by A. R. Cook
“Ah, you are all right?” the kappa said as David stepped into the hut.
“No thanks to you,” David replied sourly. “You ran off when I needed your help.”
The kappa frowned. “Do not be sore at me. When those two men chased after you, I came straight here to get Tanuki to help. He is good at tricking thieves.”
The badger Tanuki smiled broadly as he jumped down from David’s head. “I am good at many things. It’s nice to be the most divine creature in all of Kyoto. But Brother Kappa, aren’t you worried of your head drying out, this far from the river?”
“I hoped you had a little sake left, to keep my head wet.” The kappa, exasperated that he could not free himself from the bottle’s hold, began banging his glass finger prison on the floor.
Tanuki shook his head with a smirk. In one quick spin, he transformed himself into a large green bottle. He floated off the floor and hung in the air over the kappa, where he tipped over and splashed sake over the turtle-monkey until he was drenched from head to tail. Tanuki resumed his normal shape, grasped the neck of the bottle that held the kappa, and popped off the bottle with a firm pull.
“There, your finger is free,” Tanuki said triumphantly.
The kappa licked absentmindedly at the sake soaking his fur.
David cleared his throat. “Tanuki, is it? I was hoping you could help me. I need to get back through the Curtain, and the kappa said you would know how.”
Tanuki twitched his nose. “The Curtain? I don’t like going through the Curtain. Too foggy. I get lost a lot.”
“But the kappa said—”
“I said Tanuki is the most clever friend I know,” the kappa corrected him, and he shook his shell to allow some of the sake that had seeped down into it to escape. “I never said he would actually take you through the Curtain.”
David gritted his teeth. “Then you brought me all this way for nothing??”
A strange voice filled the air. “What is all this noise?”
Instantly, the kappa and Tanuki froze and were silent. A lean, tall figure emerged from behind a sliding, paper-screen door at the back of the hut. He was an ancient man, with a long white beard that almost dragged the floor. He had a short top-knot on his otherwise bald head, and a long blue robe hung on his frail body. The sage’s fingernails were long but clean, and he used them to stroke his cascading beard. The smells of the sea flowed from all around him. He had a length of black cloth wrapped over his eyes, and David could make out the lines of deep scars peeking out from the bandage.
“Who is this stranger you have brought to my home?” the blind man asked.
David bowed in respect to the elder, and he took a deep breath before answering. “I am David Sandoval. I come from a place far away from here. I was hoping someone could help me get back home.”
“Hmm.” The sage moved smoothly through the room as if not blind at all, and he sat down on one of the cushions at the table. Tanuki went to the fire pit where a tea kettle was boiling on the fire. The kappa fetched a teacup from the other side of the room and set it down in front of the sage. Tanuki poured him tea, and then both kappa and badger took seats at the table next to the old man.
He must be their master, David thought.
The man gestured for David to take the remaining seat at the table, which he did.
“You wish to travel through the Curtain to get home?” the old man inquired.
David nodded. “Yes, that was how I got here in the first place. It’s a long story, but if I can get back into the Curtain, then I can find Aca—the sphinx. She’ll know how to send me back.”
“The sphinx.” The man stroked his beard again. “Ah, yes, the handsome young lady from the deserts of the far West. How is she these days?”
David was not sure how to answer at first. Did this old man really know Acacia? Was he from across the Curtain too? “I haven’t known her that long.”
The sage nodded, and sipped from his teacup. “I’m afraid going back into the Curtain is not that simple. As you have discovered, you can enter the Curtain in one place of our world, and end up in someplace else you never intended. Only those who know how to navigate the hidden corridors of the Curtain can go where they wish.”
“Do you know how to travel through it, Mister …?”
“Mister?” The badger was positively mortified. “You do not call the master plain old ‘mister’!”
The old man raised a hand to Tanuki to silence him. “My name is Yofune Nushi. And yes, I am familiar with the Curtain.”
“That’s great! Then you can help lead me back home.” David caught himself, and added, “I mean, if you would, Master Yofune.” He was embarrassed, since he did not know if Yofune’s blindness would be a hindrance in the Curtain.
“Is that where your path is meant to lead you, Sandoval-san?”
David lapsed into momentary silence, struggling to understand why Yofune would ask him such a question. “I do have a path. I am to be an apprentice to a very good teacher in Paris. I am to finish my studies and make my way in the world. I had my life perfectly planned until that … that thieving sphinx took me away!”
Yofune’s face tightened into a frown. “Why would the sphinx take you away?”
“I don’t know!” David’s eyes wandered away from the sage. “Well … I did invade her camp and tried to … stab her … but honestly, who kidnaps someone who tries to kill them? Why not just kill me and have it done with?”
“Indeed, why not?”
The question struck David with a thought that he hadn’t contemplated before. Why hadn’t Acacia killed him that night? Gullin said the men themselves would have gladly beaten him to death if Acacia had wished it. He had assumed that she had wanted to possess him like a pet, as retaliation for his audacity to even think he could slay her. It was the “keep your friends close, and your enemies closer” line of thinking. But she hadn’t mistreated him or abused her power over him. If anything, she had been constantly stung by his rejection and repellence of her, and she had refrained from hurting him. Why had she gone to such lengths to try and keep winning his trust, when ripping his throat out would have been a more predictable action for a …
“Maybe she wants to prove she’s not a monster,” David thought aloud.
