Dream a Little Dream (14 page)

Nola had an idea. “Could we use it on the Centicores instead?”

Come to think of it, we could,
Heat thought.
The Centicores are a rare species, but we could use them too. The dragons are better at fighting large numbers than are the Centicores, but we could accumulate quite a fighting force with those.

Yes,
Spirit agreed.
It’s too bad that we cannot use the Welties. They would have turned the tide in our favor.
He glanced at Nola.
Perhaps Nola will find the strength to remember them back into existence.

Nola suddenly felt the burden of saving Kafka weigh heavily on her. Why didn’t she know what to do? There had to be someone who could help her.

The group rested, somewhat uneasily. Mich wished the night was colder so that Nola would seek shelter in his arms. He really did love her. He would much rather have a cushiony, warm girl like her in his lap than a scaly basilisk. If all was lost and Kafka fell, he swore to
himself that, somehow, he would get her home safely, though she would take his very soul with her.

Tina, who was not used to this, tossed and turned until Nola finally explained things to her. They talked together for some time. In the morning, Tina seemed more at ease, and the booze had worn the rest of the way off. “You know somethin’?” she remarked musingly. “I’m all the way sober now, and not only no hangover, I don’t even want to get crocked again.”

“I think those healing berries healed more than your shoulder,” Nola said.

Tina squatted behind a tree to answer nature’s call. She had consumed a lot of alcohol, but now it had cleared. When she was done, she found a luberry bush and sat there, eating and thinking.

She wished she hadn’t gotten involved in all this. It was barely believable, but she had pinched herself several times. She was not dreaming. Not in any ordinary sense. She wished she were.

Kafka was certainly better than the street. She just wished that her grandfather were alive to see it all. He had a wonderful imagination. After his death, she had no one. It hadn’t been long before the money ran out and she was evicted from her home. She found work on the street. She hated it, but it paid her bills and kept food in her stomach, so why should she complain? It was certainly better than being homeless, like her friend Martha.

Martha had turned old and weak from sickness. The last time Tina saw her, she was sick but too weak to vomit. Tina blamed society for that and swore she'd never let it happen to her. But she had been well on the way there when this happened.

Now she wondered: had it really been coincidence? She had felt a tug at odd moments. Could it have been when Nola passed within her range, or dreamed of Kafka? Had she been tuning in on another Creator? And Nola had felt the tug too. Otherwise she would never have befriended a drunken prostitute.

Tina hoped that her new friends never found out that she was ashamed of herself. That was no way to be around people. Once people found that out, they used her, then left her to the dogs like leftover table scraps. She couldn’t figure out why Nola had been so nice to her, even with the tug of Creation. She decided it was pity. Tina wasn’t too proud to accept pity now and then, but she knew that pity didn’t last forever.

“Hey, you okay?” Nola asked, stepping through a bramble bush to reach Tina.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine. Why don’t you go back to your friends now?”

“Let’s not start this again. We had such a good talk last night. Why don’t
you
go back to
your
friends?”

“I ain’t got no friends, girlie.”

“I don’t have any friends,” Nola corrected her, annoyed more by her attitude than her vernacular.

“Whatever. I don’t have and never did have ‘friends.’ All I got is Johnboy. He protects me and he ain’t never asked me for too
mucha my change, so I give him some merchandise free a charge.”

Nola, despite herself, was disgusted. Tina was really a pretty girl. It was too bad that she had wasted herself that way. Yet at the same time she realized that others might say the same about Nola’s own abusive relationship with John. How much difference was there between Tina’s Johnboy and Nola’s John? So maybe she couldn’t afford to be judgmental.

Tina sighed as if she were being forced to do something difficult and got up to join the others.

“Well,” Mich said, “I’m glad you’re all right. It’s not safe to go off by yourself around here, especially with the Fren population on the rise.”

Tina turned away. “Yeah, right,” she mumbled.

