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In Dreams Part II
Numair found himself
standing in the middle of a path, winding through a dark forest. What on Earth had happened? One minute he was sitting there, searching
Daine's body for demons or spirits, trying to determine what might be causing
the dreams, the next he was out cold, only to wake up in this strange
place.
A far-off shriek caught
his attention. He spun, trying to
locate its source. There! A flash of a white shirt in the black of the
night. Numair ran through the
underbrush, trying to reach her. Daine
sat crouched in a small clearing, surrounded by a swarm of pink and green
butterflies. It was no ordinary
clearing, either. The edges were
littered with animal carcasses and rotting flowers, and the middle oozed and
bubbled like a mudpot, or quicksand, its muck constantly changing colour. Every time Daine tried to move, the
butterflies beat at her, and the goo sucked her in.
Daine was being sucked
into a Chaos vent.
Furious, Numair
shouted. Daine spun to see him, and was
sucked under until she was waist-deep. No! he cried in his mind. Funny, he had tried to say that out loud, but it hadn't
worked. Desperate, he tried to grab her
with his magic.
Nothing happened. Numair swore vividly, and tried again. Again, nothing. Curse this place! He couldn't
use his magic to save her, but how else was he supposed to? If he stepped in the muck, he would get
sucked in, too, and would be no use to her. The butterflies had lost interest in Daine, and now swarmed around him,
beating him mercilessly with their tiny wings, blinding him.
Frantic, Numair groped in
the trees for a vine or a branch or something. His hand found a long vine, and he thanked the gods profusely. Beating the butterflies from his face, he
tried to get a good look at where Daine was.
She was up to her
shoulders in the muck, her arms trapped around her sides. Numair swore again, and tried to throw the rope
to her in a way that did not involve hanging her. On of her hands pulled out of the goo with a squelch, and she caught the vine. Numair pulled on the vine, trying to free the rest of her
body. She came up slowly. The stuff was so thick that it made no noise
as she came out. Once free, Daine
started to swing towards the edge. She
knocked into Numair, and the two fell in a heap.
"Excuse me," Daine managed
to gasp. She rolled off Numair's chest
and threw up into the bushes. Numair
sat up as she turned back around, wiping her mouth with her hand. "I thought the vents were only in the Divine
Realms."
He swatted at a butterfly
that was fluttering around his ear. "Maybe we're in the Divine
Realms. Maybe we're in the Realms of
Chaos. Maybe we're dead." He didn't like the sound of the last
one. "Maybe we're just dreaming."
At least she didn't feel
so sick anymore. Daine smiled at
him. "Let's hope on the last one." She reached over to kiss him.
"Well, well, well," said a
mocking voice behind them. "Maybe I was
right, after all."
Numair sat up quickly,
almost knocking Daine over. "Who's
there?!"
The voice laughed a laugh
that made them shudder. As Daine
watched, a large Stormwing flapped into the clearing, and perched on a branch
above them.
"Ozorne!" The name spat out of Numair's mouth was a
low, hissing curse.
Daine jumped to her
feet. "No! No, you're dead! I killed
you myself, not two years ago! What do
you mean 'I was right'?" She fumbled
for a bow and quiver that weren't there.
The former Emperor Mage
cackled. "Surprised to see me? Shocked? I should hope so. What I meant, Veralidaine, is that on that day many years ago, in Carthak, I
was right. I told you your precious
Arram Draper was in love with you, and I was right. So, my turtledoves, how many children do you have so far? Six? Seven?" He examined their hands with interest. "Tsk, tsk, and not even married yet."
Daine blushed, and threw a
rock at the approaching Stormwing. It
bounced off his head. "Wench!" he
shrieked. "You will pay for that!" He lunged for Daine, talons outstretched.
"No!"
"No!"
Daine toppled off her
seat, and fell into Numair. They were
back in the study. They both gasped,
then sighed with relief that the nightmare was over. For a moment, they just lay there, breathing hard, trying to calm
down.
Finally, Numair asked,
"Are you all right?"
Daine rolled off him,
rubbing a bruise on her elbow. "I'll
live. You?"
Numair smiled up at
her. "I'll live, too." She grinned back at him, and he reached up
and kissed her. She kissed him back
gratefully, feeling her strength returning. He stood carefully, holding her up, and kissed her again, softly.
Discreet coughing reached
their ears. Lindhall was standing in
the doorway, waiting, a kind smile on his face. "Now that you two are done your private discussion, let's get
back to this parchment."
