Thirty-nine
I stood at the foot of the elven wall. The single tower of Mog’s Keep rose beyond it. Magical sparks shot through the barrier’s mirrored surface. The raw power emanating from the wall caught me by surprise. My stomach knotted. I’d never felt such a strong enchantment in one place. I stumbled back into a snow bank as the magic took my breath away. The freezing air bit at my exposed fingers. I crossed my arms over my chest as I paced the length of the barrier.
The snow muffled my footsteps as I inspected the tower. It was taller than I’d realized and seemed to pierce the sky with its razor-edged turrets. The light I’d seen before pulsed with a blinding brightness from the tower’s topmost window. Something moved behind me, and I rounded.
The strange fog I’d encountered in the Wult tombs covered the landscape. My breath came out in puffs of white clouds and mingled with the fog. I listened for sounds of life, but the fog muffled any noises I might have heard.
“Olive,” said a deep voice that came from the mist. I shuddered as the voice echoed against the tower’s wall, a long, drawn-out sound that made my hair stand on end. I’d heard that voice before.
“Who are you?” I called.
The mist swirled, gray and white, brushing my face with its damp fingers. My heart rate spiked. Something moved in the fog. I couldn’t be sure what it was, but as I looked closer, I realized that hundreds, perhaps thousands of forms moved inside the cloudy barrier.
I took several steps back until I collided with the enchanted wall.
“What do you want from me?” I called. The mist muffled my voice.
Sinewy forms crowded inside the fog. They stood with hunched backs, their spines protruding from their meatless frames. Gray, almost-transparent skin covered their bodies. Hungry eyes leered at me, making me shudder.
I balled my hands into fists. The goblin army waited for me. But what did they want?
A man walked out of the crowd. With his neatly groomed beard and pockmarked face, I recognized him as the man I’d seen in my dreamstate not long ago.
“Mr. Green?” I asked.
He clutched his cane and then stooped into a courteous bow. A stiff breeze whipped his cloak around his stocky frame. “You’ve found me at last, though I had hoped to meet you in the human realm. The circumstances there would have been much more civilized.”
I took a step away from him. The flickering light came from the tower, though it was less of a flicker and more of a pulse. “Is this your army?” I asked him.
“Of course. What good is a king if he does not have an army?”
My stomach sank. “You’re a king?”
“Yes. I am the king of goblins. But only for now. Soon, I hope to exchange the name with something a little more awe inspiring. As soon as I capture Theht’s power for my own, I shall acquire a new title. God sounds more appropriate, don’t you think?”
I brushed my fingers against my pocket, where I felt the pure magic still tucked inside. “You tricked me. You wanted me to find the pure magic so your army could break through to summon Theht.”
“It was never a trick, child. I had honestly hoped you’d find me in Earth Kingdom. It would have been much less complicated. As I’ve mentioned before, your godson means something to me.”
“Yes, you’ve mentioned it. So besides being a goblin king with a god complex, who else are you?”
His eyes narrowed. “Look in your pocket.”
“I’ll never give you the pure magic.”
He laughed. “I wasn’t referring to it.”
Confused, I reached into my jeans’ pocket. I searched through three pockets before I felt it. Stiff cardboard bent under my fingers. I pulled out a business card.
“You were so very close. You had but to read the card and you would have found me. I suppose I can only expect so much from a half-human hybrid.”
I shot him a dark look as I read the card. Houston Area Christian Charities for Foster Children. Phone numbers. Addresses. Several different quotes on how they were preferred by most children in the area. Honestly, who put so much clutter on one card? No wonder I hadn’t found whatever it was he’d wanted me to find.
At the bottom ran a long list of names. I scanned them and stopped on one.
Nigel P. Green, Director.
I read it again. And then again. How had I missed this?
I looked up. “You’re the foster home director?”
“One and the same.”
