Beyond it, the black path still stretched across the land, a train of devastation. Will these wounds of Dream ever heal, and can the wounds in my own heart close? Moonmist hung her head. So much horror she had seen. How could she go home now? How could she become the princess again, wear gowns of silk, live a life of idleness and pleasure? In the past few weeks, life had been turned upside down, and the change shocked her.
I left home a pampered girl. I return a warrior.
She turned her head south, to gaze down upon the camp. They had bivouacked among the lilies, Niv and the pegacats and the hippos. We left home with so many... we leave them all behind, to lie among the flowers of Eloria.
She glimpsed a speck in the sky, and raised her eyes to see a bird flying their way. The bird grew closer, and she saw it was a hawk, magnificent across the sky. It cried out, its voice ringing across the plains, then swooped down. Moonmist outstretched her arm, and Windwhisper landed there.
The hawk seemed exhausted.
"Windwhisper!" Moonmist said. "Are you all right? Do you need food or water?"
The hawk breathed heavily. "I bring tidings," he said. "War! War is at the Begemmed City. Eliven strikes there."
The world seemed to crash around Moonmist. Trembles took her knees, and fear filled her belly and roiled there. War... in her home.
"Galgev is on his way already," Windwhisper said, "and he is leading a host of beasts--bears, wolves, deer, and many other animals of the forests. I fly east from here, to summon Maninav. Head to the Begemmed City! Phobetor must not take it."
With that, the hawk took wing and soon became a distant speck in the sky.
Moonmist ran down the hill, and Niv approached her. They did not need to exchange a word. Their eyes said it all.
Niv whispered words under her breath, raised her hand, and conjured a standard bearing Yor's likeness, flapping from a pole ten feet tall. She began to walk through the grass, eyes cold and staring into the west.
Moonmist climbed onto King Hippo. The pegacats flew at her sides. They followed.
Eliven. In the Begemmed City. My home. It seemed impossible. None in Dream had ever seen Eliven, Phobetor's wife of flame and clay. Just the sound of the Queen Demon's name sent fear through Moonmist.
Harmony landed by her, and Moonmist hugged her.
"I'm scared, Moonmist," the pegacat said.
"Me too," the princess whispered, staring into the distance. Grass rolled for miles over gentle hills, finally giving way to a misty forest. The air smelled fresh here, scented of grass and wind, yet Moonmist felt sick.
"Has Eliven really come to Dream?" Harmony asked. "So she is real. I was never really sure."
"None of us were," Moonmist said softly. "No being from Dream has ever entered Nightmare and returned. Who knew if the stories were true or myth?"
When she had been little, her parents would warn her that if she misbehaved, Eliven would come snatch her. The Queen of Nightmare. The she-demon with the hair of flame. Phobetor had raised her from the red clay of Nightmare to be his bride, and all in Dream feared her name.
"You know, I was never scared of Loor, not really," Harmony said. "But maybe that's because Loor was one of us. He was born here in Dream. I was there to watch his birth. I watched him grow up. But Eliven...." The pegacat lowered her head and shuddered. Moonmist stroked her white fur.
Starlight too landed beside Moonmist on the Hippo King. The black pegacat folded her silvery butterfly wings around her. "The war has begun in earnest now, if Phobetor has sent Eliven forth," Starlight said. "We slew his brother. He will withhold none of his malice now. The storm is here."
The Hippo King grunted beneath them. "Bah! I shall trample Eliven too, like I trampled Loor. I do not fear any woman."
Starlight gazed reflectively into the west, as if gazing into Nightmare itself. "Eliven is no woman, sir Lor Ya, but a demon made of nightmares and fire, and her malevolence knows no boundary."
The Hippo King grunted but said nothing more. Moonmist patted the hippo's thick gray skin, then let her hand remain there. For many days, she had drawn comfort from the touch of this warm, powerful beast, but even the army of River Horses could not comfort her now. Harmony was right. Loor was one thing. After all, Loor was a being of Dream, the child of Galgev and Maninav. But Eliven... here was a creature of pure nightmare, a creation of Phobetor, his second-in-command.