“What defines monstrosity?” Yofune folded his hands into the folds of his sleeves. “Is it having a form that is not acceptable? Is it how sharp your teeth are, or if you have claws instead of fingernails? Or does it reside, in some invisible shape, inside all of us, Sandoval-san?”
David was silent.
“There is an invisible shape inside of her,” Yofune continued. “But it is not what makes her a monster. It is what makes her a prisoner, much more than she ever made you. She has lost the ability to speak, has she not?”
“Not entirely … but she told me, in a dream, that talking aloud risks her health. When she tries to speak, she only speaks in Latin, and it hurts her inside.” David sensed Yofune already knew his curiosity as to what was causing Acacia’s condition.
The old man nodded solemnly. “Latin is one of the purest of languages, and the one her clan would have spoken since their first beginnings. It has magical properties, the root of charms and spells, thus it does provide some protection for her, and does not wound her as greatly as speaking a modern language. But even then, it cannot stop the shape from devouring each syllable she utters, and thus is slowly devouring her from the inside out.”
“What is this ‘shape’ you keep mentioning?”
Tanuki got a worried look on his face, and began shivering. The kappa looked confused, scratching his drying scalp. Yofune poured a little tea into the monkey’s head holes. The kappa yelped, stung by the heat of the tea.
“Does this shape look like a cucumber?” the kappa wondered. “I could really use a cucumber right about now …”
“This has nothing to do with the cravings of your stomach,” Yofune replied firmly.
Tanuki put his paws to his head,
squeezing his eyes shut. “Do not speak of stomachs! Not when you have mentioned that horrid Shade! Oh, dear, dear grandfather Raiju! Poor Raiju!” The badger squirmed, swerving his head from side to side. He shifted his shape into a small cloud that swirled around the room, weeping big blobs of raindrops. The kappa got up and walked around beneath him to keep his head holes filled with water.
“I’m afraid our friend Tanuki knows too well about the Shades of Nyx,” Yofune sighed.
“The Shades of Nyx?” David felt like he had read that name somewhere before in one of his mythological texts. Nyx …
Tanuki resumed his badger shape after he had dried himself of tears. “A Shade of Nyx was put inside the belly of my grandfather Raiju. He was the spirit of lightning, a shapeshifter who favored the shape of the badger. He was well known for his swiftness as he jumped from tree to tree in a flourish of white fire. But then … he was consumed by a yellow Shade, and it ripped him open and took his beloved gift back to Nyx!”
“It was a Shade designed to steal from Raiju his speed,” Yofune explained.
David tried to piece all of this information together. “What, exactly, are these shades? What are they meant to do? And who is Nyx?”
Yofune arose from the table, and went to stand by the fire pit. “Nyx is a goddess of night. She is daughter of Chaos, and mother to many. She birthed Sleep, Fate, Age, Strife, and even Death. Her power is unfathomable, and even the mightiest of gods fear her.”
The kappa gulped loudly. David refrained from doing the same, although his unease was just as strong.
Yofune continued. “Madam Nyx controls the spectrum of both light and shadow of the moon and stars. Her shades are various colors she has woven from her spectrum, and they act as an extension of her will. She finds ways to implant them into those whom she envies, whose abilities she covets.”
“You mean, she envied Raiju for his speed, and that’s why she put a Shade in him? To have his speed for herself?” David asked.
“I don’t believe it is for herself,” the old man replied. “But she desires to collect the most prized traits from magical creatures, each that embody the best of a natural talent or skill. I have heard that she used brown Shades to take the strength of titans, and blue Shades to steal the songs from muses. Your sphinx, I believe, has been stricken with a shade in order to be stripped of her infamous cunning.”
David folded his hands together. He stared down at the tabletop, rather surprised that he was feeling badly for the sphinx. “Could … this Shade of Nyx … will it kill Acacia?”
Yofune smirked. “An odd concern for a man who admitted he intended to do something similar. But I believe you just referred to your sphinx by a familiar name?’
David clamped his mouth shut. Did Yofune also know about the sphinx’s matrimonial tradition?
“Ah.” Yofune pulled a small sprig of some exotic plant from his robe and crumpled it between his fingers. He sprinkled it onto the fire pit, which caused the flames to crackle and flicker a bright scarlet. “No doubt she is already looking for you. A sphinx is very devoted when she believes she has found her life partner. Come here.”
The young man paused, but he stood up slowly and walked over to the sage. The words “life partner” stabbed his brain like knitting needles.
“Sit.” Yofune motioned for David to sit down next to him on the floor. “You said the sphinx talked to you in a dream. I am opening a dream path through this fire. You need to relax and concentrate on the flames. It will put you in a half-sleep, and if she is searching for you, she will sense you in that state. Then you may tell her where you are, and she can come for you.”
“Didn’t you say you know how to travel through the Curtain? Couldn’t you guide me back home?”
