The Dreaming Hunt (81 page)

Who was he?
What
was he? What did this new knowledge mean for him? How would it shape him and his future?

“Well, I know one thing for sure,” Rosana declared. “I may not know where your knowledge came from or how, but I'm glad it came to you. You saved us all.”

He matched her smile, but it did not reach his heart. Something had changed yesterday. Something bigger than a fight not going well. There was a reason his hidden training had broken free, and he worried that it was the harbinger of more dangerous battles to come.

He glanced up, and Rynn was studying him intently. Cursed if he didn't get the impression that the paxan was thinking the exact same thing.

Rynn called across the open deck, “Sha'Li, Eben, Tarryn! Could you join us for a minute?”

The paxan looked grim as they all assembled. He dived in without preamble. “When Goldeneye and I were tearing the enslavement away from the mind of the claviger, we saw something.”

Rynn made eye contact with Will. “Something's coming. A great army assembles on the dream plane, led by someone or something with enormous elemental powers. We must be ready for it. I think perhaps this is why Will's memories surfaced yesterday. You looked into the portal, did you not, just before you cast that wall spell?”

Now that Rynn mentioned it, he had. Just a glimpse. But he'd seen a vast army stretching as far away as the eye could see across a great, misty plane.

Sha'Li snorted. “Attacked by bad dreams shall we be?”

The others chuckled. But Will's newfound way of thinking leaped ahead to the obvious question. “Who hides on the dream plane to assemble this army, and for what purpose?”

“I do not know,” Rynn answered soberly. “But I do know that only a few beings on the mortal realm are powerful enough to pull it off. This being manipulates the planes themselves to hide his or her actions.”

The others waxed sober as the gravity of what he'd said finally began to sink in.

“Is our effort to wake the Sleeping King the cause of this?” Raina asked.

The answer came to Will in a flash of insight. “Not directly. The fact that it is time to wake the Sleeping King is the trigger. Nonetheless, we will need him awake, and soon, if we are to prevail against whatever comes.”

“Why?” Raina asked sharply.

“He is powerful. And he will know how to manipulate the planes in the same way the architect of the dreaming army does. We must find the rest of his regalia and go after his body
soon
.”

“Time is against us, then?” Rynn asked.

What was this? The great paxan warrior was asking for his considered military opinion? Huh. He really must have impressed them all yesterday with his stunt. He answered Rynn's question gravely. “Time is our greatest enemy now.”

Raina leaned forward. “Goldeneye saw this army on the dream plane, too?”

“Aye,” Rynn replied.

Raina looked relieved. “That explains why Goldeneye made me his emissary. He, too, prepares for war.”

Will responded dryly, “The Dominion always prepares for war. He merely prepares for a new enemy that he has never faced before.”

They fell silent for a time, and then into it, Eben said, “I have made a decision. I am going to join my sister on the dream plane to discover who creates a dreaming army there and for what purpose.”

Raina spoke gently. “Eben, you are a man of many skills, but subtlety and subterfuge are not among yours. You are not suited to be a spy.”

She was right. The jann approached life directly. Head-on. He opened his mouth to say so, but Sha'Li spoke first. “Do I know why you're doing this?”

The two stared at each other for a long moment, something uncomfortable and private hanging between them, like an unresolved argument.

Sha'Li looked away first. “Sorry I am.”

“It makes no difference now,” Eben replied grimly. “The damage is done.”

“Put it right, I will. I swear.”

What on Urth were they talking about? Will glanced at the other members of the party, who seemed equally lost in the pair's cryptic exchange. Aloud, he said, “Eben, what must we say or do to talk you out of this?”

“My mind is made up. You are right, Raina. I am the unlikeliest person to be a spy. And that is why I shall succeed. My sister and her associates will not see an infiltrator when they look at me.”

“When do you go?” Rynn asked unexpectedly. The paxan was endorsing this mad scheme?

“Tonight. Will you help me make the journey?” Eben responded.

