The Queen of Dreams (The Dashkova Memoirs Book 6)

by Thomas K. Carpenter

She shook her head, tears forming in her eyes. "I've prepared for this eventuality. But I'm a guardian without a mistress. I'm not sure if the hut will reject me, or not."

  "Then how will you survive?" I asked.

  A sly smile formed on her lips. "There are other sisters of the hut. They're not all dead."

  "How will I know if it's you? Was this your original body?" I asked.

  She nodded, her gaze heavy as if she were eternally tired. "I tricked her by binding myself to the time pools and then switching bodies with her in a moment of weakness. A form of galimancy. I knew she'd try and take her place back, but I was too preoccupied with the Yolgothi madness to really understand it. She used it to keep me confused so I wouldn't see her influence and give you a reason to want to kill me."

  "She was the one that infected you," I said.

  Echo nodded. "I realize that now. A beetle flew past my face and I watched its glistening wings until I realized I was looking at the Yolgothi. I think she enchanted the beetle to draw my gaze."

  The brief joy from dispatching the witch was crushed when I remembered the state of my friends. Echo grew more solid for a moment and then the landscape changed.

  "She put an enchantment on them so they'd appear dead. She wanted you to not think clearly so you would kill me. Something she couldn't do herself since I was her guardian," she said.

  "So they're alive?" I asked, lip quivering.

  "Barely," she said, brow hunched with concern. "They're not safe yet. And the hut is too dangerous to enter right now with the loss of one of its own."

  I looked around to see my friends stirring slightly in the pink snow. Their wounds were real, but they were alive. For now. The frozen wasteland of Siberia would finish the job if I couldn't find shelter and a way to heal them.

  When I looked back, Echo had almost faded from view. A heavy sadness hung on her face. "I'm sorry, Katerina. I wish I could stay and help."

  An idea formed.

  "There's one thing you can do for me," I said.

  A voice was almost a whisper. "I can't. I'm sorry."

  Before she was gone, I said a name.

  Echo nodded with understanding.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  The bonfire crackled, radiating its warmth in all directions. The flames were at least as high as the surrounding tents, casting an orangish glare on them. I had no idea where Harvest had gotten the wood, but it didn't matter.

  I tugged the fur-lined cloak around my shoulders as lone snowflakes kissed against my nose and lips. The heat felt good on my face. A kind of pain I could appreciate.

  A dark-haired figure came from the direction of the hut. She moved with the processional beauty of an empress on parade, the tiny bones hanging from her waist rattling at each step. Her bloodred lips were a bright point against the pale landscape.

  "Thank you again, Rowan. Not only for what you did for my friends, but for the warm clothes. I'd forgotten how cold it got here," I said.

  Rowan Blade, a Mistress of the Hut, sworn to my enemy Veles, smiled with sisterly warmth.

  "I did nothing for two of them," she said. "And anyway, if you die, nothing that is foretold can happen."

  Santiago and Nasrine. They'd disappeared not long after Rowan appeared from the hut near dark.

  "I hope they find shelter from this inhospitable wasteland," I said.

  Rowan picked up a chunk of wood and threw it into the fire. Sparks burst from the flames and rose into the early morning air.

  "Be glad they left you," she said. "Those two are not bosom companions."

  "And you are?" I asked with a grin. "You tried to kill me last time."

  She raised an eyebrow. "I did nothing of the sort. I merely tried to convince you that you should join me. Now, I know that's a foolish request. You have made up your mind and I cannot dissuade you."

  "Then why are you helping me?" I asked.

  She smiled, but said nothing. She'd been doing that a lot since she'd come back. I gathered it had something to do with a prophecy she'd received many years ago about me. I was beginning to hate these mystical predictions. No. Not beginning to hate. I did hate them. They weren't good for the soul.

  Though I guess I couldn't complain too much. Without it, Rowan wouldn't have helped me. I had that much to be thankful for.

  "What are—" I started to ask, but Rowan squeezed her lips and waved away my question.

  "Not now. Not yet. There will be plenty of time for questions later. Tend to your friends first. I healed them as much as I could, but my reserves were limited." She glanced at the tilted hut. "And now I must spend more to fix what should not be broken."

  "You can take from me. I'll give it freely," I said.

  "Given what's in your head, I'd rather not," she said. "But they won't die now. Go. Ben's awake. He'll want to talk to you. We'll talk later."

  I slipped inside the nearest tent, and the flap slapped against my back. The inside wasn't as cold as the tundra, but it wasn't as warm as standing next to the crackling fire. I pulled my furred cloak closer around my shoulders.

  Ben lay on a cot beneath a mountain of blankets. His normally dirty blond hair had darkened from the time in the hut without sunlight. His gaze was hollow, and his lip bruised and cracked, but he appeared in good spirits.

