Dreamscape (33 page)

Kelsby lumbers
toward me, his shoulders sliding from side to side like a pendulum. With the
way he moves, he should have sixteen-pack abs, not a jelly-filled donut around
his middle. Some things just don’t make sense.

His plump
fingers slide under my hand then twist at an unnatural angle that makes me
cringe. He pulls me to my feet while his fingers are still working. “Almost got
it,” he says as a click sounds. “There.”

The gun drops
into his outstretched fingers, powering down instantly.

“Sorry,” I say,
eyeing the gaping hole across from me. “I promise not to touch another thing.”

“See that you
keep that promise, girl. Some weapons don’t have safety mechanisms.”

And that one
did? Comforting. “So…” Having learned my lesson, I rifle through the rest of
the space with my eyes instead of my fingers. Nothing ever blew up from just
looking at it, I hope. “The swords are cool.”

He doesn’t
hesitate in shooting my hopes to smithereens. “Not an option this go around,
I’m afraid.” He picks up a blade and slices it through the air.” It hisses
right by my ear. He smiles, I frown. As he lowers the sword into its sheath, he
shows me more of his chipped teeth. “Not to worry. I’ll locate something
suitable. Just give me a moment.”

Shouldn’t be
too hard. The place is full of stuff. “I know how to shoot a gun,” I tell him.

He waves me
off. “Guns from the mortal world are not tantamount to guns in the Dreamscape.”

“How so?”

“Each Erobos is
different. Some house multiple Eros, while others hold merely one. Finding
their weakness takes skill you have yet to learn. Since they are trapped in the
Metaspace, they use astral travel to enter the Dreamscape. Energy is much harder
to pin down than physical matter. Because they are dark, they move in direct
opposition to light. As fast as you chase, they retreat or vice versa.”

“But I thought
they possess the Oneiroi. Doesn’t that mean they have some light within them?”

“Alas, too
true, miss. They contain the core of Oneiroi life force. It is how they
maneuver the Dreamscape at all; however, they have kept their advantage of
flight, being able to fractionate until they are like dust on the wind, only to
form again moments later.”

Did he just say
what I think he did? “You mean they can come apart and back again at will?”

He smiles.
“Precisely.”

Doesn’t sound
too great to me.

“As Maybell
said, darkness cannot reside where light exists. It is an impossibility. They
are opposing forces, destined to be bedside brothers.”

“Okay. So how
do they get an Oneiroi to switch to dark? This really doesn’t make much sense
to me.”

His expression
turns thoughtful before he rests a hand on my shoulder. “This is a question
that has long eluded us. Oneiroi crave light, but they react to all emotion.”

“How do you
mean?”

“Amelia, this
would take me a lifetime to explain, and even then I could not do it justice.
The simple answer will not be one you will like.”

I shake my
head. “If I’m to deal with these creatures, I need to know.”

He nods, only
fractionally. “Oneiroi feed off human emotions. This is how they maintain their
power. Light is their preference, but darkness is their drug. With the state of
your world declining to darkness, most have fallen. Only the valiant remain.”

They tempt.
They tame. They torture.
Isn’t that what Seth told me? I try to ignore the
sinking fear that weighs against my stomach like a stone. I can do this. I have
to do this. No more Oneiroi can fall. Not if I have anything to say about it,
which brings me back to the task at hand. “Kelsby?”

He barely
glances at me, as he moves from row to row, eyeing the strange weaponry. “Mmm?”

“Can we really
do this on our own?”

His head
swivels around while his body remains fixed. “We must, my girl.”

The heavy
weight of our mission settles over me. It would be much easier to have Seth
with me to guide me, but the idea of him being taken is just too horrible to
consider.

As much as he
desires to protect me, I need to keep him safe. He’s the only person I have
left. The only person who knows me, who cares about me. I should be horrified
by his
needs
, but it really doesn’t bother me. Seth said the Oneiroi
have a symbiotic relationship with humans. That has to mean they give and take.

The dark side
of his power has not eluded me, though. What if they take too much? What
happens to the humans then?

