The Dreaming Hunt (69 page)

“And now?”

“Now you wear my ring, and the connection is made once more. In fact, because I wear a duplicate of that ring, the connection may be stronger than before.”

“How is it you have a copy of this?” She turned the ring on her finger.

He shrugged. “The being who created this dreaming echo of me thought to create an echo of the ring, as well.”

“Who created you?” she asked curiously.

“I cannot speak of it. I am sorry.”

Fair enough. It probably had to do with great mystical powers and mythical beings far beyond her knowing, anyway.

He took off strolling around the margins of the grove, and she joined him, enjoying the serenity of the place. “You still have not told me how you've been,” he said.

“Honestly, I've been better.” She hesitated to tell him the full truth, but there was no one else who would understand. Rynn had been sweet about the voices and taught her how to empty her mind and focus on her breath, but even that was only a temporary fix at best. She blurted, “I think I may be losing my mind.”

Gawaine stopped in quick concern and turned to face her.

“I've been hearing voices in my head. Although not voices exactly. Rynn thinks they're tied to the source of my magic. He showed me how to meditate, and it helps a little. But they are becoming too loud for me to hold back anymore.”

“How long have you been hearing these voices?”

“For months.”

“And they're getting worse over time?”

She nodded and looked up at him candidly, whispering, “I am afraid.”

Gawaine took her hands in his. “Do you trust me?”

“Of course.”

“Then believe me. You are not going to lose your mind. I have experience with hearing echoes. And you can learn to live with them. Not hear them unless you want to.”

“How?”

“Let us listen to your voices together, and I will show you.”

He laid his fingertips on her left temple. And of a sudden, he was there.
Inside
her head. It was different from Rynn's mind touch. This was much more personal, a much deeper connection, for she was suddenly aware of being inside his head, as well.

“Touch my temple,” he murmured. Fascinated, she did as he instructed. His skin was smooth, his hair silky, the blood coursing through his veins vibrant. It was like touching … life.

“Let's hear these echoes of yours.”

The tide of muttering voices surged forward, released at his command. Except it was ten times worse than it had ever been before. Stars! If this was how bad it was going to get, she was surely going to lose her mind. Fear surged through her.

But then Gawaine was there. “Watch me.”

He opened his mind fully to the voices and then slowly but surely contained and suppressed them until they were barely audible. She couldn't say exactly how he did it, but she understood. He'd willed them into silence, and they'd obeyed him.

“You try it, Raina.”

Of a sudden the voices were back, and she cringed away from them. Hesitantly, she opened her mind, and a deafening cacophony of sound pounded against her skull. She imitated what Gawaine had done, less quickly and less completely, but the voices receded. They
did
recede.

“Again,” he said.

This time, she had more success and sooner.

“Now, without me.”

Panic shot through her as he took a step back from her and the physical and mental contact between them was broken. She felt bereft. Did he feel the same way? She looked up with intent to ask. His dark gaze was intense. She would have been rocked by the unspoken message in it, but then the voices were back, screaming at her unbearably.

Closing her eyes, she opened the floodgates and then determinedly closed them, exhaling in relief as the noise diminished to a manageable volume.

“You will need to practice. But in time, you can gain complete mastery over the echoes.”

“Thank you.”

He resumed walking. “My pleasure.” The words were simple, but he packed them with meaning beyond the obvious. She barely kept her jaw from dropping open. So. He had felt the loss when they'd broken their mental connection.

“Events are accelerating,” Gawaine commented mildly enough.

Thank the Lady. Safe conversational ground
. “How so?” she responded.

“Major actors are stepping onto the stage. The Emperor himself mobilizes his forces. Although I do not believe he yet sees the exact threat. Nonetheless, he listens to the soothsayers and prepares.” Gawaine bent to pick a flower, a sweet-smelling hedge rose, and handed it to her. “Here in the dream realm, powerful phantasms gather armies of followers. Elemental forces use their devotees to bring them items of power. The Dreamer himself is on the move.”

