“We are the ones who came before,” the black woman answered.
Melinda looked at them, confused.
“Your teacher is one of my line,” she said with a smile.
“Oh.” Did that mean that these were gods? Her mothers and Patrah had explained that people with power had once roamed the world and one was her great-great-great-whole-lot-more-greats grandparent.
“I thought all of you were dead?” Melinda asked, confused.
The skull-faced man shifted with a grunt, turning his back toward her. The black woman only laughed. “We are, dear, but those of us who belong to dreams have always walked between worlds, so we have more freedom than the rest of our brethren. We can still walk this place that we once knew so well. You called to us, so we came.”
“I called you?” Melinda asked.
“Your power called to us.” The purple woman finally spoke. Her voice was soft and echoing. “Rolling through the whole of the dreaming.”
“It has been too long since one such as us walked,” the red lips whispered.
“Why do you all look so different?” Melinda asked.
“We were different people. We used our power in different ways. How we use our power and how our people look at us changes how we look,” the black woman explained.
The man wearing the skull was crouched down, tracing shapes in the ground with his finger. He clucked his tongue, wiped his hand over the ground, and began again.
“You can always change. You have a choice. Remember that,” the red lips stated.
Melinda had no idea what that meant, but nodded like she did, and the lips curled up into a smile. The skull-faced man stood up and turned back to face them.
“The time is now.” His voice was dry and cold. “Let us hope she is ready.”
“The world is changing, and tonight is one of the turning points. News is spreading through the world—news of people like you, and people like your friends. News of powers that people thought were myth and legend. Fear and panic could easily take over and lead us to disaster. Unless you stop it.” The black woman looked at Melinda as she spoke.
“How?” Melinda asked, nervous.
“You must take hold of their dreaming minds and blunt the panic. Gift them with calm so they may see the bigger picture more clearly.” The purple woman said. She flung her long and thick hair back. The sound was like bells chiming and Melinda saw small shards of purple fall into the blue dreaming that surrounded them.
“Isn’t that wrong, though?” Melinda asked. Patrah had said it was wrong to even look in people’s dreams. This was far worse.
“It is wrong for your teacher to do so. In fact, she could not do it. But you are not your teacher. This domain belongs to you as it belonged to us when we were alive. It is not simply a fun place to play. It is your responsibility. Dreams are where we shed our problems and horrors. It’s where we come to terms with the waking world.” The black woman stepped close, and Melinda did not move back this time.
“You only see the dreaming as this blank blueness because your teacher has told you that looking at others’ dreams is wrong. But you are the Mistress of Dreams now,” the purple woman said, stepping up on Melinda’s other side and placing a hand on her elbow. “The ability to guide those dreaming is a powerful tool. A tool that can see truths, and wishes, and hopes. Some of us have used it to help those who have been hurt. Others have used it to hurt those who have hurt others. Most of us used some combination of these two extremes. But your main responsibility remains. To see and to guide.”
Melinda felt the rightness in what they were saying. “How do I do it?” She asked quietly.
“You only need to see this place as it really is. Then you will feel it, and instinct will take over.” The red lips whispered and then they were right in front of Melinda. The body bent over. Dust exploded from the white shroud. The scent of old books wafted over Melinda as the surprisingly dry lips touched her forehead.
The world of blue around Melinda exploded and tore itself apart. Then it reformed, but this time it was full of holes. The area around Melinda was spotted with them holes floating freely in the air around her. She looked into one and realized they were not holes but portals into people’s dreams. Many people were dreaming about being attacked and seeing others hurt. The ones doing the hurting had the faces of Ms. Luka and Ms. Jayl. That was a problem.
And she knew how to fix it.
She felt all the panic running through the ground beneath her. She knelt again and put both palms against the ground. Anxiety thundered through her and made her heart race and sweat break out on her brow.
Melinda called to the people dreaming. She held their dreamselves against her in their sleep until they calmed. She pulled their anxiety from them and into herself. She shook as it took over her mind for a moment. It ran from her head through her body and out of her feet, cleansed and changed. It went back into their dreams as hope. She stretched further and further. She covered the city and then the state and then the country. The dream lands grew around her as connections were made. She leapt from mind to mind and pool to pool, calming their terror and uncertainty; feeding back determination.
Finally, she could stretch no farther; she felt the minds out there, but they were too active, they buzzed and moved. They were awake. She waited and slowly her power spread. She released the minds of those who woke and pulled those newly fallen into dreams closer to her. She touched them all. Melinda felt when the others left her but did not say goodbye. She still she had more work to do.
When she was finally done, she was exhausted in a way she had never felt before. But as she let the dream world go, she woke up.
Arms pulled her close, nearly suffocating her.
“Melinda! Oh baby, thank god!”
She blinked up. Her moms were leaning over her. Melinda blinked, feeling foggy and slow. It hurt to move, and she had to squint to see clearly. She saw Patrah behind them.
“What happened?” Melinda croaked out.