I need to pay
attention. I need to learn. I no longer want to escape back to the human realm,
but I do want to protect them. I just hope there is a way to reverse the course
the Oneiroi have taken. With only four of them left to protect Earth, they must
be protected in turn.

I will do
anything and everything I can, but I must also look for a way to completely cut
off the Netherworld from Earth. It will be a last resort, but if there was one
thing I learned from Justine, it was to always have a backup plan.

Kelsby lumbers
over to me, holding a strap of leather in his hand. Without a single word he
hands it to me.

I eye him
speculatively. “A slingshot?”

He places a
dozen or so silver orbs into my hand. “More or less.”

“Thanks for the
confidence,” I deadpan.

“The size of
the weapon means little, Amelia. What you hold in your hand is more powerful
than the rifle you wielded.”

Right. I nod
anyway, letting him keep his lie.

He pats my
hand. “Ready to go?”

“Sure.”

Maybell laughs.
“You don’t sound sure, Amelia.”

I give her a
squirrely grin. “Confidence comes with practice, right?”

“Right,
ho,” says Kelsby. “Let us depart.”

Now that
Amelia’s gone, I remember my question for Ian. When I glance at him, his eyes
are locked to the monitor, to the last spot Amelia occupied.

“Ian?” I say.

He blinks a few
times before he glances at me. “I’m sorry, Seth. She is breathtaking.”

I grit my teeth
and sigh. Words mean nothing when actions fail to back them. The first chance I
get I shall begin a search for a recruit for Ian, since he is too dark to do
the deed himself. If only he hadn’t waited so long.

I choose to nod
at his compliment. “She is that. Back to the issue at hand?”

He cracks his
knuckles. “Yes. We must discover what Daegan wants with her. She is
incorruptible in her current state.”

Zed strokes his
beard, and a twitch starts in my cheek. “You must shave that thing, Zed. It is
grotesque.”

He smiles.
“Flimsy whiskers make you jealous, my brother.”

Ian snorts, and
I laugh. “You are welcome to yours, Zed. I prefer to feel a woman’s flesh
against mine."

Ian’s
expression darkens and mine quickly follows. He has no claim to her. He did not
seek her out. He did not court her for years, and he did not risk all to
traverse the mortal realm to bring her here.

Speaking of
traversing. “Ian, I meant to ask you a question before.” When I have his full
attention, I move forward. “You spoke of the Sibylinne’s world as if it was
unpleasant—”

His immediate
scoff cuts me off. “Hell is a better description.”

Zed frowns.
“How so?”

Ian looks
between the two of us as if we are past addled. “It must be fifty below. I can
never have enough layers to keep me warm. Whoever that man is, he has to be
nearly fully present in his dream state.”

Ian has always
had a deeper connection to the physical world of dreams, but his description is
so off the mark, I wonder if we are discussing the same world. “It is a desert.
How could you possibly be cold?”

Zed nods while
Ian’s frown deepens. “Desert? It is a tundra, not thawed for millions of years,
or I am a toad.”

Without another
word, I turn to the monitors. We have to be discussing different places, yet
trepidation spikes against my pulse.

I make no
attempt at conversation while I search for the world. Once found, I bring it on
screen. All is as it should be. The parched earth stretches for miles, save the
one enormous peak at the center of the landscape.

Ian stands and
moves to the monitor. His eyes eat up the scene. “It is similar, but this is
not what I’ve experienced. The glaciers are so thick they shift in waves with
every eruption.”

I glance at
Zed. “Ian, that volcano has lain dormant for years, maybe centuries.”

“It must be a
different world. The eruptions come nearly every year now.”

I join Ian in
front of the monitors. As I study the scene, the dreamer atop the volcano does
not move. I zoom the image until his face takes up the screen. His lips move as
before while red rings line his unblinking eyes. He should be at rest, yet he
seems wearier than I am. His lips hold a blue tinge I’ve never noticed before,
and his breath puffs out before him in a wispy fog.

“Zed, do you
see that?” I whisper, as if to not disturb the unraveling illusion.

“Aye, brother,
I do.”

My mind recoils
from the image as it transforms into a perfect reflection of Ian’s memory. It
is a wasteland to be sure, but the world is white, save for the smoldering lava
bubbling under the dangling feet of the dreamer.

