Dawn of the Dreamsmith (The Raven's Tale Book 1) (85 page)

The figure took an unsteady step towards him, but before it could take another, the Archon caught a flash of movement across the hall. It was that dim-witted oaf Dantes, rising to his feet. The giant charged towards them, lowing like an angry cow. Alarmed, the Archon flinched, but the giant barrelled past both of them.

Instead, he stooped to pick up a body lying nearby, near the base of the crystal, and sprinted for the wall. When he reached it, with his metal arm he punched a hole clean through the bricks and dived through. A short time later, there was a faint splash from far below.

“And then there were two.” The voice was strange. It was as if two entities used Jarrod’s vocal chords; one belonging to the prince and the other cruel and bestial.

The Archon looked up. The being stood over him, a savage grin on its face. Before he could move, it stretched an arm out towards him and placed a hand against the raw, stinging flesh on his chest. He felt something drain away from his body and cried out, as much from a profound sense of loss as the pain. It was his god, he realised. The presence that had urged him, goaded him on, even controlled his actions for so long, had fallen silent. The being he had discovered deep down in the dark all those years ago had reclaimed its dire gift at last.

Shorn of any connection to the being looming over him, he was suddenly racked with fear. “W-w-what happens now?” he stammered under the glare of that callous, burning eye.

The Jarrod-beast began to laugh, a vile, bubbling sound that made the Archon quail before it. “Now,” it said, “the fun begins.”

EPILOGUE

W
hen Raven awoke, she let out an involuntary groan. Every part of her body ached. It was as if all her muscles were in competition with one another, vying for her attention. Tentatively, she moved her back and felt the shifting of sand beneath her shoulders.
Sand?

She opened her eyes. Stars twinkled in the night sky above. But her head was spinning, sending the glimmers of light circling and dancing through the air. Then she realised that it wasn’t her vision that was moving, it was the stars themselves.

Raven sat up. All around her was a grey waste. A desert, stretching out in every direction. She pressed her palm to the ground. The sand was neither hot nor cold to the touch.
Well, this is odd.

“You’re awake.”

She turned, and saw Cole sitting cross-legged behind her. “Cole?” She remembered watching him fall, how limp his body had looked as it landed. “You’re alive.”

“I am?” There was a strange quality to his voice. He didn’t quite sound himself. “Well, that’s good news at least.”

He stood and went to her, holding out his hands to pull her upright. “Where are we?” she asked, gazing at the desert around them.

Cole smiled sadly. “This is where I come to,” he told her. “The place where the crystals bring me. It doesn’t really have a name, but I think of it as the dream-space.”

Raven shivered, though the air was not cold and there was no breeze. “You told me of it a few times,” she said. “I don’t know what I expected, but it wasn’t this. Why am I here?”

Cole shrugged. “You don’t know?”

“No! I saw you fall, I ran towards you... and then I woke up here.”

He began to walk across the sand, and gestured for her to follow. “It’s probably for the best,” he told her. “The Empire is not a good place to be right now.”

“We failed, then.” It wasn’t a question. She had known already, the scene at the top of the tower she had left behind had not felt like victory.

“For now.”

They walked a while in silence. Almost unconsciously, she slipped her hand into Cole’s. His fingers squeezed hers affectionately. It was a welcome comfort in a lonely place. As they strolled across the wasteland, she stared into the sky.
They aren’t stars,
she realised. They seemed like it at first, but the little balls of light were far closer. She wondered what they were.

“So what happened back there, at the tower?” she asked him finally. “I still don’t feel as if I’ve been able to piece everything together.”

“Plots within plots,” Cole replied distantly. He sounded sad. “People using people, while being used themselves.”

“The emperor was trying to enslave people, and saw the Order as his means to do so,” she said. “But I don’t understand why.”

“Fear, paranoia, madness... take your pick,” Cole replied. “It was not his fault, though, not truly. For years a spider sat upon his shoulder, pouring its poison into his ear. He was offered eternal power and took it. I think the rest of it was just his way of justifying to himself the horror of his actions. He was just a tool, though, like everyone else.”

“With his seal of approval, the Order was free to spread across the land, unchallenged.” She glanced up as a ball of light flew past directly above their heads. In many ways, it was quite beautiful here. “The spider was the Archon, I take it.”

