The Search: Part I

“I can't go in there, Gryff, I can't!” Meg wiped at her eyes with the back of her hand, and then turned her face against her brother's shoulder.

“Meg, we have to know. It's been days now since the fighting and Teag's not come back. You need to know one way or another.“ Gryff held her tightly as if the pressure of his arms could still her shivering body. But it was not the cold March wind that caused Meg to tremble; it was the fear of what might lie inside this warehouse on North Shore Road.

This was now a warehouse of the dead.

After the two battles in The Hook most of the dead had been brought to various places around the town, churches and a few empty buildings for the most part. Gryff had brought Meg to those places already in their search for her dead husband but they had not found his body at any of them. Meg had clung to their failure as a sign that her Teag was still alive, somehow, somewhere, even if he'd not been seen nor heard from ever since that terrible night when they'd fled The Hook just before it had been sealed off by some mysterious barrier. Perhaps he was trapped still in The Hook and so unable to get word to his family he was still alive.

Then last week the dead bodies had started being thrown out of The Hook. Lord Blackthorn had ordered they all be brought here to the warehouse close by the Mage Academy for examination. Every days since then Gryff had tried to persuade Meg to visit this place. Today he had finally succeeded, and by God and all the Saints, he hated himself for doing it. Every time he'd tried to coax her here, he could sense her hope fade just a bit more.

“Are you sure?” Her voice was muffled against the folds of his cloak.

“Not for certain, Meggie. But the healer who sent for me said the body matches the description I gave him of Teag.”

Her fingers clinched his arm tightly. Then she let go, stepping back to wipe once more at her face. “Alright. I'm ready.”

Gryff reached out and took her by the hand. “Then let's do this together.”

**********

It was a cold and dim place lit only by the sunlight pouring in through the large open doors and an occasional torch in those spots where the sun's rays could not reach. Meg's hand clenched tightly over Gryff's as she saw the long rows of body after body laid out on the floor before them, each covered by a length of sailcloth.

“We aren't…we don't. Have to look at them all, Gryff?” Her eyes were wide as she looked up at him.

“No, cara. Here comes the man I told you sent the message. He'll know where Teag... where the body lies.”

Meg watched as a thin little man dressed all in green approached them and murmured something quietly to Gryff. Her brother nodded, and then motioned Meg forwards. “Samuel, this is my sister, Meg.”

“I'm sorry to meet you under these circumstances, Mistress Meg. Please, follow me. It's at the far end of the building.”

He led them down the long aisle between two rows of bodies. Gryff noticed his sister did not look at the covered bodies to either side but kept her gaze on the healer as they walked. He wished he could have done the same, but he found he could not stop from looking at them How many, he wondered, of his friends from the Guards lay here around him as he walked by?

They were nearing the far wall of the warehouse when Samuel stopped, leaning down to read the small piece of parchment pinned to a shroud and then looked up at them with sympathy. “This is the one who matched your description, guardsman, at least as much as I could tell.” He glanced at Meg. “Perhaps it might be best, mistress, if you let your brother view the body and make the identification. He'd been dead for some time before the body was found and brought to us here.” .The look Samuel gave Gryff told him this was not something he might want his sister to see.

“I'll do it, Meg.” Gryff crouched beside the body and drew back the sailcloth.
.
A sharp gasp and a stifled sob from Meg told him she'd looked anyway. “That's not him!”

“Meg, he's the right height.. And the hair, too..”

“But not his hands! Look at the right hand, Gryff. There's no scar on the back of his hand!”

Gryff looked where she pointed, then let out a breath and nodded. He replaced the cloth over the corpse and stood, turning to Samuel. ”She's right. Teag cut himself badly a few years back and the scar was noticeable. I'd forgotten about it. I'm sorry, Samuel.”

“No need to be sorry. I'm glad this is not your friend. I will of course continue to check the new arrivals.” Samuel began to add something else, but Meg had already started back up the aisle, her quick walk turning into an all out run within a few steps.

Gryff gave hurried thanks to Samuel and then ran after Meg.

**********

“Meg! Meg, wait!”

Taller than his sister, Gryff's long legs closed the gap quickly outside on Shore Road. He reached out, grabbing hold of her shoulder. Then with a loud curse, Meg whirled about and slapped him as hard as she could across his face.

Then she slapped him again, and then once more before she pulled away from his grasp. They stood there like that silently for a moment, Meg glaring furiously at him, Gryff rubbing at his face in shock. Never in all their lives had Meg hit him, even as children when they'd had a quarrel. “Meg…”

“No! Not another word, Gryffyd ap Hwyll! I'll not do this again, you hear me? Teag is not dead. I'll not go hunting for him again in one of these horrid cold places!'

“Meg, I don't like it any better than you, but it's been days now and there's been no sign of Teag. You have to face the facts that…”

She cut him off. “No. YOU face them! If you want to keep looking for his body in these places, fine, you search, but you search without me. And you best make that you are sure it's Teag's body you've found before you ever put me through another moment like that one just now.” She drew her shawl tight about her shoulders as she moved away “You make damn sure!”

Gryff stood there in the middle of the road watching his sister walk angrily away. Meg would never believe Teag was dead until his body was found, and it was beginning to look like there was only once place they would ever find an answer.

Gryff looked towards The Hook. Was Teag's body there?

Or was he still alive?