Storm Dreams (The Cycle of Somnium Book 1)

by Jeb R. Sherrill

  The Armada ships remained motionless for several minutes before an inhuman voice grated back. It sounded as if whatever creature was speaking was not only un-native to the English language, but to spoken languages of any kind. “Come. Speak. Not harm,” the voice croaked.

  “That’s not the Armada,” Jayce said. “I’ve heard them speak. It’s got to be the Everdream itself.”

  Cassidy nodded. “Got to be.”

  “Take you. Crew,” the voice grated.

  Jayce glanced from the ships back to Cassidy. “Why don’t they just destroy us? They have thousands.”

  “They can’t,” Cassidy said. “Not here. I think I know why they fear us so much.” He turned the cone back out the window. “I have a pilot who will stay at the helm. If you attempt to board, or if I’m not back in an hour, he’ll start flying.” Cassidy turned back to Jayce. “I don’t think they can step aboard here in the Everdream, but if they do, use real bullets. Nothing from the Twilight.”

  Jayce nodded. “Makes sense. That’s what we’ve always used, but I guess here they’re even softer.”

  Cassidy nodded. “We’re made of different stuff. Imagine tiny animals running around in your brain. That’s what we’re in. A brain. They may be like bones and tissue out there, but here there’s nothing but clay.” He left the bridge, moved to the main door and opened it up to the vast fleet. One of the smaller airships pulled alongside. An Armada pilot stood with the side door open and a bridge extended. The pilot looked squat and purple. Cassidy could only compare it to a withered dwarf with pale soft-looking skin. It motioned to Cassidy’s sidearm.

  “I’m keeping this,” Cassidy said, clapping a hand to the wooden holster.

  The creature motioned him to continue. Cassidy leapt past the melting end of the gang plank and climbed aboard, glad for the time being that he was a dream and wouldn’t slip through the deck into the abyss below.

  The Armada ship looked different than the ones he’d seen outside of the Everdream. Whatever material made up this gondola appeared to flow, as if a coloured molten liquid rolled across the surface. When he touched it he realized why. The ship was only mimicking a solid object. In reality, it was liquid. Liquid and organic.

  The Everdream really was an organism. He stood inside some kind of mind, and these ships were like cells. Outside the mind, it could solidify into dream structures, but within the Everdream’s inner boundaries, anything substantial was dangerous. The Armada pilots inside weren’t even as solid as dreams. Cassidy wondered how much power the Everdream was having to exert in order to hold Banner and crew.

  The disembodied voice came again. “Is acceptable.”

  Cassidy couldn’t tell if this was a statement or a question, but the ship moved away and back towards the fringes. He remained standing as it made its way through the many gaps towards one of the platforms near the outer membrane and landed. Both the ship and pilot melted away, and he was left standing on a surface about the size of a large room that looked like rock, but felt smooth as glass.

  Brewster, Karl and Franz stood staring at him like a ghost. The Englishman stepped forwards. “Is it really you, Old Boy? Are you real?”

  Cassidy couldn’t help breaking out in a hearty laugh. “Real? Are any of us?”

  Brewster grinned and gave him a bear hug, which Cassidy returned with a strong squeeze. “Had to ask,” Brewster said, releasing him. “How did they get you? We thought for sure you’d gotten away.”

  “I did,” Cassidy said. He gave Karl and Franz a quick salute, which they returned with claps on the back. “Ned and I got out clean.”

  “Then why?” Brewster said, taking a step back. “My God, you didn’t come back on purpose, did you?”

  Cassidy turned and surveyed the situation. The platform they stood on had sheer edges. No holes. No roots leading to other platforms. Nowhere to escape to. The Everdream didn’t have to exert much energy at all, just threaten them with a fall into nothingness. “Any idea why they haven’t killed you?”

  “Absorbed us, is more like it,” Franz said. “I think they—it, wants to know something before that happens.”

  “Where’s…Banner?” Cassidy asked.

  “No idea,” Brewster said, shaking his head. “They’ve got him somewhere else. They seem rather upset about something with him.”

  “Where’s Ned?” Franz asked.

  Cassidy kept his jaw set. “He’s gone.”

  “I thought you said he got away,” Karl said.

