1 The Dream Rider (23 page)

“You okay?” I yelled as the man began his attack on me. I
could see her nod slightly as I deflected a blizzard of volleys. Sparks split
off the metal blades like fireworks in July, each blow causing the crowd’s roar
to rise and fall.

I thought the guy would wear down from his relentless
attacks, but he did not. I saw a short window and brought my foot up quickly
and kicked him in the gut hard. The move surprised him and knocked him ten feet
back. He grunted hard, trying to catch his breath. For the brief reprieve, I
cast a quick glance down at Jonas’s platform. The men had him cornered and he
was swinging his sword around wildly, trying to keep them at bay.

My break was over and the angry guard flung himself at me
in a tirade even more ferocious than the previous. Before he reached me, his
charge stopped suddenly. His expression became puzzled as he looked down to see
the tip of a bloody sword sticking out of his mid-section. His head turned
around slowly. Nela was standing right behind him. She pulled on the handle of
her blade and the man fell over to the side.

The plasma wall shut off instantly. I had only one
thought.
Jonas.

“Finn!” Nela yelled at me. I looked back at her as I
neared the edge. She didn’t need to say anything. I understood.

I nodded and leapt hard off the platform, landing on a
bended knee just behind the three remaining imperial guards. Their heads
twitched around at the sudden movement to their rear. The two closest to me
left Jonas alone with the other giants. They had to be nearly seven feet tall
and contrary to the other two groups, all three carried swords that were almost
as long as I. Their reach alone was intimidating enough, but it was their
quickness that proved most shocking. I barely ducked beneath a blade as it cut
through the air just above me, vibrating loudly as it passed by.

I jumped quickly off both feet as the edge of the next
guard’s sword swung low at my legs. Just as I landed, the next strike was
coming at my head. I whipped my weapon up with two hands and deflected the
enormous blade just in time to kick the other guy in the ribs with a hard
sidekick. My foot knocked him back several feet and temporarily stunned him.
Again, I jumped high, twisting sideways through the air as I did. I could see
Jonas twenty feet away, still fighting off the emperor’s guard. For an old guy,
Jonas was holding
his own
pretty well. His technique
was solid and he was still quick.

My attention returned to my own problems. Both men were
charging at me now, from two different angles. If I waited, they’d have the
advantage. I had to go on the offense.

I darted at the guy coming from my left and launched at
him with a flying sidekick. He tried to stop short but my boot crashed into the
side of his face with enormous force. He staggered backwards as I turned my
focus to the other one who had reacted to the change in plan and was coming at
me full speed. I ran at him for a second and faked like I was going to jump
again, instead dropping to my side and sliding between his monstrous legs. I
slashed my sword across the back of his legs as I shot through the other side.
Blood oozed from the huge cuts on his legs, but he remained on his feet,
wincing only slightly.

I rushed at him again, flying through the air at
incredible speed. As I brought the blade down hard, he stepped aside and raised
his elbow into my gut. It felt like I’d been hit by a tank, and I crumpled to
the ground. He raised his sword and brought it down with a killing stroke
towards my neck. Fear coursed through me and in that second, I felt the power
grow stronger.

I flipped back onto my shoulders and kicked up with both
feet, striking him in the face with each heel. The force was so great that it
knocked him off his feet and into a somersault that ended with him on his back.
The metal floor thudded loudly as he crashed into it. His partner had joined us
and began to take a swing at me. He never landed the blow.

I grabbed the top of his metal breastplate and began
pounding his face and head with my bare hands. For several seconds, my hands
moved so fast even I could barely see them as they continued to cave in the
imperial guard’s metal helmet and the bones beneath. After what must have been
a hundred blows, his knees buckled and he collapsed to the floor.

The other had gotten up but his movement was too slow. I
grabbed my sword from the floor and jumped again, flipping over him. The second
I landed behind him, I jabbed the tip of my sword through his back and yanked
it out quickly. I instantly turned my attention to the last guard, not seeing
the man’s body hitting the floor behind me.

Jonas had seen what happened and was distracted for a
split second. It was enough of an opening for the remaining guard and the man
struck hard with the point of his blade, stabbing it into Jonas’s side.

“Jonas!
 
No!”
I yelled and took two giant steps, propelling myself at my friend’s attacker.
As I soared through the air, the man pulled his sword from Jonas’s body and
turned his head, but it was too late. In mid air, I spun my torso and brought
the sharp edge of my blade through his neck. The guard’s body wavered for a
second before falling over, the head toppling away and over the edge of the
platform. I dropped my weapon and rushed to Jonas who was lying on his side. I
lifted his head and looked into eyes that seemed surprisingly unafraid.

