Dream d2681-s: The Wick Gave Out

I had a dream where...

I had a dream where I lifted the thinner book from its shelf - it sat to the left of the thicker one, and I had to reach for it - and as I carried it to the table the lamp in the corner coughed once, an orange shudder, and went out.

Lano's ears went flat. She had been sitting by the door and she came to me quickly, not running but urgent, pressed against my leg and gave one low bark into the dark room.

The lamp was the salvaged kind, the pump-fed kind, the kind that had been repaired twice and praised for holding. The keeper of oils came from the back passage at the bark, saw what I saw - the room gone dim except for the one window-lamp still burning - and said nothing for a moment. Then: the reservoir had not gone dry. Something in the pump had given. The pump was the only one of its kind still running in this part of the settlement, and there was not another to replace it.

I set the thinner book on the table and held my place with one finger.

The keeper looked at the lamp body the way you look at a thing you are going to have to take apart without enough light to do it properly. Rurik slipped in from somewhere and walked the full length of the table, tail up, and sat at the far end and watched the dead lamp with his amber eyes.

We had one candle in the bracket by the door and the window-lamp and the stubs in the drawer. That was what we had. The keeper said they could rig something from the parts in the lower cabinet. They did not say how long.

I opened the thinner book to the first page. The handwriting was careful and old. I could read it by the window-lamp if I angled my chair.

I angled my chair.

Lano sat beside me on the floor with her nose pointed at the dead lamp, ears still low, the small white weight of her pressed against my foot.

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