The Waking Dream
J.J. Polson
(Four Parts. 8000 words)
One
Dreams had always been Micah’s solace.
In them, there was no need to think about where he would find his next meal. About the smog-filled squatter village of San Sueno where he had been born. About his broken family. About a despairing existence he couldn’t control.
In the dream-world, Micah controlled everything.
The boy had been slow to accept that reality. For years, he had only dared to change minor details. He had learned to alter his clothing, the color of his hair and skin, and, eventually, any aspect of his physical appearance. In his dreams, Micah could become anyone.
Manipulating others came next. Fearing his changes would leak into the waking-world, Micah began with simple feats. The changing of a person’s voice. A humorous misstep in the crowded marketplace. A gust of wind that lifted hats and pried open shuttered windows.
Only by accident had the boy learned that his dreams had no effect on the waking-world.
A plague had swept through the crowded village, taking his infant sister. Micah had sat for hours atop his favorite vantage point, the tallest building in the San Sueno, observing those below. Usually, he would pick a man or woman and adopt their appearance. He enjoyed the feeling of being someone else more than anything. It was far better than being himself.
That somber night, however, Micah had wished to be alone. The thousands of people going about their day below had simply vanished.
He had awoken with a start, heart racing. For an instant, he thought everyone in San Sueno had disappeared. That he had made them all disappear. Relief arrived as the familiar noises of the village reached his ears, as his mother’s sleeping breath warmed the back of his neck.
After that night, everything had changed.
Over the next seven years, Micah learned to manipulate every aspect of his dream-world. The number of people, the shape and size of the buildings, the weather, the season. Nothing was beyond his imagination.
He stacked every building of San Sueno atop one another and jumped into the distant river. He flew with the birds, landing in the middle of the crowded market to wild applause. He became king of the village, clearing the streets of filth and crime. Just when it seemed that Micah had run out of ideas, another always arrived.
Then, on the day of his annual birthday festival, he saw a stranger.
Micah rubbed his eyes in disbelief. He knew everyone inside his dream. No one wore a dark cloak and concealed their face beneath a hood. As he stared at the stranger, he considered for the first time that he wasn’t alone in his dream-world.
An unsettling thought.
The party stilled upon Micah’s command. He rose from the center of the festivities and hovered above the repurposed market square. Then, he summoned the stranger to his side.
The stranger did not obey.
Frowning, Micah tried again. Still, the stranger refused his summons. The cloaked figure remained rooted to the ground, watching from below.
At the boy’s command, the village and its people disappeared. Gone as if they had never existed. The stranger remained.
“Who are you?” Micah asked, appearing before the stranger. “Why are you in my dream?”
“Your dream?” the figure questioned in an unfamiliar accent. The voice belonged to a woman. “This is only a subsection of The Dream, Micah of San Sueno.”
A sword appeared in Micah’s hand. “How do you know my name?”
The woman laughed. “I’ve been watching you for some time. It is only now that I’ve deemed you ready.”
“Ready for what?”
“To begin your training. Follow me.”
With that, the woman disappeared.
Micah stared at where she had been for a long moment before realizing that he knew where the woman had gone. He followed.
*
An instant later, Micah found himself in an unfamiliar place. A jungle.
He toes dug into warm dirt. Sunlight streaked through the gaps of the expansive canopy above. Entranced, the boy took in the brilliant trees and the twisting depths of the underbrush, wondering if he had come to the right place.
But where else could the strange woman have gone? He had felt … something … when she had disappeared. The residual trace of her presence.
She has to be here, he thought, scanning his surroundings. This is some kind of test.
Only after he had nearly given up, did Micah remember that he was still in the dream-world. He laughed to himself and willed the jungle away.
Nothing happened.
“I was correct,” the woman whispered into his ear. “You have never left San Sueno.”
Micah whirled about, summoned his sword. But the woman was gone.
“Why did you bring me here?” he asked, shuffling his bare feet, slowly rotating in place. He was determined not to let her catch him off-guard again. He didn’t like being made the fool – especially in the one place he always had control.
“A question I have already answered,” the woman replied from behind him. “Try another.”
Micah spun. Again, the woman was nowhere to be found. He bared his teeth, walked to the nearest tree, and placed his back against its trunk.
“Where are we?” he asked with confidence.
This time, the woman’s voice came from inside the tree. “Is that really all you can think of? All that you wish to know? Personally, I would want to know why this jungle doesn’t bend to your will.”
Frowning, Micah looked at the sword in his hand. The sword I brought into existence. He couldn’t change his surroundings, but it seemed he had retained some of his abilities. Perhaps if I can get her out of the jungle…
The boy tossed his weapon away, advanced five paces, turned about, and took a calming breath. Then, he raced forward, sprinting up the tree trunk as if it were the face of a building in San Sueno. It was something he had done hundreds of times before. Thousands.
