Then We Fly

by Rebecca Salas

  In the lobby the secretary smiled at Ell, eyeing her eagerly. I wasn’t sure if Dr. Amari had been impressed, but this man clearly had been. I sighed as we left the building. I had been afraid of how things might go, but I was happy at least that I hadn’t said or done anything stupid.

  When we were safely aboard our yacht, I finally felt comfortable enough to talk to Ell about the meeting.

  “I really don’t think that I was needed, Ell. You seemed to have everything well under control.”

  “Hardly, I’m not used to working with a handicap.” She huffed in annoyance.

  “A handicap?” I asked confused.

  “I’m not used to needing to work without using my voice. I might as well have been some mute waving my hands around for attention.” She gesticulated wildly. I could only think that it wasn’t her hands that she had been waving around.

  “The secretary seemed impressed.” I offered.

  “The secretary is useless.” Ell muttered.

  “Really, I thought it went great, there was no yelling, no violence, he seemed really polite.”

  Ell scoffed. “This is not how mer business is done. Not with humans. I say what I want them to do and they do it and it’s done. That’s it. We really need to find a better contact, but unfortunately at present he’s our best option.” She looked at her watch. “We will hear from our eyes on his apartment as soon as he’s gone to bed. And then,” she motioned her hand toward me, “you’re up.” I nodded thoughtfully.

  Ell had done her homework; I had been given a file ten pages long on the doctor’s life. No detail, it seemed, was too trivial. I knew he was single; I knew he had a niece my age by his only brother, I knew a hundred less useful details. Apart from the black-market antiquities business he seemed like a decent guy, not much room for blackmail, which was why they had wanted my help.

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  Chapter Ten

  It felt more invasive than I had expected, trying to sneak into the dreams of someone who was in reality a stranger to me. Still, I had a job to do. If I wanted to find Naida and get past Fynn’s secrets, this was the cost. I hated trying to fall asleep when I was so worked up. My mind raced. I rolled from one side to another trying to get comfortable. Having to actually fall asleep to do this was a serious pitfall to this ability.

  I remembered being in that cave, blinking and finding Fynn there in my mind. And hearing that little mer girl as well while I was awake. There must be a way to do it. It seemed that I had done it before, or at least they had done it to me. I felt a bubble of hope, maybe this wouldn’t be so hard.

  I reached out, imagining the doctor who I had only met a few hours before. A rushing sound filled my ears and grew from a whisper until it was almost overwhelming. The light behind my eyes shifted, a fog blowing past at a furious pace, but never clearing. I had never experienced anything like this in dreams before. And then nothing. Not the quiet of returning to normal, but nothing. No sound. No light. No senses at all. My breathing picked up, but I was only dimly aware of it, there was no sound in my ears. I extended my arms in the dark, feeling for anything. I cleared my throat and was grateful when I made a muffled sound. It was better than the nothing.

  A subtle sound came to my ears, breathing, but not mine. I had no way of telling how far or how close it was in the dark and muted space.

  “Hello?” I croaked out in a strangely hoarse voice. Panic beginning to bubble in my chest. The lack of even the dimmest light was almost enough for me to lose my mind. Had I found Amari’s nightmare? Or had I ended up somewhere else entirely. No one had responded to me. Finally, a thought came like a light to my own mind. I could manipulate this dream. It was just a dream, regardless of who it belonged to.

  I snapped my fingers and a small flame flickered above my hand, glowing harmlessly an inch above my skin. In the halo of light, I looked around.

  “Dr. Amari?” I called out with more confidence. On the ground in a crumpled heap lie a body. I approached it tentatively. Dream or no, lifeless bodies weren’t a good sign. “Doctor?” I spoke more quietly now, my tentative confidence fading. Crouching down I hesitantly reached out to the still figure.

