Nightmare se-2

by Steven Harper

  Dorna nodded, and now that Ben was looking for it, he could see a resemblance to Jeren. They had the same cat-green eyes, the same sharp facial features.

  "I visit here a lot," she said. "Mother Ara trusts me and didn’t always guard her passwords. The right access, and the phones go right down. Please, Ben-just forget it, okay?"

  "Forget what?" Ben stalled.

  "Forget trying to call the Guardians. That’s what you’re trying to do, isn’t it? Cole’s going to kill Mother Ara, and I’m sorry-in more ways than you know."

  More fear clotted in Ben’s throat and he fought to remain calm. "Where is he? Where’s Cole?"

  "His body is in his room, but his mind is in the Dream," Dorna said. "And that means he’s everywhere."

  "Why my mom?"

  "Because he loves her," Dorna replied simply. "But he knows she doesn’t love him back. The proof is that she hasn’t worn the bracelet Jeren had me deliver."

  "She doesn’t even know who it came from," Ben blurted out. Why was he arguing with her? He had to warn Mom somehow, get help for her.

  "There’s the proof. If she loved him, she would know." Dorna spread her hands in supplication. "Please, Ben. Just leave it. If your mom’s not already dead, she will be in a few minutes. I know it’s going to be miserable for you, but we can’t change that. If you call the Guardians and tell them about my brother, that would make me miserable. Why should we both suffer?"

  The woman was diseased. Every instinct Ben had told him she was poison, that he had to get away from her. He tensed to lunge past her when she spoke again.

  "Aren’t you forgetting something?" she said. Ben froze. Her voice was different-lower, older, and cracked like an old coffee cup. Dorna’s posture had changed, too. She stood more stiffly, as if her joints hurt. "If you leave the house, you’re leaving your little sweetie all by himself. Who knows what might happen to him?"

  "You won’t hurt him," Ben said with more conviction than he felt. "He’s your friend."

  "Not my friend." With surprising speed she dodged past him and ran toward the guest room. Ben spun to follow, heart pounding, stomach tight. He charged into the guest room to find Dorna standing a few meters away from Kendi, who was still standing in deep meditation, spear propped under one knee. He looked peaceful, vulnerable.

  "Dear, dear, dear," Dorna said in her old woman’s voice. "What a little pisser. Cute, though, in a gawky, spring chicken sort of way. And you were right, Benny-boy. I wouldn’t kill him. But Rudy might. Do you want to take that chance?"

  Ben stood in the doorway, torn. Cole was probably attacking his mother this very moment, bringing the Dream to horrible life around her and tearing her to pieces. But if he left to get help, Kendi would be left alone with a lunatic bent on some kind of revenge. If he could find a way to remove Dorna from the picture, everything would be all right. But Dorna had proven twice that she was a better fighter than he was despite the weights he lifted. He needed a weapon and glanced desperately around the room without seeing anything.

  "That’s right Ben," old-voice Dorna taunted. "What are you going to do? Hit me? Try to kill me? Actually make a decision? Poor Benny-boy can’t make up his mind to save his life. Does he love Kendi or not? Should he save his mother or his boyfriend? Should he attack the old lady or run for help? Poor Benny-boy, always waiting, never acting. Poor, poor Benny-boy."

  Ben lunged for her. Laughing, she danced out of the way. Ben threw a punch, but she blocked it and landed a fist in his stomach. Ben backed away, gasping. Dorna’s hand went to her belt and came up with a large knife. The blade vibrated with a sound like a dog growling. Dorna swung it, and it sheered through a bedpost like paper.

  "Who the hell do you think you are, boy?" she snarled in a deep, masculine voice. "You think you can get the best of me? I’ll kick the shit out of you." She lunged and the knife roared. Ben leaped backward, almost knocking Kendi over. "Poetic, isn’t it? Dorna’s brother is killing your mother in the Dream and I’m killing you here in the solid world. Mother and son dying at the same time. Let’s end it here."

  She drew back the snarling knife. Ben reached back and snatched the spear from under Kendi’s knee. Kendi collapsed to the floor. Ben yanked the rubber tip off the spear and flung it with all his strength at Dorna. It stuck with a meaty thunk and she screamed. The knife clattered to the floor.

