On one of the beds, a boy was sitting up, a lopsided grin on his face. He glanced over at the newcomers and gave the thumbs-up sign. Petra did the same, flashing him her most dazzling smile.
“Who’s that?” David needed to know.
“That’s Théo,” she replied, still looking at the boy.
David stared at him too, trying to imagine what he’d just experienced, until the professor touched him on the arm.
“This is Dishita,” he said. “She’s now our most senior dreamwalker.”
David found himself face to face with a serious-looking girl with tied-back hair, who the professor explained was from Delhi. She looked back at David like he was from Nowhere.
“So, you’re him, are you?” she said, shaking his hand.
David was a bit disconcerted by this, so he just said, “Hullo.”
“Go easy, Dishita,” said the professor. “I’d like you to take David on a dreamwalk — one of the routine safe spots, mind — and answer any questions he may have. Petra will go with you.”
“Is this the start of his training, Professor?” Dishita said. “Because this hardly seems the time to be holding some newbie’s hand.”
“We’ll have to suspend the training program in his case.” The professor sounded as though he was saying something he’d already said a dozen times before and didn’t want to say again. “Just give him a taster, Dishita. He needs to be up to speed on all this as soon as possible, because I’m putting him into active service today.”
Dishita might have rolled her eyes, but in the dim light it wasn’t easy to see behind her glasses.
Three people came into the room then and David couldn’t decide if they were nurses or technicians. They moved over to sit at three of the workstations. Petra and Dishita walked over to two of them and the professor motioned David to the third.
He sat down on the bed.
“Are we supposed to go to sleep now? Because I can tell you that my head’s buzzing with all you’ve told me today. It’ll take me hours to get to sleep.”
“Don’t worry about that,” said Professor Feldrake. “We can’t join you on a dreamwalk, not with all our technology, but I’m sure even Petra will agree that we can help you get there. These machines will send you off and adjust your brain waves to mimic deep REM sleep. They will also help you concentrate.”
David was suddenly nervous. Adjustment of brain waves didn’t sound like something he wanted to go through.
“Does it hurt?” he said, as the nurse laid him back on the bed. She placed some kind of soft mask over his face and temples and adjusted it to a snug fit.
“No, no,” said the professor. “Just relax.”
“But how long will it take?”
The nurse pressed a button.
David fell asleep.
Charlie Grinn was not accustomed to being stared at. When people did watch him too closely, bad things usually happened to them soon afterward. But for once, Grinn hung back, nervously stroking his moustache. Over in the race enclosure, in a particularly dark corner, someone he didn’t want to see again stood like a disembodied shadow. It was the boy named Adam.
Grinn turned to a big, flat-nosed man beside him.
“See that creepy kid, Tater?” Grinn said, indicating the dark figure with his head. “Get rid of him.”
The big man grunted and waddled off toward Adam, his arms swinging at his side like a wrestler’s. Relieved, Grinn turned away, his second minder following close behind. It’d be interesting to see how someone as unimaginative as Tater would be affected by Adam and his trick with the blue light. Grinn cursed himself for falling for it that morning and was just grateful that none of his men had been there to see it. It was a good trick, though, however it was done. Still, it would be better to just get rid of this Adam for good, and a taste of Tater’s fist should see to that. Grinn turned his thoughts back to the horses. He’d bet three times already, losing more money than he liked to think about each time, and he could really do with a change of luck. The name Angel Voice danced in his mind.
Grinn had checked on the horse Adam had mentioned as soon as he’d got to the race track, but it was hardly a dead cert. In fact, those in the know reckoned the animal was little more than dog food waiting to be canned. Anyone betting on Angel Voice would certainly make a small fortune if the wretched creature won, but no one would be stupid enough to put any real money on a nag like that.
Grinn watched the horses for the next race being paraded nearby, Angel Voice among them. If only there was some way of knowing in advance which of the animals would win, he thought, and he fingered the handle of the switchblade in his coat pocket. Could he get close enough to cut the favorite? No, too many people.
His minder tapped him on the shoulder. Tater had returned. And it was obvious he was badly shaken.
“What is it?” Grinn snapped. “Is he gone? Come on, what do I pay you for, you lugging great galoot?”
The man couldn’t speak for a moment. His teeth were chattering, and Grinn just knew it wasn’t from the cold.
“Looks like he’s seen a ghost, boss,” laughed the other minder, but his smile faded when Grinn didn’t return it.
“He just said two words, guv …” Tater muttered eventually. “Something about an Angel Voice.”
Grinn looked back into the enclosure. The boy named Adam was nowhere to be seen.
Charlie Grinn gave Tater a dark look, then made his way to place his bets. He put a hefty sum on the favorite, a horse named Bulgar. He really needed a win to improve his mood, and Bulgar should deliver. But, since Grinn was also a chancer at heart, he also put a few shillings on Angel Voice, just in case.
The race began. Bulgar burst from the starter’s hurdle like an unstoppable force, but then stumbled early on and couldn’t catch up. To Grinn’s mounting astonishment and against all expectation, Angel Voice steadily worked his way to the lead. With spectators shouting in frustration and fury around him, Grinn watched Angel Voice lope across the finishing line, winning the race by a nose. Bulgar came last, losing him a solid fiver. But at that moment, Grinn didn’t care. That “just in case” bet more than canceled out his loss.