“Then it was you who stole my godson’s dreamsoul. And all the other children as well. It was the perfect arrangement. You found kids who were emotionally compromised, who had vivid imaginations, and you put them under your spell. You could work in either world and pick them however you chose, wearing whatever form you wanted.” My words sounded calm. Inside I felt sickened.
“You are correct, though I did not act alone.” He pointed to a figure hiding in the mist. It walked forward. The dark cowl hid parts of its skeletal face, but I knew who it was—or rather—who she was.
The Dreamthief.
She wore the form of Charon, though I was fairly certain I knew who hid under that disguise. I’d seen her in my vision—the woman who’d carried me to be sacrificed as a baby—the woman I believed to be the elven princess.
The card crumpled in my clenched fist. “You did this? My godson? The other children? You sacrificed their lives for what? To summon a god who could destroy both our planets?” I couldn’t contain my anger much longer.
“You are incorrect on both assumptions. Theht will not destroy our world but recreate it. The goblins will be free once again. It was never my intention to harm the children. They would have been quite safe in their dreamstate had I not unintentionally opened a portal to an alternate realm. Those beings, the Regaymor, were never part of my plan. They are the ones who transported your godson’s dreamsoul into that tower. They are the ones who are killing those children. They took over what I started. Something intended to be wonderful has turned into a disaster. That is why I am pleading with you to help me. You are our last hope in saving those children. Use the pure magic. Break down the wall. Only then will your godson be free.”
I wasn’t buying the innocent act. “Let me get this straight. You posed as a human, became a foster home director, and then captured children’s minds in order to summon Theht. But then by accident you unleashed the Regaymor. And now you want me to fix it?”
“You are correct for the most part, though should you fail to rescue the children soon, the Regaymor will succeed in summoning Theht. Her power will become theirs. I cannot imagine the extremity of the consequences.”
An image of a battlefield littered with bodies came to mind. “I can.”
“Then you must act quickly.” He’d attempted an even tone, but I heard the desperation in his voice.
If Mr. Green thought it was okay to capture children’s dreamsouls, I couldn’t trust him. He was depraved on all kinds of levels. But if I didn’t storm Mog’s Keep soon, our entire planet would be destroyed. No pressure.
“I’ll break that wall down under one condition,” I told him. “Leave the children alone. Never mess with their dreams again. I don’t know what kind of world you live in, but in mine, messing with kids’ heads is wrong on all sorts of levels. If you do, I will come after you. And you will regret it.”
Wind gusted around us as I waited for his answer. “I give you my word.”
My warning had not been an idle threat. I would use every ounce of my power to bring him down if he ever looked at a child again.
I turned to the wall. It rose before me like an ancient pyramid. I felt the magic coursing inside, fueling a spell so complicated I knew I would never break through without the pure magic.
I removed the sachet from my pocket. Delicate fabric tied with a white string sat on my palm. As I untied the knot, I felt as though I were disturbing something sacred. The fabric fell away to reveal a lump of white sand.
It didn’t blow away in the wind as I would ha
ve imagined. Instead, it rested on my hand. And waited. I stared up at the wall.
Luckily for me, I’ve had experience breaking down barriers.
The goblin army stirred behind me. I wondered if they would wait for me to rescue my godson before storming the tower. I ignored them as best as I could as I focused on the wall. Shimmery white threads of magic spiraled through the reflective surface, leaving ripples in their wake like waves on a pond. I focused on the magic pulses, and then I poured my energy into the pure magic.
Enter.
A few grains of sand floated off my palm and drifted to the wall. As soon as they touched the surface, a deafening boom filled the air. The ripples vibrated as if I’d hit the wall with a sledgehammer, though the wall remained standing.
My heart rate quickened. I had to bring this wall down. I attempted the spell again.
Enter.
A flurry of sand whipped into the air, taking with it all the pure magic. I feared the wind would blow it away, but the sand flowed with its own current. It struck the wall.
The sound of a crumbling mountain came from the wall. A fracture cracked its mirrored surface, and then a dozen more.
