by Rob Kinsman
They rode as long as they dared, but as night descended they were forced to stop and rest. With any luck the man they were following would also do the same, rather than risk his horse injuring itself in the dark. A broken ankle, belonging to man or horse, would be a death sentence.
The place they made camp in was about as welcoming as a spa weekend in the seventh circle of hell. The air was bitter and dry; the wind a swelling, ghostly presence. There was next to no shelter from any wildlife which chose to come and sting, strangle or nibble on them.
They each sipped a few meagre mouthfuls of water, ate a miserable meal and settled down for the night.
Light came early, but Zoe had barely slept. Whenever she got close, the image of Nick snapping the hunter’s neck returned. Her mind had added a horrific crunching sound, which reason told her she couldn’t have possibly heard from so far away.
Nick himself also slept poorly, rolling restlessly from side to side throughout the night. Zoe couldn’t escape the feeling that he was biding his time, waiting for the moment when he would slip away, taking the horse for himself. Sid, on the other hand, slept solidly, his forceful snoring as distracting as a bulldozer at a garden party.
When the sun rose the three of them were still present and unharmed, although Zoe and Nick both felt more tired than when they had laid down. As they prepared to move on, they saw something circling high above them. A bird of prey.
“Do you think it’s told them where we are?” asked Zoe.
“Yeah. As long as they speak bird.”
“I expect their wizards can do more than card tricks and poor-quality patter.”
The hawk spied a smaller bird, and descended towards it with devastating speed and ferocity.
“They don’t need to follow our trail,” said Nick, mounting the horse. “They know where we’re going.”
Sid, refreshed by his sleep, vaulted into his position on the horse. Zoe, however, stayed where she was, various pinpricks of knowledge finally forming into a constellation.
“So they’ll be waiting for us?”
“Of course. Get on the horse.”
She didn’t.
“We’re walking into a trap.”
“Probably.”
“Isn’t that a bad thing?”
“It was your idea to go there.”
Zoe was mentally already miles away. Another, more terrible, thought was hidden somewhere just out of reach.
“We have to go,” said Nick. “They won’t be far behind.”
No. This is too important.
And then, finally, she understood what was happening. She sat back down on the ground.
“What the hell are you playing at?”
Even Sid was looking at her like she was mad, which was a pretty damning state of affairs. Zoe folded her legs.
“I’m just going to sit here for a while.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
Sid let out a concerned yelp, but Zoe had never been more serene.
“I’ll leave you here.” Nick’s voice was cold and unfeeling. “I swear it.”
In for a penny, in for a pound.
“Go on then.”
Despite the risk of certain death if she was wrong, Zoe’s bluff was almost worth it just to see the look on Nick’s face. Sid pointed to the horizon, where some tiny figures could just about be made out. Men on horses.
“Last chance,” said Nick.
Zoe shuffled around to face the enemy. And waited.
Nick went to pull on the horse’s reins, but Sid grabbed his arms.
“Get off me!”
“Look.” Zoe had a smile in her voice. Nick shook off Sid’s unwelcome grasp, then saw what she meant. Their pursuers had stopped where they were. They were keeping their distance.
“What are they afraid of?”
For once, Zoe knew the answer.
“Nothing. They’re not trying to catch us, just keep us on course.”
“I don’t understand.”
Zoe felt an inappropriate rush of joy that someone else had said this for a change.
“It’s all too easy, isn’t it?” she explained. “We need food, we find some. We need water, a horse, and it’s all there waiting.”
“We could have died on that mountainside.”
“But we didn’t. And if we veer off course they just nudge us back. They want us to go back to the place where all this started.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
Zoe sat in silence for some time, watching the silhouettes of hunters lined up in the distance. With a deep breath, she got to her feet and re-joined her companions on the horse. They cantered slowly away.
They greeted the sight of the mana caves without any sense of joy. Even if the walls did protect against magic, what was the point now there was no mystery in their destination? Zoe felt like a train stuck following the same set of rails over and over again. They’d made this journey before, and for some reason they were being forced to make it again.
Why?
The following day they found their way to the hive of evil called Ramford. The town had been built around an oasis, and the three refugees joined their horse in drinking deep, refreshing mouthfuls of water. It was another fortuitous find, their own supply of water having run out the night before. If they hadn’t found their way here then Zoe was sure that whoever was pulling the strings wouldn’t have let them die of thirst, some other solution would have presented itself.
Still, the water was cool and refreshing, despite the patches of vomit which floated on the surface near the row of gin palaces. Even now, at barely midday, various people were tumbling out of the bars and heaving their breakfast up with relish. It was that kind of place.
They bought supplies with coins taken from the dead hunter. When they were ready to leave town, Zoe told Nick to go and do what he must. Somewhere here was a temple where he would learn the path to their destination.
