Dreamlands (32 page)

236

SAMOJIROU

I FELT that I was part of a nightmare, searching for my lover and never finding him. I walked through an empty level before I found the stairs to another one. I smelled blood and knew I had been there before.

There were bodies scattered about, those dead at my hand and in the panic that followed my attack. I climbed up, my eyes adjusting easily to the dark. I slipped out on what was labeled B level. It was empty, the lights still flickering oddly, and I wandered, feeling like a ghost. I found a human cowering in the corner of a room. He smelled of fear and smoke and other things, and I didn’t like it. I hauled him to his feet.

“Where are the rest?” I demanded.

“I don’t know,” he wailed.

“Where?” I repeated.

“They… they―”

“I am looking for someone,” I said, my voice dangerously soft.

“Not me, not me,” he screeched. “I don’t know!”

“I think that you do,” I said.

I just wanted to see what he did when I said that. Unfortunately it was to start screaming hysterically and try to tear himself out of my grasp, urinating in his fear. I let him go, annoyed that I had wasted my time with him.

On my way out, I caught a glimpse of myself reflected in a polished section of the wall. What I saw stopped me, stunned. It explained to me the fright the human had shown when I had questioned him.

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DREAMLANDS

My freedom hadn’t been without a price. What stared back, even without the distortion from the metal surface, was a monster. I looked like one of the more traditional
Noh
masks. I was whiter than the makeup Keno wore as Sakura. I had the horns and nose of a
tengu
. I looked down at the claws I just noticed I had, wondering how I could have missed them before. I was horrific; I could see why my lady and any of the others hadn’t mentioned it to me. I was seeing it, and I could barely believe it myself. My heart stopped when I pictured the fear Keno would feel because of this. This was my punishment, the price I paid for leaving the Dreamlands.

I traced my steps back to the stairwell and found that I had missed a level in my original search. I went to what was labeled C level and found a number of humans there. I walked out amid their screams and wasn’t surprised to see that McGann was there, trying to keep the sheep in order.

“Where is Keno-chan?” I demanded.

She looked at me and flinched. “I don’t know.” I loomed over her, angry. I reached out and grabbed her, pulling her closer to me. I ignored the moans of fear from the rest of the humans and the one idiot who tried to attack me. I flung him across the room. McGann was fearless, though, and I admired her for that.

“Where is he?”

“I sent him off with Wolf,” McGann said. Her eyes drifted over to a pair of men. They were staring at the two of us. I wouldn’t trust them, because they reminded me of
eta
and other unclean things. “It was safer.”

Another one of the humans tried to attack me, and I slashed at him with my sword. He fell back with a scream, clutching at his arm.

He was lucky I didn’t take his head.

“Stop it!” McGann shouted. She turned to me. “The only thing that is keeping us alive is the fact that most of the other Trustees don’t want to initiate quarantine with one of their own down here. As this drags on, they aren’t going to be as squeamish about one of their own.

And we’re all going to be dead.”

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“And what does this mean to me?” I purred.

“Don’t play innocent with me,” she said.

“As you did with me?” I asked her. “Did you not understand the insult that you gave me and my lady?”

She shook her head. “I wasn’t part of the plan. I wasn’t trusted with it.”

“And why should I believe your innocence?” I asked her silkily. I did, though, because from what little I knew of her, she wouldn’t have done something that stupid.

“Because she isn’t stupid enough to lie to you,” a voice said behind me. It was Inuyama.

I turned to face him, keeping a grip on McGann. I saw Yatsufusa and Inusuka with him. “Allow me to introduce you to some of Fuse-hime’s family,” I said smoothly. “Two of her sons, Inusuka Shino and Inuyama Dousetsu, along with her consort, Yatsufusa.” McGann stared at them, silent for a moment before saying, “I don’t know where she is either.”

“A woman pleading ignorance is not safe from our family either,” Inuyama remarked dryly.

“I don’t understand,” McGann said.

I laughed, cold and bitter. “She is not the innocent that my lady was. But I believe her when she claims that she has no knowledge of where your mother or your brother’s avatar is.” Yatsufusa sneered at me, and I at him. “I search for my own consort,” I said.

