Austin knew the man was the attempted assassin of the Archduke. Just twenty years old, a dropout with a father who beat his family, he’d been recruited by the fellow who would assassinate the Archduke. He knew these details, but didn’t think how. A glance at his watch showed the hands on ten-thirty. Further down the street, the last of the wounded were taken away for treatment, victims of the thrown bomb. Somewhere in the crowd, the other would-be assassins still lurked.
He turned and walked eastward up Appel Quay along the motorcade route. There at the corner was Schiller’s Store. The store was important. Again he didn’t know why or how he knew it. The Archduke was due back this way but with the attempted assassination no one knew for sure if he would return. Unsure of himself, he loitered for ten minutes, keeping an eye on the store’s single door and on the boulevard. People were angry, looking at any stranger two and three times, suspicious.
From the crowd emerged a thin young man, hands in pockets. Unlike those around him, he gave off a vibe, a second layer that revealed ill intention. How the crowd couldn’t read him... As he approached, he glanced at Austin and quickly away, uneasy with what he saw. He walked right into Schiller’s. As the door closed, Austin caught a glimpse of Kaiya inside.
His heart leapt and he started towards the store, then checked himself. A confrontation could hurt Kaiya. If he waited for the assassin to come out there may not be enough time to save the Archduke, something he knew he had to do. The decision came down to wanting to protect Kaiya first, to be there between her and danger. He walked towards the store.
At the entrance he saw the small boy from down the street. When he reached for the door handle, the boy stepped in to block his way.
Pointing with his lollipop, he said, “You can’t go in there, mister.”
“Where’s your mum? You need to run along now, and quickly. Something bad’s about to happen.”
The boy’s face was stern. “No way. You have to stay outside, or you’ll find out.”
He squatted down to eye level with the boy. “And what will I find out?”
The lollipop lowered and the boy shook his head.
“Well then, I need to go in, I have something important to do.” He stood. “Step aside now.”
“No, mister.”
He looked around. The mother was nowhere in sight and people were busy watching the street. He took the boy by his shoulders and forced him away from the door.
“No!” The boy screamed. He punched Austin hard in the nuts and shouted, “Now wake the fuck up!”
The smell of toast and bacon filled the stairwell as he descended into the great room. A ghost pain lingered in his groin courtesy of the vivid dream. He hadn’t intended to fall asleep. One minute he was thinking of Kaiya and the next he was dreaming.
A sign labeled ‘breakfast’ stood prominently next to the open French doors. From out on the patio he saw the table filled with food in the gazebo below. No one was there yet. He called out for Williams. The butler appeared from the kitchen.
“Good morning! You must be starved.”
“I’m a bit hungry, I suppose. Where is everyone?”
“Just not roused yet, apparently. Food is ready in the gazebo. If you need anything I’ll be down there shortly.”
“Will Edward be joining us?”
“I don’t know but I expect if he is, it’ll be soon.”
He walked down the steps with the morning sun warm at his back. In the shade of the gazebo he built his plate and poured orange juice from a carafe. His mood was a bit off despite the bright new morning. An underlying tension pulled him down. Probably worry about Edward finding out he’d not taken the pills. He’d just been counseled about it, too. He took a seat and started in on some waffles.
Out at the tree line, a lone figure stepped onto the green and began walking towards him. Something wasn’t right though he couldn’t say what. Williams hadn’t returned. No one else around. Perhaps it was a test. It started to feel like one.
He stood and went to the edge of the gazebo, drawn to the figure.
It was a woman, her intentions a stark contrast to the brilliantly lit morning. Her aura roiled dark and–
He recoiled.
This was who he wasn’t supposed to find while crossing the ocean in his dream. No tiger’s head to warn him off now. Fear slipped in, tainting control. Her dark brown energy narrowed to focus on him. Intentions became clear: she was there to end it, to end them – to end all interference.
He immediately formed the red ball, its cartoon energy no less powerful than in the study. He mapped its trajectory in the grid. Now though, the grid was different. The granular, tactile connectivity was missing. Instead there was just uninterrupted space.
He faltered with the thought that the ball might not work here.
Here. A thought followed – where is ‘here’?
The woman’s angry face came into view, recognizable as the checkin clerk at the Canary Wharf Hilton. The next moment found him standing at the checkin desk, the gray of dawn again creeping through the hotel lobby windows. The space-time shift hit him like a punch in the head.
“Can I help you?” Gone was the threatening glare though she remained as unreadable as the first time they’d met.
“Yes, I uh, I have a reservation.” Another dream, then. Too powerful to break. Who was driving? Panic rose.
“Your name, please?”
The question was different this time, asked too eagerly. His name meant something to her – she needed to know it. He looked beyond at a glass display. In the faint reflection he saw himself but without a face.
“You know, I’ll be damned, I think I have the wrong hotel. I’d better call my agent to check.” He retreated across the lobby. In every reflection there was a white blot where his face should be.
Outside the hotel he veered onto the sidewalk. A lorry lumbered by, trailed by three cars impatient to pass. He slowed and checked back towards the hotel and saw no one following. Crews arrived to start their day at a construction yard across the road. The building’s steel framework loomed overhead. Someone was driving the dream and it wasn’t him. Or was it?
