The Gates of Night: The Dreaming Dark - Book 3 (5 page)

Now Pierce found there was another emotion at work. He knew Indigo would say that sleep was a weakness, one of the many flaws that made the so-called “breathers” inferior to the warforged. But watching Daine and Lei sleeping side by side, he felt a strange envy. The battle with Indigo, Lakashtai’s betrayal … he wished that he could escape it, if only for a moment. He wondered what it would be like to dream.

You were not made for dreams
.

How would you know?
It was a strange sensation, trying to communicate with Shira. There was no sense of a separate presence, just thoughts that appeared in his mind as if they were his own.

Because you were made for me
.

You are thousands of years older than I am
, Pierce thought.
That makes no sense
.

It makes no sense
. It felt as if he was agreeing with himself.
It is still true
.

Memory flooded through Pierce. A time of war. Shira’s people were endangered on two fronts. They needed to escape their homeland before an impending cataclysm destroyed it, and they were fighting a fearsome enemy to claim a new home. He saw the creation of warforged … no, not warforged, but creatures much like them. These were soldiers, but they were also
vessels of hope
. Shira was the first of her kind to attempt the transition. Her essence had been fused
to the sphere, where it could be bound to any vessel of hope. But only days after she had merged with her first vessel, she had been captured by the enemy. Her vessel was destroyed, and she was sealed away in the darkness of the vault.

That doesn’t mean
I
was made for you
, Pierce thought.
It sounds like any warforged would do
.

Would they?
A new memory emerged, but this was one of his own. Harmattan speaking to him at the door to the vault—

This is a relic of this ancient land, a key of a most unusual nature. Only a warforged designed to interface with it can make use of it. Hydra, Indigo—it will not interface properly with their auras
.

What makes you think I can use it?
Pierce had asked.

Because
I
could, if I still had a body. And you are my brother
.

The memory faded, and the next thought was Shira’s.
It may make no sense. But it is true. You were not made for dreams. You were made to escape them
.

Pierce let this thought go. He still wasn’t sure how he felt about Shira. Her knowledge and analytic powers were certainly useful. Even now, as he glanced around the chamber, Shira identified the symbols carved into the walls as one of the languages of giants, translating each word that he looked at. But as much as it was pleasant to have a companion, it wasn’t the same as speaking with Lei or Pierce.

Or Indigo
.

That was the heart of it. His mind still lingered on their last battle. He could remember every motion, and he walked through it in his mind, tracing the injuries she’d given him. The sight of Daine transfixing her with his blade, the surge of emotion he’d felt watching her fall, even as Shira whispered about the magical resonance of Daine’s sword.

She would have won their fight. Without Lei, without Harmattan … Indigo would have defeated him. Somehow, it didn’t seem fair that he should still be alive. He could see the battle in his mind, and he knew that he had lost … or would have. He couldn’t even blame her for wanting to destroy him. He had betrayed her for Lei. He’d intended to imprison her in the ancient vault. Harmattan must have saved her, while Pierce had simply betrayed her again.

He remembered those final moments, looking down at her on the floor of Karul’tash, the gaping wound in her abdomen. Lying there as if she were asleep.

But warforged didn’t sleep. Most people couldn’t tell the difference between a warforged that had been destroyed and one that had simply been rendered inert.

Like Indigo had been.

Pierce knew that his friends would have wanted to finish the job if they’d known there was some chance of Indigo being restored. But Pierce couldn’t bring himself to mention it. No artificer would ever find her in the depths of Karul’tash, and Harmattan’s hands weren’t nimble enough for such work. Surely the monolith would be her tomb. But somehow, he’d found that he couldn’t betray her a third time.

In the end, she’d won their battle.

Pierce pushed the memory away. He studied the inscriptions on the walls, seeking to bury his guilt beneath this task. And once again, he wished he could sleep.

Y
ou’re all so gloomy,” Jode said. “It’s not the end of the world. Unless it is, I suppose.”

Daine opened his eyes. He was alone in bed, in his room at the inn in Sharn. He’d fallen asleep nestled next to Lei, and without her the bed seemed doubly empty.

“It’s a lot of space here for the three of you, don’t you think?” Jode jumped up onto the mattress and glanced around the room. “Have you considered the life of an innkeeper? Your charm, Lei’s gruel … that’s gold for the taking, my friend.”

Daine sat up. He noticed that his back wasn’t itching anymore, which confirmed his suspicions.

“Yes, it’s a dream,” Jode said. “And since it’s
your
dream, perhaps you could imagine something particularly delectable in the pantry.”

“You know what I’m thinking?” Daine said.

Jode rolled his eyes. “I
am
what you’re thinking, remember?”

“I thought you’d come back with me.”

“It’s hard to explain,” Jode said. “I think I’m dreaming. But I don’t have a body of my own anymore, so I’m dreaming your dream. When you woke up, I was still
here. I feel things, hints of your emotions, flashes of events around you, but mostly I’ve been wandering in dreams.”

“But you are real? I’m not just imagining this?”

“Daine, when you ask your imaginary friend if he’s imaginary, what sort of answer do you expect to get?” Jode shook his head. “I don’t know what I am. A ghost, maybe. Does it really matter? You’ve got more important things to worry about.”

“Oh? Like what?”

“What are you planning to do next?”

