Skydance

by Katherine Rhodes

  Flinging the bowl around without letting go, she sprinkled the dream porch with the water inside and stabbed the incense into the ground at the edge of the deck. “I bless this place in the name of good! The Lady lives here. Only wisdom is welcome here. Go back from whence you came!”

  The inky dark started to recede, and the eyes grew wide and angry. “I am coming, Amy. I am coming for all of you. Those of your ilk have bound themselves to me. We are coming.”

  “Go!” Amy screamed and shoved her hands out at the darkness. It flew backward to the woods, taking the trees back to where they belonged and the dark to the edge of the trees. She watched as the evil seemed to sink back into the ground and roll away, revealing the starlit sky as she had remembered it all her life.

  “Well done, Amy.”

  She spun around and found Rijn Faulker standing on her back porch. “What are you doing here?”

  “I was hoping you’d dreamwalk soon. I don’t have your phone number.”

  The laugh escaped before she could stop it. Putting a hand over her mouth, she nodded. “Fair enough. Ask Max for it. But why are you here?”

  He walked to the chair and sat. “I’ve never been in the dreamworld like this before. Very different from just dreaming. Overexposed?”

  “It’s always like this. According to my dad, whomever was dreaming was in charge of the way it looked. It looked like this when he was teaching me, and that’s the way I keep it.”

  Rijn looked her up and down, and blinked a few times. “You are so very powerful here. It’s amazing. Can you see the power pulsing around you when you look in a mirror?”

  “No, I only see me as I know me.”

  He tipped his head. “No wonder I was drawn to you. Amy, we need your help. Pine Valley needs you. There’s something wrong and we can’t figure it out. People are losing their powers and abilities. It started with a few witches feeling like their spells weren’t working well. The sorcerers followed that. Some shifters were having problems. But three days ago, Niko almost drowned in Darkwater Lake.”

  “What?” Amy was confused. “How can that be? He’s a water elemental. He can’t drown.”

  “Max had to pull him from the water onto the rocks. If it had been anyone but those two, I would have trouble believing it myself. But those two wouldn’t lie about it, and Niko wouldn’t trick them.”

  “What can I do?”

  “Come to Pine Valley. Help us figure this out. There’s something wrong and we can all feel it. We just don’t know where it’s coming from.”

  “You’re a mystic, Rijn. Why don’t you figure it out?”

  “Because it’s starting to affect me too. Things are getting muddled. And not the way the shifting of ley lines does it. This is like staring at a blank wall.” He touched her elbow in the dream. “Come to Pine Valley, Amy. Please. We need you.”

  “Why, though? You have such powerful people…”

  “I just know that we need you there. We’re all losing our power and that was all I could get.” He leaned forward and stared at her. “Come to Pine Valley. Soon.”

  Snapping her eyes open in the real world, she took a hard breath and shook the chair she was in. She’d snapped out of the dreamworld away from her body, which was something dreamwalkers were advised against. Even if slipping space in the dream was necessary, get back to where the dreamwalker was sleeping.

  “Amy?” her mother called from the back.

  “It’s good, Mom. I’ve got it.”

  Patricia appeared in the doorway. “It all rushed away, in an instant. But…”

  Climbing out of the chair, Amy studied her mother. “What? But what?”

  “I swear I saw eyes…”

  “Red ones.”

  “Yes.”

  “You shouldn’t have been able to see that…”

  Glancing back at the woods, Patricia shivered. “I did, though.”

  Amy grimaced. “I have to go to Pine Valley, Mom. There’s something wrong there. Rijn was in the dream with me.”

  “Rijn Faulker?”

  “You know who he is?”

  “Your father knew him well.” Patricia put a hand on her daughter’s shoulder. “You have to go, if Rijn asked you.”

  Amy nodded. “I’ll get a ticket and get out there this weekend.”

  Pine Valley

  Sia banged the gavel on the table to get everyone to shut up and sit down.