  Cassidy nodded. “We got separated. I’ve no clue where he is now.”

  Brewster shook his head. “Sorry to hear that. He was a good man. Perhaps we’ll find him back in Arcadia.”

  “Perhaps,” Cassidy nodded. “Good news is, I’ve got Jayce back on the ship.”

  “What ship?” Karl asked. “Jayce is dead.”

  “He was never dead,” Cassidy said. He related to them how he’d gotten to the Nubigena and found the young man still reliving the nightmare of Nietzsche’s void.

  “All that time,” Brewster said. He stared at the ground. “Poor bloke. Must have been torture.”

  Cassidy reached into the belt beneath his flight jacket and pulled out two Webleys and a Luger. He handed Brewster and Karl the revolvers and Franz the automatic.

  “I’m afraid we won’t be able to use them,” Brewster said, turning the weapon over in his hand and checking the cylinder. “They’ll never let us off this rock.”

  “I’m not giving them any choice,” Cassidy said. He turned away and looked back in the direction of the Nubigena where it floated somewhere beyond the slabs, aimed at the heart of the Everdream. “I want to see Banner now,” he yelled.

  The Everdream remained silent for several minutes before speaking. “Yes,” the disembodied voice croaked. “Banner.”

  “I’m not sure I’m following you,” said Brewster, as they waited for something to happen. “You’re as trapped as the rest of us.”

  Cassidy shook his head. “If you’re right, the worst they can do is reabsorb us. Either they can’t, or they’re afraid to.”

  Karl raised an eyebrow. “Afraid? Why?”

  Cassidy pursed his lips. “These Armada agents aren’t solid enough to kill us.”

  Franz shook his head. “Perhaps, but they can do anything to us so long as we’re touching the Everdream. They immobilized us before we got here. The ropes snapped not long after they dropped us off, but we’re paralysed if they touch us.”

  Cassidy moved that around in his mind. “Maybe, but they’re scared of the Nubigena. It’s real. It hurts them. Jayce’ll tear them up if they don’t let us out.”

  “It still doesn’t make sense,” Brewster said, rubbing a finger over his moustache. “Why haven’t they just killed us? They’ve had nothing but chances before you got here.”

  “It’s Banner,” Franz said. “They want something from him, and hope they can use us to get it. He’s different. We all know it.”

  A similar airship to the one that dropped Cassidy off drifted towards them. It landed and melted away into nothing, leaving a limp shape that lay motionless on the platform. Cassidy rushed towards the captain, the others close on his heels. He knelt and turned Banner over. A shudder ran through Cassidy as blank eyes stared past him.

  “My God,” Brewster said.

  “He’s white as a ghost,” Karl said.

  They knelt around their captain. Cassidy cradled Banner’s head in his arms. “Banner,” he said, trying to draw recognition from the distant eyes. “Banner! You’re here, Captain. It’s Cassidy. All of us.”

  Banner moaned and flicked his glance around, but didn’t lock onto anyone.

  Cassidy took a deep breath. “My name is Cassidy.”

  Banner twisted up his features. He shivered, rolled off Cassidy’s lap and wailed.

  “I know you know me, Captain.”

  “I’m sorry,” Banner spat. “I should have let you all stay in the Everdream. I was wrong.”

  Cassidy rolled h
im back over and shook him by the shoulders. “Maybe, but it’s done. We’re free men whether we like it or not and I’m not melting back in. We’re your men now.”

  Banner’s eyes cleared a little and seemed to focus. “They’ll never let you go, boys. I’ve doomed you all. They’ll suck you in and do who knows what before that. I should have left you.”

  Cassidy shook his head. “I don’t know what to believe anymore, but I’m sure as hell going to die on my own terms. Now we’re getting out.” He lifted his head and shouted out at the Everdream. “Take us to the Nubigena.”

  “No,” Banner said. His voice dribbled out like a feeble child. Unlike Jayce had looked, Banner still appeared solid, but his skin was beyond white. Sucked dry of all colour. “This is what they want.”

  An airship formed around them, melting up from the platform. Before Cassidy could stand, they were in the air and headed towards the place he’d left the Nubigena. The small craft manoeuvred back through the myriad of gaps and pulled alongside the Zeppelin. A plank extended to the main door, but stopped a foot away, the far edge melting as it came too close to the Nubigena’s hatch.

