Aspen and the Dream Walkers (15 page)

Within minutes they’d reached the spot where
the fight had occurred. The willow tree branches waved gracefully
over the stream, and she was surprised that the scene was so
peaceful compared to a few moments before.

Leeman crouched over his saddle and studied
the area carefully. A small dagger tucked in his boot caught her
eye as it glinted in the lemon light.

“They’ve used a waypoint!” he shouted. “Ted,
take five of your men and race to waypoint ten. Paul, take five men
and head for waypoint nine. The rest of you follow me to waypoint
eleven.” As he spoke, six riders split away from the group and
headed in one direction while another six peeled away to the
south.

“Why are we splitting up? Where are they
going?” Aspen asked Dylan as she caught up to his horse.

“Chancellors use waypoints to travel. I told
you about them before. They’re like tunnels in the ground. They
can’t come out during Lemona, so they walk underground and pop out
whenever it’s Lavendula. This is waypoint twelve. We’re going to
head them off at the next waypoint if we can reach it in time.”

Aspen nodded her head in understanding and
urged the horse along as the team raced toward the next
waypoint.

The sky darkened and Leeman lifted his hand
to bring the steeds to a halt. A cloud of earth rose around the
excited horses and riders, and he jumped from the saddle with a
thud.

“Look after the horses!” he shouted at Dylan,
Sandy, and Aspen.

The rest of the warriors dismounted and
followed him stealthily through a large copse of trees. Dylan and
Sandy clutched at the reins and tried to tie the horses to branches
as quickly as possible. Aspen rushed to help them.

The sky changed to lavender as they worked,
and she’d just tied the last reins to a branch when a sweet odor
filled her nostrils. Dylan grabbed her arm and pulled her behind a
boulder.

“Duck!” He positioned her in front of him on
the ground.

His shirt brushed against her back, and her
skin tingled from his touch. His breath puffed against her neck as
she crouched behind the huge stone. Sandy joined them silently and
knelt down next to her. Soon after, a stream of Chancellors poured
out from an opening in the ground a few feet away from them. They
looked straight ahead, not moving their pale heads at all. Within
seconds, they’d disappeared into the trees surrounding the
opening.

“Can’t they see the horses?” Aspen said in a
low voice.

“Demothi made a spell so they’re only visible
to us. We have to hide, though—I don’t want the Chancellors to
catch us.” His deep voice whispered against her ear, “Look out for
Ginny. She might be at this waypoint.”

Her heart thudded nervously. Countless
Chancellors continued to swarm out of the opening, but she couldn’t
see Ginny anywhere. After ten anxious minutes, she breathed a sigh
of relief as the sky lightened. A new group of Chancellors slipped
into the tunnel and the noxious smell faded away.

“They can only travel aboveground during
Lavendula, so they have to come out of the tunnels at some time,”
Dylan said as he rose to his feet. He reached for Aspen’s hand and
dragged her up next to him. Her fingers crackled with electricity
from his touch.

Leeman and the remaining six Dream Walkers
raced toward them. His face was flushed and his blue eyes sparkled
with power. “Hurry, they’ll be at waypoint ten for certain.”

The warriors untied their mounts and galloped
as fast as they could. Dylan helped Aspen back into the saddle and
together with Sandy, followed the men as quickly as they could.
After a while, the team met up with the first six men who’d left
them earlier. The horses whinnied with excitement and breathed
heavily after the hard ride. Leeman held his hand in the air and
motioned the riders to stop in front of a small hill.

“The tunnel is in front of us. We’ll take
this one. Go to waypoint eight in case they get away,” he ordered
Ted.

The big warrior didn’t move. Instead he
murmured sullenly, “That’s too close to the castle.”

Leeman twisted in his saddle and trained
furious blue eyes at the man. “We’ve got no time to waste, Ted. If
we don’t find her, she’ll be killed. Go now!”

Ted slunk back to his horse while the other
men looked sheepishly at the ground. Dylan shook his head in
disgust as he watched them mount their horses and head out for the
next waypoint.

“I can’t believe he just said that,” Dylan
said to Leeman.

Leeman’s expression was bleak. “When you’ve
seen what goes on at the castle, you’ll know why they’re so scared.
We
have
to find Ginny before they take her there.”