  “Leave it.” The booming voice behind me made me jump up and stagger back. I held my flickering light out toward the disembodied voice, searching for its source. A shadowy figure hovered just out of range of my light, casting its face in long shadows leaving black pits for eyes. It’s just a nightmare. I tried to convince myself. It can’t actually hurt you. Regardless of my pep-talk, I felt chills climbing my arms. The feeling of danger was suffocating.

  “You’re in my way. I won’t warn you twice.” The voice was menacing. I looked into the depths of the shadowy figure, confused. Somewhere in the distance water dripped to the ground, unseen, but still heard in the silence. A red glow sprang up at hand height against the side of the figure. A flaming red coil began to burn brighter until it gave off the impression of molten lava. I thought I could even feel heat emanating off of it, my first sensation of the sort since finding this place. In the red and orange glow, I could make out a distorted hand holding the base of the coil, knuckles too large and nails too long to seem natural.

  In an instant the coil had been whipped back and lashed out, slicing into my cheek with a burning heat that seemed impossibly painful for a dream. Too real. I stepped back clutching the burning cut in my cheek, my little flame dowsed in the motion.

  “Thank you.” The voice said coolly. The figure stepped forward, toward the body that lay still crumpled on the hard ground. It hadn’t moved and I wondered if it was dead. “Ammon,” the voice said, disgust in its voice. “Get up.” The body lay motionless still, but I thought the sound of breathing grew louder and faster. Without warning the whip cracked over the body and it jerked away. The edges of his shirt burning where they had been cut open. A whimper emanated from the balled-up form. He was alive.

  “It’s your own fault. You could have stopped it.” The figure said and the whip cracked out again. The smell of burnt skin filled the air, and as it did the scene shifted. A faint light rose from a smoldering pile of ash. The body, that had been crumpled, straightened enough to crawl toward the pile. He knelt, I was fairly certain it was a man now, sobbing as he leaned over the burning ashes. My heart went out to him, Doctor Amari or someone else I wasn’t sure, but this dream was miserable. I reached out to place my hand on his shoulder. Again, a flaming tongue of fire lashed out slicing across the back of my hand, making me recoil.

  “Leave him.” The voice boomed in my ears. In the dim light of the glowing ashes, the shadows cast across the monstrous figure elongated making it appear even less human. In spite of my fear, my anger boiled. A horrifying thought came to me. Who was dreaming? The sobbing figure, or the monster? Did it matter?

  “No.” I answered my unspoken question aloud, speaking simultaneously to the monster. The whip cracked out again, but this time I caught it with my hand. The pain isn’t real. I told myself, but I wasn’t fully convinced, and the coil burned bright hot and the smell of charred flesh overwhelmed me. I let it go. In the glow of the retracting whip, I could make out a sinister smile across the lips of the creature. In the distance water continued to drip, and a new hope sprang up in my chest. This is just a dream. I reminded myself yet again. And even if it weren’t, I wasn’t helpless.

  Reaching out I drew the water to me. The cool and comforting sensation of water wrapped up my arm where the whip had burned me. The creature drew back again, poised to lash the cowering man. I extended my hand sending out a spray of water across the man’s back. The whip sizzled as it met his wet shirt and skin. I had dampened it, but not stopped it. This is a dream! I thought more emphatically. Ok.

  I sent out the water again, this time a gush, wrapping up the arm of the creature and snaking up the length of the scorching coil. It sizzled and popped as the coil dimmed and it’s burning light went out inch by inch. The creature raged, throwing its arms
out toward me. I held up my arms to block him. As he struck out, he hit against a hard shield of ice that encased my forearm.

  The man on the ground had shifted and was watching us now. In the dim light I could make out the familiar shape of Dr. Amari’s face. With that I was sure that the monster was in his dream, not the other way around. I could end this for him. I sent out more and more water toward the figure, willing it to freeze in place. The creature raged with a new intensity, frenzied in the light of its impending demise. Howling, biting and scratching, its black eyes had gone wide. In another moment the creature was still, frozen in a case of ice. Behind me a rustling sound made me turn.

  Dr. Amari was rising to his feet, hesitantly inspecting the figure. He reached out his fingers as if he would touch the ice, but retreated.

