Almost as one, the pack of creatures leapt from the trees and made their way up the rocky mountainside as agile as goats, scrabbling with claws and tearing up the distance in great bounds, the sun flashing off their bodies as they triumphantly bellowed. They’d be upon us in minutes.
“Nebu, go!” Ahmose shouted. With that, the unicorn began running. The awakened plants responded, stretching out branches to catch my hair and cloak. Holding on to Nebu’s mane with one hand, I pulled out one of my spear-knives and hacked at the offending branches. Then, almost instinctively, I nocked an arrow and fired it into the trunk of a nearby tree. To my dismay, I saw I was pulling the arrows of Isis from the quiver. The branches immediately stilled upon being struck and withdrew. I used two more arrows on the other species of tree attacking us, and both species stilled. In my mind I thought, Eight, seven, six. Six arrows left.
Terror swept through my veins like water through a desert arroyo, crashing and aggressive as the creatures behind us swept upward, still coming for us. At least the surrounding trees were no longer barring our path.
Ahmose turned around and barreled past me, meeting the first beast head-on and bashing in its skull with his cudgel. What was he thinking? That he could take on a whole pack?
He’s drawing them away, Tia said. It’s a noble thing.
It’s a stupid thing, I countered. “Turn around, Nebu.”
I will not, Lady Sphinx.
“You will.”
He will not risk himself overmuch. Trust in this man. He knows what he is about.
I did trust Ahmose, but how could I let him endanger himself? He was powerful, but so was I. Nebu turned, heading up a new switchback, which gave me a good view of what was going on below. I nocked another arrow and fired it. It barreled into the chest of one of the beasts. Five, I thought. The animal struggled and stumbled but the others kept coming. I shot again. Four. Three. Ahmose was safe for the moment. Three of the creatures were tumbling down the mountainside, either dead or severely injured, but they did not respond to the arrows as a species like the trees had. Ahmose was barreling upward again, taking a new path that I knew would soon intersect my own.
We came to another switchback, and Ahmose caught up to us quickly and shouted, “Are you all right?”
“We’re fine,” I shouted back.
“We’ve got to fly!” he called. “I’m sorry, Nebu, but we don’t have a choice.”
Very well, Nebu said. Let’s hope fortune favors us. The unicorn’s muscles bunched beneath me and, all at once, his wings snapped out and he leapt into the sky with a whoosh of air. Zahra followed, and we soon left the mountaintop with its cap of carnivorous trees far below us. The scrambling pack crested the peak and howled at the loss of their prey.
A moment later, as the unicorns angled west, away from the rising sun, a sound like a thousand cicadas rose around us. The chittering rose and fell as if an invisible swarm circled around me and then Ahmose. It was more frightening when the sound disappeared. We angled up, flying so high I dared not look down, but I did anyway, and when I did, I couldn’t help the scream that erupted from my lips.
Below us, a giant creature rose upward. Its wide mouth full of teeth gaped open like a shark. We flew into a cloud bank, and I couldn’t see it clearly for a moment. But then, the tips of the wide featherless wings, which looked much like an ocean ray’s, pierced the clouds. Its nose and sleek, torpedo-like body followed.
Hurry, Zahra, Nebu warned.
Tiny birdlike creatures swarmed around the large predator, trailing alongside it like remora fish. The chittering noise returned, and I realized that they were serving as a sort of echolocation for the creature, because when they made the noise, it angled itself anew and pressed on. Coming closer, it snapped at Zahra’s heels.
Ahmose chanted a spell, and the creature paused momentarily, flapping its wide wings, and then continued toward us.
I tried to help by channeling my power to find the creature’s name, but the swarm surrounding it made singling out the main threat difficult. It was as if they encircled the beast with static or a sort of white noise that diffused my abilities. I tried a precious arrow, which found its mark, but it didn’t slow the creature. Two, I thought.
Save the rest, Tia said. This one won’t respond to it.
We’re almost there, Nebu cried.
I could just make out a dark hole in the sky. The unicorns stretched out their necks and hurried toward it. We were going to make it. Then the swarm fell upon us. I realized they were more like giant bees than birds. They buzzed and hummed and the sky-shark drew closer.
