The Queen of Dreams (The Dashkova Memoirs Book 6)

by Thomas K. Carpenter

  "Could that woman have gone into the hut to kill William?" asked Nasrine.

  "She would have motive, given that Morwen stole the hut from her. How would she know who we were, except as Morwen's allies?" I pondered aloud.

  It also could be that Nasrine was the murderer and was trying to deflect blame. Still. It was a worry that the Jaguar Woman might be creeping around the hut.

  I sighed heavily. "Eighteen days. We have to survive here another eighteen days before we can go through the portal."

  "It will be dark," said Nasrine. "Do you think those creatures prefer the sun?"

  I glanced at the half-blob of orange-red on the horizon. I knew exactly what she meant. Those fliers rested in the darkness between the monoliths, biding their time. We hadn't seen any outside of the ring, which meant they preferred the darkness. Probably it was only the beam of sunlight flashing between the monoliths and onto the portal that kept us from being attacked.

  But when the sun went past the horizon, which would happen nearly at the same time the portal would open, the fliers would have nothing to worry about. Would they let us near the portal or descend upon us en masse?

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  The next few weeks passed as painfully as naked flesh resting on hot rock. Nasrine stayed away from the hut on unspecified errands. When I asked about them, she refused to answer. Of course, she barely talked to me, even when I wasn't asking pointed questions. Rather she stared blankly at a space right above my shoulder.

  The beetles swarmed through the area twice during that time, and after each event I worried that Nasrine had been devoured, but each time she showed up a few hours later.

  Part of me was relieved that she wasn't spending time in the hut. Her vendetta against me hadn't changed, and the alieness of her mannerisms suggested that I couldn't rely on predicting human reactions. She could conceivably attack me at any time and I'd have no warning.

  We took two trips back to the portal before the sun set. Each time, the silvery ring was dormant. Neither time did we pass into the inner area. The sun no longer fell upon the standing stones and the darkness was awake with the flapping of wings, a sign to stay away.

  On the eighteenth day, Nasrine was sitting in the chair watching me when I awoke, pale blue eyes like glittering sapphires. Her bronze skin glowed against the modified cream stola she wore that would let her limbs move freely. She had an eagerness that bordered on hunger. The smell of brimstone hung in the air.

  "Today," she said.

  A glance out the window confirmed the date. A thin bead of sunlight outlined the horizon, ready to disappear, forever possibly.

  A raging fire crackled in the hearth. I knuckled the sleep away from my eyes and nodded.

  "Let me eat first," I said.

  She handed me a plate full of that damn meat. We'd not found anything else for sustenance. I was ready to throw the plate out the window, but I needed the strength in case we had to battle the fliers.

  With as much enthusiasm as a funeral procession, I stuffed the tangy strips of meat into my mouth. After choking them down with generous gulps of water, I readied myself for what would hopefully be the final journey into the center of the city.

  I'd packed a knapsack with the diary and a few other odds and ends. I refused to take any of the tangy bacon with us. If we didn't make it into the hut, I would rather starve than eat another bite of it.

  Before we left, Nasrine stripped off her clothes and shoved her arms into the fire. Flames rippled around her body, intensifying her inner glow. When the fire was reduced to a few pale flickers, she removed her arms and slipped her clothes back on.

  I opened my mouth to make a quip about her warm personality, but she glared before the first word came out. More than ever I missed Benjamin Franklin. Stars and stones, I'd even take Voltaire as my companion, or even the unfortunate Adam Smith, were he still alive.

  Nasrine leapt off the porch onto the street, landing as if it were only a step from a sidewalk. I climbed down the rope and took position on the iron bicycle.

  As we rode, I had the sense that we were being watched again, except that I'd never had that feeling this far from the center. Though I spied no movement, the city felt like it was waking up, or maybe creatures long dormant were waking.

  "What if the portal is not open?" asked Nasrine.

  It was my turn to stay silent. Mostly because I had no answer. Neva had warned that different universes traveled at different speeds. If this one moved slower, we would be stuck in darkness.