After the horses were secured behind the
small hill, Aspen peeked her head over the top of the knoll to
watch the tunnel below. They waited for another two minutes before
the sky darkened and once again, Chancellors spilled out of the
opening in the ground. It was a sight to behold. So many creatures
appeared with pale faces and pitch-black eyes—completely devoid of
emotion—and her nose wrinkled at the sickly sweet smell in the
air.

Suddenly, a group of Chancellors pulled a
limp body with long blond hair from the tunnel.

Leeman ran toward them and the rest of the
team followed. They aimed blue balls of energy at the three
Chancellors closest to Ginny. Aspen winced as Ginny opened her eyes
and lifted her head. Her face was filthy and her arms were covered
in cuts and bruises, but her jaw was gritted with determination. A
long rope was wrapped around her arms and waist, and the
Chancellors used it to drag her back into the hole. She struggled
and wedged her feet apart so they couldn’t pull her into the
tunnel.

“Shoot them!” Leeman shouted. “Don’t let them
take her.”

That was exactly what Aspen had been waiting
for, and she stood up to fire power balls at the Chancellors
surrounding the hole. She didn’t want to harm Ginny, so she aimed
for the creatures a few feet away from her. A tingling rose from
her toes and burned through her veins, all the way up into the rest
of her body.

Once the feeling had completely swamped her
limbs, she rose up and within seconds, hovered about two feet from
the ground. With a cry, she raised her hands and hurled blast after
blast at the Chancellors. Huge holes exploded in the earth around
her and about thirty Chancellors disappeared in a haze of smoke.
The remaining Chancellors stood around Ginny and enveloped
themselves in a force field. A bubble of energy surrounded them and
none of the power balls could touch them.

She was about to aim for the shimmering globe
when Dylan shouted at her.

“No, Aspen. Your blasts are too strong.
You’ll destroy Ginny.”

His words sank into her brain. Without
thinking, she’d been about to deliver a killer shot, but he was
right. She had to stop.

Leeman was the leader of their clan and his
power was stronger than hers. Luckily he was experienced and knew
what he was doing. He raised the Gimler from his waist and a stream
of current zinged between each end of the weapon as he aimed it at
Ginny and her captors. A line of power arced from the middle of the
Gimler and blasted toward the bubble with an ear-splitting crack.
The bubble disintegrated and Ginny stumbled forward. The three
Chancellors behind her dropped down into the tunnel as soon as she
was freed.

A Power Walker grabbed her just before she
collapsed and pulled her against his chest. Leeman stepped forward
and split the rope around her arms in half with a tiny current from
his hands.

Sandy rushed to her sister’s side. “Ginny!
Ginny, are you all right?”

The sky was already yellow, but Aspen was too
hyped up to realize that the Chancellors had left.

Dylan’s voice penetrated her brain distantly.
“Princess, it’s all right, you can come back down now. They’ve
gone.”

When she looked down, she was shocked to see
that the ground was still a good five inches from her feet. With a
sigh, she fell down to the earth.

Once she was able to walk again, she rushed
toward Ginny. Her friend had red rope marks around the tender skin
of her lower arms, and her face was tearstained and dirty.

“Ginny, I’m so glad we found you!” she cried,
and hugged her friend. The small Dream Walker held on to Aspen for
a while until Leeman separated them.

“We need to leave, it’s not safe here.”

Ginny drew back and nodded at him. “Thank you
for saving my life.” Her voice was scratchy as though she’d
screamed it away.

“I found your dream catcher,” Aspen said, and
extracted the threaded disk from her shirt pocket.

Ginny grasped at the charm and held it close
to her chest. The raw wounds around her arms faded as soon as her
fingers touched the dream catcher, and a glow of light encircled
her until she’d healed completely.

Dylan swung onto his horse and reached down
with an outstretched hand. “Come on, Ginny. Let’s get you home.”
With both hands clasped firmly, he pulled her up onto the white
steed’s broad back.

The members of the Power clan mounted their
horses in a hurry, and a lone horseman cantered away in the
opposite direction to tell the others that Ginny had been
found.

Aspen’s heart swelled with pride. She smiled,
happy to have been able to help save her friend’s life, and turned
her horse to trot behind the rest of the riders toward the
village.

