Seven Dreams

by English, Charlotte E.

  ‘I can’t,’ she said finally. The statement bore none of the panic or fury of their legendary debate a couple of weeks ago, but it was nonetheless inflexible. Resigned, defeated, and depressed as well.

  ‘Why not?’ said Teyo gently. ‘Here, try something right now. Shift draykon, but do a tiny one. This big.’ He held his hands a few inches apart to demonstrate the size. ‘You won’t be a danger to anybody. It’ll be almost the same as turning Jispish.’

  The subject of this latter addition twitched at the mention of her name, and looked up. She was ensconced atop the table with a dish of cream, which she had been greedily slurping without pause since Teyo had put it down for her.

  Iyamar glanced uncertainly at Jisp, and then back at Teyo. ‘Do you think it will be all right?’ she said uncertainly. ‘What if I lose control of it again?’

  ‘You won’t.’

  ‘But what if I do?’

  ‘You won’t. It’ll be fine.’ When Iya glanced uncertainly towards the door, he added, ‘no one will come in.’

  You can do it, declared Jisp adoringly, and proceeded to radiate the kind of serene, worshipful confidence nobody had ever felt for Teyo.

  Iyamar bit her lip, and then — before Teyo had even realised she planned to try — she was gone, and in her place hovered a tiny draykon. She’d panicked a bit, though. The proof was clearly evident.

  ‘You’ve got the head on backwards,’ Teyo said calmly. ‘Give it another try.’

  Iyamar had realised this and was flapping madly in circles, shrieking. The girl had a point, Teyo was forced to admit; had she done this full-size, the damage could have been considerable.

  It took her a minute or two to pull herself together, and then she shifted again, correctly this time. Her miniature draykon was perfect in every detail. Her joy at getting it right was palpable, and Teyo grinned. ‘Good! See, I knew you could do it.’

  Iyamar whuffed through her nostrils and nuzzled at Jisp, who had thrown herself at the little draykon with a piercing howl of admiration. Egg rolled her eyes and turned her back, munching her sausages and bread with cheerful obliviousness to the screaming congratulatory victory lap going on behind her.

  ‘So, if we get you somewhere out in the open, I reckon you could do a full-size one,’ Teyo urged. ‘You’ve got it down!’

  The joy-party stopped abruptly and Iyamar-as-draykon keeled over in a dramatic faint.

  ‘It’s not that bad,’ Teyo said, laughing. ‘If you end up with your tail growing out of your nose, we’ll just fix it.’

  Iyamar, apparently dead, made no response.

  Teyo solved that problem by simply picking her up and stuffing her into his pocket. He added Jisp, too, to keep them both quiet, then hauled Egg away from the remains of her very generous breakfast and packed them all off northwards.

  They soon found a reasonably unoccupied meadow to use as a testing ground. Teyo decided it was time to apply just a little bit of pressure, and made a show of checking his timepiece. ‘If we don’t get going soon, we’ll be too late,’ he observed. ‘Rulan won’t be able to hold off the hordes forever.’ He held Jisp in one hand and Iyamar, still in her tiny draykon form, in the other. ‘Ready?’ he asked. ‘Good!’ And he chucked her up into the air.

  Her wings stretched out instinctively, and caught her before she fell. She soared some distance away, turned a few loops in the air (showing off for Jisp’s benefit, Teyo thought, feeling the tiny lizard vibrating with awe in his curled left hand), and then began to grow. It happened fast. Teyo had noticed that about Iya before; she procrastinated, shied away and generally gave in to all manner of specious fears, but once she gathered the resolve to do something, she did it, instantly and without delay. Within seconds, a fully-sized draykon was soaring majestically over their heads, her amber scales flashing gorgeously in the sunlight.

  Teyo forgot himself so far as to jump into the air and let out a wild cheer. Egg greeted this with a sardonic look and a roll of her eyes. Chastened, he stopped, coughed, and confined his raptures to mindspeak.

  Amazing! he called. Fabulous! Fantastic! You’re the best!

  I hate you, Iyamar replied.

