Quin piped up, “It’s not that hard! I’m enjoying it, Max will tell you. I never really thought I’d be able to go to the North, so it’s great! I really…”
Jon snorted and shook his head, “C’mon, we all know it sucks up here. I’m not trying to be a downer, but we all know the reason we’re here is to find this Dream Syndicate group. If they exist, and we can find them, all of this will be worth it. And I think we all still believe that we’ll be successful in that regard.”
The other three nodded, Sky included. She didn’t say it aloud, but deep down she was grateful for the fact that her friends still believed in her mission, despite the hardships that had incurred. The fact that they still stood with her here now, all the way across the world, chasing some obscure dream of hers highlighted the connection they’d all had to each other from a young age. Sky realized fully now that her friends wouldn’t run out on her when things got difficult, and that meant the world to her.
So she felt like, even now, she could relax.
Sky took a seat for about ten minutes as the group ate the breakfast sausages they had been roasting on the fire, going back and forth between casual talk and planning the day’s objectives. The original idea was to arrive at the Great Gate in the early morning, purporting to be a caravan come up north to establish business contacts in the domain. They had no idea, of course, how admittance to the domain worked, or even if their excuse would make any sense. Jon had figured, however, that there had to be some semblance of a functioning society or economy in the domain, and that posing as a group here for business was the best route to take as a result. Of course, Sky was worried that it would seem odd that a group of a few dozen teens would be accepted as a group of businessmen, but it was all they had for now. Hopefully there was just an open admittance process, letting in anyone they didn’t feel was dangerous. That way, they wouldn’t even have to claim a false identity.
As they were finishing breakfast, Sky could see that most of the rest of the crew were up by now, packing up tents and putting out fires. It had become a daily ritual now, executed without second thought; walk, and walk, and walk, set up camp, go to sleep, pack up camp, repeat. Sky hoped today would provide a little more excitement. She felt like they were closer to the Dream Syndicate than ever, closer than ever to discovering the unknown purpose of the object they’d found on Apathy, to learning what mysterious process had caused the sky to split open, revealing that bizarre hole above. Sky burned to find out. Maybe today was the day.
Within the next fifteen to twenty minutes, the camp was all packed up – tents packed and stored on the back of the horses they’d rented for the journey – and the crew was ready to go. Taking charge, Jon walked to the head of the group and explained the plan, “Alright guys, good morning! So, we’re going to head down the path for a few minutes to get out the mountains, and from there it’s about an hour’s walk to the Great Gate, where we’ll gain admittance to the Fear domain. Now remember, we’re pretending to be a group here for business, merely in the North to develop contacts in Fear. What this means is; while it’s OK to leave a dagger or something small hidden up your sleeve, please place all your large weapons – swords, lances, and axes – in the saddlebags so we don’t give the impression of invading warriors or bandits. There are a lot of us, so we have to do our best not to not appear too threatening.” Heads nodded all around, and Jon turned to lead the group down the path.
Pausing and turning to look over his shoulder, the crew leader spoke up again, “It needs to be said – none of us really know what’s going to happen today. But when do we ever, really? So stay close to one another, and know that your friends have your back. Alright? Let’s go then.”
The group gave a small cheer as they headed out; Jon in the lead, the rest of the crew behind him, and finally the few crewmembers in the back who led the train of packhorses with all their supplies (and hidden weapons). Sky looked up at the majestic mountains soaring above as they walked; pine-covered slopes already bedecked with snow even at this late stage of autumn, bright blue glaciers sitting high up in the peaks of the range. It really was a pretty sight. The birds were flocking by this time of year, and a huge group of at least a thousand of them wheeled overhead and split the gap between two mountains. As the flock passed over and disappeared behind the mountain to their right, the valley became oddly silent. Sky shivered a little bit; pulling the coat she was wearing a little tighter and walking a little faster.
