A Dream So Dark

by L. L. McKinney

  Alice shrugged. “Lots of unusual things happen to me.” She shoveled more food into her mouth. Despite the worry eating away at her, she ate like a woman starved. “How long before we’re good to go?”

  Haruka shrugged. “With everything that is happening, we need to make sure we are ready to deal with this Black Knight. I’m still not entirely sure what is going on with him.”

  “That’s an even longer story.” One Alice told in as much detail as she could. She was so wrapped up in her explanation, she didn’t even notice Romi had returned until the woman dropped what looked like a bedroll onto the kitchen counter.

  “I knew it was only a matter of time before the past came around again. It always does.” Romi took a slow pull of another vape device, lights twinkling on this one. “Can’t say I expected this particular brand of bullshit, though.”

  Haruka saw to cleaning up the now empty plates as Romi set the mat on the table and rolled it out. Figment Blades of various sizes lined the inside, strapped in place, their silvery surfaces gleaming.

  Alice instantly reached for the daggers, though drew up short. She pitched a questioning glance at Romi. These things weren’t the easiest to come by, and she didn’t wanna just take someone’s stuff. Romi waved her on, and she pulled the daggers free. They were a bit heavier than the ones she was used to, the blades slightly longer, but thinner.

  As Alice tested the weight of the weapons, Romi typed something into her phone. “So. You all thought you would re-form the Eye, take it and the only known royal—who isn’t in a coma—halfway across the world to locate the missing Heart, both of which are wanted by someone calling himself the Black Knight, who you very recently double-crossed. And no one expected this sudden development of him busting your door in, possibly looking for payback?”

  Alice drummed her fingers against one dagger’s handle. “Well … I guess? We … there’s this whole thing with my friends missing, and—”

  Romi held up a hand. “I took this gig because it seemed like the best way to avoid all of the mess that followed the war. Hang out with some humans—you guys are weird but funny—travel back home now and then, slay a few monsters, just carve out a nice little life for myself. Now the mess I crossed the Veil to evade is literally sitting at my table. No offense.”

  “None taken.” Maybe a little taken. She did call her a mess.

  Alice busied herself with the plate Haruka had left behind. The Dreamwalker had made herself scarce after putting the dishes in the sink, Alice noticed.

  Romi chewed on her food, managing a few bites without saying anything. After a couple awkwardly tense minutes, she cleared her throat with a faint burp. “I see you fancy daggers. I’d pick a sword, too. Just in case.” She stepped away from the counter and through the living room, toward a back hall. “Help Haruka pack provisions. She’s downstairs.”

  The door slammed shut, and Alice winced. She sat in the silence for a minute or two before setting down the daggers and pushing to her feet. Even though Romi said Alice hadn’t done anything wrong, she got the distinct feeling the Gatekeeper wasn’t too happy about her being here. Then again, she didn’t know how she’d feel if someone with an indirect connection to trauma from her past showed up with drama at her heels.

  She finished eating, dumped her dishes, then made her way downstairs. Glancing once toward the empty bookshop, she turned back down the hall that led to the bathroom and, farther on, the Gateway. With no idea where she was going, she cleared her throat, then called Haruka’s name.

  After the third time, the girl responded, “In here.”

  Alice followed the voice to one of the doors that had been closed earlier. It stood open onto what looked like a large pantry, the walls lined with shelves and freestanding cases filed along the room like bookcases at a library. Each one was stacked with stuff Alice recognized, like bottled water, freeze-dried foods, packs of snacks, and things that reminded her of what her Dad would take with him when he went camping with friends from work. Then there were other items in jars of different sizes, boxes here and there, different containers and junk.

  “Ah.” Alice searched the spaces between the shelves for signs of the other girl. “Romi sent me to help you. I think she’s sick of me.”

  “She’s sick of everybody.” Haruka’s voice came from somewhere on the right, and Alice followed it until she found the girl kneeling next to three hiking backpacks that looked fairly full. In fact, Haruka zipped up the third one and stood. “Don’t take it personal.”