Mich was unsure how to react. He did care about her. Without
Tina, he wasn’t sure that King Kras would have parted with the Kahh, and they might have been doomed. He decided it was best just to ignore her bad attitude and get on with the journey. “Let’s go. It will be another half day before we reach the Unknown section of Kafka and there is no telling what we’ll find there. We’d better get there before it gets dark. It’s time to locate the source of the river.”

Nola didn’t understand. “I thought we were going to find the dragons.” Though she did feel that it was best to get to the source rapidly, if they could stay clear of the Fren long enough to do it.

“Oh, I almost forgot,” he said. “I thought it would save time if I gave the Kahh to Snort. He will inform the dragons, then they will meet us at the edge of the Unknown tonight.”

Heat stamped a foot.
You gave the Kahh to Snort?! Did you realize that when those dragons get here, they will devour us!

“Not if I have the Kahh,” Mich explained. “Snort will fly back early and bring me the Kahh.”

I hope Snort doesn’t run afoul of a Fren or a Demon.

Mich hadn’t thought of that. He could see the worried look on Nola’s face. He still wasn’t quite used to this leadership business, and didn’t want to make too many bad mistakes. But he really didn’t think this was a mistake. “No, he will stay in the air. As long as he is airborne, he will be fine.”

Heat persisted.
What if he runs into a transformed demon!

Heat had a point there. Damn that equine sense! “Let’s just hope the demons learned their lesson last time. The demons are mean and cruel, but they are cowards.”

Nola wasn’t sure about that. And what had happened to their agreement that she would lead the mission? She knew she ought to assert herself, but somehow she didn’t—and was disgusted with herself. Mich was a nice guy, but his well-intended actions were almost suicidally risky.

She smiled, privately.
She
was supposed to be the suicidal one! But maybe she would get up her gumption, or whatever, before Mich blundered too badly.

So they had to be satisfied with Mich’s decision. Tina mounted Heat behind Mich and the group traveled due south, into the unknown. Nola noticed how the young woman’s breasts and thighs pressed against Mich’s backside as she rode, holding on close. Neither of the two gave any evidence of noticing the contact, and Nola was disgusted at herself for being bothered by it, but she was. She wished they could find a separate steed for Tina. She would have traded places with the girl, but knew that Spirit would never allow it.

Mich was sorry that he had not explored his father’s kingdom before. He had simply lain around the castle most of the time, letting his friends wait on him. They really were friends, he decided. He had long thought of them only as servants, but he came to know each of them by name. His favorite was Misty, the palace ghost. He wished she weren’t so shy. He would love to hear some news from the castle, but Misty would never show herself to all these people. Besides, she and Snort had some sort of rivalry. Mich had never quite understood about that and he didn’t want to be nosy, so had never asked for details. What could a ghost and a basilisk have to be competitive about?

Nola sat confidently on Spirit’s back. They conversed wordlessly. “How can everyone expect me to save Kafka? I can’t even save a dollar!”

I would not worry, Nola. I know that you will find the power within yourself soon. But, you will not find it until you let go of your reality. I can see in your mind that you still have doubt. This is not good. The Fren feed on doubt.

“What do you mean, the power within myself? I have no special power.”

Spirit shook his mane and snorted.
I never thought I would use this word, but that is spurious! You are a Creator!

“So, what does that have to do with anything? If I have some kind of power that only a Creator has—”

Not a Creator.
You.
You are different from the others. I can feel you pulsing with it.

Nola was getting frustrated. She calmed herself, then phrased her thoughts better. “What is this power that you are speaking of?”

Spirit tossed his head, laughing with equine mirth.
Why, imagination, of course! I thought you knew that.

Nola thought about it. She did have an imagination. Even her parents and her high school teachers thought so, but they also thought she used it for the wrong things. She used it to daydream a lot. It brought her nothing but trouble.

“But what did you mean about letting go of my reality?”

You have been born and raised on Earth. Everything you do, everything you say and how you act are all dictated by an Earthly reality. You know no other way than the ways of Earth.

Nola was confused. “So?”

