Dream a Little Dream (28 page)

Tina was talking with King Kras and Drake. Newton was petting a creature that was half bear and half cat. Lucina was hugging a beautiful woman who acted very motherly toward her. Joelle was sitting with a magnificent white wolf with big gray eyes.

Nola was glad to see all of her friends so happy. Especially Mich, whom she loved so much. But that thought reminded her that she had not yet decided what to do about that situation. She still saw no way through that would not leave her and either Mich or Spirit miserable in some way.

Spirit approached Nola as she watched Mich and the king. Mich looked up a moment, said something to his father and walked over to them. He enfolded her in his arms.

“Thank you, Nola. Kafka would have died, and my father too. I love you.”

Nola touched his chin with a finger. “I love you too,” she said, smiling, feeling the words in her soul as she spoke them. She turned to Spirit. “This is so wonderful,” she said to him.

Yes,
he thought, nuzzling her outstretched hand.
I knew you had the strength.
He paused.
Now, it is time for you to decide.

Nola flinched visibly. So soon! She must decide between her true love and her heart-friend. How could she do that? She loved them both.

She took off her cross and pried the stone from its setting. She held the twin stones in her palm, watching the stars move across their surface, praying for a solution. Then she remembered something else, almost with relief. “The dam! I still have to destroy the dam.” Until that was done, her mission here wasn’t over, and she didn’t have to make her choice.

Curbie trotted up to them, urgency in his voice. “There is something amiss, you see? Something’s not right.”

“What could be wrong?” Mich asked. “Every Fren is back to normal and everyone’s happy. Nola is about to destroy the dam, so that the River of Thought will flow freely once more, and never again will Kafka suffer.”

Not so
,
Heat broke in.
I smell something too. It smells like anger.

Spirit lifted his nose to the breeze. He nodded agreement and began stepping nervously backward. His eyes fixed on a point behind Nola. She instinctively turned.

Reility was striding toward her. The one Fren they hadn’t accounted for—the worst one. Possibly worse than all the others together. How could she have forgotten about him? “Idiot!” she cursed herself.

The Fren king was some distance away and seemed to be moving
very slowly, as if weak. He carried a crooked stick in his fist. His dead eyes fixed on Nola’s. “I want those stones, you whore!”

“You got it wrong!” Tina yelled. “She’s not the whore.
You
are!”

“Tina!” Nola said. “This is between him and me. Have faith in me.” But she sounded unsure, even to herself.

She was indeed unsure. But she had to do something. She threw a net over him. He waved the stick over his head and it caught the net, pushing it away. He didn’t even lose step. His evident confidence rattled her further.

He was getting a little too close. She backed up a few steps and threw a bigger net. He brushed it aside again and left it lying on the ground.

Mich drew his sword and stepped in front of her.

“No, Mich,” she said pleadingly. “You will get hurt!”

“But he’s going to kill you!”

“No, no. It’s okay. Please, Mich—please let me handle this!” Mich grudgingly sheathed his sword and stepped out of the way.

She combed her brain, trying to think of a solution, and at the same time trying to fathom how Reility was able to brush her nets away. He shouldn’t be able to affect their magic.

She tried once more. This time, she threw a load of cement blocks. They fell on top of him. She waited a moment for something to happen. She had seen too many horror movies. This was the part where she would turn her back and he would jump up from the pile of bricks and cut her throat. But nothing happened.

She approached the pile of rubble. The crumbled bricks did not move, or give any indication that he still lived. She stared a moment. Slowly, she stretched out a hand and touched one of the bricks. Still nothing happened. She flipped one of the bricks off the pile. Nothing. She reached down with both hands.

A nasty, clawed hand reached up and grasped one of hers. “You
see, you inferior creature, I have absorbed your worst without resistance, and been unfazed,” he said. “Now you know you can’t hurt me. But I can hurt you.”

Nola screamed with terror and tried to pull away. She could not. She tried to pry the dark fingers off her wrist, only to have her free hand captured as well. Reility’s ugly head burst through the shattered pieces of cement and he stared right into her eyes.

Something in the way he looked at her chilled her to the marrow. Something was so familiar about the way he stared right through her, as if she were nothing more than a bug to be squashed. There was a quality she couldn’t quite grasp. What was it? There was so much evil in that face!