Rynn bowed his head. “Aye.”

Will, Raina, and Rosana argued with Eben for a solid hour after that, but neither he nor Rynn could be talked out of the plan. And Sha'Li just moved to the other end of the ship and stared broodingly out to sea.

Eventually, frustrated, Will and the healers gave up. Eben went belowdecks, and Rynn followed, presumably to discuss how they were going to transport the jann to the dream plane.

Silence fell around them. Into it, Will asked, “Raina, can you use that ring of yours to find the other pieces of Gawaine's regalia?”

“He said I could.”

“You've spoken with him?” Will blurted, surprised. “When did that happen? How?”

She actually blushed. “I dream of him sometimes.”

Well, well, well. It seemed as if all of them were unlocking hidden potentials these days. Eben had a talent for finding elemental energies and Sha'Li could remove taints. And then there was that change to Rosana's magic. Speaking of which …

“Rosana, what's up with your magic? When you cast yesterday, it was a strange color.”

She jammed her hands into folds of her skirt as everyone stared at her. But she confessed reluctantly, “When I went to the spirit realm to rescue those children, something happened to me.”

It was his turn to lurch upright. “Are you all right?”

“I don't know. While I was there, I cast a kind of magic I've never learned. I don't recognize it, but it scared me.”

“Can you call it now?” Raina asked.

Rosana's cheeks stained with something akin to shame. “Aye.”

“Does it harm you in any way?” Will asked quickly.

“Nay.” A pause. “But it harms others.”

“Will you show it to us?” He coaxed, “We're all family here. There's nothing to be ashamed of.”

She held out her hand, took a deep breath, and summoned thick, oily, black magical energy to her palm. He'd never seen anything like it.

To his amazement, it was Sha'Li, who'd come rushing from the other end of the deck to stare at Rosana's hand, who breathed, “That's death magic. A most rare and powerful form of magical energy.”

Rosana closed her fist convulsively. She jammed her hand back under her skirt. “But I'm a healer,” she whispered.

Rynn spoke kindly. “We must all accept who we are and embrace our true forms. Once you are at peace with your nature, you will be both a bringer of death and life.”

Will winced mentally. He, too, would have to make peace with himself. But first, he had to understand who he really was. Thankfully, they had a long journey ahead of them and time on their hands for him to explore this heretofore unknown side of himself. The sailors said it would take nearly two months to make the trip down the coast of Haelos to Dupree.

As the others drifted away, he lay back down on his folded sail and let the sun warm his face once more. He had a feeling there would not be too many more moments of sunlit rest before the coming storm.

*   *   *

Aurelius stepped off the Black Ship
Valiant
onto the pier in Dupree. He was ready for the sensation of the ground rolling beneath his feet, but that did not make it any easier to walk in a reasonably straight line down the dock.

It was good to be home, squalid buildings, muddy streets, rough-dressed peasants and all. He looked forward to sleeping in his own bed and catching up on the local news. Will and the others should be back from their visit to Shepard's Rest to check out the lead on Kendrick Hyland. He was eager to hear what they'd found. But first, he had a letter to deliver.

A rather strange old crone had approached him as he left the Imperial Seat to head for the Imperial docks. She'd pressed the letter into his hand and told him rather imperiously never to let it out of his possession and to deliver it personally to High Matriarch Lenora of Dupree. And then she'd disappeared into the crowd at the docks without another word.

Curious to find out its contents, he made his way to the Heart house and was duly shown to Lenora's office. He went through the ritual of her asking how his trip had been and if the weather had been good for the crossing of the Abyssmal Sea. And then he took out the letter.

“This was given to me just before I left Koth with a request to deliver it to you.” He passed it to Lenora.

“Who's it from?”

“An old lady gave it to me. I got the impression she was not its author, but merely a messenger.”

“A mystery, then,” Lenora murmured as she broke the seal. She unfolded the parchment and read quickly, a look of dismay crossing her features.

