Heartless (Blue Fire Saga) (26 page)

“I know. But I can’t shake this feeling that something’s terribly wrong.” She sucked in a deep breath, thinking. “If everything’s fine here, then maybe the trouble is somewhere else.” She stood up. “Will you carry me far enough down the mountain so I can check my messages and make a call if I need to?”

“Of course.”

Leesa ducked into the cavern and retrieved her cell phone. She had barely stepped out of the cave when Rave scooped her up in his arms and began racing down the hillside.

She did not wait for Rave to carry her all the way down to the park where she knew she had phone reception. Her sense of foreboding was too strong for her to wait that long. Instead, she asked him to stop and put her down about halfway to the village. Stepping away from him, she pulled her cell from her pocket and turned it on. There was still no reception, so she shut the phone off and hopped back into Rave’s arms.

She repeated the process three-quarters of the way down the mountain. This time, she had a weak but useable signal, so she quickly accessed her voice mail.

She had three messages. Two were from her mom and one was from Cali. Cali’s message was sandwiched between the two from her mom. Her mom’s first message had been left two nights ago. As Leesa opened the message, she cursed herself for not having come down to check for messages yesterday morning. Her expression grew grim as she listened to her mom telling her about the visit from the BSI agents. She breathed a sigh of relief when her mom said good-bye after asking Leesa to call home or to call the BSI agents directly. At least her mom didn’t sound like she was under any duress or in any trouble. Still, Leesa did not like that the xenorians had gone to her mom’s apartment. That was definitely not a good sign.

She turned to Rave. “You heard that?”

Rave nodded. His expression looked as grim as Leesa’s felt.

“Are you going to call the xenorians?” he asked.

“I don’t know. I don’t want to talk to them, but I don’t want them bothering my mom and my brother, either.” She looked back down at her phone. “I’ve got two more messages, one from Cali and another from my mom. Let me see what they say.”

Cali’s message was nothing out of the ordinary, just telling Leesa that Cali missed her and hoped she was having “a REALLY good time” alone with Rave. Despite her unease, Leesa found herself smiling at the inflection and enthusiasm in Cali’s voice. She missed Cali, too.

She went to the third message. Instead of her mom’s voice, Leesa was surprised to hear a man speaking to her. She looked back down at her screen and reaffirmed that the message had come from her mom’s phone. Her sense of foreboding grew even stronger than before.

The man identified himself simply as Smith. Leesa’s heart began to beat more quickly. What was one of the xenorians doing with her mother’s phone?

She listened closely to his message. The color slowly drained from her face as he gave her his ultimatum. When her mom suddenly screamed, Leesa almost jumped out of her skin. Her hand began to shake as she stared down helplessly at her phone.

“Turn it off,” Rave said.

Leesa looked at him blankly. “What?”

“Turn off your phone,” Rave repeated. “So I can hold you.”

Leesa nodded weakly. With fumbling fingers, she managed to shut off her phone and shove it into her pocket. Rave immediately enfolded her in his arms. She began to sob into his chest.

Twenty minutes later, they were back at the cavern. Dominic knew something was wrong even before Rave gently placed Leesa onto her feet near the wizard and wrapped an arm around her shoulder to support her.

“What is it?” Dominic asked. “What happened?”

“The xenorians have my mom and my brother,” Leesa said, still visibly shaken. “One of them hurt my mom.”

Dominic and Rave guided Leesa over to the boulder near the entrance and sat her down on it. Rave kept hold of her hand.

“Tell me everything,” Dominic said.

Leesa repeated the message as best she could, given how upset she still was. She hoped she hadn’t forgotten anything important.

“They did something to my mom that made her scream.” The memory of her mom’s scream made Leesa shiver. “It was horrible. We have to go back and get her away from them. My brother, too.”

Dominic stroked his pointy beard. He did not have even the beginnings of a plan in mind, but he knew one thing:  he had to keep Leesa out of the xenorians’ hands, no matter what.

“We have until tomorrow afternoon,” he said after a few moments. “Let’s not do anything in haste—there is much for us to consider. I do not think they will hurt your mother or your brother again, unless you fail to show up.” He turned to Rave. “How long will it take you to get Leesa home?”

