Dreamlands (8 page)

“That isn’t something that most women want to talk about,” Murphy said.

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48

I was surprised he was being that tactful, but he liked Wolf and realized that the guy wasn’t too swift about dealing with women. Wolf thought they were ladies all the time. I
never
thought they were ladies.

It saved me a lot of grief that way. “So what happened?” I asked when the silence stretched out uncomfortably. McGann looked a little uneasy.

I stared at her, kind of confused. “I just told her that her man was nuts and fucked half the victims, so it can’t get any worse,” I pointed out.

McGann nodded after thinking about it for a second. “It seems that Heiseg was the one that opened a gate with some sort of ritual. He killed one of the lab assistants to do so. No one saw him do it, but they saw the results. Plus he was covered in blood before the Hákarl came.

The gate was opened, and over three dozen Hákarl rushed in. Heiseg let them loose on his staff. He then took a couple with him and came back with Inuzaka. While the monsters were… the rapes began.” McGann looked uncomfortable. I didn’t have the heart to tell her that with Keno, it had only been a matter of when he would be raped and that he had known it. I thought of the destruction in his room too.

That bastard had broken Keno’s toys because he could, as a warm up for other things.

“Different monsters showed up later, apparently controlled by a very beautiful woman. Oriental, probably Japanese from her appearance and dress. By this time, most of the survivors weren’t too coherent, so their memories are scattered, and it’s hard to figure out what happened. But James knew the woman, and they quarreled.

Actually, he raved at her about something. She then killed him with some sort of spell that liquefied his organs and bones.” Romejinoff swallowed heavily. I was impressed by the amount of damage done. Considering what had happened to Keno, I actually wanted to thank the woman for killing the fucker.

“The woman had her monsters kill the Hákarl. I think that her monsters are what are known as Reavers.” McGann said. “Then she took Keno with her and left. From what Wolf and Mason told me, it was through the server room on E.”

“Why Keno?” Wolf asked.

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DREAMLANDS

Murphy whined. “Yeah, it isn’t like the hacker would be of any use to her―”

“Just shut the fuck up,” I snarled. “I hope to fuck that he’s being treated better with her than he was here. Not that it would be fucking hard. Shit, being dead is still better than this place.” McGann stared at me. I already knew that I was going to get a couple of sessions with the woman to “readjust” my attitude. At least she wasn’t going to be doing it by fucking with my brain, which she could do, but by trying to bore me to death with getting me to “discuss” the feelings I had about Keno and my job.

She looked at Anya, some sort of secret chick look. They stared at each other for a moment, and Anya asked suddenly, “Wolf, could you take me home?”

Wolf didn’t even bother with good-byes and escorted Anya out like she was made of crystal or something. I didn’t like it, but I figured McGann wanted him out of the way for some reason. It was probably so that he wouldn’t get caught in the middle of me and Murphy fighting, because he liked both of us. Wolf was getting caught in the middle of our fights too often.

“That bitch got her claws back in him,” Murphy said.

I snorted. “We agree on something then.” Murphy glared and shrugged.

McGann spoke. “The Trustees want to know what happened.

They are very willing to repeat the experiment.” We both looked at her. I didn’t know about Murphy, but I was shocked. What they were thinking about was murder, plain and simple, because you had to kill someone to get this ritual thing to work. Even
I
knew it was a bad idea. Those fuckers were insane to even think about it.

“Caitlynn, thirty-two people died!” Murphy practically shouted.

“Even the Trustees can’t think that it was worth it!” FELICITAS IVEY

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McGann looked resigned. I felt sorry for her because she had to have listened to this shit with the Trustees. No wonder she sent Wolf home. He’d be a lot worse about bitching at her about this, because he firmly believed we were the good guys, even with some of the shit we’d done, like keeping a scared kid prisoner in the home of the brave and the land of the free.

“James,” she said quietly, “this is the only documented success of creating a gate and contacting the Dreamlands… or wherever that thing opened to.”

“Caitlynn!” Murphy exclaimed. He sounded really pissed.

“How much worse were the other times?” I asked her. “How bad was the mess then?”

McGann looked at me with something almost like respect.

Murphy was staring like I had started to recite Shakespeare; I had thought of something he hadn’t.

“All the other documented incidents, going back to the turn of the last century, ended with the total destruction of the site involved.” McGann said. “There have been about seven others that we can piece together. There might be more.”

Murphy scoffed. “How do we know that…?”

“The woman,” I said, finally getting a clue. “She showed them that something more than monsters live there. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or not. Depends on what condition we find Keno in.”

“Kairns is right,” McGann said. “I will talk to Anya tomorrow to see how much she knew about Heiseg’s work and if she can or will work the ritual. If not, the Trustees have to find someone who can.”

“I don’t like the bitch,” I said. “But I don’t think that she’s willing to kill someone. She’d fuck ’em instead. So don’t be too surprised when she says no. And who the fuck are the Trustees going to kill for this?”

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KENO

I HAD been studying for several weeks when Yoshinoko suddenly announced that I was ready to be seen in public as a woman. Not that Samojirou had ever seen me dressed as a
tayuu
, even if we were sort of living together. He usually saw me in the dark, plain kimono and
yukata
I liked to wear, not the brightly colored, extravagant creations I wore when I pretended to be a woman. I had even started to be flirty when I was dressed like that.