6
Just because Daine and
Numair had triumphed in one dream didn't mean that the nightmare was over. Numair reminded Daine of this, and she knew
it was true. At least she didn't have
to worry about that until the night, when she would have to sleep again. She shuddered at the prospect. For now, though, she could concentrate on
helping Numair and Lindhall with the parchment. She surveyed it with interest, looking carefully over every rune
and letter.
"I've never seen the likes
of it," she finally told the mages. "And I don't know why you would think I would. You're the ones who've spent your lives in libraries, not me."
Lindhall chuckled. "I thought maybe just seeing the scroll
might trigger something," he told her. "I guess I was wrong."
Daine looked at the sheet
again. She looked away, then back
again. One of the runes was
different. Hadn't it been written in
black ink a moment ago? Now it was
green. She frowned, and looked
closer. It was getting bigger,
too. Steeling herself, she reached out
a hand to touch it.
"Don't you dare!" Numair
smacked her hand away from the scroll, his eyes panicked. "How do you know there isn't some kind of
draining spell, or tracking spell on that?"
Daine frowned. "You said that Wild Magic couldn't be
drained. Normal spells don't work on
me."
Numair grabbed her by the
shoulders and shook her. "You actually
think these are normal spells we are
working with?! What's wrong with
you? Think, Daine!"
Daine sighed and rubbed
her eyes. "Fine. If you don't want me here, I'll just
go." She turned and walked out the
door.
What was Numair's
problem? She was always cautious, and
he had been the one to make her talisman to ward off everyday spells. Didn't he trust his own work? Didn't he trust her? And now he
was angry with her. Perfect. "Well," she said to herself. "I guess I'll just go home and wait for
him. I'm no use in there, anyway."
She shook her head
suddenly. Where were those thoughts coming from? Numair had a right to be nervous, and it was true that this was
not ordinary magic. How could she have
thought otherwise?
What ever had caused her
to think those thoughts came pushing up again. Daine could feel the power trying to take over her mind. She gasped, and concentrated on forcing it
out. The power fought, and almost
won. Concentrate, she thought to herself. You've done all sorts of things before, you
can do this! Finally the magic retreated, but Daine was worried. It would have made her much happier if she
had felt it leave her. Instead, she had
felt the power sink deep into the back of her mind, and wait quietly until
Daine was off guard to try again. Rubbing her temples, she resumed walking to Numair's apartment.
Numair found her there an
hour later, curled up in a large chair, staring at the wall. She was afraid to fall asleep. He closed the door, and entered the room
quietly.
Daine jumped as he entered
the room. She saw Numair and
relaxed. "Where have you been?" she
asked. "I've been waiting for hours."
Numair frowned. "It's only been twenty minutes," he informed
her. "Not several hours."
Daine pushed the blanket
away and stood up. She frowned. "Really? It felt like several hours."
Numair walked over and
pressed her back into her chair. "Sit,"
he told her. "I wanted to apologize for
yelling at you. It was uncalled
for." He looked down. "I'm sorry."
Daine smiled. "It was as much my fault as yours," she
said. "Which is something I wanted to talk about." Numair looked up expectantly at her, and she took a deep
breath. Why was it always so hard to
talk about this? "Something- or
someone- was toying with my head today. When I said that stuff, it wasn't exactly me talking. I
don't know who or what it was, but they're not done with me yet."
Numair swore, and jumped
to his feet. Daine frowned as she
watched him run into his room, his eyes furious. When he came back out again, his face was pale and his eyes dark
and snapping. "You remember that
bracelet I had, for a focus?" he asked her, and she nodded. "It's gone."
Daine leapt up. "What?! You're sure?" Focuses were powerful tools. You
could perform dangerous spells with them, like control of body and mind. "Goddess, so that's what it was."
Numair looked up
sharply. "We can't be sure that's what
it was," he said tightly. "But it would
explain a few things." He smiled. "Well, there is one good thing about
learning this."
She sat forward in her
seat. "What's that?"
He grinned at her. "I can track the bracelet to wherever in the
world it might go. Whether it's the
problem or not, we can fix you with it." He kissed her happily, then wandered into his room, and Daine could hear
him muttering, "Really, why didn't I think of that before?"
6
One hour later, Daine,
Numair and Lindhall were in the stables, waiting for Stephan to fetch their
horses. As Cloud sauntered up to the
group, she gave Daine a disdainful look.
What now? she asked. I'm not very fond of going off on silly
little trips in the dead of night.
Get used to it, Daine
retorted silently. You'll be going on
many "silly little trips" in the near future.