  “I’ll try not to. You need a hand?” Alice gestured at the bags.

  Haruka handed one over. “That’s yours. For the journey.”

  “Thanks.” She slung it over one shoulder, surprised at how light it was despite the fact that it looked like it should weigh at least fifty pounds. “And thanks for offering to be my guide. Partner? To help me get to where I’m trying to go.”

  Haruka shrugged. “I’m a guardian, like you. Things sound like they’re getting bad. And it’s all hands on deck, as Romi would say.”

  “Still, thanks.”

  Haruka led the way out of the room, turning off the light and closing the door behind them. “Don’t thank me till we get there. Something tells me it’s gonna be a rough ride.”

  Sixteen

  HERE THERE BE DRAGONS

  Alice spent the next couple of hours helping get things ready to cross over and recounting everything that had happened from the night the Black Knight first jumped her to when Haruka found her lost in Wonderland. She left out the personal bits, but it was still weird talking about everything out in the open after keeping it secret for so long, even if she was telling it all to people who were technically in on the whole thing.

  Thankfully the Duchess had been keeping Romi and Theo, the guardian of the Southern Gateway, up to date with the basics: who the Black Knight was, what he wanted, and how they planned to keep it from him. Also thankfully, the Duchess had left out the bits where Alice had messed up royally more than a couple times.

  Haruka asked a couple of clarifying questions, and Romi had stayed eerily silent, simply readying the weapons they would take with them. During that time Alice had also called her mom to explain what was going on, as best she could. Mom wasn’t too thrilled to find out she was somewhere in Tokyo—in fact she didn’t believe Alice at first. It wasn’t until Romi got on the phone that Mom was convinced she wasn’t being pranked. Even then, it was … a lot.

  Alice chewed at her lower lip while Romi spoke into the phone.

  “Yes. We are doing all we can to get her home. Not without a passport. Yes. Yes. Our magic does not work that way. No. The embassy will want to know how she got here in the first place. They might arrest her for being a spy or something. Yes. It could take a day or two, the passage of time is strange between realms. Because our world doesn’t have a sun, so there aren’t actually days scientifically speaking but … no. Yes, she is eating. I can’t promise that. Here she is.”

  Romi extended the phone, her face scrunched up in annoyance.

  Alice took it with a silent apology before holding it to her ear. “Hello?”

  “Some parents worry about losing they child in a mall or something, I lost mine through a … the hell you call it?”

  “Veil. Or … portal, works.”

  “A por—a portal Alison!” Mom huffed. “Got me feeling like I’m in the damn Twilight Zone. What in the hell am I supposed to do with you being able to fall clear through to the other side of the world? No. No, no, this isn’t … this can’t … oh my god…” Mom’s voice cracked and whined as she broke into tears.

  Alice’s throat tightened at the pain in her mother’s words. “I-it’s okay. Mommy, it’s okay, I promise.” She sniffed and swiped at her eyes. “Don’t cry, you’ll make me cry.”

  “It’s either cry or scream. Or choke somebody, but I can’t be in jail while you in Japan.” Mom mumbled something that sounded like a prayer. Alice heard at least one mention of Jesus.

&
nbsp; “Listen, why don’t you go stay with Nana Kingston until I get home?”

  “What? Why?”

  “The Black Knight has already showed up at the house, twice now. You shouldn’t be there by yourself.” And I can’t get ahold of Addison to have someone look after you.

  Mom scoffed. “So I’m just supposed to hide while you’re playing Xena?”

  “That’s not—”

  “This is my house, I’m not gonna be chased away by some hoodlum in a Halloween costume.”

  Alice barely held back a groan. “Mom.”

  “—tore my bedroom up, smashed my furniture all to hell.”

  “Mom.”

  “And your grandmother’s place isn’t even big enough for—”

  “Mom!”

  The line went quiet.

  Alice swallowed. “He’s dangerous. You saw what he’s capable of. He’s still out there, still hurting people, and I don’t want you getting caught up in this. It’s only for a couple of days, just … please. Go.”