He cannot follow us in! Nebu exclaimed. Hold on!
Nebu and I passed through the opening first. Nebu’s head and forelegs disappeared into the black. The swarm hit the barrier and, stunned, buzzed off in different directions. This confused the predator chasing us. A few of them hit me in my back and bounced off my cloak. My hands and arms entered the void. Just before the rest of me went through, I felt a sting on my neck. Reaching beneath my hair, I pulled out a thick stinger and dropped it over Nebu’s side.
Ahmose came through quickly after us. When I turned to look behind, I could still make out what was left of the swarm and see the confused sky-shark turning in circles wondering where we’d gone. The purple-pink of the sky shifted into the dark of space, and we were soon encompassed by stars.
“Where are we?” I whispered to Nebu.
This is the transition place, the Place Where Dreams Are Born. You crossed it once before, though you don’t remember it.
“I did?”
You did.
I rubbed my arms. It’s getting cold.
Tia did something and my body soon warmed. Thank you, I said to her.
The adrenaline rush that had fueled me before subsided, and my limbs grew heavy. We flew at a relaxed pace. The tired unicorns beat the air with slow but steady wing strokes. Now that we weren’t being chased by things that wanted to eat us for breakfast, Tia said, We need to talk.
“What is it?” I asked.
Privately, she said.
Oh. Are you okay? Is something bothering you?
I think we need to talk about him.
Him? You mean Ahmose?
Yes.
Do we really need ta do this now? Ashleigh asked.
I think we…I think we…should.
Tia? I said. There was no response. “Tia?” I said out loud.
I think she fell asleep, Ashleigh said, then hesitated a moment. Oh no.
Ash…leigh? My mind felt fuzzy, like it had when the plant stung me. Reaching behind my neck, I touched the place where I’d been stung. There was a lump there, and a sticky liquid oozed from the puncture wound. “The bug…the bug…must’ve…drugged…ussss.”
No! Nebu shouted in my mind. Ashleigh, you must take over. Lily cannot fall asleep here! She cannot!
I…I can’t, I started to say, but then my head rolled back and I felt suddenly weightless. I heard Ashleigh’s scream in my mind, and then all went dark.
“Lily!”
Someone was screaming my name, screaming it over and over like it was the end of the world. All I wanted to do was sleep. Was that too much to ask? It was summer. College hadn’t started yet. So why were my parents yelling so loudly?
My head hurt. Especially at the base of my neck. Then, suddenly, the voice shouting my name was cut off and the pain ceased. The silence was blissful. Peaceful. I was detached from all my worries, from every niggling thing weighing down my conscious mind.
I don’t know how long I slept, but when I came to myself, I woke slowly, stretching out my arms and legs and rolling my shoulders like a drowsy cat. For the first time in a long time, I felt unhurried, unneeded, and unanswerable.
When I finally blinked open my eyes, I didn’t understand what I was seeing. Heavy mist covered my body, and when I sat up, it flowed around my waist, covering my legs. I was clothed in a simple white dress that swirled around my body. Above me, the sky was full of
nebulas and churning galaxies in every color of the rainbow. But in each direction, as far as I could see, there was nothing but a white mist. When I waved my hand by my bare feet, I saw that the floor was also white. It wasn’t granite or marble, but it was slick and hard.
Where am I? I thought. This is the weirdest dream I’ve ever had.
A sad voice answered, We fell.
Like a boulder rolling down a hill, everything suddenly came back to me. Well, not everything, everything, but enough. I wasn’t at home in my warm bed in New York City. I wasn’t on a well-deserved summer break. I’d been riding the back of a unicorn on another planet. And, oh yeah, I had two passengers hitching a ride in my cranium, was half in love with a mummy come to life, and I had to save the universe.
“Ashleigh,” I said simply, “where’s Tia?”
She’s still sleepin’. The toxins in that world affect her the most.
“Right. How long was I out this time? And where’s the bow and quiver or the harness with the spear-knives?”