Cole nodded. “Even he isn’t really to blame. He was a man once. Not good, not bad... just a person, like the rest of us. But he stumbled onto something bad. Very bad and very old. A being of great power, lying dormant. I saw it happen. I didn’t truly grasp the meaning of that memory then. From that moment, he was its servant.”

The toes of Raven’s boots kicked up puffs of sand as they walked. She remembered what Builder had told them about the crystals when they encountered him in the Spire. “So... the Order gave the crystals to its followers, which they used to take away all the bad parts of themselves... the fear, anger, hate, leaving only the good?”

“Yes. The columns of fire we saw were all the negative essence collected by the crystals, which were gathered together by the device Builder was forced to construct at the top of the tower.”

“But why?”

Cole sighed. “This being I mentioned, Maldonus, wasn’t fully in our world. He was wounded, I think, almost fatally. It required a lot of power to bring him back.”

“So he used all that energy to punch a hole in our world?”

“Sort of, but he didn’t just
use
that energy, it
became
him. He needed a host body to properly come back, but it’s as if the spirit he used to do it was coalesced from all that negative energy harvested by the crystals.”

Raven’s head swam. “How do you even know all this anyway.”

Cole was silent a moment. “I saw it all,” he said quietly. “I joined with the crystal at the top of the tower thinking I could somehow break his connection with it, stop him from coming through.” He turned to look at her. “I
saw
him, Raven. He was surprised at first, and then started laughing. He showed me everything, his plan. He was crowing at me. Then, when it was over he reached out and killed me.”

Raven pulled him to a stop and held his gaze. “You’re not dead,” she said firmly.

“I think you’re right,” Cole said, after a long pause. “If I was dead, then I don’t think I would be here. But I can’t go back. I’ve tried. I can’t feel my body any more.” He sounded scared. “It’s as if whatever anchored me to it whenever I came here has been severed. Maldonus has trapped me here.”

“We’ll find a way back for you.” She meant it. They hadn’t come all this way together for her to abandon a friend in his time of need. Cole didn’t reply, but squeezed her fingers to show that he was grateful for her words.

“So, what are the crystals?” she asked after they had walked a while longer. “Did he show you that?”

“They’re... part of him. Or he controls them, somehow.” He shrugged. “Whichever it is, they’re his. I saw a vision of them running below the earth, like frozen rivers, touching every corner of the land. Growing. I think they go wherever he tells them to.”

She didn’t really know what to say to that, so for a time there was no sound but the faint crunch of their soles on the sand.

“I found my father,” she told him as they walked.

“I know.” Cole smiled and glanced towards her. “How do you feel?”

Raven tried to find a way to describe the whirlwind of thoughts and emotions that raced through her mind. “I’m not sure,” she replied. “Happy, obviously. But sad as well. I think the last twenty years have been even harder on him than on me. I haven’t really had time to think on it... I had hoped to find him, but I didn’t expect to do so then, or in that way.”

His fingers tightened around hers. “A flicker of light in the darkness that Maldonus has woven,” he said. “A tiny part of his works undone, and the world is a slightly brighter place for it. You should take some comfort in that.”

“Where are we going?” she asked suddenly.

He smiled. “I have something to show you.”

“Is it far?”

“As far as the moon and stars, or as close as the nose on your face.” He laughed. “We don’t really need to walk there, but it seemed like it was the right thing to do. For the moment.”

“It’s nice,” she agreed.

As they walked, she pieced things together in her mind. Much of it she found unbelievable, but at least it made sense of a kind. But there were one or two elements that still eluded her.

“This place,” she asked, “what is it really? How are you able to come here, and why?”

“This is his domain,” Cole replied, his brow furrowed. “This is where all those who dream come, and he is lord of them all. Those under the influence of his crystals are the easiest for him to enter and mould to his will, taking their essence to strengthen himself. Now that he has regained most of his power, I’m not really sure what will happen here. I fear it will not be pleasant.”

“I still don’t see how you fit in.”

“Nor do I.” There was frustration in his voice. “But I think he fears me, because I’m able to come here, to his place. Whatever my ability is, I think it’s the key to stopping him, once and for all.”

“So we haven’t lost?”

