She and Iris left the room to retrieve one of the cloud settees from the parlor and drag it into my new room to make up a bed for me, spreading a multicolored patchwork quilt over the cushions and fluffing one of the decorative pillows. Both stood back to survey their work.
“It looks like a bed similar to those Mortals use,” Angel said. “This should do nicely.”
I tentatively perched on the edge of the settee while Iris glanced outside, where inky darkness was slowly fading into grey as dawn approached. “It’ll be morning soon and I know sleepers need darkness.” She bustled to the window and tugged the petaled drapes closed. “Do you need anything else? A bedtime story? Those help Mortals sleep, right?”
I shook my head and lay down.
“We’ll start your magical training as soon as you wake up.” Angel and Iris tiptoed towards the door, moving quietly as if I’d already fallen asleep. Stardust remained in the room with her lantern, which lit the room in colors and patterns that were both mesmerizing and distracting. She first morphed into a needle and used the light’s glow to repair my bag that had torn on Earth, then morphed back into her detective notebook to go over her notes.
While she worked, I struggled to sleep, but my stomach twisted at the thought of my upcoming magical test, one I hadn’t the faintest idea of how to even begin preparing for. These worries and others occupied my thoughts as I rolled over in my makeshift bed, struggling and failing to get comfortable. Despite the exhaustion pressing against my senses from hours without sleep, it remained stubbornly elusive.
My mind swirled with the meeting with the Council—the suspicions coming from the Council and particularly Head Nightmare Ember, as well as Nightmare Darius’s contradictory behavior. As relieved as I was that they’d given me an opportunity to prove I belonged, the suddenness with which they’d done so left me unsettled. And then there had been the speculations that I was the Weaver who’d gone missing so many years before.
Mother…they’d been speaking about her, I was certain of it. What else could explain her presence on Earth? What still remained a mystery was why she’d been banished, and what this meant for me should anyone learn of our connection. Though I’d given up wondering about my father a long time ago, I couldn’t help but once again wonder who he might have been for me to end up the way I was.
My thoughts drifted to my last encounter with Mother. It felt like it’d been ages since she’d caught me snooping in her study and our secrets had spilt. The more time that passed, the more the previous bitter sting from her lies trickled away, replaced with sharp fear.
Where had she vanished to? Was she safe? Had she returned home, or was she hidden somewhere? Was she frantically searching for me down on Earth, or did she suspect I’d come to the Dream World? The questions haunted my thoughts, causing me to toss and turn, a restlessness that quickly tangled my blankets.
Stardust pored over her detective notes by the flickering blue light emanating from her lantern. After several minutes of my continued tossing and turning, she looked up with a glower.
“How long does it take for one to fall asleep, and do sleepers always do it so noisily?”
I sighed and rolled onto my back to stare at the waltzing, shadowy patterns Stardust’s lantern cast across the ceiling. “I can’t sleep.”
“An amateur investigator could have deduced that. Try harder; I can’t concentrate with you making such a ruckus.”
“I’m not tired.”
“But you practically fell asleep while we planned your training. Sleepers are so confusing.” She shook her head as if I was a lost cause and closed her notebook. “It’s important you learn to sleep during the day so you can be on a Dreamer’s schedule and be awake at night when Weavings occur.”
“I keep thinking of Mother. Where could she be?”
Stardust’s expression softened as she drifted over to curl up beside me. “I don’t know.”
I began stroking her, the soothing movement doing little to lessen the anxiety pressing against my chest. “She couldn’t have gone far; I’m sure she’s returned home and is waiting for me, wondering where I am.” My earlier suspicion returned, begging to be further explored. “While the Council was interrogating me, there were whispers that I’m—” I couldn’t finish.
She was silent a long moment. “Did they suspect you were the Weaver who went missing?”
I swallowed and nodded. She sighed.