That's what I was afraid
of, the mare retorted. She snapped at Stephan,
then stood still as Daine mounted, muttering to herself.
Numair had tracked the
focus, and found that it was deep in the thick of the royal forest. Daine remembered the dream and
shuddered. He thanked the hostler, and
the threesome began their journey.
"You're sure it's in the
forest?" Daine finally asked, hopeful. "It couldn't have been a mistake?"
"Do I make mistakes?"
Numair asked cheerfully.
"Occasionally," she
replied wryly. Numair threw a pinecone
at her.
"Enough," Lindhall said. "We're almost at the forest." Daine gulped.
The Royal Forest loomed up
dark and forbidding in the darkness of the night. Though Daine had been inside its depths many times before, she
had never felt like this toward it. Perfect, she thought. I'll never be able to come here again, and I work about a hundred
yards away. She shook her head, took a deep breath, and rode into the forest.
Daine flinched as the
branches closed around the party. She
called greetings to her animal friends, and received cheerful replies. She smiled, but she could almost hear the
insults and slurs from the previous night. She winced as she thought she heard an insult, then sighed when she
realized it was a crow. She was used to
insults from crows.
Numair noticed that Daine
was getting a little pale, and rode up beside her. "Are you all right with this?" he asked her. "You're looking sick again."
Daine smiled weakly at
him. "I'll live. I just keep expecting the animals to jump
out from between the trees and attack us." About this, she received several protests from the nearby animals. "But I think that they're against that
idea." At this, she received several
agreements.
He smiled. Still, the trees were getting thicker, and
Daine was looking worse and worse as they did so.
Suddenly, Daine jumped.
Numair looked up at her
sharply. "What happened?"
She surveyed the path and
the foliage around them. "I've been
here before," she whispered.
Lindhall, who had almost
been forgotten, piped up, "But you can't have. This is far deeper than any of us have ever been."
Daine shook her head. "No. I've been here." She
shivered. "Right there." Her voice was barley audible. "Under that tree."
Numair made her look at
him. "When?" he demanded. "When were you here?"
Daine's answer was so low
he had to bend over to hear. "Then," she whispered. "In that cursed dream! And any moment now everyone will come diving
out of the trees, in a mad rush to kill us!" Her voice had become gradually louder until she was shouting. Numair looked around and realized that he,
also, had been there. This was the very
spot in which he had woken up after blacking out in Lindhall's office.
"Damn!" he sputtered. "If this is there, and the bracelet should
be over there, but that's where I saw her, then over there is a chaos
vent!"
Lindhall blinked. "I beg your pardon?"
Numair shook his
head. "Nothing, nothing," he
muttered. "It's right through
there." He shuddered as Lindhall got
carefully off his horse, and started through the trees. Daine shook from head to toe as she
dismounted, and nearly tripped when she touched down. Numair got off quickly, and realized that he, too, was trembling. This place made him uneasy. He and Daine followed Lindhall into the
dense underbrush.
The threesome carefully
entered the clearing. Numair half
expected Usoea, the Chaos queen, to leap out from somewhere, oozing claws
flashing. He shook his head. Get a hold of yourself, he thought fiercely. She's been imprisoned by the most powerful gods in all the
realms, she is not here. The bracelet was dangling dangerously on a delicate
looking branch hanging over the middle of the clearing.
"Someone doesn't think
very much of us," Daine remarked. "It's
easy to see it's a trap."
Numair sighed and put an
arm around her shoulders. "The worst
part is we can't just walk away," he told her. "If we leave without the bracelet, I don't know how we'll cure you." He stared at the floor of the clearing. It looked enough like normal forest floor, but Daine and Numair both knew better
than to approach it without first taking precautions.
An elbow collided
painfully with Numair's ribs. "Try
getting it with magic," Daine told him impatiently.
"Your magic should work."
He shook his head to clear
it, wondering why his mind was working so slowly, and reached for the
bracelet. He held his breath as it
lifted off the branch and floated slowly towards them. He supported Daine as she reached out, and
plucked it out of the air. Gripping it
tightly, she went over every inch to ensure that it was unharmed. She grinned and turned to Numair. "It's fine." He grinned back at her, and fastened it around his wrist. It vanished as the clasp clicked
together. He began to laugh with
relief, and Daine followed suit. He
scooped her up in his arms and placed her on his horse, then climbed up behind
her. He kicked Spots to a gallop, as
Lindhall shook his head and hitched Cloud up to his horse, and followed them.
6
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