Dreamweaver, page 29
“I’m ready,” I affirmed. I could feel the pressure of racing against time that was slipping away. For a moment I wondered whether Dane and Aro were alright in this moment, then hastily wiped it aside, too distressed to think on that for long. I had to keep going.
Anessa tapped her first two fingers against the second bead, drawing forward the essence there. “I can’t give you the memory for very long, or it can be warped,” she warned. Then she pressed her fingers to the middle of my forehead.
And I was elsewhere.
Crystalline water lapped around my bare feet as my toes dug into black sand. A trailing tail of brown seaweed swayed past my ankle. The smell of brine filled my lungs as I inhaled. I turned, wading for the shore, casting my gaze around to try and discover where I was.
A silent bay met my view, stretching off to the north. Waves licked at the shoreline, expelling white shells as they abated. A smooth mountain blanketed in growth rose in the distance. Birds screamed as they floated under the belly of white clouds partially veiling the cliffside.
I didn't recognize this place at all. Panicked, I spun in a circle, looking for something, anything, distinguishable. But it was a simple coastline, nothing out of the ordinary.
No, wait.
I squinted, straining to see. Far away along the line where water met land, a dark shape lurked, expanding out to sea. It was too long and flat to be a ship.
As if I had been zapped by a bolt, realization struck me. It was a dock. Or rather, the beginnings of a dock, newly under construction.
And then, as if to reward my perseverance I heard, "Meret Bay." The Memorykeeper's voice was hardly more than a fragile puff of air sliding against my skin.
The edges of the memory went fuzzy, the picture dissolving like soaked tissue paper. Then I was jolting away from Anessa as she calmly returned the memory to its new home. It took a moment to adjust to the present again as my stomach clenched sickeningly and my pulse raced.
"Did you find anything useful?" Kenji asked eagerly, leaning into my face. "What did you see? Do you know where—ow! Stop pinching me, Norie!"
“Meret Bay,” I said, rubbing at my gut. “I saw a dock. A green mountain.”
“Meret Bay?” Norie repeated. She pinched her map free from her solarband, enlarging it before us as she searched through it. She shook her head in dismay. “There’s nothing by that name anywhere.”
“How old is that memory?” Venny asked.
Anessa lifted the bead, rolling it around her palm. “Very. I’d say about two—no, three hundred years.”
“Then perhaps this place is no longer called Meret Bay.”
Kenji threw his hands into the air. “Then what good did that whole fiasco do for us?” He made a face in return to Norie’s glare.
“It gives us something to work with, at least,” Norie said heatedly. “If we make our way to the Doest Sea and start looking into ship ports, perhaps we’ll find what used to be Meret Bay.”
“But how do we get there without being caught if Wretch is combing the country for us?” Dayja asked.
Cay rubbed a finger along his mouth in thought. “With the damage that Wretch is causing to cities, there’s sure to be pushback against Allones for allowing this. That’s sure to divide his attention.”
“Unless he as a scapegoat to take the blame.”
“It’s possible. He’s certainly slimy enough to contrive one.”
“Could we gain anyone to our side if we go public with what he has been doing? If people understood what risk he poses to them, why wouldn’t they help us stop him?”
“If they believed us,” Venny said bluntly. “I’m sure if we tried that route Allones would just paint us as complete lunatics. We’d be fighting to change the general opinion that everything is fine because no one likes to confront what scares them.”
“What if we have evidence?” Anessa questioned. “If people see Enea changing essence, then Wretch’s secrets are out. She shows them the impossible is actually possible, and that’s sure to persuade them that it’s not so far-fetched that Unraveling is real and will destroy everything.”
“That could be worth a try,” I said. “They have the right to be warned at least.” My head spun with ideas, but I systematically shot each one down for various reasons why they wouldn’t work.