  For a long stretch of seconds, no one said anything. Alice rubbed at her eyes, the beginnings of a headache settling in behind them.

  “Okay, baby,” Mom said softly. “Okay. I’m sorry, I just … I got no way to get to you, to protect you if anything happens.”

  “It’s okay, Mom. Really.” Alice smiled. “And I’m the one that does the protecting now.”

  Mom snorted a little laugh. “Whew. We still have to talk about all … that when you get back here. You be safe, Baby Moon, you hear me?” There was an almost desperate edge to her voice that slipped into Alice’s heart like a knife.

  “I hear you. I love you.”

  “I love you, too.”

  Mom hung up first, still muttering about Japan. Alice handed Romi her phone with a thanks, then excused herself to go get ready. There wasn’t much to do, just throw on her clothes and grab the pack that Haruka had helped her prepare. Romi stepped out to see to a few things with the store, since they were going to be gone for a while.

  Alice and Haruka stood outside the room that held the Gateway, waiting. Alice checked over the daggers at her hips. The sword pressed into her back shifted when she adjusted the lightweight pack. Magic, Haruka had explained when she asked why they didn’t feel like they were holding anything. And why didn’t Hatta have access to this backpack magic? Or was he holding out on her? Jerk. The familiar line of teasing thought was somewhat soothing.

  Part of her longed to go back to that, to before all of this ridiculousness. The part of her that knew it wasn’t possible told her to gut up—she had a job to do, and getting nostalgic wasn’t gonna help. Besides, that was just last week, not some bygone era. That part of her was the mean part, Alice decided.

  Romi finally came around the corner, carrying her own bag. Alice couldn’t see any weapons, though.

  “Let’s go.” Romi led the way into the room, waiting until everyone was inside before shutting the door. She looked to Alice. “Going to lose your shit again?”

  Alice glowered. “Probably.”

  Romi held out a bottle of a faintly milky substance.

  “Potion?” Alice asked as she took it.

  “Sort of. Made from ginger. Should take the edge off.”

  “Thanks.” Alice slipped the bottle into a side pocket just as Haruka flipped the lights off.

  * * *

  Her stomach churning, Alice drank the ginger tonic like a woman dying of thirst. The sweet but biting flavor slid against her tongue and down her throat. Hopefully it would quell the nausea.

  “Are you going to be okay?” Haruka hovered nearby while Romi had wandered off a short distance, puffing on her pipe as she went.

  “Y-yeah.” Alice finished off the tonic and stored the empty bottle in her pack. “It’ll fade.” She pushed to stand and found her feet held her, even if she was a bit wobbly.

  Haruka fell into step beside her, and together, the two of them trailed away from the Gateway and after Romi.

  For a while, they moved in silence, with Alice taking in the new surroundings. It was amazing how Wonderland, as surreal as it was, could manage to look so … normal. If you counted yellow trees as normal. And it was disconcerting how the beauty of this place concealed so much pain, death, and evil. Evil she was once again off to fight.

  Shaking herself free from her thoughts, she turned to Haruka. “Can I ask you a question?”

  Haruka looked up from a book she was reading. While walking. At the same time. “Yes.”

  “How did you become a Dreamwalker?”

  The look that passed over Haruka’s face was pained but brief. She shut the book and focused her attention ahead.

  “Sorry,” Alice offered hurriedly. “I didn’t mean to pry.”

  “No, no, it’s fine.”

  “Save story time for later, ladies. We’re here,” Romi called over her shoulder.

  The three of them stepped from the brush of a lightly wooded area they’d entered maybe an hour ago, and Alice’s mouth nearly hit the ground.

  A cluster of buildings sat in a large clearing, some of them very clearly houses. Smoke rose from chimneys here and there. It was a village.

  “Where are we?” Alice asked as they approached, the smell of food and the sound of voices carried on the wind. Someone was shouting in a language Alice didn’t readily recognize.

  “Vindighter,” Haruka said. “Home of the Fury keepers.”

  That made Alice stop short as she recalled when Haruka first mentioned the Furies. “Excuse me, what?”

