Quicksilver Dreams (Dreamwalkers)

by Adele, Danube

  I’ve been waiting for you. The woman came forward. Pere’seiunat told me he was bringing you.

  He...did?

  It’s a long story, not made for a single telling. It’s enough to know that it was time. You were expected. Let’s walk. She had a soft voice, a melodic voice that belied what seemed to be her advanced age. With purpose in her steps, she followed a path around the side of her house under what looked like a very old grove of oaks. A beautiful garden greeted us.

  My name is Dreya. There was an expectant look to her face as she stuck out her hand and silently willed me to speak my name. Power swirled through the air between us, so much so that I could almost feel it crackling, but in a nonthreatening way. She was a protector. I knew instinctively I could trust her.

  I’m Taylor.

  Thank Pere’. As though she’d had some doubt that was just now erased, Dreya seemed to become overwhelmed with emotion and enveloped me in a tight, spontaneous embrace, which I couldn’t help but return. How could I not appreciate someone who was, for whatever reason, this glad to see me?

  How is it you were expecting me?

  We pulled apart. She held on to my upper arms a moment, staring deeply into my eyes. A somber expression smoothed the joyful lines from her face. As though satisfied with what she was looking at, she nodded and ran my hand through the crook of her arm, holding it tightly.

  Our origin story is quite a curiosity, Taylor. How we came to be on this planet would interest you. Would you like to hear it?

  Sure. I wondered if she was trying to put me off from my question or if she hadn’t really heard it. Either way, I was determined to reask it.

  Come and sit. She led the way through a winding path in the garden to a pair of comfortable Adirondack-style chairs. Our people came from Earth about five thousand years ago. They lived in a tribal society in what you would now call Austria and Italy. They hunted food and fought off enemies to protect their territory and resources.

  Dreya paused as we sat. Pere’ told us that the tribe was feeling desperate and grief stricken. Neighboring enemies were getting stronger. Sitting together in worship to the sky god, they wished for their home, their forest and mountain, to be bountiful and peaceful, praying for that time to come so they could heal their sprits. Unbeknownst to them, they were sitting over a large deposit of mylunate. It brought them here, to these mountains, which were calm and peaceful.

  Mylunate? The stuff Ryder told me about?

  Yes. There were eight major clans that arrived. They were visited by the Great Spirits, and each was guided to the different provinces of Sunan.

  Sunan means seven, though. Doesn’t it?

  Yes. The eighth clan refused to join with others, believing it would make them weak, and decided to forge an independent path.

  They were the Brausa?

  Yes. There’s more to the story, but it’s a lot to take in for one sitting.

  To say the least, I agreed. I still expect to wake up at home in bed and find that all of this was a dream.

  Tell me about growing up on Earth. She leaned toward me with a curious expression, seeming to be genuinely interested. What was your life like?

  Some of the time I lived with my grandmother and some of the time with my aunt.

  What happened to your mother? The woman paused, curiosity marking her face. I thought I caught a glimpse of some concern there, but that didn’t make sense.

  No one really knows. She had problems. I didn’t want to make my mom look bad, so I chose to gloss over things.

  Unresolved pain?

  I frowned, thinking about it.

  Maybe.

  Dreya seemed to understand. A look of empathy passed over her face during the moment of silence. And yet you’ve done well for yourself. It couldn’t have been easy. It speaks to your strength that you have found a way here.

  Yeah, about that... How did you know I was coming?

  I promise we’ll talk more. Your questions will be answered in time. This was a meeting for us to learn of each other. Let’s not make this uncomfortable by revealing too much too soon.

  Okay, but did you put those flowers in my dreams?

  We all serve a purpose, Taylor...

  The gentle words echoed through my mind, reminding me of another time. It was you!

  Sleep well, dear. There’s a lot for you to learn, and the one who is set to show you isn’t known for his patience. Keep that in mind when you wake. Don’t be too hard on him. There are reasons for the behavior he’s about to show you.