Thus, it came as a surprise when the boy found himself falling back to the ground. It was even more of a shock when he landed on the jungle floor and pain exploded throughout his body. He had never felt pain in the dream-world before.
Micah lay helplessly on the ground, wondering if he would ever rise. When the woman appeared, he had his question ready. “Can I actually die here?”
She nodded. “A good question. A better lesson.”
He stared at her veiled face expectantly, but she didn’t elaborate. Finally, he sighed. “Can’t you just explain it to me?”
The woman shook her head. “I have already given you the appropriate question to ask.”
Fine. “Why can’t I control the jungle like San Sueno?”
“At last! I will tell you, but first, I want to hear your best guess.”
Micah narrowed his eyes.
“You are the one wasting time with foolish questions. Who knows when you will awaken? Perhaps I will never return and leave you wondering what could have been. Perhaps you will try to find me in search of the answer and get yourself killed. The Dream is a dangerous place after all.”
Micah tried to nod, only to remember that he couldn’t move. “Is it because I have never been here before?”
“A good guess but only part of the truth.” The hooded woman sat down beside him and took his hand in her own. “The answer is that my will is stronger than yours. You try to will the jungle away, and I will the jungle to remain. You dismiss gravity to run up a tree, I put it back into place. When Dreamers fight, it is always a battle of will.”
“How do I get stronger?”
The woman laughed as she examined his hand. “A poor question.”
“How will I find you again?”
“Remember that it was I who found you,” she said, pressing one of her fingers into his palm. “I will return to train you.”
Micah awoke with a start. The pain from his fall was gone.
*
The next night Micah awaited the cloaked woman in San Sueno.
He did not wait idly.
Upon entering The Dream, he banished the city’s countless inhabitants and stacked the misshapen buildings atop one another. It was an exercise he had completed countless times before, but now it once again held purpose.
As he distanced himself from the building-tower, Micah exchanged the worn dirt of the village floor for an uneven sea of sharp rocks. He had spent the entirety of the waking-day wondering how the woman had made him feel pain. If it had even been her at all.
Micah exhaled. Then, he raced across the hard ground and up the face of the colorful tower. He moved faster than he had in years, testing the limits he had long since thought were set in place. Upon reaching the peak of the tower, he spread his arms and allowed gravity to pull him back to the surface.
As he fell, he willed the pain to come. He wanted to feel it.
When he hit the ground, an ash-colored cloud rose around him.
Micah stared at the sky in relative disappointment. The impact of his landing had formed a crater, but he had felt nothing.
The woman appeared on the edge of the crater. As ever, a raised hood cast her face in shadow. “That was rather interesting. What did you learn?”
A column of rising rock pushed the boy to his feet. “That I can’t hurt myself.”
The woman shook her head. “That is false, Micah of San Sueno. You did not truly want to hurt yourself. Your subconscious took control.”
“But … I willed myself to feel pain.”
She pointed to the crater. “This is an unnatural result for such a fall. You did not truly desire to feel pain. A small part of you feared the sharp rocks.”
Micah frowned. “You’re saying that I willed the rocks away?”
“Another poor question,” the woman sighed. “I have much to teach you.”
“Are we returning to the jungle?”
“No. This lesson shall be taught in San Sueno. Follow me.” As the strange woman walked toward the building-tower, the rocky ground turned to a beach of white sand.
The woman came to a stop in the shadow of the leaning tower and regarded its peak in silence. Micah stood next to her, trying not to stare at the unnatural darkness that veiled her face. He wondered why she had not yet shown it to him.
“Stand here,” she instructed, taking his hand and pulling him into place. “Don’t move.”
Micah watched the woman walk to the other side of the tower and disappear behind its base, a pink colored house that was the oldest building in San Sueno. Micah always put it at the bottom of the building-tower, knowing it had survived so long for good reason.
He stepped back in surprise when a gaping hole appeared in the pink house. On the other side, the woman raised a gloved finger and pointed at him. “I said not to move.”
Wordlessly, the boy retook his original position.
“Focus on the top of the tower,” she commanded.
Looking up, Micah distinguished the tiny shack he had slept in as a child. Even though his mother had found them a small room in one of the high-rising buildings years before, he still considered the make-shift house his real home.
“I want you to will it to stay in place. While you do this, I will attempt to make it fall.” He could sense the woman’s smile. “Are you ready, Micah of San Sueno?”
Micah took a deep breath, concentrating on the shabby building atop the tower. “Ready.”
