Bo’s eyes searched the forest, his fists clenched, his jaw twitching.
I held the girl closer to me, shielding her eyes as I stared out at the ship. I could use Place. It hadn’t worked when we’d gotten onto the shore. Maybe there was something about the dreamplane and how it was no longer connected to the rest of Dreamland. The sea, though, was.
I grabbed Bo’s arm and reached. The vines snapped close to my head. I pulled on the fear flooding through me from the dreamer. I used it like fuel to a fire. I reached in desperation. I needed onto Night’s Cruelty. We needed to be safe.
The soft sinking sand of the beach disappeared and within a blink, the hard boards of the deck met my feet.
Bo staggered, staring at me with wide eyes and a wider mouth. The hand holding the horn was high as if he’d been in the process of swiping at the vine. His sword was low and ready.
Men and women scrambled, shouting and exclaiming.
Mr. Levee grabbed Bo’s arm holding the horn. “Cap’n, you’re alive.”
“Of course we are.” Bo frowned at his second in command, sheathing his sword and stashing his horn. “Why did you have your men abandon the shore?”
“We’ve been stationing men at the shore for as long we could, sir. Hours at a time, waiting for you to return.”
“Hours.” Bo straightened.
“You’ve been gone for weeks, sir.”
“Weeks.” Bo turned toward me, his expression pensive. “You weren’t lying.”
I shrugged. “Nope.”
He drew his lips up as he squinted at the sky. “I’d feel better in a sea I knew. How do we get out of this cursed graveyard?”
I wasn’t entirely sure how we’d gotten there in the first place. I followed him to the wheel, the girl’s hand glued to mine. She wasn’t letting go any time soon. I pictured in my mind’s eye the shoreline where I’d left Rulak and Mech. We needed someplace safe. I understood the rules, comprehended the lay of the land. Things made sense there.
Light from a distant sun I’d never seen penetrated the night sky, scattering the stars and blanketing the bobbing dreamplanes. The sea shifted. The water sank. My feet lifted from the deck for a moment.
Then we fell. My hair stood up straight.
The girl’s eyes widened and she latched onto my waist.
Bo’s hat flew off, and was sucked off the ship. He held onto the wheel, his blue coat flapping wildly at his legs.
I grabbed for the pole sticking out of the deck and held on.
We landed with a splash. Waves crashed onto the deck, ghost hands reaching toward me as the waters receded.
We stared up at the cloudless sky, the familiar light of the undying daylight beaming down on us. It filled me with warmth. I hadn’t even realized I’d been chilled.
Bo twisted around, one hand still on the wheel, and looked at me and the dreamer. His shoulders sagged as he took in chest-heaving breaths.
I swallowed, my posture mimicking his. We were safe. By the love of dreams, we were safe.
The girl pulled away, her eyes filled with wonder.
I rubbed my forehead. It was time for a few answers. “Who are you?”
She ignored me, leaning over to view something else on the ship.
“What’s your name?”
She clicked her tongue and glanced at me. “Is this a real ship?” Her voice was so small and quiet, like she was out of practice using it.
Bo handed the wheel over to the helmsman. “Indeed it is.” He bowed low, reaching for his hat. He stood up, looking behind him with a frown.
“Wind.”
His eyebrows shot up as he patted his chest. “Right. I liked that hat.”
“It’s Dreamland. Wish for another.”
He sent me a thick frown and turned to the girl. “What is your name?”
Her shoulders shook with a chuckle.
“By rights, I cannot allow you on my vessel without a name to call you by.”
She scuffed her toe and bowed her head with a bashful smile.
Bo closed one eye and squinted the other at the sky. “We could give you a name. Melafred. I had an aunt with that name. We called her Freddie. A sweet gal, that one. You’d have liked her, Riv.”
My chuckle grew into a full-bodied laugh. “You’ve got to be kidding.”
“Oh, no. I’m perfectly serious. Well, we could call you Ester, but I never liked that aunt. She was quite mean and ugly.” He scrunched his face and squinted his eyes.
