Dream Cast
Chapter 2 of Alternities
Kara flew an evasive course to the nature park to avoid being seen. Donning the special glasses brought the oval gateway in view where the professor said it was. The problem now was keeping out of sight. A traffic circle with its central fountain was just loading a busload of tourists. When it roared away, Kara turned her attention to the misty oval. She set the glasses aside, working from memory, and extended a hand. Nothing happened. The glasses were also some kind of talisman required for entry. Picking them up, she stepped through.
A large black cylinder was as Periwinkle described it. The convex lens she had stepped through gave a view of the park outside. Kara's first act outside on the plaza was an attempt to levitate, not surprised when it didn't work. Overhead was the ribbed dome with stars beyond. One thing the professor didn't mention was the silent sentinels before each structure at various levels. They were all the same: nine feet tall, black robed, with white heads. Each had a tiny mouth and a slit for a nose.
Kara went past her sentinel, down a few steps, and looked back. A force field prevented her hand from reaching up onto the plaza. But when she donned the specs, the gaunt figure spoke.
"You may pass, Daughter of Future Past."
What did that mean? Assured of a ticket home, she put the specs away and descended to a curved thoroughfare. A lot of things assailed her upon being powerless for the first time: a sense of weight and breathing; pain if she pinched herself; loss of super hearing. Still, a low thrum pervaded the nexus. A colossal power source must underlie it all. Stars were everywhere, unlike on Earth with its constellations. It was like a stellar nursery, perhaps a pocket universe. Who could have built such a thing?
A group of five were crossing a flyover between a squat tower and a block complex. One of them spotted her, and they began running toward an end turret, no doubt having spiral or zigzag stairs. Here we go for better or worse. Kara stayed near the sentinel in case a flight up the stairs was called for. But like Periwinkle said, these folk were not hostile. Four youths and a girl came on fast, waving and exclaiming, none with green skin. A different group than the professor had encountered. Their weapons bounced in their sheaths, not drawn, which was a good sign. They all wore rustic adventuring trogs such as leather armor and jerkins. Only the leader had a metal helmet, though the others wore ones of leather. The girl had a staff on a belt, and a burly youth in green tunic had a bow across a shoulder. They slowed warily, their excited jabbering incoherent. Then the leader carefully put a stone on a chain about Kara's neck.
"You can understand us with the translator stone. Can't you?"
"I can," Kara said, marveling at the discord between his foreign words and those in her mind.
The girl's short black hair bobbed with excitement. "Zena dress! Where's your sword?"
Kara knew nothing about swords. "Who's Zena?"
The bowman shifted his load uneasily. "If she does not know Zena, then she does not know Team Dan. It must be the old man who received the dream cast."
The professor had mentioned how his invention came to him in a dream, and that was the opening Kara needed. "It came to him, and then he sought me out."
They lit up again. "Your power must be great," the leader said.
"I'm not sure," Kara said carefully, "how much power there is here on the nexus."
"Watch!" The girl lifted a hand to cast a flurry of sparks.
A thin youth in dark blue did the same, except for it being a static bolt. "That's what wizards do. And Team Dan has the greatest wizard and sorceress of all!"
"Then why do they need me." Kara's statement floored them.
"They are trapped," the leader said, "by the Tower of Sorcery. But the Archoners will explain it. Come!" The smiling team flocked around Kara, keen for the glory of bringing back the dream cast summons. They followed a meandering trail of bridges and underpasses until they overlooked a vast sunken arena with hundreds of doors. In the blue twilight of this place, Kara was induced to be first to go down the wall-hugging stairs; they weren't about to let her get away now. They came to a door marked by a symbol. Inside was a glowing ring set into the floor. When all were aboard, the leader touched holographic symbols that floated by at chest height. Everything blurred like a painting splashed with acid.
They now stood in a bright, depressed ring in what was this world's version of Grand Central Station. Throngs of mostly green-skinned folks cheered wildly behind a barricade. Overhead in a glass-lined booth, an amplified voice boomed: "Team Dolven returning with a summons of the dream cast."
The only thing on Kara's mind was the color of this world's sun. She levitated all the way up to the rafters, then down again, setting off another round of acclaim. Green-skinned folks in colorful island garb hefted glass orbs eerily like cameras.
Dolven clasped hands with his teammates. "I told you she was a great sorceress!"
"Or," the wizard ventured, "a wizardress."
Good question, is Kara's view. "My power comes from the sun."
"A star mage!" cried the fifth member, a wiry swordsman.
Four cowled figures emerged from the complex, flanked by guards to keep reporters at bay. The globe wielders fired questions, mostly about her name.
"Call me Kara," she called back. It was less pretentious than Supergirl. Amid the uproar, the Archoners shepherded her into the wide admin space, then into a conference room off to one side. They offered her a seat, then took their own.
"We know what questions you have first," said the eldest, doffing his cowl. "This is Lunari Island, on the world Team Dan calls the Outworld. Kantu—" He motioned another, who pulled a poster from a drawer. "Team Dan comes from Earth, like you. When they discovered magic here, they decided to stay. But I must say, they never mentioned one like you."
Kara studied the group. Zena did indeed have a similar dress, except for being daringly low cut. Well, if you have it, show it. The blonde one labeled Bonnie had longer hair, wearing white over black. A tall black man was labeled Pete; a sandy-haired man with a goatee was Ed; and Dan was the leader in black, with glasses and an affable smile. "I don't know them either."
"Tell me," the elder said. "What year is it where you come from."
"Nineteen sixty."
The Archoners muttered briefly, until the elder said, "That is seventy years earlier than in their Earth. I believe the dream cast has sought out one from a different Earth." Seeing her next question, he went on. "This is a high level spell that invokes help from the gods. Neither of Dan's spell casters is qualified, but they are able to combine their magic in powerful and unpredictable ways. Their spell has settled on you as the answer to freeing them."
"Those glass globes—"
"Scry balls. They capture images for homes that have scry disks. Dan calls them 'Lunari TVs'."
"I want to try something that will save us all some time." Kara led the way back to the terminus, where other teams had gotten word about the star mage. She reached out for a globe, which a hefty woman with short hair rushed to supply. Kara found it worked by power of suggestion. Such was the rate of questions she fired at it that it floated up from her hand, casting rapid images onto her face to the awe of the crowd. Soon she had a basic knowledge of Outworld.
"I'm Marnee," said the stout woman who accepted the globe. "Team Dan's favorite!"
Kara nodded at the overachiever, then faced the Archoners. "You have vampires here."
"Many," rued an Archoner whose face was in shadow. "Team Dan brought over four more of exceptional power, just across the sea on Rotbone Island."
"Then you won't mind one more," Kara said. "I'll return as soon as I find her. I have a feeling she'll come in handy." She returned to the sender ring, which an attendant had set for the nexus. With a wave, she began the teleport, feeling like Dorothy from Oz.