  “Trap,” Banner rasped. “All of it.”

  The airship jostled and began to fade as if forcing them to the plank.

  “No doubt, but at least we’ll have the ship,” Brewster said. He helped Cassidy drag their captain, each taking a shoulder. Karl and Franz took Banner’s feet, and together they heaved him aboard.

  Jayce met them in the bay hatch. “What’s wrong with him?” he asked when he glanced down at Banner’s white form.

  “Tortured, I suspect,” Brewster said. “Don’t wish to imagine how.”

  A harsh gale struck the ship. The crew carried Banner to his quarters as Cassidy and Jayce rushed to the bridge and engaged the engines. The savage wind was blowing them away from the heart, out towards the membrane. “Reverse the engines,” Cassidy shouted, as he took the wheel.

  “Why?” Jayce yelled.

  “Just do it.”

  Jayce grabbed the throttle and thrust it into full reverse. The engines moaned. The Nubigena bucked. “What are they doing?” he yelled over the roar of the wind.

  “Blowing us back to where we aren’t a danger,” Cassidy said, as the ship lurched forwards. The engines screamed as the powerful gale fought them. “Stop the engines,” he screamed. “They’ll burn up.”

  Jayce cut the throttle. The Nubigena flew forwards at an uncontrolled velocity.

  “Dammit,” Cassidy snapped. “All their physical power is on the edges. Once they get us past the membrane, we’ll be in their creation zone, where they make the dreams.”

  The Nubigena tore back through the membrane and sped between the dream bulbs in mere moments.

  “My God,” Jayce said as they neared the vaporous outer boundary. “You mean—”

  The Zeppelin struck the border like a solid wall. Jayce flew over his console and crashed into the far wall below the windows. Cassidy slammed into the wheel and sank to the floor. Blood ran into his eyes as the world blurred.

  Chapter 17

  Cassidy woke with his face in a small pool of blood. He touched his head. Felt a deep gash. A splotch of red showed where he’d struck part of the helm’s support frame. Jayce groaned nearby.

  “What the hell was that?” Jayce asked. His voice sounded far off as if dampened through thick air.

  “They’ve got us,” Cassidy said. He pulled himself to a seated position. His head hammered. “Since this is the area where they make dreams, we’re probably in some kind of dream-bubble they’ve created just to hold us.”

  Jayce shuffled, trying to sit up, but couldn’t seem to get his legs under him. “Dammit,” he yelled, and struck the floor with his fist. “They wanted to get us all in one place. Just waited for you to show up.”

  Ripping a piece of his scarf, Cassidy tied it around his head. “Can’t believe I didn’t think of that. Just stumbled in like a damned idiot trying to save everyone.”

  Jayce let out a short harsh laugh. “I’m still liking this better than the void.”

  Cassidy tried to nod, but his head hurt too much. “We’re not completely sunk, I still—”

  “You all right, Old Boy?” Brewster said, from the doorway. “Blimey, what happened to your head?”

  Cassidy winced. “Tried to hammer a bolt in with my skull.”

  “Use a spanner next time,” Brewster said. “Karl should teach you these things.”

  Cassidy grinned. “Everyone make it?”

  Brewster grimaced. “Karl’s hurt his back. Franz and I got lucky because we were already braced. Banner rolled across the floor and hit a wall, but he’s in such bad shape I don’t think he could be any worse.”

  Cassidy closed his eyes for a few moments and ran through his limited options. “I need to see Banner,” he said, gripping Tuck’s location watch through the fabric of his pocket. He squeezed a switch and felt the tiny machine thrum against his skin. Time for Plan B.

  Brewster nodded and helped him to his feet. They hobbled down the corridor to the bay where Banner still lay motionless. Cassidy sighed. Franz and Karl hadn’t even gotten the captain to his quarters before hitting the holding dream. Banner lay propped up with a pillow in the middle of the aisle. His glazed eyes stared at the ceiling.

  “I’ll check on things,” Brewster said over his shoulder as he sprinted away, leaving Cassidy alone with the fallen captain.

  “Banner,” Cassidy said, kneeling beside the pale man. “I need to know what they want.”

