sealed the fold. I did not linger. The instruction had been the same hour it is taken, and the Hall was waiting, and I had a road back.

I walked. The quay fell behind. Lano came with me, her shoulder brushing my hand once on the dark stretch between the water and the lamp at the lane's end, and then she was a step ahead, and I was carrying the count, and Mistgarth was behind me, and its boats were covered, and the number was correct, and the seeing was repaired for one more night.

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