by J. S. Morin
“I’m not half as drunk as you might think I am, and I’ve got something better than sex in mind for you.” Esper stood on her tiptoes to look him nose to nose. His pupils were wide enough to fall inside, like the pits of a well. She could feel the heat radiate from his blushing face, the sudden sweat on his palms. Each quickened breath carried the sweetness of the wine they’d shared over dinner. “All you need to do is trust me.”
“I trust you.” It was less than a whisper.
Whether it was wine or the sudden realization that she was a full-fledged wizard, a wellspring of confidence spurred Esper to action. She grabbed Raybin by the back of the neck and kissed him. It didn’t matter how many girls he claimed not to have taken to Port ‘o Call, he knew what he was doing with a kiss. More than Esper did, for certain. The wine in her belly was just deep enough to drown the annoying little voices that told her what she had planned was a bad idea.
# # #
A lone cottage sat beside a pond of pristine blue water, an image cut from a book of fairy tales. The colors were too bright; the sky too blue, the grass too green. The water’s surface lay so still it might have been glass. Unseen birds sang from a forest of identical trees, their melodies sweet but repetitive. A dock led to a rowboat, the wood a weather-beaten gray, but otherwise perfect.
Raybin stood at Esper’s side, wearing a billowing tunic, close-fitting trousers, and ankle-high leather boots with buckles. She wore a sleeveless white dress with fabric so thin she felt the breeze on her skin and the warmth of Raybin’s hand on her back. The grasses tickled her bare feet.
“Where are we?”
Esper thought a moment. “Well, in a very real sense, we’re both fast asleep on your couch. But if you mean where we are now, this is a summer getaway my family had on Mars. With the real version, you could see a hundred other houses just like it, all around the pond. I just snipped out the part I remembered best and made that.”
Raybin separated from her and wandered, gawking in all directions. “This isn’t real?”
“Not a blade of grass; not a single cloud.” Now that she mentioned it, the clouds were a bit shoddy. Biting her lip, she kneaded them like dough with her mind until they floated along, each looking distinct from the others. There were four clouds in total, drifting in an endless loop. Someday she would make more.
Raybin shied from everything, crowding close to Esper. “OK. How do I get back to my body?”
Taking both his hands in hers, Esper brought Raybin up from his cower. “Look at me. I asked you to trust me, and you said you did. Eyes. Just focus on my eyes—or anything else, I suppose—and take a few deep breaths. This is a playground. Time passes slowly here. In the morning, I have to go, but in this place, that could be weeks. I’m not a leave-in-the-morning sort of girl, but this way… well, maybe we can have our cake and eat it, too.”
“Weeks?” His eyes scanned the skies, where the four clouds continued their parade. “And what happened to the birds?”
Setting her jaw, Esper restarted the birds singing. Sometime during the repair of the cloudy sky, they must have gotten overlooked. “That better?” Seeing at once that it wasn’t, she took one of Raybin’s hands in both of hers and pressed it to her chest. “Feel my heartbeat. We’re both real in here. The rest… it’s whatever I make it, whatever we want it to be. We can have fun with it.”
Raybin nodded and took a shuddering breath. “What about the peak of Olympus Mons?”
Every schoolchild on Mars had been on the tram ride to the top of the planet’s tallest peak. “Close your eyes.” While Raybin wasn’t looking, the landscape transformed. Gone were the idyllic Cozy Cove dockside and the Richelieu family vacation cottage. In their place, the red rock of Olympus Mons appeared, overlooking a cloudy sky from kilometers above the upper atmosphere. “Open them.”
Wonderment spread across Raybin’s face, a grin that momentarily washed away the remnants of fear. But it was short-lived, and with eyes suddenly wide, he clapped a hand over his mouth. They weren’t inside the protective environment of the tram station or observation deck. Esper had placed them out in the open, with nothing to block the spectacular view.
“It’s fine. We can breathe here.”
Raybin kept his hands clamped over his mouth, eyes bulging, pleading.
Losing patience, Esper grabbed him by the wrists and tried to wrestle his hands away from his face. In the heat of the moment, she forgot that she could be as strong as a gorilla or simply will Raybin’s body to obey her commands instead of his own. But without resorting to altering the rules within her own mind, Raybin’s brawn was too much for her, and he shrugged aside her efforts. For a wizard, he had the body of a day laborer, or at least someone who saw the inside of a gym.
At last, Raybin gasped. His mental timer had pinged and told him it was either breathe or pass out. Esper released her fruitless grip and let Raybin’s panic abate in light of his continued non-suffocation. He kept a hand close to his mouth, as if it might hold enough air to breathe should the lack of atmosphere suddenly return as a problem.