The clamor deafened me. My knees hit the ground. I clapped my hands over my ears. The goblin army backed away as fragments of stone fell to the ground. Huge chunks of the wall rained down around us. They hit the snow with massive thumps, sending flurries of snowflakes into the air.
A bluish haze rose from the crumbling barricade. It swirled as if with a conscious mind. I ducked as a rock fell inches from my head. The mist flowed into the sky. I watched it disappear behind the low-lying clouds.
Mr. Green fell back. He glanced at me. “I will keep the army away until you’ve rescued your godson.”
“You will?” I asked him, surprised.
“Of course. Although I’m sure you believe otherwise, I am not a bad person.” His smile caught me off guard. “Please do rescue him,” he added, looking with apprehension at the tower. “Soon.”
I nodded and then rushed toward a gap in the wall, praying it didn’t topple on top of me. Pebble-strewn snow crunched under my feet. The tower’s light pulsed briefly and then shone with full force once again. How long did I have?
I rushed past the massive heaps of stone. The thought struck that I might have made a huge mistake. With the tower no longer protected, the goblins now had the ability to summon Theht. I pushed the doubts from my head and instead ran for the Keep.
I paused as I spotted a doorway at the bottom of the tower. Mog’s Keep loomed over me. The iron-gray turret shot into the sky. Like a lighthouse, the beam of light shone from the tower’s highest point, piercing through clouds above.
I dashed through the open doorway and peered up at a spiraling set of stairs.
Pain no longer meant anything to me as I climbed. I focused on one thing.
Save Jeremiah.
I climbed until my lungs begged for air, and still I climbed. When I reached the topmost part of the tower, I stopped. A door blocked my path. I grabbed the handle. Cold metal chilled my fingertips as I pushed it open.
The scene I’d witnessed once before came crashing back like a nightmare brought to life, though experiencing it in person was more terrifying.
The Regaymor flitted from child to child. They didn’t stop as I entered. I’d expected a fight, but they seemed oblivious to me. Black tatty cloth hung from bony frames. I watched in horror as their half-translucent, skeletal fingers dug into the children’s brains.
With my heart pounding, I searched for Jeremiah. I scanned the room twice before finding him.
He lay opposite the door, piled in the corner like a discarded corpse. I rushed to him. The creatures ignored me as I sprinted through their tower. My heart pounded as I knelt by Jeremiah.
His face was so pale I feared he was dead. I touched his cheek. His clammy skin felt unnaturally cool under my fingertips.
“Please don’t let me be too late,” I whispered as I felt for his pulse. It took me three minutes, but I found it. His form flickered, similar to the light streaming overhead, and I reminded myself that I’d found his dreamsoul, not his physical body.
I turned to the tubes coming from his head and yanked them free. As soon as I did, he sat up. His eyes looked dull and almost devoid of life.
He focused on me. “O—Olive?” His voice sounded hoarse, yet it was him.
I hugged him. I was certain I’d never felt happier in my life. Tears streamed down my face. I didn’t care. I let them come. I hugged him so tightly I thought I would never let go.
Jeremiah cried, too. His was a soft sob, though it was a sound of joy. I remembered he asked me once why grown-ups cried when they were happy. I guess now he knew.
“You came for me. I knew you would,” he said. He pushed away. His eyes began to shine with that familiar brightness I remembered. His smile had always been contagious. It was no different now.
I brushed away my tears and smiled with him. “I’m sorry I didn’t come sooner.”
“You’ll make it up to me.”
“Don’t I always?”
“Bowling?”
We’d had this conversation dozens of times before. “Yes, and donuts.”
“Both?”
“Trust me. You deserve it. You’ve got to be the bravest boy I’ve ever met.”
He looked behind me. His smile faded. I turned.
The Regaymor no longer flitted around the room as I expected. Instead, I found them on the catwalk overhead. They surrounded the light. It no longer pulsed or flickered but shone with an intensity that made me shield my eyes.
“They’re summoning Theht,” Jeremiah said, his voice haunted.
