SINGER: Dublin City Ramblers

SONG TITLE: 'John O'Dreams'

LYRICS: "The hawks of morning cannot reach you here"

It is an unfortunate habit of Larten's to sing. Or at least, it is an unfortunate habit of Larten's to sing when he is drunk. These tunes he makes up on the spot when his better faculties are elsewhere are not ones which bear repeating in the light of the day.

Which makes it all the better that he can never remember the words when he sobers up anyway.

Though his own lyrical efforts are best forgotten, there is no denying that Larten Crepsley has an ear for music. In his years of roving the world for one reason or another (and most of those reasons are ones he would dearly love to forget) many musical pieces were played which found their way into his memory. Imprinted there they creep back to him in idle moments (and not so idle ones too but many of those are best forgotten as it is) giving his head something to play with though his hands are still. So it is that sitting by Darren's bedside – the boy swathed in bandages thanks to his ordeal in the Hall of Flames, an old piece that Larten picked up somewhere springs to his tongue. He cannot remember the name of the song or where he heard it, and the singer was one of those indiscriminate men playing music in a human tavern. But the song, and the volume that the words spoke, are not so lost to him thanks to time.

"When midnight comes and people homeward tread," he murmurs, fingers light on Darren's hand, "seek out your blankets and your feather bed."

And singing that song, ever so softly, it is the first time in days that Larten feels a little easier about the Trials lying ahead.