  "Are we safe here? From them?" he asked.

  "We are held together by the bonds of prophecy," I said.

  His gaze darkened for a moment. "A troubling bond."

  I sat on the edge of the bed, patting his blankets, and gave Ben a most energetic smile. "We can trust Rowan Blade."

  "We can?" he asked.

  "If I'd had a sister, it would have been her," I said without hesitation. The words felt like truth across my tongue. Sure, solid, bedrock.

  "But what about her manservant? He tried to kill us," said Ben.

  "Only when his mistress had been banished. And I offer you this: would you rather have Rowan, who feels fondly for me, or Neva, who would destroy us out of hand," I said.

  "Fine. Yes. When you put it like that." He shook his head lightly. "Apologies, Kat. I'm berating you when I should be thanking you. Your quick thinking saved us. When the bright light claimed us, I could only think to your prophecy, that I was destined to die."

  Seeing the doubt on his brow made me want to tell him about the vision I'd had in the library, about him as an eternal warrior, but I decided that was a burden too large to bear, even for a soul as grand as Ben's.

  "Tell me about what happened? It's all still very confusing to me," he said.

  "The Morwen we knew was really the guardian for Siobhan. She'd tricked her in the past, how long ago I don't know, and switched bodies. Which allowed Morwen to act as the Mistress of the Hut, without alerting the others to the change. But Siobhan had a plan to get her body back. At first, I believed her, thought that Morwen was our enemy, at least while she was infected by the Yolgothi, but a few things gave Siobhan away.

  "The beetles were the main clue. They were Siobhan's symbol. I thought the necklace was familiar, but I didn't know where. I'd seen that beetle near the Tree of Life on Gallasid. Which meant that Siobhan had been there. That's how Morwen got infected. It wasn't by accident. There were more beetles on the dying planet where Nasrine and I were stranded. I can only think they were meant to drive us into the hut. When Morwen was wearing the beetle necklace in the snow, I knew something was wrong. It wasn't until Siobhan, in her original body, the one we think of as Morwen, said that she'd gotten rid of the Yolgothi madness that I knew for sure. Because she'd been the very one to tell me that Morwen the guardian couldn't get rid of it, because she didn't have enough power.

  "At the time, I thought it was just an illusion. Siobhan had shown me that she could do that in the belly of the hut. She tried to fool me with a visitation from Catherine, but Siobhan would have had no idea that the Queen of Dreams would inadvertently expose it as an illusion when she mentioned she'd visited me twice, when I'd seen Catherine three times."


  Ben sat up. "So the Queen of Dreams was real?"

  "Yes. During the battle with Morwen, she pulled me away to offer me a deal," I said.

  "What did she offer?" he asked.

  "That I said no is all that matters now," I said, not wanting to rehash my secret desires, or that I had pushed us closer to the annihilation of all creation.

  "The prophecies tried to warn me about Siobhan, too," I said after a minute of silence between us. "Except I hadn't understood it. On Gallasid, I woke from a dream and the words beware to go forth were on my tongue. Except now, I know them as beware the fourth, as in the fourth Mistress of the Hut. Siobhan."

  "And poor William Sturgeon? What happened to him? I swear I did not kill him," said Ben.

  "We had a stowaway. A second stowaway. It was the invisible guardian from the Tree of Life. It followed us into the hut and then it became infected with that red mist from the library," I said.

  Ben sat up straighter, worry on his brow. "Does this thing still lurk amongst us?"

  "No. It attacked Morwen during the melee, and she destroyed it with the Blade of Time," I said.

  "What about that artifact? It's a dangerous weapon to have around. Especially with our new companions," he said, clearly indicating Rowan and Harvest.

  "I gave it to Rowan," I said.

  Ben's face grew red. "What? Are you mad?"

  "I might be. But it's too dangerous of a weapon to keep around. And I have no way to carry it. Accidental annihilation is not my preference," I said.

  "But won't she use it against us?" asked Ben.

  "I'm more worried about Neva and what she'll do. I'm not sure what role the sisters of Baba Yaga have in the coming conflicts, but I know they have a central role. All of them. The truth is that neither we nor Veles and his kin want the annihilation of the multiverse, but that's what we're headed towards," I said.

  "The shared bonds of mutual destruction is not a way to approach an alliance," said Ben.

  "We don't need an alliance with Veles, we just need an agreement. Maybe there's something we can do to work things out. Better that than to have all existence terminated," I said.

  "You don't know this Veles, nor have you encountered many tyrants," said Ben.

  "I appreciate that you didn't use that opportunity to take a dig at Catherine," I said.

  A hesitant smile hung on his lips. "She was a good ruler in a difficult time. She did better than most." He ran his hand through his hair. "What now?"

