Dream a Little Dream (27 page)

That night, as Nola’s mind wandered aimlessly, something strange happened. An idea came to her, and she suddenly knew exactly what to do. She cracked a smile as the sun began to rise.

Breakfast was nervous and rushed. Joseph could not even hold his meal down. Perhaps that had something to do with the fact that he had not brought any drugs with him, and he was going through withdrawal symptoms.

“Create some,” Tina suggested wryly.

He was astonished. “Would that work?” Without waiting for an answer, he tried it, and soon was back on an even keel.

“But don’t overdo it,” Tina said. “I don’t care how you come by that stuff, it’s bad for you.”

“For sure,” he agreed. “I’ll see what I can do about it when the crisis is over and I have time to sort things out. Maybe I can Create things for treatment.”

Nola, overhearing the dialogue, wished she could do the same to solve her own problem. But she didn’t see how.

Then Nola gathered everyone close and held her cross in her hand. Her mind felt strained. She concentrated, but it was as if she were trying to take a picture of the group and could not fit them all in. If she backed up too far, the picture would not focus.

“I can’t do it,” she announced. “Not all of us.”

It seems in our best interest that some of us should find another way to get to the dam,
Spirit thought.

“I agree.” She turned to the dragons. “Z, do you think your entourage could fly there?”

“Yes, they can fly. I shall stay near you here, human sister.”

“All right, then. Please have your dragons back off while I conjure us. When we get there, I will build another enclosure and wait for them to arrive.”

Z honked and the dragons moved away. Nola closed her eyes. This time, everyone fit into the picture, and after the flash went off they were gone. She opened her eyes.

The dam was before them. So were thousands of Fren. They were everywhere, like a black swarm of killer spiders. Each one of
them carried a lightning-jag razor that glinted red in the morning sun. Some of them stood or sat on top of the dam. A thick cloud of them surrounded it. Most of them were scattered about, but began to concentrate more when they realized that the Creators had arrived.

From somewhere amid the writhing throng came a grating voice. It was Reility’s. Apparently he had escaped the nets, which really was not surprising. “I told you, you would fail, and you will!” He turned to his minions. “Kill them!”

Z wrapped his armored body around Nola while she began to clothe herself in armor. Why hadn’t she thought of this detail before coming here? They should have arrived ready for action, instead of giving the Fren time to organize. The other Creators stood scattered and did the same, encasing themselves in metal.

The Fren wasted no time in attacking. All of them came at once. Nola’s heart sank. The masses of Fren were just too much! She knew that it would take only a few moments until the Creators were washed away in a wave of evil, shattered dreams.

The Creators were busy throwing nets and building walls. This seemed to slow the Fren a little, yet it was ineffective in stopping
them. Nola realized, belatedly, that she was no general; she hadn’t planned for this battle at all. She had figured she just needed to get here and do the job. She would know better next time, if there was ever a next time, if she survived this mess.

Here and there, a Fren would drop to its knees as a Creator recognized and converted it. The Fren would ignore the newly recovered Kafkians, as if they were not alive, and focused on killing the humans. Until the converts joined forces with Nola; then all were fair game.

The worms fought bravely. Their bodies were being cut to ribbons. There were now almost fifty of them and they were weakening rapidly.

Nola screamed when she saw the boy in the wheelchair lose his arm to a Fren that had sneaked up on him.

“Z! Let go of me!” she screamed, struggling.

Z loosened his coils and she clambered over his back, landing with a thud on the ashy ground. She ran over to the boy. He was screaming hysterically and his blood was pouring from his severed shoulder.

She tried not to lose her head. The sight of the blood made her wretch, while all around her there were screams of terror and the sounds of evil beginning to overcome good. Soon, if something was not done, they would lose.

In a moment, Z was beside her. He nudged away a Fren who struck at Nola. The Fren tried to cut Z, but the razor did no good on his scales.

Nola held back another wretch as she picked up the boy’s arm and held it to his shoulder. The boy screamed again and Nola put some healing spice on his tongue. He swallowed, and his arm healed instantly. The boy stared, astonished, as his pain faded. He flexed the arm, wiggling the fingers. “Gee. That’s neat!”

Nola looked around again. Two Creators were now fleeing in
panic. They were hemmed in by Fren who were chasing them with clubs and razors. The razors did not do much damage, but the clubs tended to dent the armor and even break pieces off.

Nola knew that they could not go on this way. Something had to be done right now, or they would all be overcome.

She felt her anger surging forth. Her sadness, happiness, confusion and fright were slowly being eaten by her anger until she was filled with it. She used it as a tool to help energize her next creation. Z stood by her, protecting her while she concentrated.

She threw her arms into the air, concentrating on her hands and forcing the anger and energy outward and upward. She used every emotion she could find, and when she felt drained, she dropped her hands.

For a moment, nothing happened. Then, she looked up, because the sky was momentarily darkening. A gigantic net was floating down.

“
Look above!”
Z roared. “
Get out of the way!"

The Creators looked up. So did some of the Fren. Both Fren and Creators ran, scattering like drops of rain in a calm pond, spreading out.

The metal net began shooting out cables as it neared the ground. It covered at least half of the mobbing Fren. But it covered some of the
Creators too. Now, again way too late, she remembered how she had promised to build an enclosure around their group so that the Fren couldn’t reach them. She had forgotten, being absorbed by the immediate challenge of so many Fren.

“Face it, Nola,” she muttered to herself. “You’re much better at being a fouled-up, suicidal girl than a general.”

