Black (37 page)

“Tell me, what kind of weapon do you think would work against the Shataiki?”

“Tanis, have you ever confronted the Shataiki? Have you ever even stood on the banks of the river and watched them?”

“I've watched them from a distance, yes. Black bats with talons that look like they could pop a head off in short order.”

“But why haven't you gone closer, if you know they can't cross the river to harm you?”

“Where's the wisdom in that? They are tricky beasts; surely You've seen that. I would think that even to talk to them could prove fatal. They would employ all sorts of connivances to trick you into their water. Honestly, I am astounded you survived yourself.”

“If you know all of this, why are you so adamant about an expedition? It would be suicide!”

“Well, I wouldn't talk to them! And you survived! Also, you know many things that might shift the balance of power. Before you came to us, I might never have seriously considered an attack, even though I wrote many stories about it. With your knowledge, we can defeat the vermin, Thomas! I know it!”

“No! We can't !They fight against the heart, not measly swords!”

“You think I don't know this? But tell me, wasn't it true that in the histories there was a device that could level the entire black forest in one moment?”

A nuclear bomb. Of course, any use of a nuclear weapon would be a landmark recorded in the histories.

“Yes. It was called a nuclear bomb. Do you know when such a device was used in the histories?”

“Not specifically,” Tanis said. “Several times, if I remember. But mostly after the Great Deception. In the time of the tribulations. Are you saying that even with such a device we couldn't destroy the Shataiki?”

Tom considered this. He looked
to the east where the black forest waited in darkness. What was it Michal had said? The primary difference between this reality and the histories was that here everything found an immediate expression in physical reality. You could virtually touch Elyon by entering his water. You could see evil in the Shataiki. So maybe Tanis was on to something. Maybe evil could be wiped out with the right weapons.

Tom shook his head. It sounded wrong. All wrong.

“I'm not suggesting this nuclear bomb,” Tanis said. “But I'm making a point. What about a gun, as you call it? With enough guns, couldn't we hold them off at the river?”

A gun. Thomas shrugged. “A gun is only a small device. They come in bigger sizes but . . . this is ridiculous. Even if I could figure out how to make a gun, I wouldn't .”

“But you could, couldn't you?”

Possible. He couldn't bring a gun here, of course. Nothing physical had ever followed him in his dreams. But knowledge . . .

“Maybe.”

“Then think about it. It might be a useless idea, I must agree. But sending the lot of those beasts scrambling is a thought worth savoring. I have something else that you must see, Thomas. Come.”

He steered Tom to the forest, not the least bit put off or discouraged by Tom's dismissal of his ideas.

“Now? Where?”

“Just here by the river that leads from the lake. I have an invention you must help us try.”

He headed into the forest, and Tom hurried to catch him. “Who is ‘us'?” Tom asked.

“Johan. He is my first recruit. We have made something that an adventuresome soul like you will appreciate. Hurry. He is to meet us there.” Tanis began to run.

They broke out onto the banks of a river slightly smaller than the one at the black forest. Johan sat on a large yellow log they'd felled. He jumped to his feet and ran for Thomas.

“Thomas! First we fly, and now we float.” He hugged Tom's waist. “Did you see the stick Tanis made? Where is the stick, Tanis?”

“I threw it into the forest,” the elder said. “Thomas said it was a terrible idea, and I agreed. It would never work.”

“Then how will we—”

“Exactly!” Tanis boomed. He stuck a finger in the air. “We won't !”

“We
won't
float our log down the river to attack the Shataiki?”

“That's what you were planning?” Tom asked. He looked at the tree and saw that they'd hollowed out half of it. He'd dreamed about one of these. It was a canoe.

“It was an idea,” Tanis said. “We talked it up yesterday and we shaped this log so that it might float, but the sword was a bad idea, you said so yourself. Don't tell me you want me to fashion another, because I really am having my doubts about it now. Unless we could send a bomb down the river in this log.”

They both stared at Tom with round green eyes. Innocent to the bone. But still filled with desire. The desire to create, the desire to romance, to eat, to drink, to swim in Elyon's lake.

The tension between satisfaction and desire was odd, to be sure. Dissatisfaction led to mischief as well as good.

He faced Johan. “Do you want to take this canoe onto the water?”

His eyes lit up. “Yes.”

“And would you be unhappy if we didn't try?”

Johan cast a blank stare. “Unhappy?”

“What on earth are you talking about, man?” Tanis boomed. “You're speaking in riddles here. Is this a game of wits?” He seemed quite taken with the idea.

“No, not a game. Just my memory. A way to help my recollection of the way things are. There is happy, so there must be unhappy. There is good, so there must be evil. I was simply asking if Johan here would be unhappy if we didn't push the boat onto the water.”

“Yes, there is evil, and we dispatch it regularly. And since there is happy, there must be
un
happy too. I can see what you're saying. I feel anger at the bats, of course, but unhappy? You have me tied in a knot, Thomas Hunter. Help me out.”

They felt desire without dissatisfaction, Tom thought. The best of both worlds.

He, on the other hand, did feel dissatisfaction. Or at least
un
satisfaction. Perhaps because he'd been in the black forest. He hadn't taken a drink of the water, but he'd been in there, and his mind had been affected somehow.

Either that, or he wasn't from this place at all. He'd come in a spaceship.

“Just a story, Tanis,” Thomas said. “Just an idea.”

Tanis exchanged a glance with the boy. Then back. An idea.