“You’re fine. This was supposed to be breathtaking but not in the literal sense.”
“Crazy is more like it.” He glanced at the sky with a suspicious frown. “Do the stars look a little funny?”
Esper sighed. “Probably. I didn’t study star charts, since I didn’t expect to be coming here today. How about we go back to something a bit tamer?” With a wave of her hand for dramatic effect, Esper returned them to the dock at Cozy Cove.
Raybin nodded mutely and stepped close beside her. When she decided to share her mental world, Esper had felt a solid reassurance in his presence. Soft hands, hard muscles, warm smile, and an imposing largeness triggered something primal inside her that made Esper feel safe. But he was losing credibility by the minute.
“Let’s have a look inside, shall we?” Towing Raybin by the hand, Esper led the way into the cottage. The front door stuck slightly, just as she remembered it. The sitting room had two floral-upholstered chairs by an electronic fireplace, but Esper didn’t stop there. Not bothering to shut the door, she headed upstairs, trusting Raybin to follow without holding onto him. The fourth stair gave a creak of protest, and Esper grinned. Knowing that trick had kept her out of a few spates of trouble when sneaking out at night.
The top floor had a small landing that overlooked the dining room. The polished faux oak table was set with plastic china and stainless silverware. Down the abbreviated hallway, Esper took the door on the far right.
This hadn’t been her bedroom, growing up. It had belonged to her parents. Something just seemed wrong about bringing Raybin back to a room where she had pajama parties and wrote in a diary. That room was shut behind the near left door down the hallway, its frilly pink innocence at odds with the side of herself she wanted Raybin to see. This room had satin sheets and a bedspread that smelled of lavender. A pine-tinged breeze puffed lacy curtains that let sunset light peek through.
The door closed behind them with a faint click.
Esper sat down on the bed. “Don’t tell me this hasn’t been on your mind since you laid eyes on me.” She batted her lashes at Raybin and patted a spot beside her.
In her ideal scenario, Raybin would have grinned, tackled her to the bed, and things would have gone from there. Instead, Raybin eyed her like a stray dog as he eased onto the bed beside her. His hands stayed folded in his lap. Hunted eyes scanned the room; otherwise his face was frozen. In an effort to kick-start a more natural reaction, Esper scooted closer and moved one of his hands onto her thigh. Leaning in, she brushed her cheek against his. “Stop trying to wake up. Just enjoy the dream.”
Something stirred in Raybin, and his lips found hers. Using a judo trick Tanny had taught her, Esper toppled Raybin to the sheets but continued into a roll until he was atop her. His hands ran down her body. Hers tugged at the hem of his shirt. With a sudden realization that she hadn’t imagined any buttons or laces into his attire, she simply willed the ga
rment out of existence.
Raybin drew upright with a jerk. “What the hell?” He knelt on the bed, towering over Esper, bare chest flecked with sweat. While Esper was pleased with what she saw, Raybin pawed at where his tunic had been and searched the bed and surrounding floor.
“I was just in a hurry. If you like, you can take your time.” Esper licked her lips and stretched her arms overhead, inviting him back.
“No.” He climbed off the bed, backing toward the door. “This isn’t right. None of this is real.”
“Our minds are here. This is a shared dream. It’s as real as our imaginations make it.”
He shook his head. “Your dream. I’m in your head. How do I even know I’m thinking all this? I never decide what I do in my dreams. You’re making me say and do things… No. Let me out.”
“Just relax. It’s—”
“Let me out of here!”
# # #
Esper woke, sitting arm in arm with Raybin on his couch, bare feet tucked beneath her. Raybin snored softly, sleeping safely in his own dreams. She kissed him as she pushed him off of her and into a more typical seated position. His head lolled over the couch back.
Mort was seated in an armchair not a meter from her. “Get what you came for?”
Startled, Esper wiped her mouth and straightened into a demure position on her own separate cushion from the slumbering young wizard. She lowered her voice to a whisper. “What are you doing here?”
“After returning to find Rustler’s Gulch with a high score showing, I tracked you to Port ‘o Call and settled the bill you left half-paid. From there it was child’s play obtaining the address of the disreputable young man whose company you borrowed. Not two whole hours as a full-fledged wizard, and I catch you overwhelming menfolk with your ill-won charms.”
Esper’s face lit in a grin. “I passed?”
“Did you hear a word I said? I’m accusing you of forcing yourself on this unfortunate young man. That book had more of a corrupting effect than I’d feared.”
Sparing a glance at the insensible wizard beside her, Esper dared to raise her voice. “I didn’t do anything. And whose fault would it be if I did? You could have stopped me. You let me read that dreadful book. You bear your own share of responsibility there.”
