Back to the Dream

by Felicitas Ivey

  I was finishing off my salad when Samojirou walked into the room, looking angry. I resisted the urge to squeak like a mouse and dive for cover.

  "She's agreed to leave with him,” he snarled. “In the morning, with only a handful of Reavers and a maid to accompany her on Iida's ship. She will have an escort of her own gokenin only as far as the western shoreline. Mawatari claims there wouldn't be room for them on Iida's ship. He also pointed out that it would be only for a month and that she will be treated as if she were Iida's sister."

  "She knows what she's doing,” I told him. Gokenin were lower ranking samurai, like Seki or Takehito.

  "Does she?” he snapped.

  "The Reavers can protect her, and it's not like she's helpless,” I said, getting up to give him a hug, “I don't think Iida knows she can gate to the real world or that she knows that spell."

  "I don't like this,” Samojirou said, his anger seeping out of his body as I hugged him.

  "So she can take a maid?” I asked after we just held each other for a while.

  "She is,” he said.

  "I know that this sounds silly, but...."

  "Keno?” Samojirou prompted when I didn't finish my sentence.

  I felt really stupid, but I had to say it. He could laugh if he wanted, but I was going to make the offer. “I can be her maid."

  "Keno!” Samojirou exclaimed.

  "I know that I can't really fight, but I'm good with a fan, and they won't expect it. I know that someone else would be a better choice, but I'm offering to do this, to protect my lord.” I finished in rush.

  Samojirou was silent for a long time, and I got nervous. “I suppose that either Okita or one of the other of my lady's samurai would be a better choice as a fighter, but I doubt they would be able to be a maid as well as you can."

  * * * *

  Tamazusa

  Aboshi's suggestion that I take Keno as my maid to my meeting with Iida was a surprise to me. I didn't think that he would stand to be parted from his blossom for so long.

  "It would be a move that Iida wouldn't expect,” Keno said shyly. “I know that you can take care of yourself, but I think Samojirou would feel better if you had someone with you. I know Okita-san is a better fighter, but I don't think he would make a very good maid."

  "Iida-sama has seen you,” I pointed out.

  "He's seen Sakura,” Keno said. “I don't think he'd recognize me. No one really seems to see beyond the makeup and the outfit."

  I thought about that for a while. I knew that to be true from my time as a companion. In fact, I doubted that Iida would even notice Keno if he was my maid. He would just see her and nothing else. I met Aboshi's gaze over Keno's head, and I didn't like the look in his eyes. He was worried, and I knew he didn't want Keno to go with me. But he was going to let his lover guard me because he was also proud that Keno had offered to do this.

  "It was his idea, my lady,” Aboshi told me. “And I confess that I don't like it, but I think that I would like it less if you went without him."

  "I think that Keno-chan would be the perfect choice for me,” I said. “We just have to think of a name for my new maid. It's unfortunate that my usual one has fallen ill and will not be able to accompany me."

  "A pity,” Aboshi commented dryly.

  I just hoped he didn't arrange for it to happen in truth. It would be a good thing to do so, but I doubted Mawatari would be able to find out if this was true or not, and I didn't want the poor girl to suffer. The man would think—and it would be true to a certain extent—that Aboshi sent this maid with me to keep an eye on me. Mawatari would think she was a spy rather than Keno protecting me. Mawatari had shown us that he had thought Aboshi was not to be trusted and would make the assumption Aboshi didn't trust me.

  "But let me introduce you to Rikako,” Aboshi said seriously.

  Keno looked at him and smiled. “I have to find out what your obsession with flowers is."

  I laughed too. While it wasn't an uncommon name, plum blossom was close to cherry blossom—sakura. But I doubted Samojirou had thought about the name too much, and most, if not all of the maids on the estate, had some sort of flower name because they were kashin—flower spirits. “I am delighted to meet you,” I told Keno.

  He smiled and bowed to me. “I am honored to serve my lord."

