The Dream Sanctum: Beyond The End (18 page)

“You all right?”

“Oh, yeah,” Kai said quickly, shaking his head. “I’m just exhausted. Even
with this storm I feel like I’ll fall asleep if I close my eyes for even a
second.”

“I hear you,” Alastor chuckled. “But in just a few minutes we’ll be in
our proper dreamland.”

“Hey… you don’t think we can fall asleep in this world, do you?”

“You mean falling asleep while we’re already asleep? I doubt it. At least
not here. This is how the others died, I’m guessing. They were tired beyond
belief but couldn’t sleep, so they slowly went delirious and then died. Cheery
thought, eh? No worries, though! I’ll be back in a minute!”

And he was gone. Kai didn’t want to think about it. Being kept up for
twenty-four hours was bad enough, but to be deprived of sleep until death? That
was something he wouldn’t wish on anyone.

He heard quiet footsteps on the deck behind him, and as he turned around,
he saw Elvia jog over to him.

“Hey, Alastor just went to–”

“There’s a problem,” Elvia said hurriedly, and Kai was taken aback by her
tone. She sounded worried, almost scared. “Lindsay and Kwin came here to look
for you. I started to guide them to the ship, but a search party found us. We
all got away, but Kwin was separated from us. I don’t know where she is.”

“Damnit,” Kai swore. “We were about to go back and get them in the real
world. We can’t wake up anymore, so if Lindsay or Kwin get caught, it’s over.”

“Well, Lindsay isn’t caught, that’s for sure,” Elvia said, and Kai looked
behind her to see Lindsay jump onto the boat, looking out of breath and quite
frightened. Without waiting for a word, Lindsay hugged him closely, saying
nothing. She didn’t have to.

“Okay, let’s take a minute to think. Kwin is smart, so she’ll have
thought of something. But now we have to get her. We don’t have time to go past
the barrier anymore. We just need to think of where she’ll be since we can’t
communicate with her.”

“She’ll probably head toward the shore,” Lindsay suggested quietly, her
voice shaky. “She knows you all went to look for the ship, so she might go
somewhere we can pick her up.”

“Devnon’s people might be thinking the same thing,” Kai mused, but before
he could say anything else, Alastor came from below.

“It looks like we’re just fine, so we can… well, what have we here?”

“Elvia said that Lindsay and Kwin came in to look for us and that they
almost got caught. Kwin is still free, but we don’t know where she is.”

“That can’t be right,” Alastor said thoughtfully.

“It is!” Lindsay protested. “I saw it happen!”

“He means to say that girl is not Elvia,” a voice said from behind them.
Everyone turned around to see a girl identical to the one standing before them;
the only difference was that she wore a sword on her belt and a stern
expression on her face. It took a few moments, but Kai understood.

“There you are!” Alastor said with a tone of mock exasperation. “Though
now that you’ve come all the way over here, we need to go back. Short stuff is
in danger.” Then he turned to the red-haired girl that was apparently not
Elvia. “You’re Emma, right? That’s what the kids decided. Anyway, you come with
me. I need you to show me around so we can find Kwin faster. Elvia, you stay
with those two. We need a sword in each group.”

“Why can’t we come with you?” Kai asked.

“We need you to watch the ship. Besides, the fewer people there are in my
party, the faster we’ll go,” Alastor answered. “If the ship is taken or
destroyed, that’s it for all of us. If something happens and you’re in danger,
take the ship away from the coast and somewhere safe.”

“But what about–?” Lindsay started, but Alastor interrupted her.

“Don’t. There are lives on the line here, literally. If you don’t keep
the ship safe we all die a slow and quite unpleasant death. Elvia will keep you
informed of what’s going on with me. Besides, have some faith in me, will you?”

Despite his stern tone, he winked, and he and Emma walked across the
beach and quickly out of sight.

K
ai paced agitatedly on the
deck as Lindsay and Elvia sat together. The storm was easing now, and the ship
had stopped rocking back and forth in the waves. Lindsay looked as though she
were about to doze off, and when she rested her head on Elvia’s shoulder, Elvia
didn’t move.