“I wondered if they would. I also believed that about you until I compared your magic with the record of hers.” She hesitated. “Are you suspecting it’s your mother?“
I ached to deny it, but I couldn’t escape the sinking feeling that confirmed what my heart didn’t want to believe. I bit my lip. “Why was the Weaver banished?”
“I don’t know,” Stardust said. “Several Weavers have received such a punishment over the years, but that particular case is infamous because while the Council has always kept track of other banished Weavers, this one simply…disappeared. Though everyone has heard about the case, the Council has understandably kept silent about the details. I can’t promise I’ll find much information, but I’ll do my best to investigate the matter.”
As much as I appreciated her promise, the fact of the matter remained that Mother was missing, leaving me no idea what had become of her. An image of a mob of villagers swarming our cottage with pitchforks bombarded my mind. I gasped and bolted upright. “We have to go back.”
“Now? But you just got here.”
I’d already scrambled onto the windowsill to push the window open to the balmy early morning. “I must find out what happened to Mother and bring her here; if she’s also a Dreamer, then we belong in the Dream World together.”
“But Eden, if our suspicions are correct and she was banished, then surely there’s a reason why the Council—”
I glared at her. “Are you going to take me or not?”
Stardust sighed. “I suppose your Mother’s disappearance is an unsolved mystery, and you know I can’t resist those. If it means that much to you…”
She waited for me to crawl onto her before taking off into the bright dawn. As we flew, my heart pounded like a supernova in my chest. I yearned for her to fly both faster and slower, dreading what we’d find when we landed. Through the rosy light I spotted my village. The knots in my stomach tightened the closer we flew.
Would Mother still be missing, or would she be waiting for me to join her in tending the garden as usual? Better yet, would she be eager to finally discuss magic together? The scenario played out across my imagination: Mother would take me under her wing and tutor me, and through her magical training I would be accepted in the Dream World, where we’d live together. It would be a chance for us to heal the wounds left by our years of keeping secrets from one another. Perhaps she would even answer the question that burned most on my lips—why had she even left the Dream World in the first place?
I smelled the smoke before I saw the smoldering remains of what had once been my home. I didn’t wait for Stardust to slow before I leapt off her and scrambled to the house, which had collapsed into a pile of soot, the garden trampled and destroyed beyond recognition. All that remained were scorched memories—the living room where Mother had read to me as a little girl and taught me needlework, the kitchen where we’d shared meals, my attic bedroom—all swallowed up by the flames.
“Who did this?” Stardust asked breathlessly.
“The villagers,” I hissed through gritted teeth. While I’d suspected a fire if they ever discovered my powers, I hadn’t known they would burn everything, transforming the world in which I’d grown up into nothing more than a gravesite of ash.
Stardust poked her nose into the soot, searching for clues. “Are you sure? I’m sensing a large amount of magic.”
“Who else could it have been?”
Stardust didn’t answer. Ashy clouds gathered around us as we silently explored the remains, Stardust occasionally carrying me above particularly inaccessi
ble pathways. We paused where Mother’s study might have been and rummaged through the soot, which was still warm. Nothing had survived save a few shriveled pages, curled and burnt at the edges. I could only make out snippets of words from magic books I never got to read; Mother’s knowledge and secrets had been extinguished by the flames.
We explored Mother’s garden last. My heart sank as I hovered at the bashed entrance. I could faintly decipher the skeleton of Mother’s landscaping, but now everything was nothing but unrecognizable charcoal. I maneuvered through the rows of crushed plants whose identity would forever remain a mystery.
Stardust nuzzled against me. “I’m so sorry, Eden.”
Aching filled my chest and tears burned my eyes, from both the stinging smoke and the memory of the unresolved secrets between me and Mother, which had created ashes of our relationship. “Where is she? Is she—” I couldn’t even say the horrible word that filled me with paralyzing fear.
Stardust shook her head. “She was missing before the fire started.”
“Then where is she? Where did she go?” My tears finally escaped, but I didn’t bother to wipe them away.