The woman’s will crashed upon him like a great wave, nearly knocking him off-balance. Somehow, Micah managed to retain his footing and keep the building in place. It felt as if he was a dam holding back a raging river, a sapling fighting to stay rooted in the face of a harsh wind.
After a moment of struggle, he grinned. I’m doing it. I’m holding her off!
As if the woman could sense his sudden confidence, her will inexplicably divided into three distinctive forces. Micah stumbled backwards as the woman’s strength easily overwhelmed him and sent the shack flying into the distance.
“Not bad,” she remarked, appearing beside him. “Then again, I have rarely been wrong when assessing a potential Dreamer.”
A Dreamer? She had used that word before.
“For your efforts, I will allow you to ask one question before our time is at an end. I will answer whatever you ask, however pointless.”
Micah chose one of the many questions he had been considering. “What is your name?”
“An interesting choice,” she mused. “My name is Adelyn.”
Then, she was gone.
Two
The next three nights Adelyn did not appear in the Dream.
On the fourth night, Micah decided to find her.
Unfortunately, the boy didn’t know where to begin. He sat atop the highest building in San Sueno and watched the people go about their daily routines, deep in thought.
Was this another test? Did Adelyn want him to look for her? She had told him the Dream was a dangerous place, meaning it would be foolish to seek her out. But her unexpected arrival had unlocked something deep within him, the desire to learn more.
For so long Micah had believed that he completely controlled the dream-world. The woman’s appearance had shattered that illusion. Sure, he could control San Sueno and its surroundings when alone, but the overcrowded settlement was only one mark on a larger map.
How big was the Dream? How many other Dreamers were there?
Micah wondered if Adelyn had somehow fallen into trouble. Perhaps she had not returned because she could not return. Perhaps something had killed her. But what? Adelyn had never explained why the Dream was dangerous, what to look out for, how to run, how to hide.
“I’m going to find her,” the boy proclaimed at last.
He slid from the roof of the building and glided to the ground below. Upon landing, he dismissed the city and reconstructed the scene of his most recent training exercise.
In the shade of the building-tower, Micah searched for traces of the woman among the beach of white sand. It was the only place he could think to look. He wasn’t sure if too much time had already passed, or if time even mattered.
Presently, Micah found what he was looking for. He stalled upon the sand, focused on the shards of Adelyn’s presence that remained. He thought again of how he had managed to track her to the jungle, concluding that his actions had been instinctual. The traces Adelyn had left behind this time were far weaker. Still, he felt he should be able to…
There.
Micah willed himself away. Hopefully, to the place where Adelyn awaited him.
The boy found himself standing in a foreign village under a cloudy sky. The dirt streets were lined with small, primitive structures to either side. An icy wind laden with rain greeted him.
Micah willed the chilling wind away. Nothing happened. If anything, it grew stronger. He tried for a second time and was rewarded with a distinctive sound – a distant chorus of shouting voices.
It has to be a test, the boy reasoned. Adelyn wanted the bad weather to remain in place. Perhaps she intended for it to throw him off balance. Micah garbed himself in a thick black cloak, donned the hood, and headed toward the source of the noise.
The village swiftly turned into a town. As Micah walked, the roads widened and the makeshift structures gave way to larger ones. Despite the settlement’s size, there were no traces of other life.
Micah wondered if the Dream was actually void of life, if he subconsciously willed the residents of San Sueno to fill the dream-world every night.
Then what is the sound ahead?
Soon, the boy was able to discern the source of the noise – the chaotic rumblings of a crowd. He began to pick out individual words as he neared; however, he couldn’t understand any of them. It took him a moment to realize that they were spoken in a different tongue.
At last, Micah came upon the town’s central square where a large mob was gathered, shouting in their strange language. He reappeared atop one the tall stone buildings that ringed the town proper to gain a better understanding of the scene.
The object of the mob’s scorn was obvious. A young girl. Tied to a metal pole rising from a wooden platform in the center of the square. Food and rocks assailed her bruised figure, expressing that which the assuredly-vile words of the crowd could not alone. A resounding cheer rose from the mob as a rock grazed the girl’s brow and blood began to flow down her pale face.
I have to help her!
Micah appeared on the platform. The crowd silenced. The boy discovered that he could not will the girl’s bonds away. He summoned a knife and began to cut her free.
When the girl turned to face him, Micah froze. Her features had morphed into that of a nightmare. An angled face framed by onyx hair. Gray skin crossed with forking black veins. As the girl smiled, the whites of her eyes filled with black and her pupils ignited with flame.
Her voice was not human. “You’re not who I was expecting.”
Micah doubled over as an invisible force struck him in the chest. The next blow launched him across the town square and through the wall of one of the buildings. The boy disregarded the blinding pain, forced himself to open his eyes.