Mort loosed a long-suffering sigh. “I’m a wanted man. You know that. But did you ever stop to think that as my apprentice, you’ve painted a target on your head for those who might come after me? Lloyd was indiscriminate, but what if the next would-be vigilante takes you hostage specifically? I needed to ensure you could defend yourself without my intervention. You can’t coerce the universe into unleashing thunder and fire at your command, so I needed to put something dangerous in your path and get you to pick it up.”
Esper swallowed. “But some of the things in there… I want to scrape the insides of my mind clean to get rid of them.”
He jabbed a finger at Raybin. “Consider that when you start dragging poor daft buggers like this fellow into your head.”
“But you took me…”
Taking Esper by both hands, he stood and pulled her to her feet. “You are exceptional. Maybe—just maybe—I knew a thing or two about what I was doing before I decided to show you Mortania. You dragged this poor sap into…” He frowned, struggling for a name.
“Esperville?”
Mort rolled his eyes. “Without thinking what it might do to his brain.”
“Everyone came out of Lloyd’s head just fine, and he wasn’t trying to make it nice. I was.”
“Did they?” Mort raised an eyebrow. “Carl’s fine, and Kubu hardly knows any better, but the rest of them were a mess. Sure, nobody talks about it, but all of them have seen me privately about nightmares, sneaking feelings that reality isn’t real, and flashbacks popping up on them, even weeks later.”
Esper glanced away. She hadn’t noticed anything wrong with the rest of the crew. Had she even looked for signs that they were suffering aftereffects?
“Now, you have a choice. You can come back, catch the late tram, and sleep on the shuttle.”
Esper crossed her arms. It sounded like a letdown after a promising start to the evening. “Or?”
“Or you can stay until Dimples here wakes up, sort things out with him for better or worse, and find your own way back to the Mobius. Shuttle’s leaving first thing in the morning, and the last tram’s in about ten minutes.”
Esper looked from the gruff, grumpy old wizard to the young, snoring one with his mouth agape. One promised to sweep the evening under the rug and let her slip back to business as usual. The other way held the promise of an awkward conversation, arranging transport at her own expense, and guilt galore.
“I owe him an apology. Get back and let Carl know I won’t be more than a day behind you. Tell him not to worry.”
Mort gave her a stony look. “Carl doesn’t worry easily.”
That’s what this was about. “You don’t have to worry, either. I won’t let a book change who I am, no matter what it says inside.” It felt good to say it aloud. If only she could have been more certain in her resolve. After all, if her mind was warped, how would she know?
“Good. That was the real test. I’ve got a duty to the crew, after all. Can’t have you running amok. It wasn’t an A+ performance, but it’s a passing mark. Just keep you brain out of other people’s business from now on. Poor sod… he should have asked for more money.” As Mort left, he deposited a stack of hardcoin terras on a side table—in 100s denominations.
Thanks for reading!
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Books by J.S. Morin
Black Ocean
Black Ocean is a fast-paced fantasy space opera series about the small crew of the Mobius trying to squeeze out a living. If you love fantasy and sci-fi, and still lament over the cancellation of Firefly, Black Ocean is the series for you!
Read about the Black Ocean series and discover where to buy at: blackoceanmissions.com
Twinborn Trilogy
Experience the journey of mundane scribe Kyrus Hinterdale who discovers what it means to be Twinborn—and the dangers of getting caught using magic in a world that thinks it exists only in children’s stories.
Read about the Twinborn Trilogy and discover where to buy at: twinborntrilogy.com
Mad Tinker Chronicles
Then continue on into the world of Korr, where the Mad Tinker and his daughter try to save the humans from the oppressive race of Kuduks. When their war spills over into both Tellurak and Veydrus, what alliances will they need to forge to make sure the right side wins?
Read about the Mad Tinker Chronicles and discover where to buy at: madtinkerchronicles.com
About the Author
I am a creator of worlds and a destroyer of words. As a fantasy writer, my works range from traditional epics to futuristic fantasy with starships. I have worked as an unpaid Little League pitcher, a cashier, a student library aide, a factory grunt, a cubicle drone, and an engineer—there is some overlap in the last two.
Through it all, though, I was always a storyteller. Eventually I started writing books based on the stray stories in my head, and people kept telling me to write more of them. Now, that’s all I do for a living.
I enjoy strategy, worldbuilding, and the fantasy author’s privilege to make up words. I am a gamer, a joker, and a thinker of sideways thoughts. But I don’t dance, can’t s
ing, and my best artistic efforts fall short of your average notebook doodle. When you read my books, you are seeing me at my best.
My ultimate goal is to be both clever and right at the same time. I have it on good authority that I have yet to achieve it.
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