“You will not be able to sleep, but get any physical rest you can,” she
said quietly. “It will help while we still have time to spare.”

“Even if that might not be much,” Kai sighed. He felt restless, and
having to stay in one place while his friends were in trouble was extremely
difficult. He doubted their job was important at all; even if Devnon’s men did
go searching for the ship it wouldn’t be in the cave, and they wouldn’t have
enough manpower to search the entire coast. All the same, he trusted Alastor,
and he had to admit that Alastor generally knew what he was talking about.

As they waited, in between bouts of half consciousness, Lindsay
continuously pressed Elvia for updates. Kai knew that Elvia probably would have
completely ignored any other person, but she patiently told Lindsay what was
happening every time. Unfortunately, the answer was usually the same: “Nothing
has changed yet. They are still searching.” The reply was equally frustrating
and comforting. Nothing was changing, but while that meant nothing good, it
also meant they hadn’t run into trouble, either.

However, as Kai thought more about it, he began to feel skeptical. Once
again his mind drifted to thinking about how no one could use their powers in
the mirror world. Elvia should not exist. The only other possibility, the one
that Kwin had suggested, was that she was a real person after all.
If that’s the case, then she has no contact
with Alastor after all… and she’s lying to us
.

“Who are you?” he said suddenly, turning around to face Elvia.

“I’m sorry?” Elvia responded, perplexed.

“I want to know who you really are.”

“You rephrase your question, but the answer is the same.”

Lindsay sat up, and she looked as though she understood where Kai was
going. However, she said nothing, and Kai guessed that she was either too
nervous to speak or that she was equally curious. Now that they finally had an
opportunity to get an answer, he suspected it was the latter.

“You know what I mean. You’ve been acting like you’re Alastor’s creation,
but the problem here is that none of us can use our powers. If you were really
just his creation, you would have vanished the instant we crossed the barrier.
But you didn’t. You’re still here.”

For the first time Kai could ever remember, Elvia looked troubled. She
stood up, looking as though she would rather be anywhere else.

“I saw the photo in Alastor’s house,” Kai pressed, sensing that he had
the advantage. “The family photo. You were in it with Alastor. Who are you?”

Elvia said nothing for a long while, staring out across the ocean, then
sighed.

“There were reasons he kept that hidden. There are reasons for his
secrets. I do not know why a friend would choose to pry into things that are
not their business. Do you not trust him?”

The accusation stung, but Kai shook it off.

“That doesn’t answer the question. You’re a real person, we know that
now, so there’s no need to keep playing this game. Who are you?”

“Stop it, Kai!” Lindsay cried, taking him by surprise. She walked over to
Elvia and looked at her. “It’s not that we don’t trust Alastor, it’s just…
that’s a huge secret to keep from anyone? And you have to understand why this
situation is making us have doubts.”

Elvia looked even more troubled at the expression on Lindsay’s face, and
Kai knew that Lindsay was the one person she could not say no to.

“That is for Alastor to tell, not me,” Elvia admitted. “The girl in the
photograph is related to him, it is true. I suppose that means I am that girl.
I… perhaps I am more real than I have elected to let on. But I must tell you
that there are things going on here that cannot be explained just yet. In time
we can explain everything, but not now. I beg you to understand.”

There was silence. Kai wasn’t sure he was satisfied, but it would have to
do for now. She was real, that much they knew, but that meant that they had a
new problem: mainly, the fact that they now had no reliable source
communication with Alastor. For all he knew they could have already been
captured, and all hope was lost.

“I think we should go,” Kai said firmly. “We need to help out somehow.
Now that we have no idea what’s going on, we have to do something. We can’t
just sit here.”

“But what about the ship? What if they find it?” Lindsay asked, looking
mortified at the idea of going back.

“I don’t think they will. Even if they know it’s been taken back, they
won’t be able to find it any time soon,” Kai replied confidently.

“Oh I wouldn’t be too sure about that.”

All three of them turned around to see a large group of armed men
standing next to the ship with none other than Kwin Two standing in front of
them. She had a look of sadistic delight on her face as she surveyed everyone
in front of her.