I have to get out of here!
Desperately, he willed himself back to San Sueno.
But, like a choking embrace, a will stronger than his own held him firmly in place.
The demon stood before him, ebony wings sprouting from her back. A twisting sword with a blazing tip appeared in her hand. “Prepare to die, Dreamer.”
Somehow, Micah managed to avoid the first blow. The heat of the wicked blade seared his flesh as it flashed by. He rolled away from the next strike, watching with wide eyes as the sword burned through the wooden floor.
Summoning a knife to his hand, Micah surged to his feet and buried it in the demon’s back. The creature screeched, rocking the uncertain walls.
He tried in desperation to will himself to the safety of San Sueno.
“There is no escape, Dreamer,” the creature hissed.
Just before her blade struck, Micah dismissed a fraction of the wooden flooring beneath him and dropped into the darkness below.
The boy landed lightly on his feet and kept moving, surmising that he had descended into some sort of cellar. As the creature roared above, he dismissed the wall to his left and created a narrow stairway that would lead him back to the town square.
I have to get out of here. But how? She’s stronger than me. Revelation came as he climbed the stone stairs. I need to outsmart her!
Micah emerged from the ruined building and sprinted into the crowd. He glanced back to see that the demon had taken to the grim skies. At a piercing cry, the expressions of the townsfolk turned to the fury and weapons appeared in their hands.
Cursing, the boy willed the ground beneath him to rise. He increased his pace, racing across the walkway of earth that appeared just as each foot fell. Sensing movement, he leapt from the floating path and onto the roof of the adjacent building, narrowly avoiding the winged demon.
The creature alighted before him a heartbeat later, blazing sword held high.
When the demon struck, he was ready. Micah flipped backward through the air and relocated the buildings from the town proper atop the creature just as he cleared the roof.
Micah returned to San Sueno, gasping for air. He stumbled through the white sand as sudden pain assailed his body. Grimacing, he put a hand to the side of his face and recoiled upon realizing that the demon’s sword had burnt his skin.
Only by chance did the boy avoid the demon’s next blow, sliding through sand he had instinctively turned to a river of mud. With a petrifying screech, the creature rose on its wings into the air.
Micah whirled, summoned his sword to face his foe.
Only, the creature was gone…
Not gone. She’s realized her previous error. She knows she is more powerful…
The ground beneath the boy’s feet entrapped him. Micah’s attempt to flee was blocked. Helplessly, he watched as the winged demon curtailed its ascent and dove headfirst, blade pointing directly downward.
Then, Adelyn was there.
The cloaked woman flashed across the sky, spearing the creature with her blade in midflight. Entangled, the two beings crashed to the ground and rolled across the beach toward the building-tower. As they neared the chaotic structure, a great muddy hand emerged from the ground and tossed Adelyn into the tower’s pink base.
The creature regained her feet, black blood pouring from a deep wound in her side. Her crazed shout shook the makeshift tower, and the burning blade reappeared in her gray hand. The demon raced forward, spewing dozens of harsh sounding words in an alien language.
Adelyn was not fazed.
Micah watched in awe as the woman effortlessly avoided a series of rapid blows, smoothly guiding her feet across the earth. The demon howled in rage. Her strikes began to blur, coming at such a speed that Micah could not track with his eyes.
Adelyn fought the creature in the shadow of the tower. The sound of clashing steel filled the air.
At long last, Adelyn took advantage of her wounded foe. The Dreamer spun around a heavy blow and severed the creature’s arm with a fluid counter-strike. In the same movement, a glistening blue sword appeared in her free hand and decapitated the creature.
Adelyn appeared before Micah bearing the demon’s head on a wooden spear. After planting its end in the ground, she sat on the ground where the demon had trapped the boy in the mud. He felt the heat of her glare despite the shadows that veiled her face.
“You are lucky to be alive, Micah of San Sueno.”
Micah tried to will himself free but faced what he now knew to be the will of Adelyn. He frowned. This was not entirely his fault. “You should have told me where you were.”
To his surprise, the woman sighed. “I know.”
Adelyn released her hold and allowed Micah to free himself. Together, they stood before the severed head perched atop the pike.
“What is she?” he asked, studying the demon’s nightmarish black eyes.
“First, you will answer my question. How did you come to that town?”
“Just like before … with the jungle,” Micah replied, confused. “I could sense where you had gone.”
“Had you been before today?”
Micah shook his head.
Adelyn exhaled. “That,” she said, pointing to the head watching over them, “was an Envoy of the Night. They hunt Dreamers by–”
He cut her off. “Why do they hunt Dreamers?”