“Jonas,” I couldn’t stop the tears from welling up in my
eyes. “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry,” I repeated.

He smiled weakly and touched my cheek with a rugged hand.
“It’s okay, Finn,” he coughed.

“It’s not. I let you down,” I shook my head, fighting back
the tears.

“You haven’t let me down, Finn. I knew it was going to
come to this eventually. You are truly the one we have waited for. Now, it is
time for you to finish it. It is your destiny, my boy.”
 

“You can’t die,” I begged. “You’re the king. The people
need you.”
 

Silence surrounded the two of us as the crowd looked on,
uncertain of how they should react.

He forced a laugh amid the coughs racking his body. “They
will have a new leader. It is time for a changing of the guard. But always
remember what I told you.”
 
He swallowed
hard and closed his eyes for a moment, trying to muster whatever strength he
could. “You can do anything. The reason you are so powerful is because of your
belief. Deep down inside, your heart knows the possibilities are endless. The
dream only shows them to you.”
 

“Jonas, I don’t know if I can beat him,” I confessed.

“It’s okay, Finn. I know you can.”
 
He looked up to the second platform.
Nela was kneeling on the edge, sobbing. His eyes came back to me. “Take care of
her, Finn. She must lead the people now.”
 
The words came out in a gasped whisper just before his body went limp.

The king’s eyes stared lifelessly up at me and for the
first time since I had arrived on Sideros, I cried. I fought through the tears
and slipped my hands under his body, the superhuman strength coursing through
me made him feel as light as balsa. I turned around the stadium slowly, letting
every eye in the building get a good look.

“This is your king!” I yelled out for all to hear. “He
loved you. He loved this world. He would have laid down his life for any single
one of you.”
 

I stared into solemn faces. Some were riddled with guilt
and shame. “This is not the world he wanted for you,” I went on. “He dreamed of
a planet where the people had the freedom to choose their own path, not be
ruled by some tyrant. Honor your king,” I finished and murmurs filled the
arena.

“How dare you speak against the benevolent emperor who has
given you the gift of life, Finn McClaren,” Jari’s voice cut through
semi-silence. “This is treason!
 
And treason means death!”
 

I bent down and gently laid Jonas’s body on the floor then
stood back up to face the game master and his boss. Mallock’s eyes were narrow,
his face awash with anger. Jari stared at me accusingly.

I looked around at the bodies of the three guards on
platform then back up into the box. “Who will you send next to perform the
execution, great game master?” My question was layered with derision, a tone
that caused the audience to gasp at my disrespect. “The emperor’s guards are all
dead. Well, maybe there’s one up there that’s still alive, but lets face it,
he’s useless now.”
 
I smirked as I
made the last comment.

Jari’s face flushed bright red, but before he could retort
I shouted out so every soul in the building could hear me. “Why don’t you let
your blessed emperor do the honors, game master?”
 
The crowd instantly began to rumble, some whispering, others
loudly discussing what I’d just said. “I challenge Mallock to a fight to the death!”
 

A few moments passed and the audience started to get
louder and louder. Their voices becoming one as they united against the
emperor, finally standing behind me with one chant.
Bera.
To death.

The three platforms lowered and two-dozen guards rushed out
onto the floor with guns raised. They approached with caution, something that
amused me considering they could use bullets. I slowly raised my hands in
surrender. I felt a firm hand grab my wrists and force them behind my back and
into the cuff-like bonds they’d been using.

“Do you honestly think those things can hold me?” I teased
the man over my shoulder.

His face filled with fear and he clamped the things harder
against my skin before backing away quickly.

I
looked back up into the box, but Mallock and Jari had left. I wondered if I had
done the right thing. Jonas was gone. The thought caused another pang in my
heart. I glanced back at his body that was being scooped up carefully by some
of the soldiers. I couldn’t imagine how Nela was feeling. She was being
escorted out of the arena, head bowed,
her
face hidden
by a cascade of hair. She must have been inconsolable. My gut wrenched as I
thought of what it would be like to watch my own father die a violent death.

Someone
pushed me from behind, propelling me toward the massive gates. I could see
armed guards everywhere, but I could only hear my name.

Finn. Finn. Finn.

I
had won over the masses. They believed in me. Still, I had so many doubts.
Mallock had the same powers as me and had been using them much longer. I was no
match for him and I knew it. I guess I just hoped I would get lucky, but luck
had never been my thing. I glanced up at the still cheering crowd and looked
straight into the face of Tota. But it was not Tota. It was the next Tota. One
way or another, this madness had to end.