  Blessing every weight he had lifted, Ben grabbed up Kendi in a firefigher’s carry and ran out of the room without looking back. He made it out the front door and into the darkness beyond. The walkways were deserted at this time of night. Kendi was a limp, heavy weight across his shoulders. Ben hesitated. Dorna had said that Cole was at this moment in the Dream with Mom. By the time he got to a phone, called the Guardians, explained the situation, and got them to act, Mom-and possibly Kendi-would be long dead.

  Ben hurried across the walkway to the next talltree over and found a staircase that led downward. Kendi bounced and flopped on his back like warm rag doll. Ben could feel him breathing. The steps clattered under his heavy feet, and the darkness amid the talltree leaves and branches was all-enveloping. Ben could hardly see where he was going, but he didn’t need to. This was his neighborhood, and he knew every stair, every plank, every leaf and branch. After a moment he came to an alcove where the staircase made a turn to follow the trunk of the talltree. Ben eased Kendi off his shoulders and set him carefully on the boards. Working quickly, he pushed Kendi’s inert body against the talltree trunk where the shadows were the thickest.

  His body is in his room, but his mind is in the Dream.

  "You’ll be safe here until you wake up," Ben whispered to him. "Please be safe."

  Then he took off for the monastery at a dead run.

  This time it was the Outback. Ara agreed it was easier for her and Kendi to meet and talk there since Kendi had to use his private desert as a transition from one Silent’s turf to the next unless he wanted to suffer nausea and vomiting. Ara had promised to start working with him on more instantaneous movement, but that would have to come later.

  "All right," Ara said. "Two of Jeren’s previous owners confirmed strange murders and finger mutilations going on while they owned him. More nails in his legal coffin once the Guardians catch him. Are you sure Ben called them?"

  "No, Mother," Kendi said testily. "But he said he would. It’s just the same as the last four times you asked."

  "Sorry," Ara sighed, sinking down onto a boulder. "I’m a mom, I worry."

  The Outback sky was clear and perfectly blue. Rock and scrubby plant life stretched in all directions, bringing the smell of vegetation baking in hot, dry air. Ara was uncomfortably warm but she had to admit that Kendi had created a unique and realistic turf. Overhead circled a falcon. She screamed once and Kendi smiled up at her.

  "What is that like?" Ara asked. "I’ve been lax in my teacher duties by not talking to you about it, but so much has been happening."

  "I’m not really aware of it until she touches me," Kendi said. "Then it’s like our memories merge and there’s two of me, but still only one." He paused. "Mother Ara, when can I start looking for my mom?"

  Ara started. Kendi hadn’t mentioned his family in a long time and she had supposed he had stopped wondering if he would be able to find them.

  "Once you reach Brother," Ara said, "you’ll be able to do field work in the solid world, if that’s what you want. You can start doing what I do-seek out Silent slaves and buy them for the Children-and see if you can track your family that way. But that won’t be for some years yet."

  Kendi looked unblinkingly up into the sun. "Why can’t I look for her in the Dream? She’s Silent, and I’ve touched her a lot. I should be able to find her."

  "You can certainly look," Mother Ara said, trying to think how best to let him down. "But Kendi-not all Silent are able to reach the Dream. Ben, for one. Your mother may or may not be able to enter here. And even if she does, there are millions of Silent all throughout the galaxy. Sure, touching her in the so
lid world makes it easier to look for her, but you don’t have any idea where or how to look."

  "I’m good at tracking people," Kendi pointed out. His face was a mask of intensity, but his voice was hoarse. "And I’m good at sensing things in the Dream. Why can’t I sense her?"

  "For all those reasons I just mentioned, Kendi," Ara said gently. "It isn’t your fault, you know."

  "Yes it is," Kendi said. "I should have begged Mistress Blanc to buy Dad and Martina and Utang. I should have tried to find some way to escape and find them. I should have found a way to stop them from getting on the colony ship in the first place. I could have done a lot of things."

  Ara kept her voice low, though her heart ached in sympathy for him. "None of those things would have helped. I think you know that, but you feel guilty that you’re free when your family isn’t."

  "I’m going to find her-and the rest of them," Kendi insisted. "If that means I have to make Brother and then Father younger than anyone else ever did, I will. We were all supposed to be on Pelogosa building a new colony together. I didn’t want to go, but now I’d give everything to be there."