  I was deep in thought, considering our options, when a wave of beetles burst from a side street, catching us unawares, flooding out of the shadows of the alleyway. We slowed to turn around and escape them, but quickly realized that we were cut off.

  Ahead, tendrils of beetles cut across our path. Normally, the insects traveled along the wide thoroughfares. The smothering darkness seemed to have changed their route.

  "Ride hard!" I yelled.

  Nasrine's flesh glowed as we approached the swarm. Tension formed at the center of my forehead as I readied a wave of sorcery.

  As the blackish mist rolled from my outstretched hand to annihilate the insects to my left, the air to my right grew unnaturally warm. I snapped my head around in time to see Nasrine release a geyser of flame and, for a brief moment, thought it was meant for me.

  The fire took the beetles I'd failed to destroy, leaving a clear path for our iron bicycles. We shot through the gap, escaping the swarm.

  "Do you have more of that?" I asked, receiving a nod from Nasrine.

  We were going to need it if the portal was open.

  Near the center, the buildings were higher, blocking the horizon and plunging us into darkness. Only a faint nimbus warmed the sky to our left.

  We would have needed a lantern, except that Nasrine's bronze skin glowed with enough ambient light to ride by. When we neared the monoliths, Nasrine moved to climb off her bicycle, but I waved her off.

  "Better to ride them as close as we can to the portal," I said.

  "Leaving us defenseless by occupying our hands," she said.

  "We can always leap off," I said.

  The plan seemed less viable as we coasted towards the gap between the structures. Even from a couple of hundred feet, the flapping of wings was deafening. We exchanged worried glances, which for Nasrine in her new form, was something of a sight.

  Occasionally, lone winged creatures burst from between the buildings to fly off into the city. In the dim light, it was difficult to see details, but the long jagged beak in front reminded me of well-used scissors.

  What was holding the remainder in the space between the monoliths? Were they attracted to the portal?

  "Maybe we'd better get off," I said.

  We crept to the edge, looking down the passage to get a glimpse of the landscape ahead. Shapes flew past the gap frequently, back lighted by a strange glow that emanated from the center of the inner stones. Nasrine's blue eyes lit up with victory.

  I grabbed her arm when she moved forward. Her bald head glowed like amber.

  "We need a plan," I said.

  "Run hard. Use your sorcery. We go into the portal," she said.

  Further discussion disintegrated when Nasrine sprinted forward. The cacophony of wings was like being caught in a violent storm.

  Fire erupted from Nasrine, spewing in all directions. I threw magic indiscriminately, trying to keep the fliers from attacking us. A serrated beak snapped near my head.

  We made it to the inner stones. The portal glowed with silver mist. Any doubts were erased by the crescendo of bird cries that seemed to be rising by the second.

  A wave of fire blossomed from her flesh, a pulse of destruction that traveled forward, disintegrating birds by the dozen.

  We stumbled through the portal.

  Passing through the membrane sent ripples of electricity across my flesh.

  Misjudging the landing, I fell to my knees.

  Nasrine lay beside me on h
er side, flesh dimmed by her efforts.

  We lay in a large dark space. Each breath quivered past my lips.

  I saw no walls, no ceiling. Only the hard floor beneath my knees and palms.

  We were back in the hut. Somewhere deep inside it.

  "Where are we?" whispered Nasrine, in a voice that almost made me think she was human again.

  "The hut has many rooms, many hallways. We're somewhere inside of it," I said, cringing when my voice was swallowed by the darkness

  "You have been here?" she asked.

  "Maybe not here, but somewhere in here."

  "Like the place that William's body lies," she said.

  I nodded, rather than hear myself speak.

  We got up and moved through the darkness for twenty minutes before we found a wall. I was glad that Nasrine provided a light source. Last time, I'd had to use my magic and it had exhausted me. I wasn't sure I had it in me to do that again.

  At the wall, we turned right. It went for another twenty minutes before we found a passage. We took it after a brief discussion.

