Sky reached behind her head and knotted even tighter the sky blue bandana she always wore – a reflection of her name. She was quite proud of it. With her long brown hair whipping in the wind and flying in her face, her bandana helped hold it back. Sky stared ahead, arms pumping as she rowed, excited. She had to be close by now; it was only half a mile. She was looking for a soft whirlpool inside a semicircle of rocks to dock her boat. Her friends were supposed to swing in off the sea highway and pick her up. And when they did, the show would be under way.
Sure enough, she spied the softly swirling pool a minute later. Paddling over to it, she grabbed the thick rope out of the bottom of the canoe and slipped it over the top of a worn, perfectly sized conical rock, slipping it down and tightening the knot. Then, she jumped out onto a flat, reasonably wide rock to wait. This little natural port served as the official pickup and drop-off point for the seafaring underground. Hidden below a massive cliff, with rocks jutting out of the frothing water all around, only a small canoe could pull in here. You had to know it was here, tucked away in a labyrinth of sea rocks. And to be in the know, you had to know them. The ones whose sleek ship appeared around the western cliff edge at that moment, flying a black flag. Sky’s secret friends…
Pirates.
Waving casually to the mates on board, Sky strolled to the edge of the rock and waited. A small canoe was lowered into the water, and two men paddled on over. “Sky!”, one of them called, “you ready to do this?”
She smiled, “Ready if you are, Jon”.
This man she addressed did not very look notable in any way, much less like the captain that he was. Young – in his early twenties, yet somehow already balding – the good-natured redheaded young man reached out an arm, grabbing a jutting rock and pulling the small boat sideways for Sky to get in. As she hopped in the middle, the other young man in the canoe – a very large one by any standard – laughed, his chin quivering.
“Sky, you do know it might be kind of dangerous for us normal folk to mess with Dreamcasters, even if we outnumber them ten-to-one. And after the game is up… they’ll see us. Are you sure you want the two most powerful guys in the village to know that you’re friends with pirates?”
Sky shrugged, “It’s no big deal. We both know you guys aren’t real pirates anyway. I mean, no offense, but you don’t even do anything that illegal. So no, it shouldn’t be an issue. You guys are pretty much like me, and my brother can understand that well enough.”
Sky glanced ahead at the sleek, swift Joy – an odd name for a pirate ship if there ever was one. But then again, these weren’t really pirates in any meaningful sense of the word. Just fellow miscreants like her from around the village and the local area who liked to sail around with a black flag and act rebellious. She doubted whether they had even done anything as substantive, however, as the prank they were about to pull on her brother and his friend. Two powerful individuals, by anyone’s estimation. But, their power made them overconfident. It made them lazy. Sky knew this, and she exploited it so often. It was just too easy now.
As their small canoe pulled up to the ship, rope ladders were thrown down by the crew above. Sky climbed up onto the lip of the canoe and jumped; grabbing the rough rope with both hands and shimmying her way up. Pulling herself up the last couple feet, she jumped and landed with a quiet thump on the deck of the ship. Saluting playfully to the mate Smithy, she made her way to the aft of the vessel, climbing the stairs to the control wheel. She waited here for Jon and his oversized first mate Bo, while they helped pull the canoe back up onto the ship. She wanted a good view.
Glancing over starboard and port respectively, she inspected the two smaller ships accompanying the flagship (such as it was) Joy. Sail-operated vessels flying similar flags to the Joy, they were both bristling with a dozen archers each. Crewmembers, and friends of hers.
Perfect.
A single Dreamcaster could board a ship and fight off a whole crew at once, depending on how much spirit they had. And they were going against two guys with this power. However, they couldn’t board the ships if there was an extra third one with a crew of archers ready to turn them into a pair of porcupines. Not that Sky would have them fire, of course. But, her brother and his friend couldn’t know that. They would have to restrain themselves.