  I suppose that’s fair. Teyo handed Jisp off to Egg, who tucked the tiny creature into her pocket with surprising tenderness, and then he shifted into his own draykon shape. He loved it so much, which was a thing he would never admit. The sheer size and power of it! In this shape, he didn’t feel guilty about the past, or troubled about the future, or worried about anything at all. He was content to simply be, and enjoy the miraculous joy of flight. He waited with forced patience as Egg clambered onto his back and settled herself and their belongings, tying the latter down with rope. Once all was ready, she tapped him between the shoulder blades in their agreed signal, and he spread his wings.

  His favourite way to take off was simply to jump into the air and burst into flight; it felt exciting and fabulous and powerful. He was careful today, though, mindful of Egg and the baggage, and rose slowly and steadily into the air. Iyamar was still turning loops ahead of him.

  Time to go, he called.

  Iya span in a few frenzied circles and then stopped, with a visible effort at controlling herself.

  Lead on, Captain, she said crisply, and Teyo did.

  Chapter Sixteen

  As if being an unwelcome, unwanted and uncongenial companion were not enough, Farran Bron had the bad taste to be extremely good-looking underneath all the false hair and ageing make-up he had been wearing as Baron Anserval. He was no more than thirty in truth, Serena judged, and he was blessed with all the regularity of feature, blueness of eye and glowing good health that tended to bestow considerable beauty.

  Which wouldn’t matter at all, except that he appeared to expect Serena to be impressed by it. As though good looks had ever made up for an obnoxious personality, she thought grumpily. His manner towards her was only slightly less condescending than it had been as the Baron, and he regarded her with a knowing twinkle in his eye that said, I know I am gorgeous, and you know it too? Don’t you?

  Serena took great pleasure in ignoring him.

  The inhabitants of Orlind were aware of the circling winds over the tallest peaks that neighboured their domain, as it turned out, though they had not yet launched an investigative expedition. The rejuvenation of the realm was difficult and sometimes dangerous work, and their numbers were, as yet, relatively few. They were willing enough to explore to the peak, in preparation for which Serena and her friends were honoured with a tour of the land on draykon-back, which thrilled Serena enormously. Serena and Fabian were assigned to be carried by a pair of draykoni who, in their human forms, were slight and diminutive and looked to be of Ullarni heritage, if anything. As draykoni, they were shimmering green and pale yellow respectively, and as fearsome and impressive as any of their brethren.

  ‘We have been reclaiming the land,’ Llandry explained. ‘It wasn’t as far sunk as we initially thought. It’s hard work, but it’s worth it.’

  It was indeed, Serena thought, as she flew over grassland and valleys and woods surrounded on all sides by that strange, blue-purple sea. Compared to the other realms, it was still tiny, a mere insignificant island. What it lacked in size it made up for in lushness, rarity and beauty, however, and their work was but barely begun. Reclaiming sunken land was one thing; how they had contrived to populate it with so much vibrant life in such a short space of time confounded her completely. Draykoni sorcery of some kind, no doubt. Perhaps Teyo would understand it.

  ‘Come back in about five years,’ Llandry said to Eva with a smile. ‘Then it will be truly remarkable.’

  The same company assembled the next morning to explore the winds at the peak. Bron was mounted draykon-back as well, much to his disgust. He had been forced to admit that his precious airship was not best suited to the requirements of the day, and fear of damaging it had obliged him to consent to leave it behind. It did not suit his consequence, Serena supposed, to travel as merely one of a gr
oup, rather than in splendour as the captain of a grand airship which nobody else could contrive to boast.

  Eva and Serena had asked a great many questions of Llandry, Pensould, Avane and their companions, but no one had any more notion what the keys were for, or what the rhyme in the sky meant, than they did. They were able to establish that the words had appeared over Orlind at the same time as they had materialised for the other six realms, but the draykoni of Orlind had no further information to offer.

  They were as intrigued as anybody else by the mystery, and several volunteers were speedily found to carry the human members of the exploratory party through the winds. Remembering the severity of the currents, Serena had her doubts about the success of the mission. Llandry and Pensould seemed unfazed by it, however. Draykoni must be stronger than Serena had ever realised. Once again she missed Teyo, and wished she had brought him along.