  "I wish we had brought the bicycles," I said. "We could have used them here."

  "And those things would have cut us down before we reached the portal," she said.

  The passage split twice. I took the right way both times. At first, Nasrine tried to make sense of our directions, but I told her not to bother. The interior dimensions could change on the whim of the Mistress of the Hut.

  When we came upon another large room, as least as big as a ballroom, I thought I heard a footstep behind us. Not wanting to meet whatever else was in the lower passages of the hut, I tugged on Nasrine's arm to hurry her forward. We set off across the ballroom.

  From the other direction, a massive teeth-rattling boom sounded, nearly shaking me off my feet. Wide-eyed, Nasrine turned to me for guidance. Whatever it was, I didn't want to meet it.

  We spun around to go the other way, when a shape moved out of the darkness towards us.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Nasrine sent a spray of flame from her outstretched hands.

  "No!" I screamed.

  The tumbling fire washed over the approaching figure, who kept walking as if it'd only been water mist.

  I stumbled backwards, calling the magic. Nasrine readied another volley with her palms facing forward.

  When the light from Nasrine's flesh fell upon the figure, a cry slipped from my lips. I grabbed Nasrine's arm as the woman stopped.

  It was the Jaguar Woman. The mystery woman we'd been chasing across the multiverse. Da Vinci's painting had captured her essence well, but events since had changed her.

  Her sharp cheekbones and wide eyes made her appear feral. She wore traveler's gear: loose fitting clothing, sturdy and road worn. A scar crossed the edge of her chin. The sides of her head had been shaved to stubble, while the top and back were long, reminding me of the natives in the west of America.

  She oozed danger, and I sensed she was trying to determine who we were before she killed us. Whatever I said next could save or damn us.

  "I have your beetle," I said, touching the soft spot at the base of my throat. "Not here, but I have it up there."

  The revelation confused the Jaguar Woman. She glanced back and forth between Nasrine and me; we must have been a sorry sight ourselves. One bald, with slightly glowing bronzed skin, the other an emaciated Russian princess.

  "You know who I am?" she asked in English.

  The accent was foreign, nothing I'd ever heard before. The words were thick and husky in her throat.

  "A Mistress of the Hut," I said.

  "Then what is my name?" she asked, a threat hovering beneath her words.

  I almost blurted out that I didn't know. But I did know. I'd known it all along, but hadn't yet made the connection. It explained Morwen's lack of powers compared to the others, and the reason she didn't want to go to Inverness, and why she didn't have a guardian. Other events became clear in the light of this new revelation.

  "You go by Morwen, or sometimes Vesna. Other names, too, though I do not know them. But Morwen was the last, before your guardian took your spot in the hut," I said.

  The woman turned her head and spit. "You may call me Siobhan now. She can keep that name." When Siobhan said "she," she nodded upwards, her lips curling in disgust. "And who are you?"

  Once again, a threat was implied. I weighed the truth, but there were too many unknowns to calculate.

  "This is Nasrine Topaz, daughter of the Ottoman Empire, famed inventor in her own right," I said.

  Siobhan's glance was dismissive, as if Nasrine was no more than a buzzing fly.

  "I am Katerina Dashkova."

  The sucking in breath put me on high alert. I tensed, readying my magic, but continued speaking.

  "You've heard my name before. I saw it in your notes. How do you know me?" I asked.

  "A Great Raven," she said.

  "Zora," I sputtered.

  "You consort with Great Ravens and travel through the multiverse, and nearer still, I sense some shifting artifact that weighs through time. Are these connected? Who are you, Katerina Dashkova? Have you been sent by my sisters to finally eliminate me? Or from Morwen, who is still paranoid that I might catch up to her again?" she asked.

  "Neither," I said. "Our problems are much greater than the petty squabbles of witches."

  Siobhan sucked a breath between her teeth. "Do not mistake our disagreements. When the sisters of the hut squabble, whole universes tremble in response."

