Kovos came in the room filthy. “Ok they’re all done. We can leave in the morning, and believe me, that will not be soon enough. Bear is driving me crazy!”
Legon chuckled. “Why is that?”
“He will not shut up, and he keeps trying to sell me stuff. He tried to get me to buy this old nag that looked like it was ready to die. Told me it was a great ‘pre-owned horse.’ Honestly!” Kovos sat hard on the bed next to him and placed his hands on his knees.
“Well he’s a used-horse salesman, what do you expect?” Sasha said.
They continued to talk for a bit and then decided to head off to bed. Arkin had his own room and Legon and Sasha were sharing one. The place was nice, a lot like their home, but it felt odd not to have his own room. Not that Sasha was a bother, but the man at the front desk had asked about them being married and that had made his skin crawl a bit. At the same time he wasn’t keen to leave her side. He was in protection mode right now and he probably wouldn’t sleep unless he knew she was fine.
It was nice sliding under the sheets and putting his head on a somewhat soft pillow, almost like this was just any other trip. Soon the ceiling he was looking at faded away as sleep took over.
The ceiling was replaced by clouds. In his dream he rolled on the ground. “Great, another one of these,” he thought. He was on the field tonight, but to his left he saw dirt and gravel, so he was somewhere in between the two… two… whatever these were. To his left in the mist was the outline of the black dragon, to his right just mist. This was such an odd dream. He never saw the other dragon, just the one that he associated with evil and bad things. He wondered… if he only saw the black dragon, did that mean that he was a bad person? There was an overwhelming feeling of confirmation, which somehow he knew was coming from the black dragon. He was a bad person, but why was he moving toward the field where perhaps the white dragon was?
The feeling came again, this time saying he couldn’t make it. But there was a new feeling now, one that came from somewhere else, one that felt good and hopeful. There was a grumble from the black dragon; he needed to be paying more attention to it. “No I don’t. Maybe I need to concentrate on the other feeling,” he thought, or did he say it? Could you think to yourself in a dream? What did all this mean anyway? Did it mean anything? He wasn’t sure.
He thought about this for awhile and then looked down, noticing that he had gotten closer to the black dragon. Fear came. He didn’t want to be closer to that one. Still lying on the ground, he started to inch the other way but somehow he kept getting closer to the dragon. He rolled around on his belly, facing the field away from the dragon, crawling, straining to remember the feeling of hope that he had felt. The more he thought about it the more he moved away from the dragon. He wanted to turn back and look but something made him keep his eyes ahead of him.
The mist was getting thick now and he couldn’t see the ground, even on his belly. There was a thunderous THUD… THUD. The second was softer and coming from behind him. The dragon was leaving. THUD. He pawed the ground, wanting to keep moving away but it was so hard to figure what way to go. THUD. His fingers closed around a vine that was on the ground. He pulled himself along, holding to the vine, hoping it led away from danger. THUD. Soft now. Deep breathing from high above him. There was the fear again. What if this was not the white dragon? What if this was just another Iumenta? He looked up into a violent flash of bright blue.
Chapter Twelve
“It has been said that love is the strongest power for good in this world, and that if more people loved there would be far less suffering. I would disagree with that theory; it is not love itself, but what and how we love, for surely the tyrant loves the suffering he causes just as much as the mother loves her child.”
Legon’s eyes blinked open. He felt cold sweat covering him and his breath was ragged. He stared up at the canvas ceiling of the tent; he couldn’t hear Sasha’s breathing. He sat up trying to wave off the grogginess.
“Where is she?” he thought.
The dreams were always a bit better when she was close, but she wasn’t in the tent. Then it came to him.
“The Jezeer,” he said.
Tonight Sasha was learning the Art of the Waking Sleep, a form of meditation that allowed you to stay up for hours with no sleep at all. You could put yourself in a state that was almost as beneficial as sleep, only it took a tenth of the time. Tonight was her night to learn. He had to admit she was doing well with the training, but it still seemed as if they were missing something.
In the two weeks following their departure from Salkay, both of them had learned a lot but felt as though they hadn’t. It was aggravating in many ways. That wasn’t going to matter for long, though, since they were almost to Salez and then maybe Legon would get some answers. Or maybe not-it was hard to say. He wasn’t sure of who to talk to or what to do, and Arkin wasn’t talking about what he needed to do there.
He lay back down, still exhausted. The dreams had been going full tilt now, yet it was odd that they changed every night. Some nights he was close to the black dragon and other nights to that blue light. No matter what he did, he couldn’t figure out what that light was supposed to be. Arkin had said that dreams symbolize what was going on in the mind, but there was no answer for these dreams. What was he supposed to be figuring out? The way he felt when he went to bed seemed to have an effect on what the dreams were like. If he was happy with himself and his day, usually he was closer to the blue light, but if he was unhappy he felt closer to the black dragon.
Legon realized it was going to be morning soon. He needed to sleep. They had a big day tomorrow. They would be entering Salez, and he was going to need his wits about him. As soon as he closed his eyes, though, a noise outside made him start and shoot straight up. “What was that sound?” It sounded like a voice. It could be that he was just hearing things, but he better be sure. He stuck his head out of the tent and saw Sasha sitting next to the fire, eyes closed, trying to master the Waking Sleep. Arkin looked at him with an eyebrow raised.
“Nothing,” said Legon. “Never mind, thought I heard something.” He flopped back down; he hadn’t heard anything. It was just in his head.
Sasha was vaguely aware of Legon saying something as she was deep in concentration, trying to figure out the Waking Sleep. In theory, once in the right state she would have waking dreams but still hear her surroundings. It wasn’t going well. Her mind was reaching a different state for sure. However, that state was sleep. She kept drifting off and Arkin would catch her before she slumped into the fire. She thought she had come close once, but it turned out to be nothing.
Then it happened. She heard everything around her just like Arkin had taught them. She was aware of what everything was, and she could feel her mind and body filling with energy. Strange dreams suddenly filled her mind’s eye. Dreams she wasn’t in control of but could still see, hear, and feel. Time seemed not to exist either, but somehow she knew how long she was out. She brought herself out of the waking sleep and looked at Arkin, who was smiling in the light of the sunrise. She slumped down.
“Why was I out for so long? I thought I should sense time, right?”
“You should. I was ready to tell you to go to bed and get some sleep the old fashioned way, but just then you achieved the Waking Sleep, but only for about five minutes. Then you fell asleep for five hours.” There was a placating look on his face.