Grinn stroked his neat whiskers. Perhaps it would be worth having another chat with this Adam after all, weird eyes and creepy tricks of the light notwithstanding.
As Tater went to collect his boss’s surprise winnings, Grinn shoved his way through the crowds to the enclosure, scanning the faces for the strange boy. He didn’t have to look for long.
“Congratulations, Mr. Grinn.”
Adam was where he’d been before, lurking in a gloomy corner. Grinn looked him over again, carefully avoiding his eyes. He took in the suit, the stylish hat, the long ivory-capped cane. There was money there, Grinn could see — lots of money. It was time Grinn took charge of this situation.
“Right, how did you know? About the horse. Or was it just luck?”
“Oh, I know all sorts of things, Mr. Grinn — many, many useful things.”
“Including race winners before the race? Do I look like a mug? Give it to me straight, now — what do you want, and what will you pay?”
“I told you. There’s a boy I want you to find. His name is Edmund Utherwise. He went missing last night, and now he’s hiding in the city somewhere. And when you find him and make him disappear, I’ll repay you with wealth more fabulous than you can even imagine.”
“Like I said, do I look like a mug?” Grinn was determined to stand his ground this time, even though his two bodyguards had slunk back behind him. “You’re going to have to do better than guess a race winner if you want to deal with me.”
“Ah, but Mr. Grinn …” Adam’s devilish grin danced across his face. “… if you find this boy, I’ll tell you the surefire winners of a hundred races like this. You’ll be a millionaire by summer.”
“Oh, I get it.” Grinn’s lip curled. “I pay for your bets and then give you half. Well, listen up, you little —”
Grin
n felt sweat break out on his forehead as Adam relit his dark gaze to its fullest intensity. The boy threw out his arm so that his hand left the shade of the enclosure and entered the winter sunlight. Instantly it turned an eerie blue. Then, slowly, one long bony finger extended and pointed straight at Grinn’s face.
“I don’t have time for this! You have one last chance, Charlie Grinn. The next race will be won by Trojan Mate. Put all your money — and I mean everything in your pockets — on Trojan Mate! If the horse wins, you will find me at sunset, in front of Saint Paul’s Cathedral. If the horse loses, you can forget we ever met. Now go!”
Grinn stumbled back as if he’d been pushed. He could hear Tater gasping like a frightened child just behind him. Adam drew back his hand, which was once again enveloped in darkness.
“See you this evening, Grinn,” came Adam’s voice, though already Grinn had trouble seeing him in the shadows. “Come alone.”
Grinn found himself nodding, even as he realized that the corner of the enclosure he was nodding at was completely empty.
David was dreaming.
In his dream, he was standing on a mountain road, without any recollection of how he’d got there.
It was daytime, but the sky was gray and the wind fresh. Ahead was a view down a steep slope to a valley divided up into neat fields. Behind him, the road rose up to a solitary house — a château of some kind. In all directions the horizon towered with snowy mountain peaks that brought to mind every picture David had ever seen of the mighty Swiss Alps.
“When you’ve quite finished gawping …” said a precise voice. Glancing back, David was mildly surprised to see Dishita looking at him. Petra was standing at her side.
“I’m dreaming!” said David, and Petra laughed. Dishita looked unimpressed.
“Let’s not waste any time, shall we?” she said. “David, the reason the professor is not here to explain further is because he can’t follow us now. In fact, to the best of our knowledge there are only a few hundred people in the world with the ability to communicate like this, though not all of them have been activated.”
“Activated?” said David. “What does that mean?”
“It means made aware,” said Petra. “The first step in making a controlled dreamwalk is becoming aware that you are dreaming. The machines in the Somnarium help you do that. Now you are in control of your dream. Soon you will learn to do it on your own.”
“That’s right,” snapped Dishita, who clearly didn’t like being interrupted. “Most of the people we activate are then offered a place on the Dreamwalker Project. At present our youngest dreamwalker is ten years old, and the oldest is eighteen. The ability to project consciousness diminishes at the end of adolescence.”
“Science-guy speak,” whispered Petra. “Dishita wants to be one of them one day.”
David looked around. The wind chilled his cheek and moved the branches of the trees. Overhead, where the clouds gathered, a large bird was circling. It all seemed so real. Could it really be just a dream? After a moment he became aware of the two girls waiting for him.
“So, where is this?” he asked. “And what do we do now?”
“Well, we could have a picnic,” said Dishita sarcastically. “That château over there is Unsleep House. The places you have already been shown, the Map Room and everything, are in the rock beneath it. But this mountainside is just a neutral point, somewhere for us to meet in dreamspace. We haven’t come here to admire the Swiss countryside. As it sounds like this will be the only training run you’re going to get, we should go somewhere — we should dreamwalk.” And when David didn’t answer she narrowed her eyes and added with a nod, “Perhaps through that door?”
David turned and was surprised to see a blue door standing in the middle of the road. There was nothing to hold up the frame, and he had the eerie feeling that he could walk all around it if he wished.