“Do not interrupt your teacher, Micah. The why is not your concern at the moment. Not when time is now so short,” the woman snapped.
What does she mean by that? The boy didn’t dare to ask.
“Micah, you are naturally gifted in the art known as tracking. That is the only way you could have discovered where I had gone after so much time had passed,” Adelyn explained. “Tracking is the reason I do not travel directly from my home to San Sueno. When traveling within the Dream, it is best to move rapidly between a series of locations. It makes it much harder to be followed.”
She paused upon seeing his expression and twirled the first two finger on her left hand. “Ask.”
“So, the Envoy tracked you to that town. Why?”
“A good question. The Envoy sensed that I was trying to find or that I was overseeing the training of a new Dreamer. When a Dreamer’s talent is first revealed, it is usually not obvious. For months or perhaps even for years, there are only small signs to go by …”
Micah recalled his first experiences in the Dream, his fear of changing others in the waking-world.
“… making it hard to find the actual Dreamer. Sometimes, an inexperienced Dreamer turns the Dream against themselves and authors their own death. Thus, the Envoy set a trap.” He sensed a slight smile behind her shadowed face. “It was not a very good trap mind you, but it seems it was more than enough to convince a noble boy to intervene.”
Micah hung his head. “I didn’t know.”
“It is not your fault,” Adelyn said, placing her hand atop his own. “I made a mistake by not preparing you for the world outside San Sueno. I thought I could keep you secret for some time yet. I thought – I wished – we would have more time.”
The dead creature’s sword appeared in her hand. “This sword was forged within the Dream. That makes it a true weapon. Unlike a weapon willed into existence, a true weapon can defy even the strongest wills.”
Micah retreated when she extended the seemingly dormant blade to him, earning a wry laugh. “Take it, Micah of San Sueno. It will protect you in your journey to come.”
Skeptically, the boy reached out and claimed the weapon. The instant he gripped the ebony hilt, the edge of the sword burst into flames.
“Good. It has accepted you as its wielder. You must have impressed it during your battle.”
Momentarily mesmerized by the enchanted sword, the boy looked up in sudden alarm. “Did you say my … journey to come?”
Adelyn nodded. “There is a reason Dreamers hide their homes and their faces within the Dream. As soon as the Envoy arrived in San Sueno, the city was compromised. Agents of the Night will soon arrive at your home in the waking-world. Since they have seen your face, it will not take them long to find you.”
Micah dropped the blade into the sand and it disappeared. “What are you saying?”
“I’m saying that when you wake, you must leave San Sueno. And that you must go alone…”
Three
Micah woke long before the sun rose.
Everything had changed. The Dream had transformed from a place of solace into one of peril. Now, impossibly, his actions there had endangered his home in the waking-world.
The boy stared at the cracked ceiling, listened to the sounds of his mother sleeping in the cot on the other side of the cramped room. Turning over, he didn’t see the bulky shape of her latest friend Keir beside her. Micah didn’t mind that she was seeing men again; his father had abandoned them shortly after the death of his sister. There were plenty of worse men than Keir the fisherman.
Finding her alone made his decision all the more difficult. If he obeyed Adelyn’s orders, she would wake up without knowing that he would never return to San Sueno. She would think that he had gone to find work in the city, but when he didn’t return by nightfall, she would begin to worry. Soon, she would have half the town looking for him.
Micah bit his lower lip, remembering the night his sister had died seven years before. His mother had told him then that he was all she had left. As tough as it was to leave, Micah knew it would be even harder if he left without saying goodbye.
It didn’t take long to pack his things. After only a few moments, he had gathered everything he held dear in the waking-world: his second shirt, the blanket his mother had sewn him, and an engraved knife that his father had once gifted him. Lastly, he stuck his arm through the small hole in the wall and retrieved the bag where he cached what little coin he had managed to retain.
As the first rays of the sun crept through the cloth curtains, Micah stood at the door. A part of him knew disobeying Adelyn was foolish, but he had made up his mind. He couldn’t leave his mother all alone without telling her anything. He wouldn’t.
Gently, he shook her awake. “Mother, I have to go away for a while. I can’t tell you why, and I can’t tell you where I’m going. It’s for our safety…”
*
When his calloused feet stepped into the street a half-hour later, Micah could feel his mother watching him from the window above. She had handled the news better than he had expected. Of course, she made him promise that he would return. She had seemed understanding while he spoke, but Micah knew that she had been holding back tears.
In his heart, he hated himself for leaving her.
But he knew it had to be done. Leaving San Sueno was the only way to keep her safe.
He took at last look back. One day, I will return. I swear it!
