Dreamthief

by Tamara Grantham

Thirty-eight

  My vision blurred. I no longer stood beneath the sacred tree. Instead, I stood in the Wult caves, the same caves I had crossed through to find the tombs. Strange, as I didn’t remember any harrowing memories happening here. I stood on the edge of the underground lake.

  The altar sat on the shore. I’d seen the apparition here. My stomach turned as I remembered it, though I wasn’t sure why.

  People stood around the altar. They wore dark robes with cowls that hid their faces.

  Goblins were also in the room. They stalked around the altar with their knuckles dragging the ground. Red eyes glowed from hungry, lean faces.

  Chanting came from the group gathered around the altar. It started softly at first, and then rose. It sounded like the beating of a drum. Each word pounded with harsh syllables. I didn’t recognize the language, but with goose bumps prickling my skin, I knew it must have been a spell. A very bad one.

  I concentrated on the sound of their voices, trying to recognize the words. As I listened, I heard a phrase repeated over and over. I used my magic to enhance my hearing, and that’s when I understood it.

  We summon Theht.

  Two thoughts struck me: This wasn’t a memory. And I’d been tricked.

  I tried to run but found I couldn’t move. I wanted to scream, to do something—to do anything—but I was trapped. My soul had entered this place. I had no control over it.

  We summon Theht. We summon Theht.

  A figure emerged from the corner of the room. She carried something, though in the dim light I couldn’t tell what was inside the bundle.

  She walked closer, but not close enough for me to see inside the wrapped cloth. Something stirred inside the bundle, an animal perhaps?

  A silver strand of hair peeked from her cowl as she approached the altar. I watched as she unfolded the blanket. A newborn baby lay inside. With its slightly damp hair and protruding umbilical stump, the baby looked minutes old. The woman placed the baby on the altar and stepped away.

  The infant didn’t wake as the robed figures surrounded it.

  My heart raced. I had to stop this.

  We call Theht. The blood of an innocent will be our price.

  One of the robed figures raised a knife.

  They were using the blood of an innocent to summon Theht. You didn’t get much more innocent than a newborn. What kind of sick, depraved people were they?

  I wanted to shout as the chanting grew louder and louder. The woman who had carried the baby joined in. I focused on her, and though I couldn’t see her face, I got the impression that I knew her. Was she the Dreamthief? If so, what was her true identity? The elves had been involved from the beginning. It wouldn’t be unreasonable to think that this could be the princess.

  Their chanting resonated with an eerie echo. Tears leaked from my eyes with a phantom warmth that seeped over my bone-cold cheeks. I had to stop this. Surely there was something I could do.

  Ulizet, I called. Please, hear me!

  But I was alone. I had been abandoned in my dreamstate to watch something so horrific I knew I would never be the same.

  We summon Theht. We summon Theht.

  But where were all the other children? Where was Jeremiah? Had they already been sacrificed? Or would they be next? And why were we in the caves and not in the goblin tower?

  My questions fled my mind as I watched the knife hover over the baby’s chest.

  “No!” I heard the words as if I’d spoken them myself. A woman rushed into the room. Her red hair looked mussed, her brown robes disheveled, though I still recognized her. My mother. “She is my daughter. You must stop this!”

  Several robed men caught her as she rushed for the altar. “Stop, stop!” she screamed.

  The man with the knife paid no attention. Silver blade glinting in the firelight, he thrust it for the newborn’s—for my—chest.

  An enormous whooshing came from the mouth of the cave. A behemoth of golden scales flew inside and snatched the baby away, cradling it gently in its massive claws. I watched him fly away, out over the Brimlake with me in his grasp.

  “Thank you,” my mother whispered before she collapsed.

  The scene disappeared. A sharp light came into focus. I recognized the tree. I lay on the ground. Its broad branches swayed gently overhead. I heard the chimes once again, the chimes I’d heard that first day I’d gone to live with my mother.

  “She had sworn to sacrifice you.” Ulizet’s voice came from somewhere. I focused and found her standing beside the tree’s trunk. “Your mother first visited Faythander almost thirty years ago. She made a home with the elves. She fell in love. But she learned the truth of the goblins and pitied them. When she joined the resistance, she was five months pregnant.”

  I slowly sat up. My heart still raced. I pulled my knees to my chest, wishing I could forget the images playing over and over again in my memory.

  “The goblins determined that the only way to defeat the elves was by summoning Theht. Your mother and her unborn child were part of their plan, but the goblins weren’t the only faction interested in Theht’s powers.”

  I tried to process her words. “The Gravidorum,” I whispered.

  “Yes. Their spies joined the goblins for a brief time in order to harness Theht’s powers for their own. The goblins never knew of these spies. Before your mother gave birth, it was her intention to sacrifice you. But she underestimated the love a parent has for her child.”

  “She couldn’t go through with it.” I wished I would’ve just let the tears come out. Holding them in was so painful. “She’d wanted me dead, but she couldn’t go through with it.”

  “Your father was one of the Gravidorum spies. He is responsible for summoning the sky king. He, like your mother, could not watch you die.”