  * * * *

  We left the next morning, Keno and I secluded in a kaga, a traveling box carried by four trained bearers who were changed frequently. It was slightly faster than walking, but I didn't look forward to spending days in it. However, a lord did not walk anywhere, and oxen carts were useless outside a city or other civilized areas, as was riding a horse, even if I knew how to ride.

  I had been right. Mawatari had barely glanced at Keno standing behind me, dressed in the drab kimono of a maid, his hair pulled back tightly in a bun, eyes staring at the ground. I didn't even know where he had gotten such an outfit, because the maids dressed better than that. Mawatari had been more upset about the fact that the Reavers had refused to leave us. A half dozen attended Keno and me, studying Mawatari carefully. It was unnerving. It was meant to be. They were not going to let either of us out of their presence. They were my escort along with several squads of my samurai under the command of Seki-san.

  "Tamazusa-sama!” Mawatari protested.

  "They will not leave me,” I said calmly. “They are part of the kuni. They do not wish me to be alone at any time. This is something Iida-sama is going to have to accept."

  Mawatari frowned, getting what I was hinting at. “That would be something you have to discuss with him."

  "I will. I am interested in anything that Iida-sama wishes to discuss with me."

  Mawatari glanced up at Aboshi, who was glaring down at us from atop the shoen's wall. I was surprised to see “Sakura” standing behind him. I forced myself not to glance over at Keno as I wondered exactly who was standing with Aboshi. The look that Aboshi had given Mawatari promised a slow death if anything happened to us. Most of my samurai would be staying with Aboshi while I was gone, and they were unhappy that they were not escorting me. I had added to Okita's duties the role of karo. I wanted to leave Aboshi with a competent staff, since I wanted to have a kuni to return to.

  "I see that your men are unhappy with your decision,” Mawatari told me.

  "Are you unhappy when your lord is not under your protection?” I asked lightly.

  Mawatari nodded, understanding what I was telling him. I was a well-loved lord, and my people would avenge me if he or his master did something to me. I bowed to Okita and his men, then to Aboshi before climbing into the traveling box. Keno climbed in after me, making himself as small as possible to give me more room.

  We were lifted, and the carriers set off at a smooth but quick pace. After a couple of minutes of silence, I smiled at Keno. “You are now going to see how Aboshi spoils us. I don't think of this as a pleasant way to travel."

  Keno nodded, looking slightly sick from the swaying of the box. He had traveled this way with me once before, but it had been a more leisurely journey. “If I had known,” he muttered.

  I tried not to laugh when I saw the look on his face when I told him, “We're traveling like this for at least a week."

  [Back to Table of Contents]

  Chapter Four

  Mason

  So we all got to go through the fun-sparkly-bad special effects tunnel again. It was just as nasty as before, and I wanted to puke at the end of it. But we all made it this time, and that was all that mattered. We'd had two weeks of learning to shoot a bow, swing a sword, and learn a few basic words in a couple of different languages, like Greek and Mayan. I was hopeless in all of them beyond “hello,” “goodbye,” and “touch her and I'll kill you.” The last one amused the fuck out of McGann. And I was shit with the sword. Wolf took to his like he was a natural. McGann was an okay fighter, but I didn't know if she would be able to gut someone who was after her. I knew I could. I had been barely legal and an okay-looking kid
when they convicted me, so I had learned to fight back and had been left alone. Got the rep as being a mean, crazy fucker, and that had kept me going for the time I was in the joint. I still wasn't too handy with a longbow or a sword, so I hoped I didn't have to use them, even if I knew I could kill someone.

  We were better armed and armored this time, with replicas of broadswords, bows and high-tech “primitive” armor, lots of supplies, and a couple of maps. We just had to figure out where the hell we were.

  Wolf was looking around and smiling. “This place reminds me of home."

  "Boston?” I asked, wondering if he had gone nuts. The place was wide open, covered with grass. There were woods and a couple of rolling hills in the distance, but nothing in the way of people or buildings. The place smelled nice, no pollution. This wasn't Boston. Not even the Arboretum looked or smelled this good.

