Visioness

by Lincoln Law

  He looked to his uniform. “Matthon will want me to wear it, and I will, to keep him happy, but I will not kill anyone unless I have to, unless they give me reason to.”

  That night, after Matthon made the announcement over dinner, Rhene approached the man in his uniform, smiling.

  “I will fight,” he said. He didn’t need to say for what side he was fighting.

  “You have chosen well,” Matthon said. “Be in the dream at least three hours before dawn. I need you to be ready.”

  The pair shook hands, Rhene’s hand lost in Matthon’s shovel sized mitts.

  “To war,” Matthon said.

  To Adabelle, Rhene thought. And to Therron.

  Rhene awoke before his alarm, quickly getting out of bed and dressing. As he tugged on his coat, he noticed a note under the door, picking it up and reading it.

  Please find a gift for you, in case we need to at the actual front line.

  Dreamless Matthon.

  He opened his door and found a rifle leaning against the wall beside the entry. He picked it up, feeling the heft of the lacquered wood handle, the dark, almost black metal of the barrel. Beside the gun was a tin of cartridges. The gun itself could hold six at a time, leading Rhene to stare in wonder at the ribbing pattern on the wood of the pump. It was, in truth, a beautiful piece of weaponry, and Rhene was suddenly thankful of the training Matthon had given him.

  I can take this with me into the Dream, he thought, staring at the bullets for a moment. I really don’t think I’ll be needing those, though. He then laughed out loud, as he made his way out of his room and down the hall.

  The plan had already been set in place, with a few silent additions by Rhene. He would go into the infirmary, where those who were incapacitated were sleeping, and use their minds to enter the Dream. He could close his eyes, fall asleep, and then enter that way, but that would take time. Time he didn’t have. Adabelle was practiced at entering the Frequencies that way. He still took time and concentration.

  From there, he would travel in spirit with the Dreamless army, before breaking away from them, and heading towards Adabelle. The results of his rescue attempt would decide what happened from there.

  I suppose I could go barging in with this, he thought, glancing at the shotgun. But then again, that might not be the best idea.

  He arrived at the silent infirmary, sneaking to the door. Opening up his mind, the tendrils of dream and thought reached out, searching for the sleepers’ minds. He found the snoozing nurse on the from desk, quickly deciding to enter through her mind. His thought tendril grabbed at the woman, and then like a fisherman reeling in his catch, tugged Rhene into the Dream Frequencies.

  Rhene snapped into the mind of the nurse, finding her dreaming. Sure enough, the rifle came with him, and with only a cursory thought, it filled itself with cartridges.

  It took a moment for Rhene to sense the movement of the Dreamless Army’s march. He saw the mass of aware minds like a void in the universe, and headed towards them.

  “I’m coming, Adabelle,” he said, gripping his rifle, marching through the Dream and into the distant fog of war.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  A Dream Made Real

  Time moved strangely in the Frequencies. The hands on Rhene’s pocket watch, which usually kept the time so neatly, moved in stops and starts, turning suddenly and then stopping entirely. For that reason, Rhene could not trust the time it reflected, and had to rely on watching the movements of the shadowy mass that was the Dreamless army.

  Now, more than ever, Rhene noticed with sheer clarity the ways of the Frequencies. He saw that vast network of dreaming and sleeping minds forming this vast parallel universe. That same network, with its shadowed spot where people’s mind were awake and aware, where their subconscious was not in enough of a resting state to enter. With that understanding also came fear, fluttering up from within. He felt the Nhyxes moving about in the distance, somehow sensing their shapes of condensed nightmare. He felt the minds of other, sifted through them, seeking out the clearest path. He saw the shadow of the Dreameless army in its vast depth, and knew to keep clear. In that complexity of darkness, he was sure he’d find Oblivion.

  As they marched, Rhene noted the way his options for movement were swiftly lessening, the nature of the Dreamworld continuing to astound him. People were waking to the sounds of marching, many of them surely heading to their windows to inspect the army moving through the city. This morning, much of Odilla would awake to the sound of marching. He wondered how many would awake to the sounds of gunfire and the screams of people as they died. The thought made him shudder.