  Banner glanced over, then back at the ceiling and closed his eyes. “They want to know why they can’t absorb me.”

  “Why can’t they?” Cassidy asked. He put hand on Banner’s shoulder. “Dammit, I need to know.”

  Banner pried his eyelids open. A tear ran down his cheek. “I’m not really a dream. More than just animated Everdream stuff. They can’t get past my consciousness.” His breathing became shallower. His lips parted again, but he could only whisper. “Drained everything they could. But I’m…still…here.” He closed his eyes and his head fell sideways.

  Cassidy’s heart shuddered. He gripped Banner by the shoulder and gave it another shake. “What makes you different?”

  Banner coughed out what might have been a laugh. “Doesn’t matter,” he rasped. “Never mattered. I exist because I say I exist. That’s the only truth there is. It’s about will. Remember that. You can do it too.”

  “Why don’t you tell the others?” Cassidy spat.

  The lines in Banner’s forehead creased with pain. “Won’t listen. Do what they’re dreamed to do. Good pilots. Soldiers.”

  “Then why me?” Cassidy asked. “Why tell me now?”

  Banner rolled sideways, eyes wild. Grabbed Cassidy by the lapels and drew him close. “You’re the only one who ever asked,” he said and thumped back to the cot. His eyes shut and he was unconscious.

  A solid knocking hammered at the outer hatch as Brewster and Franz rushed towards Cassidy. It stopped for a few seconds and started again.

  Cassidy glanced between them. Brewster shrugged. “Little point. We let the bastards in or they’ll tear the ship apart.”

  Cassidy reached up and released the hatch. An Armada agent stood outside, floating in mid-air. He was taller than the other one Cassidy had seen and more solid. No soft features or liquid skin. This one could kill.

  “You are Cassidy?” The agent said, stepping inside. His voice was more natural than the voice in the Everdream. It must have had difficulty communicating within its own mind, but here it seemed to have no trouble through this Armada emissary.

  “Why are you doing this?” Cassidy asked.

  “You belong here,” it said without emotion. “We made you. We made all of you. You’re a part of us.”

  Cassidy took a deep breath. He’d half wanted this a few days ago. Considered breaking free of the crew and returning to whatever he’d been. He couldn’t remember why he’d ever wanted that now. “I d
on’t want to go,” said Cassidy. “I’m free. I have my own mind.”

  “It’s against the order of things,” the agent said. “Understand. We mean none of you harm. But you must return.”

  “Then why haven’t you just done it?” Jayce shouted from behind. “Why torture us like this?”

  The agent stepped forwards and looked down at Banner’s emaciated body. “This dream is an abomination. We must know what he really is.”

  Franz’s blue eyes flared as he drew the Webley from his belt and fired in one swift snap of his wrist. The bullets tore into the emissary and it fell backwards out the hatch.

  A moment later, the weapon tore from the young German’s hand and flew out the hatch as well. Another emissary moved through the door at blinding speed and slammed Franz against the wall, knocking him unconscious. “If you use your weapons again, we will be forced to restrain you all,” it said, with the same emotionless voice as the first.

  The crew glanced at each other. Cassidy wanted to fire as well. At this point, what did it matter? At least it would feel good hurt one of them. But it didn’t matter, did it? The Armada were all just blobs of dream matter that would return over and over. “It’s not that easy,” Cassidy said, digging into his fragmented memory. “Banner’s not something you can understand. He’s a god from the lower worlds.”

  Brewster glanced at him with narrowed eyes.

  Jayce blinked hard.

  Karl nodded. “He is ancient. Woden One-Eye of the gallows tree. If anything should happen to him, his family will make war on you.”

  The emissary was silent. Somewhere, deep in the nebulous cloud, the Everdream considered the possibility. “This seems doubtful,” the emissary said at last. “Woden visited us once. If this creature were a god, he would have spoken by now.”

  Cassidy couldn’t believe the Everdream had even considered the possibility. Was this Woden Karl spoke of real? A clicking came from Cassidy’s pocket. He pulled out his watch and flipped open the lid. A red light flared. The emissary regarded him with what might or might not have been a strange look. Cassidy turned towards the bridge. “Jayce,” he said over his shoulder, “shoot him and keep shooting,” and bolted for the helm.