I turned to him. “What can we do stop them?”
“Take the others away. I’ll help you.”
He stood on wobbly legs, but it didn’t take him long to regain his strength. We dashed around the room and freed the other children. I unhooked tubes with shaking hands, fearing that at any moment the Regaymor would swoop off their perch and attack. They never did. I feared I knew why.
I was too late.
As I unhooked the last tube, Jeremiah stumbled toward me.
“It’s time for me to go.”
I eyed him. “Go where?”
“I’m going back home. You removed the Regaymor’s enchantment. They have no power over me anymore. I’m sorry, Olive, but I can’t stay here. It’s time for me to return to my body.”
“I understand.”
He smiled. “Don’t worry. I’ll see you soon.”
“Yes, I hope so.” I prayed he was right.
“It’s getting all fuzzy again…” His voice drifted. As it did, his form faded. He didn’t react with fear. He inhaled a long, deep breath. “Thank you for freeing me,” he whispered.
The other children crawled from their pallets on the floor. They looked at me with wide, fearful eyes. I realized that they were looking for some sort of reassurance.
“You’re going home,” I told them, hoping they had the ability to return the same way as Jeremiah.
One by one, their images faded. Their careworn smiles filled me with hope. I’d won this battle. Now I had to win another.
Bone-chilling wails came from overhead. Lightning crackled around the tower’s ceiling. Wind funneled through the room as electricity crackled around the Regaymor.
Somehow, I had to stop this.
I spotted a ladder leading up to the catwalk. As I raced to it, the wind rushed through my ears. Lightning bursts came at regular intervals. As I reached the ladder, Mr. Green walked into the room. The Dreamthief and several goblins followed him.
“What are you doing?” he called over the clamor.
“I have to stop them!” I called as I climbed.
“It’s too late!”
The Dreamthief pulled a basita gun from its cloak. It flicked the trigger so fast I barely registered watching the gears move. Pain exploded in my chest.
I fe
ll back. My head slammed the ground.
Gasping for air, I lay immobilized.
Mr. Green and the Dreamthief stood over me. “As I said, you should have found me sooner!”
“You… monster.” A host of other descriptors came to mind, but I couldn’t think past the pain.
“I allowed you to save your godson, but I can’t allow you to stop the summoning.”
The Dreamthief floated off the ground, past the ladder, and to the top of the catwalk.
I rolled onto my side. Sharp stabs of pain throbbed through my body, threatening to overwhelm me.
At least the children are safe.
I focused on the Dreamthief as it stood on the catwalk. A slim case formed in its hands. It opened the lid to reveal a mirror. Gray fog clouded the silver glass. Sparks of blue electricity crackled through the mirror’s surface. I caught a glimpse of the image forming in the mirror—a dark, mist-shrouded moor with wind-battered trees. The image disappeared as a burst of raw magic poured from the glass.
The Regaymor screamed loud enough to overpower the windstorm. I couldn’t suppress a shudder at the sound of their unnatural wails. The mirror became a vacuum. Gray mist that looked too heavy to be a fog encircled the creatures and pulled them inside the mirror, one by one, until they disappeared.
The Dreamthief snapped the lid closed. The screams stopped.
Although the creatures were gone, the tower’s light remained constant.
“What are you doing?” I asked Mr. Green as the Dreamthief knelt beside the light. Goblins poured in around us. They climbed the ladder and stood with hunched backs beside the Dreamthief.
I caught glimpses of their lean, skeletal faces, their ruby eyes glowing with calculated intelligence.
“We’re doing what should have happened twenty-four years ago. Your death will make an honorable sacrifice that Theht dare not refuse.”
My stomach knotted.
Chanting came from the woman and the goblins. I’d heard those words before.
We summon Theht.
Mr. Green grabbed me under the arms. Several goblins snatched up my feet.
We summon Theht.
“Leave me alone.” My words came out as a weak request. The pain made my vision blur.
We summon Theht.