“We must go
after her,” I say, breathless.

Ian nods, but
Zed merely gapes, horror registering in his eyes. “Is this dreamer an Orphic?”

My entire world
twists sideways. Orphics are bred to deceive. My brothers don’t say another
word. We switch to empathic communication. It will take too much effort to
communicate any other way.

While Ian
gathers supplies, I debrief my team. I will need all of them tonight. Zed says
his goodbyes to Olivia, while she protests, insisting she come with us. We
cannot risk it. As it is, we put the entire team in danger one way or another,
yet it cannot be helped.

I have no time
to research the image. After a few minutes of teamwork, Micharrach, my tech
specialist, pounds his desk. “I’ve got it! Mount Erebus in Antarctica.”

My heart sinks.
“What?”

His scaly face
still registers his excitement. “You remember? We worried over the name over a
century ago.”

My thoughts
slide backwards until I recall the moment. A man christened two ships, dooming
the crew on each to a horrible death simply because of the names he chose. The
Erebus was one. The Terror was the other. Both condemned from the start, yet
they ended up naming two of the volcanos in the area after those ships.

In the end, we
didn’t think much of this naming because the place was so inhospitable, nothing
but a polar bear could reside there, and even then that was questionable. Yet
now, I see the hand of Daegan in this naming. He has been playing a game with
me and he just made another move. Human technology has caught up with his
designs.

The insidious
nature of the Erobos never ceases to amaze me. They are a patient breed. Their
cankerous nature has spread throughout humanity until it has blighted history.
They have instilled falsehoods in every stronghold they’ve taken.

Once my team is
set, I join Ian and Zed at the elevator. We make no pretense of socializing,
each of us steeling ourselves for the battle to come.

We hop from
world to world until we are one world away. Peter waits for us at the portal,
his disheveled hair and torn clothing alarming.

“Only two of us
should go in,” I say.

“Agreed,” says
Ian, “but you should stay behind.”

Anger clogs my
veins, making my heart stutter. “She is my recruit, Ian. I will be going.”

“We should all
go,” says Peter. “I’ve been monitoring the situation, and if Daegan succeeds,
we are all doomed anyway. Better to go out with a blaze than die as an ember on
the wind.”

Ian steps
toward Peter, taking a torn fragment of his jacket in hand. “What the devil has
happened to you?”

Peter grunts.
“Catch up is for later. We all go…now.”

Ice blasts into
me the minute we materialize. I glance at the portal, shivering, then find the
shimmering peak in the distance. Everything looks the same, except now this
place is covered in blue ice that manages to appear colder than it is. When I
attempt to change the scenery, I am blocked. My head pounds from the flash of
anger the dreamer sends to me.

Maybell takes
my hand and pulls me closer. At her touch, my connection to the dreamer severs.
She slaps my back, then my shoulder before she flicks a spike at my wrist. My
gear transforms from leather to fur in an instant. My boots grow spikes and
gloves appear on my hands.

“Thanks,” I
tell her, wishing she didn’t have to look after me so much.

“My pleasure,
Amelia. When we get some downtime, I’ll show you the sequences to change your
gear.”

I nod. “What
the hell is going on? The last time Seth and I were here, I was looking at a
broken-up desert. It wasn’t exactly hot, but it was nothing like this.”

“If I had to
guess, I’d wager the dreamer has shifted his focus.”

I lift my eyes
to the horizon and follow it to the lone peak waiting for us to climb. Those
spikes might just come in handy.

“Where do we
set the charges?”

Kelsby shrugs.
“There are three portals on this world. This one should be easily managed. The
other two will be more difficult.”

Of course.
Never let it be said anything came easy to me. “Where are they?”

Kelsby
hesitates, but Maybell plods forward after taking a hasty breath. “The one you
used with Seth shifts with the landscape, so it is harder to locate, but the
last…well, it resides in the crater.”

“Inside the
crater?” I ask, not quite believing what I heard.

Kelsby nods.
“Quite right. We’re wasting time, young’uns.”

I stare at him.
“Just where did you pick up your lingo?”

