The Dreamer Chronicles Trilogy Boxed Set Vol I - III: A Sci-Fi Parallel Universe Adventure (The Dreamer Chronicles - Science Fiction For Kids And Adults)

by Robert Scanlon

  “And broke your wrist, by the look of it,” Andreas said, as he strode out of the forest trail. “It is good to see you, Sarina, but not like this. And I have a suspicion you are aware of our predicament? But let us not stand here and delay your aid. You have need of a healer—”

  “I have the best in the township right here with me,” Paolo said, emerging from the trail holding Eva’s hand. “We should take you to our cabin and we will make a plan. Doubtless you know Makthryg has escaped?”

  She nodded. “But where is Valkrog? We sent him back from our world, bound with ropes. He was supposed to arrive in your township. The Professor and the kids were sending him ...” She saw the looks on all their faces and realised what a lot of explaining she had to do. Even in the dark she could see the tension in Paolo’s jaw as he stared at her.

  Tomas and Rocco arrived out of the forest trail and stopped short. “Did I hear you say Valkrog is back in our world?” Tomas peered at her. “Tell me it isn’t true. I thought we had rid ourselves of that creature. And what, pray, are you doing here?”

  She sighed and winced with pain. “I’ll explain at the cabin. Right now I think I need a—”

  She fainted.

  When she came to, they were in the cabin. Her wrist felt ... better. Not right, but better. She looked down to see a splint made from four pieces of wood and bound by vines, over the top of large, flat leaves which pressed coolly against her skin. Her wrist throbbed terribly, but was a more normal angle again. Her entire arm was in a sling made from cloth and tied around the back of her neck.

  The others stopped talking and looked over at her. She was lying on a bed and she sat up.

  “I did the best I could while you were taken by the shock.” Eva smiled. “I think it will heal properly. When we have time, I will spend longer”—she frowned—“but for now, we have some problems to discuss. Drink this infusion, it will help you regain your energy.” She held out a clay goblet.

  Sarina sat up and took the drink. It was deliciously sweet. Though reaching with her left hand would take some getting used to, just like everything she suppo—

  The realisation set in. How on earth would she paint? She slumped back. Not that she’d given it much thought, but even if she was able to get back to her own world, her chance in the competition was now toast.

  Nathan stared at her.

  “You escaped,” she said. She wondered why he was staring.

  “Well, duh. You made me smart, remember? Anyway, we couldn’t have done it without Andreas and Tomas.”

  “And your Light-Baton.” Tomas nodded approval.

  Sarina raised her eyes.

  Nathan pulled out Agent Blanchard’s mobile phone and held it up.

  “Oh.”

  He still looked upset with her.

  “What’s up? I don’t understand why you are all looking at me like that?”

  Nathan spoke. “Why did you send Valkrog back?”

  She bit her lip. It had been her idea after all. "Our world was in great danger—actually it still is—but part of the danger was the imbalance in rem and dark rem—”

  “Dark rem! So that was his secret! I knew he wasn’t telling me everything.” Nathan stared at her.

  “Yes, and dark rem is ... rather frightening. But what’s worse is that I caused the imbalance by accidentally sending that horrible thing to our world before. He tried to threaten us and kidnapped the kids; there was a big fight, and now he’s badly injured. We captured him and the agents tied him up. The Professor and the kids were supposed to send him back to the township, but ...”

  Andreas shook his head. “It did not happen. Or it did not happen the way you planned it. We must take it on good faith you would not have sent the creature back here without good reason. But it compounds our problem.” He fixed his gaze on her. “Since, as you know, Makthryg has escaped.”

  She nodded. “Yes. That’s partly why I came here, against the Professor’s wishes. I had to escape from the police and make a portal by myself—”

  Nathan whistled. “And we thought we had been having a hard time.”

  Rocco held up his hand. “Excuse me for asking a dumb-Rocco question. Who is this Professor and what is he doing with these kids?”