Cole shook his head. “Not yet. What’s that saying? It’s always darkest before the dawn? Well, right now it’s midnight, but the clock is still ticking.”

“So what can we do?”

“We carry on.” He saw the look of irritation cross her face, and grinned. “I don’t know what else to suggest, for now. But I’ve been thinking about what Mother told us, back in the mountains. The Archon called me Dreamwalker.”

“I remember,” she said.

“Some of what she said has come to pass. He’s confirmed what I am, or at least he believes it as well. I think we can both agree that the part about a nation of slaves seems to be occurring. But much else did not happen. I wasn’t given a choice of paths to take, not that I saw. The mention of a black sun confuses me just as much now as it did then. And, if I may say, you’re a terrible champion.”

“Hey!” Raven tugged his arm sharply, but smiled as she did so. “I guess that’s a valid criticism,” she admitted. “So what are you saying?”

“I think all that is still to come. Maldonus thinks he has won, but he doesn’t realise that the game is still being played.”

“I wish I could take comfort from that.”

“Me too.” He looked at her, all traces of levity vanished. “I won’t lie to you, Raven, it’s going to get bad. Very bad. But we need to keep going until the end.”

She saw the pain etched on his face, and nodded. “I’ll see it through, Cole,” she told him. “It’s what I do. I told you, that day we met: I hunt monsters.”

He seemed satisfied with that. They continued a while longer, before he suddenly came to a halt on the sand. “What is it?” she asked.

“We’re here.”

She looked around. The patch of sand he had chosen appeared indistinguishable from all the others they had trekked across. In fact, given the lack of landmarks she could almost have believed they had not moved an inch. “Wow, another bit of desert,” she said sardonically.

He grinned. “I thought we’d walked far enough.” He reached up to the sky and waved his hands. The balls of light circled down towards them. They weren’t as small as she had thought. She stood amongst a number of white orbs that shimmered like pearls. Cole waggled his fingers, and the orbs flew past them in a blur, spinning and spinning until she began to feel dizzy, even though her feet remained planted firmly on the ground. “Cole...” she moaned.

“Ah, here we are.” His hands suddenly halted in front of his face. Between them was an orb indistinguishable from the others.

“What’s so special about this one?” she asked.

“I found it a long time ago,” he replied. “Before I met you, in fact. It looked quite different then. It was tiny and red, like a hot coal at the bottom of a furnace, and burned my fingers when I tried to touch it.”

Her eyes ran across the surface of the orb. It appeared serene, at peace. “What happened to it?”

“I think that back then this person was a ball of rage, turned in upon himself until nothing remained but his anger. It almost looks as though something recently happened to him to set him free of all that, doesn’t it?”

She stared at it, confused. Then the realisation hit her. “This is my father?”

He nodded. “Would you like to see what he dreams about?”

The notion both attracted and appalled her. “I don’t know,” she replied. “Would it hurt him?”

“Not at all.” Cole frowned. “If we stay far enough back and don’t approach him, he won’t even notice we’re there.”

“Then why go in at all? It feels like spying.”

“I think we might find something important,” he told her.

Grudgingly, she agreed. She took Cole’s hand again, and at his suggestion she closed her eyes. There was a strange sensation of moving at speed, and then Cole’s voice. “You can open them now.”

They were standing upon grass. The sky above was bright and clear, and she felt the warmth of the sun upon her skin. In the distance she could see the thatched roofs of cottages, and plumes of smoke rising from chimneys into the air.

“Do you recognise this place?” Cole asked.

Raven felt tears sting her eyes and fought to hold them back. “It’s home.”

They walked towards the houses of her village, across a field of waist-high stalks. Neither one spoke; they really didn’t know what to say.

Ahead of them was a road. More of a track with delusions of grandeur, really, she thought. A group of people marched along it away from the village, a familiar figure at their head. “Is that...”

“The Archon,” Cole agreed. “But a lot younger, I would say.”

The man they had confronted earlier that day was striding along the road towards a destination unknown. In her father’s dream, the Archon seemed happier. He was even whistling. Her eyes took in his companions. They weren’t members of his Order, she realised. They appeared to be carrying loads of luggage – cases of books and clothes, pieces of unknown equipment wrapped up in cloth. “It looks like he leads an expedition,” she said.