  "Norway,” Wolf said. “My grandmother lives in Oslo, but we also spent summers in the country."

  McGann smiled sadly, and I bet that she was thinking of home, too, but not in a happy way. I had noticed that she didn't mention family too much. Not that any of us did, but sometimes, some of the TCs weren't that cut off from their family. Not as close as Murphy was, but enough so that they talked to them.

  "Which way do you want to go?” Logan asked.

  "North?” McGann suggested.

  "Sounds good to me,” I said. “But before we really go anyplace, what's the plan? I don't want it to be like the last time, when Murphy was the only one with the plan."

  "It won't be like the last time,” Wolf said roughly.

  He was in charge of this mess. If he had any brains, which I knew that he had, he'd listen to McGann. I'd just be keeping an eye on Logan. Not that I didn't trust him; it was just that he was barely two steps away from being a lab rat. He needed someone to make sure he didn't get munched on by a nasty.

  "We're supposed to be someplace in the Mayan Empire,” McGann said. “That's why Dr. Sawyer's here with us."

  "And why do the Trustees think these people are going to talk to us?” I asked. “Weren't they like cannibals or something?"

  "Mayans weren't cannibals,” Logan said. “I think that you're thinking of the Aztecs."

  "Whatever,” I told him, not really caring one way or another. He made a face at that. “But it still comes back to why these people would want to talk to us? Our track record with this shit ain't too good."

  "I don't think we're going to make the same mistakes we did last time,” Wolf said.

  I noticed McGann was still looking good, so she might not be have the trouble she'd had last time we came to the Dreamlands. Something about being a ‘path and being here had messed her up. But it could also be that we were still alone. Or it could also be that she wasn't trying to herd fuckin’ cats now, since Murphy and Anya, the ones who had caused her the most trouble with Tamazusa, weren't here.

  "I think the question should be why do a Central American people have an afterlife, for lack of a better term, that resembles this?” McGann asked. “That is, if I understand what the Dreamlands are exactly."

  "Mayans and Aztecs lived in the jungle. This isn't anything like that,” Logan said. “I doubt that this is a landscape they would be familiar with."

  "So that means we don't know where we are,” Wolf said, sounding really frustrated.

  I really couldn't add anything to that, and I managed not to laugh my ass off at the fact that we were screwed again, because we had no clue where we had been dropped, again!

  * * * *

  We headed off north. We hiked for a couple of hours before we ran into people. We were on a leisurely stroll, almost, with Wolf in front, McGann and Logan in the middle, me as tail-end Charlie. We were found by about a dozen really big guys, bearded and long-haired, wearing woolen tunics and pants with boots. They smelled of beer and a bunch of other things. They were downwind of us. I figured it had been a couple of days since they'd had a shower. They all stopped short when they saw us and stared at us for a couple of minutes before someone shouted something out at us. Wolf shouted back at them in what sounded like the same language.

  "What are they saying?” Logan asked.

  "Fuck if I know,” I said.

  "They're speaking Norwegian, I think. Or one of the Scandinavian languages,” McGann said. “Other than that, I don't know what's going on."

  "They want to know who we are,” Wolf told us. “And why we are here."

  "Shit, that would be a good idea, if I knew what the fuck we were doing here,” I said under my breath.

  McGann shot me a dirty look for that one. Seriously, even with the briefings and Mrs. Adams saying why we were here, I still had no clue what was going on—and I had been paying attention to the briefings. Making allies sounded like a bullshit reason to me, given the fact that the Trustees were more likely to screw anyone than ally with them. They were after something, and I couldn't figure out what it was. This place was backward, with no technology or anything that would make an alliance with anyone worthwhile. I knew that from the little discussion with Tamazusa. It had been in my report, and I was certain it was in everyone else's.

  So why were we here? And more importantly, how long were we staying?

  "You know why we're here,” McGann said patiently, sounding like my mother more than my boss.

  Logan didn't say anything for a couple of minutes. “They're Norse,” he finally said. “Other than that, I don't know anything, because Norse covered a lot of different cultures. All I know is that I don't think this is where we're supposed to be."