Indeed, just as Jon had said, the walk out of the mountain range took only a couple of minutes. From there, it was a trek through the open, frosty plains for about an hour as they headed towards the Great Gate. Conversation was limited as they trekked through the cold; light flurries blowing in the air now. Sky had to admit, even she was a little nervous. She told herself it was going to be just like entering the Confusion domain, and the Hate domain… no different. Of course, she had no concrete evidence to think it would be different. Just a feeling. The rumors about the Fear domain all seemed to indicate that it lived up to its name. Sky looked up, eyes locking on a smudge in the distance, looking at it determinedly. She had to make her decision then.
No… no, I’m not going to be afraid. That won’t do anybody any good.
She had to admit she felt slightly more relaxed, although not as much as she would have hoped, as their party drew near to the Gate, now growing rapidly in their vision. Even from a ten minute walk away, Sky could see that it was a massive dark steel wall, hundreds of feet high, that soared east and west as far as the eye could see. From the map, the wall apparently had massive gateway entrances every mile or so, thus earning it the name “the Great Gate”. Jon had indeed placed their approach accurately, and Sky could see the Gate itself looming imperiously before them. The Gate was simply a massive network of crossing dark steel bars with an odd bright blue painted emblem shining in the center that Sky couldn’t identify. It seemed like it was built to swing inward. As they got closer, she could see guards with halberds and lances patrolling on the top of the wall.
As they approached the gate, a door at the base of the towering wall swung open, and three guards walked out, the door being swung shut and locked behind them. They wore some sort of bright blue uniform she didn’t recognize, emblazoned with the same symbol she saw on the gate. Frowning, she tried to think of whose command these guards were under. For whoever controlled this gate, likely controlled the whole domain as well.
A guard in his late twenties with scruffy black hair and beard, apparently the leader, came to a stop in front of them, leaning casually on his lance, “Morning, travelers.” Good mornings came from the crew, and Jon stepped forward to shake the man’s hand, but the guard stepped back shaking his head.
“Sorry, but I can’t know for sure that you’re not gonna try to cut off my hand. Never know which travelers to trust out here.” Jon nodded slowly, and a second guard with a youthful-looking face stepped up, looking eager, and asked, “So, what are you guys doing here anyway? What’s your purpose?” For some reason, the lead guard scowled at this new speaker, but Jon answered anyway.
“We’re here on business. As you can probably tell from our complexion, we’re from the South. We’re a group of young entrepreneurs who have come together to form the Youth Business Collective. My friends and I are looking to tap new markets, and we believe the Fear domain to be a great place to make our presence known and hopefully develop some business contacts. We won’t be doing any trading this time around, you see, we’re merely hoping to introduce the people to our organization and build some relationships in your fine domain here.”
Sky was not too pleased to see the lead guard was looking at Jon somewhat suspiciously, “What goods do you trade in, exactly?” Jon laughed, bringing a hand to the back of his neck very convincingly, intentionally putting a nervous, youthful note in his voice as he answered, “Well, you see, that’s a big point of debate in our organization. Some want us to specialize in more expensive authentic Southern fashion and
accessories, like my friend Max here, while others such as myself want us to get in on the natural resource trade. We’re still figuring it out, I guess you could say.”
After a moment of silence, the lead guard finally smiled a bit, and Sky almost sighed in relief as he said, “Well, you have more ambition that I did at your age. Good for you.” Despite this, the guard turned to his two companions and motioned them towards the packhorses, turning back to look at Jon and saying, “Alright, we’ll get you processed and through the Gate. My two friends here are going to do a routine inspection of your bags to ensure your legitimacy, and then you’ll be on your way.”
Sky’s heart sank like a stone, and she knew everyone else’s must be doing the same. No, they would most likely not be “on their way” once the guards found the hoard of weapons stashed in the saddlebags. It was a shame really – they couldn’t afford to ditch their weapons, so they’d had to just hide them and hope they wouldn’t be questioned too closely. Sky felt like Jon had done a pretty good job, but none of them had expected security to be this tight.