Kenji lay on his back, hands behind his head, glowering up at the sky. “We could always make a big gesture, one that can’t be ignored. Like broadcast something on the channels for all to hear. Something like, ‘Hey everyone, Allones is corrupt and we’re all going to die if we don’t do something about Wretch and the Unraveling.’” He paused as we all stared at him. “What?”
“That’s… not a bad idea,” Cay said in surprise. “Where is the nearest media outlet from here?”
“Veinticinco millas, give or take,” Norie answered, swiping through her map. “It looks like it’s next to Maffest in a town I’ve never heard of called Barest.”
North again. I exhaled in a rush, feeling trepidation slink through me, tightening the muscles of my right arm into knots. “But I need to go west. I need to get to the coast. If we plan to do this, we will have to split up.”
“It’s a doomed mission,” Venny stated. “Announcing your presence for everyone to hear will have either Allones’ or Wretch’s men pouncing on you before you can finish transmitting the message.” He sighed, stretching out his legs. “I’ll do it.”
“Not alone, you won’t,” Kenji insisted. “I’m going with you. If it buys Enea some time to get to the third well by making a ruckus that Wretch can’t ignore, then I’m in and no one can tell me I can’t.” He crossed his arms stubbornly, glaring directly at Norie.
She merely looked at him in astonishment, eyebrows nearly touching her hairline as her mouth dropped open. Then she said, “I’m going too.”
My heartbeat sounded like thunder in my ears as I looked to each one. They gazed back at me with determination overlying their trepidation.
“I can’t…” I gulped down the lump clogging my throat. “I can’t ask you to do that.”
“You aren’t asking,” Venny said gently.
“And neither are we,” Norie affirmed. “We will do what we must to help because you are right: people matter. And they deserve to be warned. They are worth taking a risk for.”
Kenji chuckled as he sat back up and gave me a one-armed hug. “Don’t fret. Look at this as the long-awaited parting from us that you’ve been wanting since you met us in that awful arena. You can count on us. We won’t let you down.”
“There’s nothing I can say or do to convince you not to do this? You’re basically handing yourselves over to Wretch on a golden platter.”
Norie held up a finger. “But not before we get our message out. Besides, wherever he decides to keep us, you’ll make sure we get out.”
Their trust in me was staggering and I rubbed at the grit in my eyes, feeling incredibly tired. The skyline had lightened to a pale blue as we talked, touting the sun’s arrival was not far away.
I looked to Dayja, knowing she would recognize what was written on my face.
“You can count on us in return,” she said for the both of us. “Thank you.”
The four of us remaining headed west. Dayja reigned as her role of mediator between me and the Molts as we struggled not to bite each other’s heads off, rankled by being in each other’s presence endlessly. Two days later found us sneaking onto the carriage of a supply train, crammed with shipments that were scheduled to arrive at a distribution center later that evening. We took turns keeping the broadcasting channels open on our solarbands, gleaning for any new information or announcement from the others, signaling their success at arriving in Barest.
“Maybe they got captured before they could make it,” Anessa said unhelpfully. She shifted uncomfortably as the solartrain rattled along its track, overburdened by the cargo it carried.
I took a deep breath to keep from snapping at her, not wanting to wake Dayja from where she had fallen asleep, using my leg as a pillow. “They didn’t. We would have heard something about that, I’m sure.”
Anessa shrugged, as if to say, ‘if you insist’, but thankfully didn’t argue with me further.
Static came through the feed on my solarband and I frowned, adjusting it. “What is happen—?”
“Incoming message for Enea Pell,” announced a voice I didn’t know. “Do you accept?”
“Don’t,” Anessa said quickly. “It could be Allones.”
“Or it could be the others trying to get in contact with us,” Cay said. He sat on the top of a cargo crate, hulking like a vulture.
“Wouldn’t that mean that something has gone wrong?”
“Just accept the message already!”
“Accept,” I said hurriedly before I could lose the chance.
Static blared from my solarband again, causing Dayja to stir, before a voice I knew very well began to speak.