Yofune sighed with a long, tired exhale. “Is that the choice you truly wish to make? To go back to your life of ignorant bliss, knowing what you know now?” The old man turned to David, and even through his bandages David could feel Yofune’s burning gaze. “Do you not think you were made aware of the world beyond the Curtain for a purpose?”
David wrinkled his brow. “Why did you want me to know all of this? These ‘Shades,’ this Madam Nyx, is beyond my control, don’t you think?”
“Do you think?”
“Of course I think …” He stopped. The hanging silence brought David around to a realization that sent electric shocks through his gut. “Are you saying this was meant to happen? Did Acacia actually choose me to do something about all of this?”
“That is something only she knows. All I can tell you is this: any traveler who has found his way to me, was meant to find me. Those travelers who live after they find me, were clearly destined for a grander purpose.”
David blanched. “Who … live?”
Yofune smiled. “You are still here. That is good. Now look into the fire.”
David almost declined, worried about what could happen while he was hypnotized by the fire. But he found that a part of him did want to find Acacia, to make sure she and her gypsy family were all right. He was even concerned for Gullin, as gruff and odd as he was. David gazed into the dancing flames, the colors rippling up and billowing out as if breathing, flowing, pulsating with the rhythm of the earth. Soon that same rhythm found its way into his mind, a quiet drumming that beckoned him to march forward. While his body remained seated on the floor inside the hut, another part of him journeyed into the scarlet fire. Suddenly he was exposed to a whole universe of secret pathways, and he was rapidly traversing down one after another as quickly as a soul can fly.
Chapter Seven
Navigating the dream paths was exhausting, even as an astral projection.
David did not have much control over where he was going, but the farther he went, the more he realized how various dream paths crossed one another. At first, he thought the images he was seeing were figments of his imagination, since they did not have precise shape or detail. His sight eventually adjusted, however, and he could see that he was surrounded by thousands of people, creatures, and manifested emotions. Most did not acknowledge him, for they were involved in matters of their own, but a few faces watched him as he passed by, as if he were some fleeting whimsy.
Then he noticed several of these fellow path-walkers were more pronounced in shape than others, and their eyes held a sharp, penetrating gaze much like that he had felt when Acacia had spoken to him in his dream. They, too, observed him as he went by, but he could tell that they must be like the sphinx, in that they had the talent to choose how they wanted to appear in others’ dreams, and how to construct the environments of dreams.
How was he going to find Acacia in all of this? It was not even for certain she would know he was here, and he did not know if her ability to enter his dreams worked if she did not know he was asleep. He considered calling out for her, but found he was without a voice.
How long am I supposed to wander around here? he thought. I’m never going to find that sphinx in all this!
May I assist you?
The sudden voice caught David by surprise. He couldn’t see where it had come from, and it was impossible to know who had spoken to him among the multitude of dream shapes. He tried to keep strict control over his thoughts. Are you talking to me?
Naturally.
Who are you? David asked.
My name is Hypnos. My sons and I are the keepers of this realm. I take care of all humans as they sleep. But I can tell you are not sleeping. You have had a dream path open to you. What are you searching for?
David wondered if this unseen entity was trustworthy.
I promise you, I intend you no harm, came a calm reply.
Where are you? Can I at least see you?
I am all around you. I am Sleep itself. But, if you would prefer, I will take a shape for you.
Instantly, the image of a man appeared. It was hard to describe what Hypnos looked like, other than there were two dark blue wings that sprouted from his head, just above his ears. He seemed to be ever shift
ing his features, but at the same time his image was constant. All that could be said was he was handsome—probably handsome to everyone, no matter what their tastes.
David remembered that Yofune had mentioned that Sleep was one of the sons of Nyx. Sensing David’s thought, Hypnos nodded in affirmation.
Now, did you say you were looking for the sphinx? Hypnos inquired.
Yes, David answered.
That at least narrows it down. Wait a moment.
Hypnos vanished back into the dream atmosphere. He caused a ripple effect that echoed David’s thoughts, and David could hear it reverberating throughout the dream pathways. It was dizzying, and David wondered if Hypnos was playing a game with him. But after a moment, something echoed back towards him, bouncing from one dream creature to the next as if they were all playing catch with a rubber ball.
David, is that you? Where are you?
It was her voice!
Impulsively, he thought his answer back. I’m on a dream path. I’m surrounded by thousands of people, and I feel like I can’t stop moving.
The same ripple sent out his thought, and he received her response immediately. Think of the place we were in your dream the night we first talked. Keep concentrating on it so you can send the vision back to me. I’ll meet you there.
Hypnos’ voice returned. I will leave you two be, for now. But, David, I know you have more questions for me. Ask when you are ready.
David wanted to tell him he was ready to ask now, about Nyx, her Shades, and if Hypnos knew what the Shade would do to Acacia. Before he could, however, he found himself in a blank white space, like an unpainted empty room. He figured Hypnos had put him here to meet Acacia, so David concentrated on recreating the same dreamscape as before, a grassy shore overlooking the shimmering sea, and a small birch tree and gently flowing winds.