Micah traversed the shadowed streets, features hidden beneath the hood of his tattered cloak. His thoughts drifted, replaying his narrow escape from the Envoy the night before. He realized now what he hadn’t then – he had nearly been killed. If Adelyn hadn’t saved him, he would never have woken up again. He had been a fool to go looking for the woman. She had warned him.
What was I thinking? I am a terrible student…
Despite the early hour, the streets of San Sueno buzzed with activity.
Micah expertly navigated the crowd, weaving through the mass of people on his way to the docks. He only stopped once, to look at the spot where his first home had once stood. Of course, the shack had long since been torn down, but in his mind, he could still see where it had been.
It was only then that Micah finally accepted that he was leaving San Sueno.
By the time the river came in sight, the sun was high overhead. Micah watched the distant stream of ships with renewed interest. He had come to the docks many times before, always imagining the world beyond San Sueno. Of course, he had never dreamed that he would one day explore it.
There had been no need.
The river and its countless ships brought the world to San Sueno. The settlement’s position on the river was the reason it had grown at such a rapid pace. Goods from all across the world flooded the docks, were sold to merchants, and eventually bought by the settlement’s residents.
Growing up, Micah had marveled at the oddities and strange trinkets peddled by the city’s merchants. He had never had enough money to buy anything extravagant, but he had certainly acquired anything of interest he had seen within the Dream.
He wandered the docks aimlessly, searching for the symbol Adelyn had drawn in the sand just before disappearing. It looked like a half-open eye that had been rotated sideways. She had called it a gateway but hadn’t explained why or even offered Micah a chance to ask. She had said only that the man who would arrange his travel would rendezvous at the strange symbol.
Adelyn had also counseled caution. She had warned him that the Agents of Night would arrive by ship, but she hadn’t been certain when. There was also a matter of running into Keir returning with his morning haul. Put simply, it was best that no one saw him leave San Sueno.
Micah pulled the dark hood lower over his eyes as he continued to search.
He found the symbol by accident. Staring at a steaming plate of fish, Micah saw the sideways eye staring back at him from an occupied chair at the adjacent merchant stall, sewn onto the shoulder of a heavy-set man’s black cloak. It was slightly different than the one Adelyn had shown him, but he reasoned that it couldn’t be anything else.
Just to be sure, the boy approached the seated man cautiously. He took one of the warped seats at the edge of the wooden serving bar and waited.
The man was large with a fitting round face, a freshly shaven head, and an unruly black beard. He didn’t appear to notice Micah as he attacked a plate of fried fish, laughing loudly at jokes from the shop owner between bites.
After a few moments, Micah sighed and moved to the seat beside the man.
It didn’t help.
Micah hesitantly tapped the man’s broad shoulder. “Adelyn sent me.”
The man turned to face him, blue eyes narrowing. “Don’t you know its rude to interrupt a man while he’s eating?”
Micah shied away in the instant before the man emitted a thunderous laugh. The man snapped his fingers to get the shop owner’s attention, pointed to his plate and then to Micah.
“You best eat something before we go. Ship leaves in an hour,” he whispered once the other man was out of earshot. “You can call me Diego.”
*
Micah had never been on a ship before.
He spent his first hours sitting upon the wooden rail, watching San Sueno disappear piece by piece. All too soon, the city was gone. An unfamiliar stretch of overgrown fields sprinkled with twisting trees assumed its place.
The ship’s small crew worked around the statuesque boy, giving him an obvious and wide berth. He wondered what they thought of him. Diego had decreed the ship safe, but Micah didn’t even know if he could even trust the odd man.
Lost in thought, he turned at the sound of a strange voice.
“You’re taking this pretty well.”
The voice belonged to a woman he had never seen before. Her slender figure was wrapped in a red cloak, a strange design on the shoulder obscured by her lengthy black hair. Her blue eyes regarded him with a subtle intrigue. Her red lips were set in a slight smirk.
Was she dangerous? Had the Agents of Night found him so easily? Micah didn’t think so. The woman looked familiar. Although … he couldn’t place where he had seen her before.
Micah reached into his ragged cloak, wrapped his fingers around the hilt of his knife. “Who are you?”
“Thankfully, I’m not your enemy. If I were, you’d be dead, sinking to the bottom of the river,” the woman grinned, tossing the dark hair from her shoulder. “You can call me Kara.”
Micah studied the now-visible golden symbol on the woman’s coat, then back to her face. “You’re … before at the stall … you were a…” he managed uncertainly.
Kara’s grin broadened as he loosened his grip on the concealed knife. “Adelyn said you were a slow learner.”
“How?”
“How does the sun know to rise and set? How does rain know to fall?” Kara riddled. “For now, just know that I am your Guardian. I am responsible for keeping you alive in the waking-world.”