  "Kendi, you can’t-"

  The Dream rippled. Ara felt the splash move against her. Kendi jumped as if he’d stepped on a snake.

  "What was that?" he asked.

  "I’m not sure," Ara said. "What would-"

  "Ara."

  Fear stabbed through Ara’s chest. She and Kendi spun around and saw him. He stood only a few steps away, dressed all in black. A wide-brimmed hat hid his face. Ara felt the blood slip from her face. Her breath came short and fast. Kendi’s eyes were wide.

  "Ara, my love," the man said. "Did you like the bracelet?"

  It took every scrap of courage she had, but Ara did it. She stepped in front of her student. "Kendi, get out of here," she said. "He wants me, not you."

  "I’m not going to leave you alone with him," Kendi insisted.

  "The skinny Silent who saw me with my last girlfriend," the man said. "Kendi, is it? You heard her. Leave. You aren’t involved."

  Kendi stepped around Ara to stand beside her. Ara mentally screamed at him to stay put, to do as he was told for once. She almost tried to shove him back, but was afraid a sudden move might send the dark man over the edge.

  "Kendi, I’m ordering you to leave," she said through gritted teeth. Because I can’t leave until I know you’re safe.

  "You can’t get us both, Jeren," Kendi said. "Give it up."

  The black man backed up a step. "Who’s Jeren?"

  Shut up, Kendi! Ara thought. Shut up, shut up, shut up!

  "We know, Jeren." Kendi took a step toward him. "We know about you, we know about Dorna. We know about it all. So why don’t you just give yourself up? We don’t want to-to-" Kendi fell silent. Ara suspected he was going to say We don’t want to hurt you, but he couldn’t lie in the Dream.

  "You don’t know anything," the dark man said hoarsely. "You can’t prove it’s-"

  Movement flashed down from the sky. A brown blur whipped past the black man’s head and ripped off the man’s hat, revealing Jeren’s face. The scar around his left eye-

  Did his mother do that to him?

  — shone white against his skin.

  Jeren made a choking sound and clapped his hands over his face. For a moment, Ara thought he was going to drop to his knees and start crying. She allowed herself a small sigh of relief. Once unmasked, Jeren’s power was gone. All Ara had to do now was get him to tell her where his body was so she could-

  The world exploded. With a cracking boom the ground came to life. Giant stone fingers jabbed upward, trying to trap Ara in their grip. Kendi shouted and leaped sideways. Fear stabbed through Ara, but she didn’t even think. A sledgehammer appeared in her hands, and she swept it in an arc around her. Stone shattered in a dozen directions and Ara scrambled free. She glanced at Kendi, dreading what she might see. He was crouching a little ways away.

  "Get out, Kendi!" she yelled at him, but he seemed too dazed to understand her.

  "You bitch!" Jeren screamed. "I watched you in the Dream and fell in love with you. Now I have to kill you."

  Ara didn’t bother responding. She raised her fist and a bolt of lightning flashed down from the clear blue sky. It smashed the ground only a few steps away from Jeren. The thunderclap made Ara’s ears ring and knocked Jeren backward. He somersaulted to his feet in an inhumanly smooth motion.

  "You missed," he snarled. "You wanna fight, huh? Fine by me."

  A howling wind tore across the Outback and slammed into Ara and Kendi, bowling both of them over. The air whooshed out of Ara’s lungs and she felt herself tumbling end over end. Then she slammed into something hard. Pain ran down her back and ribs. Dirt and sand stung her eyes, making it hard to see. For a moment she panicked. Then the hard-won control took over. This was the Dream, where she could dictate reality. Ara concentrated for a split-second, and a stone wall rumbled up out of the ground before her. The wind cut off. Ara cleared the grit from her eyes. Kendi lay next to her looking dazed.

  "Kendi, get out," she hissed. "Kendi!"

  But he didn’t respond. Ara grimaced. She and Jeren both had been tearing at his turf, ripping it apart and reshaping it. This all tore at Kendi’s very mind, and he didn’t have the experience to cope with it. It was the same effect that Jeren’s manipulation had had on his female victims. It didn’t bother Ara because this wasn’t her turf, but she couldn’t leave Kendi behind to face Jeren alone.