First Move

The next afternoon, Aspen dropped her bag on the
kitchen table. Miriam hadn’t come home from school yet, and
Stephan’s bike wasn’t in the garage. With a sigh of relief, she
lowered her tired body onto a kitchen chair. There was no sound
from upstairs, and she wondered where her mother was.

Pulling her hair free from the band, she
massaged her scalp with her fingers and rubbed the nape of her neck
as she yawned. Demothi had made a new string for her dream catcher,
and the charm felt warm around her neck. School had been boring,
and tonight’s visit to Lanta would be good for her soul.

Ray was sweet, but he was more like a big
brother to her and she didn’t want to give him false hope. The
feelings that she had for him were nowhere near as intense as the
excitement she felt around Dylan, and she constantly made excuses
not to sit with Ray at lunch.

Dylan had been missing since they’d found
Sandy two days ago. If he didn’t show up soon, she might have to
call him. She wondered if she were brave enough to do that yet.
Maybe she would build up the courage to ask Sandy when she got to
Lanta later on.

A soft sob reached her ears, and she sat back
in the chair to listen for the source. No, she wasn’t mistaken.
Someone was sniffling, and the sound was coming from the next
room.

Aspen jumped up and raced to the living room.
“Mom!” she cried.

Her mother was huddled in a chair. Her body
was slumped and her shoulders shook as she wept.

Gently, she reached out to hold her mother’s
hands.

“I’m s-s-sorry,” Norma said with a sob. “I
didn’t mean for you to s-see me like this.”

“Mom, what’s wrong? Wait—I’ll get you some
water. I’ll be right back.”

Once she’d left her mother’s side, she ran
into the kitchen and poured a glass of water. The water spilled on
her sleeve as she grabbed a bunch of paper towels on her way back
into the living room. Norma sniffed, and she handed the towels to
her to wipe her face.

“What happened?”

Her mother took a long gulp of water and
wiped her nose. “I’m sorry, baby. Stephan and I got into a shouting
match, and we both said some nasty things to each other.”

Aspen rubbed her mom’s back in small circles.
“Was he ugly to you again?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Mom. Why do you let him do this to you? We
should pack our things and leave. He’s got no right to make you
sad.”

“It’s not so simple, sweetheart.” Norma
picked up the crumpled bundle of paper towels. Her mascara had
smeared beneath her lashes, and Aspen wiped the sooty stain from
her cheek with the pad of her finger.

“Why not? I’ll help you with everything. I
promise. I’ll move our stuff and you’ll never have to fuss at me
again. I’ll do whatever you say.” Her voice took on a pleading
tone.

“Aspen, you do what I say anyway.” Norma
smiled through her tears. “You’re the best daughter a mother could
wish for.”

“Why don’t we move then?” Once the glass was
empty, Aspen nudged her mother’s shoulder gently.

Norma sighed shakily. “Stephan won’t let
us.”

Aspen stared at her mother’s flushed cheeks.
“How can he stop us?”

“I don’t have any money, sweetie. Stephan
hasn’t allowed me to work since we’ve been together, and I don’t
have a penny to my name. I don’t own anything, and he’s threatened
to sue me if I take one thing from this house.”

“He’s such a pig.”

“I know, I know. I don’t have enough to rent
a place, and I don’t have money for a bed or food. I won’t be able
to pay your school expenses. Stephan covers all of that now.”

“You’ll get a job.” Aspen grabbed her
mother’s hands.

“How? The only thing I’ll be capable of doing
is waitressing, and I don’t have any experience with that either.
Where will we sleep until I get a paycheck? We have nothing.” Fresh
tears rolled down her face.

“Argh!” Aspen shouted in frustration. “He’s
made sure that we’re dependent on him. I hate him!”

“No, don’t hate him, sweetheart. Hate your
mother because she didn’t put you first in her life.” Norma’s blue
eyes shone with tears. “I made the mistake of marrying someone for
security because I wasn’t brave enough, and I didn’t think I could
make a life for me and you after your father died. Hate me because
I’m weak and stupid.”

“Don’t be silly, Mom. I love you and I’m so
proud of you. I know it was tough when Dad died, and I didn’t
realize that you felt this way.”