Worlds Away - Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Nineteen

Adam dreamed.

He didn't know how he was aware that he was dreaming; normally, his dreams were not lucid and he could no more figures out that he was dreaming than he could change the color of his eyes at will. Yet, this time he knew innately, somewhere inside of him some greater instinct and knowledge told him that he was dreaming.

It helped that he remembered retiring to bed. He remembered everything about the past few days, including the return trip from Elspera Keep. The return trip, which had been postponed for three days due to heavy rains, was hard to forget. The rains did not cease after three days, and riding along on muddy roads in a jolting carriage was not something that one forgot easily. Aching and sore, he remembered taking a long hot bath and curling up gratefully in the warmth of his bed.

Adam even remembered falling asleep. Well, no, not quite falling asleep so much as waking -- waking inside his dream.

In his dream, he found himself in a long, richly decorated hallway. The tiles on the floor were a deep indigo and navy blue, with thin veins of silver worked through in elaborate patterns. Heavy linens and lace of deep blue hung from the walls and were draped between tall pillars of pale yellow or ivory. One side of the corridor opened to several large balconies from which Adam could feel the faintest of breezes blowing. Somewhere, music played.

He listened for a moment, trying to form an association with the music in his mind. It was like nothing that he had ever heard before and yet, at the same time, it was slightly familiar. Adam turned in a slow circle, trying to center in on the haunting and beautiful sound, and stumbled backwards in surprise when he bumped into two figures that had not been there before.

Covered from head to foot in layers of silk and linen and lace, not even their eyes were visible. Bronzed hands held lace veils around their faces, the jewelry on their wrists and ankles chiming as they exchanged childlike giggles, and joining hands, hurried past him, whispering furiously.

In the blinking of an eye they disappeared.

Because he was dreaming . . . and he had to wonder if they had ever really been there at all.

Where the hell was he?

The music was fading now, and Adam tried and failed to focus on the source of it. He figured if this was a dream, he should have been able to find the music and quite possibly the musician.

If this was his dream.

That wasn't a thought that settled well with him and he tried to shrug it off.

A breeze blew across his face, drawing his attention to one of the open balconies.

Not thinking, just acting on instinct, responding to what some inner voice told him to do, Adam walked to that balcony.

His breath caught in his throat.

The city sprawled beneath him was beautiful. It glittered in rainbow swirls beneath the setting sun, mesmerizing him.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?"

"Yes," Adam answered the question before turning to the owner of the voice. He was almost -- almost but not quite -- disappointed when he saw that the owner of the voice was hidden beneath silks and veils like the two young women he had encountered in his dream earlier. His mind supplied the details for his surroundings, and he knew that this woman was Albarasquan, and that he was in the Sun Palace at Dia'sol. Although he had never been there, or even seen any pictures of it. Odd. But it was part of the dream and he would examine it later. "I've never seen anything like it."

The figure turned, and although Adam could not see her features, something about her seemed familiar to him. A part of his mind reached out in recognition, grasping - but not quite finding the placement. Not until she spoke again, her voice quivering ever so slightly. "Adam?"

"Ami?"

It couldn't be, but Adam knew that it was. Just as he knew that even though this was a dream, that he was breaking a million rules and taboos when his hands rose quickly to peel the veil away from her face. Breaking rules didn't matter however because she was helping him.

"Oh, Adam! It is you!" Ami's squeal of delight was punctuated with a hug, a hug that was so unexpected that it sent him stumbling backwards into the railing of the balcony. "I thought that I was alone here, and I wanted so badly to find you and I did! I really did it!" Ami's dark eyes were sparkling with delight when she looked up at him.

"Find me?" Adam tried to wrap his mind about what was happening. This was a dream, his dream, and his subconscious fears about Ami . . .

"No. No!" Ami shook her head fervently, still clinging to him as though he was her only anchor in the world. "This is real. Well, it's a dream, but it's real too. It's a shared dream. I did it to find you … well, to find out if you were here. And you are, but where, why haven't I seen you?"

"A shared dream? How … Ami --" This wasn't making sense . . . even for a dream.

"I can't explain it right now, I don't have that much time," Ami pried herself away from him, stepping back to peer up at his face. "You look different."

Adam scratched his chin. "I need a shave?"

Ami smiled, "No silly. There's something else . . . where are you, Adam? Why haven't I seen you?"

"I'm not in Albarasque, Ami. That is where we are, right? Albarasque?"

"You're not in Albarasque? Then how are you … how are we --"

"Ami, I don't even know how this is possible. I thought that I was dreaming."

"You didn't question Tutankhamen when we picked him up in our dreams."

The words were stated so matter-of-factly, Ami's arms folded across her chest, her eyes narrowed in a challenge that Adam couldn't really argue with her. And with those words, that gut instinct inside of him told him that this was real; somehow, someway, Ami had found the means to reach him. Across the Daelth Sea no less.

"All right, you win. So, is this your dream or mine?"

"You're starting to sound like Megabyte. I told you, this is a *shared* dream. I don't think that it really belongs to either one of us. It's just a bridge … for us to talk." Ami frowned, and her hand rose to clutch at a small purple and white crystal at the base of her throat. Adam knew it wasn't his imagination that she flickered and faded, almost disappearing before she was solidly in front of him again.

"I told you, not much time, Adam." As if those words explained everything, Ami took him firmly by the hand and led him away from the balcony. They had a short walk to a small room off the balcony that had numerous pillows on the floor. A room, Adam could have sworn hadn't been there when he first entered the corridor.

Whatever Ami might have said about this being a shared dream, Adam was beginning to believe other wise. They might have been together, but this was a dream world of Ami's making and she was in control here.

"And it's not easy either," Ami informed him crisply. She fell neatly onto the pillows and motioned him to join her. "I've been here for three weeks, and I was terrified that I was alone here, and then I finally contact you. . . and find out that I might be alone anyway."

"You're not alone here, Ami." Adam took her hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. "We might not be in Albarasque, but we know where you are. That's a help."

"We?"

"Yes. Jade and Megabyte are here too. They're with me in Stiborn."

"Stiborn?"

"It's across the sea, to the north --"

"I know that!" The light returned anew to Ami's eyes, and Adam barely had a moment to brace himself before she barreled into him again. "That's great! That's wonderful! I'm -"

Adam bolted upright in bed, jarred from the depths of sleep by the loud peal of thunder outside his window. It took him a moment to orient himself to the absolute darkness of the bedchamber, and it took a moment for his memories and awareness to return.

A dream, it had all been a dream.

Yet, the niggling feeling remained that it had been real as well. That Ami truly had been communicating with him.

And that meant Ami was here - in this world with them - in Albarasque.

Adam was a heartbeat away from calling to Jade and Megabyte telepathically, when he realized how foolish that would be. He didn't want to get their hopes up - not when he couldn't prove anything; not when he didn't even begin to know *how* they would even find Ami. Albarasque was a large country and finding one young woman was bound to be like finding a needle in the haystack.

Slumping back down to his pillows, Adam swore. One way or another, he had to be certain that dream was real.

Then, if it was, he had to find Ami.

Which was bound to be a feat even if he was married to the Damiar Princess of Albarasque.

***