Author notes:
As some of you might have noticed, I've grown increasinly fond of the earlier generation (though the later one is included here as well ;) ) and this story has been lurking at the back of my mind for quite a while. Those who have been reading one or another of those stories might find a reference to it in another chapter but I will point them out then.

Special thanks to Dreamflower for the beta.

~*~*~

Chapter One: Pieces of a Puzzle

Year: 1349 (Paladin: 16 [about 10.5], Merimac: almost 6 [about 4])

A gust of wind blew auburn hair into his face and made him quiver. Expanding circles rippled through the river water and nearby bushes whispered angrily. Treetops rustled and the shadow of their leaves danced over him causing bright specks of sunlight to chase each other across his skin.

Paladin Took, dressed only in his breeches, sat on a huge stone at the bank of the Brandywine and gazed languidly across the wide brown surface. His skin was wet and the soppy stem of a garden sorrel was in his mouth. The sour taste had long dwindled and Paladin spit the chewed plant into the bushes.

As he did so something stirred at the back of his mind. There was something wrong, something unusual; the silence unreal. There were no children, no shrieks, no laughter, no splashing and shouting. Paladin shivered, the full load of the quiet weighing him down. He stood up and looked about him but he was, indeed, alone. A feeling of unease spread within him; a feeling of sheer loneliness.

I’m lost! he thought despairingly and the realisation took his breath away. He felt cramped and it seemed to him the trees were moving nearer, closing him in. Dizziness overcame him and though he tried to remind himself that this was Buckland, the river Brandywine, and that Brandy Hall was only a few minutes’ walk away, he could not focus. He fell to his knees, choking, gasping for breath. He was lost. He was captured.

Shaking all over Paladin lifted his heavy lids to gaze bleary-eyed into the blinding bright sunlight. It was then that he saw her. A girl stood in front of him, pale as death, with black hair and dark eyes full of sorrow. Her dress was tattered and dirty, its once scarlet colour barely discernible.

“Help me!” Paladin entreated her with an effort and a voice barely more than a whisper.

The words hurt his blocked throat and yet they came from her mouth. Her voice was sweet as honey, but the weakness and grief in it tore at his heart.

And as he stared at her, gazing deeply into the misery in her eyes the weight on his chest lifted. He sucked in a breath, dimly aware that the calm scenery around him hadn’t changed, before he broke into pitiful sobs – tears, he knew, were not his own.

He had never felt so forlorn in his life, so utterly alone, and part of him knew that there was no hope of ever being saved. He was battling the emotion, knowing it was wrong, that he had a family who would always be there for him, but the anguish washed over him like a heavy shower. Trembling with the violence of the spell he looked up at the girl again. She was younger than him, not much more than Merimac’s age, and watching with silent sympathy.

Suddenly he understood. It was she who was crying, crying through him.

“Who are you?” he asked her hoarsely.

She did not answer but his tears subsided.

“Where are you from?” he asked sitting up. “Brandy Hall?”

Recognition flashed in her eyes and before Paladin knew what was happening she darted up the bank and off towards the Brandybuck’s residence.

“Wait!” he called after her but she didn’t stop. Instead, Paladin felt an odd pulling in his chest as if she were connected with him through an invisible rope and drawing him along. Paladin clumsily stumbled to his feet and hastened after her. She was faster than he had expected from a girl as frail and sickly-looking as she was.

He was sweating and out of breath when they finally reached Brandy Hall. The girl apparently knew her way. She took one of the many side entrances and ran down the corridors. Paladin called after her to slow down but she wouldn’t listen. He had a dreadful sting and his lungs ached. As he hurried after her, he wasn’t even surprised anymore that the usually crowded smial was empty.

Sconces flickered as he dashed past them and some of the candles even went out. Deeper and deeper into the hole the girl led him, past the luxurious bathing chambers, past the servants’ dormitories, ever down and ever westwards. Candles became scarce in these deep and doubtlessly seldom used passages. Paladin had lost sight of the girl and yet he knew she was ahead of him. It was she who led the way, she who was calling him – even though he could not hear her voice. Even with his eyes closed he would have found his way.

And then he saw her sprinting down another passageway. He stopped in the corner, panting and clutching his sides, as she, too, came to a halt. His legs trembled and his knees were weak as he leant against the wooden wall.

The girl stood a few paces ahead, illuminated by a single lamp. Her face looked even paler now than it had done at the riverside. Yet she seemed happier and she was beckoning him to her, her movement almost impatient. Paladin walked slowly towards her and just as he caught up, she darted down a corridor, leading further west and further down. Paladin frowned. He hadn’t seen that corridor from the place he had stood before. Only the one a few paces further up, leading eastwards, to the Hall’s best wine cellar, was visible.