Frowning, Micah turned back to his intricate inspection of the wide river. While he had been focused on the woman, the boat had sailed through a bend, bringing a maze of stone ruins into sight. “How did you get to San Sueno so quickly?”
“Isn’t that obvious? I was already there,” Kara replied smoothly. “The first night Adelyn made contact with you, I boarded a ship from Rio Azul to the north. She told me to wait before introducing myself, hoping to keep you young a little while longer. That is something I admire about her – she always puts the needs of others before her own.”
“You can speak to her?” Micah asked. “How?”
“How indeed? You certainly do have many questions, my little Dreamer.” The dark-haired woman laughed. She reminded him more and more of the rumbling man he had met in the bar on the docks. “Adelyn is strong in the Touch. If she has made contact with a person in the waking-world, she can find and enter their dreams. That is how.”
The scattered ruins soon gave way to the shells of countless stone buildings. As Micah examined the structures, he felt the peculiar sensation of being watched.
“A dark place,” Kara said simply. “No ship has dared to dock there for centuries. I don’t believe in ghosts, but I have been wrong before.”
Micah nodded. “Who hasn’t.”
In silence, they watched the ancient city pass. It was only as night began to fall, that Micah thought to ask perhaps the most important question.
“Where are we going?”
“Somewhere safe.” The Guardian grinned, revealing a row of flawless white teeth. “I’m sure Adelyn will tell you. She loves to answer questions.”
*
Micah waited for Adelyn atop the ship’s central mast. He had commanded the wind and the flowing river beneath him to stop, bringing the wooden vessel to a halt. It had been hours since the ship had passed by the ruined city, but Micah had decided to create a rough replica on the non-distinct shoreline. He was near the point of exploring it when the cloaked woman appeared.
Adelyn floated on the air before him, her legs crossed and her dark cloak still. She stared at him for a long moment before speaking. “I see that you have followed my instructions and made contact with your Guardian. That means you are safe. For now.”
While aboard the ship in the waking-world, Micah had thought long about what he would say to Adelyn when he saw her again. He had realized he was angry with her. “You should have warned me of what was outside of San Sueno. You should have told me what could happen!”
Just as she was about to respond, he cut her off.
“You could have at least taught me why you hide your face,” Micah growled. “I could still be in San Sueno right now. I wouldn’t have had to leave everything behind.”
“Micah–”
He wasn’t finished. Not yet. “I can’t ever go back, can I? Not even in the Dream. San Sueno is lost to me forever!” That revelation had been the hardest to swallow. After he said it aloud, Micah felt his pent-up anger dissipate. It left him hollow inside.
“No,” Adelyn replied softly. She bowed her head. “They will be watching. Agents of the Night in the waking-world and Envoys within the Dream.”
Micah appeared on the ship’s deck, subconsciously steering the vessel towards the ancient city. He didn’t know why he simply didn’t will himself there. For some reason, he wanted to feel the dirt of the shoreline between his toes.
“You’re right to blame me,” Adelyn said as they neared the shore. “Everything that has happened is my fault. Will you forgive me, Micah?”
“Do I have a choice?” he asked as the boat crashed into the dirt with a dull thud.
Without waiting for a response, Micah left the ship’s deck and appeared on the rocky shore, his eyes fixed upon the abandoned city in the distance.
Adelyn walked beside him. “There is always a choice, Micah. If you do not wish for me to teach you, I will leave. Your Guardian will protect you until its death.”
Shaking his head, Micah kept his focus ahead. “I won’t last long without you. They won’t stop looking for me. Eventually, they will find me, and they will kill me. Their just like us, aren’t they? Envoys and their Agents. Dreamers and their Guardians.”
“Yes.”
He paused as they crested the riverbank, then proceeded to walk among the ruins. Since Micah had not seen the ancient city in great detail, he crafted their surroundings as they progressed. For some reason, he imagined the path beneath their feet to be made of smooth stone. Somehow, he knew that the lost city had once been an important one.
“It would have happened anyway,” he continued as they walked side by side. “They would have found me in San Sueno the same way you did. After so long of thinking I was alone in the Dream, I would have betrayed myself as a Dreamer eventually.”
Micah stopped in the shadow of a grand structure. Ahead was a set of wide stone stairs leading to an entryway supported by three thick columns. Sunlight sparkled as it struck the renovated dome he had placed atop the building. At a thought, rows of intricate carvings began to appear, spiraling around the now-refined columns.
Turning, he saw Adelyn staring at the rapidly-evolving structure in awe.
“Well? Am I right?” he asked.
The cloaked woman regained her composure and nodded. “Aye. It was only a matter of time. As I said before, there are always signs when a new Dreamer is born. With my abilities, I can sense them better and earlier than most.”