I don’ know. There’s no way for me ta keep track of time here either. I’m not sure if we lost our weapons or not.
“Do you think this is heaven?” I asked. “Did we die in the fall?” It wasn’t the worst outcome I could think of.
Not ta be insultin’, but I’d like ta think that if I die, I’d be a ghost all on my own instead o’ hauntin’ yer mind.
“Right.”
I began to walk, even though there was nowhere for me to go. Both of us were relieved when Tia awoke. She suggested we try using our power. It didn’t work. We couldn’t even use the abilities of the sphinx. After an indeterminable length of time, something changed.
At first, we thought it was rain tumbling from the sky, but the droplets were too large, and they never actually touched the ground. When they got closer, we saw they were more like bubbles or twirling glass disks. The shining panels soon surrounded us, and as they floated there I could see pictures reflected in them. Moving pictures.
“What are they?” I asked, stretching out a fingertip to nudge one.
“I wouldn’t touch that. At least not yet,” a male voice behind me said.
I spun around and Tia rushed to the surface, pushing me out of the way in her eagerness to speak. “Asten!” she cried.
The handsome man smiled a bit cockily, with one side of his mouth lifting higher than the other. If Tia hadn’t blurted out his name, I’m not sure I would have recognized him from his sarcophagus. There was so much life in his expression, I couldn’t reconcile it with the body I’d seen before. “Hello, lady lioness,” he said with a slight bow. The man’s easy grin was too charming for his own good, in my opinion. I didn’t trust men with easy grins. Then again, I hadn’t fully trusted Ahmose either when I first met him.
This is the one you love? I asked Tia.
He is the brother of Ahmose, Tia explained, without adding anything else.
Yeah. I figured out that much. How is he here? Ask him where we are and what exactly happened to us. Ask him about my memory, too. And where are Nebu and Ahmose? Can he lead us back to them?
Tia sighed. You’d better ask him yourself, she said, and switched places with me.
Before I could ask him any of my questions, he asked one of his own.
“What have you girls done?”
“Done? What do you mean? We haven’t done anything.” I put my hands on my hips and frowned at him. “I’m Lily, by the way. Nice to meet you. Tia’s told me a lot about you.”
She hadn’t. Not really. Other than his role with all the Egypt stuff. Clearly, she had skipped over some of the more interesting tidbits.
He folded his arms across his chest and scrutinized my face with way more than casual awareness. “Hello, Lily,” he answered, eyebrows raised. “It’s, uh, nice to meet you, too.” He gestured in my general direction. “We’ll figure out what’s going on with you later. First we have to get you ladies out of here.”
“Right. And where exactly is ‘here’?”
“It would seem the three of you have gone and gotten yourselves trapped in the Place Where Dreams Are Born.”
“Okay,” I said. “So how do we get untrapped? Is there, like, a doorway or something?” I asked, looking around hopefully.
“I’m afraid you don’t understand the severity of what’s happened. You see, all three of you have become a dream, a figment of the imagination. The only way to escape from here is if someone dreams you back into reality.”
“I don’t understand. Then how can you be here?”
“I’m not here. Not really. My dreaming self is here. It’s a part of my power as a Son of Egypt.”
“Uh-huh. So then why don’t you dream about us? Unless this already counts?” I added optimistically.
Asten shook his head. “I am not currently in possession of my mortal body. I’m stuck in Ma’at’s oubliette.”
“Well then, Ahmose or Dr. Hassan?”
He rubbed his jaw with a palm. “It’s possible, but they’d have to bring you back one by one. You see, each of you has a different dreamworld, and you can only access the mortal realm through a dreamworld of your own making. I wouldn’t hold out much hope for Hassan. His dreams as of late have been about someone much closer in proximity. Ahmose is our best bet.”
“Nana,” I mumbled.
“Your grandmother?” he asked.
I nodded. “I think she and Dr. Hassan have a bit of a crush on each other.”
“Interesting.” Asten blinked; then he smiled and held out a hand. “Shall we go find Ashleigh’s dreamworld? Ahmose is most likely to dream her into existence first. Providing, of course, that Nebu explains what has happened.”