He kept moving and watched the sparse traffic for threats, searching for a clue, an out, something. Between two buildings he saw light spilling out onto the street from a store front. The front door stood ajar with a sign overhead that read, ‘North Pole’. An upscale pub and restaurant, open before dawn. The tables and bar inside were all empty. This was an anomaly, something to check out.
He climbed a pair of steps and was immediately taken by the quiet within. Not a soul in the joint but still lit up for business. The chairs were all down around the tables, ready for customers. The neon around the bar burned brightly. The wooden floor creaked with every step, audible to anyone down the hall in the kitchen. No one came. A piece of paper lay on a table near the windows. In black ink it read, “Santa’s helper is in danger. Head to the South Pole.”
Across the room, just past the bar, a white neon sign over a hallway read in cursive, “South Pole”.
He followed the hallway to a bank of descending stairs lit with more neon signs advertising beers. Rounding the second set, he stepped down into a bar with blue and purple lighting. It reminded him of the cantina scene from Star Wars but without all the patrons.
He followed the layout around the bar and stopped.
Kaiya sat on a couch, dressed up for a night out.
She looked up from her cell phone and smiled, as sexy as the first time he’d met her.
“About time, nushi. I was worried you wouldn’t find me.”
She stood and walked to meet him.
• • •
Johan sat by the French doors in Austin’s room, watching Anki tend to a sleeping Austin. Edward lay in the bed next to him. Both men wore black sunglasses.
Sean sat in front of four small monitors on a push cart laden with computers. Each monitor showed different imagery. One of them was of Kaiya in a bar.
“How is that possible?” Anki asked. “How can you see into his dream?”
He pointed to the glasses. “They’re shùils. Real-time visual intercept at the optic chiasm, the point where the two optic nerves meet to combine visual data. Everything they experience flows through the brain. We’re just tapping the stream.”
His expression soured.
“What is it?” Anki asked.
“Edward’s blocked out. They have Austin and he’s not fighting it. They’re fishing for clues about his identity and location.” Sean stared at the video feeds. “This may not end well.”
The Comannda had drawn Austin to the Sarajevo dream. Edward’s attempt at intervention only made him think he’d woke – the Comannda pressed again and locked onto Austin, drawing him fully into their dream.
“What next?” Johan asked.
“They’re trying to bridge to his body and push a tracking signal from there. Bràthair are doing their best to block them but will fail soon.”
“Bràthair?”
“Our brothers, working beyond their bodies. We need to get him out of here.”
Williams heard from the doorway and left to prepare.
“And where to? They’ll triangulate,” Johan said. “You know they will.”
“I said we can try.”
“Stay.” Edward’s voice broke like ice in the room. “Something is coming.”
Johan joined Anki and Sean at the screens.
• • •
Austin held Kaiya’s hands, soft and warm in his own. This was what he wanted. Like the dream in old London, he wanted nothing more than to sink into her. Fears had painted the earlier dreams, creating near nightmares. Finding her in this way was well worth the trouble.
“This is all my fault,” she said. “If I would’ve let them do the surgery we’d be together by now. I guess tonight is all we’ll have for a while.” She went to embrace him. “Let’s make it last.”
Looking into her eyes, he hesitated. “Um...”
Her eyes weren’t the glassy caramel brown he knew. Instead they were blue and had begun to shift. He held her at arm’s length.
“Austin, what?”
Her eyes grew and changed shape until the unmistakable eyes of his mother looked back at him.
“Mom?”
Kaiya’s face contorted. “Leave him alone! He’s not going to–”
Pale colored skin spread outward from her eyes, replacing Kaiya’s light olive tone. Her head wobbled and then began to change shape and size, as did her cheekbones, nose and chin. In a bubbling of morphing energy, Kaiya’s head was replaced by his mother’s. Her familiar pursing of lips gave him the chills. It had been years since he’d seen that expression.
She fixed him with an intense glare. “Austin listen to me and listen good. This isn’t Kaiya and you have to get the hell away from this dream. Get out, now. Your father–”
Kaiya’s terrified face snapped back into place. “Austin, they’re using your memories to steal my soul! If you leave me now, I’ll never wake up! Please!” She gripped his forearms desperately. “Help me, I’m scared!”
“Biiiiitch!” Her mouth gaped and her voice changed again midway through, her face once again his mother’s. “I should have fought harder for you when I was alive. If I’d only known. Your father–” She struggled against unseen powers. “Go now, run, Austin! Wake up, keep running until you do! Goooo!”
The last ended in a howl as her mouth grew and opened wide to reveal rows of razor-sharp teeth. Her face morphed larger and blood-red eyes bulged with a look of murder. Her body swelled and veins appeared. Claws extended from her fingers and pierced his arm.
He screamed. With a vicious effort he launched the creature across the room and ran for the stairs.
• • •
Anki flew across the room and hit the wall, shattering a glass picture frame before falling to the floor. Johan and Sean rushed to help her. Blood stained her blonde hair.