A part of Moonmist wanted nothing more than to flee the other way, as far from Eliven as possible. That part screamed that she was insane to head toward danger. And yet, Moonmist could not abandon her home, her family, her friends. The thought of going to battle made her weak and dizzy with fear, yet she could not desert the Begemmed City.
Home. Her beloved city. "Tay tandels ay orya fo melesandre, kalaypa li rana," she whispered the ancient words. Thy gems shall light the distance, calling us home.
She thought of her kindly father, how she would tug his beard as a girl, how he had always seemed so wise and powerful. She thought of her mother, the kindest person she knew. She thought of her handmaidens Onana and Lynk, her dearest friends.
I can't abandon them. I must return with the River Horses, even if we march to death. Let me die upon the marble walls of my home. I will never fear death in the shadow of the white towers of the Begemmed City.
By evening, they were walking through a forest of ash, maple, and dogwood. The air smelled heavy with moss and earth, and mist floated between the boughs. Leaves glided through the air and the dying sun sent golden rays between the boles. Squirrels raced between bluebells on the forest floor. The beauty of Dream filled Moonmist's heart with such joy and ache, that she could hardly bear it.
If we win this war, I swear that I will travel through all these lands, breathe the air with no fear, and lay for days in the grass and watch the skies. She had never loved life, and her home, so much as now, with them threatened.
They slept that night among the trees. Even the hippos, who had marched with no rest from the Riverlands to Sunflower Corner, finally needed sleep. They set down upon fallen leaves and grass, and Moonmist fell asleep as soon as she lay her head on her arm.
Her sleep was deep but troubled by dreams. She dreamed of Cade. In her dreams, the young knight marched through the fiery lands of Nightmare, moving closer to Phobetor, and she knew that the fate of Dream depended on him.
We can only fight to buy him time, she thought.
He smiled at her in her dream, and they kissed among the red boulders of Nightmare, under a sky of smoke and flame.
"Godspeed, Cade," she said, and handed him her last jasmine petal, a favor for the dark lands ahead.
When she woke up, it was before dawn. The trees rustled around her, yet the birds seemed strangely quiet, as if they knew evil crawled upon the land. Moonmist rose from her bed of leaves, shivering in the morning cold, and wrapped her tattered cloak around her. The rest of the camp still slept.
She walked through the trees alone, dragonflies floating around her, leaving paths of light in their wake, lighting her way. She walked until she came to a clear, slow river. In the darkness, she undressed and stepped in. The cold water pinched her skin, and hot tears streamed down her face.
She bathed in the darkness, washing away the ash, the horrors, the blood that still covered her arms and stained her fingernails. As golden fish swam around her, she said a prayer to Yor, the King of Dream. She shut her eyes.
I've never swum in the sea, and I've never known a man. I've never had a child. I have never lived, not until I killed, not until I almost lost my life. Why must I learn to live just now, before I die?
"Godspeed, Cade," she whispered into the dawn.
She walked back to the camp as the sun rose between the trees, and they continued walking through the forest. Moonmist shivered, her hair wet, and hugged herself. The pegacats sat on King Hippo, staring forward, leaning against each other.
As they walked, Moonmist saw that the animals of the forest moved west too. Lines of coyotes
ran between the boles, and deer raced upon hills to the north. Birds flocked overhead into the west.
"They too have heard Windwhisper's call," Starlight said, staring at the animals, her fur sparkling in the morning. "It took time to rouse us, but Dream is roused now. War is full."
Moonmist gazed into the sky, at clouds of ravens which shielded the sun. "Will Yor himself emerge from Hidden Valley Ridge to fight?"
Starlight turned to look at Moonmist, and there was a haunted sadness in the pegacat's yellow eyes. "Yor forever strives against Kar, my child, in hidden ways we can never know."
Harmony shivered. "The Twig Eater can be terrible when he is angry, just silent and... staring. Always quiet. He was like that when he learned how Winived tricked Galgev and conceived Phobetor. I remember! I would hate to see Yor get angry again." She covered her eyes with her paw.
Under flocking birds of all kinds and colors, Niv led them across forests, fields of raspberries, plains of rolling wheat, misty hills, and farmlands. For days they traveled, fear growing inside them. Back home, Moonmist thought. Back to my city, my family, my life. What will I find there?