He smiles. “I’ve
enjoyed American cinema since inception.”

No wonder he
can’t seem to stick with an accent or century. He’s an odd duck, but I’m
beginning to like him. I reach inside for my best John Wayne. Justine could do
him perfectly…me, not so much. My voice can’t reach that low. “Time’s a
waistin’, buckaroo. We best head on out.”

Kelsby gives me
a grin before he tosses a lit-up ball at the portal we just exited. “Up and
out,” he yells before his skinny legs buckle under him and spring him into the
air like a jackrabbit on the moon. He lands thirty yards away and springs
again.

Maybell yells
for me to run, but I’m already moving. The air thickens as a sickening crack
blasts out behind us followed by a sonic boom that ricochets past me. The blast
sends me sprawling. I bring my arms up to brace myself, but when I land, I
slide a good hundred feet. Maybell catches my upper body before I can scrabble
to my feet and hauls me against her skinny frame.

“Thanks,” I say
while sending daggers toward the bouncing toad that has managed to spring his
way out of view. “He could have given us fair warning,” I grumble.

Maybell laughs.
“Kelsby has a dark side, Amelia. Don’t ever doubt it.”

“Gotcha,” I
say, still hoping my ears will stop ringing.

By the time we
catch up to Kelsby he’s setting another charge. “Wait,” I yell, but he tosses
the explosives into the open portal.

I crouch into a
ball and steel myself against the blast. Maybell curls around me as if I’m
nine. I don’t mind so much considering she’s just saved me from getting buried
under flying ice chunks.

Kelsby’s laugh
reverberates along the ice. “I live for days such as these.”

Wobbling, I
stand up. “You’re sick,” I tell him. “Just sick, maybe even bonkers. You’ve
only left us the portal that happens to be in a boiling volcano.”

His grin
stretches along his broad features. “That way, no one can sneak up on us.”

“How do you
propose we blow up that portal, Kel? Isn’t gravity against us? Not to mention
the guy sitting up there. What if he’s dangerous? What if he doesn’t want us to
blow up his portal?”

“I don’t
believe a single soul has called me Kel.” He shoots me a thumb’s up. “I like
it. Has a certain ring to it.”

I walk up to
him and plant my nose dangerously close to his. “How the hell are we going to
get out of here now? Throwing a charge into a gaping hole makes a lot more
sense than trying to make an upside-down basket.”

Maybell steps
between me and the big guy. “Amelia is right. You may have acted a bit rash.”

His gaze
bounces between the two of us. “Where’s your sense of adventure? We can do
this! And now, we have the motivation!”

“What we have
is a hot mess,” I say.

Kelsby doesn’t
comment as Maybell takes her first step up the mountainside. I follow close
behind her, wondering how in the world this thing got so out of control.

Our journey
consists of circling back and forth on barely-there ledges, attempting to find
crevices in the ice to latch on to. The initial adrenaline of the climb wears
out fast. Somehow I hoped we’d have superpowers or at least ice picks. As it
is, digging in with my boots and gloves has my digits stinging.

I’m not about
to complain though. Truth is, I need some time to figure out how to handle
this. Seth is trusting me here. I’ve got to show him my worth. Screw that. I’ve
got to show myself my worth. I don’t give in easily, but I’ve never been able
to be part of a team.

It shouldn’t be
that big of a deal, but somehow even just thinking about failing blisters my
insides. The idea of failure is not acceptable, but the haunting aftertaste
lingers in my mind, instilling doubt.

Maybell looks
back at me, smiling in that motherly way of hers. I smile back, but in my next
attempt to climb, my fingers slip, leaving me grasping at air. For one horrible
moment I’m pretty sure I’m going to wake up in Seth’s library having been
proven wrong, but Maybell catches my hand and pulls me back up.

Staggered
heartbeats pound in my head while my chest heaves to take in enough breath.
That was close. Good thing for me, close wasn’t enough to derail this dream.

From that
moment on, I concentrate with my whole heart. I’m dying to reach that summit. I
don’t care what that guy is or why he’s there. I need this. Dealing with him
will be all frosting.