  It seemed that better than half the magicals in Pine Valley were crowded into the lecture hall, and they were so loud Poppy and Keni had to magically ensure the sounds didn’t escape as more than just the sound of talking.

  It took another minute or so for everyone in the room to find a seat, a piece of floor or a wall to lean on. Max was impressed that there were this many people, and nervous that there were this many people.

  Sia yelled over the dwindling din. “Ladies, gentlemen, let’s shut up so we can get on with this. There are a lot of things we need to address.”

  Finally the rowdy residents were settled and Sia stood behind the podium. Max looked around from his leaning position at his desk. He’d managed to finagle the use of the lecture hall with one of the high up magicals in the college. It was one of the biggest lecture halls in the school and barely contained the residents that had shown up.

  “All right, everyone. We’re here because we’ve all been seeing and experiencing the same thing.” She gestured backward to Max, Niko, Henry, and Dracen, who all stood behind and to her right. “An incident occurred at Darkwater where our water dragon nearly drowned in his own pond. Niko lost contact with his power deep in the water. Max was able to rescue him, but after pulling him out of the water, he too lost contact with his dragon and his powers. Checking that this was not fluke, Henry was unable to contact and connect with his dragon. It all took place in the space of just two minutes and nearly four weeks ago now. This is not the only incident that has occurred since. Everyone in here has experienced or been witness to an incident.”

  The room burst into rabbles again, with everyone agreeing with Sia and each other. She waited for everyone to settle again.

  “The last time we noticed things happening out of the ordinary, we were able to pinpoint that it was a little petty thief within a day and pass the warning around. Does anyone have any direction on this? Is there a pattern? Have you had it happen twice? Three times? Anything at all?”

  There was quiet rumbling this time, but no loud and rowdy disorder.

  Max heard Keni sigh. “I knew that was going to happen.”

  Sia grimaced. “We need to start figuring this out. We’re all used to things that our abilities and powers give us, and we do them every day. When we lose them, we lose balance and bad things happen.” She gestured to her left, where Aaron was standing with his arm in a sling. “One of our leprechauns, who is used to a level of magic in every day life, managed to break his arm because he didn’t know how to handle the situation without his magic.”

  There was a bit of anger in the air, but Poppy, next to the lectern, held up her hands. “Please, we’re not asking you to get used to not having magic. We’re here because we need to figure out how to make sure we don’t lose all our magic, for good.”

  “For good?” Frank Plotski’s voice came up from the right-hand side. “There’s nothing that can take away magic like that, is there?”

  “That’s what we’re trying to figure out,” Sia said.

  “Who would know something like that?” Reetu Sookraj asked from the other side of the room.

  “We think we might have a resource,” Max answered.

  “Who?” A dozen voices chorused the question.

  Max glanced at Sia, Poppy, and Keni, and let out a breath. “The Sectorum Esse.”

  This time the room burst into angry choruses and shouts. Max had been afraid of that when he did some research on the Sectorum. They hadn’t had the cleanest record and it was only after relocating to the New World had they relaxed and not caused witch hunts and wol
f hunts. There had been no interference from the Sectorum since the early 1700s.

  The problem was that there were people in the room who had been around long before that. Poppy and Sia were two of them, but there were also selkies, shifters, and vampires, as well as two harpies who remembered what a mess the Sectorum had caused.

  Dracen waited a moment and finally let out a shrill whistle to get the room back under control. Again, so many people took a minute to shut up, but finally did. Max stepped to the lectern to use the microphone so he could be heard clearly.

  “The Sectorum is not what it used to be. When the Pope sanctioned in the seventh century, we lived in another world,” he said. “We didn’t even know about this continent. Well, most of us didn’t. Once they moved the sect here, there’s been no reason for them to report to Rome, and they’ve separated from the religious hunts that were perpetrated on us.”