“Listen carefully because I cannot repeat,” said Commander Flow. Wherever she had prerecorded this transmission, she had been forced to whisper and I struggled to hear her clearly. “We will broadcast in the middle of the Chancellor’s newsfeed tomorrow, where she plans to make public your status as traitors of the state and deserters from your respective Divisions. I have been able to hold her back until now but can’t do so any longer. I have an armed escort waiting for your arrival at Tidium, coordinates pending delivery to your band after completion of this message. Do not seek your friends no matter what you see or hear. Do not waste time. We are depending on you.”
The transmission blipped and ended.
“Was that MJ Flow?” Dayja asked, incredulous. “What is she doing, contacting us? What did she mean? Is she helping us?”
“Or trying to trick us?” Anessa stared at my solarband like Flow would somehow jump out of it and snatch her.
Cay spoke before I could, “I think she’s trying to help. She must have gotten in touch with the others, and they clearly trusted her to tell her our plan. How else would she know that they are going to break into the media outlet? Besides that, didn’t you say that Treau saved your life?” When I nodded in confirmation, Cay continued, “I think we can trust her to work with us. God knows we could use the help.”
“She sent us an escort?” Dayja leaned against my side, tapping at my solarscreen as the coordinates Flow had promised pinged on arrival.
The motion of the carriage changed as the solartrain began to slow, steam billowing up.
“Time to go.” Cay hopped down from his roost. He slid open the carriage door and wind streamed in as the landscape beyond went by in a furious blur. “We need to jump off before it stops at its station.” He held out a hand towards his sister and Dayja. “Everyone hold on to each other. On the count of three. One.”
I seized Dayja’s free hand, shoving my glasses into my pocket as he counted two.
On three, we all jumped.
The landing jarred the air right out of my lungs, and I rolled across the muddy ground, flinging gunk in all directions. When I finally stopped, I heaved for breath and spat muck out of my mouth. It stank to high heaven, and it took a few attempts to wipe my eyes so I could see.
When I did, I froze at what I saw.
"Guys," I said. "Look."
Cay was several feet away, flinging the mess from his arms before plodding over to help Dayja to stand. Anessa pried herself from the mud, cursing practically everything in existence, wailing about her ruined extensions.
"Look!" I shouted.
That shut her up and her eyes widened as she spotted what I pointed to.
A convoy barreled towards us, at least twenty solarcars strong. The solarguns mounted to their roof swiveled towards us, men peering through the scopes.
"Which way?" Cay demanded shortly.
I tapped the coordinates in my solarscreen frantically, looking to the blinking red dot, before pointing north-northwest. "That way. Seven miles."
"Let’s go!" He launched into a run, dragging on Dayja's hand.
"How are we supposed to outrun their cars?" Anessa hollered.
"Force them to go on foot!" Cay shouted back. "Those trucks won't make it through this mud."
Sure enough, as they plowed over the field, tires spinning into the sludge, the engines squealed as the tires sank, the heavy weight of the armor driving them down. Hollers rang out from the soldiers as they furiously tried to free their vehicles. It wouldn’t be long before they gave up and chased after us themselves.
I reverted back to concentrating on sprinting for all I was worth, which was intensely difficult with mud trying to suck me down with each step. With Cay’s help, Dayja was far in the lead. It was one thing I could be grateful towards Cay for. At some point I started to lag as my right foot began to cramp, and Anessa boosted me by giving me periodical shoves that were just as likely to send me sprawling as they were to help me move forward. Truthfully, she probably just enjoyed watching me biff it over and over.
“Come on, fat ass,” she growled in frustration for the hundredth time as I fell yet again. Pivoting in place, she pulled the solargun Aro had given her from its holster and sent a few shots towards our pursuers, forcing them back as I struggled up.
“Leave me the gun and go,” I panted.
Instead, she hooked her elbow through mine, hauling me on.
We struggled—me especially—over the miles, coming far too close to being caught multiple times. As we lagged through the final mile, we wove between the groves of a tree farm. Bolts soared after us, demolishing saplings, sending bark and splinters spitting through the air. I dared a glance to my solarscreen. We weren’t far away now.