“That will be up to Keno-chan, won’t it?” Inusuka asked.

“I don’t understand,” McGann repeated.

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DREAMLANDS

I laughed. “My lady was innocent of the crimes that she had been accused of and killed unjustly by their grandfather, placing them under my lady’s death curse.”

Inusuka surveyed the room and shook his head. “Useless.” My eye was caught by one who trudged into the room. I recognized Mason and wondered what he was doing here. He walked up to me and glared for a second before asking McGann gently, “You okay?’

“I’m fine, Mason,” she said.

“Your mom’s down with your brother,” Mason told Inuyama and Inusuka. “And Murphy.”

“Why?” McGann asked flatly.

“Tamazusa-sama’s pissed,” Mason said. “She wants his head.” McGann closed her eyes.

“But she’s willing to have someone else’s,” Mason continued.

“Then she’s very willing to leave after that. Fuse-hime isn’t pissed at us, which is a good thing.”

Yatsufusa growled at Mason, who shook his head. “Not dissing the lady or anything. We weren’t nice to her, but she didn’t get hurt.”

“What happened?” Inusuka demanded.

“She was poked at a bit,” Mason said, “but nothing mean. Not like―”

“What does Tamazusa want?” McGann asked him, sounding desperate. I sensed that Mason was taking about Keno and tightened my fingers. She made a small noise, and I loosened my grip on her, trying to control my anger.

“Fairinox and Collins,” Mason said quietly. He was angry that I had hurt the woman.

She sighed and shook her head. “I can’t.” FELICITAS IVEY

240

“I can,” Mason said roughly, looking hard and hopeless at the same time. “You know that we don’t have fuckin’ time to argue this.”

“And it will be safer for my Keno-chan if they were gone,” I said.

Mason looked at me. “Not like you’re leaving him behind,” he said.

“That would be up to him,” I admitted.

Mason snorted. “Kid ain’t stupid. He’ll be leaving with you.”

“That is if I can find him,” I snarled.

“I sent Keno and Wolf to find other survivors,” McGann said.

“They might be on the other side of this level or the one below it.” I bowed and let her go. “Then I will see if I can find him.” Inuyama stepped forward. “I will go with you.” I looked at him and shrugged, not caring if he were with me. I wasn’t going to argue with him if he chose to search with me since I wasn’t hunting shadow to shadow anymore. “As you wish.” We walked away as Mason and McGann quietly argued about my lady’s offer, Yatsufusa and Inusuka just watching them. The rest of the humans were cowering in a corner, not wanting to get involved, not wanting to be responsible for whatever decision was made. Fools. No one noticed when two of their number slipped away. They were the ones who struck me as unclean; I knew they were Fairinox and Collins.

Inuyama looked at me, and I shrugged. I didn’t care about them.

KENO

WOLF led me to stairs, and we went down to D level. I was hurting but felt a bit better once I started moving. The stairway was just as dark and 241

DREAMLANDS

scary as the other one had been, but less dangerous because it wasn’t filled with scared people. Wolf scouted ahead with a small flashlight he had found. I crept behind him. We got down to the next level without any trouble. Wolf stopped and leaned over to talk into my ear. His breath tickled. “All clear. But we need you to get cleaned up.”

“No water,” I murmured, “No power.”

“You look bad,” Wolf said.

“I smell worse.” I grimaced. “But let’s just get going.” Wolf led me down the corridor. I felt like the village idiot, but I knew I was safer here with the monsters and Wolf than I was with Fairinox and Collins. I was glad Wolf knew that too. He always thought the best about people, but even he figured out there was something wrong with those two. After searching for several minutes, we managed to find eight people, one of them injured, huddled in one of the conference rooms with two bodies. They were all glad to see Wolf; they didn’t seem to be so happy to see me.

“Some crazy fucker was chasing Mason about you,” St. John said.

“Then a couple mean fuckers showed up looking for their mom. That chick didn’t look old enough to have kids this old.”

“Or scary,” someone added.

“What the fuck happened to you?” St. John asked me.

“Trampled,” I said, wondering why he cared. He never had before.

“Man, it looks like the crazy fucker got to you,” St. John said.