  "You and Brassy need to recover. Especially that poor girl. Between the poison and the injuries, it was a close one. Neither of you could make it far in this wilderness. Rowan was able to stabilize you, but you'll have to do the remainder of your healing on your own," I said.

  "What will you be doing?" he asked.

  I blew a heavy breath out. "We haven't the slightest idea of where we're at, other than Siberia. We need to get to Moscow, but we could be a thousand kilometers away. Normally, we could take the hut right to our destination, but Rowan says it's in shambles and will take time to recover. So we're going to have to do it the hard way, on foot.

  "Rowan and I will explore south and west from here to find a village, or something, to acquire horses or some method of transportation. Then we'll come back and get the three of you," I said.

  "Three of us?" asked Ben with considerable alarm. "If you remember, he tried to kill me. And I him, for that matter."

  "Harvest will behave if his mistress tells him to behave," I said. "But trust me, I'd much rather stay in camp with a fire and a tent than trudge across that frozen wasteland."

  "Hrmph. I suppose I'd rather die strangled in my sleep than frozen on the tundra," he said with a wink.

  "Besides. It won't be for long. Between the two of us, Rowan and I, we should be able to handle anything. And before long, we'll be back with suitable transportation and on our way to Moscow, where the real trouble begins," I said, patting Ben's arm.

  "No trouble at all," he said. "Sounds reasonable. I could use a rest anyway. Been a busy last few years. No trouble at all."

  We fell into a comfortable silence, enjoying the crackle of the fire outside the tent. For a few minutes, it didn't feel like the frozen wasteland of Siberia, but the parlor of the estate, and we were two friends enjoying a fire in the hearth and the quiet of a snowy evening.

  Ben tilted his head and looked at me with a bemused expression. "It's almost spring, right?"

  I scrunched up my face. I'd asked Rowan this same question when we were making plans about overland travel. I didn't know how she knew, but she seemed quite certain about the answer.

  "It'll be spring in about four months," I said.

  Ben's eyes bugged out a little as he considered the implications.

  "Well, shit," he said.

  It was going to be a long winter.

  ###

  Purchase the next book in the series, Book Seven: Dragons of Siberia on Amazon.

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  Acknowledgements

  Special thanks to all those that helped make this book possible. I'm indebted to my various readers for their wonderful feedback: Kammie Settle, Tina Rak, Sharifa, John Harold, Norma Peramo, Marie McCraney, Carole Carpenter, Lawrence Lindstrand, Andy Carpenter, Bob Daugherty, Steven Allonse, Jon Colte, Debbi Anderson, Marie Lebone, Gordon Giles, and Shondra Lewis. I would also like to thank Tamara Blain for another amazing editing job, Ravven for creating the spectacular cover (how can you make each one even better than the last?), and my wife Rachel for managing the business so I could focus on writing.

  Copyright Information

  The Queen of Dreams

  Book Six of the Dashkova Memoirs

  Copyright © 2015 by Thomas K. Carpenter

  Published by Black Moon Books

  www.blackmoonbooks.com

  Cover Design Copyright © 2015 by Ravven.com

  Discover other titles by this author on:

  www.thomaskcarpenter.com

  This is a novel work of fiction. All characters, places, and incidents described in this publication are used fictitiously, or are entirely fictitional.

  No part of this publication may be reproduced or trasmitted, in any form, or by any means, except by an authorized retailer, or with written permission of the publisher. Inquires may be addressed via email to thomaskcarpenter@gmail.com

  Also by Thomas K. Carpenter

  THE DIGITAL SEA TRILOGY

  The Digital Sea

  The Godhead Machine

  Neochrome Aurora

  GAMERS TRILOGY

  GAMERS

  FRAGS

  CODERS

  ALEXANDRIAN SAGA

  Fires of Alexandria

  Heirs of Alexandria

  Legacy of Alexandria

  Warmachines of Alexandria

  Empire of Alexandria

  Voyage of Alexandria

  Goddess of Alexandria

  MIRROR SHARDS ANTHOLOGY

  Mirror Shards: Volume One

  Mirror Shards: Volume Two

  THE DASHKOVA MEMOIRS

  Revolutionary Magic

  A Cauldron of Secrets

  Birds of Prophecy

  The Franklin Deception

  Nightfell Games

  The Queen of Dreams

  Dragons of Siberia

  Shadows of an Empire

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Thomas K. Carpenter resides near St. Louis with his wife Rachel and their two children. When he’s not busy writing his next book, he’s playing soccer in the yard with his kids or getting beat by his wife at cards. He keeps a regular blog and can be found on twitter under @thomaskcarpente.

  To learn about new releases from Thomas K. Carpenter, and receive free books and gifts on occasion, sign up for his newsletter.

 

 
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