I wanted to lash out and summon a spell that would destroy them all, but the basita had made my nerves unresponsive. I was doing good to keep my eyes open.
The goblins’ nails scraped my arms as they carried me up the ladder. Their harsh, rattling breaths sounded loud in my ears.
The light grew brighter the higher we climbed. When we finally stepped off the ladder, I got a better view of the catwalk area.
The light came from a wide, round altar. Runes, similar to the ones I’d seen in the Wult caves, were carved into its surface, and the light was emanating from them. They glowed as if on fire, a piercing light so bright I wanted to shield my eyes.
The goblins placed me on the table.
The runes scorched my back. Pain seared from my brain through my arms and legs, into my joints and nerve endings, as if I burned from the inside. I screamed. The agony took over my thoughts. Tears leaked from my eyes.
“Stop.” I managed a hoarse groan.
Mr. Green held up a knife. The smooth, mirror-like blade reflected in the altar’s light. A cold sweat broke out across my body. If only I could move!
We summon Theht.
I concentrated on breathing. I couldn’t move, that was true, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t use magic.
The knife lowered.
“Cirrus,” I whispered. The gust of air took him off guard. He flew back and hit the wall. The others fell back as well, landing in heaps on the floor. My joints screamed with pain as I moved an inch. It wasn’t much, and I was still on the table, but at least I could move again.
I crawled off the table and landed on the floor. My legs tingled as if they’d been electrocuted, but I managed to stand.
I focused on the blade. It lay on the ground a few feet away. I moved forward. Each step felt torturous, but I blocked it out.
Mr. Green stirred. His face, once human, transformed. I stared at a goblin in man’s clothes. He crawled into a crouch.
I lunged for the knife and grabbed it up, but another form swooped in. The Dreamthief. It stood between me and Mr. Green.
“Fool,” it hissed.
Its voice didn’t sound as I expected. The Dreamthief transformed, and the missing puzzle piece fell into place.
I no longer looked at the Dreamthief, but at Mrs. Dickinson. She looked older than when I’d seen her last. Gray hair hung in limp strands over her face. Her robes rustled around her as if caught in a billowing wind. She stayed in her true form for only a moment. Soon, her face morphed, her blue robes changed black, and once again, I faced the Dreamthief.
Mr. Green, in his human form, stood beside her.
“You underestimate everyone you come in contact with,” he said. “She was there from the beginning, watching you, waiting to take your dreamsoul. And now, she will finally have it.”
I couldn’t answer. Shock overrode my rational thoughts. How could Mrs. Dickinson be the Dreamthief? She was Jeremiah’s foster mom for goodness’ sake.
“She wasn’t alone. There were others, of course. Your own companions were traitors from the beginning. No one cares for you, Olive. Believe what you will, but in truth, you are alone. Your attacks on the light-rails, at the Wult tombs, in the pixie kingdom—they were not random.”
My thoughts started to congeal once again. Mr. Green took a step toward me. I clenched the knife. If only he knew how ready I was to slit his throat. I hoped he saw the madness in my eyes.
“The Caxon are everywhere. Infiltrating every nation in Faythander.”
He took another step forward. I didn’t want to listen to him, but somehow, I couldn’t do anything to stop him.
“They were alerted to your presence before you arrived. Instructed to become friends. Find your weaknesses. Attack when the time is right. We are not the only ones to betray you.”
I finally found my voice. “Then they failed. I am still alive.”
His laugh grated in my ears.
“They were not instructed to kill you. We needed you to find the pure magic. Discourage you. Make you suffer. Make you feel weak.”
The Dreamthief glided forward an inch. “Make you afraid,” it whispered.
The knife wobbled in my hands. I heard the goblins’ shuffling footsteps behind me.
Make you suffer. Make you feel weak. Make you afraid. This was their game. This was how they wanted to play. I wasn’t a person to them.