She giggled and whispered something.
Bo and I both leaned in. “What was that?”
She bit her bottom lip and stood up straighter. “Zoe. My name is Zoe Amelia Adams.”
Bo straightened. “That’s a right proper name.”
I had no idea what made it a “right proper name,” but at least I could call her something other than girl. “How did you end up on that plane, Zoe?”
“The island?”
I nodded.
She rubbed one eye. “A storm came and tornados sucked up everything—the trees, the animals, the land. Everything.”
My shoulders tightened. My fists clenched. Fear tugged at my gut.
I bit down on it, and shook out my hands. They weren’t my emotions. We were going to have to find a way to keep that under control.
Bo shook out his shoulders, glancing at me. “What can you tell us about the storm?”
“Where was your dustman?” I asked.
The storm, I knew about. Dreamlanders spoke in hushed whispers about her. When a dustman was about to retire, the Storm of the Forgotten swooped in and cleaned up the dreamplane. Lady Storm never visited a dreamplane of dustmen with dreamers.
Zoe looked from one to the other of us, her big hair twitching with the sudden movement.
I knelt in front of her and held her arm. “Where was your dustman?”
Zoe swallowed hard, tears studding her eyes. “She—she was trying to take us all home. But the storm was too fast.”
“There were more of you?” None of this made sense. What was the storm doing there if there were several dreamers? “How many of you were there?”
“Hundreds.” Zoe’s her bottom lip quivered. “Dustman Sharry didn’t make it back for all of us though. We waited. We waited until the storm disappeared and the world stopped shaking.”
A dreamplane shaking. That couldn’t be good.
“But she never came back for us.”
“Us.” I glanced up at Bo. “There were more of you?”
Her nod was broken.
“How many were left behind?”
“Over twenty.”
I hadn’t felt them. “Where were they? Do we need to go back for them?”
Zoe’s wings twittered at her back and relaxed again. “They’re all dead.” Her voice was barely above a whisper. “The plants killed them. I’m the only one left.”
BO MASSAGED his temple, a pained expression blanketing his face. “What’s going on up there?”
I had no idea. “There could be more like her.”
He ran his hand roughly over his face, pulling his eyelids down for a brief moment. “Yeah. Well, we should—”
A bell rang on the nearest mast.
Bo closed his eyes. He let out a long breath when he reopened them. “We just got a call. One of the wanderers is in trouble.”
I stepped toward him, my hand out. “We talked about this. You can’t kill anymore dreams—with or without a net.”
“I know, River.” He shushed me with his hand as he took the wheel from the helmsman. He raised his face to the sky and the sails filled with a wind that came out of nowhere.
The waves rose, raising the ship upward and away.
Zoe looked up at me, mild curiosity tapping against my heart.
I smiled down at her and then returned my attention to where we were going. Now that I understood how Place worked on the sea, I could feel where we were going. Here, Place didn’t work unless you could either see where you were going or you could t
rack a person’s Who. The ting of the bell rang with a Who I remembered. Cable. The riverboat captain.
I narrowed my eyes and waited. I needed to see how Bo was going to handle the situation. If he were going to resort to using the net, I’d have to steal that one from him as well, and then hide. It wasn’t what I wanted to do. I could really use his help with the graveyard. I was out of my element and needed someone to partner with.
But I had to face the facts. Bo was a pirate. He’d been spat out of the ocean and chose to be a pirate. There had to be a reason. He was also a survivor. He’d do whatever it took to remain alive.
A large expanse of violet grew on the horizon. I knew this landmass. On the other side of that hill was the Center, the location where the mechanics had their shops. It was also where the master mechanics hall was located. Mech and I had gone there more than once, tempting fate.
The waves calmed and Night’s Cruelty settled with a splash into the wide bay. I stared over the rail as we drew up next to the small river boat.
Cable stood atop the flat roof, holding onto the lapels of his coat, a cigar hanging out of his mouth.
