Dream d2720-s: What Weather Keeps

I had a dream where...

I had a dream where the wide court at Pewterlow had been swept only by weather, and I could tell. The grit lay evenly across the flags, the drain channels dark where the last rain had run, no accumulation at the corners - just what the wind distributed and what the rain moved and what neither had moved at all.

I walked from the western approach to the eastern wall, which still stood to shoulder height. The flags were sound underfoot except at the south corner, where two had lifted - frost work, years of it, the crack running straight between them. I noted the location in the second book: south corner, two flags, lifted, no debris in the gap. Lano walked the edge of the lifted stones, then walked away from them toward the drain at the center.

At the center lay a single flag of darker stone, smoother, set flush with the rest. Undisturbed. I noted its dimensions and wrote undisturbed beside them.

I counted the gaps in the perimeter. Four gaps, four roads out. I walked to each and looked down each road. All empty. Lano came to the mouth of the long north road and sat there with her ears up and said quieto, or seemed to, and then her ears dropped and she came back to where I stood writing.

The eastern wall showed no breach. The north wall was gone to its footings but the footings were sound. The west and south perimeters were open at grade, the original threshold stones still in place.

I closed the record on the court. I wrote nothing further. I walked to the next road out.

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