Her energy spent, Nola collapsed, exhausted. With only a thousand or so Fren captured, there still were a great number. Still far too many to deal with. She cried as she watched her friends fight a losing battle. This time, she was completely useless. She couldn’t even
stand up. If her friends were overwhelmed, she could not conjure them away. She shouldn’t have let anger take her like that.

Z’s dragons appeared in the sky above, neither landing nor flying away. They stared down, unsure what to do. It was quite obvious that the humans were being overtaken. They could not fire on the Fren and knew that they could do nothing to help. After a few minutes of hovering, the dragons flew off, not looking back.

“Cowards!” called Z.

Z coiled around Nola again, realizing that she was helpless. Even her imagination seemed to have run out. She had no more good ploys to suggest.

It was Tina who finally came up with the solution. “Everyone!” she shouted. “Balloons! Make balloons!”

Many of the Creators looked confused, until Joelle created a huge hot-air balloon. It was red and yellow and was powered by a propane furnace. She helped the chairbound boy into it and climbed in after. She released a couple of sand bags and lifted into the air. A few Fren clung to the basket. The boy leaned out over the side and used a confiscated club to bash them off before they got too high.

By this time, the others were getting into their own. Newton took along Curbie and Curbia, while Lucina took Drake. The other Creators were saving themselves from the disaster Nola’s folly had made. All they had to do was discover how to use their power effectively.

A balloon appeared before Nola, though not one of her own making. Someone had made it for her. Nola tried to find the strength to climb in, but could not.

Mich saw her failing effort. He pushed the Fren off his legs with the hilt of his sword and ran over. He picked her up gently and placed her inside the basket. He climbed in after her and fired up the balloon. Z took to the sky as well.

Nola was relieved that not only were they now safe, the Fren did not retreat. The Fren became angrier and began shouting and jumping
up and down. Nola had to smile: the Fren were in a frenzy, appropriately. The Fren were frenetic. So they were being stupid, just as Nola had been before.

The Creators wasted not a second in containing the rest of the Fren. The nets that fell could hold only nine or ten at the most, so work was slow.

Nola lay back in the basket, knowing that the best way to recharge her mental energy was to rest. Mich promised to rouse her when the work was done.

She appreciated him being there. He stayed close, humming a strange yet lulling tune.

The other Creators, feeling bad for her, let her rest. The Fren would escape after a while, but the Creators would simply drop more nets, keeping them under control and contained until she had rested. The huge net that Nola had dropped remained intact, being of a magical nature.

It was four hours later, the sun high in the ksy, before Nola rose and had a look around. The other balloons floated near, each of them holding a smiling person. It made her feel better, knowing that she had so many people rooting for her.

Spirit’s thought came to her.
You have been preparing for this. Are you ready to begin?

“Yes. I hope everyone else is.” She sighed. Then, to the Creators: “Let’s land the balloons and start the conversions.”

The colorful balloons began floating downward, their baskets touching ground one by one. Finally, everyone was down and the work began.

Newton went first, being the most eager. As the first Fren was converted, the others joined in. Their minds searched over the hordes of Fren, looking for something familiar.

Nola reached out and took Joseph’s hand. She found herself sharing
his mind. He was seeing something that he did not recognize, but Nola did. She in turn saw something that he recognized. As each Fren was recognized, it was separated from the horde and re-netted. They traded their mind’s images and a happy nymph and a griffin emerged from the nets, as Nola released them.

“Join hands!” Nola said. “It helps you see!”

Mich stood out of the way with the worms, dragon and Dalmatians. The Creators moved close, standing in a tight circle, eyes shut, hands clasped. The group of them seemed almost to radiate with the power of thought.

Fren began disappearing from the horde and reappearing under nets all around the group. Creatures were appearing; they seemed as if they were waking from a nightmare. They all were very happy when freed and many of them stood near the Creators, admiring them as if they were movie stars.

The Creators continued casting their minds across the land before them. The tide of Fren had been turned. Now there were more Kafkians than Fren.

Mich called out when he recognized someone. The old woman he called Madrid had a funny red Afro and really long fingernails.

Lucina found the Centicores. They stood beside her, pawing the black ground.

There were very few Fren left when Nola saw someone she recognized, vaguely. He was older and had graying brown hair. He came more into focus and then was gone. She opened her eyes. The man stood before her. He was wearing lavish robes of red, yellow and gold. He wore a crown slightly askew on his brow.

“Father!” Mich shouted from behind her.

She turned and saw Mich heading toward the man. He reached out, and the two embraced warmly. When they broke, Nola could see that this man was indeed Mich’s father, and Kafka’s king. He looked exactly as she remembered him. Noble, yet warm and friendly.

She had Created him to help Mich seem more real to her. He had needed a family. She and her own father had never had a real relationship. So she had Created the king in the image of the father she wished she had.

She turned her attention back to the hundred or so remaining Fren. The other Creators seemed entirely comfortable with the conversions and were working much faster, though some of them were showing signs of exhaustion. Nola herself had converted only a hundred or so, while the others converted two, three or four hundred apiece.

The fields surrounding the River of Thought began to clear out as creatures went in search of their homes.

She could only “see” two more Kafkians, consisting of a mermaid and a small dapple-brown unicorn.

The work was tiring. It took a lot of concentration and a lot of faith to restore her belief in her crushed dreams.

A few more moments and all of the Fren had been converted. Everyone was beyond relief, and many stood with their Creations, talking, hugging and regaining lost memories. Nola thought the scene was very touching.