The Dreamthief hovered so close I saw the twin pinpricks of light glowing from its eye sockets. I couldn’t look away. Magic coursed from the specter, so strong I lost all sense of reality. It snuffed my magic out. Without it, I felt exposed. My only weapon, the knife, fell out of my hand. It landed on the floor with a sharp thump. Say what you will about fear, but when you truly experienced it, it consumed you. Your thoughts, your motivations, your intentions, all disappeared.
The goblins grabbed me up as Mr. Green spoke. “Now, shall we stop playing at this game? The sacrifice of your blood is needed for our spell.”
The Dreamthief moved toward me. I heard its words whisper in my head. Theht will return when the beating of your heart is stopped. You will bring death to our planet, and it will be glorious. You are the Deathbringer.
Calmness washed over me as they placed me on the altar once again. I shut my eyes. The Dreamthief’s words were meant to make me afraid, but I refused to let them.
It was then that I realized the Dreamthief’s power, something I’d known all along but only now understood. Fear. They used fear to paralyze me, make me helpless. They needed no spells or magic as long as I was afraid.
But I controlled my fear. Not them.
The chanting started once again. They stood around me, swaying back and forth. I ignored them
as best as I could, instead focusing on one thing. With my magic gone, I knew I had no chance of fighting.
Ulizet, I whispered. Can you hear me?
The chanting grew into a wail. The knife appeared. This time, Mr. Green didn’t hesitate to plunge it into my chest.
I screamed as the sharp metal pierced through my skin. A huge vortex of wind funneled around us, drowning out my cries. The pain stole my breath.
My blood seeped around the blade. Dark crimson drops plopped onto the stone.
Help, please! Ulizet? Fan’twar? Anyone?
Mr. Green removed the knife with a violent jerk of his wrist. My blood came out in a gush. My head grew dizzy as I watched my lifeblood seep onto the table. I gasped, feeling my lungs collapse as my heart stopped pumping blood.
Anyone?
My eyes closed. Consciousness ebbed. I stood in the dragon’s forest. I was a little girl again. I sat by a campfire and rested on Fan’twar’s flanks. He told me stories that made me laugh.
An enormous clatter came from overhead. I remembered where I was. Was Theht coming? If so, I didn’t know why she spoke with a man’s voice, a deep, husky voice that sounded enraged.
The yells of a whole squadron of bloodthirsty warriors mingled with the man’s voice. I knew of only one group of people capable of such violence. I cracked my eyes open just long enough to confirm my suspicions.
The Wults attacked the goblins without remorse. A blue glow surrounded each warrior, and even in my weakened state I felt the power of Princess Euralysia’s spell.
Screams came from the goblins. Mr. Green’s cries joined them. I heard bodies ripping apart. Skulls slamming together. Skulls splitting.
My thoughts caught me once again. “And the prince found the den of naughty goblins. As punishment, he made them scrub his chamber pots clean. And he demanded that they only use pieces of paper parchment, which fell apart and made a horrid mess,” Fan’twar said. I laughed with the firelight warming my face.
Someone interrupted my dream and grabbed me up. Warm arms encircled me. The sound of crashing rocks filled my ears. Was the tower collapsing?
All I wanted to do was go back to sleep. It felt so lovely by that fire.
Cold wind slapped my face, waking me. I cracked open my eyes. I saw a room full of Wult warriors. Dead goblin bodies surrounded them. Mrs. Dickinson’s corpse lay atop the goblin’s disemboweled carcasses. Her gold cross, her only jewelry, lost its luster. A memory charm.
Blood stained the floor. It splattered the walls.
The goblin wearing Mr. Green’s clothing looked the worst.
My stomach heaved.
Kull’s face filled my vision. He placed me atop something that felt strangely like bones. I focused and found I sat atop the T-Rex skeleton. Princess Euralysia sat behind me. Her magic surrounded the skeleton and enveloped me in its warm glow. She raised her arms, and the skeleton lifted into the air as soon as Kull bounded onto it behind me.
We flew out of the ruined tower. I wanted to tell them I was hurt, but my thoughts drifted.
Once again, the fire warmed my face.
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