He gave her another warm smile before turning on the spot and exiting the room. Amy was left staring open mouthed at the door officer De Luca had just passed through. It took her some moments before she realised she wasn’t actually alone.
A dark, robbed figure was standing a step behind, her looking over her shoulder in the same direction. The Arbiter had found her.
“Amriel,” his impossibly deep, echoing voice was overflowing with obvious relief. “It is wonderful to see you alive and well!”
“You mean alive and in my own mind,” she replied with a heavy voice.
“Not entirely. I knew that your mind had not been overthrown. On the contrary, I felt the dark power that pursued you thrown violently from the dream plane, which you yourself simultaneously departed. What happened?”
“I…” where should she begin? How could she explain it? “It was like for a moment I could see the dream plane and earth at the same time. I could feel the enemy attacking me in the dream plane but I could also see a policeman on earth pointing a gun at Martay. I was… terrified. Not for myself, but for Martay. I think that was what made me wake up. I wanted so badly to save him!”
“Ahh… hmm…” pondered the Arbiter, as if a conclusion was slowly dawning on him.
“You tried to force yourself to act, to do anything you could.”
“Exactly! And my head suddenly seemed to clear and I was actually awake. But…” Amy struggled to actually say it out loud but the Arbiter had worked it out and finished the explanation for her.
“When you did, you found that you had killed Martay's attacker.”
“Yes,” she conceded quietly.
“I understand. Yet you have the air of surprise, as well as remorse. What is wrong?”
“Well, this is an elvish kind of dream, right? And I can’t change reality in my elvish dreams. At least, I couldn’t before… but the officer just got up alive when I knew that he was dead! What does it mean?”
“That you are here means only that you have a pure heart,” answered the Arbiter enigmatically. “Everything that has happened recently shows that your powers are growing rapidly as you unlock your potential.”
“Well I don’t want the power anymore!!!”
Amy was shouting in distress. She wasn’t even getting the answers she wanted from the Arbiter.
“That,” said the Arbiter slowly and calmly, “shows that you are wise as well. Desire for power, more often than not, leads to disaster. However, so long as those who have power are not possessed by a love for it, they can achieve truly great deeds.”
Amy’s tears of grief were now mingled with tears of frustration. She was too emotional to perceive or even to care about the importance of what the Arbiter was saying. She just wanted closure on the terrible event that had happened.
“How can he be alive in an elvish dream? Tell me!”
“It would be easiest to show you.”
He placed a gloved hand on her shoulder which pulsated with an astonishing heat. As he did so, the ground fell away from under her, as if the Arbiter was lifting her into the air. They continued rising until the space around them faded to black with the bright space of the dream directly below.
Amy could see officer De Luca, small but recognizable, approaching a little townhouse where he was met by the cries and hugs of a weeping woman, clearly his wife. They stood locked in an embrace, and then the dream faded into nothingness and Amy suddenly realised that she was surrounded by the familiar old forest.
“What just happened? I don’t understand!”
“What happened was that your heart led you to places that only a well trained dreamwalker could normally go. That was not your own dream Amriel.”
“It… It wasn’t?”
“No. It was the echo of the woman’s sorrow. It is natural for loved ones to long for a miracle when someone dies unexpectedly. Longing and desire are intrinsically linked to the dream plane and have the power to create pockets in this place even though people are awake. You did something similar, but instead of creating your own dream you entered another.”
“You mean like the way Snipping can find me in my dreams?”
“Correct. Although, Snipping has been travelling through people’s dreams his entire life, so it is a relatively straightforward task for him. You have done so without intention, knowledge or training, which demonstrates the depth of your empathy.”
“The officer… De Luca… he really is dead then. I wondered if maybe…” her voice trailed off.
“In one way, yes, he is dead. He will never again move on earth. But haven’t your recent experiences taught you something about dreams and reality?”
“What are you getting at?”
“You are fixated on the physical element of existence. All that matters to you is knowing whether the policeman’s connection to the physical world has been cut.”
“You mean whether or not he died?”
“You consider these things to be the same but they are not.”
The Arbiter’s voice almost seemed excited as he approached his point.
“The difference between the two is substantial! For someone to truly be dead, they must no longer have any presence or impact on any element of reality. Officer De Luca may not ever again walk, talk or even have dreams of his own but you have just seen proof that his spirit lingers on in the hearts of others, awakened in the realm of their thoughts and dreams. He is still very much capable of offering guidance, support and hope to those who wish for his presence! The most powerful dreamwalker cannot bring the dead back to life in the physical world but even the most average mind can sustain the presence of those who have metaphorically passed on.”
Amy wanted to question and argue this but somehow the idea brought her a degree of comfort and closure. If she proved the Arbiter wrong, that would be taken away, and she needed it right now.
“Now,” the Arbiter carried on, “we should return to the matter at hand.”
“What? Oh. Yes.”