“How does an army on this plane represent a threat to mine?”

“There are gates and portals between the two realms that an army could pass through easily enough.”

She gulped. As if it wasn't bad enough to fear invasion by Maximillian's legions, now they had to fear an army from this plane? In a small voice, she said, “Rynn thinks it was our visit to the dream plane that caused the chaos here.”

Gawaine shrugged. “These events have been building for a long time. Threatening to wake me has merely brought many of them to a head. Any number of beings believe your finding me is a sign that the time is coming to act.”

“Why is that?”

“My waking would represent change. Under Kothite rule, the Urth has been, and will remain, static. It is how Maximillian maintains his grip on power.”

“Change is a good thing, is it not?”

“It depends on your perspective, I suppose. Creative destruction may benefit the many, but not so to the few destroyed by it.”

“Kerryl Moonrunner speaks of an evil greater than Koth coming if the Empire falls. That is not you, is it?”

“I should hope not. I have always done my best to work for the good of the land and its people.”

Relieved, she asked, “What evil does he speak of, then?”

“That is not for me to tell. Just as it is not for me to decide if waking me is for the best. That is up to you and your companions.”

“How can it not be for the best?” she exclaimed. “We have a chance to replace an evil, repressive Emperor with a noble and decent king.”

“You are biased. You want me to wake because you have a connection to me, and I to you.”

“Your Majesty, you cannot possibly be as bad a ruler as Maximillian.”

“Call me Gawaine. You're inside my head and heart, for stars' sake. Of all people, you should use my name.”

“Gawaine.” The word felt awkward on her tongue. But mayhap she would grow used to it with time. “My statement stands. You cannot help but be an improvement over Maximillian.”

He smiled a little. “If you promise only to use my name henceforth and never to use a title with me, I will concede the point.”

She huffed. “Fine. I promise.”

“Then I concede.”

“Has anyone ever told you that you can be stubborn and exasperating?”

He chuckled. “My mother said so all the time.”

They fell silent while she absorbed this new level of intimacy between them.

“A warning to you and your friends, Raina. The truly deadly players have yet to enter the game. Your journey will become much more dangerous and the fight much worse before it gets better. Prepare yourselves, and be careful.” He sounded genuinely worried.

“I will pass your warning along to the others.”

“The time is coming for me to awaken. But it is not yet. You have a little time still to find the rest of my regalia and find my body.”

“I do not know how to proceed with that,” she confessed. “We have no idea where to look for your gear.”

He gestured at her ring. “Let that guide you.”

She frowned down at it. “How?”

“Through it, you are connected to me. In the same way that you recognized it as mine, you will recognize where you must go to find the other items connected to my spirit.”

As answers went, it wasn't much of one. She supposed she would have to take his words on faith and trust that when the time came, she would know where she had to go.

“You will wake soon from this dream,” he said. Was that regret she heard in his voice? Or was it merely her own regret at leaving this peaceful glade and his fascinating presence that she sensed?

“Before I go, mayhap you have knowledge of something that would help us,” she said hastily. “We have recovered a friend of Eben's whom Kerryl Moonrunner recently made into a were-alligator. Kendrick said that Sha'Li could fix her because of her white tribe mark, but Sha'Li doesn't know how to do it. Do you know how?”

“If I were there, I could do it myself. It is related to nature.” He frowned. “If you find what Kerryl is leading you toward, Sha'Li will find the help she needs there to purge your friend's lycanthropy. It is, indeed, a skill certain Tribe of the Moon members can master.”

“Why won't you tell me outright what lies before us?”

His frown deepened. “There are things that I cannot speak about even if I desperately wish to. Certain forces constrain me from saying the words aloud. The next time you visit me, perhaps we can speak more of the Accord.”