“You almost gave us a scare, you know. Here I thought we had lost all of
you and everything was ruined. But then, what do you know? I find all three of
you
and
the ship! How lucky a girl am
I?”

Then men behind her started making their way on board, and already Kai
knew they were out of luck. Elvia drew her sword, but she seemed to know they
stood little chance against so many.

“Let’s play nice this time,” Kwin Two said lazily. “You can’t wake up,
and if you get into a fight here, you’ll just die. You don’t want to die, and I
don’t want blood on my new ship. Let’s ensure everybody wins.”

“What about the others?” Elvia asked. “You have found the other two?”

“No, but I figure three out of five isn’t bad. Plus, with their sense of
heroics, they’ll come to find you. There’s something about you people from the
other side of the world that prevents you from seeing when you’ve lost. Oh
well. Let’s take you back home.”

The men converged on them, and Kai frantically thought of any chance they
might have at an escape, but at that moment a deafening horn sounded from
behind them. Everyone turned around to see what could have possibly made such a
sound.

Kai’s jaw dropped.

A fleet of ships made its way smoothly across the waves toward them. The
horn sounded again, and this time it was accompanied by a whooping roar that
sounded awfully familiar.

“Who… what…?” Kwin Two stuttered, looking completely lost.

Kai looked to the head of the fleet where a man stood at the bow of the
largest ship, a sword raised in his hand and a triumphant expression on his
face. Kai wasn’t sure he wanted to believe it, but when Elvia put her face in
her palm, he knew he hadn’t started hallucinating just yet.

“Greetings, travelers! I see you’re in a spot of trouble!” he called.

“Hercules!” Lindsay cried, and Kai wasn’t sure whether it was relief or
dread he heard in her voice.

“That’s Fleet Admiral Hercules to you!” he responded with a chuckle. “We
have come to explore this land and liberate its people from tyranny! And we can
start with these troublemakers.”

He leapt aboard the ship where Kai stood and the Shuski ships soon
surrounded them, drifting close enough to let those on board set boarding
planks across the guard rails. Hercules swiftly stood between Kwin Two and her
men, brandishing his sword at them.

“Never fear, Kwin! I have long said that I am the protector of all that
is good and righteous, and today I am able to shield you from evil. Get back!
Have you no shame, attacking a young, defenseless girl?”

Everyone on board seemed to have lost their ability to speak. Even Kwin
Two momentarily had a look of shock on her face, and her left eyelid twitched
in an all-too-familiar way.

A moment later, however, she found her voice.

“I don’t know who you are, but you’ve already annoyed me enough to make
me want to kill you. Men, get rid of him and his… weird, blue friends.”

Instantly, there was chaos. Kwin Two’s men drew their weapons and
charged, but at the same time, the Shuski from the surrounding ships leapt on
board with their own weapons in hand. There was now a full-scale battle
happening across the entire deck, and Kai didn’t want anything to do with it.

“Come on!” he called, and he took Lindsay’s wrist, pulling her through a
small opening in the fighting bodies. Elvia followed them, ducking underneath a
stray blade, keeping her own drawn just in case.

The fighting was fierce, and for a moment, Kai wasn’t sure he believed
that this was actually going on. Just a minute ago they had been completely
alone, and now there was a war going on. It was almost too ridiculous to
believe, even if combining Hercules with the Sanctum was usually a recipe for
disaster.

But it was indeed happening, and after a few moments, some of Kwin Two’s
men realized that Kai, Lindsay and Elvia were escaping. Elvia blocked a few of
their weapons, and they were able to dodge a few men who tried to grab them,
but then a body collided with Kai and knocked him to the deck. Looking up
quickly, he realized that it was an injured man who had fallen onto him, trying
to hold him down. Kai struck the man with his fist, and he rolled off with a
roar of pain.

Another man tried to take his place, and Kai dodged him as best he could,
then kicked him as hard as he could in the chest. The man tripped over his
friend’s body, and before he could get back up, Kai had turned to run. But when
he glanced around, he realized that Lindsay and Elvia were gone.

Before he could call out, he felt a sharp pain in the back of his head,
and the last thing he saw was the deck rising up to meet him.