  She stood and again looked expectantly at me, willing me to stand.

  With a hint of frustration, I did, but I kept up the questions. I didn’t want this to end quite yet.

  What do you mean, the one who is set to show me? Are you talking about Ryder? What’s he going to do?

  Welcome home, Taylor.

  Welcome home? Why...

  With a final smile, fragile-looking, elderly Dreya gave me the most amazingly Herculean shove, and a power beyond my control took over my body and yanked me away from her at a faster and faster rate. I fought the pull, struggled fiercely to try and stop the momentum that was taking me away.

  Wait! No!

  But the black void enveloped me and I felt myself return to the present. The dream was leaving me. I couldn’t hang on to it no matter how much I told myself to remember. I wanted to shout my frustration, not wanting to lose the warmth and sense of comfort and security I’d been submerged in.

  Beep. Beep. Beep. I heard some kind of alarm, followed by Ryder’s low murmur. As I lay there, reality rushed at me like a freight train. I remembered everything from the previous day and night. Someone trying to kill me. Transferring to another planet. Really? Another planet? Could I just go back to sleep?

  “Taylor.” A gentle caress over my arm was followed by a quick squeeze. Momentarily, I was distracted from my worries. “I’m getting a shower. I’m being called to the border.”

  “You’re leaving?” I mumbled, blinking up at him blearily. He was looking down at me from behind the sofa. He’d taken his call in the other room and come back with his device still in hand.

  “Pretty soon. I’m sorry about this. An emergency has come up. If you get up, I can make you some food, and we’ll have time to talk.”

  “Okay.” But I really wanted to pull a pillow over my head. Wasn’t going to happen.

  He left me alone on the sofa with the blanket still tucked around me, squinting into the light that was pouring through the large window. Pulling the blanket off my body, I realized my damned high heels were still on my feet. Muscles, stiff and sore, protested their movement, and it took a moment for me to fully come out from under the blanket and set my aching feet on the floor. I winced as I stood and put weight on my cramped feet.

  Taking pity on myself, I unbuckled the heavy platforms and stepped down from them, appreciating the extra-soft, cushy floor covering that my feet sank into. I even took a few minutes to rub the balls of my feet, gritting my teeth with the pain of it. But before long, I had to face my reality.

  The window called to me, and I went to look out at the valley of absurdly lush, overgrown trees, feeling like I was in an episode of Land of the Lost. Next I would expect a Sleestack to come after me.

  A series of blaringly loud, hornlike caw-caws jump-started my heart just as several boat-sized birds in vibrant peacock colors smashed up through the tree canopy. They soared over the trees with crazy-enormous wingspans before disappearing one by one beneath the canopy once again. Awe inspiring. A Nat Geo moment.

  And I was back to breathing rapidly, wondering what else could be out there. At least on Earth, I knew where the dangers were. In Africa, I would be aware of lions. In South America, I would be aware of panthers. In the deserts and mountains around California, I would be aware
of mountain lions, bears and snakes. What was I supposed to be aware of here? Maybe those great big birds were actually carnivores. Who knew? I didn’t.

  Most areas of the forest were so dense that it was impossible for my eyes to penetrate the canopy and see the forest floor. We were so high up! I looked left and right but didn’t see any kind of road or village. There was nothing that would even hint that we were near any form of civilization. Where were the people?

  WTF! What am I supposed to do now?

  The edge of a panic attack threatened, and I tried to just breathe my way through it. Ryder had my back here. He wasn’t going to let anything hurt me. I’d be back home soon.

  It didn’t help that his arms looped around me from behind when I wasn’t expecting it. I jumped a mile high and almost swallowed my tongue. Okay. I needed a vacation after all this excitement. When the drama was over, Taylor wanted a trip to the Bahamas or something.

  “Whoa.” He turned me around. “Still a little jumpy?”

