Seven: dawn
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Teela came awake all in a instant.
She'd been dreaming, and echoes of it swirled around her mind even as she took in the shadowed tent above her head, the canvas cot beneath her spine, the scratchy fibers of the blanket she was clutching to her body.
Whew! What a dream, she thought, releasing her death grip on the blanket to drape one arm over her eyes. She blew out a heavy breath. It had seemed completely real, despite being rife with crazy dream-logic.
Like a gleaming white-and-gold castle that she knew was Grayskull, even though it was set among verdant fields, no abyss in sight.
Or a winged woman that she knew was the Sorceress, even though she looked nothing like the Sorceress… which Teela also somehow knew, despite never having actually laid eyes on the woman.
Or a man that she knew was He-Man, even though he was taller, older, and wearing a ragged fur-trimmed cloak.
Not to mention a set of warriors, all of different races, who were as familiar as the Eternos palace, even though Teela had never seen them before.
In the dream Teela had been standing on the castle's drawbridge, near the warriors but unseen by them. There had been stormclouds building on the far horizon, and the scent of rain was heavy. The man who was and wasn't He-Man had crouched to lift the woman who was and wasn't the Sorceress; she had fallen to her knees some time before, one hand reaching out to the clouds.
The man had not set the woman on her feet again, but had held her close, cradling her like a child. She'd looked almost comically tiny in his massive arms.
"Veena," he'd said, in a voice like the rumble of thunder; but there was only tenderness in his words. "Do not despair, my love. All will be well. This I promise."
The warriors had nodded to one another, plainly troubled, but also satisfied by this vow. But the woman – Veena – had looked away to the horizon, her face set into a mask of grief.
Teela had found herself stepping forward without intending to, drawn like a magnet by that sorrow. As she'd walked, the warriors had melted away into nothing, fading as fast as the landscape. Even the huge man had disappeared, leaving only Veena, standing alone in a great sea of gray, drifting fog.
"Oh, my husband," Veena had said softly to the misty air. She'd clasped her arms across her chest, bent over some invisible wound; her wings had drawn in, too, folding into her quiet misery. "If only you were right."
"I'm… I'm sorry," Teela had told Veena.
Veena had turned. Her eyes had met Teela's, and she'd raised one hand and made a sharp gesture, and suddenly Teela had been standing not in an endless mist, but in Adam's bedroom at the palace.
Dream logic. Go figure.
At least the Adam part made sense – she'd been thinking about him before she fell asleep. Still, she wasn't sure why or how she'd conjured up such a specific scene.
Cringer napping on the floor beside the bed. Well, that was totally normal. Adam in his formal court clothes. What she'd last seen him wearing, okay. Adam dropping onto his bed with a groan, hands over his face, saying, "How'm I going to fix things with Teela, Cringe?" – that could have just been wish fulfillment. He did owe her.
But then...
"I wish I could just tell her," Adam had said, still talking to Cringer. "I know, I know, I can't. But it would make everything so much easier!"
Cringer had leapt onto the bed beside Adam, mewing in concern.
Adam had rubbed Cringer's head, scratching at the fur behind his ears. "You should've heard her at the party tonight. Pretty sure she's starting to hate me, buddy. The worst of it is, I can't blame her."
Cringer had mewled again, this time sympathetically. Then he'd licked the side of Adam's face, making the prince laugh.
"Yeah, you'll always be my friend, I know."
Pleased, Cringer had given Adam one more slurp before he curled himself into an improbably tight ball of lanky tiger, tucked his tail in, and closed his eyes.
Adam had scrubbed at the slobber on his cheek for a minute, then risen from the bed and gone over to the nearest window. He'd rested his arms on the sill and his chin on his arms, looking out at the moonlit night. His reflection had looked back.
"Maybe," he'd said slowly, "maybe we should go see the Sorceress tomorrow morning anyway. Maybe Teela's a special case, right?"
No answer from Cringer aside from a light snorffling sound.
"Yeah," Adam had said to the window. Quietly, that time, thoughtfully, as if he'd only been talking to himself. "Maybe."
He'd sighed, and his reflection had sighed, too. Then the glass had seemed to shiver, and it was no longer Adam looking back, but the blonde Horde soldier.
Adora.
And at that point, Teela had jolted awake.
Teela made a face now, remembering. Seeing Force Captain Adora superimposed over Adam like that was just… wrong. And what did it say about her, that her subconscious was equating her best friend with her newest enemy?
She pushed the blanket aside, ready to quit thinking about bizarre dreams and start figuring out what she was going to do next. Breakfast sounded good. It was too much to hope that the Rebellion camp included anything more than a basic latrine, but that was high on her list as well.
And after that…
"One thing at a time," she told herself, swinging her feet to the floor and wincing at the sore, stiff muscles the action revealed. "And one of those things should be stretching. Ugh."