You must learn that the rules that apply on Earth do not apply elsewhere. You must believe in Kafka and you must disbelieve the Fren and their dams. You are the only Creator with an imagination strong enough to disbelieve things from existence.

“Oh,” she said, brightening. “I have a really good imagination. That should be easy!”

That, my dear friend, remains to be seen.
Then he added,
I hope you are correct.

Nola wondered what would become of Esprit and Mich if she didn’t pull through for them. As long as she believed in them, they would always be there, wouldn’t they? And what would happen to her other creations, such as the nymphs and the sea horses?

Spirit had read her thought.
I’m afraid we will all be gone. If Kafka is destroyed, all its creatures will be destroyed with it.

Nola was appalled. “But I can’t let that happen! I love you!”

Spirit’s thoughts were tinted red as if he were blushing.
And I you, my friend. Michael would be lost without you as well. He loves you too, you know.

Nola was taken aback. “He does? But how could he? I barely know him!”

Untrue. You know him well, you just cannot accept him for what he is. As I have said, you have been trained to an Earthly reality.

Nola could not refute that. That was, indeed, how she felt. But what could she do? She was what she was, an Earthling.

I hate to interrupt,
Heat broke in,
but it seems we are coming upon the Unknown.

Nola craned her neck to see. Up ahead was the river and, as far as the eye could see, nothing but golden grasslands. There were no trees, no bushes, no flowers and no signs of life, not even a gust of wind.

Something was strange, though. The river had dwindled to a mere stream. It must have been getting less and less deep the farther they traveled down it. Nola had been too busy with her thoughts to pay much attention. What could account for this?

They traveled farther down the river until the landscape looked the same from all sides. The grass grew tall and, except for the river, the land was featureless in all directions.

They continued on until Mich halted them. “This is no good. We’re going nowhere. I’m going to look at the map again.”

They dismounted and studied the map together. There was nothing to tell them which way to proceed. They had gone off the map’s edge. Disgusted, Nola walked away.

“What now?” Tina asked.

“I don’t know,” Mich admitted.

“Did you notice the river?”

Mich turned and stared. “The dam must be finished! It must be drying up! I knew this would happen! We ‘ve got to find that dam! There must be some clue on what to do next in this map.”

They stood for a while, stymied. If only the map extended farther!

Mich practically tore the map as a scream came, and Tina jumped. “What was that?” she asked, alarmed.

“It was Nola!” he said, throwing down the map. “It came from over there.”

He looked in the direction Nola had walked. She had been standing on the bank of the river, but now she was gone. He hoped she hadn’t fallen in. The water was low, but the muck beneath could be deep. She couldn’t have been that careless!

As he stared at the empty spot where her voice had come from, he heard her scream again. He rushed over. Just as he reached the sound, he was blinded by a sharp and stinging flash of light, and Nola stood before him.

He went to embrace her. “Stop!” she cautioned. “You’re going to push me back through!”

Mich drew back, confused. “Are you okay?”

“Yes, I’m fine! I was just startled. I think I found something.”

“What? What is it?”

Nola took Mich’s hand and walked him to the spot where she had disappeared.

“Feel this,” she said, guiding his hand. He felt a wall beneath his fingers. It was smooth, like glass, yet there was nothing there. His hand was pressed against air.

“How can there be a wall here? I don’t see anything.”

Nola moved his hand across the invisible wall’s surface and it
disappeared with a spark of light. “It’s okay!” she said, seeing his concerned look. “Your hand is just on the other side.”

“The other side of what?” he asked as his own hand disappeared. The wall apparently had a hole in it.

“The other side of Kafta, I think.”

“What are you talking about?”

Nola decided she would have to show him. She led him through the invisible doorway.

Suddenly, they found themselves in a vortex of air that sucked at their bodies like a vacuum. Kafka’s landscape was rushing around them in a great circle as if they were in the eye of a tornado. The wind pulled at their hair and clothing and threatened to separate them. Nola wasn’t as afraid of it as she had been. It was actually kind of fun, like a ride at an amusement park. Mich, on the other hand, had a terrified expression on his face.