He squeezed her wrists until she was forced to open her hands. When he saw the shining stones, his eyes got blacker (if that was possible) and he snatched the stones from her flaccid hands.

Nola was still staring at his eyes. There was something there that she knew and had known for a long time. Her eyes were locked, unblinking, on his, unable to look elsewhere and unable to make a move. For some reason, she was frozen with fear, like a bird before a python.

He released her and laughed, half to himself. One of the worm warriors approached and attempted to swallow Reility. Dumb move. Reility chopped the creature into a thousand bits before it could engulf him. The tiny pieces lay quivering, unable to reconstruct.

“Don’t just stand there, Nola! Do something!” Tina shouted. Her voice seemed very distant, and not worth noticing. Nola just stood and stared, frozen.

Reility stepped closer to the trickle of water that was the River of Thought. He kneeled by the bank. He pressed the twin stones together, back to back. The stars on the stones’ surfaces glowed brightly, then dimmed again, and disappeared completely. The stones
became one. It looked very much like a bed spell, with lightning swirling and cracking in its center.

“You see, you’ve failed, Nola. You’ll always fail! I know! I know you. You know me as well!” he cried as he drowned the stone in the River of Thought.

There was a loud boom and rays of fine light were shooting up from the water. Reility’s face was covered with a crooked smile and his dark skin was afire with beams of white light. When he lifted out the stone, all that Nola could see was a ball of light, as if he were holding a star in his palm. The ball of light slowly dimmed. However, its light was diffusing into Reility’s body, traveling up his arm, across his evil face, down his legs to his gnarled toes. The light engulfed him, making his body invisible inside a brilliant shell. The light quickly flashed, making the whole area seem as if there were four suns lighting the day. Then the light was gone and everyone stood in awe, mouths agape.

Nola stared in disbelief at Reality. He was now a human man, taller than she. Worse, he was a human whom she recognized. His stocky body radiated malice; his dark hair, eyes and mustache added to the effect.

Nola stood frozen as before, her hand over her mouth. She felt Mich begin shaking her shoulders. He had been speaking to her, but she had not heard.

“Nola! What’s wrong with you?”

Nola started shaking. “It’s
him.
It’s John,” she said with a quivering voice. “My nemesis on Earth.”

Mich had no idea who he was, but obviously, she knew him well and feared him.

Tina strode up to John. “How in hell did you get here?”

“I came for Nola.”

“What do you want with her?”

“I want her dreams.”

“Why?” she demanded.

“She left me to come here. She left me for someone else. Now she’s going to be really sorry.”

Mich now realized who the man was. He was furious and a desire to do him in overwhelmed him.

Nola created a sword and pointed it at John. “Not if I can help it,” she said, still trembling. “You’re real now. I can hurt you.”

He looked in her direction and paid no attention to the sword that was shakingly pointed at his heart. “Hurt me, Nola? Ha! You’re the most spineless bitch I’ve ever known.”

He pushed away the sword with a wave of his arm. He took a few steps toward her. She took a few steps back.

Mich placed himself between Nola and John.

“No!” Nola said. “This is between him and me. He’ll kill you! Please, don’t get in the way!”

Mich did not move back, but instead stepped forward aggressively. John drew back and his right fist shot out and hit Mich squarely on the cheek. The blow made a sickening crack and Mich fell to the ground.

“Oh, no, Mich!” Nola cried. She looked back at John. Her eyes reflected more terror than she ‘d ever felt and they filled with tears. John was the only person or thing that she truly feared. She feared him more than death itself.

John grinned. He seemed satisfied with Nola’s tears. She knew he was pleased. He was always pleased when she was in pain. She wondered how he got here.

Nola was not the only one whom he hurt by hurting Mich. Heat felt the sting of the blow in his own face. He galloped up and reared, his chrome hooves slashing at the man. John waved his hand and Heat was gone. A Fren was in his place.

“Oh, Lord, no!” Tina cried. “Heat!”

John laughed again. “Failure,” he said, advancing on Nola. She retreated.

Soon her back was pressed against the dam and she could go no farther.

John came close and stopped. “Don’t you see, Nola? You are nothing. You thought you had found your true love? You didn’t. You thought you could hide in your dreams? You can’t. I’m the only one who ever cared about you. I knew you were a failure, but I thought you had potential. I was wrong. You are nothing.”