  I gave him a nonhumorous look. “I’m trying to keep it together,”

  “Breathe.” He pulled me to his chest. It was bare and smelled heavenly. “Nothing’s going to hurt you here.”

  This really did help me to back off the edge of the cliff and feel calm again.

  My face nuzzled his chest. It began as a means of seeking comfort, but then my lips lightly touched his warm skin, and it felt so good and he smelled so good that I badly wanted to taste him, bite at him. I heard him groan as he heard my thoughts. His arms tightened around me. One of his hands lightly fisted the hair on the back of my neck and pulled me more firmly into the curve of his body. My breathing went shallow again, but for an entirely different reason.

  Taylor...what’s happening?

  I don’t know.

  Can you feel it?

  I don’t know what this is. Everything is so new to me.

  You...affect me. He admitted this hesitantly, darkly.

  “I’m not trying to.” I pulled back to look into his troubled face. I could see a shadow of vulnerability in his eyes that touched me. I wanted to reach out to him.

  He frowned and stepped away from me. I can’t be distracted. It was the last thought I read from him before he put his shield up once again. Strangely, it pained me when he did that. The mood officially became more businesslike, a shutter coming down over his eyes.

  “You’re okay?” His words became more formal. He leaned casually against the window.

  “Cool as a cucumber” was my clever reply, though partly I wanted to see more of his vulnerable side. I was tired of being the only one with a visible, fragile underbelly. Reluctantly, I put up my own mental shield. It felt warm and intimate to have him in my mind, but it was a sure way to get hurt. That kind of feeling was addicting, but it wasn’t going to last, so why invite pain? Funny how quickly you could learn new habits.

  Part of my daily ritual now was going to be the need to watch my mental exposure. I wondered briefly if there were laws here against mental public indecency?

  “Hey, so what is it you keep calling me? There’s a word, and I kept meaning to ask if it is a word from your language? Lin’de?” I tested it softly.

  He nodded.

  “What does it mean?”

  Was that a light flush spreading across his cheeks?

  His eyes burned into mine. “It means...beauty.”

  My smile spread across my face shyly. I could live with that. His name for me was Beauty. If I thought on it too long, it would make me get teary.

  “You okay now?”

  I did a quick internal schematics check. “I think I’m okay now.”

  “It’s a lot to take in.”

  “Isn’t it though? What am I doing here, Ryder? I shouldn’t be here.” I shook my head helplessly, gesturing toward the vast jungle that was so beautifully framed below us. “I just...”

  “What do you need? I’ll take care of it.”

  “I don’t know. A shower?” Maybe getting clean would help me feel human again, would help me get my head on straight, so I could start thinking my way through this problem.

  “I can set that up for you.”

  He smelled all spicy, like he’d just taken a shower with that good-smelling soap. It reminded me that I likely had raccoon eyes from the makeup I’d worn yesterday, and that probably my hair was half up and half down and sticking out all over the place. Damn, but I needed some makeup remover and a brush. Only Cynthia had ever seen me so unkempt before.

  I was reaching new lows.

  I turned to look out the window once again and took a deep breath. “So, are there like reptile-man people out there, like on Star Trek? Or maybe dinosaur-kangaroo hybrids with large sharp teeth made for ripping human flesh apart?”

  He smirked. “Humans. No hybrids. But don’t expect to find exactly the same animal species here either. There are some that are similar—some feline creatures, some wolflike creatures—but also some extras. Some are safe, others aren’t, so don’t touch anything unless you know for sure it’s a friendly.”

  “I’m not likely going to be here long enough for it to matter, I suppose,” I replied. I was saddened by the realization. I felt this connection, this mixing of our physical energies, as absurd as that seemed in so short a time. Maybe it was artificial and based on our series of life-and-death circumstances, but there you have it. I was beginning to care about him.

  My eyes stared out the window as I contemplated my words.