  “It can’t hurt you.” I offered.

  “He already has.” The doctor answered, his voice a whisper.

  “Not anymore.” I hesitated, unsure if he would wake if I spoke the words. “It’s just a dream.”

  He turned to me, a pained look in his eyes. “No.” He looked back down to the smoking pile.

  “This is a dream, Ammon.” I said remembering his first name. “You can do anything here. You can stop this.” I said as gently as I could manage. He looked at me, his brows knit in thought.

  “Who are you?” He asked.

  “A friend.”

  I knew I ought to take this moment to ingratiate him to the king, but the thought sickened me. Taking advantage of this man’s pain; it was wrong. He nodded, thoughtful. He looked down at his hand and with a glow of white light a hammer appeared there. He took a halting step toward the frozen figure, and then another. He raised the hammer and swung down with a force that had been absent up until now. The ice shattered, and with it the monster, a million tiny pieces skittering across the ground and out of sight. Ammon looked at me again.

  “Anything.”

  It wasn’t a question, or even directed at me it seemed. He turned and stepped back to the pile, crouching down he blew, and a strong wind sent the ashes flying. A light appeared in the distance, a rising sun painting the sky in pastel shades of purple, pink and orange. The ashes scattered leaving two forms curled on the ground, one larger and on smaller. Ammon reached out touching the larger figure on the shoulder, a woman sat up taking the small figure of a child with her. She looked at Ammon and beamed. The child reached out, his chubby fingers grasping for him. As tears stung my unconscious eyes, I felt like the worst kind of voyeur. Whatever was going on, I did not belong here. Not now.

  I took a step back, willing myself to fade out of this sacred place that his nightmare had turned into. Holding the child in his arms Ammon turned to look at me. I paused.

  “Thank you, Lady Reed.” He said and I nodded, not trusting myself to speak. I faded out as he turned back to the woman, an angelic smile on her face.

  Coming back to full consciousness as the sun rose outside my window, I felt ashamed. I wished he hadn’t recognized me. I wished that moment could have been his without my interference and the kings desire to get something out of him. What was done was done. In the end, at least, he had known me. My lone comfort was that I had helped. I had a suspicion that this wasn’t the first time he’d had that nightmare, and it wasn’t something anyone would want to relive even once. It had ended well though. I held on to that. I had helped make a happy ending for that one dream at least.

  The experience wasn’t what I had been expecting and I couldn’t bring myself to tell Ell the details.

  “I think it went well.” Was all I had told her. She had asked for more details, but I couldn’t bear to have anyone else there, even in conversation. That nightmare was a hallowed place. I thought that I had known Dr. Amari pretty well after reading what Ell had put together on him, but it turned out that I didn’t know anything.

  Zoya

  He had disappeared again. He had come up with a plethora of excuses in the past few weeks, and while he wasn’t gone that often, my suspicions were flaring. If our past wasn’t what it was, I might dismiss it, and maybe I should now. It hadn’t been his fault. But my ignorance hadn’t helped us at all.

  This time around I would rather err on the side of being more cautious and less trusting. And hopefully if my fears were unfounded, Shea would understand. He couldn’t begrudge me a little paranoia after everything we’d dealt with.

  Tonight, he’d claimed nightmares when he had left my side almost an hour ago. Nightmares were one thing that I could relate to. But the longer he was gone, the more anxious I became.

  I pulled the blankets tight around me and slipped quietly out into the hall. Few lights were lit, and no one walked around. I tip-toed through the hallways until I made my way outside and drew in a cloud of fog to conceal myself. There was no point if he saw me before I ever saw him, I would only feel guilty and foolish for following him around.

  I circled the castle, keeping myself to the shadows and my shroud of mist. Peeking around a corner I caught sight of his distinctly tall frame stretching up to climb over a balcony. My heart gave a stuttering beat and my stomach clenched. Who’s balcony?