She only wished the crew displayed as much confidence as she had. They knew that Lyght and Mikael were “Dreamcasters”, and even though they didn’t know much about the power, they had obviously heard the stories – and it probably frightened them. Sky knew her brother, and she knew his friend Mikael, and could say for sure that they weren’t as great as everyone made them out to be. It aggravated her to no end that people overrated them so much, in her opinion.
“How close are we at the moment?”, Sky asked as Jon climbed the last few steps.
“Close enough. We’re about an hour from meeting them. Of course we’ll have to stay close to the shore and avoid the highway, which is running south and east at the moment”, Jon explained.
Sky looked up at the blue dome above for which she was named, and smiled. She could barely contain her excitement. They were in for a real surprise this time.
A real birthday surprise.
“Captain, have you read Peace and Disorder by Aranault recently?”
“I can’t say that I have, Sky. I try not to read if I can help it. School never did suit me”, Jon said with a touch of embarrassment.
“Me neither. But my brother reads his eyes out, and this one book I will confess to having stolen to read half a dozen times. It contains one of my favorite lines: “The world arose from a perfect primordial force, this thing that overwhelmed the senses and melted the mind – for its name was chaos, and never was there a formula so simple, yet magnificent.”
“Captain, let’s go make some chaos.”
Chapter Three
Lyght awoke to the soft rushing of the warm southern sea, the turquoise froth of the eastbound sea highway swirling around him. Yawning, he looked up at the open blue sky and tried to gauge the time. It still had to be nine or ten in the morning.
“How long was I out”?, Lyght asked, standing up and stretching. He spied a soft haze in the distance. Land. They weren’t far now; it was a pretty short trip.
“Couple hours. You should be replenished a bit on spirit”, Mikael pointed out.
Indeed, Lyght did have about forty minutes stocked right now. Dreamcasters could receive the full two hour power limit by sleeping six hours; the normal person’s average of eight minus the two that the Dreamcaster didn’t need to spend dreaming. They could “dream” (or more realistically, manipulate matter and energy) while awake; that was why they were special. However, this meant they only received a third the amount of spirit time as time they spent sleeping. Another sort of disadvantage. Since he had slept two hours, Lyght had forty minutes – a third of that – stocked up.
Mikael, standing at the edge of the craft, looked over to where Lyght sat with his back to the center cabin, “I noticed, Lyght; you always have to go to sleep right after running dry. Can’t stand being out of power can you?”
“Yeah right”, Lyght said. “I just get tired; only sleeping a few hours in the mornings or evenings, and staying out all night. We put a lot of stress and strain on ourselves, exploring around for information during Dark nights – and even regular nights now – in addition to having to stay up most of the day. Sometimes I wonder how I’m still standing.”
Lyght paused, taking a deep breath. Here he was, about to go breaking his promise to himself. Again. He had thought to defeat the Dark once. Or rather, his father had. Lyght grimaced slightly as he felt the bitter, tearing feeling he often experienced whenever he thought about it. Best not to dwell on it. Or so he told himself.
“I know what we agreed to before, but still… I just don’t know Mikael. I don’t know if we can do it. Better men than us have failed.” Lyght muttered this last sentence with a note of bitterness in his voice.
Mi
kael nodded slightly, turning to gaze at the soft yellow beaches in the distance; the pelicans flying in formation, the soft turquoise waves rolling in sleepily. He understood. Lyght could tell. One thing Lyght appreciated about him was that he knew when to be serious. Normally, Mikael played the part of the loud jokester, the bold one, even rash at times. Lyght himself was more level-headed, low-key. Mikael antagonized Lyght a lot, and Lyght likewise pretended to be exasperated or annoyed. It was just the game they played. When it came down to it, they both knew they were more similar than anything else – considering their backgrounds. Two sides of the same coin. It was what had drawn them together in the first place.