The girl beckoned to him again and Paladin all but felt her agitation. He sighed heavily, turned west into the corridor, and bumped his head painfully on solid wall.

~*~*~

Paladin snapped his eyes open to stare blankly into darkness. He needed a few moments to gather his senses. His heart was pounding and the memory of the dream burned vividly in his mind.

He was lying in Merimac’s bed in his cousins’ room. Merimac had insisted that he stay in their room and had even agreed on sleeping on the mattress when Old Rory had tried to tell him about hospitality demanding that a guest should have a bed of his or her own when free rooms were available. It hadn’t taken much to persuade Paladin, though. He would rather share a room with his young cousins than with one of his sisters.

A shimmer of light shone from the slit under the door. He turned to look at the sleeping forms of his cousins. Saradoc, in the opposite bed, had his back turned to him, while Merimac had pushed the mattress to Paladin’s sleeping place and was now running the risk of falling off it and rolling straight under the bed. Paladin smiled down at his cousin’s sleeping face and watched the regular rise and fall of his chest hoping it would calm him enough to fall asleep again.

He did not know how long he had lain there in silence. His heartbeat was slowing down again but whenever he closed his eyes he could see the girl’s face; and she was beckoning him. Even in waking he felt the strange power that had pulled him after her. He had to follow.

Silently he crawled out of bed, careful not to disturb Merimac.

Moments later he was walking past the bathing chambers searching the passages he had followed in his dreams. It was easier than he had expected. No adults had stopped him for at this time of night even the servants were fast asleep, and the drear corridors seemed strangely familiar. He knew the way without thinking and yet he felt uneasy. His heart pounded and blood rushed through his ears. The silence and emptiness of the Hall was too similar to the loneliness that had welcomed him in his dream. A chill ran down his back and he turned round and held aloft the candle in his hands. The flame flickered, but there was nothing but the dim light of a few sconces behind him. He shuddered. If he had followed the girl in his dreams he felt as if someone was following him now.

Paladin waited, but eventually shook off the disquiet, and walked on. The lights grew scarce, but Paladin recognised the corridors he had walked along in his dreams. Ever down they led; ever westwards. Paladin had never ventured as deep into the huge smial and every step he took seemed to be more difficult. The air had become cool and goose bumps covered his skin.

A draught wafted from the next western corridor and Paladin stopped, his candle flickering, and looked nervously down the first unlit passage he had come across so far. He swallowed hard and leaned against the wall unsure whether he should go on, when he heard the soft padding of feet behind him. Paladin wheeled around only to see a door fall closed.

He stumbled backwards with fright and bumped against the opposite wall. His heart was pounding fast and he was sweating in spite of the cold. With a trembling hand he clutched his candlestick and pricked his ears. Silence but for his harsh breathing.

Careful and on his tiptoes he advanced the door, pushed it slightly open and peered in to find himself gazing into a mirror. But it was not only his face he gazed into. Pale cheeks and dark eyes, framed by black, curly hair looked also back at him. Paladin screamed and once again stumbled backwards to fall onto his buttocks. The candle went out and only then did he realise, that there was another voice crying out – a voice he well knew.

“Merimac?” he panted.

“Why are you doing this?” his cousin yelled back, his voice trembling with fear and anger. “Why did you cry out for nothing?”

“Why are you following me?”

“You were gone. I had to look!”

“You scared the life out of me!”

“And you scared me to death!” Merimac retorted indignantly and when several moments passed in which the cousins stared at each other and regained their breaths he added:

“What are you doing down here, anyway?”

“I’m following something,” Paladin explained and got up again. “You can come with me, since you’re already here.”

It was nothing but a lame excuse but Paladin felt that he was less anxious with a child like Merimac at his side. He would take away the feeling of emptiness and loneliness, and enjoy accompanying him besides. The wide smile on the pale face was proof of that.

He relit his candle on one of the sconces and led the way down the corridor. Merimac didn’t feel the slightest bit of unease. He was happily babbling away beside him and Paladin felt himself relax. The darkness was less pressing now and some secret joy stirred within him as they moved closer to their destination. He would find the girl again like she wanted him to.

They were now in the passageway that led to the Hall’s wine cellars. Further down Paladin recognised the corridor diverging to the right, but as he walked down, brushing his hand along the wall on his left there was no opening there. He could feel when he had reached the right place but instead of another corridor he was facing a wooden wall. He handed the candlestick to Merimac and felt the smooth surface, knocking ever and again, but it was solid and there was no sign of the passage the girl had disappeared in.

“What are you doing?” Merimac asked imitating his movements.

Paladin shook his head and shrugged helplessly while knocking on the wall once more. “I’m not sure, but I think there is something, someone down here.”

~tbc~