I passed through the doorway and into the antechamber. The
usual crowd of people was there, but now they were all asking me questions.
Some wondered if I would really fight the emperor. Others asked what I thought my
chances were against him, like it was some boxing match. Still more asked how I
felt about the death of Jonas. The last one caused me to pause unexpectedly and
one of the guards bumped into me.

“Jonas was your king and a good man. You should say his name
with respect and reverence.”
 
I
started at the man and he flinched away, terrified I would slip through the
circle of guards around me.

My mind drifted during the train ride back to the prison.
If I had been paying attention, I might have noticed that the driver had
steered the vehicle down a different set of tracks, leading away from the
holding area.

I finally realized we weren’t going back to the prison
after we went through a long curve I didn’t recognize. The train stopped
suddenly in an area that seemed almost abandoned. It resembled a worn down
subway station, with white tile covering the walls and a pair of concrete
staircases, one ascending up and the other going down.

“End of the line, boy,” one of the guards in the middle
car stood up and nudged me with the barrel of his gun.

“Not going to the suite?”
 
Shook his head. “And not the prison?”
 
The second question conjured the same
response.

“The emperor has a special room for you until he decides
what to do with ya.”
 
The end of
the barrel jabbed me hard in the kidneys. I obeyed and hopped down onto the
landing platform begrudgingly.

The men escorted me down the stairs on the left and into a
dark tunnel illuminated only by dusty florescent bulbs along the upper walls.
Damp, musty air filled my nostrils as we moved along the passageway. We passed
an iron door on the left with a small window in the top. I tried to look inside
but it was too dark within. Then we walked by another one on the right, then
the left, then right again. Through one of the windows I could hear the ghostly
sound of a woman’s voice groaning softly from the dreary darkness beyond the
bars.

The
guards seemed to be in a hurry to get me to our destination and picked up the
pace, ushering me along faster through the corridor. Perhaps the inmates in
this area struck fear even into their hearts. I figured we were in some kind of
maximum security
area, but I could not imagine that a
more stark and dreary place was necessary. The other prison was thoroughly
oppressive and depressing.

We
came to the end of the hall and made an abrupt turn to the right. One of the
cell doors was open, obscuring something just beyond. As the guards guided me
in, I tilted my head to see the room at the end of the passageway. There were
bright lights hanging from the ceiling, illuminating something like a bed or a
stretcher. That’s when I realized where I was. An asylum.

The door slammed hard behind me, and the guards quickly
disappeared. The sound of their boots and armor faded as the bright lights were
extinguished. Looking around, I noticed that my eyes had adjusted quickly to
the darkness. My vision was acclimating much faster to dark areas than it
normally did on earth. I knew cats had a similar ability to dilate their irises
in the darkness, giving them a distinct advantage during nocturnal activities.
At present, the newfound ability only helped me see my surroundings faster,
which were comprised of a roughly cut stone cell, a bucket, and a rag that I
assumed was meant to be a blanket. The place made my room in the prison seem
more like a five-star hotel.

Suddenly I realized the noises drifting into my cell were
the product of lamenting inmates, echoing down the hallway in a ghastly harmony
of groans and shrieks. I backed away from the door and found myself crouching
down against the cold, wet stone at the back of the tiny cell.
What did these
people do to deserve this kind of treatment?
It was a miserable existence,
and I knew I wouldn’t survive it for long in what must be the closest thing to
hell. I found myself hoping that maybe the prisoners were lobotomized, their
consciousnesses altered so that they didn’t really know where they were or how
they were being treated.

The last thought roused a great deal of anxiety inside my
heart.
Was
that how Mallock would repay my challenge? Stuff me down here, far away from
the view of the public, and cut off a section of my brain so I would never be a
nuisance again?
It seemed like a genuine possibility, and one that
terrified me to the core.

I’d studied a little about the kinds of things that were
done to “patients” of asylums back on Earth. Shock therapy, electrocution
therapy,
lobotomies
:
 
all had been used for a few decades in the middle part of
the twentieth century. Now those kinds of procedures were banned in most
places, considered too barbaric for even of treating those who society had
labeled as deranged.

More fears began to creep into my mind as a steady drip of
water fell from a crack in the jagged wall above me. I remembered seeing
pictures of a lobotomy procedure performed with something that looked like a
shiny ice pick. The doctor had gone into the patient’s brain through a soft
part of the skull directly underneath an eyelid. They pounded the point of the
object with a mallet like they would if they were building a shed. The thought
made me nauseous and I doubled over, almost sick to my stomach. “That’s not
going to happen,” I told myself in the darkness. “It can’t.” I wished I
was
certain.

Then another thought occurred to me. I could wake up. I
could get out of this place and never have to face whatever it was that Mallock
had in store for me. I didn’t have to be here. I just needed to find a way to
wake myself up.