Indeed, after less than a minute of searching, the lead guard whistled, “Look what he have here”, pulling out a sheathed sword and belt. The other guards were simultaneously uncovering more weapons, and so the lead guard drew a horn out from under his shirt and blew on it, immediately bringing a whole squad of cavalry out from the base of the wall to apprehend them. The guards confiscated the packhorses, and the lead guard walked up to Jon, looking him in the eye.
“Look, I don’t know who you are, but you should know we don’t let strangers walk into our homeland with a whole armory on them. For all we know, you could be distributing them to rebel groups or coming in here to cause mayhem yourself. Don’t worry, we’ll keep your packhorses down here at the gate, but as we can’t be sure who you are and what your purpose is, we’re going to have you escorted to the leaders, who just so happen by chance to be staying in the gate headquarters right nearby. Now, go along quietly, and if you are as harmless as you claim, we’ll let you go. If not…” The guard just shook his head and waved for the cavalry to take them away. The crew was forced to walk at swordpoint through the gates, grating slowly open for them by the guards standing atop the wall. Sky hung her head and walked along, in disbelief that their plan had fallen apart so quickly. What had she been thinking?
Sky didn’t know what “leaders” they were going to see, but they didn’t have to go far. They were led up the base of a smaller mountain that ran right up to the Gate itself. About a third of the way up, Sky saw a cavalry soldier point with his saber and lead Jon into a narrow fissure in the side of the mountain. As it took a while for everyone to get through, Sky looked down at the valley below. She couldn’t make out any cities or towns from here, but she wasn’t that surprised. She supposed the population must be centered farther into the domain. That was kind of disappointing, as she’d hoped to see what some of the people in the mysterious Fear domain looked like, rather than being detained by whatever group it was that held and operated the Gate.
Sky looked up, frowning at the narrow fissure as she was finally ushered through. She definitely hadn’t noticed it was there unless it was pointed out. And yet… why had she not seen it before? It was there plainly enough, but somehow her initial gaze hadn’t caught it. A good place for a headquarters – or a hideout – she supposed.
Sky was surprised at what she found inside. It was like being in an actual building – the cave they were apparently in had been adorned with a floor and walls of various rich woods, and a ceiling of arching dark steel beams. Multiple doors were open, leading into other rooms, and people bustled about with packets of paper and coffee. A headquarters indeed. Many looked around in surprise as the large group was escorted in, and one of the cavalry officers nodded to a guard standing in the corner, “Can you go fetch the twins? Tell them we’re sorry for taking their time, but this is important.” The guard hesitated for a second before nodding, apparently heading off to carry out the request. Sky and the rest of the crew waited uncomfortably for a minute for the guard to return with the “twins”, whoever they were.
When the guard did return, two people in tow, Sky’s breath caught a little bit. The twins both had the same slender body type and dark brown hair, and looked to be in their early twenties – and both were beautiful, with odd violet eyes that Sky had never seen before. The male, for some reason wearing a sleeveless black shirt even in the cold, nodded to the lead cavalry officer and asked, “Why the party? This is a workplace, you know.
The officer dipped his head apologetically, answering, “Yes, sorry, but this group was found hiding an enormous stash of weapons in their packhorse’s bags, despite the fact they were claiming to be businessmen or some nonsense. Well obviously they’re not, and figuring they might even be dangerous, we brought them to you.”
The young man closed his violet eyes, clearly exasperated, “Alright, fine. We’ll handle it. You can take your unit back to the Gate, Fedren, thanks for bringing them up.” The officer named Fedren nodded as spun his horse around, clacking across the wooden floor and leading his unit back out the fissure.
As they left, the young man looked over at his sister and shook his head, “Really, bringing horses in here… And they just redid the place.” The girl shook her head, smiling, “That’s Fedren for you. Acts before he thinks.” As the brother and sister spoke, Sky couldn’t help but notice all the workers around standing frozen, staring at the pair. Apparently, these two were important. The guard from before had said they were, what, leaders? Sky wasn’t sure what they led, but they had to be important. Making a sudden decision, she stepped forward.