“I’m okay, I’m alright,” she said. “He’s trying to break free. We need to help him.”
Johan told Edward, “Do something.”
“We are,” Sean replied. “Just didn’t see that coming. He’s tapping his power.”
“That’s wonderful as long as he doesn’t tap us to bloody pieces.”
• • •
The creature hit the wall and bounced back in the shape of a four legged beast. Its metamorphosis complete, it growled and followed Austin’s path to the stairs.
Just a dream – just a fucking bad dream!
He rounded the corner at the landing and took three steps at a time. Instead of reaching the first floor, he arrived at another landing. He turned and climbed another flight before arriving at yet another landing. “Fuck!”
“Austin!” The words were half growl, half Kaiya’s voice. “Come here, Austin! Right now!” The rapid click-tap of claws echoed. There was no end to the stairwell, and worse, the bar was still just one flight down.
Lucidity grew, teasing with possibility. It was his dream, too – had to be or else they’d already have him. He thumped the wall and found the hollow space between studs. He climbed up the next few stairs, turned back, and ran with all his might. He busted through the wall and stumbled headlong into a thick bush. Blinking away dirt, his eyes adjusted to sudden daylight. Smoke passed through tall trees and stained a blue sky. The bar had vanished.
“Here! I have him in sight! Here!”
A soldier in Roman armor called out before starting down the grade of the hillside with sword at the ready. Austin scrambled to his feet and ran, grateful to be wearing his own clothing. He could easily outrun the soldier.
Flit-thunk! An arrow struck a nearby tree. He turned in time to see two archers letting fly their missiles. More soldiers appeared over the rise.
“Shit!” He broke left to follow the descent of the hillside, zigzagging as he went. Where the hell was Edward or Marcel or any of them?
• • •
Edward removed the glasses. “I cannot help him but Cathbad will try.”
“Cathbad?” Anki asked.
Edward told Sean, “He and Mug are going in. Use their relays for viewing.” To Anki and Johan he said, “Cathbad leads the Runa Korda. Mug is his Second. If anyone can break Austin free, it is them. The Comannda have suspended his rathad in the dream state. There is no waking him here,” he gestured to Austin’s body, “as long as they have him there. If not for his mother, their trace would’ve gone much easier. He’s fighting them now. It buys us time, at least.”
“Was that really his mother?” Anki asked.
“The dead can appear. Or he may be working this out for himself. The good news is he’s trying. He has powers he hasn’t yet realized.” Edward donned the shùil again. “Do you have them?”
“Yes,” Sean answered. “They’re waiting outside Hunnenring.”
Edward met with the two elders at a brook below a hillside fort accompanied by a squad of bràthair. Morning mists swelled from a forest aglow with the rising sun. An apprehensive Mug squatted to splash water on his face while keeping an eye out. Cathbad joined Edward in counsel.
“Be ready with the Concord of Ascension. You must keep it formal and strong. The Family must not falter.”
Edward nodded. There was no questioning him, regardless the danger. “Aye and well.”
Cathbad gazed up at the fort and the hills beyond. “If the Words of Kornilian are correct, Austin is the Change.” He looked back at Edward. “I won’t let it end like this.”
History indicated druids kept no written records, using oral tradition instead. While true, the Words weren’t just words – often they were actual memories passed on since the earliest families. Most important were those of the welets, druids known to glimpse the future. The Words of Kornilian surfaced between them as they waited.
...by the firelight the band huddled against winter’s brace at the foot of the mountain. Forced into nomadic life by the hunters, the nine were destine
d for the Strait of Gibraltar, less than a month away with God’s hand upon them. Brother Pierce had weakened, unable to keep food down as a result of the poisoning by the innkeeper at Horta de Sant Joan. Before first rest Brother Kornilian bore the message to the group again, speaking the words only, as the message had passed thinly into his keeping, without original vision. “He that would move the wind, that would Travel the world as a boy, and that would appease the animals, will be the Change. He that would master Saoghal and move without peer in the World of Dreams, will be the Change.”
Predictive visions of the welets had proven valuable for hundreds of years, accurately forecasting up to the second World War. Since then, events had gone strange, incompatible with the Words. Worse, there hadn’t been a welet born nor found in two centuries, bearing credence to fears the Comannda were gaining control over the mysteries. Kornilian’s salvage of a vision involving the Change continually fired the family’s will to survive. Austin’s appearance and abilities marked him as the Change, save for his lack of dream control. The rise of the Runa Korda against the Comannda was nearly at hand and he had to be made ready.
Mug stood, still apprehensive. “Sir, we are to begin.” He turned to the squad. “Prepare!”
In ones and twos, the bràthair disappeared, off to form protective barriers around the meta cores of the two elder druids. Should either be caught in a dream, the bràthair would be the last defense against invaders seeking to track back to Raon to reveal their location.
Cathbad nodded and closed his eyes in prayer.
Edward said his own, especially for Cathbad. The man was nearly four hundred years old and his passing was as inevitable as ever. To have him face the Comannda now and fail could bring division to the Family, a strife that would dishonor the Concords agreed to so long ago. He prayed for success.
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