He turned his back on her and took a few steps, then turned back. “You get it? Now I am going to torture your dreams, just as I did your life. You know what I’m going to do first? I’m going to convert your friend Spirit. Once I convert him, you won’t be able to change him back!”

Nola sank down, closing her eyes. Her tears fell in her lap. “Please, no,” she mumbled. “Please don’t do that.”

She felt Spirit’s thoughts in her mind. With them came a warm feeling, unlike any other she ‘d felt from him. There were no words forming in her mind, only a spot of heat. It was the heat of anger. It gave her strength.

She felt a hand grasp hers. She dared not open her eyes. It was not John’s hand; it was soft and firm. She squeezed it and she felt another mind enter hers, bringing with it another warm spot. This time she not only felt anger, but she began to lose fear and to gain strength.

Another mind joined hers, then another, and another. She felt the minds of the Creators in tune with hers. She felt their powers and she knew what she had to do. She had to destroy the dam. Right now. That would keep John from converting Kafka.

She gathered as much strength as she could before it began to overwhelm her. She concentrated, and an image of the dam came into her mind, its invisible wall made visible in her mind’s eye. The strength she gathered appeared before it in the form of a hammer.

She took hold of the handle. She could feel the hands of the Creators, in her mind, also grasping the hammer. They lifted it, and swung it forward.

As one, they began smashing the death mirror with all their might. They pounded relentlessly, Nola guiding them.

The mirror first showed cracks. Colored water began seeping through. The hammer still pounded. Then as the effort increased, the dam shattered and crumbled. Beyond it, Nola could see what looked like a sewer pipe with bars blocking it. She could look only for a second.

Every Creator was jolted out of the trance as a roar filled the air. The roar of rushing water.

“
No!”
John shouted, suddenly aware of what had been going on in their linked minds. “
No I You will fail, fail!"

Nola opened her eyes. “I have already succeeded,” she informed him. “Listen to the flow.”

Now he heard what he least wished to. The freed rushing water of the River of Thought. “AAAAAH!” he screamed.

The torrent of human dreams came flowing across the broken dam. The first surge of water captured John and he screamed again, as if the water were acid. He was swept away.

Nola suddenly felt herself choking. There was a tightness at her shirt collar. She was being lifted off the ground, her feet dangling high in the air. The ground moved beneath her as she was carried away.

Moments later she was put down on a rise. Tina and Mich were there.

It was Spirit who had carried her by her shirt to the hilltop. She looked at the swollen torrent of dreams and could see no sign of John. Neither could she see the other Creators.

They were washed away in the initial break,
Spirit informed her.

Nola gasped, horrified.

No, do not worry, my dear friend, they will only be sent home. They will be fine. A spell protects them from arriving in any dangerous situation, such as deep nonmagical water.

She watched the river rise above its old banks, carrying sticks and ash along in the current. Around the edges of the water, she thought she could see grass beginning to sprout.

The relief, when it came, was total and complete. She sighed aloud and held Mich’s hand.

“Do you think it’s over?” he asked.

“I’m certain it is. For now, anyway. I wish I knew how John got here.”

“Do you think he’s a Creator?” Tina asked. “Maybe he found a bed spell.”

Nola thought about that. “I guess it could be. Where is there a rule that says a Creator has to be good? He did disappear before I
came here, and I could not find him. I didn’t place the bed spells until after he got here. How do you explain that?”

I believe,
Spirit thought,
that he was indeed a Creator. Perhaps he is the source of the crushed dreams. He may have destroyed so many in his lifetime that he became the exact opposite of a Creator: A Destroyer. I believe that Reility simply chose to take the form of John. Now he
is
John. The John you knew has been taken over. I assume it was not a difficult task for Reility. Perhaps he knew your biggest fear. Reility took over John s body, knowing your fears.

Nola shook her head. “I don’t think he is dead. If he comes across another bed spell, who knows what might happen? I’ve got to go home and see if I can find the rest.”

“First,” Mich said, with a note of sadness in his voice, “will you come to the castle for dinner?”

Nola smiled weakly at him. “Of course.” She squeezed his hand. “I wish I had a dreamstone to help me conjure us there. It’ll be quite a long walk. Say, what happened to Heat?” she asked, looking around.

“He was converted, then washed away in the river,” Mich said. “I thought you knew that. He’s dead.”