Amy shook herself a little and tried to focus on the problem of the passport. It didn’t take long to explain the situation to the Arbiter, who listened patiently.
“A simple problem and an easy one for a dreamwalker to solve,” he said once Amy was done. “Do you feel you are up to the task Amriel?”
“Well, I haven’t had much success creating things in an elven dreamstate before but I need this to work. We’re running out of time.”
“You know at least what you need to do. You had best start trying.”
Amy closed her eyes to try and help her concentration, but the Arbiter wasn’t finished.
“Also, Amriel, to give some guidance for your next move, head for Canada. Your parents had little difficulty escaping the enemy’s puppets and tried to find you but I warned them it was not safe at the time. I suggested they travel as far away as they reasonably could and promised that I would send you to them when I deemed it safe.”
Amy’s heart almost jumped into her head. The prospect of being reunited with her parents filled her with renewed hope and determination.
She bent all of her concentration on the task but it seemed the more she thought about it, the more she reminded herself that there was no real passport at all. This of course prevented her from achieving her goal. She grew frustrated with herself, tried to make herself believe in the object’s existence.
“I don’t think I can do it,” she cried aloud! “I need to be in a… you know… a more human frame of mind!”
“I do not argue that the human mind is more creative and quick to believe in that which does not yet exist. However, the elven mind and its inherent link to the dream plane lends it much more control. You can achieve this. You just need to gain better self control, and you will.”
The Arbiter crossed his legs and sat calmly on the forest floor, beckoning Amy to join him. She followed his request and nestled in the soft, receiving grass whilst looking at the Arbiter imploringly. She was overly conscious about time.
“Start by allowing all of your thoughts to leave you,” the Arbiter said. “Empty yourself of emotion. Focus on the silence around us so as to block out distractions. Focus on it until the silence itself seems loud and presses in on you. Then, picture yourself passing through the airport security gates with all three passports in your hand.”
Amy’s brow twitched as she tried to follow the Arbiter’s instructions.
“Now you can remember. How could you have forgotten? You created a passport for Snipping already while you were unconscious. You kept it in your pocket and forgot about it while you were pursued.”
“But I didn’t,” Amy replied in frustration.
“Are you so sure? Do you remember all of your time in the dream plane, or do portions of your time there slip away from you like water escaping from cupped hands?”
“Well, no, I don’t remember everything but why would I have-”
“-created a passport for Snipping? Because you knew you would likely need it. I saw the thought in your mind and guided you through the task. It was well considered.”
“But if that’s the case, then it must be in the pocket of my jacket!”
“Yes indeed.”
The Arbiter let out his gently hum which seemed to take the place of a smile.
“If you do not believe me, keep your mind clear and allow yourself to drift part way between dream and awakening. Allow your physical self to check the pocket. Then you need only to remember, and to wake up.”
Amy awoke with a start and sat bolt upright. She remembered the dream clearly. Elven dreams did not fade like human dreams she realised. Martay and Snipping had noticed Amy’s sudden movement but before they could say anything she started searching energetically through her pockets.
“Yes!!” she exclaimed loudly, attracting more furtive looks from the other passengers. She ignored them, and with a broad grin on her face, slowly drew the familiar rectangular, red passport out of her pocket and proceeded to hand it to Snipping. He took it in his hands expectantly and opened it to the critical identification page, where his face stared back at him.
The only inaccuracy, albeit a necessary one, was that his ears were rounded like a human’s. In the picture they were relatively large compared to his head and stuck out a lot but they were perfectly plausible. The three of them were sure it would suffice.
“Well done miss Amriel. I wouldn’t recommend a career as an artist but it should do. Your clearly progressin’ with ya control.”
“Not exactly,” she replied. “Apparently I created it when I was unconscious and I’ve been carrying it around all this time in my pocket.”
Snipping’s eyebrows rose and he shared a brief questioning look with Martay.
“And this information is accordin’ to who exactly?”
Amy explained the second half of her dream to the others, omitting the first, more emotional part. Once she had finished Snipping was smiling.
“Ingenious,” he exclaimed! “A fast and effective method to guide ya thoughts.”
“What are you talking about?”
“We already searched through your pockets Amy.” It was Martay who spoke. “We were looking for the car keys and there was definitely no passport in them. You must have created it just then.”
“But… how,” she asked in shock?
Snipping explained.
“The Arbiter convinced ya that the passport already existed. You brought that belief with ya out o’ the dream plane, and subsequently created the passport. It’s the elven connection between the plans ya see.”
Amy was initially speechless as she considered this, then slowly a warm feeling spread inside her. She had succeeded, admittedly with some help, but she had done it. She had taken an important step towards better controlling her power, and as the first part of her dream had shown her, this was vitally important. She kept this revelation to herself.
Chapter 17
To the three of them it felt like the train was moving at a snail pace. They had everything they needed. Amy had rapidly explained about her parents waiting for them in Canada and they had booked tickets in a flurry of excitement. Now time was of the essence. They rolled through the city for what felt like ages until finally they reached the airport.
