Night Terrors (Sarah Beauhall Book 4) (17 page)

He shrugged. “I was busy before you started running around like a crazy woman.” He pulled his shoulders back and raised his chin a little. “I’m on a quest. Doing important things and you’re keeping me from them.”

“What things?” I asked. “And I can most likely defend myself, even against a wraith.”

He laughed at that. “In the meat world, sure. But when you’re spirit walking, you should at least carry that sword of yours. I know you can take it Sideways, you told me.”

I looked at him. So I was definitely slipping from dreamland to the Sideways. I thought of my promise to Jai Li—my promise to stop dream walking and live in the real world—but this changed things. Maybe I should start sleeping with Gram in bed with me again. Probably not totally crazy. I’d had her the first time I met the bowler hat scumbag.

“Have you seen any clues of Katie?” I didn’t want him to hear the desperation in my voice, but he already knew. He’d heard me calling for her night after night.

His grin faded. “No, I’m sorry.”

“What are you doing that is so important, then?” I asked.

“You aren’t listening,” he said, glancing over his shoulder. “I can see it in you, the way you stand, the way your eyes are. You think you can beat anything, you think you can’t die.” He paused, gulping, and turned to the side. “I don’t want you to get hurt,” he said, quietly, not looking at me. “And Katie isn’t here, she’s not in any part of the Sideways I’ve explored. And she’s not in any of the between places I’ve been to. She’s someplace else, hiding.”

“Hiding?” I asked, really not expecting an answer.

“Yeah, I’m sorry. I just don’t have any idea where.” He shook his head. “I know something happened to her. There was a ripple affect across the worlds. Surely you felt it.”

Now it was my turn to nod. “Oh, you have no idea. Things have been crazy.”

The mirror behind him shimmered with golden flames, made me think of Bub. “Where are you?”

“Not sure,” he said. “Funny that no matter where I search, I can always find a window to you and Skella.”

That was sweet and creepy.

“So, dish. What’re you doing, exactly?” I asked again. “What keeps you from coming home?”

“That’s just it,” he said, smiling. “I’m searching for home.”

“Can’t you follow that thread back to your body?” When I’d gone walkabout in Vancouver at his grandmother’s insistence, I saw that each of the wounded and the lost had their spirits connected back to their bodies by a gossamer cord. Once that cord was severed, the spirit moved onward and the body died. Gletts’s cord had been strong. Not like some who yearned to move to the next place. “Your grandmother misses you.”

He shook his head. “Not that home. Álfheim. Our true home. I think I’ve found something you could help with.”

I watched him, considering all the crazy shit in my life. “My priorities are with Katie,” I said. “Sorry, she’s more important.”

He sighed, pursing his mouth into a pout. “When you find a way to bring her home, will you help then?”

Heck yeah. That was exactly the type of thing Odin wanted me doing. “Absolutely.”

“Excellent!” he shouted, doing a happy dance. “It’s in Bellingham, I think. South of Vancouver, anyway. But I’m pretty sure it’s in Bellingham.” He was excited, joyous. “Skella’s been searching, but she hasn’t found it yet.”

“You talk to Skella?” She never told me.

“Not directly,” he said, shrugging. “I talk to her in her sleep, but she listens. She thinks she’s dreaming. I’ve gotten that good. I tried it out on Rolph, your dwarf friend at first, but he doesn’t sleep very well, and besides he’s pretty grumpy.”

I chuckled. “Yeah, funny, that.”

“But, I finally got the knack of it. It took me a while, but I’ve convinced her to search Bellingham for signs of a way home, a way off this mudball.”

“Wait,” my head was buzzing. “Do you think you’ve found Yggdrasil, the world tree?”

“Maybe,” he said, thoughtfully. “That could be it. I just see it as a portal from this side. Another junction between one place and the next.” He looked thoughtful for a moment, edgy. “The problem is, it doesn’t stay put. I’ve seen it a few times, but it flickers, waxes and wanes.”

“So, go home, get your own body, and come back here.”

He shrugged at me, that old familiar reticence I’d come to recognize with him before he’d fallen. “Can’t see it from meat space,” he said. “If I can find this, figure out how to get my people off this world and onto our own, I’d die happy.”

I understood the sentiment. Needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. It was also bullshit in most cases. “Let’s see if we can find it, and get you home,” I offered, smiling. “Win-win all around. What say?”