The answer came in the farms outside her city.
They emerged from the dawn, and saw before them the Begemmed City in the distance, but it did not shine as ever. Moonmist turned her gaze aside. She covered her eyes with her hand as she grimaced. A pall lay upon her city today, like a claw of dark cloud and lightning clutching it from the sky. Dragons flew among those clouds, and the stench of demons carried on the wind.
"Tay tandels ay orya fo melesandre, kalaypa li rana," she whispered. Even today. "Still you call me home."
She straightened her gaze and stared toward the city, tears streaming down her face. As the wind blew jasmine petals into her feathers, she thought of death, and she could smile, for she did not fear it. I have feared death for too long. I will lie down upon the earth of my home, and gaze upon my city, and as I shut my eyes all pain and fear will disappear... and I will float with a smile into peace.
She did not want to die, but she was ready for it.
She drew the Dawnstone as an army of devils, twenty feet tall and winged, raced toward them on insect legs.
Standing ahead in the blackened field, Niv screamed and kicked her hoofs and flashed Whisper under the sky. Light burst from the Dreamblade, and Moonmist shouted too, and the hippos charged forth.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Of Birds and Silkworms
For days they traveled through the subways. Every day, Candlelit took them on a hundred trains, some built of rickety wood, others of rusty metal, some of bones and some merely woven of thread and wire. Some trains were living creatures, great caterpillars that rushed along the tracks on ten thousand legs, their eyes like dinner plates. Their innards were hollowed and quivering.
Mechanical clocks the size of cars adorned the walls of subway stations, contraptions of creaking sprockets the size of wagon wheels, rusty metallic rings, and hundreds of bolts and wires. Their hands were shaped as monster hands, clawed and knotty. When the clocks spoke of night falling, Cade, Tasha, and Candlelit would search for a place to sleep.
Benches covered the subway stations, and here weary monsters slept. Some slept during the days, some during the nights, snoring as the thousands of commuters bustled about them. Cade did not think he could sleep in these stations, beneath the creaking clocks and among the rushing crowds. Yet as soon as he lay upon a bench, weariness overcame him, and he fell into slumber, Candlelit curled up against him.
When he woke up, the clock told him that he had slept for six hours. Monsters still commuted around him, and trains kept screeching along the tracks. Candlelit lay against him on the bench, her lips mumbling in her sleep, her arm tossed over him. Her flesh was ice cold, but her breath was still warm with life.
"She's not a zombie yet," Tasha said, perched on Cade's chest. "But she's turning into one."
"I wish I could save her," Cade said. "I think she once had a lot of life in her, but this place can suck the life out of anybody." He gazed at the circles smudged around her eyes, dark against her white skin.
The girl mumbled and shifted, and her eyes opened. She glanced at the clock, then rose to her feet, her bracelets and necklaces clanking.
"Come, it's time to go," she said.
Tasha shook her head. "No. First we eat breakfast."
Candlelit stared at her for a moment in confusion, and slowly her eyes moistened. "Breakfast...," she said, as if tasting the word, her eyes moist. "That sounds familiar."
"Breakfast, you know," Tasha said. "Food."
"Food," Candlelit repeated, and a tear rolled down her cheek. She sat down, fingers trembling. "I remember. Food, bread. Yes."
Cade opened the magical breadbox. "We don't have anything good to eat, but it'll fill our bellies. Don't you eat in the subways?"
Candlelit shook her head. Around them, the thousands of monsters kept moving, paying them no heed. "I have not eaten in many years, not since entering this place. We feed off the steam and smog of the moving trains. But I remember food. It goes into your mouth. You swallow it. It has a taste."
"A disgusting taste, in our case," Tasha said, peeking into the breadbox. "Nothing but burnt bread and some soggy onions."
The twins ate with wrinkled noses, disgust suffusing their faces, but Candlelit ate with tears streaming down her cheeks. "Food. I remember." Cade thought her skin looked less pale, her eyes more alive. "I used to eat at home. I used to have a home. A house and a family. Yes." She trembled.