  I’m the one holding the gun, he thought, stepping through the fuzzing, shadowed barrier, from one mind into another.

  As more people awoke, stepping away from their dreams, the Frequencies seemed to thin. In the same way the air thinned the higher up a mountain you went, so did the Frequencies seem to lose their substance. As a rock turns to sand when pressed with the wind, as a flame sputters when rain begins to fall, the Frequencies responded in kind to the combined conscience of the city. Rhene could still run through them, but it was more difficult for him to maintain his existence there.

  Still, despite the distance, he could sense Adabelle’s sealed dreams, and feel the black glass wall that blocked her from escape. He didn’t need that sensation any more—he knew exactly where to find her—but it was nice to have that trail to follow, at the very least.

  When he arrived, he was surprised to find her awake. The black glass wall was in place, shifting slightly between blocking Rhene and sealing Adabelle away. Yet as he sent his thought tendrils out, he saw her tugging on the bracelet around the her wrist, attempting to remove the shackle that bound her from the Frequencies.

  “I’m coming, Adabelle,” Rhene whispered, stepping up to the wall, staring it up and down, deciding how best to break it.

  In the silence of the Frequencies, he heard a familiar voice.

  “Rhene?” Adabelle whispered. He wasn’t sure whether she spoke it out loud, or whether it came from her mind, but nevertheless, he heard it.

  “Adabelle,” he said again, louder this time.

  She didn’t reply, but somehow he could feel her emotions through the barrier. Her mind shifted about with anticipation, a tumultuous storm of excitement.

  “Adabelle!” he yelled this time. He pressed against the glass as he roared.

  “Rhene? Can you hear me?” Her voice was muffled, as if she spoke through a gag or from another room, but her voice was there. She stood up, and through the glass wall, he could see her. Lord! He could see her, as clear as day. There were tears in her eyes, but they weren’t sad or scared. They were excited.

  “Adabelle!” he roared, throwing his first punch at the wall. His fist crumpled against it, echoing with the pain of his previous injury. He took a moment to recover, to ignore the pain welling up his wrist, through his hand. Then, he jabbed. He imagined the pain receding, imagined it gone entirely, and slowly it did as he requested. “ADABELLE!” he roared. “I NEED YOU TO RESIST THE BARRIER! TRY TO ENTER THE DREAM! TRY TO BREAK THE SEAL! I’M WITH YOU!”

  Somehow, she heard, a smile creasing her lips, her eyes flowing with fresh tears. She nodded, closing her eyes and concentrating hard.

  A strange shadow of the girl he loved appeared on the other side of the wall. It had no features, but for the glowing eyes of someone who could not dream. She was blinded from this world; she could only see darkness. Rhene had to guide her.

  “I’m here, Adabelle!” he roared, throwing his fist against the wall again and again. Her mind listened and reacted, forcing itself against the wall. Adabelle’s mental tendrils whipped at the impossibly hard glass, as Rhene threw himself against it from the other side. Together, battering it from two sides, Rhene felt it cracking. The weakening first became obvious when he could hear her thoughts more clearly. The glow in the shadow-Adabelle’s eyes seemed to dim, the dark brown of those beautiful eyes beginning to s
hine through. Rhene’s heart started to race, but his fist could only do so much damage. With each blow he was breaking the wall, but it seemed to strengthen at the same time, as if it were adapting or evolving. He began to charge the wall with all his body. His shoulder slammed again and again, a constant barrage.

  Glass flew away in raining lots, shimmering black, glinting with the light of the shadow-Adabelle’s eyes. Each beat against the wall sent more cracks webbing through the glass.

  “I’m nearly there!” he cried, as he pulled back. He took a deep breath in, forcing all of his concentration into his body, into his charge. Adabelle seemed to sense his movement, for she raised her own hands back in preparation to push through the glass.

  Here I go, he thought, as the hammers fell with all the force of a lightning strike. Adabelle’s own hands reached through the glass, the wall seeming to fall away like ice melting suddenly to water. As Rhene’s body struck, the glass shattered, his body flying through. His hands fell upon Adabelle’s shoulders so that he could embrace her. The entire wall collapsed around them, smashing to oblivion.