“Then, I would be foolish not to forgive you.” Micah extended his hand. “I want to master the Dream, and I want you to teach me.” For a heartbeat, he paused but decided to go forward. “There is only one condition – you have to answer any question I ask truthfully … within reason of course.”
He could sense her smile as she gripped his hand with her own. “Deal.” She twirled the first two fingers on her left hand. “Ask away.”
“Why do the Envoys and their Agents hunt Dreamers?”
He felt her smile fade. “Because our kind is dangerous to them.”
“How many Dreamers are there?”
It was some time before Adelyn responded. “We are the last of them.”
Four
As always, Rio drew Bencic into the Dream.
The Envoy appeared as a being of shadow, distorting every feature of his body simultaneously, changing shape with each beat of his steady heart. Indigo had never understood the risks of being careless, and now she was dead. Rio rather enjoyed living.
He was still unsure how the death of a fellow Envoy made him feel. Truthfully, he had been quite surprised when she survived the Great War. Indigo had never been much of a warrior, somehow managing to ambush a powerful Dreamer and take their blade for her own. With such a weapon of power, only a fool could die.
But … of course that was what she had been. Her head had been stuck on a pike by the Dreamer in the sand. Indigo had died bearing an expression of surprise, as if she hadn’t seen her end coming. Rio wondered if the Dreamer was watching. He hoped she was. He hoped she would spring from the ground with her blade of ice and try to end him as well.
He had grown rather tired of chasing her. It was so … boring.
Finding a single woman who could change her appearance in a world of millions was highly unlikely. Indigo’s death was the first development they’d had in countless years. Still, it would be more than worthwhile if he was the one who managed to end the Dreamers for good.
At a whimper, Rio turned to see his Agent kneeling on the ground before him. Bencic was wise to be afraid. All it would take was a single thought and the man would never again wake. Rio had been known to kill the expendable Agents, a fact Bencic knew.
Fortunately, he liked Bencic.
“Tell me what you have learned, my agent,” he said bluntly, his voice unbearably deep. “Tell me that you have discovered the source of Indigo’s curiosity.”
“My lord Envoy,” the man replied, speaking to the sand.
Rio groaned. “We’ve been over this before. Formalities are for the Center.”
Bencic looked up at Rio’s shapeless body. The man positioned his beady eyes carefully, trying to avoid staring at the dead Envoy’s severed head. Rio considered moving away from the remains of Indigo … but what fun would that be? He glided to the left and ran a shadowed hand through Indigo’s thick hair. It was more affection than he’d ever shown her in life.
“Lord Envoy,” Bencic finally continued. “There are intriguing signs here in the city. I can say for a fact that a Guardian was here not too long ago. I sensed their presence on the docks.”
The Agent knew enough to pause when Rio scratched at his chin, considering the statement. A Guardian? How did the Dreamer manage to find one? If true, it would lend support to the old adage of a hidden faction of Dreamers and their shape-shifting pets.
That was troubling.
Then again, the Dreamer was nothing if not resourceful. If she had come here and brought a Guardian along, then there was a good reason to do it. Likely, there was only one.
Rio turned to the dead Envoy. Perhaps I do owe you something after all, Indigo.
“I assume they were already gone by the time you arrived?”
Bencic nodded feverishly. “I was able to place him as a burly man with long black hair …”
Pointless, Rio sighed inwardly as the man continued to speak. Wait. Had he missed something in the man’s ramblings?
“What did you just say?” the Envoy snapped.
“Several people on the dock mentioned he was seen with a boy,” Bencic repeated.
Rio smirked, toyed with Indigo’s hair. It seemed the foolish Envoy had been on to something after all. As he expected, another Dreamer had emerged. That was the only rational explanation for why the assumed last Dreamer had gone to so much trouble.
Suddenly, things had become significantly more interesting.
“You’ve done well, my agent,” Rio said at last. “You know what to do next.”
“Yes, Lord Envoy,” Bencic nodded. “I will follow the Guardian.”
At a snap of Rio’s fingers, the man vanished from the Dream.
With at thought, Rio brought a wooden chair into existence. He sat beside the dead Envoy and looked at the rough outline of the distant river.
“What do you think?” he asked Indigo. “Should I tell the others?”
He nodded at her imagined response.
“You’re right of course.”
With that in mind, Rio summoned Bencic back into the Dream. He observed the frightened look in the man’s eyes with amusement in the instant before he dismantled his body.
“I’m sorry old friend,” Rio said when it was done. “I can’t risk you telling anyone else. The glory of the last Dreamer’s death belongs to me.”
END OF PART ONE