  “You’re a hatchling,” called Aloysius, the Alpha wolf shifter. “You don’t know how many of us were betrayed to an upstart religion. We’re the old, smarter, better part of this species—”

  “And how many of you have been turned over to the authorities, or even revealed in the New World? They have an extensive library that might help us track down the information we need. They are the only ones who might have the knowledge of what’s going on here.”

  “Do you really think that a group that wanted to see every single magical in this place dead is now going to turn around and help us?”

  Niko stepped up to the microphone. Max felt the worry rolling off his friend and nodded imperceptibly. Clearing his throat, Niko leaned in.

  “My father-in-law is the Gray Eminence.”

  The room nearly exploded. People shot off chairs and floors and away from the walls. They were screaming and shouting and shaking fists. Max could almost imagine them with pitchforks and torches coming to kill Max and Niko. They all stood their ground on the stage and some of the magicals started to bum rush them.

  “Let them rage,” Poppy said. “There were a lot of good people killed by the Sectorum years ago. Most everyone here knows someone or is the child of someone who was killed or destroyed.”

  “How long?” Henry asked. “I mean, they’re getting closer.”

  “Niko’s call,” Sia answered, smiling at him. “You’re the mated dragon.”

  Max hid his smile behind his hand. He knew exactly what Sia was saying. He stepped behind Niko with a pat on his shoulder for support. He pulled Raissa and Henry back as well, and the others who were ahead of Niko stepped to the side.

  Max listened to the crowd screaming at the people on the stage. They were getting more and more angry, promising more and more destruction. None of it phased Niko and he just stood with his arms folded, expressionless. Until, Frederick Lundqvist walked up a stair and said the wrong thing.

  “Your wife will die for the sins of history!”

  “Ooh, shit,” Henry hissed.

  Niko dropped his hands to his sides. “Are you threatening my mate?”

  “Oh, man, Fred.” Raissa shook her head.

  “They killed my uncle! I demand her life!”

  Niko slapped his hands together directly in the center of his chest and a gout of flame flashed from his mouth. Just far enough to make Fred stagger back from how close he had gotten. Niko walked forward, holding his hands together. “My dragon is eager to get his first taste of human flesh from the man who would threaten his mate, Fred. I’m eager to see you try to take on a dragon.”

  Lundqvist staggered back from the threat this time. “The Sectorum is evil, Niko.”

  “The Sectorum was evil,” Max answered. “No one is arguing that. But they aren’t the same organization. There are some sorcerers and magicals working with them now. They are just watchers and historians.”

  “The threat has shifted elsewhere.”

  The words echoed through the room, at the top of the voice that carried it through the agitated crowd. Everyone in the room turned and found Rijn Faulker standing there. He was dressed as usually in his Goth gear, black from head to toe, with his bright blond hair and shocking honey eyes standing out from his dark outfit.

  Sia ran by everyone, plowing her way through the crowd, to stand by him. Max was always amazed at how tall and lanky Rijn was, how much he looked like an out of place college student. He always looked like he could use a sandwich and a nap. Sia grabbed his arm and walked him down the stairs.

  Another couple that belonged together and yet just wouldn’t admit it.

  They walked up the stairs to the stage and lectern, and Rijn took Max’s place there. “Ladies, gentlemen, please. Maximillian is right. We need to talk to the Sectorum. And I know we all have been burned by them. My grandmother was burned at the stake, because of them. They have changed. The threat has shifted. We must shift too.”

  “What threat?” Frank called.

  “Have none of you felt the ley lines waking and shifting? Ever since Niko found his mate. She is the Premiere Locus. Her accepting our magical world has started the motion of the Omphalos. The first tether is snapped. The second is vibrating, ready to release.”

  The murmur went around the room again, and this time the crowd settled quickly.

  “Sectorum Esse is our ally. You have to trust Niko and Max on this. Keni knows as well. They will be able to help us. This missing magic is only the start of the trials our Pine Valley will face before the Omphalos finally settles. And we have to figure out why the magic is disappearing.”