  In the Dream, she felt so warm. She sobbed into his shoulders, whispering, “Thank you! Thank you!” A soft scent of vanilla flowed around the girl, and as Rhene breathed it in, he was reminded of her, of how much he loved her.

  They kissed, at first passionately and rushedly, like they were on some kind of time limit. And then they slowed down, and it turned from mad passion, to something more sweet and tender and loving. His arms ran automatically down her back, feeling the warmth of her flesh beneath his touch. Her own hands caressed the tops of his shoulders, grasping for him as if he were planning on leaving. But he wasn’t leaving; not now, not ever.

  They pulled away from one another, eyes opening for the first time since their kissing began. Rhene suddenly realised that they were in Adabelle’s room, Charlotte asleep in the bed next to hers.

  “I have no idea how you did that,” Adabelle said, glancing down for a moment at the silver bracelet—now snapped in two—on the ground. “But I am so happy you did.”

  “We did it together,” he replied, “you and I.”

  Her deep brown eyes began to glisten in the soft dawn light streaking its way through the window. She dabbed them quickly.

  “I have thought of this day every moment I’ve been in here,” she said. “I’ve thought about holding you in my arms for what feels like forever.”

  “And I haven’t stopped until I could make that dream true,” he replied. They had not let go of one another yet, so Rhene felt an odd sensation as she released her arms.

  “So what’s the plan from here?” she asked. “I’m assuming you’ve come to rescue me. Also, where did that gun come from?” She pointed at his rifle on the ground. Apparently he had brought it out of the Dream with him, despite not holding it at the time.

  “Well the Dreamless have marched off to battle,” Rhene said, “and I’m meant to be fighting there. But I wanted to come and rescue you first. I had to see you freed. I needed to know what I was fighting for.” He paused here at Adabelle’s confused expression. “I’m going to stop Therron,” he said. “He and Lady Morphier are in cahoots with one-another, and I’m going to stop them. They’ll be at the battle.”

  “I’m coming, too,” Adabelle said without a moment’s hesitation.

  “What? No! It’s too dangerous!”

  “No, he’s my father. I’m the only one who can drag him out of the Dream. We have to drag him out and then we have to kill him. That’s the only option.” The way she spoke suggested that there may have been a few other options, but that she didn’t want to consider them. He didn’t know how he understood that, from her tone alone, but put most of it up to the fact that their minds had touched.

  “It has been horrible here,” she went on. “He beats us and taunts us and puts us to work from sun-up to sundown.” Rhene noticed now what he had originally thought was simply a trick of the shadows was in fact a dark bruise across her face. “It has just been…a nightmare. And Charlotte…she’s even worse. She has developed a bit of my rebellious streak.”

  “Well she is at that age,” Rhene said.

  “Well either way, it’s got her into more and more trouble.” She paused, glancing at her still-sleeping sister. “She has been incredibly brave.”

  “So it would seem,” Rhene said. He jumped, suddenly remembering what he had to do. “What’s the time?”

  “Still got…an hour and a bit till dawn. Why?”

  Rhene smiled. Good. I have time. “Because,” he said, taking her hand, “I have another dream to make real.”

  He let the tendrils of his mind feel out about the area, sensing a person sleeping soundly below them. Rhene glanced over at the window, realising this place was an apartment.

  “Come on,” he said, walking her over to the window. It was a long drop to the ground below, but sure enough the windows on the floors below them were open. He stepped out onto the ledge.

  “Do you trust me?” he asked. “I’m going to ask you to jump with me.”

  “I trust you,” she said, “but in hearing my own words, and seeing where we are, I realise how crazy that sounds.” She paused, a smile suddenly crossing her face. “But I don’t care.” She sounded anxious, but jubilant.

  “Well good,” he said, guiding her out the window. Together they stood on the ledge, enjoying the cool, pre-dawn air.

  “On the count of three, I want you to jump with me, and take yourself into the mind of the person in the window below, yes?”