“Five hours or so. Four if I push it.”

Dominic nodded. “That gives us plenty of time, then. You don’t have to leave until tomorrow morning.”

Leesa stood up. “Tomorrow? I don’t want to wait until tomorrow.” Frustrated, she paced aimlessly in a small circle. “I want to get home as soon as I can.”

“And do what?” Dominic asked gently. “You have no idea where the xenorians are holding your family.”

“I don’t care,” Leesa said resolutely. “I have to do something. I can’t just wait up here in the mountains.”

Dominic was pretty sure no good would come of Leesa’s returning tonight. Somehow, he had to keep her away.

“Where would you stay if you went back tonight?” he asked. “The xenorians may be watching your dorm. You will be safer here.”

Leesa knew Dominic was right. Still, she felt she should be doing something—and there was nothing she could do from so far away. She looked up as a solution came to her.

“I can stay at Rave’s,” she said. “I’ll be as safe there as anywhere, and I’ll be much closer in case one of us comes up with a plan.”

Dominic considered the idea. Leesa would be safe at Rave’s, he knew, but there was still something about it that struck him as the wrong thing to do. He could not put it into words, but the feeling was strong. He grabbed at the only protest he could think of.

“If you stay in the volkaane village, you won’t be able to use your magic—not without risking disturbing the powers that sleep beneath the earth there.”

Leesa shrugged. “So what? If I stay here, I’ll be too far away for my magic to do any good, anyhow. I may as well be closer, just in case.”

Dominic thought hard. Leesa’s stubborn determination was one of the things he liked best about her, but it was getting in his way now. He had to come up with a reason—any reason—for her to stay here. Finally, one came to him. And best of all, his idea might actually prove useful.

“You are wrong about that,” he said. “One of your powers might give us some help, even from up here.”

Leesa looked at Dominic suspiciously. She didn’t see how any of her magic could be helpful from so far away. Even Dominic’s magic seemed useless across such a distance, though she had no idea of the full extent of the wizard’s powers. She thought maybe he was going to make something up just to keep her here.

“Which power?” she asked skeptically.

“Your dream power. I think you should try to summon a dream about this situation tonight. Perhaps you will see something useful.”

Leesa pursed her lips, thinking. She had forgotten about her dream magic. Experiencing dreams which sometimes came true had been one of the first manifestations of her magic, appearing along with accidental telekinesis even before Dominic showed up in her life and told her that she possessed wizard magic. The first couple of magical dreams had shown her zombies, back when she thought the creatures existed only in movies and books, back before they began climbing out of graves in the Middletown area and elsewhere. Another dream had warned her about danger to Cali from a female vampire, but that vision had been vague and unclear, and she had not been able to make any use of the information. Unfortunately, problems like that happened all too often with her dreams.

She had not done much practicing with her dream power, through no real fault of her own. When her magic was weakened she had struggled with trying to access or to summon dreams, and then once the xenorians arrived, she’d no longer been able to practice magic in her room. The library had been a great place to work on her other powers, but unless she was going to sleep there, she could not try to direct or summon any dreams.

Despite the difficulties, she had to admit that Dominic’s suggestion made sense. It might be a long shot, but trying to call forth a dream about this was better than doing nothing. And Dominic was right—there was no reason she couldn’t do it here, tonight when she went to sleep.

“You’re right,” she said. “I hadn’t thought about that. I don’t know how much use it will be, but I’ll give it a try. It’s better than doing nothing.”

“Have you had any dreams at all lately?” Dominic asked, thinking that perhaps Leesa’s magic might already have shown her a glimpse of what was coming, even if she didn’t realize it.

The first dream that sprang to Leesa’s mind was the one about Rave and the land of Azure. She glanced at him and felt her cheeks beginning to flush. She did not see the need to mention that one now—it certainly didn’t have anything to do with the matter at hand.

She closed her eyes and tried to remember if she’d had any other dreams. A vague recollection arose deep in her brain. The images were fuzzy and almost forgotten. She struggled to push them closer to the front of her mind and bring them into focus. Nothing happened.