  Given the risks involved in penetrating the cyclone, the draykoni passengers had been securely strapped to the backs of those carrying them. This held its own dangers, and Serena had endured a lengthy lecture first thing in the morning regarding What Not To Do If Your Draykon Gets Into Difficulties. The lecture had mostly served to put horrific ideas into her mind, which she tried and failed not to dwell upon.

  But once the expedition launched and they were underway, she began to forget her fears in enjoyment of the journey. The sensation of flying was always delightful to her, and she could gaze at the flourishing, if peculiar, vegetation and dazzling colours of Orlind all day. It did not take long for their party to reach the high peaks separating Orlind from the realm of Irbel, and the glittering scenery fell away behind them.

  These peaks had been considered part of Irbel for longer than anybody could remember. But it was Eva’s theory that, long ago before the destruction of Orlind, they had been part of the Seventh Realm instead, and hence, it was Orlind’s key they were now seeking. The notion piqued Serena’s curiosity, and she pondered the arbitrary nature of geographical boundaries and their inevitable fluidity all the way to the tops of the peaks.

  The winds could be felt some distance away, initially as a moderate breeze but rapidly swelling to grander proportions. As the winds grew to a gale and began to snatch violently at her clothing, Serena’s fears returned a little more than she would like. When the enormous, powerful draykoni beneath her began to be buffeted about by the winds and had frequently to adjust his course, those fears grew a little more. She set her jaw, clung tighter to the makeshift harness she’d been strapped into, and thought grimly determined thoughts as their party’s leader gathered himself and plunged headlong into the cyclone ahead of her.

  Two draykoni had volunteered as the advance party, neither of whom bore passengers. Their task was to ascertain whether the circling gale could be successfully penetrated at all; whether it could be safely done with passengers in tow; and whether there was, in fact, anything on the other side. The prospect that the winds might have nothing to do with a Dream or a key or anything of interest at all had certainly occurred to them, and it was a most unwelcome reflection.

  Serena, Fabian, Eva, Tren, Bron and their mounts waited outside the pull of the winds for their comrades to reappear. It took much longer than Serena might have expected, and her nervousness grew. What if they had got into trouble down there? Serena could see nothing at all, for a thick, white mist obscured her vision in every direction. She could not even see the tops of the mountains that surrounded them; she could barely discern the tips of the wings of Fabian’s mount, which hovered perhaps twenty feet away.

  Draykoni had mind-speak, though, she reminded herself. If anything appalling had happened, their friends would be aware of it by now. Her draykon mount shifted beneath her, and Serena wondered helplessly what it meant. If only she could speak mind-to-mind with draykon-kind as well!

  Abruptly, her mount gathered himself and charged forward, and Fabian’s moved as well. She guessed that the all-clear had been sounded, and spared a brief wish for more advance warning. She had no time at all to prepare as her draykon dived into the mists and winds that surrounded the icy peak, and her vision dissolved into nothing but fog.

  The next minute or two were some of the most horrific of Serena’s life. If she had thought that the circling gales of a moment before had been alarming, plunging into the heart of the cyclone was... indescribable. Her world descended into pure chaos; a confusing, terrifying mess of mist and clouds and winds pulled violently at her clothes, her hair — her mount was circling and descending and then rising and circling and spinning about and — and then it stopped. All of it, all at once. Even the mist vanished. Serena’s draykon mount landed on something blessedly solid and stopped moving.

  Serena took a moment to breathe, hoping that her wildly pounding heart would slow to a more reasonable pace. She was trembling and sweating with fear and shock, though the sight of her brother calmly dismounting not far away soothed her a little. If Fabe was unfazed by it, she could pretend to be as well.

  After a few minutes she untangled her freezing hands from the leather straps of her harness and began to think about getting down. Her legs still felt weak, but they would probably hold her. She gazed down doubtfully at the ground they had landed on. ‘Is this... a cloud?’