A shot rang out, sizzling past me, colliding into a steamtractor parked within the grove, hitched to a trailer holding dead branches and logs on one side and fertilizer on the other.
It ignited in an explosion of sound and fire, the blast throwing me sidelong. A sapling snapped as I hit its trunk, crashing down on my forearm. I yelped as a shockwave of pain flared down to my partially healed hand.
I looked up in time to see a soldier take aim again, this time for Dayja. She had broken free of Cay’s grasp, hurrying my way.
“Run!” I shouted at her. By body convulsed as I tried to force myself to get up, muscles spasming uselessly. “Damn it! Run!”
The soldier fired.
Cay was suddenly there, ramming Dayja aside, out of the shot’s path.
It seared into his chest in her place.
Anessa shrieked in wordless horror as her brother collapsed, thudding into the ground, and didn’t move.
Chapter Twenty-Six
“CAY!” Anessa bolted towards him
Dayja was on her knees beside Cay, rolling him over, chanting, “No, no, no, no.” Anessa threw herself down, hollering at her brother, as if he were choosing to ignore her.
The soldier pumped another bolt into the barrel, taking aim.
I threw out a hand, my skin glowing shades of orange. Trying to Spin felt like attempting to plug up a dam, to channel tons of water where I wanted it to go. The dream essence within my hair beads shimmered forth. I clenched my hand into a tight fist.
The essence spiraled down, but instead of attacking the soldier like I had expected, as it had done to Wretch, it wrapped around the soldier. He startled, the gun lowering as he turned towards me. His skin was changing, turning various hues of green.
With my strength completely spent, I lost my hold on the Spinning, and the essence shrank back into my beads.
The soldier’s comrades reached him, aiming their own guns at Dayja and Anessa.
“Aim!” a voice commanded from further back in the grove. “Fire!”
Shots plowed through the soldiers, turning the ground before them into fissures. I gaped stupidly as they fell, one by one, solarguns clanking to the dirt.
“Hold!”
Treau stepped into view along with a pack of people wearing gray uniforms. He rested his solargun against his shoulder. “Medics!” A woman came running, a bright red medical bag at her hip. They both charged towards where Cay lay, crowded by his sister and my own.
Another medic spotted me, and he hustled to reach me as I tried to stand. “Hold on, I need to assess you,” he said, waving me to sit back down.
“My friend was shot! Please, you have to help—”
“Laura is well trained; she will take care of him. I need you to sit—”
“You don’t understand, he was shot! Right here, in the chest!”
“Ma’am, I need you to calm down.”
But Anessa began to scream then, hysterical and shrill. She fought savagely as a few of Treau’s people tried to pull her away from her brother. Dayja was sobbing too, hiding her face from the world. Beneath Cay’s motionless form, a scarlet puddle seeped into the dirt.
The medic—Laura, he had said?—reached out and closed his eyes.
No. No, this couldn’t be happening.
“Please.” I stumbled, trying to go to Dayja. I wasn’t sure who I was talking to, but the supplications rolled out regardless. “Please, please, please.”
Laura pulled two bars from the belt around her hips, handing one to the medic who had given up trying to help me. She pressed a button as they parted, and a body board appeared between them. Together they set it beside Cay and moved to take hold of his shoulders and ankles, sliding him onto the stretcher.
I watched in numb shock like the imbecile I was as they lifted Cay’s body, carrying him towards the edge of the grove they had emerged from. Where he had lain, a pool of blood remained, staining the indentation of his form in the ground.
“Dreamweaver.”
Slowly, I turned to look at Treau.
He gave me a saddened smile, gesturing for me to come to him. “We should go. We have sedated your friend for now so we can safely transport her. Your sister is asking for you.”
Grief howled inside of me, a beast clawing at my soul, opening jagged lacerations that stung horrifically. But Dayja needed me. Anessa would need me.