Crouching down and trailing his hand in the warm green water, Mikael paused thoughtfully. “Look, it’s been hard on me too, even if I try not to show it. But you know that. However, you also know what we agreed to back there. Our coming-of-age is officially today Lyght. We’re eighteen. That means we have full status as men in our village. We’ve got to do what men would do, given our abilities. We have a responsibility to seek out the source of the Dark, and try to destroy it. Just try, even if we’re not successful. Nobody but us and the Legends have ever even seen the Dark – and who knows if the Legends even really exist? No one in the village will believe anything we say about this stuff. They can’t comprehend what we say, because they’re somehow all forced to be asleep every time the Dark comes out – which is every other night. You know it, that can’t be natural.”
Mikael looked into his friend’s eyes, “So, you see, we have to leave. This is a very difficult burden we’re placing on ourselves, I know. You know that too. But we’re doing it for the good of the village. For the families that raised us. Surely that makes it worth it for you?”
Lyght took a deep breath before responding, looking out across the ocean with his hands behind his head, “We’re doing this for the village, right? No, this isn’t worth it for me. But I also know it’s not just about me. They need it, whether they know it or not. You’re right, Mikael, we need to pay back those who decided to raise us to the men we became today. They didn’t have to – we weren’t theirs. But they took us in anyway, despite the personal costs they had to bear. We owe this to them, at the least.” Lyght clinched a hand over the flag pole next to him, looking at the flag of Kona flying overhead.
Yeah, that’s why we’ve been doing this, and why we’re going to take the next step. For them. It can’t just be all about us.
We’re grown men now… damn.
“What, that’s all?”, Mikael asked, seemingly amused. “I personally feel like doing something heroic. Something memorable. Yeah, I knew the whole paying our families back line would get you. For me though, I also want to leave legacy that no one will ever forget.”
Lyght broke in “If you’re saying what I think you’re saying…”
“Probably”, Mikael said lightly. “I’m a man of simple tastes, as you know. All I want…” He flipped backward suddenly, landing in a crouch on top of the small center cabin, just above Lyght. “Is to be a Legend”, he whispered dramatically.
Lyght sighed, his arms crossed; torn between exasperation, amusement, and incredulity. He should’ve known that this was always Mikael’s goal. It’s was Lyght’s own dream, even if he tried to deny it to himself. His father’s unfinished dream before him. An everlasting legacy, a hero’s name – to be remembered. All this, and much more, came to a Legend – a member of the elite Legion.
The Legion – an ultra-skilled, fiercely loyal sect of Dreamcasters, directly under the command of the King. Each member of this rarified organization was called a “Legend”, and they were exactly that. They were revered and honored for their mystical talent, disregard for danger, and utter commitment to protect the people of the Dreamscape – the official name for the King’s lands (the whole world, really).
The common man in the Dreamscape just knew that the Legends worked for the King (who was referred to endearingly as “The Hero”), and “protected” the people – though from what, they weren’t sure. Lyght knew that Dreamcasters made up the entirety of the Legion, and that these Legends were very rare; there were only about a hundred alive, active Legends. But he also knew that not every Dreamcaster could become one, his father was more than enough proof of that.
But here he was, reflecting again. Shaking his head to clear it, Lyght smiled despite himself. Arms crossed, he looked up – looking his friend in the eyes, supremely confident. “Why am I not surprised? Bet I become a Legend first.”
“Whoa! Quite a statement for you, my friend. Why, this has to be the first time I’ve heard you admit to what I’ve known all along”, Mikael said.
“Which is?”
“That you really do want to be great. You have more ambition than you pretend to. Just know I’m not fooled”, Mikael said, jumping down and landing on the deck, cloak flaring dramatically. On purpose, of course.
Lyght snorted, but said nothing. He felt a bit more relaxed now. What was the point in worrying? After all, this was their special day. They were going to be back in the village soon, and every kid dreamed of their eighteenth birthday celebrations. The whole village always got in on the festivities, and a double party for the two most popular young ones in the village, coinciding with the New Year’s celebration, meant that a real party was in store for tonight.