She opened her eyes. “I think I did have at least one dream,” she said, frustrated, “but I can’t really remember anything about it.”

“Maybe I can help,” Dominic said.

He reached out and placed his hands lightly on either side of Leesa’s head. She felt a slight tingling pass from his palms into her scalp as Dominic sent some of his magic into her.

“Try now,” he said, removing his hands.

Leesa closed her eyes again and tried to access the dream. This time, the bits and pieces in her memory began to coalesce.

She saw four figures. Definitely people, but still too unclear to recognize. Something about them seemed familiar, though. She concentrated harder, and the people slowly came into focus. Disappointment washed over her when she realized she was looking at the two black waziri and their apprentices. She was about to open her eyes when something told her to wait.

She felt like she was watching a movie inside her head. The four figures were changing, morphing into different people. Three of them were changing more rapidly than the fourth. This had happened in her dream in the same way, she remembered now. As the new images grew clearer, she recognized them, even though she had never seen them. There were two men and one woman, and they matched the descriptions Cali had given of the xenorians almost exactly! Now the fourth figure became clear, and Leesa recognized her immediately. It was her mom.

The vision began to fade. Leesa fought to keep it alive, seeking any hint of what might occur, but to no avail. The images continued to fade, until finally they disappeared. Apparently, this dream had provided no more information, at least not any that she could access. She opened her eyes and exhaled deeply.

“It worked,” she said, “but I don’t know how much help it’s going to be. The xenorians were in it, and they were with my mom. One of them was holding her by the arm.” She shook her head in frustration. “It didn’t show me anything else, though. I don’t see what use it’s going to be. We already knew they had my mom.”

Dominic laid his hand on Leesa’s shoulder. “Were you able to see the xenorians clearly enough to get detailed images of them?”

Leesa nodded. “Yeah, they were pretty clear at the end.”

Dominic smiled. “That will help, then.” He sat down on the rock Leesa had vacated a few minutes before. “Most of your dreams up to this point have been the kind that rise unbidden. There is a second type, though.” He edged forward on the rock. “Tell me everything you know about actually summoning a dream.”

Leesa thought for a moment before answering. She had read the chapters on dreams in her magic book and had done a little experimenting with them before the xenorians arrived, but that was all.

“When you try to summon a dream,” she said, remembering, “you have to pick one aspect and try to visualize it in as much detail as possible.”

“Exactly. You’ve never seen the xenorians, so I was worried you would not be able to visualize one clearly enough to use for a dream summoning. But you’ve already seen them clearly in this other dream. When you go to bed tonight, focus on the image you just described—of a xenorian holding your mother. I believe that will give you your best chance of summoning a dream that might help us tomorrow.”

“You’re right,” Leesa said excitedly. “I can see that image as clearly as if they were standing right in front of me.” Her expression darkened. “But I’ve never actually summoned a dream like this before. What if I fail?”

Dominic stood up and put both his hands on Leesa’s shoulders. His grey eyes bored into hers.

“Do not think about failing,” he said. “Think only of success. That is your best chance.” He allowed himself a half-smile. “But do not pressure yourself unduly. Doing so will only work against you. Remember, if you happen not to succeed, we will be no worse off than we are now.”

Leesa knew Dominic was right. Trying too hard or harboring negative thoughts always worked against successful magic—she knew that from experience. She needed to think positively, to give it her best, but also to try to stay relaxed about the whole thing. It would not be easy.

“I’ll do my best,” she promised.

Dominic smiled. “I know you will.” He sat back down on the rock. “Now, here is what I propose. There is a car rental place in the town where Rave picked me up. Rave can carry you to town now so you can rent a car for me. Leave it parked on the street and bring the keys back here. When you return, Rave can take me back down to the car and I’ll drive to Connecticut tonight to see if I can learn anything. You can use the time after you get back to read up on dream summoning in your book. Tomorrow, Rave can bring you to Middletown. We’ll meet on the fourth floor of the library at two o’clock and decide how to proceed against the xenorians. Agreed?”