“Bad news?” he inquired.

“Ygrielle, a powerful mage and old acquaintance of mine, has written to inform me that the magics she and I were hoping to prevent Rosana from learning have somehow been discovered by her, anyway.”

“Rosana, the young gypsy girl who cannot hit the broad side of a barn with a spell?” he asked, surprised.

“Her aim has improved greatly, and her nerves have steadied. She will make a fine combat healing caster in time.”

“And what dangerous magic has she unlocked?” he asked.

Lenora pursed her mouth, a sure sign that what words came next would be edited. “Ancestral magic from her familial line.”

“You know her family, then? I was under the impression she was one of your many orphans.”

“That is because I wished for the world to have that impression. Nay, I know full well who she is. And so do you.”

“Me?” He stared, surprised. “I know nothing of her!”

“You know a great deal about the daughter of Gregor and Ygrala Beltane. Gregor's wife was Ygrielle's daughter.”

“Rosana's grandmother wrote that letter to you?”

“Yes. And it is she who gave Rosana into my care, she who asked for my help in protecting Rosana from that which would awaken her ancient family magics.”

“Which are?”

“Death magics.”

He slammed back in his chair, stunned. “The child can cast death magic?”

“She couldn't when she left Dupree a few months back. But according to this missive, something has happened to unlock it in her.”

“And how would this Ygrielle know that Rosana has learned death magic?”

“You likely are familiar with Ygrielle by her nickname: the Blood Witch.”

Aurelius swore long and hard. The granddaughter of the Blood Witch herself was among the party of young adventurers he'd assembled? Great stars above, the fates really had been conspiring to influence events. The Blood Witch was said to be one of the most powerful magical researchers alive anywhere, although what exactly she researched was a matter of mystery and speculation. She was known to study gypsies, though.

“Well, well, well. They've a death caster among them, now, do they?” he ruminated. “I'd say the odds of success just went up for our young friends.”

Lenora shook her head. “They've just put a great light upon themselves that the Empire will not be able to ignore.”

“The Empire will have to catch them first,” he retorted.

“But can they stay one step ahead of Maximillian?”

“They must, Lenora. They must.”

“Promise me you will do everything in your power to help them,” she said urgently.

“I swear upon the noble blood of my forefathers.”

“We are all in this together now,” she muttered. “For better or worse. We shall all succeed or fail as one.”

*   *   *

Cicero breathed in the clean air and familiar scents of home. His kindari village was only a few leagues away now. It might be called the Sorrow Wold, but he knew every tree and trail of it and ran through it with joy in his heart. It had been a very long journey home from guarding the young mage, Raina, as she fled Tyrel a year ago.

Before long, he came to the clearing he sought. A house caught a stray shaft of sunlight, and a burly spider changeling looked up from splitting wood.

“Is she home?” Cicero asked, breathing a little hard. “I come from Dupree with news.”

The spider changeling pointed with his hatchet toward the front door and went back to hammering a wedge into a log.

Cicero knocked on the front door, and a female voice bid him enter. He stepped inside and bowed cautiously to a female spider changeling known to his kind as the Black Widow. He found her repugnant physically, and he was not fond of how she styled herself superior to the kindari in the area. They were all Children of Zinn, the Great Spider, after all. How was it that she was more special than his people? Just because her husband had been the spider speaker didn't make her the next speaker.

“What brings you to my parlor this fine day, young Cicero?”

Her sibilant syllables sent a shiver down his spine. He realized with surprise that several more spider changelings perched in chairs around the darkened room, silently listening. “I deliver a message.”

“From whom?”

“An ancient being on the dream plane called the Laird of Dalmigen.”

The black widow hissed in surprise. “Now there is a name I have not heard in a very long time. What is this message?”

“He sends you his greetings and bids me to tell you that a great conflict is coming. You and yours must be ready for it.”

“From whence comes this threat?” the widow asked tersely.

“He did not say. Only that you would know what must be done.”