Teela looked around the floor for her boots – and froze. In the deepest shadows of her tent, three sets of tiny eyes glowed.
Purple, yellow, green.
High-pitched whispers and hushed giggles filled the air.
Teela held her breath, remembering the sensation of being watched in the forest. It was much worse inside a tent. What had Kowl and Madame called them? Twig something.
The glowing eyes disappeared, but the whispers continued.
They're friendly, remember? she told herself. Friendly forest spirit creature… things.
She swallowed and gave an uncertain little wave in the direction she'd last seen the eyes. "Um… good morning, everyone."
A miniature laugh rang out, like the peal of the world's smallest bell, and the whispering vanished.
Teela waited for another minute, but there was no further sign of the… the Twiggets, that was it. She found her boots, shoved them on, and raked a quick hand through her hair to get out the worst of the tangles before she left the tent.
She stepped out into the soft owl-light of predawn. The camp was still mostly asleep, and the forest around it was peaceful. Overhead, stars glittered in the fading darkness.
None of the constellations were familiar.
And instead of the friendly, comfortable moons that filled the sky at home, here there was only one, a huge sharp disc that glowed almost painfully bright.
It was pink, of course.
Teela quickly dropped her attention earthward. The "guard" that had been posted outside her tent was gone. In the girl's place was a young man in a hooded brown cloak, grinning at her.
"Good morning, milady," he said grandly, with a ridiculous courtly flourish.
"Hi, Bow," Teela said, ungrandly.
"Glimmer wants to see you right away," Bow said as he straightened. "That is, as soon as she wakes up."
Teela snorted. It figured.
He gestured self-importantly at the miserable huddle of tents and went on, "In the meantime, my most gracious lady, I am utterly at your service."
She crossed her arms over her chest, one eyebrow lifted. "So I'm not a Horde spy?"
"I never thought you were," Bow retorted, dropping the pose of court gallant in favor of an ordinary young soldier. "Come on. I'll show you where we keep the porridge."
Teela's stomach rumbled with approval of that plan. She followed without further comment. By the time she was seated on a log near the cooking fire, a bowl of hot food in hand, the Rebels were beginning to stir. Their princess… not so much.
That was okay. Teela was used to royalty sleeping in. Besides, she wasn't going to begrudge the chance to get a better look at the layout of the camp or a feel for the people of the Great Rebellion.
As she'd noticed yesterday, there were a lot of kids. There were also a lot of women, which she guessed made sense. Surprisingly for a resistance movement, there weren't very many men of fighting age – most were either too old or too young.
So who was doing the fighting?
Probably not the two young women sitting on the next log over, who were both trying to convince small children to eat some porridge.
One of them caught Teela looking, and gave her a weary smile before returning her attention to the toddler making a mess of his breakfast and her skirts.
"Kowl's not a fan of porridge?" Teela asked Bow, having finally noticed the creature's absence.
Bow laughed. "Kowl's not a fan of mornings. You can't fault him for it – his kind are usually nocturnal. Just another reason he's so grouchy, I guess."
Before Teela could ask any further questions, a girl about nine or ten years old rushed up to Bow. "The princess is awake," she announced importantly, wiping at her runny nose with one hand. "She says bring the new lady."
Message delivered, the girl darted off again.
The woman with the messy toddler tsked in disapproval – but not, Teela quickly realized, for the princess' sloth: "With only a few hours of sleep! Poor girl."
"She'll make herself sick," the other woman agreed. "How late was she up this time?"
"Past midnight, at least," the first woman said. She joggled the toddler on her lap. "This one woke me, and I saw her light glowing."
The other woman shook her head, making some clucking noises of her own. "If only the queen was here."
"If only the Horde wasn't," Bow said curtly, rising from his seat. The women looked a trifle taken aback. "Come on, Lady Teela."
Teela laid her empty bowl on the log and followed.
Princess Glimmer, being royalty, evidently rated more prestigious accommodations than a patched and leaky old tent. Bow led Teela to one of the huts. It looked sturdier than most, but she hoped the Whispering Woods' enchantment extended to protection from strong winds.
Someone had painted what must be the royal crest on the door: a large pink disk framed by wings.
At least Teela assumed they were wings. The painter hadn't been very good.
Bow rapped on the door; a formality only, it seemed, because he pushed it open without waiting for a response.
"Lady Teela, as you commanded, Your Highness," he said, ushering Teela inside ahead of him.
Inside, a couple of lamps cast flickering yellow light over everything. The furniture was similar to that in Teela's tent, albeit more substantial: bed, basin, trunk, chair, even a mirror hanging on one wall. Most of the hut had been given over to a large, map-covered table. The Great Rebellion's war room, it seemed.