  Sarina sighed. “It’s a really long story and we don’t have time for it now. I’m afraid my best intentions may have landed the valley in trouble. I came here to rescue Nathan and to try to put things right in our own world. I had some silly idea I could unlight the match, but now ...” She looked down at her damaged arm and back at the group. “Now I wonder what I was thinking.”

  Andreas stood. “We must try to understand the situation as completely as we can. From what I can tell, this Professor and the children are your helpers, is that right? Why did they not come here too?”

  Sarina shook her head. “They don’t have the same power Nathan and I have. But they can open portals and possibly show themselves here in dream-form. Like I did when you first met me, Paolo.”

  Paolo was looking at her strangely. “I do not understand the science, as you call it, of sending Valkrog back, and there are many who would be angry with you for doing so, even though you are the Orange Witch. But it will give me the chance once again to avenge my father.”

  Sarina nodded. “I hope so. But let me answer Andreas. The Professor didn’t want me to try to come here because—” she sighed heavily—“it was too dangerous to use a portal—and I think it might be a one-way trip.” She heard Nathan gasp, but she kept her eyes on Andreas. “Our world is in big trouble. An invisible particle—too tiny to see, even with the most powerful magnifying glass you could think of—called a rem, is responsible for creativity and creative thinking. Sort of. Anyway, it’s disappearing from our world and before too long, we’ll all be dumb. As in stupid. Not able to produce anything creative or invent or be innovative. No rem-particles in our brains.” Andreas started to speak but she held up her hand. “And worse, the Professor made this machine to try to make some kind of super-rem thing, but it’s broken and making the problem worse. He reprogrammed it to make dark rem so we could save Nathan, and that almost worked, if it hadn’t have been for Valkrog.”

  Andreas looked back at her, his face impassive. “So why did you come? You sent the creature back and you said that would fix this imbalance. Why risk yourself?”

  “My friend is here.” She glanced at Nathan. “I was responsible for that bird-thing appearing in our world in the first place. If it hadn’t been for that, Nathan would never have been sent here. I had to help him. But that wasn’t the only reason.”

  Andreas lifted an eyebrow. She shifted on the bed, uncomfortable with what she was about to say. “I had a crazy idea.”

  “Crazy enough to risk your entire life?” Nathan was aghast. “Why?”

  She looked at him. “Nathan, if you thought no-one would ever do anything scientific ever again because something had gone wrong in the world, and you thought you might be the only one who could fix that for everybody, would you just give up?”

  He shook his head.

  “I thought so.” She looked at them all in turn. “The Professor said something to me that’s been bouncing around my head ever since. I thought if I got here and rescued Nathan, then he might be the only person who could understand my idea and help me.”

  “Help you with what?” Andreas said.

  “Saving my world from terminal stupidity. I couldn’t bear the thought that there would be no more art; no more creative imagination. If I could do anything to fix that, I would. So here I am. I don’t even know if I can get back.” She sighed and looked down at her arm. “And I’ve created more problems along the way.”

  She looked up at Paolo. “I never meant to endanger anyone by sending Valkrog back. All I wanted to do was—”

  “Enough.” Andreas stood over Sarina with his hands on his hips. “You have convinced me you are still the brave Orange Witch. But let us take the situation and turn it to our advantage. From our observation
s, Makthryg is not at his full power, and is suffering from some strange injury. Is that correct?” He looked at Paolo.

  Paolo nodded. “He appears weak, and stumbles. As you saw, he has a small band of thugs, though they are not to be dismissed lightly.”

  Andreas frowned. “And Valkrog is injured you say?”

  Sarina nodded. “Very badly. He can’t use one leg at all—it looks shattered to me. Oh—he is also missing a finger, er talon, on one hand.”

  Nathan looked at her sharply. “So is Makthryg.”

  She shrugged.

  Andreas held up his hand and paced the room. “They are both depleted and vulnerable. Nathan scared them with his device, so they will be wary of us.” He looked at Sarina with a wry smile. “And we now have the Orange Witch.” Tomas and Rocco nodded.

  “I don’t understand.” She looked at the three of them. Eva was doing the same, and Lucio, on her lap, was soaking it all up wide-eyed.