“The fire didn’t destroy the magical traces left behind,” Stardust said. “Magic is like a fingerprint. I’ll follow each magical clue she left behind until I track her down. Detective Stardust is on the case.” Despite her solemn expression, hope shone in her eyes, a hope which I clung to desperately. Solving mysteries was her forte. She would solve this one and find Mother.
But even as I yearned for her to succeed, my earlier anger at the thought of Mother’s abandonment still burned beneath my embers of grief, which stung more than the surrounding smoke.
I couldn’t bear to remain a moment longer. I turned to leave but paused when something captured my attention. Camouflaged midst clumps of dead foliage was a flower, still alive and growing towards the sun. Ash covered its unwilted petals like droplets of black morning dew. I brushed the soot away and gaped at the flower, which blended perfectly into its surroundings.
Stardust flew closer. “Is that one of your Mother’s flowers? I thought chameleon flowers were only a legend, but it must be from the Dream World because I can sense magic emanating from it.”
It was yet another mystery that Mother’s disappearance would make impossible to solve. “Do magical flowers die once they’re picked?”
“If they’re not crushed or burned then no, magical things can’t be destroyed or—what are you doing?”
I plucked the flower. “Mother created this. I’m not leaving it behind.”
“But what are you going to do with it?” Stardust asked. “Even if you manage to become a Weaver, you could never use it; dreams can only be created from flowers grown in the Cultivating Fields, and only the Cultivating Fields.”
I clung to Mother’s blossom, as if afraid it’d vanish in the smoke if I didn’t hold it tightly enough. “Even if it were allowed, I’d never waste my last link to Mother on a dream.” I placed it gently in my bag and watched as it immediately changed colors to blend in perfectly with the violet fabric.
Stardust pursed her lips. “Don’t let anyone else see it; you don’t want to be caught with something so unusual, especially when the Council is already suspicious of you.”
I sifted through the limp, wilted flowers in the sooty soil in search of others that had survived the flames, but there were no more traces of Mother’s plants anywhere; everything had been destroyed.
I froze when I felt the heat of someone’s gaze on me. Without even turning I sensed who it was, recognizing his presence from nothing more than a feeling. I spun around and glared. “What are you doing here?”
Nightmare Darius leaned against the gate with his arms folded, his penetrating emerald gaze locked to mine. “Isn’t it obvious? I followed you.”
My heart flared as he straightened as if to approach; I immediately backed away. He lifted his hands in an appeasing gesture.
“Don’t be alarmed, I only wish to speak with you.”
He stepped closer but froze when Stardust darted protectively in front of me. “Don’t even think about it, Nightmare.” She returned to my side and slowly raked her glare over Darius’s spiderweb surface, not bothering to mask her disgust. “Eden warned me about your gross spider obsession, but she failed to mention you looked as if you’d been struck by lightning. Just look at that hair.” She made no effort to keep her biting assessment quiet.
I expected him to be offended, but he simply looked amused. “I’m pleased Eden has such a loyal cloud.”
Stardust promptly morphed into a hammer. “I’m warning you, Spiderweb: don’t you give Eden any trouble.” To reiterate her point, she cycled through several potentially harmful shapes and finished by transforming into a tree trunk. “There’s more where that came from.”
Darius chuckled. “Ah, you’re a morpher. There’s no need for any of your morphing tricks, though admittedly you do look rather frightening as a tree trunk.”
My jaw tightened at his mocking, whereas Stardust stuck her tongue out at him before turning back to me. “I don’t like him; he’s creepy.”
He chuckled again, seeming strangely entertained by their exchange, before returning his attention to me and advancing a step. I scrambled backwards, in my haste nearly tripping over a smoldering pile of wood. I was only spared from falling by Stardust darting behind me in time to catch me.
Darius leapt forward. “Are you alright?“
“Stay away from me,” I said shakily, and he immediately froze.