“But I don’t remember how to get there,” he insisted.
“You remembered how to snap a man’s neck, I’m sure this isn’t beyond you.”
Although Nick puffed up with anger, Zoe calmly began leading the horse away.
“Come on Sid.” He bounded after her. “We’ll see you at the crossroads,” she called over her shoulder.
She made camp with Sid at the intersection of the two lonely roads which helped travellers cross this expansive wilderness. Probably three or four hours had passed before they saw a lone figure heading out of the town.
“Do you know where to go?” she asked as Nick approached. She didn’t wait for an answer before climbing up onto the horse.
Twenty Eight
They were walking in circles, yet none of them doubted they were making progress. As it had before, the plains gradually morphed into desert. When the sands began to sting, Nick told Zoe the ancient words he had learnt at the temple. Once again they found shelter in the eye of the storm, safe from the wall of lacerating sand swirling around them.
A well of energy rose from the ground, a column of magic which touched the sky. The colours in it were muted and dead.
“You may already be too late,” came a woman’s voice.
The ranger took a halting step forward, her body taking shape against the torrent of sand. There was a deep gash across her throat.
“The knight killed you,” said Nick.
The ranger unconsciously raised her hand to the wound.
“It requires more than a blade to take the life of a Night Ranger.”
Zoe was transfixed by the diseased pillar of energy.
“Is this it? My dream?”
The ranger nodded, solemn. “The king’s poison taints it. As the people in it continue to die, so it becomes weaker.”
“Why does he do it?”
“For sport,” said the ranger with a shrug.
Zoe shuddered. This was sadder and sicker than she had imagined.
“Did we lead him here?”
The
nod was almost imperceptible. Zoe felt an ocean of regret swallow her.
“What can we do?” said Nick.
“Nothing. Although its heart still beats for now, the world you created is dying.”
Nick advanced towards her, belligerent.
“I don’t accept that.”
Anger polluted the ranger’s otherwise soft tones. “The king has sent his message to the people in your world, and they have listened. With every heartbeat more and more of them die chasing his empty promise.”
Zoe wiped her eye with the back of her hand. When she looked up, the ranger was staring straight at her.
“You can begin again. I am weakened, but I still have my gift and you have yours. We can create a new world, bring your dream to life once again. And this time, we will keep it safe.”
Sid danced around on the spot, the way he did when he was either excited or imagining his feet were full of ants.
“And we can escape into this new world?” asked Nick. The ranger nodded, never taking her eyes off Zoe. “Where do we sign?”
Zoe silenced Nick’s cocksure swaggering with a glance. This was her chance to set things right. She could create a new mirror of the Earth in her dream, start over and avoid the mistakes she had made last time around. This time she wouldn’t be the lonely outsider, she would make her life count. For once she felt like she knew what she wanted with absolute certainty.
“No,” she said.
The silence was deafening.
“She doesn’t know what she’s saying,” said Nick, nervously.
The ranger tilted her head, curious.
“You have a gift,” she said. “Don’t waste it.”
“I can’t let people I’m responsible for die, then just start over again like nothing happened.” Zoe had never read a good parenting book, but was pretty sure this was the kind of thing they’d recommend. “I have to look out for the people I created, even if most of them are pretty bloody horrible.”
“Can we discuss this?” said Nick, trying to jostle Zoe aside. She shrugged him off.
“The old stream is polluted,” said the ranger. “But this time you can remain hidden. The king will never find the source.”
“Yeah, about that… “ Zoe realised the others were giving her the look she got when she started to tell a joke at parties. It wasn’t one full of optimism. “The king made it possible for us to come back here, so he must want me to do what you suggest. Which kind of makes me think it’s probably a bad idea.” The ranger stood unnervingly still. “He wants me to give him a new world full of people, and when I do maybe this whole thing will just start over again. Like you say, for sport.”
“You lack wisdom,” said the ranger.
“There’s worse things.”
The ranger started to straighten up. As Zoe and her companions watched, it became grotesquely clear that her limbs were changing. Twisting and growing into something new.
A few moments later the king stood before them.
“I won’t help you,” said Zoe.
“There have been other wives before, there will be more in the future.”
Zoe realised something she’d just dismissed as paranoia.
“Is it because I dream? Is that why you chose me to be your bride?”
It was the closest she’d ever come to seeing him smile.
“I am done with you,” said the king. He reached his hand towards Sid, and squeezed his fingers into a fist. Even though he was a good eight feet away, Sid began to choke.
“No. Stop this!” As usual, nobody listened to Zoe. “I’ll do a deal.”
The king didn’t even bother to look at her, Sid’s increasingly purple face seemed far more entertaining.