“Youve been asleep for over twenty-four hours,” her Mama said as she pulled Melinda into her arms. It hurt, but Melinda didn’t say anything, just met Patrah’s silent gaze over her Mama’s shoulder.
TAE
Speaking with Fallon had become a favorite pastime of Tae’s. Especially since he had not seen Zaha in person since the death of her friend Carlie.
“This is odd,” Tae said as he looked out the window. People moved in and out of the Agency building with purpose. Meetings upon meetings with groups that wanted to help; training schedules and volunteers; food storing and defenses. From what Dayida had said, it was the same in most cities around the world. Not all but enough.
“They want to save their world. Why is that odd?” Fallon asked, not rising from his seat. He took a sip of tea as Tae turned to face him.
“Come now. I doubt you’ve been here as long as you say without knowing that this is just not how humans roll.”
They all suspected Melinda. They’d read the articles and seen the tenor of the conversation in the wake of the press conference. It hadn’t been their awrsi-case scenario, but it had been much more negative than they had hoped.
Then in only a day it had flipped around. There was still fear and hatred out there, but most people had accepted it and moved on to working together. Most religions were taking a wait-and-see stance, except for a few smaller churches that had declared the Blooded children of the Gods or Satan depending on the day. No matter how great that was Tae knew they weren’t normal reactions.
Patrah had laid out the wave of changed opinion; tracking how sentiment had changed with sleep. Melinda would say nothing about it, or why she had been asleep and unreachable, even by Patrah, for so long. He wished Erik were here to talk with her. Also, he simply missed his friend and hoped he was alright. He wanted to talk over the theory that had been forming in his mind because it involved Erik too. It was terrifying to keep it to himself, and while it might help, it would mean more change.
Tae rolled his eyes at the rhyme. “The cause is just as important as the result.”
“What do you see when you look at them, young one?” Fallon asked, finally putting his teacup down and turning all his attention to Tae.
Tae looked out the window again and opened his gaze slowly. He saw skulls over some of their faces. Others had limbs that faded in and out of his sight. They would not survive or would be injured in the coming war. He also saw some of them aged, older, their families behind them. When he cast his gaze farther out, he saw buildings where there were none, Antes roaming alongside humans—devouring some, befriending others. He saw an eclipse with two moons overlapping. He saw fire and war and pain and compromise. And down the road he saw the two possible endings where every choice, big or small, inevitably led.
“What I always see. Two endings—change or death.”
Tae looked down at his own body; the way it was filled with light in his vision, and the way it flared. He swallowed and shut his gaze down quickly.
RAZEL
Razel did not know who first saw them, but it did not take long for the panic to spread through the tightly packed crowd inside Kandake. She moved against the crush of people fleeing from the door. The fact that she was recognizable helped, since some were reluctant to touch her at all. When she reached the front doors, she stared out of the frosted glass. They came in a wave. She could not pick out individuals because there were so many. It was not merely a shadow of movement but an eclipse that blotted out the street. They covered it from building to building and filled the sky.
Maasu, hundreds of them.
She looked at the others gathered by the door with her. The revolutionaries that Lil had been fighting with, along with Arel and Jagi. All looking very grim.
“Can we seal the Athenaeum?” Arel asked.
“We could if Lil were the official Holder. As it is, Mayer has control, and I’m sure he’s somewhere in that crowd. As long as he holds Kandake we can do almost nothing without his permission. He can open the doors to whomever he wants,” Razel said quietly, trying to keep the panicked people around her from hearing.
The force had stopped fifty feet from the front of Kandake, and there it roiled and rumbled in anger. They were close enough that Razel now spotted a few prominent individuals. She could see Riana riding on a small personal crike, and Chayyliel standing in the front line alongside Mayer, also on a crike.
“We have to give Lil more time,” Razel whispered.
Jagi looked at her and nodded, opening the door and walking out. He walked down the steps of Kandake and held up his hands.
“You are not welcome here. Return to your Hives and leave us be,” Jagi called out.
Mayer stepped forward from the crowd. It might have been her imagination but he looked older, his hair more lined with white, his movement more stiff and irregular.
“I am always welcome here. I am the Holder of Kandake. It is the rest of you who have broken into the Athenaeum without cause.” His voice was strong, but still cracked in places.
“We broke into nothing. The door was unlocked and open when we approached. Perhaps you forgot to lock it? Or perhaps gave someone a key?” Jagi responded.
Razel could not see Jagi’s face, but she clearly heard the smirk in his voice.
Mayer had no response but Razel saw the red filling his face and neck. Chayyliel stepped forward next. Its voices were low and soothing; a combination of conniving and cajoling. “If you will offer up Lilianna, Razel and the strangers from another world, we shall leave you in peace,” Chayyliel stated.
Razel saw the look that Mayer shot over to the Queen and wondered how much of what was happening had been cleared with the Holder.
“A counter offer,” Jagi offered. “We will offer you the chance to win those you wish to take through combat.”
“And why should we agree to this?” Chayyliel asked.
“Because otherwise you’ll have to storm Kandake and you know how sensitive so many of the items inside are. What if a fire were to break out?” The tone of Jagi’s voice promised that something like a fire or much more devastating would definitely occur.
