Midnight is a Lonely Place

XXVIII

At the bottom of the hollow the sand was stained by the peat as it leached out of the exposed face of the dune and dispersed in the icy puddles. The rain and hail washed at the leathery skin, keeping it moist, preserving it momentarily from the air, rendering it supple again. Strands of hair, long, coppery, still silken after more than nineteen hundred years washed across the blind face which stared up at the darkness. Her arm, lying across his chest was twisted, broken, the fingers outstretched. As the cold air touched them they drooped and grew supple again, caressing his shoulder, skin melting into skin, lips into lips, dry brittle bone crumbling to become one with the sand.

A squall from the sea, hitting the dune face, brought down more sand. The soft, wet mixture of peat and soil swirled in the icy water and slowly the silver torc which lay in the loose grip of Nion’s fleshless fingers sank out of sight once more.