  "Why don't that sound about right,” I muttered. So they aimed us at the Mayans, and we ended up... someplace else. Why didn't that surprise me? Good thing Wolf spoke Norwegian, or we'd have been screwed, and not in a good way.

  McGann shot me another annoyed look. I grinned at her. “Have you ever known me to be polite?"

  She shook her head and relaxed a bit. Logan continued to split his attention between us and Wolf. Wolf was relaxed and acting like meeting these guys was the best thing in the universe for us. After a couple of minutes of talking to them, he came back to us.

  "These men are from the farm of Grima Njalsson,” Wolf said. “They would like us to go back and guest with them."

  "Don't look at me,” Logan said when we all looked at him, expecting him to pull the answer out of his ass. “My expertise is on the Mayans. Anything else was covered on long-ago undergrad days."

  "Shit, tell me that you were a good student,” I practically begged him. Fuck! We were stuck again someplace where we had no fucking clue about what was going on. I was beginning to hate that.

  "Fair,” he said. “I don't know anything more than the basics. Most primitive societies think that guesting is a sacred custom, and they don't attack or harm their guests. But for all I know, these people are brigands or worse."

  "I told them that we would be glad to go with them,” Wolf said. He hesitated for a second. “They were curious about you, Mason, why you were so dark, were you sick. I just told them that was the way your people looked."

  He sounded embarrassed, but I wasn't too pissed. I didn't think that a lot of Vikings saw too many African Americans, and being curious about what I looked like was what had happened at Tamazusa's place too.

  "And?” I asked, knowing there was an “and” to this. He had been talking with those people for too long for there to not be more to the story.

  "That you were my sworn men, you and Logan, and that McGann was my wife."

  I laughed, and McGann glared at me. “Congratulations, the two of you. I'll buy you both a round when we get back."

  "Mason,” McGann hissed at me, trying not to check out the Vikings’ reaction. They might figure out it wasn't true, or they just might think I'm a loon or that it was something I did because I didn't look like one of them.

  "Telling them you're married is the best thing,” Logan said. “If you were his sister or an unmarried woman, there might be trouble."


  "Yeah, when we run across Amazons, he gets to be the little woman,” I teased them. “Shit, this ain't Nippon. These people seem to be less civilized than they were."

  That wasn't too nice, but it was true. These people looked really rough, something I had never seen when we were at Tamazusa's place in what was called Nippon, which looked like it should have been in a bad samurai movie. They had been so civilized there it had made my head ache most of the time. Granted, that's what saved Murphy and Anya the ice bitch's ass when she had seriously pissed off that samurai with something she'd said to Wolf in Russian and exactly what Murphy had done after spending an afternoon with Tamazusa that ended with her dumping his ass back into the room under house arrest. But the politeness had been wearing on my nerves. I never knew what I would do to set Tamazusa off so she'd turn my insides into fuckin’ Jell-O. Not that I'd thought she would, since even the way I had acted was way better than Murphy and Anya had. Shit, I had been treating McGann the same way, so Tamazusa had probably figured out I hadn't been dissing her.

  "That is something that we can discuss later,” McGann told me.

  "Nippon?” Logan asked.

  I shrugged while Wolf looked... not pissed, but hurt. “I'll tell you later,” I promised. “Right now, let's go meet our new best friends."

  One of the big guys was looking at McGann funny. I was ready to reach out and smack him, while Wolf looked uneasy. “You're wearing men's clothing,” he finally said. “That's something of a taboo. I had forgotten about that."

  "Too late to tell them that she's your younger brother?” I asked. While she had long hair, she was kind of flat-chested for a woman. Not like the skinny chicks in Nippon, but she didn't have a lot of excess weight, really. I knew we couldn't have pulled something like that with Anya. The bitch was all woman and let everyone know it.

  Fuck, it figured Wolf knew about this shit. The guy was smarter and better educated than he let on. I was just glad someone had a clue and hoped that between him and Logan, we'd get out of this with our asses intact.