An Island for a Cloud

5.2 How to safe a friend

"Do you remember anything at all?" asked Cloud, impatience creeping into her voice.

"Nothing. It is as if a whole day of my life got wiped out," replied Tedus in frustration. "I want to find Aerus, too. And I want to know what the Wizard of Pain had done to me."

Two days passed since the last time anyone had seen or heard anything from Aerus. Cloud and her friends had looked for him and the masked stranger everywhere, yet to no avail. They suspected that this was not a coincidence.

"We will find him," Cloud promised. "Continue looking. Go to the places Aerus would usually go. If you hear anything, you know where to find me," she told the group of dirty children clad in rugs that gathered around her. They were girls and boys of all ages, and most called the streets of Leivrat their home and the mountain their parents' grave. They looked disheartened, the news of their friend's disappearance weighting heavily on their young souls.

Cloud watched the children disperse and disappear around the corners. Only Tedus and Simas remained.

"Grannie, what will you do?" asked her Simas, his face concerned.

"I will seek out Gaulot," she said firmly, her mind made up. Noticing the frightened looks the boys gave her, she added, "The Dark Night is almost upon us. If Aerus is out there, we must find him. That is the pact we made. We watch after our own."

The boys nodded at that, yet their unease remained. They had learnt Gaulot's name with their mother's milk and knew to fear it.

"One of us should go with you," said Tedus, stepping closer to the girl.

"I will go alone. I did not stop Aerus when I could have. I am to blame for this," Cloud said, daring the boys to disagree. The boys knew better than to argue, then her stubbornness was legendary among those who knew her.

Cloud ignored their concerned looks and turned to leave. Her mind set on the difficult path ahead. Cloud's grandfather thought her that when facing two possible choices, the one that scared her the most, was always the right one. She knew Gaulot was dangerous, but faced with the decision to stay away from him and thus possibly never finding out what happened to her friend, or seaking out Gaulot and facing the consequences, it was clear to her which path to take.

Her best chance was to look for one of Gaulot's Dust Men. Dust Men were Gaulot's shadows that moved through the night and did his bidding. They were his eyes and ears in Leivrat and beyond, and they were his spies, his thieves and his bringers of death. It could be the old woman who sold flower seeds at the market, or the neighbour next door who liked gossiping, or a the man who cleaned the cages of Aleutan eagles. It could be anyone in Leivrat, and therefore many Leivratans thought them a blessing and a welcome opposition to the rule of Aleuta.

Aleutans guards saw them as outlaws who kept Leivrat in fear and tremor, disrupting the order and the Aleutan law meant to uphold peace. Cloud disliked Aleutans and Dusk Men alike, then caught between the two – the simple folk were the ones who suffered. Aleutan guards had been searching for Gaulot for decades, with little success. Some said he had secret powers, then he was everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Cloud did not know what was true and what not, it sufficed her to know that everyone was afraid of him. And she should be to.

Yet, with the Dark Night approaching and the wind howling over Leivrat, bringing dark clouds and rain with it, Cloud could not allow the fear to dim her judgement. She needed to know if Gaulot had anything to do with Aerus's disappearance. But one didn't just go to Gaulot and asked him. Nobody knew who he was and how he looked like. Yet, nothing happened in Leivrat without Gaulot's knowledge.

Cloud had long heard the rumour that Old Yak was a one of Gaulot's Dust Men. To him she went. He was displeased to see Cloud and tried to chase her away.