“Well then, should we give it a try?”

Johan started jumping in anticipation. The invention was quite an event. Thomas ran his hand along the canoe.

“How will you steer it?”

“With the sword,” Tanis said. “But I think any good stick would do.”

“And how did you bring the tree down?”

“As we always do. With our hands.”

“Okay, let's give it a try.”

They tied a vine around its bow and then to a tree on the bank. Tom braced himself. “Are you ready?”

“Ready!” they both cried.

Together they heaved and watched the glowing yellow canoe slip out into the running water. “It works!” Tanis beamed. But almost as soon as he said it, the boat began to sink. Within a few seconds, it had disappeared under the gurgling green waters.

“It's too heavy,” Tom said with a frown.

Tanis and Johan stared at the bubbles that still broke the surface. “Another story sinks,” Tanis said.

Johan found this so funny that he dropped first to his knees and then to his back in uncontrolled fits of laughter. Tanis was soon joining in, and they quickly turned the laughing fits into a game of sorts: who could laugh the longest without taking a breath.

Tom tried, at their urging, and lost handsomely.

“Well, now,” Tanis finally said, “what do you say we try another tomorrow?”

“I would find something else,” Tom said. “I really don't think floating down to the black forest is such a great idea anyway.”

“Perhaps you are right.”

“Tanis?”

“Yes, what is it?”

“Rachelle told me of a fruit that makes you sleep so deeply that you don't remember your dreams.”

“So deep that you don't even dream,” he said. “Would you like me to find you some?”

“No. No, I need to dream. But is there also fruit that just makes you sleep?”

“And still dream?”

“Yes.”

“Of course!”

“The nanka!” Johan cried. “Do you want some?”

An amazing thought. To be able to enter his dreams at will. Or to turn them off by not dreaming.

“Yes.
Yes, I would like that. Maybe one of each.”

26

W
hat?” Tom sat up on the couch.

“Sorry, you said five hours, but I fell asleep,” Kara said. “It's been eight.”

“What time is it?”

“Close to noon. What is it? You look like You've seen a ghost.”

His head swam. “Am
I
a ghost?”

Kara ignored the question. “You found something out, didn't you? What is it?”

Tom rolled off the couch and stood. “I think I can turn off my dreams,” he said.

“Completely?”

“Yes, completely. Not here. There. I can stop dreaming of this.”

“And what good would that do you? This is pretty important.”

“This is also a major distraction to me. I'm trying to remember my life, and instead I keep running up against this.”

“So you would just fall asleep and wake up and never dream of any of this again? It would just . . . disappear?”

“Yes, I think it would.”

“Well, don't you dare turn off your dreams, Thomas. You don't know what would happen. What else did you learn?”

The rest of his dream came to him in a barrage of images that ended with Rachelle telling him where she would like to be rescued.

He turned to her, wide-eyed. “That's it!”

“What's it?”

“It's a map. Is Raison awake?” He ran toward the doors. “A map, Kara!” he said, turning. “We have to find a map.”

“What's going on?” she demanded.

“I think she told me where to find Monique. Is Jacques awake?”

“Yes.” Kara ran after him through the door. She followed him straight to the office. “Who told you?”

“Rachelle!”

“How would Rachelle know?”

“I don't know. She just made it up. Maybe she doesn't know.” Tom ran past a stunned guard and threw the door open. The old man sat at his desk, dark circles prominent under his eyes. He spoke urgently into his phone.

“I think I may have it!” Tom shouted.

Raison dropped the phone into its cradle. “You know where Monique is?”

“Maybe. Yes, I think maybe I do. I need a map and someone who knows this area.”

“How could you know?”

“Rachelle told me. In my dreams.”

The man's face sagged noticeably. “That's very encouraging.”

Tom felt his patience slip. “Well, it should be. For all I know,
you're
the dream!” He jabbed his finger at Jacques. “You ever consider that? Don't be so . . . so stuck up.” He'd been better with the diplomacy last night.

“Now I'm a dream,” Raison said. “Very, very encouraging. Mr. Hunter, if you think I will—”

“I don't think you will do anything. Except help me find your daughter. What if I'm right?”

“The what-ifs again.”

“I know where Monique is!” he shouted.

Kara stepped forward. “I would listen to him, Mr. Raison. I don't think he's been wrong yet.”

“Of course, the big sister speaks. My daughter's kidnappers-turned-saviors have spoken. The little people in their dreams have told them where my daughter is. Then let's warm up the helicopter and scoop her up, shall we?”

Tom stared, dumbfounded at Raison's arrogance. Jacques was stressed out. He needed a shock to his system.

He spun around and strode for the door. “Fine. We'll let her rot in the cell she's in.”

Kara delivered one last salvo. “How dare you mock me, you walking ox! You have no idea what a terrible mistake you're making.”

They got to the door before he spoke.

“I'm sorry. Wait.”

“Wait?” Tom said, turning. “Now you want to sit around and wait?”

“You made your point. Tell me where you think she is.”

Tom hesitated. He had the upper hand; he intended to keep it. Telling the man that Monique was in a—what was it, a great white cave full of bottles where a river and the forest meet, a day's walk to the east? Wouldn't do.

“Get me a map and someone who knows southern Thailand. And then I want Deputy Secretary Merton Gains on the line. Then I'll tell you where Monique is.”

“You're making demands again? Just tell—”

“The map, Jacques! Now.”