“Wake up, Finn,” I urged. “Wake up. Wake up, Finn.”
 
My voice grew louder and more intense,
but nothing happened. I was still in the damp cell.

The wailing of the others continued to haunt the place,
filling it with misery. I leaned my head against the wall and closed my eyes. I
needed to stay calm. Getting anxious or worried would only make things worse. I
recalled something one of my professors had said. It was something about how
worry doesn’t help things. Dr. Edert. His kind, round face and beady eyes
smiled at me in the dark. I could hear his voice explaining that worrying about
things was like forcing your mind to experience the worst things life could
throw at you before having to experience them.

His words soothed me and I began to let go of the crazy
thoughts. The memory of my professor passed and my muscles relaxed as my mind
began to drift home, to my university, to my friends and family. I imagined
what they were doing at the moment, perhaps sleeping, working, or studying.

And here I was on an alien planet, a planet full of people
who had been taken prisoner by a wicked man with extraordinary powers. The
thought reminded me of my own powers. I thought about busting down the door and
making a break for it. But in the tight quarters of the passageways, I would be
an unmissable target for the guards. Even with my superhuman speed and
strength, I wasn’t bulletproof, and I doubted I could dodge every round.

“Jonas,” I said out loud, knowing he would never answer me
again. “What am I doing here? I can’t do this? I need to go home. If you’re out
there somewhere, I need to know what to do.”
 

His last words hung in my ears as I sat in the cold cell.
He’d told me to believe in myself, that there was no limit to the possibilities
of what I could accomplish.
That I had to let go of my
doubts.
It was easier said than done. I recounted recent events on Earth
where my old nemesis, doubt, had tripped me up:
 
the questions on my big test, not taking the shot in my
soccer game, asking out the girl. My whole life had been slowed down by doubt.

“Finn?” the static-riddled voice crackled in my head and I
wondered if I was already succumbing to whatever insanity possessed all the
other people around me. “Finn, can you hear me?”

“Sam? Sam, is that you?” My tone reeked of desperation.

 
“Yes, Finn.
It’s me. I tracked where they were taking you after you left the arena. The
signal is weak, but it appears they’re holding you in an area I’ve never heard
of before. It’s not listed on any of my schematics of the city.”
 

I touched a finger to the earpiece that still rested in my
ear. “It’s an asylum, Sam. It’s a place where they put the lunatics of the
planet, or the ones they really want to get rid of.” I wasn’t sure her robotic
mind would understand my explanation.

“An asylum? I didn’t know we had such a place here.”
 
She blew it off and changed subjects.
“Finn, you have to get out of there. Punch through the door and make your way
back out to the train. I can guide you from there.”
 

“I can’t, Sam,” I shook my head. “There will be dozens of
guards between here and the train. I can dodge some bullets if I have space.
But in these tight confines, I don’t think I can dodge any. There’s no way I
can escape.”
 

“Finn, you have to. I overheard Mallock and Jari talking
about their plans for you.”
 

I was overcome with hope and fear all at once. “What did
they say?”
 

I listened eagerly for her answer. After a second, her
voice crackled through the earpiece again, “Mallock will fight you.”
 

For a moment, I felt relieved. Even though I knew he was
stronger and more experienced, if he would fight me, I still had a chance.

“But,” her addition to the previous comment stemmed my
relief and my hopes began to sink as I anticipated something awful. “They are
going to drug you.”
 

“Drug me?”
 
That was something that hadn’t even come close to popping into my head.
“What do you mean, drug me?”

“They’re going to give you something that is a mixture of
a sedative and a hallucinogen.”
 
I
hoped that was all that would happen. But I knew what was coming next. “When
the drugs start to take effect, they will take you to the arena to fight the
emperor. You will not only be fighting Mallock, but your own mind as
well.”
 

I could hear footsteps coming from the other end of the
hall. “When is this going to happen?” I lowered my voice.

“Tomorrow,” she answered.

“Well, someone is coming now,” I explained hurriedly.

“They must be coming to give you a sedative for the night.
Whatever you do, Finn, don’t resist. They will make it worse on you if you try
to fight back now.”
 

“Thanks, Sam.”
 

I put my head in my hands as the footsteps drew closer and
closer. “Give me strength,” I whispered into the wet air. “Help me to be
strong. Remove my doubts. Help me believe.”
 

The door began to shake as the men outside began to unbolt
the locking mechanism. It swung open suddenly, letting in only a faint light
from the long, slender bulbs on the walls. The man in the doorway was a
silhouette against the pale illumination. But I knew who it was. Jari’s robes
flowed around him, making him appear larger than he was. He held his hands on
his hips and stared at me from the shadows across his face.