“Ugly fucker with a nasty sword. He’s the one that’s been killing people. I don’t know what we did to piss him off.” I looked at Wolf, confused about what was happening. I could think of only one person who would do something like that, and he was trapped in the Dreamlands. St. John continued to talk, babbling nervously, grateful that we weren’t an enemy.

“One of the mean fuckers called the crazy one Sam Zero or something like that,” St. John said.

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“Samojirou?” I asked, shocked.

“Might be,” St. John said. “Was too crazy in here to really get what was going on. The dude, man, he wants you. Called you his consort. The others said that you were their family. Isn’t that the craziest fucking thing that you ever heard?”

“He was banished,” I whispered. “He can’t… he was trapped centuries ago.”

I wasn’t too surprised to hear St. John calling my brothers mean.

They were men who were a product of war, of the treachery and anger that was the
Sengoku Jidai
, men who could kill their enemies easily. I knew that Samojirou wanted me to never become as they were.

“I want all of you to follow me up to the atrium on C level,” Wolf said.

The injured tech was going to have to be carried, and that was going to slow us down. Wolf was worried and trying to hide it. I guess me covered in blood was a bad thing for more than one reason.

Wolf picked up the injured tech. I couldn’t tell who it was. We all slowly went down the corridor, with me in the lead, carrying the flashlight. We got to the stairs, after several minutes of slow walking, since the lights in the corridor seemed to have gotten dimmer while we were in the boardroom. It was scary, and all I could hear was the others’

hoarse breathing and the moans of the wounded. I wondered where Samojirou was, if he was searching for me in these too-quiet hallways.

I knew there was going to be trouble when we were found by Collins and Fairinox. I stopped when they stepped out of the doorway that led to C level.

“What you want?” Wolf snarled.

“You know,” Collins half purred.

Fairinox didn’t say anything; he just made a grab for me. I sidestepped, trying to evade him. I stumbled into the crowd behind me and almost dropped the flashlight.

“Don’t touch me,” I yelled.

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DREAMLANDS

“He’s the reason that we’re being attacked,” Collins shouted.

I swayed on my feet, aware of the frightened people behind me and the fact that I wasn’t armed, that I was smaller than all of the other people, as well as tired and injured.

“Collins, this isn’t his fault!” Wolf exclaimed.

“He is their ally; he led them here!” Collins continued.

Fairinox grabbed me, and I cried out and struck at him, using the flashlight like it was a knife. It wasn’t much, but even thinking about touching the man was making my skin crawl.

He shook his hurting hand and glared. “I’m going to make you scream,” he hissed.

“That monster is killing people because him,” Collins snarled.

“He caused the first intrusion and killed all those people.”

“That was Heiseg,” I whispered. I didn’t want to remember that night. I smelled blood, the stuff that was covering me, and remembered the sounds of the Hákarl eating and the threats Heiseg had been shouting when he was doing
that
to me. “He… he hurt me.”

“Let us have him, and you all will be safe,” Collins promised the people behind me.

“Don’t listen to him,” Wolf shouted.

“Who should you believe, me or some foreigner?” Collins asked.

“A man that was thrown out his country in disgrace?” Wolf shouted something in German at Collins. I didn’t know what happened after that. I thought a couple of people pushed Wolf against the wall. I knew that he couldn’t do anything because he was carrying someone. And I knew that none of the frightened people at my back were willing to protect me from Collins or Fairinox.

Fairinox made another grab for me, and I twisted out his reach and into the arms of two men behind me. They grabbed me and wouldn’t let go of my arms. I shouted and struggled, but I couldn’t get FELICITAS IVEY

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them off me, especially when a third man joined them in holding me, pushing me to the floor.

It took the other five to hold Wolf back when he realized what was happening. I saw out of the corner of my eye that the man he had been carrying had been dumped on the floor like a rag doll. I winced when I saw that he was getting stepped on, remembering the pain when it had happened to me. Wolf was shouting in German and something else. Collins had this smug look on his face. Fairinox was grinning like an idiot, and he stooped down to pat me on the head.

“It’s going to be good, boy,” he crooned. “You’re so bright, so much power.”

“You’re not going to get away with this,” I said, trying not to scream.