A little self-conscious at breaking in on their conversation, Sky looked at the twins and spoke up, a little breathless, “Hey there… I’m Sky. Me and my friends here come from the Hope domain, and I promise we’re not here to cause trouble. We’re just looking for a certain group in here in the Fear domain that we think can help us.”
The young man turned to Sky, “Wow, come a long way, haven’t you? I wonder… what brings dozens of teenagers across the world, to the dreary North?” Before he got an answer, the young man shook his head as he remembered himself, “Right, sorry, I haven’t introduced myself yet. I’m Troy…” His sister stepped forward, “And I’m Kiara”. Troy nodded, and looked back at Sky.
“And we are two of the four leaders of a group you may or may not have heard of: we’re called the Dream Syndicate.”
A gasp went up from around the crew, Sky with them. She couldn’t believe their luck – had they not been captured, they would never have found these guys, hidden as they were. The young man called Troy smiled, “Ah, heard of us, have you?”
Sky stepped forward, words tumbling out in a rush, “That’s amazing! Because we actually came all the way from Hope to try and find you guys. You see, we’re interested in destroying the Dark too. And then we found this weird object hidden on the island of Apathy that literally split a hole in the Dark sky. It glowed this burning, electric blue, and…” Sky paused, swallowing, willing herself to slow down, “Well, we figured you might know something about it. Maybe it actually can destroy the Dark. But it’s in the bags with our packhorses, you see, down at the gate. Maybe we can summon them here? We really need to show it to you. It –”
Troy held up a hand, stopping her, “Slow down, there’s no rush”. However, he was suddenly looking very interested, the boredom gone out of his expression. He exchanged a glance with his twin sister, then looked back to Sky, who stood panting, waiting for his response. He looked thoughtful for a moment, looking up and the ceiling, and then back down at Sky, “Do you by chance know what this object is called? Was there any indication –”…
Sky broke in, unable to help herself, “Yeah! Yeah, there was. There was a note beside it, calling it the “Dreamcatcher”. Have a look.” She pulled the note she kept on her out of her pocket, handing it to the leader of the Dream Syndicate. He read it, a look of shock on his face, a
nd spun on his heel to look at his twin sister.
“Kiara, get Seth and Iri on the line – I think this is for real.”
Chapter Thirty-Eight
It was actually pretty nice out today. The sun was shining, and it was already comfortably warm outside even in the early morning. Seth could imagine only too well what the conditions would be like back in the North, especially in the Fear domain way up top. He didn’t know where Troy and Kiara were at the moment – they hadn’t talked in over a week – but he knew wherever it was likely had a fair bit of snow on the ground already. Seth knew he had it easy by comparison as he kicked his feet up on his balcony railing, looking down at the channel flowing gently by.
It was a lazy Sunday morning, so there was not much activity in the channel or in the city. Even this early in the morning, though, Seth could see the rippling sails of some recreational boaters out in the blue waters, clearly taking advantage of very possibly the last nice weather of the year. Seth was content to sip on his citrus drink and pretend he was at a warm Southern beach; which, in a sense, he kind of was. He couldn’t totally relax however, because Iri was with him. And whenever she was around, conversation – formal or informal – was going to be constant.
She stood leaning against the balcony now, arms crossed, staring wistfully to the north. Seth thought he knew what she was thinking; Seth kind of missed home in a way, too. Or, more accurately, he missed working with his comrades in the Dream Syndicate. This was the first time in their five years together that they’d really split up – the four leaders – to go on separate missions. It made rational sense, really, but it still bothered Seth that he wasn’t able for weeks on end to be around the people he considered his friends (outside of Iri, of course). It wasn’t all bad though – coincidentally or not, Seth and Iri had gotten to know very well the two they were here to investigate. And speaking of them…
Dreamcatcher Page 29