I had thought that the fine cotton kimonos I wore every day were nice, but dressing as a woman brought me to a whole new level of luxury. The silk for the undergarments was the softest thing I had ever worn. The material felt wonderful, and I had worried for a little while that I liked dressing up like a woman far too much. It wasn’t just that I did it for Samojirou’s whim, but it turned into something I enjoyed, like the other lessons. I wasn’t too sure what that said about me.

Samojirou and, to a certain extent, Tamazusa were happy with me. If that meant wearing women’s clothing and actually enjoying what I was doing, that was all right with me. It wasn’t like anyone here didn’t know what Samojirou was interested in doing with me. The other samurai respected me as a fighter, no matter what else I did or FELICITAS IVEY

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wore. I could hold my own against them in a fight now, and to them, that was all that mattered. Not what I did outside the practice field.

I was pleased that I could slip into my “public” face so easily, talking in the women’s dialect, walking in those high sandals, and handling a fan easily. I had also been trained to use the fan as a weapon to defend myself if I had to. I didn’t know if I could, though; I also didn’t know if I could hurt someone with a katana, no matter how good I was at practice with a
bokken
―a bamboo sword.

“There is a kabuki performance tonight in Edo that Samojirou-sama wants you to attend with him,” Yoshinoko said.

I didn’t say anything since Yukiko was doing my makeup. It was the traditional white face of the geisha and the
tayuu
with the back of my neck unpainted, because a naked nape was sexy. Yukiko helped me into the three under-kimonos and three over-kimonos, all different shades of red, with a bright yellow obi, its patterns woven in gold and silver, tied in an elaborate bow in the front. My hair was piled on top of my head in elaborate loops, held in place by an assortment of combs and pins. It was all heavy, and I fought not to tilt my head forward because of the weight. My bare feet peeked out from the layers of clothing, and I couldn’t understand why someone would find them sexy and attractive.

I still wasn’t comfortable with Samojirou’s interest in me. Why did he have to be interested in
that
with me? Besides that, I was happy here. Stupid, but after the last few years of my life, I could live like this. I knew I couldn’t come and go freely, but I had made friends among Tamazusa’s samurai, I saw the sky, and I wasn’t getting hurt or feeling worried about being raped. Samojirou stopped before things got too far, because he knew I was scared. I was getting less and less scared about it since he was being so nice, but I still didn’t know if I could do
that
at all.

I was nervous because I hadn’t left Tamazusa’s estate since I was brought here. From my reading, I was aware of the fact that the Dreamlands would be about the size of North America, if I had converted the ancient measurements to more modern ones correctly.

Part of my studies here had included geography as well as literature and 53

DREAMLANDS

texts on philosophy. While there was a portion of the Dreamlands almost as big as Japan in the real world, there were other sections from other nations, like the Incans and the Egyptians. There were monsters that lived in their own areas too; things that even the Reavers were wary of attacking.

Yukiko chatted about anything she could think of to relax me. It should have been annoying, but it was soothing, and I felt a little less nervous. When they were done with me, I was arranged like a statue in the middle of Samojirou’s public room for his pleasure. I calmed down when I was finally left alone, but I started to get nervous again when he entered, dressed in an elegant light blue silk kimono and
hakama
decorated with several
mon
―heraldry symbols and coats of arms. A samurai had several, depending on his rank and clan.

“You look perfect, Keno,” Samojirou said.

He reached down to help me up, and I rose gracefully. “I am glad that I please you, Samojirou-sama,” I murmured, falling easily into the woman’s manner of speaking. He had never heard me like this before.

“Keno, I just want you to enjoy yourself tonight,” he said.

“I’ve never been to a kabuki performance before,” I said, “I’m thrilled to go.”

Samojirou smiled, and my stomach did a funny flip. I was sure
that
might happen tonight. I was scared, but I trusted him. He hadn’t hurt me or called me names. I just wasn’t ready to forget what had happened. It was stupid and petty, but all I remembered was the hurt and that Heiseg enjoyed hurting me, taking something else away from me, calling me awful names and just acting crazy. When I was able to forget, I might be able to respond to Samojirou with more than simple acceptance of his kisses and caresses.

WE traveled to Edo by the shadows. Samojirou was able to travel through them, stepping from one place to another like he was FELICITAS IVEY

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teleporting, using shadows. It felt… different. I was cold for a second, and then we were there, within a few heartbeats, it seemed. I wondered how he was able to do that. We had arrived just outside the building, mixing in with the crowd there easily. It turned out that the performance was in a theater Samojirou had permanent seating in.

“You are fine, Sakura-chan?” Samojirou asked.

I looked up with a smile. “That was fun, Samojirou-sama.”

“I was worried that you would be disturbed by it; some are,” Samojirou explained as he led me to his seats in the theater. He looked guilty. “I hadn’t even thought about your reaction to it.”

“It was cold, but not bad,” I reassured him. “Not scary.” The theater wasn’t fancy like American ones. There was a stage at one end and seating in front and balcony seats along the sides. The walls were plain wood, and the seating was mats on the floor. Our seats were just a simple balcony the size of two tatami mats, about six by six, with a wall two feet high at the front. We left our sandals at the door, and I sank gracefully to the floor. I looked around, curious about the place.