He looked up at me, his hair covering half his face. For a moment I thought he was going to laugh at me, throw his head back, and cackle in the face of my absurd suggestion. Instead he smiled shyly and nodded. “I’d like that.”

“I’ll call Skella,” I promised. “You go take care of yourself. Don’t get eaten by … well … eaters.”

He grinned, and that rakish look I’d seen before returned. “They can’t catch me,” he said. “You’d be surprised what I’ve learned here.”

“Like secret passages to other worlds?”

“So much more than that,” he replied, suddenly serious. “Did you know another drake has come into the world? First in a century.”

“A new …?” I stared intently at him. “When? Where?”

“Not sure, exactly,” he said. “Direction and distance are not very relevant here. But I’d think you should check in on Frederick Sawyer. See what he knows. It’s definitely south of you, but it’s all a little vague.”

“Okay, I’ll check into that. Anything else?”

Gletts pursed his lips, thinking.

“Anything,” I said. “Even if it seems strange. You never know what’s important.”

He laughed. “You don’t know the half of it.” There was another moment, where he seemed to be wracking his brains. “You know, there’s this beacon I can see from time to time. Like a searchlight, only sometimes it’s green and sometimes it’s purple.”

Sympathy magic? Like with the diary. “Where?” I asked, suddenly excited again.

“Near here,” he said, shrugging. “They don’t like it here, whenever one of them gets too close to that light, they get zapped. Fries them in a heartbeat. Would be a powerful weapon to have, if you can find it.”

Maybe it was the diary. Who knew how far its magic reached. Something I’d look into, for sure. If it didn’t scare the hell out of me and everyone who knew of its existence.

“There’s a book,” Gletts said, off-handedly. “Not sure what kind, but I overheard some of the Bowler Hat Man’s minions talking about it. Something he wants pretty badly. Almost as badly as he wants you.”

“Like a diary,” I asked, a little weirded out that he was almost reading my mind.

“Could be,” he said, “Now that you mention it. Seems that either the book leads to you or Katie, and any of the three of you leads to the other.” He tapped his chin, thinking. “You know, makes me wonder which he’s really looking for. You, Katie, or the book.”

I nodded slowly. “Freaky,” I said, my mind running in circles.

“He’s a freaky dude,” Gletts said, nodding sagely. “But I should run, can’t stick around too long in one place, except for the few safe-houses I’ve discovered.”

“We’ll have to talk about all that after you’ve returned home,” I said, with a smile. “Now go home and stop making your grandmother go insane.”

He looked at me, his eyes reflecting the golden flames all around him. “Soon, I hope.” He gave a quick wave and stepped exit stage left. One moment he was gone, then Katie’s mirror was full of flames. Then I only saw myself reflected back.

Holy crap. Was he after the book? That made no sense. And a way home? Just the fact I had spoken with Gletts was gonna totally freak out Skella. Odin, on the other hand, was going to freak, but in a totally different manner. I looked forward to his next poetic ramblings. And what the hell was that about Frederick? My head was spinning. Diary, new Dragons, Yggdrasil. A path away from this world. A chance to explore other worlds.

But not without Katie.

That stopped the spinning. Other worlds or no, I wasn’t going anywhere without her. I’d promised her. Never again.

When Qindra called I’d see if she had any news of Frederick. It could explain some of his behavior after JJ’s funeral. If Katie was awake, I would’ve driven down to Portland and visited the great lizard myself. The battle with the necromancer had not been kind to him, but he’d lived. Too bad many others couldn’t say the same.

Katie first. If she was hiding someplace, as Gletts suggested, then I had to redouble my efforts. I’d take Gram with me and maybe scare up some more help. Wherever Gletts had been reminded me of Bub. Maybe he’d have a clue. The diary may hold some answers as well. Had he seen the light from the diary, or was it something else? Was that the key to bringing her home? Something in my gut told me it was all related.

Yep, I’d have to really explore that scary ass book. I just hoped like hell it didn’t kill me when I touched it in meat space, as Gletts called it.

And how embarrassing would it be to be killed by a diary, I mean, seriously.