“Oh. Did I make that?” he asked.
“No,” said Dishita, “this is my dream, not yours. We can’t wait all day for you. Now, what would you like to see? Where in time would you like to go?”
David’s mind went blank. What a question! Petra came to his rescue.
“I know something you might like,” she said, and the door swung open. David looked through, his eyes growing wide in wonder.
Beyond the doorway he saw the light of a different day, where the sands of some far-off place shimmered in the heat of a desert sun. He caught a sudden rush of hot rocky air and sensed a mixture of smells that clearly didn’t belong to a Swiss mountainside. It was like staring into another world.
“Is that … the past?” he said.
Dishita ignored this question. She walked briskly to the door and stepped through, beckoning to the others to follow. The light reflecting from her hair altered immediately and she already seemed to be an unimaginable distance away. David looked at Petra.
“What will I see?” he said.
“Don’t worry about it,” said Petra, her ready smile twitching with amusement. “It’s going to be amazing, David. It’s always amazing.” And with that she took his hand and pulled him through the door.
David was standing with the two girls in the shadow of a broken stone wall. Beside him, between outcrops of rock, were the remains of some rough stone buildings, tumbled down and decaying in the sandy earth and casting long shadows with the sun low in the sky. They were on the slopes above another valley, only this time it was broad and arid, studded with shrubs and strange grasses. He stared in disbelief, shocked to find himself somewhere else entirely.
He moved his feet on the gravel experimentally, but didn’t hear the crunch of small stones he was expecting.
“Try and pick one up,” said Dishita.
David stooped and scrabbled for a stone, but he couldn’t even move one, let alone take hold of it. He stood bolt upright again.
David’s mind fought with the situation. However, even as he struggled with the reality of sudden relocation, he also couldn’t help wondering why he had been brought here. He looked over at his two companions, standing beside him in the shadow of the broken wall. Then he looked down at himself and saw that he was still holding Petra’s hand. He let go and patted himself down.
“But … but this is my body. I’m really here!”
“No, David,” said Dishita. “That is your dreamself, your specter. It’s the form your mind takes now that it has left your body. The only form it knows.”
“You mean, my spirit? My soul?”
“We don’t like to use the word soul,” said Dishita, and something in her voice suggested she was uncomfortable using it even now. “We usually just refer to our dreamselves as ghosts. As you are about to find out, in this state you have some very ghostly properties.”
“What do you mean?”
“Watch closely,” said Dishita, and she stepped out of the shadow of the wall and into the direct sunlight. Her whole form grew instantly faint, and she was suffused with a smoky glow.
“Come into the light,” she called.
David did so. He raised his hands and looked at them closely, fascinated, but still shocked, by the strange bluish light that seemed to boil inside them with the sun’s touch. And he could see right through them to Petra, who hadn’t left the shade. She smiled back at him but appeared entirely normal.
“The first thing you must learn about your dreamself is to keep its ghostly nature hidden,” Dishita explained. “Keep to the shadows, David — don’t go into the light. We can only risk being outdoors in overcast weather. In direct sunlight … well, you can see for yourself. You must never let anyone see you like this.”
David stepped back into the shade and became normal-looking again.
“Okay,” he said, “okay. To keep dreamwalking a secret, you mean?”
“To stop people from freaking out,” said Petra. “How would you feel if you saw a ghost?”
“Right. Got it. But … but there’s no one here now.”
“No, but there soon will
be,” said Petra, pointing off to the horizon.
David looked into the distance and saw a long line of movement along the valley floor, shimmering in the heat. Sunlight flashed from a thousand faraway reflections.
“What’s that?” he asked.
“It’s an army,” said Petra. “And look, there’s the other one,” she added, pointing in the opposite direction. Sure enough, a similar line of moving figures could be seen rippling in the sweltering air. It looked as though they would meet just below the point where the three companions were standing.
“This is amazing!” said David, still struggling to accept what his senses were showing him. “It all seems so real.”
“It is real,” said Dishita. “Or rather, it was. This is no longer a dream, David; this is the year 1028 BC, and we are in the ancient Middle East. Don’t ask me why — this was Petra’s idea. For some reason she thinks you want to see an act of mindless violence.”
“He’s a boy, isn’t he?” snapped Petra. “I thought he’d like a battle. Besides, he has a personal connection with this one, actually.”
David wondered what that could possibly mean. Was Petra teasing him? The three of them stood for a while in silence as the warriors of the two armies drew closer.
“But what will they think?” David said eventually, pointing at the approaching men. “They’re about to see three ghosts standing in the desert.”
“They won’t see any ghosts because we are going to be very careful,” said Dishita, sounding more and more like a teacher. “We mustn’t do anything to draw attention to ourselves or risk altering the course of history. If someone in this time caught sight of you fading away or drifting through a wall — oh, yes, we can do that too — they would probably be terrified. Who knows how they might react? What if they changed their behavior entirely? What if someone who was supposed to live to be a hundred saw your ghost and ran and tripped and broke their neck? Something like that could cause incalculable changes to the time line, resulting in an entirely different present. We must do everything we can to blend in, to avoid …”
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