The security checks went smoother than they could possibly have hoped. Through passport control, the officer barely glanced at Snipping. Clearly no message had gotten through yet to look for them.
Although they didn’t know it, the bizarre circumstances surrounding officer De Luca’s death were causing intense debate even as they were passing through security, which was going to delay any action for some time. The police were having a hard time arguing with the doctor about the cause of death. He was adamant that the children had nothing to do with it even if they had been acting strangely and were probably taking drugs.
The three companions spent their time waiting for the flight by looking up information about Vancouver. The plan, as Snipping had explained, was to find a cabin to lodge in north east of the city where things would be quieter. There they could focus on finding Amy’s parents. Amy was sure that they would have gone to Vancouver themselves because it was one of their favourite destinations.
Martay, whose pain was slowly starting to increase again, eventually put forward the awkward question that they had all been too busy over the past few weeks to consider.
“What’s the plan after we find Amy’s parents? Surely if the enemy keeps hunting for Amy, her parents won’t be able to stop that. Is there some kind of solution to this? Does anyone even know?”
Snipping responded fairly despondently.
“No, we don’t. If history ‘as taught us anythin’, it’s that even the most skilled elves couldn’t destroy Gorhoth completely. It may be that he can never really be removed, just slowed down and crippled each time he tries to regain power. Even if that’s the case, it’s no reason to give up and let ‘im take over. Besides, Amy represents a brand new possibility, a kind o’ power we never had before that might make all the difference.”
Amy’s cheeks blushed due to the awkward feeling that came from being talked about like this but at the same time she felt a pang of anxiety. What could she do to stop the enemy? She didn’t even know that much about him! He was a shadow that they only reluctantly discussed and she could barely control the power she had, whereas he could dominate other people’s minds and control their action, including her own. The idea of challenging him seemed similar to a small child with a stick challenging a full grown knight armed to the teeth.
She said nothing. All she cared about right now was getting to her parents.
“For now,” Snipping said, “we just need to keep Amy safe while she trains. Probably this’ll need to be done for years before we should consider facin’ Gorhoth. That’s our biggest problem. We need to find a way to hide Amy again for an extended period o’ time, stop the enemy from bein’ able to track her down.”
“Ok,” replied Martay, “and how exactly do you think we can do that? We are talking about someone chasing us in dreams! Dreams Snipping! I’m very sure physical distance won’t help and besides, how are we meant to survive in hiding from him without stopping somewhere to work and earn money for food, clothes and accommodation?”
Snipping gave Martay a tired but otherwise blank look.
“Work to earn money,” he said almost to himself. “When we’re travellin’ with a dreamwalker…”
He waved his passport in front of Martay's face who took the point. What was to stop Amy creating reams of money for their use? It would be easy.
They soon boarded the plane and were on their way at last. They had barely reached cruising altitude before the captain announced they were starting to make their descent into Frankfurt. Travel by flight in Europe took barely any time at all.
Naturally they had more time to kill, waiting for their connecting flight, but they were able to pass this by travelling pleasantly through the old centre of Frankfurt. As bef
ore, Martay was still very sore, and tried to keep his upper body as stiff as possible but he at least felt less drained now that they had eaten. He was even managing to ignore the pain a little. Amy was feeling less apprehensive but no less conflicted inside and Snipping had made a number of very snide remarks, which suggested he was feeling himself again. It seemed to them like barely any time had passed at all before their flight to freedom was taking off and chasing the sunset.
Once they had levelled out, Snipping pulled down the window cover and curled up to try and sleep. When he announced this to the others Amy did a double take.
“What do you mean, ‘try’? I thought you could enter and leave dreams whenever you wanted to?”
“O’ course I can,” he snapped. “I’m just not sure I wanna lose track o’ what’s goin’ on here.”
“What is that supposed to mean,” asked Martay.
“Of all the things that you… people do, making heavy metal structures fly is one o’ the most impressive and most terrifying.”
The two of them were shocked at first but when they thought about it, Snipping had been unusually quiet all through the last flight.
“Flying is actually really safe Snipping. Safer than driving by a long way!”
“Mmph,” Snipping grunted, then rolled away from them.
In fact, it was not long before Snipping was snoozing peacefully. Clearly the steady, unchanging rhythm of the aeroplane made it easy for him to forget about the inherent danger long enough to enter his dreams. Martay watched him with an odd expression for a while before Amy noticed and asked him what was wrong.
“It just seems… strange. I mean he’s from some other dimension or something right? Where he never had a physical body? But he needs to sleep now. Makes you really wonder. I mean, we have to sleep so our physical body can recover but how does that even work? I used to think only living things could dream but this is kind of the reverse,” he whispered, not wanting to be overheard. Amy pondered his observation. She could see what he meant but…
Bridge Between the Worlds (Dreamwalker Book 1) Page 40