  “If you are able to put on a display of your power, here in the township, I believe we can lure our two injured adversaries into the open and deprive them of their freedom. If Valkrog is indeed returned to our world then we must strike while they are weak, or they will be forever our foes. From what Nathan has told us already, they are both captivated by the idea they can somehow possess your power. If you are willing to help us with this first, then I promise you whatever assistance we can give you in helping you ... save your world.”

  “Hmm. We don’t have much time.” She rubbed her temples with her left hand. Then stopped in mid-rub. She jerked her head up and stared at Andreas. “Oh yes. We can put on one ginormous display. Can’t we, Nathan.” She turned and grinned at him.

  He groaned. “I was afraid you were going to say that.”

  Andreas slapped him heartily on the back. “Come, Master Strategist. You’ll be outdone by the Orange Witch, yet!”

  “Yeah, right.” He looked at everyone and suddenly grinned. “They won’t know what hit ‘em!”

  Andreas grinned back. “My bet is Makthryg has retreated to the fortress. If Valkrog still has any brains left, he too, will make his way there. Therefore, we assume they come from that direction. Tomas, Rocco and I will assemble a small party, and join our other men hidden in the trails. We will lie in wait and capture them as they pass. How long do you need to assemble your plan?”

  Sarina looked at Nathan. “A few minutes maybe.”

  Nathan let out a low whistle. “I hope you know what you are doing.”

  She looked at him squarely. “It’s you who needs to know what we are doing. It’s your brains I need, Mr ‘my-great-great-grandfather-put-one-over-on-Einstein’ Scientist. Why do you think I wanted to rescue you?”

  His jaw dropped and he stared at her.

  Tomas stood. “Come, Andreas. I’ve seen these two at work before. Whatever they come up with will suit our needs. Let us go and drive Makthryg and his creature into our trap. This time they will not get away.”

  “I will come too. If Valkrog is back, then nothing you do will stop me seeing that creature face justice.” Paolo’s face was tight.

  Andreas nodded. “I understand, Paolo.” He looked briefly at Sarina and Nathan, and opened the door to leave. “You will be ready before us. But we will not be a long distance from you. There is little point in us venturing too far into their territory, even though there may be more of us. When you hear the sound of the lovebird”—he looked at Tomas, who cupped his hands to his mouth and made a soft cooing noise like an owl—“it will signal our readiness.” He paused briefly, then stepped out the door, followed by Paolo and the other two men.

  Nathan turned to face her and scowled. “Well then, Miss Witch, do tell me your brilliant idea. You’d better tell me what you know about this dark rem too, since the Professor didn’t see fit to include me.”

  She looked at him calmly. “I think he was scared if too many people knew about dark rem, it might put them off the project. I also think he was worried if it got into the wrong hands, then dark rem would be an awful weapon. And it would be—I’ve experienced it. The only creative thing about dark rem is how perfectly horrible it makes everything. Nightmares, evil apparitions, crimes, general nastiness.”

  “Now you’re describing Makthryg and Valkrog.”

  She smiled. “Nothing wrong with your mind now is there? That’s exactly what I thought. Valkrog was attracting dark rem into our world, which is why we had to send him back. But that’s no longer the problem. The fireworks display Andreas needs will be our chance to make a connection to our world. I have a hunch we might be able to fix the rem leak, but you’re the only one I know who might understand how to do it.”

  “No pressure then,” he muttered.

  She ignored him and flicked a quick smile at Eva and Lucio watching on, fascinated. “He’s always like this.” She turned back to Nathan. “When I was waiting in the police holding cell, an old Time magazine caught my eye and I picked it up to read while I waited for ... oh never mind. It had a picture on the front of a burning oilfield, somewhere in the Middle East, I think. Anyway, there’s this crazy guy who puts out these supposedly un-put-outable fires. Do you know what they do?”

  “They blow them out with bombs. It simultaneously seals the hole and takes all the oxygen away from the fire.”