“Get Lei and Pierce home.” Daine rolled out of bed. The room seemed so
normal
. After weeks of night terrors and the journey through Xen’drik, he’d gotten used to horror.

“Of course. That’s the noble captain. Just like when we fought our way out of Cyre to get Lei to Sharn. Smash every obstacle in your path until you reach your sanctuary.”

Daine looked out the window. The sun shone down on the streets of High Walls, but they were empty, the district abandoned. “And what’s wrong with that?”

“You’re giving up.”

Daine scowled. He felt anger and frustration building in his mind, and in that moment a bank of clouds passed over the sun. “And what should I be doing?”

“Finding Lakashtai.”

A peal of thunder shook the room, and outside the window, rain began to fall. Daine turned to Jode, and now he felt real anger. “And how would I do that? I don’t even know what she is.”

“Or what she stole, or why she chose you. Or whether you’re still in danger. Or if your little adventure has placed the entire world in jeopardy!” Jode gestured
dramatically. “Just imagine, the fate of Khorvaire could hang in the balance.”

“You think so?”

Jode grinned. “Well, no, but wouldn’t it be something if it did?”

The fierce rain began to slow. “I suppose. I just …”

Daine let the sentence trail off, looking away. Lakashtai had made a fool of him. He still didn’t fully understand the chain of events that had led him to Xen’drik. When it came down to it, he was ashamed. His weakness had set all of these events in motion.

“Dorn’s teeth!” Jode bounced off the bed and smacked him in the kneecap. “You didn’t do this.
Lakashtai
did. Now you need to find out how and why.”

“And how do you suggest I do that?”

“I think that’s a job for the living,” Jode said. “And now, if you’re quite done with the rain, I think you owe me breakfast.

“What do you expect me to …” Daine paused in midspeech as the smell of cinnamon and fresh-baked bread rose up through the floor.

“That’ll do,” Jode said, pausing to savor the scents. “But first, let’s have a look at that arm of yours.”

Daine’s back itched.

Someone pulled at his left arm. He opened his eyes, reaching out with his right hand, grabbing hold of…

Lei.

“Sorry about that,” she whispered. “I was trying not to wake you.”

“That’s fine,” he muttered. He sat up, taking in his surroundings. He was back in the sphere. The air
was chilly, and the only light came from the flickering sigils traced across walls and floor. Daine’s thoughts were fogged with sleep, and he had no idea how much time had passed.

“Let’s have a look at that arm of yours,” Lei said.

Daine glanced over at her, and for a moment he wondered if he were still dreaming. The situation hardly seemed real. Then his stomach growled … and this time, there was no fresh-baked bread to appease him.

Lei heard the sound. “I’ve still got some rations in my pack,” she said as she examined his tattered sleeve. “Not much, I’m afraid, but …” Her voice trailed off.

“What?” Daine said.

Pierce had been standing at the edge of the room, but hearing Lei’s tone, the warforged turned to look at them.

“See for yourself,” Lei said. Using both hands, she tore a hole in Daine’s sleeve, widening the gap where Tashana’s claws had torn into him.

“Hey!” Daine said, but he fell silent when he saw the skin below. The wounds Tashana had inflicted were gone, with no trace of bruise or scar. “That’s good work. Can you do anything about—”

“I didn’t do it.” Lei said. “I worked on Pierce while you were sleeping, and prepared a healing charm for you. But I didn’t use it.”

“It may have been the same force that restored your hand, my lady.” Pierce had moved closer, to better examine Daine’s arm.

“I suppose,” Lei said. “If her claws hadn’t cut through the skin, I might think it was all some sort of illusion—”

“Jode did it,” Daine said.

The others just stared at him.

The dream was coming back to him. Unlike his visions from the Keldan battlefield, this one was more like a true dream; the details were faint and fading. “I remember now. He healed me just before I woke up.”

“Woke up,” Lei repeated. “You’re saying that Jode did this in a dream?”

Her tone irked him. “Do you have a better explanation?
Something
fixed your finger.”

Lei sighed. “Daine, Jode couldn’t have restored my hand even when he was alive. I don’t know why you’re fixated on this, but there has to be another explanation—”

“It was that bottle. The blue fluid.”

“What are you talking about?”

She was unconscious when I drank it. “It’s …” Daine scratched his back while he tried to put words together. “Last year, when we fought that thing in the sewers. Teral said that they were stealing dragonmarks. That they were going to steal
your
dragonmark.”

Lei nodded. She shivered, no doubt remembering the chamber of horrors in the depths below Sharn.

“You remember how we recovered a few bottles of black liquid down there? And gave them to Alina? Well, one of them wasn’t black … it was blue. And it had Jode’s dragonmark engraved on the seal.”

“You’re saying … you
drank
his dragonmark?”

“You’re the expert on magic here!” Daine said. “I don’t know what it was. But even the Jorasco healers couldn’t explain what happened to Jode, remember? I drank the potion, and then I saw Jode in my dreams. And now … I think he healed me.”

“That’s impossible,” Lei said.

“Tell it to your fingers,” Daine replied. “All ten of them.”

Lei glanced down at her hand. “But he wasn’t in
my
dreams. And I told you, Jode couldn’t do that.”

“If you say so,” Daine said. “Me, I’m not complaining.” He glanced at the other bedroll; the drow woman was still wrapped up in the blanket. “Have you checked to see …”

“I wanted to help you first,” Lei said, glancing to the side.