That guy is
stone cold wrong. It shows in the ice coating this mountain. It shows in the
red-tinted sky without a sun to speak of. It shows in the absolute lack of
life. But worst of all, it shows in the volcano that bubbles and pops so loud
the ruckus makes me want to cover my ears from only halfway up.

Kelsby is truly
a walking conundrum. He’s so flexible he twists in ways that make my skin
crawl. There are reasons joints have a stopping point. It’s just plain gross
without it.

He swivels his
head around and glances down on us. He’s at least a hundred feet above me and
Maybell. I’m probably holding her back, but I appreciate her willingness to
stay behind with me.

Kelsby might as
well be flying with how fast he’s scaling the slippery slope. He’ll get to the
top way before we do, which bothers me, considering his lack of judgment
earlier.

I sort of wish
I was carrying the explosives, but he insisted. Now I know why.

Seems I’m not
the only one who’s a control freak. Maybe it’s a prerequisite for the job?

To my surprise,
he hangs back just short of the top, watching our slow progress as if he’s
grading us. If I wasn’t so focused on keeping myself on this mountain, I’d be
giving him the bird, double barrels, for sure.

Maybell glances
at me and chuckles. “You’ll get used to Kelsby. He’s overly dramatic at times,
but he’s a keeper. I wouldn’t trade him for any other member of the team in
this circumstance.”

I smirk. “I’ll
take your word for it.”

She smiles then
gets to it. Pretty soon, I’m lagging so far behind I can’t stand it. I kick it
up a notch, ignoring the splintering pain that bursts from my shoulders to my
belly button.

When I reach
the last few feet, I can almost taste it. I’m nearly there, but my muscles
scream for relief. I tell them to shut up and keep going.

Kelsby crosses
over first, closely followed by Maybell. She stretches over the edge and grabs
me when I’m two feet away. She hoists me up and all I want to do is take a
breather, but I can’t.

The air
thickens with darkness even though the sky is still light. I search for the
source of the oppression and find two black orbs staring straight at me from a
face so pale and cracked it should tumble to the ground from a breath.

The man’s
sallow skin clings to his bones like aged leather, but that’s not the worst
part. One of his ears has fallen off and the other one is coal black, matching
his hands. Yet his eyes are the things that pin me where I stand.

Shadows swirl
in them, as if I’m staring at twin black holes. The darkness expands until it
encompasses his face then twists away from him like tendrils of a hellish
flame. The spirals spread out and I back away, careful to stay clear of the
cliff. I pull out my sling shot, wishing I had put up more of a fight back in
Seth’s lair.

One thing’s
for sure, Kelsby’s gonna hear about this later.

We reach the
portal, yet it doesn’t ignite. Anger rises in my throat until a roar comes out
of me. They’ve already blown the link.

My hands fist
in my hair. Damn Kelsby. Why did I agree to send him?

Ian’s jaw
twitches as he clenches his teeth. My fists bunch in response. He’s got too
much invested in Amelia, but at this moment I’ll take any help I can get where
she is concerned. If his desire for her will make him focus on bringing her
back safely, I welcome the perceived competition. One day soon, I’m going to
flatten my brother to the ground, but I have to reel in my temper…for now.

My only hope is
we will reach the next portal before Kelsby can blow it.

Zed trudges up
to me and clasps my shoulder. “Trust her.”

When he starts
out, I follow, picking up speed, but Ian calls us back. “We need to use the failsafe.”

An involuntary
gulp makes its way past the ball of nerves in my throat. Each of our worlds is
equipped with a failsafe portal. It is easy to get out, but not back in. In the
event Erobos ever took over a portal we would have a way to reach the next
world without getting caught. If they managed to breech that portal, they would
be in for a fight they could never win.

Ian’s right.
Kelsby’s probably popped the other one already.

Too many risks,
but we need to take them. “What do you think?” I ask Zed while Ian shakes his
head at me. Peter stands away from us, looking at us as if we are strangers.

“I concur.”

“No more
talking,” says Ian just before he takes off.

I’m in total
agreement with him and follow closely behind. If anything happens to Amelia I
will never recover. She is in my blood, but does she know this?