Glancing towards the shore, Lyght tried to determine how close they were to Kona. Shielding his eyes against the sunlight glinting off the verdant sea, he tried to search out a landform or marker he would recognize. Instead, he spied something else. Several forms cutting through the water near the coast, heading west. They would have seemed innocent, were they not flying black flags. Lyght knew what that meant – but this far south? He had never imagined something like this.
“Mikael, do you see that?”, Lyght asked urgently, pointing.
“Hmm...”, Mikael said, turning around with concern, apparently noticing the tension in Lyght’s voice. He froze when he saw it. He was out of spirit, and Lyght himself only had forty minutes. This was a sight they had never hoped to see anywhere near the village they called home. A danger unrelated to the Dark entirely, unlike anything they had experience with.
Pirates.
Chapter Four
Lyght crouched in anticipation, muscles tense, as the three pirate vessels – one medium size and two smaller ones – encircled their small little raft, waves intentionally driving them off the sea highway so they floated adrift. Lyght had forty spirit minutes. What should he do? Should he boost his strength and speed to twenty times normal for two minutes? Eight times normal for five minutes? Should he use more of his spirit on himself internally, or external moves? He’d probably have to vary it, like he always did. He’d have to keep in mind that was the only one with spirit – Mikael was out. While a fearsome fighter in his own right, without any spirit, Mikael could not take out more than six or so men by himself. They were facing down three whole ships.
“Lyght”, Mikael said urgently, “we can’t board them. They’re loaded with archers on the two smaller ships, and they have bowmen on the flagship as well. Whichever one we don’t board will light us up.” Indeed, with only two of them, any boarding attempt by Lyght and Mikael would leave a third ship free to fire their arrows at will. Not a good situation.
“Well, what would you suggest we do?”, Lyght asked, gut twisting in anxiety. What could they do against three pirate crews, alone at sea with only forty spirit minutes between them? Lyght couldn’t push the raft away fast enough with wind; the ships would just follow them until he was out. There would be no running. But fighting didn’t look to be an option either.
Mikael shook his head, “We have to just do what they say, see what they want from us. I would think they know who we are; we obviously have nothing for them to steal. I say we wait, and we can restock spirit if they hold us captive. We could always use that later to break out and take control of the ships if we had to.”
Lyght frowned. “I don’t mu
ch like the idea of spending my eighteenth birthday and longer held captive by pirates. We don’t have time for this.”
Rowboats were approaching, loaded with armed men. They had to make a decision now. “Well”, Mikael sighed, “unfortunately we don’t have a choice”.
An overweight man with a quivering chin rowed up to them in the lead boat, and smiled, a gold tooth showing. He was armed with a short axe at his belt. A range of six boats fanned out in the back, archers strung and ready to make sure they didn’t try anything. “Get in with me”, the fat man commanded. They reluctantly did as he said.
As the fat man and a couple of his companions rowed them back towards the flagship, another young man sitting in the boat with them approached them apologetically. “I’m sorry, but I’m ordered to blindfold you guys. Here”, he said shyly, handing them a pair of blindfolds, “I’ll let you guys do it. I’m sorry.”
Another rower snorted, “You’re being too soft on them, Dywen. As usual.”
The fat man nodded his head in agreement, “Yeah, but don’t get their hopes up for nothing. We all know what the Captain wants from them.” The twinkle in his eye seemed to say very clearly “and you’re not gonna like it.”
Lyght sighed in frustration, exchanging dark looks with Mikael. He tied his blindfold on, feeling distinctly annoyed. He wasn’t scared of this “Captain”, but neither was he looking forward to some profiteering bully trying to rob them or take them captive.
As they reached the flagship, Lyght heard a clunk against the side of the ship, and heard something unfurling against its side. Rope ladders. The oarsmen ushered them to the ladders and went up behind them, making sure they got up properly, blindfolded as they were. When Lyght hit the deck after Mikael, he heard footsteps around them. They were surrounded. A sword just barely pricked his side. He pulled back hissing, and reached a hand up to take off his blindfold. Someone whacked him in the knee with some sort of stick.
Dreamcatcher Page 3