  "Why did you leave directions to the time pools in the Library of the Dead?" I asked.

  Her eyebrow rose and I realized my mistake. "I have not been to the Library of the Dead. Not yet, anyway. Maybe I'll change my mind, and alter your time stream, unless you can help me with Morwen."

  At that precise moment, something thudded heavily, shaking the hut.

  "What was that?" I asked.

  Siobhan smirked. "The bowels of the hut are no place for mortals. Too many dangerous things have been lost down here, and with Morwen's growing madness, it'll only get worse."

  "How do you know about that?" I asked.

  "Isn't it obvious? I do not know the source, but I know its signs," she said.

  "A Yolgothi," I said.

  "That should not have been possible. Unless the hut has been weakened. If she is afflicted then you are doomed as well as I," said Siobhan, her face wracked with an existential pain.

  "Why are we doomed? Tell us. Is there anything we can do?" I asked.

  "Only if you can restore me to my proper place in the hut," she said. "I would be most grateful. But that is a task too great for the likes of you."

  When I spoke, I found myself whispering, as if I were afraid Morwen might hear. "What about you? Now that you're back in, can you fix it?"

  "My time is limited. Soon, I must return to the time pools where I am bound. Too short a visit to make progress against my former guardian." Her gaze grew heavy and she shook her head. "She made her plans over many thousands of years. It was my mistake to allow her that long. It'll take me longer to get my place in the hut back, if ever. And without a way to sever her link, I might never return."

  The floor trembled again. If the tremors were any indication, something large was moving in our direction.

  Siobhan seemed unconcerned. She was staring at her hand, which was strangely translucent.

  "My time is down to the quick," she said. "Something comes this way. A Bandersnatch, perhaps?"

  I held my hands out towards her. "Can you help us get out of the depths of the hut before you go?"

  Tendrils of transparentness traveled up Siobhan's chest as if she were slowly turning to glass. She held up her nearly absent hand as a way of answer.

  "Flee," she said soberly. "It hunts those that might do it most harm. Forget it and it'll forget you."

  "But the hut. What do we do about Morwen? Or her madness?" I asked desperately.

  The shaking grew more violent. My teet
h rattled against themselves.

  Siobhan's face was haunted by history. An eternity was reflected in those eyes. Her feralness revealed not as aggression, but the base overtaking the self over the millenniums of her existence.

  "Nothing. There's nothing you can do now," she said. "Flee. Flee the hut. Flee my sisters and forget them if you can. We've brought nothing but pain to these worlds."

  As Siobhan disappeared, Nasrine tugged on my hand, pulling me away. The thundering steps of the Bandersnatch approached, speeding my heartbeat.

  "The hut," I said, stumbling away after Nasrine. "How do we get out?"

  As the former Mistress of the Hut faded from view, only her ancient eyes remained. Her last words reached me as an echo.

  "Know yourself and you will know the hut."

  Behind us, a throaty roar shook the air. The violence of the sound suggested jagged teeth and powerful jaws.

  It was upon us.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  The open space of the great room was no place to make our stand against the Bandersnatch. We needed a narrow hallway to escape, but the walls were nowhere near.

  We ran as the creature pursued us. Nasrine's hand was almost too hot to hold. She released my hand and threw a jet of flame backwards.

  Her Jinn magic illuminated the Bandersnatch, whose elongated neck, oversized head, and wide toothy mouth made it a fearsome foe. The fire singed the creature's wide scaled chest, but did not slow it.

  The Bandersnatch roared again, surging forward, closing the gap between us. Already my legs were tired from our previous flight through the portal.

  "We can't outrun it," I said, between breaths.

  Nasrine's skin glowed with purpose. "Together we can kill it if we both turn and attack."

  "No," I said, knowing at once that was wrong. "Siobhan said that it hunts those that would do it most harm. She told us to forget it and it will forget us."

  "How can we forget that?" she asked.

  The Bandersnatch roared again. It was twenty feet behind us, growing closer by each step.