“I’ll dream for you,” said Zoe quietly. The king let his fist dissolve. Sid managed to suck in a lungful of air. “But I want something.” The king didn’t respond, which Zoe took as a good sign. He was listening, at least. “Let them go back to my world, then destroy the link. Let the people there live and die naturally.”
“I don’t make deals.”
“I swear I will dream and I won’t run. Every night I’ll give you a new world. New people to rule over.”
Zoe had rather hoped for a display of regret from Nick, something along the lines of ‘you can’t send us back without you’. It never came.
“Very well,” said the king. “Step into the stream.”
Sid looked at Zoe with wide puppy eyes.
“It’s alright, Sid.”
He dashed over and clamped his arms around her. It felt good to be held, even by a madman who somehow still had an erection. Zoe kissed his forehead. Sid turned, stepped into the channel of energy, and disappeared.
It was Nick’s turn next. She could sense him arranging a speech in his mind.
“Don’t bother Nick. Just go.” Zoe wished he’d made a better job of hiding his relief. “But promise me one thing – my parents.”
“I’ll find them. I’ll tell them.”
Nick stepped towards the column… then hesitated. He looked back at Zoe.
“I really did love you,” he said. “That was why I started this.”
And with an apologetic smile he moved forwards and disappeared the way Sid had.
Zoe mulled Nick’s words for a moment, and realised she didn’t care if he was speaking the truth or not. She didn’t need him.
“Close it off,” said Zoe quietly.
The king muttered something under his breath. The column of energy disappeared back into the ground like water down a plughole.
It was done. Back to reality, and this place was Zoe’s reality. For now, anyway.
She fingered the small vial of poison secreted in her tunic, checking it was still there. There was one thing she was sure of, and that was that this king wouldn’t be killing any more of her creations. Protecting them was her responsibility, and she would see it done. The poison might or might not be enough to kill the king. It didn’t matter.
It would be enough for her.
Twenty Nine
That night everyone had their own dreams.
Old men spluttering in their sleep saw moments from their own childhood vividly recreated before their eyes. Young boys dreamt of the toys they hoped they would get this Christmas. A 30 year-old IT student with no imagination dreamt that he’d created an algorithm which would unlock the key to women’s hearts and, more pressingly, their underwear.
But Zoe didn’t see any of this.
The woman whose name had briefly been on everyone’s lips was nowhere to be found.
In the days following the disappearance of the king and his castle, most people didn’t know what to do with themselves. The dream had given them a clarity of purpose which had been suddenly and cruelly snatched away. There would need to be a period of adjustment.
Many thousands of people had already died in their bid to reach the castle, and the sudden disappearance of the dream led to speculation of a ‘no room at the inn’ policy. Since the majority of people who’d died had been part of Waking Dream the organisation soon collapsed, leaving the more conventional religions to squabble over the souls of those who remained.
Zoe’s parents were not among those who’d died. Nick, for once, was true to his word. He sought them out and told them as much of the truth as he knew: that Zoe had given this world its freedom, and stayed behind to help create new kingdoms. He skirted over the bit about mass deaths in the name of sport. Zoe’s mother wasted no time bragging about her daughter’s achievements to the rest of the village, who for once had no comeback. Ruth had all the trappings of a happy woman because she didn’t know how else to behave. But sometimes, late at night, she would cry into her husband’s shoulder.
Sid returned to his flat, where he was soon tracked down by the world’s youngest-looking 33 year old, who called himself Skyhawk. In the immediate aftermath of the end of the dream, conspiracy theorists had gone into overdrive. Skyhawk had the golden ticket of having actually spent time with the
woman who seemed an integral part of this mystery. He published books and gave countless interviews retelling his experiences with Zoe, with a few embellishments along the lines of her being ‘the best he ever had’.
When it became clear that Zoe wasn’t coming back to work, it was decided to re-advertise her job. This hit a snag when it was realised that nobody knew what she’d actually been doing for the past twelve years. The vacancy hovered in perpetual limbo, and the council’s running was no less efficient for her absence.
Zoe had given the people back the ability to dream their own dreams. Nobody needed to be part of a faceless mass anymore, because that greatest of gifts, freedom, was theirs until the end of their lives.
To mark the anniversary of the end of the dream, the world’s leading philosopher’s gathered to debate the issues it had raised. It was widely agreed that what Zoe had done was noble thing, placing others’ happiness before her own.
But then, two weeks later, a new iPhone came out and everyone forgot all about Zoe in their clamour to get one. And the world continued to turn.
Table of contents
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Twelve
Thirteen
Fourteen
Fifteen
Sixteen
Seventeen
Eighteen
Nineteen
Twenty
Twenty One
Twenty Two
Twenty Three
Twenty Four
Twenty Five
Twenty Six
Twenty Seven
Twenty Eight
Twenty Nine