Bo turned to me and Zoe and pursed his lips for a silent moment. “You two, come with me.”
“Even after what happened last time?” I asked.
He clucked his tongue and nodded.
“If you kill another dream, I’m going to defend it.”
“I’m aware. I’m not even bringing the net with me. We’ll find another solution.”
I bit off what else I was going to say and tipped my head. “You ready, Zoe?”
She hopped on her toes and took my hand. “Don’t leave me behind.” A wave of abandonment and loneliness swarmed over me.
I smiled and squeezed her hand. “Never.” I followed Bo to the dinghy and teleported Zoe and I onto it.
“How do you do that?”
I raised my eyebrows, moving aside so Zoe could settle beside me.
“After what we just experienced, you still don’t trust me?”
I leaned my elbows on my knees. “This is where we split up the last time. You have no idea what I’m protecting you from. The guardians want your life. They won’t rest until you and all your wanderers are dead because they see you as nothing more than dream killers. Plain and simple.”
The skiff jerked as the ropes were released and we were lowered the water.
“The best way to protect you is to make sure you don’t kill any more dreams.”
“I didn’t realize that before.”
I captured his blue gaze and held it. “What you do now will mark you for the man you will be judged by.”
“And who’s going to judge me?”
I was, and that thought didn’t make me happy. I knew that if he opted to murder someone else’s dream for the sake of a motor, I would seek Candi. Yes. He was the closest thing to a family I had, not that we were even that close. But I was a part of Dreamland, and in a sense, she was more my family than he was.
He looked away, his lips drawing flat. “You’re a boy, River.”
“And you’re a man, Bo.”
His eyes went skyward before he glanced at me. He turned around, a smile on his face. “Cable. So soon again?”
“It’s been a full year, Bo,” he called down.
Bo and I exchanged a frown.
Zoe took in a deep breath, her eyes wide as she took everything in.
He straightened, his mouth twisted to the side. “That is an odd thing, for sure.”
I agreed, but time didn’t matter. Not as much as I’d once thought.
Cable met us at the back of his boat. He pulled his coat back and bared his teeth on his cigar. “You brought the runt with you. I thought you’d’ve learned your lesson from the last time.”
Bo leapt from the dinghy to the riverboat. “The boy had a good reason. Seems there are guardians in the sea and they want to see us dead.”
Cable laughed, turning to the people lingering on the roof above his head. “Did you hear that, ladies and gentlemen? The sea has finally remembered we exist and wants to exterminate us.”
I teleported Zoe from the skiff to the landing. “They just don’t want you killing dreams. They don’t care what you do otherwise, as long as you’re not murdering people.”
Cable’s wide-brimmed hat cast his face in shadow. “Murdering. These dreams are forgotten, discarded just like us.”
“No.” I didn’t know what else I could say, or how to say it so they’d understand. “They’re not and I somehow doubt you are either.”
Cable held out his hand. “You haven’t been sailing these waters for decades, never aging, never getting sick, never dying. This place shot us out, sure as shit, and then plum forgot about us.”
My right eye ticked. “I don’t think Dreamland does anything without a purpose.”
“Well, when’s this high and mighty Dreamland goin’ to tell us what that purpose is?”
I didn’t have all the answers.
“What I thought.” He turned to Bo. “You know where the motor is. Where’s your net?”
Bo ignored him and disappeared down the narrow stairwell.
I followed, Zoe close behind me. “What’s the plan?”
Bo pulled the unicorn horn out of his belt. He stopped at the motor and grinned. “You can’t tell me this is a living dream. That any part of it is still alive.”
I smiled. “Nope.”
“Well, the way I figure it, things like this might be very handy. Especially, if we’re going to be saving these dreamers anyway.” He ruffled Zoe’s hair.
She giggled silently, her shoulders shaking with it.
Bo touched the motor with the horn.
It roared to life.
The corners of his mouth drooped through his smile as he took the horn away.
The motor continued to churn.