  It looked like a cloud. It was whiteish, and fluffy-looking, and plumply billowing, and pouring billows of eerie mist, and damp-looking; all the things one would expect of a cloud. But her draykon not only did not plummet straight through, his feet were not even sinking. He stood perfectly solidly, making slight bouncing movements which she interpreted as invitation to dismount.

  Nobody heard her question. All the draykoni had landed around her, and their passengers were swinging themselves down from their mounts with every appearance of insouciance, enthusiasm and eagerness. Abashed, Serena hastily unstrapped herself from the harness and slithered down the draykon’s back to the ground. Despite the evidence of her eyes, she half expected to sail straight through and fall about eighty thousand feet to the ground. But she didn’t. The ground felt soft and spongey beneath her feet, like very wet mud. But it held her.

  She drifted towards Fabian, who stood not far away, and then stood staring in awe. The cloud, if it was that, was vast, stretching away apparently for miles in every direction. Its surface, shrouded as it was in translucent mist, still revealed splashes of colour dotted everywhere — flowers growing cheerfully in this environment that wholly lacked soil, their delicate petals unfurled in the eternal light. Serena saw rose and peach and lemon and cerulean, jade and violet and lavender and all manner of hues. It was like a rainbow shattered into splinters and then shaken all over the surface of this peculiar place.

  There were trees, too, of sorts. Some were mere bushes, while others rose some way over Serena’s head. These were eerily insubstantial: their trunks and branches appeared to be wrought from nothing but silver and golden light, and in place of leaves they bore tufts of pearly, cloudy... something, which pulsed slightly as Serena watched.

  She saw no animals at all save for one species: a flying creature resembling the irilapters that were familiar to her. Their tiny, sinuous bodies were covered in soft, downy fur of all manner of colours, and their prismatic wings fluttered busily as they darted from flower to flower, sticking their long, curling snouts into the heart of each bloom.

  It was no more fanciful and bizarre than a lush forest and attendant wildlife growing merrily underground, but it felt much more remarkable to Serena. Perhaps because she had seen forests before, albeit never one quite like the specimen at the Balbater dig site. But the experience of standing with blithe unconcern atop a cloud surrounded by trees made of light was wholly new.

  A clear sheen and a sparkle caught her eye and she followed, frowning. An expanse of something like glass rose up before her, some forty or fifty feet away from where she had been standing. Following its curving arc upwards with her eyes, she guessed that it formed a dome enclosing some part, or perhaps all, of the cloudy
Dream she stood in. But while it looked like glass, when she reached out to touch it she found it to be insubstantial; her hand went straight through. There was a point in there somewhere, though, where the temperature changed from acceptably chilly to painfully frigid, and she hastily withdrew her hand back into the relative warmth of the Dream.

  ‘Very well, let’s not get carried away,’ Bron called grandly, even though nobody was doing anything more questionable than wandering about looking at everything. ‘All of this will need to be properly studied and catalogued.’

  He was right about that, more or less. The other sites had been swarmed under the moment they had been discovered, which was terrible for the archaeological finds contained therein. At Balbater, Serena had seen several teams of archaeologists desperately trying to salvage and record as much as possible before it was trampled over or stolen by heedless enthusiasts. This site had the advantage of being inaccessible to the majority, so it offered the first real opportunity for serious study.

  That much acknowledged, Bron’s attempt to assume control of the proceedings irritated her. He had no authority, for they had not even used G.A.9’s airship for this part of their journey. But he liked to be in charge.

  Nobody paid him any attention, which gave Serena a moment’s reprehensible satisfaction. Admittedly, it was partly because at that moment a wave of purple colours washed over the cloud they were standing upon, emanating from Avane. She looked up at Eva and Tren, and grinned. ‘Looks better that way, doesn’t it?’

  ‘Hmm.’ Tren poked at the purple cloudy stuff with his toe. ‘Draykon magic, then?’

  ‘Most certainly.’

  Serena joined them. ‘I thought this was Lokant business? The keys, and the rhyme, and everything?’

  ‘Oh, it is,’ Eva said, ‘undoubtedly. But draykoni and Lokants have sometimes worked together, in the past.’