The moment the last word came out of his mouth, the grove evaporated. The mist rushed in, and seconds later, she blinked awake. Whoa. That had been one forceful ejection from the dream. She sat up and looked around, disoriented.

“You all right?” Rosana asked.

The others were all awake, getting dressed and moving around the clearing and packing up camp.

“I told the others you needed extra sleep,” the gypsy explained. “They agreed that you're useful to have around in a fight. Even if you won't let them kill stuff.”

“Gee. Thanks.” She looked down at the ring on her finger and for a moment thought it glowed a little. Sudden certainty washed over her, and she announced, “I know where we must go.”

*   *   *

Will stood at the edge of an expanse of bog and wrinkled his nose. For the past two days, Kerryl's trail had stayed exclusively upon solid ground as they wound deep into the dark bowels of the swamp. But all of a sudden, he'd plunged into this great lake of muck before them. Even now, his trail was visible where he'd broken the film of scum covering the murky water.

“Do we really have to go that way?” he complained.

Tarryn sighed. “If only I could control my rage when I'm in alligator form, I'd be able to give you rides across it on my back.”

“Thank you, no,” he replied.

Sha'Li said cheerfully, “Walk it we must. In you go, land walkers.” She'd been exceedingly chipper ever since her conversation with him a few nights back. “Splash not, or dwellers of the bog will you draw to us.”

He did not relish the idea of fighting while mired to his thighs in mud. He didn't
relish
any of this. But Raina had been adamant that something of Gawaine's lay in this direction. And given that Kerryl's trail was leading right to it, he had to credit her assertion.

No help for it. They had to walk the bog. He hefted his pack higher on his back and stepped in. Water filled his boots, cold and wet. It was just water. Except as he began wading through it, the consistency was more akin to syrup than water. Surprisingly, it never went deeper than about mid-thigh on him. The girls were in it nearly to the hips, but at least none of them had to swim weighed down by their wet clothing and gear.

The bog went on and on. At times the footing was firm, and at others, it felt like pudding. But always the water swirled around them, foul and filled with decay. After a time, his nose became immune to the rotting stench, which was a blessing.

“What is that?” Tarryn asked from ahead of him.

He looked past her and frowned. It looked like a wall of some kind, green and growing, stretching to the left and right in a curving arc with no end in sight. Not like a hedge, but more like a tremendous tangle of vines, brambles, tree branches, and other thorny vegetation.

Rosana made a pained sound from just behind him, and with a splash of water, he whirled to check on her. The gypsy pulled back the collar of her shirt frantically, thrashing around in the water. “It burns!”

Will's eyes snapped wide open, and he slogged over to her and stared at her collarbone. “Your green rose mark. It's glowing.”

“There's magic in that wall of plants,” Raina suggested. “Perhaps it's affecting your mark.”

They approached the wall, and indeed, Rosana's mark glowed more and more brightly as they got close. Will didn't sense any magic in the wall, but he did sense the growing, living pulse of life running through it.

“Can you do your moving-the-vines thing on it?” Eben asked him.

Will stared at the knotted vegetation doubtfully. “I don't know. But I'll try.” He reached out with his Bloodroot enhanced awareness and—

“Ouch!” Raina cried. “Something just bit me!”

The water around them erupted with movement as many small somethings attacked them.

“Told you not to splash, I did,” Sha'Li said grimly. “Flesh-eater fish. Out of water we must climb and quickly, else eat us they will.”

They ran for the wall as much as they could in the water, and Will frantically ordered it to make way for him. Rynn was kicking and stomping at the water, and the others followed suit. Something needle sharp stabbed Will's thigh, and he flailed, as well, all the while trying to concentrate on forming a passageway. It took a few moments and several more painful bites, but the plant life began to shift and untangle.

Tarryn grunted between kicks, “That looks like Kerryl's work. Now the question is whether he planned to let us all through or just Will.”

“Mayhap if Will takes each of us through, we can all pass,” Raina suggested breathlessly as she kicked and splashed.