Worlds Away - Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty

Ami did not jolt to sudden wakefulness. Even with the ship she was on being tossed about on the waves, she eased out of her dreaming state slowly, carefully extricating herself from the web of dreams into the land of waking reality. The transition had to be done slowly; the first time she had attempted it, she had nearly given herself a heart attack, and she knew now that the mind couldn't handle such sudden jumps, not when there was magic involved.

She considered herself lucky to have found both the dreaming crystal and Amideira's private notes on the subject. Whatever else the Damiar Princess was, she had certainly earned the rank of Damiar. She was a powerful mage, and a great deal of what she tried and attempted was frowned upon -- even forbidden -- by Nynie.

The dreaming crystal, which now hung suspended around Ami's throat and clutched tightly in her hand, had been one of those things that Amideira wrote would have Nynie "stripping her hide for weeks to come." So it was that Ami had found the crystal, and Amideira's notes on the use of it hidden in a small, locked box; the only key was attached to a silver bracelet that Ami wore around her wrist.

It had taken her until the ship set sail from Albarasque to work up the courage to try and use the dreaming crystal to contact the others - if she could contact any of the others; if they were even in this odd world. Although she had been unable to sense them, or contact them telepathically, Ami had a feeling that they were here. She just had to find a different way of reaching them.

Tonight, she had found Adam, and he had confirmed that her feeling was correct - Jade and Megabyte were with him. It gave Ami some small measure of hope and comfort to know that she was sailing closer to her friends; no matter that Stiborn was a large country of its own, just knowing that she was on the same soil with them would make her sleep a great deal easier.

And once they were all together again, they could try to find their way home.

Not that she had a clue about how a princess could go about searching the countryside for people that she technically shouldn't even have been in contact with. Not that Ami thought that such a thing would even be easy to do - but she had to cling to the hope and belief that she would have ample opportunity to try. With any luck her husband-to-be would not be the tyrant and barbarian that Sephrine tended to brand all northern men as, and he might be supportive of his wife's whims.

Or he might simply be grateful to have an excuse to have his odd and exotic bride out of sight and out of mind.

The train of her thoughts startled her. She spent so much time acting in the role of Damiar Princess Amideira that the lines were beginning to blur. She was already beginning to accept the notion of a strange marriage to a strange man; and already beginning to devise schemes to use her new power and prestige to her advantage.

Maybe there was more social climber in her than she had ever imagined.

Pushing the uncomfortable thought aside, Ami returned her attention to a more immediate task. Very carefully, after lifting up enough to make certain that Nynie still slept soundly in the other berth across the room and confirming that Sephrine's still breathed in the patterns akin to sleep, Ami lifted the dreaming crystal from around her neck. Her hand slid beneath her pillow, feeling blindly until her fingers closed around the small silk pouch there.

The crystal she slid into the small pouch and the pouch was returned to its place beneath her pillow. In the morning, when Sephrine and Nynie actually gave her enough room to breathe, she would return the pouch and crystal to the holding box. Now that she knew she *could* use the dreaming crystal to contact the others, she would have to resist the urge to do so again for a few days. Using the crystal to actually draw someone else into the realm of her dreams was more tiring than just trying to tap into the energy that allowed the dreamer to remain lucid in that sleep realm.

Yawning, Ami rolled onto her other side, smiling as she drifted off to a lazy slumber. She was happy with her success, and she was even happier that she had reached Adam. Beneath the pillow, one balled fist clutched the small silk pouch that held her personal Holy Grail.

****

"Amideira."

The voice calling to her sounded as though it came from down a long tunnel.

"Amideira, wake up, please."

Annoying, like a buzzing in her ear. Ami attempted to turn away from the sound, losing herself in the comforting buffer that was sleep.

"Up with you now, child!"

Rough hands grabbed her, jerking her and shaking her until she was left with no choice but to clamber to a full state of wakefulness.

"Stop it, Nynie! I'm up already!" Ami growled, shaking off the other woman's hands. As she did so, she immediately regretted the loudness of her voice that echoed inside her own head. The reason, she realized, that her voice was echoing was because it was beginning to feel like a small percussion group was having a live performance inside of her head. When she opened her eyes, the light hurt and the percussion group picked up the pace. On top of it all, her mouth felt dryer than the desert.

"Praise to Damiaren," Sephrine cooed, "You gave us a fright."

Ami attempted to open her eyes, but immediately winced and clenched them closed again. "I was actually having a good night's sleep--"

"It's well past midday, child," Nynie cut her off. Ami felt a mug forced into her hands and she drank it down thirstily without question, her mind not truly registering Nynie's words until she drained the entire mug.

"Midday?" Ami opened her eyes enough to squint at the older woman.

"Sephrine, why don't you inform Her Majesty that Her Highness is well and with us?" Nynie directed her words to the younger woman, but her gaze was fixed sternly on Ami.

"Yes, Nynie."

As the door closed behind the other woman, Ami squinted at Nynie. "Am I in trouble for something?"

In answer, the woman, both nurse and maid and damiar in her own right, dangled the small silk pouch in front of her Ami's eyes. "Is this familiar to you?"

Instinctively, Ami's hand grabbed for the small pouch only to have it snatched back by reflexes that Nynie's age did not betray. "That's mine."

"I know that it's yours. It's been yours since your first name day when your grandmother gifted it to you. I am not here to claim that it isn't yours. But I am here to claim possession of it until you are ready to be more responsible with objects of this much power!"

"I am responsible!" Ami protested, her eyes following the pouch as Nynie tucked it deep into the cleavage of her dress. "I didn't hurt anyone, Nynie! I was careful . . . I was just --" Ami stopped at a loss for words. What excuse could she possibly give? That she was trying to contact her friends from another world?

"You were just dabbling where you do not belong!" Nynie's eyes flashed dangerously. "You know that the dreaming is not a toy to be played with! I have pretended to not notice and to ignore your dabbling, but I should have known better. You were never one to stop when you were in over your head, Amideira --"

"I was not in over my head, I was --"

"And you will not interrupt me!" Nynie stood and snatching the empty mug from Ami's hand, crossed the room with it. She continued her chastisement while refilling the mug, and producing a small pouch of herbs from her pocket that she crushed into the drink. "Last night, whatever you did, you pushed yourself further than what you can handle. We have been trying to wake you for hours. You drained yourself, and you are lucky that you did not become trapped in the dreaming.

"You will not do such a thing again while I am here at your side. And to be certain of that, I am keeping the crystal until such time as you may be trusted with it."

"No!" The vehemence of Ami's protest surprised even her. But she had finally, finally found a way to contact Adam and the others and she could not afford to have Nynie take it from her. A part of her was angry at the woman for her presumption, the other was angry with herself for allowing herself to be caught. "That's not fair!"

"And I suppose you think that a dead -- or worse -- princess is fair to your parents? To your new groom? To your people?" Nynie returned and shoved the mug under Ami's nose. "Drink. It will restore your energy and balance, enough for you to get by. Although I daresay it will not give you enough strength to tap into any source of magical energy."

The smell wafting from the mug reminded Ami of rancid juice and she wrinkled her nose, refusing to take the mug. "No. I don't need it."

"You will drink it or I will bind you up, hold your nose and pour it down your throat."

For a moment, two sets of dark eyes met in a battle of wills, but it was Nynie who won. Seeing that she had no choice, and not doubting that Nynie would carry through on her threats, Ami quickly turned up the mug and downed the concoction, which turned out to taste far worse than it smelled.

Handing the empty mug back to Nynie, she turned away so that the woman would not see the hot tears she could feel burning in her eyes. She had only found her friends a few hours earlier and it seemed that she was losing them again.

***