  I crossed my arms, feeling a sudden chill. “Why didn’t my parents tell me?”

  Ulizet looked on with an emotionless expression. “Your mother’s mind became unstable once she crossed back into Earth Kingdom, and your father knew the only way for you to be safe was to live under the constant guardianship of the sky king. Telling you the truth of your past would have harmed you.” Ulizet’s voice softened. “And he felt immeasurably guilty.”

  Something glinted near my feet, and I focused on the tiny sachet filled with pure magic. I picked it up with careful fingers and stuffed it in my pocket. “What’s the second vision?” I tried to speak with resoluteness, but it came out as a weak whisper.

  “Soon you will see,” Ulizet said. “Soon.” Once again, her voice seemed to come from a million miles away as I felt my dreamsoul being transported. I no longer sat under the tree. Its glowing warmth left me, replaced with a chill that burrowed deep inside my soul.

  I stood in Mog’s Keep—the goblin tower. Wispy figures flitted in and out of focus. That blinding, pulsing light I remembered was visible here. Sounds of whimpering came from somewhere. My head spun with dizziness as I tried to focus. The room tipped from one end to the other as if I stood on the deck of ship during a squall. The more I focused, the more the spinning room settled. The pulsing light, however, never stopped. Its intensity was like a mallet pounding inside my brain.

  Choking coughs came from the opposite end of the room. I focused on the sound.

  My godson lay on a pallet of white sheets. His eyes were rolled up into his head so that I saw only the whites of his eyes. Tubes came from his mouth, his nose. They ran the length of his body and were attached to metal prongs on the floor and walls, like some sort of twisted lightning rods. Other children lay beside him. They surrounded the edges of the circular room, all situated in the same way as my godson.

  Once again, I found I couldn’t move. My stomach turned at the sight of the imprisoned children. This was evil. Any person who participated in the torture of innocent children didn’t deserve to be called human.

  The wispy figures I’d seen earlier began to take a cohesive shape. My heart sped up. I’d seen them before. It seemed lik
e light years ago when I had first seen the figure in the caves. There were at least a dozen of the figures flitting from one child to the next.

  I watched one stop next to my godson. Gooseflesh prickled my skin as I watched a translucent, skeletal hand touch his forehead. Jeremiah grimaced at the creature’s touch, though his body remained motionless. The fingers sank into my godson’s forehead. The pulsating light grew brighter.

  I looked up and saw a catwalk overhead. A huge strobe-type light sat at the top. As the creature’s fingers dug deeper into my godson’s forehead, the light increased in intensity.

  The beacon was to call Theht.

  A wail came from behind me, and I spun around. A little girl lay on the ground. Blood oozed from the tubes stuck down her throat and nose. She choked, though her body stayed unresponsive.

  The robed figures moved in. As if one collective mind, they surrounded her, and each stuck a finger inside her head. Her whimpers turned to screams. Through the mass of hooded figures, I saw her eyes open. Blood replaced her tears. She screamed for another minute, though it felt as though she cried for hours before her eyes finally shut. Her rigid body grew limp.

  A clammy sweat broke out across my skin.

  I couldn’t imagine a more torturous death. And soon, that’s what would happen to my godson.

  I had to get to Jeremiah. I had to get inside that tower.

  The figures dispersed.

  On the few occasions I’d seen these beings, I’d been baffled as to who or what they were. There weren’t any species in Faythander that fit their description.

  Ulizet’s voice filled my head. They are from the world yet undiscovered. Come, you will see what lies ahead.

  I didn’t want to leave. I wanted to rush to Jeremiah and pull those awful tubes out of his head, but the scene shifted. Instead of standing inside a tower, I stood on a plain of barren rocks. I’d been here before—when I’d spellcasted the dream catcher.

  Yet, this time, the vision seemed more real. A bitter taste of iron coated my tongue. A stiff breeze gusted past, chilling my exposed face and arms.

  The vision I’d seen before replayed.

  A woman stood on a mound at the center of the battlefield. Corpses were piled beneath her feet. Again, I was stricken by her unnatural beauty and her otherworldly presence. Her dark hair fell in a shimmery wave over her shoulders. Her armor looked pliable, yet impenetrable. Her eyes made me shudder. Three pupils fanned out from the center of her irises. She didn’t smile, she didn’t move, yet again, I got the impression that she was responsible for the deaths of thousands—millions, perhaps.

  Theht, Ulizet whispered.

  My mind reeled. How could this be Theht? Wasn’t he supposed to be male? But that concern was nothing compared with the horror I beheld. This was clearly a vision of the future.

  The closer I scrutinized the scene, the more faces I recognized. My father’s eye peered from the tangle of bodies. I saw Kull, half his face ripped apart, part of his skull peeking through, buried beneath the bodies.

  Under Theht’s feet, I saw myself. My scalp had been ripped away. Pieces of brain matter leaked from gashes in my cranium. My mouth slacked open in a soundless scream.

  That’s when the smell hit me.