“Why is he most likely to dream up Ashleigh first?” I asked.
Asten glanced at me sharply but chose not to answer. The fairy in my mind didn’t add any insights either. We walked along quietly for a time, Asten giving me strange looks as we did. “Ah,” he said, stopping and pointing at a floating, mirrored disk. “Here we are.”
The picture rotated toward us, and the inner scene was a picturesque Irish meadow with a large tree shading it and blue flowers popping up among the green. I could hear the gurgle of a nearby stream and feel a robust, summer-kissed breeze blow lightly across my skin.
“Now, when you touch it, you will be in Ashleigh’s dream. Ahmose will join her there and pull her out. When he does, you and Tia will move on to her dream, but Ashleigh will be gone.”
“What do ya mean, I’ll be gone?” Ashleigh said, rising up and taking over my body.
“I mean you will be in the place where Ahmose is dreaming in his physical form. You will be like a ghost. He won’t be able to touch you or see you, but Nebu will. Tell Nebu that Ahmose will have to dream of Tia and Lily in succession as well. Once Lily is back in her physical form, assuming, of course, that Ahmose and Nebu have retrieved it, you and Tia will naturally enter her mind again.”
There were a whole lot of ifs in his what-is-going-to-happen-next speech that made me all kinds of uncomfortable. I would have addressed them, but Ashleigh was currently running the show.
“Can ya really tell someone ta dream about somethin’ and make it happen?” Ashleigh asked, her mind full of doubt. I agreed with her there. I had never heard of inducing yourself to dream of someone before.
“You’d be surprised what influence your will can have on your dreams,” Asten said softly. “Trust me. I’m kind of an expert.” He raised his head and closed his eyes. “Yes. He’s ready. Go ahead and touch the dream. Good luck. I’ll see you two soon,” he added. I assumed he was indicating me and Tia.
One of my hands stretched out toward the dream while the other reached out seemingly of its own volition and took hold of Asten’s arm. He had turned to look at another disk that circled behind us, but at the touch on his arm, he paused and met my eyes. “Don’t worry,” he said tenderly, while taking hold of my hand and squeezing it. “I’ll come find you. I promise.”
Just then, m
y other hand touched the bubble, and it sucked me inside. Asten and the white fog were swept away, and we spun in a vortex, the sky swirling above us. Finally, the blue and white streaks slowed and stopped. I was lying on my back, arms behind my head, looking up at the fresh blue of a spring sky.
The ground felt soft and giving beneath me. I plucked a handful of greenery and began to count the leaves of clover, looking for the elusive four-leafed variety. Turning my head toward a noise, I saw I was lying in a bed of red, springy stuff.
Quickly, I sat up and discovered the red stuff moved with me. It was my hair. Tugging a piece, I found that it was long. So long that I could stretch out my entire arm while holding the end of it. When I let it go, it sprang back into the mass spilling over my shoulder.
The sound nearby was that of a chittering squirrel as it hastily climbed up the thick trunk of a nearby tree. Large roots stuck out of the ground, and as I marveled at the sheer size of it, I realized the trunk would have to be that big to support the considerable weight of the heavy canopy above. Fluttering spring-addled birds tweeted as they chased each other in happy delight, darting in and out of the branches.
I held out my arms and saw that I was as delicate-limbed as a deer and as pale as Bossy’s milk. My skin was spun sugar and cream. Against the green clover, my bare legs looked like soft butter spread over fresh green peas. Touching my face, I felt the outline of my lips and cheeks and jaw and knew that the shape was very different from my own. I had a small, pert nose, and I wished I had a mirror so that I could see what I looked like. A bubbly giggle escaped my lips. I finally looked the way I was supposed to.
My feet were still bare and now slightly dirty. I wiggled my toes in the morning sunshine and then tucked my feet and legs beneath the voluminous skirt of my green homespun dress. Untying a ribbon tickling my neck, I swept away my straw bonnet, fluffed out my curly hair, and dug in the wide, deep pockets of the apron tied around my waist, finding, to my delight, a handful of wild strawberries.