  Adabelle nodded, mouth chattering, hand shivering in his grasp.

  “One…two…three…”

  The pair leapt off the ledge, Rhene feeling slightly mad as he did so. Excitement and adrenaline took over, alongside gravity, and within seconds the tendrils of his mind were grasping at the dreams of the person asleep in the window below. A moment later, they were in a dark Dreamspace, unbuilt by the mind of the dreamer.

  “What am I here for?” she asked.

  “We can spare a moment for us,” he said. “It has been too long.”

  A moment passed, and the dark space transformed into the most brilliant ballroom Rhene could imagine. The floors were lacquered wood, the walls and ceilings all white draping cloth and pillars. The ceiling itself was vaulted, and filigreed in vines of gold and blossoms of silver. Chandeliers hung from the centre of the ceiling, glistening with light as it reflected and refracted through the thousands of crystals hung on the grand light fixtures.

  It took Adabelle a moment to notice, but her clothes were soon replaced with a bright yellow dress, the same shade as the one she wore on their very first outing. Her hair grew out from its close-cropped mess, to a long, beautiful set of locks. Adabelle’s eyes brightened at this, Rhene sure she knew what was happening. She reached up with tentative hands towards her hair, atop which sat a crown of gold and diamond.

  Her hands cupped her mouth as she let out a yelp of excitement. “I’m a princess,” she said, excitedly.

  “Yes you are,” he said, waving his own hand as he bowed. As he rose up, his uniform shifted slightly, turning from an army officer’s forest green coat and pants, to a suit. “And I was wondering if I could ask this most gracious of princesses,” he raised his arm, bowing, “to a dance?”

  Adabelle accepted his hand in her own. “Of course.”

  The music commenced, a gentle waltz. Rhene had never been much of a dancer—he kept count in his head all the while—but somehow he managed not to trip as they moved about the ball room.

  Adabelle’s eyes brightened all the while. She seemed slightly distracted by the beauty of the room he had managed to Dream up. It was, in truth, grand. Far grander than anything he had personally seen. But nothing was as grand as how Adabelle looked now, dancing before him, forgetting, if only for a moment, of the danger they were both in. He could never make her a princess, he had no royal heritage, could never buy her a palace, but he could help her forget for this one brilliant
moment. In this sanctuary, away from Therron, he could have her know that she had him, he had her, they had their love, and that was enough.

  One, two, three…One, two, three, Rhene thought as they danced about the room. Adabelle’s dress seemed to glitter with an inner light, catching and shimmering like the crystals on the chandeliers above.

  “Thank you, Rhene,” she said, as the song neared its conclusion. “For everything.”

  Rhene smiled. “I love you.”

  “I love you, too,” she whispered without a moment’s hesitation.

  They moved in to kiss, but a voice snapped them from their reverie.

  “I was assured those shackles were unbreakable!”

  Rhene and Adabelle both turned suddenly to face the entry to the ballroom. Standing underneath the lintel, surrounding by the shadows of another person’s dream, stood Giles Corbine. The tall, bald man stepped into the ballroom, seeming to bring his own Dreams with him. The wood of the floor turned to rot, the lacquer peeling, the gold leafing on the wall curling and the paint flaking. This ruination flowed out in his wake, waves of breaking and decay.

  Rhene stood in front of Adabelle.

  “You’ll have to go through me to get to her,” Rhene said, throwing up his arms, as their beautiful world collapsed around them.

  “I don’t need to go through anyone,” Mr. Corbine replied. In one moment, he was at their side, his hands about both their arms, and another moment later, they were standing in what appeared to be a bedroom, the bed empty, the sheets pulled back, and a dream shackle sitting on the mantle, opened.

  Without a moment’s indecision, Rhene shook Mr. Corbine’s hand free and threw a punch at the man. The man screamed, hands flinging out for something to hold onto as he fell backwards, striking the bed with a loud smack. He fell still as he lay limp on the floor.

  “We have to get Charlotte and get out of here,” Rhene whispered, running for the door. Adabelle followed close behind, closing the door behind her.