She saw Mayer’s face tighten and he lowered himself from the crike and moved to Chayyliel’s side, whispering furiously. Chayyliel nodded once and gestured for Mayer to return to his place.
“Agreed. However, when we win them, you will all empty Kandake with no damage to anything inside,” Chayyliel stated.
Jagi nodded. “If you win all three fights—Liliana, Razel, and the strange ‘dants. One fight for each.”
Chayyliel was silent for a moment but finally lowered its head in a nod. “Agreed.”
Jagi smiled. “We shall start with Razel.”
It was only shock and her training that kept her from yelling at the Ante across the distance between them. She turned to look at Arel but he had eyes for no one but Jagi.
“I will go and retrieve her,” Jagi said.
He walked back to the door and Razel was immediately in his face.
“What do you think you are doing?” Razel asked.
“You said we needed to buy Lil some time; that is what I’ve done,” Jagi responded calmly.
“Yes, by throwing me to the wolves,” Razel yelled at the smug Ante.
“No. You shall request that Arel and I fight for you. It is allowed to have a champion.”
Razel looked back and forth between the two of them. It was true, and Riana was hardly going to fight for herself either, and they did need the time.
“Fine,” she agreed. Better to pretend she had a real choice in the matter.
Arel and Jagi gestured for her to exit first. She moved slowly down the steps alone until she called for Arel and Jagi. All eyes were on her and she kept her face composed as she walked out. The sky above them seemed to literally split and suddenly Razel was in the rain, though Riana and her companions stayed completely dry. Was this one of Mayer’s tricks? Or a new tactic of the darkness? Or just another sign of their world cracking apart?
She stood still in the rain facing her Holder.
“You have made a foolish choice here tonight, Apprentice,” Riana yelled for all to hear.
“You have made nothing but foolish choices your whole life, and yet here you stand, powerful, despite being incompetent and useless. If you happen to win, what will you do, Riana? Turn me over to the Ruling Courts? Then who would make the mechaniques that people love so much in this new world? Not you,” Razel replied, standing taller.
It felt amazing to unload on Riana, who had never said a kind word to her, who had made Razel’s life a hell and forced her to pretend that she enjoyed it.
“You were nothing when I found you—” Riana blustered.
“I was already better than you at everything when you found me. I’m still better than you. No matter your emotions, that truth will not change.”
Riana stared at her with an open mouth and Razel let a genuine smile stretch across her face. It felt odd, the joy and freedom. She would risk death a hundred times for this.
Riana recovered. “I will make you suffer before you die, the way I did your parents. All they asked about in the end was where you were.”
“I will see you dead!” Razel snarled so vehemently that she saw the spittle fly from her mouth and shocked herself. She recognized the anger from deep within her, hiding all along in recesses she always did her best to ignore. It existed alongside the love and mourning for the parents she barely remembered.
Chayyliel interrupted them.
“Champions forward.”
The Maasu that Riana had chosen came forward. It stood upright on two powerful legs like a ‘dant, but that was where the resemblance ended. Its torso was too thick and long, and it broadened as it rose. Upon the shoulders, three heads rested with no necks to get in the way. Its shoulders sproute
d thick tree trunks that were dozens of tentacles wrapped around each other to approximate arms. Its back sprouted wings that resembled those of a dragon.
Arel and Jagi came from behind her, and they were no longer the nice Antes that were clearly in love with her . . . acquaintance, if not friend. No, these were the warriors she had seen from the sky as the dragons had zoomed in. They both stood to their full heights. The apertures on their sides opened and closed quickly making a continuous snapping sound. They came in on either side of the Maasu, its two outer heads rotating to watch them approach.
The Maasu leapt into the air on its wings and its tentacles unfurled and whipped out at them. Just as fast, they had snapped out their tentacles and blocked the blows.
In seconds, the whole fight was just a mass of moving tentacles, whipping and ripping at each other, and the only way to tell the difference was the color of them. She watched a white-gray tentacle fly from the ring, ripped from its source. There was a cry of pain from within the mass of movement but she could not see if it was Arel or Jagi who had lost the limb. There were more cries from within the circle, including one that went rapidly high and made all the ‘dants around wince and hold their ears.
Razel could see the other Maasu across the way, rearing up and watching the fight. Then the world shifted around them. Though the ground did not actually move, it felt as if the world around them had changed from one second to the next. She realized the vaguely malevolent feeling at her back from the direction of the Athenaeum had lifted and there was the feel of heat and warmth and friendship replacing it.
Lil had claimed Kandake.
Mayer cried out and fell to the ground. Razel watched as he struggled to rise to his feet again and those around him moved away rather than help.
She turned in time to see Lil come walking out of the front door. She was dressed all in white except for the thorny branch wrapped carelessly around her waist like a belt. She strode out and and down the steps. Matthias walked behind her. Razel could not see Erik. Behind Liliana, the windows showed empty rooms, instead of the spaces that were packed body to body when Razel had emerged.
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