I eyed him warily a moment to make sure he maintained his distance before I brushed away the soot now clinging to my gown and wiped away the hair sticking to my damp brow. I couldn’t explain my need to clean up my appearance for him, only that it only escalated my temper.
“What do you want? I warn you: if you’re here to intimidate me, it won’t work.”
Rather than answer, he simply stared at me. Before I could demand why, Stardust’s fluffy body squished against my ear. “You have soot on your face,” she whispered.
I sighed. My second confrontation with the Nightmare had barely begun and it was already a disaster. Darius’s lips curved up as his gaze traced over the ash streaking my cheeks.
“Would you like me to look away while you—”
“I don’t care what you think of me,” I snapped, embarrassed, and his smile immediately faltered. For a moment he stared at me almost…longingly.
A thought suddenly occurred to me: could he possibly be as drawn to me as I was to him? But if that were true, it hadn’t stopped him from testifying against me in front of the Council, so obviously whatever bewildering connection he may have felt meant nothing to him. Even though his opinion of me shouldn’t matter, I couldn’t help but feel hurt all the same, which only strengthened my resolve to dislike him in return.
He blinked rapidly and tore his gaze away with a sigh to frown at the burnt remains smoking around us. “What happened here?”
I swallowed against the tears clogging my throat; I wouldn’t cry in front of him. “Surely you already know the answer—this is the consequence of the villagers discovering my magic and the reason I can’t stay on Earth. Yet I might have little choice with my position in the Dream World so precarious, a position you tried to sabotage.”
He flinched, looking guilty. But he didn’t speak until Stardust was out of earshot investigating something else. He leaned closer and lowered his voice. “My deepest apologies. Though I can’t explain, trust me when I tell you that the way I treated you in front of the Council was necessary.”
I snorted. “I’m certain it was. As was sneaking into my bedroom and spilling all my secrets to the Council after you told me I could trust you.”
He frowned. “I’m trying to help you—”
I rolled my eyes. “You call your accusations helpful? Then why did you feel the need to bring up all my secrets, including your suspicions that I saw your nightmare?”
The corner of his mout
h lifted, never mind nothing about this trying interrogation was at all humorous. “That wasn’t for the Council; I had a theory to prove. I knew you wouldn’t be able to see it. Please, you’ll just have to trust me.”
“You keep asking for my trust without showing me why you deserve it.”
He sighed wearily. “I did what I had to; if the Council learns of our friendship, I won’t be able to help you.”
I raised my eyebrows. “Friendship? Are we friends?”
The corner of his mouth lifted. “As unacceptable as it may be for someone in my position to befriend someone like you…yes, I’d like us to be.”
I didn’t need a friendship bestowed in pity, especially from someone who’d given me every reason to distrust him. Even so, the same yearning filled my heart, urging me to accept his invitation, before sense forced me to push the irrational feeling away. And yet…
I should trust him.
The thought entered my mind so suddenly that I startled. “What—”
“I’m sorry,” Darius said hastily. “I’m so sorry, I shouldn’t have—” He stopped speaking at my glare.
“What are you apologizing for?”
“Just…” He hesitated, as if debating whether or not to explain, before he let out another sigh. “The thing I said…about you and me being friends. I shouldn’t have implied…” He trailed off.
I massaged my forehead a moment, still shaken by the almost invasive thought that had arrived so suddenly, one that lingered to work on my conscience.
Perhaps I really should talk to him. Despite having every reason to doubt him, I still felt compelled to give him another chance. I lowered my hand with a sigh. “Very well. What do you want to discuss?”
I expected him to gloat that he’d succeeded in softening me, but he merely lowered his eyes. “You don’t have to speak with me. Forgive me for allowing my impatience to…make you uncomfortable. That’s the last thing I want to do.”
Although I found both his apology and his behavior rather puzzling, against my better judgment his apology softened me, and with my lowered defenses the peculiar lure I’d felt from the moment we’d met returned, drawing me closer to him.
Dreamer (The Dream World Chronicles Book 1) Page 14