  Nausea churned through my stomach. I wanted to gag. Stop, I pleaded with Ulizet. Please, make it stop.

  When the scene finally shifted, the tree swayed overhead, though it did nothing to calm my heaving stomach. I rolled onto my side and vomited onto the spongy ground. When I finished, I crawled away, wishing I could erase the scene from my memory. I knew I never would. A picture like that is one you never forget.

  “Theht,” I whispered. “She killed them.”

  “Yes,” came Ulizet’s voice.

  The stirring branches filled the silence. Somewhere far in the distance echoed the sound of chimes. I closed my eyes, but still the images played over and over. I saw my mother. I saw my godson. I saw myself.

  “Are you certain this is the future?” I asked.

  “The events are already in motion. Theht will destroy your world. She will destroy all who inhabit it.”

  I wanted to vomit again but found my stomach empty. I rose onto my hands and knees. Ulizet stared at me with an expressionless face.

  “When?” I asked her.

  “I cannot say, but the events of her return are already set in motion.”

  “What if I stop it? What if I rescue the children first?”

  She pursed her lips as if deep in thought. “Stopping her summoning will delay what is to happen.”

  “That’s better than nothing,” I sighed. I rose, feeling the spongy ground cushion my feet. A cold sweat slicked my skin as if I’d awoken from a nightmare. I tapped my pocket and felt the pure magic tucked inside. Hopelessness tried to overwhelm me, but one thought drove me forward. I had to rescue those kids.

  “Can you transport me to Mog’s Keep?”

  Ulizet’s voice remained even. “To do so would require another payment. I will not risk your life, Deathbringer.”

  “I’ll pay. Whatever the price, I’ll pay it.”

  “I cannot.”

  “Not even to save those children?”

  “I cannot,” she repeated.

  I wanted to collapse. I wanted to curl up on the ground and sleep for three weeks. What good could I do now? The pixie kingdom lay on the opposite side of the world from the goblin lands. It might as well be on Mars. It would take days of constant travel just to reach it by the end of the week.

  Judging by the vision I’d had in the tower, I estimated I had hours.

  “Please,” I pleaded with Ulizet. “Isn’t there some way?”

  “I dare not help you.”

  “But those kids will die. My godson will die!”

  She didn’t answer.

  “You know how important this is. You’ve seen the vision. You know the consequences.”

  “Preserving your life is of greater importance.”

  I was getting nowhere. Time for a new approach. “All right, you can’t help me. I get it. I’ll find another way. Is there some way you could point me in the right direction?”

  She didn’t say no immediately, which I took as a good sign. “You have the ability within you.”

  “I do?”

  She nodded.

  This was news to me. “How do I find it?”

  “Look within yourself. In your memory, you hold the key to defying the barriers of space.”

  Her words reminded me of something. Peerling’s text. What had it said exactly? I closed my eyes, recalling the words. It was easier for me to do than one might expect. My power lay within words. I took them seriously. The text came to me as if from a dream.

  The possibilities of where your imagination might take you are limitless. There is no wall or barrier your own thoughts cannot penetrate.

  When I’d first read the passage, I’d assumed he’d meant that the imagination could help you view worlds and places you’d never been, but strictly within the boundaries of one’s own mind. Yet, did he hint at something else? Was it possible to use the power of the imagination to actually transport your physical body? If so, then how?

  I pulled my mother’s ring from my pocket. In the silvery light of the tree, the diamond looked ethereal. I held the ring in my palm. I’d already discovered its magical word. Enter. I’d used it to kill a beast. But could I use it for another spell?

  When I glanced up, Ulizet no longer looked at me, but stared at something overhead. Her normally untroubled expression turned grim.

  The ground shook, causing the tree’s limbs to tremble. “It is time,” Ulizet whispered. “You must leave this place.”

  “What about you?”

  A small smile creased her mouth. “I will never be hard to find.”

  The ring grew warm in my palm as the shaking increased. I wasn’t sure what was happening, but I suspected it had nothing to do with me being here and everything to do with what was
happening in Mog’s Keep.

  “Know this—there is no way for your physical body to pass through the wall. You must use the pure magic to destroy the wall first. Only then will you be able to free your godson. Use great caution, Deathbringer. This path you choose is one of immense danger.”

  I nodded. The ground shook so violently I thought I might be thrown off my feet.

  I balled my hand into a fist, pressing the ring into my flesh. I exhaled and then called my magic. It swelled within me as I concentrated on the word. In my mind’s eye, I pictured the wall surrounding Mog’s Keep.

  “Enter,” I whispered. The ground disappeared beneath my feet. My stomach flew into my throat. I kept my eyes closed, certain that if I opened them, I would lose all sense of reality.

  Focus, I told myself.

  The freefall continued until I was certain I had made a horrible mistake. Was this supposed to happen? I clenched the ring in my fist. I conjured the picture of the wall once again, imagining every detail.

  The picture came more vividly than I expected. The air turned cold. I tasted ice on my tongue.

  The freefall stopped.

  I opened my eyes.

  Before me rose Mog’s Keep.