Twenty-six

I called Skella and she agreed to come to the apartment. She said she would get here as quick as lightning once she walked over to the cave she kept the mirrors in—her little subway stop through the Sideways. It had taken me about thirty minutes to drive down to Kent, a drive I would be happy to never make again, frankly.

Traffic was not getting any better on the Eastside. We needed to find a place north, way north. I was thinking Marysville or the like. Maybe I’d start looking for a realtor. It was past time. Besides, living above a gun store had its charms, but the place was feeling less like home every time I walked through the door.

I had my gear, including Gram, stacked on the dining table, and I was stretching. I was a little stiff from not working out and a lot grumbly. Nothing food wouldn’t cure.

Of course, Skella only had to step through a mirror. She’d stopped to pick up Chinese takeout, which very likely made me love her more than before. I took that as a good opportunity to get down a couple of glasses of water, paper towels, and plates. I was afraid to open the fridge after all the time away.

“Thanks for calling me,” she said, pulling a pair of chopsticks from their paper wrapper and snapping them apart. I mimicked her and we both sat there rubbing our chopsticks together, worrying off the splinters.

“Unun is becoming despondent,” she said, sliding a box of steamed dumplings my way and nabbing the box of mu shu pork. “I keep telling her that Gletts will come home when he’s ready, but she’s losing hope.”

“How much longer can his body stay alive without his spirit being there?” I asked.

She shrugged. “There are signs that he’s beginning to fail now. He’s the last of the fallen in the great healing hall. The others have either passed on, or recovered enough to return to their families.” She shoveled a mass of pork into her mouth and paused to chew.

“I thought he was in some sort of stasis,” I said. “While he’s out wandering the spirit world.”

She drank half her water, wiped her mouth on her sleeve and grabbed a dumpling out of the box in front of me.

I dumped most of the remaining pork on my plate and sat back, watching her. I wanted to tell her about talking to Gletts, but I wanted to see if she’d tell me about her dreams first.

“Tell me about your sudden interest in Bellingham,” I said scooping rice into my face.

Skella shrugged, began digging the last vestiges of rice out of the take-out container.

“I was thinking about going to college. Learning new stuff, you know?”

“That’s cool. It’s a good school.” I watched her, waiting for some other reason.

“You’ve met some new folks, what did you call them? Hamsters?”

She laughed. “Yeah, Bellinghamsters, ya know? It’s punny.”

I rolled my eyes at her. “Great. Folks your age?”

She shrugged again. “Either in college or just out. They’ve got some strange ideas about the world, but they’re pretty cool.”

“College kids are all mostly strange,” I agreed. “But what made you go down there instead of one of the Vancouver schools?”

“I don’t know. Why?”

I wasn’t sure why I wanted her to broach the subject first, but that was failing, so I jumped in. “I spoke with Gletts.”

Her chopsticks clattered to the floor followed by the mostly empty takeout carton. Tiny grains of rice and bits of pork scattered across the floor.

“You what?” She leaned forward in her chair, reaching across the coffee table toward me. “Where? How?”

“Here, actually.” I stood, waved her to follow. She scrambled out of her chair, kicking the rice container across the room to bounce off the bar that divided the dining area from the kitchen. “Careful there,” I said, smiling.

“Right, sorry.” She composed herself and followed me into the bedroom. I pointed to the mirror hanging there.

“I came by this morning to pick up a few things for Jai Li and me when I heard him calling to me.”

She went over and touched the mirror causing the surface to shimmer like water, rolling back and forth in the frame.

“Gletts?” she asked, looking in the mirror like a window. “Gletts, where are you?”

He didn’t appear, not that I really thought he would. “Sorry,” I said when she stepped back dejectedly.

“That’s twice you’ve seen him,” she said, leaning against the wall, staring into the mirror.

Scenes flashed by at her touch. Black Briar, Monkey Shines, the bathrooms at the driving range near her home in Stanley park, on and on, faster and faster, like she was riffling the pages of a book.

“He said he’s been coming to you as well,” I said, quietly, placing my hand on her shoulder. “Told me he’s been talking to you in your dreams.”

She stiffened for a moment, then let her shoulders slump. “So those are real?” she asked, turning to me. Tears streaked her face. “I even went to Bellingham in the hopes they were real, but I haven’t found what he’s looking for. He scares me sometimes,” she said, taking a deep breath. “He sounds so desperate; like he’s running out of time.”