  We’d shared kisses, and he’d saved my life, but there was no way this was going to go anywhere. Right? I mean, talk about your long-distance relationships! We weren’t even in the same solar system. With some amusement, I figured I needed to stop my runaway thoughts, or I’d end up practicing the supergirly act of writing his last name after mine with silly hearts around our initials, or something else equally foolish.

  I came back to the present just in time to feel my foot being grabbed, roughly. I yelped with surprise and yanked my foot back so as not to fall.

  “What the hell is this?” Ryder’s voice was a deadly whiplash of anger. He was kneeling, glaring up at me. Surprised by the emotional turn of tide, I was alarmed by his look of betrayal. A flash of pain seemed to radiate from his tortured eyes, eyes that blamed me for something terrible.

  “What’s the matter?” I asked with genuine concern. I could hardly focus on his words, after seeing the force of his sudden anger.

  “Mylunate. You told me you had no idea what I was talking about.” His eyes blazed up at me accusingly, but I could see he was actively trying to soften his voice. “Please. Tell me about this.”

  “Ryder, I don’t know what that is,” I insisted sincerely, but I saw immediately that he didn’t believe me, which felt like a slap in the face.

  “Where did you get it, Taylor? Who gave it to you?” He stood swiftly, effortlessly, towering over me.

  I couldn’t seem to catch up. Did I get bonked on the head here? We were just having a pleasant moment, we’d shared kisses last night, and now I was to be distrusted again?

  “Look.” Ryder took a breath, but there was that vein starting to pop out at his temple. His patience was evaporating. “We didn’t know each other before, and who knows what Grayson told you to bring you on board, but now you need to come clean. You have no idea how important this is. I want info on the network, and you’re going to provide that to me.”

  “What network? What are you talking about?”

  “Grayson’s.”

  I shook my head with disbelief.

  “Haven’t we covered this material already? Who is Grayson?” We’d done a whole show on this same subject just a few days ago where we’d uttered the same shitty lines to each other. It was time to move on.

  “I’m trying to be cool here, Taylor. I don’t th
ink you’re a bad person, I just think you don’t know what you got yourself into.” His voice grew louder with his frustration.

  “That’s for damn sure.” I scowled at him, gritting my teeth against my own pissed-offness. “Gee, thanks for the compliment. I’m so glad you don’t think I’m a bad person.”

  “Cut the bullshit. You’re going to tell me about the mylunate, and then we’ll figure out what to do.” His voice came out all snappy. “Help me solve this, Taylor.”

  “What we’re going to do? Do you mean with me?” I wanted to laugh, except not. There was no way I was going to win in this situation. I was automatically a criminal in his mind. What kind of fucked-up world did he live in that he would have to immediately come down on me after all we’d gone through together? What kind of fucked-up shit had happened to him that he couldn’t see me? Part of me felt empathy, but the larger part was building a very hurt-based mad.

  “If you’re going to refuse to cooperate, then this is beyond my control. Traitors are usually put to death, but considering you aren’t from our planet, you might get leniency. Especially if you provide information.”

  WTF? “Traitor?” How could he say that about me? The lid blew off my pressure cooker in reaction. That was a fucking loaded-ass word.

  Heat scorched my cheeks, and my inner bitch opened her door in self-defense as a knee-jerk reaction.

  “Traitor,” he ground out.

  “How’s about this? You’re going to back the hell off, explain to me what you’re talking about, and then I’ll decide if I feel like sharing anything with you.”

  “Good hiding place, by the way.” As though I hadn’t said anything, he took a casual walk across the room to stand by the bookcase and rummage through a small, ornate, metal-worked box.

  His stony gaze caught mine, and I couldn’t stop the pain that stabbed my chest. I didn’t recognize the cold stranger who stood before me as the same one who’d saved me the day before and had been just this morning calling me by an endearment.

  “What hiding place?”

  “What man would look at your toes when you offer other, more titillating sights?” His face was grim, giving nothing away, which was why I was listening for clues.