  “Fury keepers.” Haruka smiled as she and Romi kept going. “They who keep Furies?”

  Alice raced to catch up to them just as they entered the village. It was practically out of a storybook, with the main street wide and open, moving toward a distant square. Stalls lined the various streets along with shops, people calling out to one another in passing. A few children played nearby. There were so many faces, brown, pale, dark, light. So many colors, styles, and textures of hair. A little boy with dark skin and pink locks waved at them excitedly as they passed where he sat in a stall filled with what Alice assumed was fruit and vegetables. She waved back, smiling faintly.

  Several other people noted their passing, nodding and waving to Romi and Haruka. Some people waved at Alice. Others just stared. She was definitely a newcomer.

  “You look shocked,” Haruka said as they entered a sudden stretch of road that opened up, and the stone beneath their feet split off into several directions.

  “I’ve never been to a village here before.” She’d gone to Legracia, but that didn’t really count. “It’s incredible.”

  “This is one of the smaller ones.”

  Alice followed the two as they departed the hustle and bustle of the square, heading off between the buildings and along a quieter street. Eventually their path opened onto a space within the large meadow, one that was fenced in by wood, metal, and something that shimmered faintly in the daylight. What looked like a ranch house and stable lined the far fence, but out in the field rested a wonder Alice could not have imagined.

  Lying sprawled or coiled against the grass were two large, serpentine creatures. One with black scales that glistened radiant colors as they shifted in the light, the other with pale blue scales that washed green. They each had clawed front feet and birdlike back legs that ended in long talons. Wide, feathery wings of silver stretched along the black beast, its head that of a great cat. The blue one had gold wings, equally feathery, and a long, reptilian head. They were huge.

  “Those are the Furies?” Alice asked, unable to keep the awe out of her voice, not that she really wanted to.

  “Those are two of them. There are about a dozen total, counting adolescents and fledglings. Most are probably in the stables.” Haruka was beaming. She waved, and Alice turned to spot a round girl with amber skin and dark brown hair drawn back into a tail of bushy curls.

  The girl approached along the inside of the fence and tilted forward to lean against it. She wo
re the fanciest pair of overalls Alice had ever laid eyes on.

  Haruka called out in Japanese, and the girl responded in kind, a wide smile breaking across her face. Romi chuckled. Alice was lost, but smiled anyway. The whole thing had a somewhat infectious cheeriness about it.

  “Willanae, this is Alice. She’s the Dreamwalker from the Western Gateway.” Haruka gestured to Alice, who raised a hand in an awkward little wave.

  “Hey.”

  “Hi!” Willanae chirped.

  “Alice, this is Willanae. Her family looks after the Furies in this area.”

  “I can barely handle two cats—I can’t imagine what taking care of these things is like,” Alice said. She’d never seen any, or even heard of them before.

  Willanae giggled. “They act like cats, sometimes. Big ole snaky cats.”

  “They’re beautiful. I’ve never seen anything like them…”

  There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy. Addison’s voice filled Alice’s ears, and something in her stomach fluttered while something else in her chest tightened. She hoped he was okay.

  “I’d be surprised if you had.” Willanae said. “Most wild Furies keep to themselves, and there’s one other ranch in Luma Valley.” She had the faintest accent, but Alice couldn’t place it. It sharpened her words and dropped a couple consonant sounds. It was almost a mix of Australian and … Southern, maybe? “And call me Willa, it’s nice to meet you.”

  “You too.” Alice fidgeted with the straps of her pack as Willa turned her attention back to Haruka and Romi.

  “I didn’t expect to see either of you so soon. Everything okay?”

  “Yes. And no. But nothing you need to worry about, the usual stuff,” Romi said.

  “This isn’t a simple visit, then?”

  “Nope. Here on business.” Romi set her hand against the fencepost, which was about as high as Alice’s chest, and leaped over it in one fluid motion. “How’s my boy?”

  “Same as when you left him.” Willa stepped in with Romi, and the two of them started toward the black and blue Furies napping out in the field. “A little grumpy because I’m out of findel fish.”