“That’s awful!” Then her expression turned to a sly smile. “I know John doesn’t think he ‘d get away with that! It doesn’t matter if he was washed away. He can’t take away my dreams, no matter how hard he tries! I still believe in Heat.”

With her words, the river, at the foot of the hill, boiled and sputtered as if there were a spring beneath it about to erupt. A splendid white unisus plunged into the sky from the surging waters. It was Heat, reborn.

He flew directly to the hilltop and stood next to Mich. Mich embraced him. “I thought you had died in that river!”

As long as Nola believes in us, we can never die,
Heat replied, winking his silver orb at Nola.

Tina startled Heat by grabbing a handful of his mane. She climbed aboard. “I missed you too, horsey!”

He stomped his foot, but he took the insult in stride. He knew she liked him.

Mich mounted up and so did Nola.

They reached the castle in four days. They were greeted at the gate by the king and a jumping-for-joy basilisk named Snort.

When night matured into midnight, dinner was served by a roaring fire and the joyful, reuniting conversations were changed to one that was more solemn.

“So, I suppose you must return home?” King Edward asked.

“Yes, Your Highness,” said Nola, “I have to find the other spells before he does.”

“I’ll help you,” Tina said.

Nola looked at her. “You want to return to Earth?”

“It does make sense, unfortunately. But I wish I could visit here, often and long. Maybe there’s a dream man here for me too.” Her crude language seemed to have faded.

The king looked at her appraisingly. The rigors of the campaign were over, and she was now garbed almost in the manner of a princess, her figure showing to full advantage. Dreamstones sparkled in her hair. “I suspect that your chances are good.” Then he turned to Nola. “You will be greatly missed here. I am indebted to you, for everything. Is there anything you need from me?”

“Thank you, no.” She inclined her head.

Nola suddenly remembered something. She recalled several nights before, and how she had puzzled over her decision to take Mich or Spirit to Earth and make one of them real. She suddenly remembered the thought that had made her smile that night, before she drifted away.

She stood and curtsied to the king. “We must be leaving,” she
said. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to have a few moments with my friends, to say good-bye.” She smiled warmly.

This was the moment Mich and Spirit had been dreading. The two wanted to stay with her. How could they say good-bye?

Mich didn’t want to deal with her leaving. It hurt to even think of living without her. He wanted to share his life with her and share in hers. They had both been dreaming of finding each other. Now they had, yet their love was in jeopardy. He supposed he had no choice in the matter. Nola had to go home and keep John from finding the bed spells. Yet without her dreamstone, she could never return to Kafka. Neither could her pretty friend, Tina, despite her talk of frequent visits.

Spirit was feeling the same way. He knew that he could always see her when she dreamed, yet that was not to be compared with the joy of physical contact and of real being.

The king offered Tina his arm, and they departed the dining room, leaving the three of them alone. Nola sat down in a chair near the glowing fire, smiling all the while.

“I guess it’s time to say good-bye,” Mich began. “I don’t know what to say. I want to get on my knees and beg you to stay, yet I respect the fact that you must return home. I wish you well, Nola. You will be taking my heart and soul with you. I hope you can return them to me one day. I wish I could say I love you and have you know how I feel right now. To say I love you is nothing compared to what I feel. Good-bye, my love.”

Mich touched her cheek and wiped a tear away from his own. Nola still smiled. He wondered why.

“Is there anything you would like to tell me, Esprit?” Nola asked of Spirit.

I must say only this: I will always be here for you, and remember, we share pain as well as joy, so keep yourself happy. Good-bye, my heart-friend.

Nola still smiled. “So, that was very nice.”

Mich began to get a little annoyed. She wasn’t acting as if she would miss them at all. Had a demon gotten into her hair again? “What’s going on, Nola? Why are you smiling like that?”

“I’ve got a going-away gift for both of you that I think will ease the pain.” She paused and cleared her throat. “I found something out one night. The stones that Reility used to make himself real could perform magic, yet they were not magic themselves.”

May I ask what is your point?

“Only this. I found I could do a small additional Creation that I thought you would like.”

We would like
—
in your absence?
Spirit inquired dubiously.

Nola looked down into her lap. Her hands rested there, clenched tightly shut. Slowly she uncurled her fingers. Inside each hand was a pair of light blue stones with stars of light on their surfaces. Just like the pair that Reility had used to become real.