  I realized that until that moment I hadn’t truly believed that I had cause to be suspicious of him. And now I was left with this, my mind scrambling desperately to make some excuse for his behavior. It couldn’t be a betrayal, it was only…only… something else. Something completely innocuous.

  I stood, rooted into place as I watched him climb over the balcony. He bent down and picked up a long white feather off the floor of the balcony and held it up to the light in inspection. See, nothing suspicious, he only wanted to get a closer look at a feather he had seen drifting into the balcony. Probably.

  Shea took a step forward and reached for the door of the balcony. Opening it, he disappeared into the shadows of the darkened room.

  Cora

  Iolanthe wore the mist of the waterfall like a cloak, pouring over her shoulders and shrouding her face. In the dim light of the full moon she was more apparition than woman. Though I had been trying to draw a comparison to a human woman, and that she was not. Her long silver hair cascaded over one shoulder and took on a life of its own, flowing around her in a breeze I couldn’t feel.

  The water was drawn to her. I could feel it reaching out to her like a child for its mother. Where she extended a finger, the spray of water reached back. She stepped out of the alcove at the base of the falls and the mist went with her, floating faithfully around her. My eyes struggled to make sense of the scene as she stepped lightly across the glittering water, barely sinking her toes in. I wanted to believe that the water was only exceptionally shallow, but the splashing torrent over the waterfall told the truth of the situation. Iolanthe was walking across the water toward me.

  As I observed it more closely, I could make out fingers of water wrapping up and around her ankles in a caress. And here I had been impressed with her small show of water manipulation before. She was no aged grandmother; she was a creature of fairytales.

  “Cora.”

  Iolanthe extended her hand as if I might join her on the water. I eyed the reflective surface nervously and held my place. She took the final steps and crossed over to where I stood on the rocky shore of the stream. Iolanthe reached out and took my hand in her cool damp fingers. Mist swirled gently up my arm from hers.

  “Thank you for coming. This is my private space. We will not be bothered here. Or observed.” She gestured with a nod of her head and I noticed for the first time the mist that now surrounded us, a thick blanket of fog. “Not only is it perfectly cozy, it will help to turn anyone around who tries to find their way through it. A handy friend to have.”

  I nodded in agreement. Still too awestruck for words.

  “Now about this business with Blake and Byron and such. Given your history I think I can safely assume that you are no friend to Blake and his machinations.”

  “No. Definitely not.”

  “Good. Byron may not think that
he needs help when it comes to the matter of his son. He is usually right, but in this care, I worry that he is overconfident. And normally he would have every reason to be confident.” She hurried on trying to defend her husband. “You see, he is, as a general rule, immune to the abilities of others. Particularly the abilities that are natural to mer.

  “The trouble is that while he has yet to meet an ability that can successfully manipulate him, he hasn’t exactly come across every ability. And this is where my concern comes in. With these new…” I had the sense that she was looking for a more delicate word, “varieties, of mer and siren and fae, who is to say that some combination may not come about that can influence him.”

  “Has he ever met Naida before?” I asked.

  “She was raised in secret for many years. It was Blake who reigned her in with the other sirens. And in an attempt to give Blake a sense of Byron’s confidence in him, Bryon has not been back to the island since appointing him to the position. I know he sends spies in and keeps tabs on things in that way, but without ever being there in person, there’s no way to know for certain.”

  “And you suspect that Naida is a threat?”

  “I am aware of Blake’s tendency to cause trouble and I am aware that she has gone missing. It doesn’t take much to see that he’s up to trouble. Byron thinks the solution will be to name Oran as his proper heir at the soonest possible occasion. He thinks that will eliminate Blake’s hopes of taking over and inhibit his more ruthless tendencies.

  “Continue your pursuit of Naida and find out what Blake is up to, if you can. But be careful, you know as well as anyone that he is dangerous.”

  “He wants the crown, he thinks Naida will help him to get it.” I spoke the words softly. “I don’t know if announcing a different heir will change his plans. What if he decides he has to kill Oran?”