Cade took her hand, and though it was still frozen, he thought he could feel some warmth creep into it. "Keep remembering home. Don't let that memory escape." I can still save this one, he thought. I won't let her become like the others.
Finally, after days of traveling, they took a crowded train that stopped at a strange station.
No monsters walked on this station. The place was pitch black, towering, a cavern the size of eternity. Once the train stopped here, the monsters around Cade cowered against the opposite side of the cart. A cold wind blew from the station into the train, carrying a wisp of distant screams. Cade shivered.
"What is this place?" Tasha asked in a whisper.
"This," said Candlelit, "is our stop, dear mouse."
Tasha covered her eyes. "I knew it."
They exited the train and stood upon a rough stone floor, like the floor of a cave. The train's door clacked shut behind them, and it trundled away. Complete darkness fell, enveloping them in blackness like a blanket. A cold wind blew, and somewhere in the distance, came echoing creaks and snorts.
Candlelit clutched Cade's arm. "I dare not go farther," she whispered into his ear. "I thought that I would, but my courage has left me. You must continue alone. The Sisters lurk ahead in the shadows." Her fingernails dug into him. "Be careful!" She glanced around, then hugged him, clinging to him desperately. "They are dangerous, Cade, are you sure you want to do this? We can leave this station. We can return to the trains, travel them together. Perhaps, together, we won't lose ourselves."
Cade held her. She trembled against him. He could feel the compass hanging around his neck, and he knew his task. "I'm going to get you out of here too," he said. "We're both going to escape this place."
Candlelit was crying now. He could feel her tears in the darkness. "I don't want you to face the Sisters. They've devoured so many." She took a deep breath. "But if it's something you must do, I will pray for you." She lowered her head. "When I was younger, I was very angry. At my family. At my life. I would pray to Phobetor then, until at age sixteen, I left Dream and joined the God of Nightmare here. But today, Cade, today as I pray for you, I will pray to Yor."
She kissed his cheek with icy lips, and he walked into the towering chamber, leaving her at the platform.
As he walked into the darkness, Cade fished through his pocket for the gems from the enchanted pool. He pulled them out and held them before him, yet their light found nothing to illuminat
e. The cavern seemed endless and empty, and his footfalls echoed. From far ahead came creaks and snorts, as of some towering beast or machine. Cade felt Tasha's tiny claws dig into his shoulder. His own nails dug into his palms and cold sweat covered him.
His foot hit something, and he knelt to examine it. It was a long bone. It looked like a human femur, cracked in the middle. He shuddered and kept walking, and soon found more bones littering the ground. Skulls rolled between his feet.
The snorting came loudly now, accompanied by creaking like old joints the size of trees. Cade spoke into the darkness.
"Hello. My name is Cade, and I've come seeking the Sisters."
The snorting rose, and Cade felt stench waft from above. Things shifted and flapped in the darkness, throats grumbled, tongues smacked. Then voices spoke in the darkness above, raspy voices like those of beings ancient beyond measure, loud and creaky as the innards of decaying forests.
"You bring things of Dream into our chamber," said the voices, each word slow, crusty. "Raise your gifts of Eloria, so that we might see them."
Cade raised the glowing gems in his hand, and suddenly, with a crackle, the gems' light flickered and burst, still dim but bright enough to fill the cavern with red light. Cade gazed up and shuddered. In the flickering shadows ahead, he saw the Sisters.
They towered ten stories high, great wingless birds with gangly necks, no feathers, warty gray skin, and hard beaks. They sat upon a nest of barbed iron, the metal biting into their legs and talons, scraping them, shedding drops of blood. Each of the three sprouted ten hands from their gangly bodies, holding a hundred ropes that ran into the darkness. As they gazed down at Cade with yellow eyes, their hands kept tugging at the ropes as if they controlled marionettes.
I've never seen anything so hideous, Cade thought.
"Sisters of the Trains," he called to them. "I--"
They began to laugh, sickly laughter that bobbed in their jowly necks and flapped their dewlaps. "Yes, commuter," they rasped. "We know. We know why you have come here. We know why countless others have seen us before." They licked their beaks with long gray tongues. "You have come to ask to leave the trains. You have come to ask to be eaten."
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