“I think we have ourselves a deal, then. You allow me to gather objects like this and I’ll help you save your dreamers.”
Muscles I hadn’t realized were tense relaxed. This was exactly what I was hoping for. I’d figure out a way to keep him and his crew safe from Candi and the guardians.
I headed for the door, shooing Zoe back up the stairs.
She reached out with a hand and touched the rail.
Sparks and glitter shot out like lightening.
I grabbed Zoe’s shoulder and pulled her toward me. “Zoe, are you okay?”
She looked up at me like I was retarded. “I’m fine, River.” She reached out her hand again.
I stopped her. “What are you doing?”
“It’s how I kept the plants from killing me all those years.” She wriggled out of my grasp and touched the metal wall of the boat. A golden light spun out from the ends of her fingers, dancing along the walls, climbing upward and then out. Sparks of glittering light hopped along the metal and then sank into it. The motor sputtered, then roared to full strength, running harder than after Bo had charged it with the horn.
I swallowed “What did you just do?”
“He was trying to give the boat life. She’s sick. Can’t you feel it? I’m just helping her. That’s all.”
That’s all. I didn’t want to look at Bo, but I found myself turning toward him anyway.
The light in his eyes held a dangerous glint. The pirate captain had just discovered his treasure.
Friend or no, he wasn’t getting Zoe.
BO LEAPT OVER the rail of Night’s Cruelty as I teleported Zoe and me off the skiff. “That was amazing. Do you realize what this means, River?”
I did, but something was wrong with Zoe. All of her emotions were gone. “Zoe, are you alright?”
She looked up at me with a tired smile and nodded. She opened her mouth to say something, but stopped, a frown marring her dark forehead.
I knelt in front of her. “Zoe, what’s wrong?”
Sweat beaded along her hairline. Her gaze glazed over.
Bo’s eyes widened as they met mine. “Get her to my c
hamber now, River, now!”
I gathered her in my arms and reached for the Place next to his bed.
Her eyes closed and didn’t open again.
Bo’s booted feet scuffed the floorboards behind me. He put his hand on Zoe’s head. “We have to get her temperature down.”
I’d seen you guys when you got sick, but I’d never experienced it in real life.
Her chest rose and fell evenly.
Bo turned and barked at me. “Get something to cool her fever!”
Like what? I teleported to the deck and grabbed a bowl of water.
He took it as soon as I appeared beside him. He took a cloth, dipped it into the water and wiped Zoe’s exposed skin. He handed me the cloth. “We’re just wetting down her skin, giving her body the power to fight back. Keep it up, okay?”
I sat on the bed and did as I was told. People didn’t get sick in Dreamland. We didn’t get fevers. “This water isn’t even that cold.”
Something tinked on the other side of the room. It sounded like something hard touching a thick ceramic cup. “If it’s too cold, we’ll throw her body into shock.”
“This isn’t her body.” I twisted around to look at him. “This is her soul. Her body is somewhere on Earth.”
He paused and stared at the wall in front of him. He shook himself and continued working. “The wanderers get sick from time to time. They get what we call the wave sickness. They’re infected by the dreams. It doesn’t happen a lot, but it’s not uncommon. Their souls, if that’s really true, act like their bodies.”
My shoulders relaxed. “I’ve never seen anyone sick in Dreamland.”
He walked toward us, a brown cup in his hand, and skirted the table in the middle of the cabin. “My thought is that our souls react in the same way our bodies do.”
“Because those are the rules you have grown to accept and expect?”
He shrugged and gestured with his head for me to move. He sank onto the edge of the bed and held her up with one hand, putting the cup to her lips with the other.
If she were asleep, I didn’t know how she was going to swallow anything, but she did.
Bo laid her back on the bed and stood, rubbing his temple. “She’ll be okay, Riv.”
Okay? No. He wasn’t going to just shove this under some rug. “She fueled that ship and it got her sick.”
Dream Killers - Complete Season 1 (The Dream Killers Book 3) Page 10