  “Can’t we find another way?” Bernard called up to the podium.

  “Do you know of another way? Do you know of another source that will be able to help us research this? The Sectorum have magicals working with and for them, and they will want to solve this too. They have over a millennium of our history, and histories we don’t know. They have libraries and historians—and most importantly, they have researchers who can help us.”

  Rijn looked around as people started to settle and sit again. “Even I have started to experience the loss of power and vision. There’s nothing that will help me see through it. If I don’t have my power, I don’t have my vision. Without my vision, I cannot help anyone figure out what is going on.”

  Several of the witches and sorcerers stopped and stared at him. Max saw several others start to realize what Rijn had said and waited for him to continue. If there was anyone in the town who commanded that attention, it was Rijn Faulker. He wasn’t an elder in the town, he was only just a year older than Sia at one hundred eighteen, but because of the power of gift of sight, he often spoke and acted with a wisdom that came from beyond his years. He was also, until only recently, known as the Mad Wizard because he secluded himself away from the rest of the town. He had to, Sia had told them. Being around people made his Sight kick in all the time, and he was easily overwhelmed. But since last year, he’d started to come around, in short visits. Max was impressed that he was in a room full of magicals, honestly. It was nearly overwhelming to him—he couldn’t imagine poor Rijn with all this power swirling around him.

  Rijn waited until the room was mostly settled. “I asked an emissary of the Sectorum here, to talk to us. Will you allow it?”

  Max stood up straight. He’d asked someone from the Sectorum here?

  The positive answer was mumbled around the room, and a moment later Rijn pulled the door open with his magic. Everyone turned to see who it was.

  Amy walked in.

  The crowd in the room gasped and turned to look at Max.

  “You knew she was Sectorum?” Reetu called.

  Unfolding his arms, he nodded. “I did. I have since we met.”

  Frank roared, “The Sectorum killed your uncle!”

  “And how does that relate to Amy?” he snapped.

  “She’s Sectorum!”

  “I’m also a dreamwalker,” Amy said, walking down the stairs to the podium. “A member of the Hogan family who have helped and worked with the Sectorum since 1673, when the decision was mad
e to separate from the Church and become benign, ultimately helpful if they had their way. I am here to see if we can make that transition.” Turning around, she faced the very large crowd of people. “Rijn visited my dream the other night to tell me what was going on. It was the same dream I entered so I could cast a ward around my own house in North Carolina to keep away a deep, dark evil that was crawling toward the back door.”

  “You said you were a dreamwalker,” someone called.

  “I am, but in the dreamworld, I am whatever I need to be. A sorceress, a shifter, a psychic. Whatever the moment demands. And at that moment, the evil crawling toward me needed me to be a powerful spellcaster.”

  “What was in the woods?” Liota was a bear shifter, high up in her clan.

  “An evil. It did not have a face. It merely had a presence that oozed cold and cruelty. It had been building a while back there, but Wednesday was the peak—and I had to do something. Inky, thick, foul.”

  “Wednesday was the new moon.” Hala offered her observation from the side of the dais—she was another of the Coven sorcerers.

  “So when the Lady was least present,” Keni explained. “We’ll deal with that later.”

  Amy nodded and looked back at the people in the room. “I am only here to help. I am Sectorum and I am dreamwalker. I know that you all don’t want to lose your powers, and we don’t want you to either. The Gray Eminence will be coming next weekend, and I am here to start investigating.”

  Rijn nodded, and Max stepped up behind her, putting his hands on her shoulders. “I also stand behind Amy.”

  “From what I know,” Niko whispered, “she likes that.”

  Max growled, “Dude, there are people in here with enhanced hearing who don’t need that from you.”

  Keni, Sia, and Poppy were right next to her. Sia looked around. “We need their help. We don’t know how to function without our powers, and the irony is not lost that our powers are our weakness in this case.”