Her Highness was sitting in a chair in front of the map table, yawning into a steaming cup of tea. Her riotous hair had been gathered into two large, loose plaits, both of which were falling apart, leaving curls poking out at random; she had a purple dressing-gown pulled on over what appeared to be the same outfit she'd been wearing yesterday. The overall effect made her look even younger than before.
"Great," Glimmer said, squinting at them. "What's for breakfast today?"
"Porridge," Bow told her.
Her nose wrinkled, but she didn't say anything more about breakfast. Instead she straightened her spine and gestured at a pair of wooden stools standing nearby, belatedly putting some royalty into her demeanor. "Have a seat, Captain Teela. You too, Bow."
Teela sat before Bow could do anything stupid, like offer to assist her.
"I'm sure you're wondering why I've requested your presence," Glimmer said to her.
Teela was not wondering. Either Glimmer had decided to make her an official prisoner, or she'd had someone looking into Teela's story and determined it all checked out.
"Your Highness," was all she said. Hey, if the kid wanted to play at being regal, she'd go along with it.
"You're not a Horde spy," Glimmer said.
Teela resisted rolling her eyes, but barely. "What changed your mind?"
"The Rebellion has its sources," Glimmer said, obviously trying to sound aloof and mysterious. Trying. Sleep-rumpled and yawning, she didn't quite pull it off.
"We have spies in the Horde," Bow confided with a wide, delighted grin.
Glimmer was not delighted. "Bow!"
"What? You said she was okay."
"That doesn't mean you can tell her everything!" Glimmer made a shooing gesture at the hut's door. "Ugh, just – just go away."
Bow looked as if he wanted to protest further, but he didn't. "Yes, Your Highness," he said, rising, then turned to Teela. "Milady."
He did one of those ridiculous flourishes on the way out.
"He's not very good with secrets," Teela observed. No one has ever accused Bow of subtlety, Kowl had said the day before. And yet he was obviously highly placed in a secretive, subtle Rebellion.
Desperation. Had to be.
Glimmer sighed; it turned into a yawn. She took a drink of tea, then said, "Mother says Bow always sees the best in everyone, even when he shouldn't. He even sticks up for Captain Adora, can you believe that?"
Teela's eyebrow went up despite herself. "Force Captain Adora."
"He says she saved his life when the Horde seized Castle Brightmoon a few years ago." Glimmer shrugged, a fond half-grin quirking her mouth. "But he says a lot of stuff."
Teela snorted. "Yeah, no kidding."
Glimmer's half-grin faded into a serious expression. She set her drink on top of the map table and laced her fingers together in her lap. "So. You're a Royal Guard. And a good fighter, it sounds like. But I've never heard of Eternia. Where is it? How did you get here?"
"I'm not sure how I got here," Teela admitted. "And… I'm not sure where Eternia is. I think this is a different planet."
It hurt to say it out loud. She took a breath around the sudden queasiness in her stomach. Probably just the porridge.
"Oh," Glimmer said. Her forehead creased, but then she rallied again. "Okay. Tell me about your duties as a Royal Guard."
Teela did, sketching out not only her job with the Guard but also the Skeletor situation, He-Man, and her part in the Masters. She finished with a description of Evil-Lyn's portal spell and escaping from the fortress.
Glimmer was a great audience. She stared wide-eyed the entire time, and gasped at all the right places. "By the First Ones," the girl breathed when Teela was done. "That's… I don't know. How are you going to get home?"
What little hope Teela had plummeted straight to the bottom of her boots. "I thought the Rebellion might help with that, Your Highness."
The forehead crease returned, this time with a chewed thumbnail. "I'm not very good with magic. Mother was starting to teach me before she, um – before the Horde took her. Mostly I can do little things, with light. Um, and some illusions. They're never very convincing. But I can teleport twenty whole yards!"
Teela nodded vaguely at the magic repertoire, then focused on the most critical piece of information. "The Horde. That's Captain Adora's goon squad, right?"
"Well, yeah, but it's more than that. The Horde is – it's an army. It's unstoppable. They've taken over everything." Glimmer glanced at the map table. "We're safe here only until Shadow Weaver finds a way around the Woods' magic."
"So Shadow Weaver's in charge," Teela said. Okay. It made sense that Blondie and friends would be flipping out if their leader had inexplicably disappeared.
But Glimmer shook her head emphatically. "She's just the second-in-command. Their real leader is stuck in another dimension or something. He tells Weaver what to do and she makes sure it gets done."
Elders! This was as bad as trying to coax an after-action report out of Ram Man. "And he is…?"
"I don't like to say his name," the princess said, hushed. "Mother says that's only superstition, but – I don't like it. Everything terrible that's happened on Etheria, since before I was born – it's all his fault. He's evil."
Teela waited.
After a long moment, Glimmer leaned forward and whispered, "Hordak."