  The earth shuddered and boomed. With a thunderous crack the stone wall broke and crumbled into rubble. Jeren stood on the other side, less than two meters away. Ara’s hand snapped out and a neuropistol appeared in her grip. She fired. The beam struck Jeren square in the chest.

  He laughed. "You’re a woman," he snickered. "You can’t hurt me."

  Ara swallowed. A battle in the Dream was a struggle between two minds fighting to control reality, and the stronger one would usually win. Jeren was obviously more powerful than Ara had thought-his mental image of an unhurt self was stronger than her image of the blast from a deadly weapon. But there were other ways to fight.

  "A woman like your mother?" she said.

  Jeren actually blanched. Ara gestured and the rubble vanished. Kendi slowly got to his feet. Trying to keep Jeren’s attention on her, she locked eyes with him and stepped forward.

  "Your mother hurt you a lot," she said, and wished desperately she had had time to read some specifics from the file on Riann Keller. Best to stick with the basics. "She beat you and made fun of you, didn’t she? You and Dorna both. You hated her, but you also loved her, didn’t you, Jeren? That’s the way you feel toward all Silent women, isn’t that right?"

  Jeren retreated a step. Ara didn’t even blink.

  "You thought if you could make someone love you, everything would be all right. You wanted to give your mother’s friend Polly Garvin presents, but you were afraid, so you made your sister do it for you. And when Polly spurned you, you killed her. The same went for Minn Araq, didn’t it?"

  "Shut up," Jeren said.

  "Dorna wanted a souvenir," Ara continued. "Something to prove she’d been brave enough to do her brother’s bidding. So she took things-a finger, a bit of clothing, a piece of one of your presents. How does that make you feel, Jeren?"

  "I said, shut up!"

  "That was when you tried it on your own mother. She didn’t love you either, even after the presents. So you killed her, too. But then came the cruelest blow of all. Your mother had sold you and Dorna into slavery, and the slaver was already on his way. How did it feel to watch your sister carted away in electric shackles, Jeren?"

  She had been hoping to break him down, but instead Jeren responded with nothing but invisible force. Ara flew backward several meters and plowed into the ground. She felt something snap, and it was suddenly hard to breathe. She tried to roll to her feet, but a wave of pain stopped her. Before she could react further, thick green vines sprouted from the ground and whip
ped around her body like snakes. A little ways away, Kendi lay similarly entangled. Jeren strode toward her, green eyes blazing.

  "You’re going to die now," he said. "I’m going to crush you and listen while you scream."

  "It won’t help," gasped Kendi, and Jeren spun to look at him. "Ben knows who you are. He’s already called the Guardians. They’re on their way to pick you up right now."

  Jeren stared. Ara tried to summon up the concentration to leave the Dream, Kendi or no Kendi, but the pain that wracked her chest and back was too great. The vines continued to twist and writhe, sliding over her skin and making her cry out despite herself.

  "Then," Jeren said, "I’ll have to kill you both fast so I can get the hell away."

  He snapped his fingers and one of the vines tore Ara’s arm off. Ara screamed, and blood spurted from her shoulder. Another scream, a different one, pierced the air. A brown-and-blue thunderbolt smashed straight into Jeren’s back between his shoulder blades. He dropped flat, and Kendi’s falcon clawed for altitude with yet another cry. Kendi, who was obviously recovering from his daze, let out a whoop of glee-

  — until Jeren leaped back to his feet with inhuman ease. In his hands he held a shotgun.

  "No!" Ara cried.

  The gun went off. The falcon tumbled to the ground in a mass of bloody feathers.

  Ben plowed through the lobby of the dormitory, past the startled night clerk, and up the hallway toward Jeren’s room. It was two doors down from Kendi’s. His chest burned and his legs ached from the exertion of running so far at top speed, but he ignored the feeling. When he reached Jeren’s door, he twisted the knob and wasn’t at all surprised to find it locked. Ben shoved against the door, but it didn’t budge. He backed up and slammed into it as hard as he could. Pain throbbed in Ben’s shoulder. The door, made of thick talltree wood, didn’t budge. Heedless of further pain, Ben smashed into it again. Nothing. Panic sprouted and spread. Jeren was at this moment attacking his mother and Kendi. He had to get inside.