  She gaped at him. “Yes. How did you know that?”

  “I’m the scientist, remember?”

  “Well it got me thinking, and I wondered if we could do that with the rem-loss. The Professor said the collider had acted like a match. We could blow the match out, but the fire had already started. He said we had to find a way to unlight the match. But when I saw this article, I thought maybe we could blow the fire out and at the same time sever the connection to our world that’s causing all the problems.” She twisted her mouth and looked at him. “It sounded like a good idea at the time. But where do we get that kind of explosive power?”

  “Now it’s you that’s crazy, Sarina. Of course there’s someone who has access to that kind of power.”

  She looked at him with a quizzical expression. “Who?”

  “You do, you numpty!”

  This time, it was her jaw that dropped.

  Nathan nodded, then shrugged. “Not that it’s much use. I think we’d need to talk to the Prof. It would need to be organised from both ends.” He held up his hands in despair. “The best we can hope for is to do some fireworks with your cold plasma and help the townsmen.”

  “No, wait!” Sarina adjusted her sling and sat up straight. “I might be able to reach the Professor. Briefly.” She looked at Eva. “I’ll need Lucio’s help, if that’s okay?”

  The boy twisted around to look at his mother. She smiled and nodded. He slipped down off her knee and moved over to Sarina. “I can help. Tell me what do.”

  She took his hand. “You can supply me some energy. I have to close my eyes and reach someone special. You see, in my world, there is a girl almost exactly your age, called Lena. She has a strong connection with me. I might be able to reach the Professor through her. For a short while.” She turned to Nathan. “What do I ask him?”

  “Ask him if they could open a portal, using the collider. The collider would need to be unshielded. Ask him if he thinks we could use it as a conduit; like an opening to a pipeline that we’ll use to blow out the fire.” He frowned. “Actually, I don’t think it’s any more complex than that. But from what you’re telling me about dark rem, I don’t know if we can do it and prevent the rem-drain without also flooding the world with dark rem. Maybe now the imbalance has been fixed with Valkrog being back here, it will work.” He shrugged.

  Flooding their world with dark rem. That would mean a world full of nightmares and terror. Sarina shivered at the thought. She was still holding Lucio’s hand. She looked into his eyes. “You know that healing you helped me with? When you gave me your energy?”

  He nodded and whispered. “You promised not to tell Mother!”

  She let go his hand and h
eld up her finger against her lips. “It’s okay. She didn’t hear.” She saw Eva smiling behind the boy and continued. “This time, you can give me as much of your energy as you can. I’m guessing you might get tired, but do your best for as long as you can. Ready?” He nodded. She closed her eyes. She imagined bright Lena, brave Lena, beaming at her, always ready to help. A flood of soothing warm energy filled her body and she almost forgot her injury, and nearly forgot what she was doing. When she’d said ‘give me as much as you can’, she hadn’t realised just how powerful a healer the boy was.

  She took in a deep breath. And brought the image of the girl closer. Now she was looking out through the girl’s eyes at a drink on a table in the café. “Lena,” she whispered, “it’s me, Sarina.”

  I know. It was as if she were answering herself in her own head.

  “I need to speak to your Daddy.”

  I know. He’s here.

  The image shifted to the left and a magnified picture of Professor Harrison came into view. His brow was creased. “Lena? Is everything okay?”

  “Sarina—”

  She heard the girl’s voice speaking.

  “Yes, I know. You must miss her a lot.” He sighed heavily. “I do too.”

  “No, Daddy. She’s here. She wants to speak to you.”

  He looked startled and looked around. “Here? How? But I ...” he looked back at Lena. “Are you tricking me?”

  “No, Daddy. She’s not here. She’s here!” Sarina felt the girl—herself—tap her head. “In my head. She says she doesn’t have long.”

  His eyes narrowed slightly. “I believe you, Lena. What does she want?”

  “Tell him I have some questions about unlighting the match.”

  Okay.

  “She says she wants to ask you something about unlighting a match.”

  He drew in a sharp breath. “It is you, Sarina! Where are you?”