The Dream Snatcher Chronicles - Chapter 8

246

The Waking World

“Something happened that night that I didn’t tell you
about,” Jake said.

We sat wrapped in our sleeping bags, huddled close to the
makeshift fireplace Mike had built for his underground
fort.

The underground fort was a hobby Mike had undertaken
during his high school years. It took him an entire
summer to dig the foundations out. He’d kept the dirt
from falling back into the hole by strategically placed
support poles and boards, and he used tin sheets for the
roof.

After Mike left for college it went unused save for an
occasional walkthrough by Jake and me. The fireplace
was a discarded water heater with a square opening cut in
it with the blow torch Dad kept in the barn. The pieces of
kindling we split earlier with the hatchet flickered weakly,
losing the battle to the cold and damp.

The fort seemed a good a place as any for a retreat and
reprieve from the dreams, out here in the woods, at least a
quarter mile from the house. After the Dream Snatcher
killed Jacob I refused to sleep in the basement until we
decided how to proceed. To err on the side of caution, we
chose to sleep in the underground fort every night. That
was three days ago and Mom grew increasingly

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247

concerned about our sudden obsession with staying away
from the house during the freezing Michigan winter
nights.

I threw another piece of kindling on the fire. “Oh? And
you want to bring it up now?”

Jake refused to be baited by my attitude. “I needed some
time to mull it over. You were too wrapped up in… what
happened to bother.” He meant to be kind, but I didn’t
want his pity. He stopped talking and rubbed his neck. He
said it hurt ever since the dream, and rubbing helped it,
but I found it annoying.

I crossed my arms and drifted off into silence, staring into
the fire. Jake said nothing for a minute and then continued
without prompt.

“You know when I hit him in the back? Well, it’s hard to
describe, but… I saw in him for a split second. He must
have known it too, because I felt him fighting back. He
struggled to lock everything down before I saw anything.
I don’t think he expected it. I didn’t expect it either.”

Jake’s comment piqued my curiosity enough to warrant a
question. “Mind-sight?”

“I guess. It showed me what’s important to him.

“So what did you see?”

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248

“A time. A time so important it is foremost in the Dream
Snatcher’s thoughts. The end of a year.”

“This year? Or any old year?”

“He reacted quickly, but I know everything revolves
around something that happens at the end of this year.
Gretchen, the monuments, me, you, the Stedgates.
Everything. Because…”

He trailed off.

“Because?”

“Because that is why he sent Gretchen through the gate.
Why he needed me as an alternative placeholder. I saw
the word in his mind. Except it was in caps: E-N-D.”

“The end?” I said, half-joking. "Are you still trying to link
that to Dr. Meyer's warnings?"

“Yes.” Jake didn’t smile. “Don't go chasing after the end.
Perhaps the end isn't a destination, but a thing, some
monstrosity that the Dream Snatcher is trying to bring to
our plane of existence.”

The sound of footsteps crunching in the snow outside the
fort startled both of us into silence.

“Hey! Are you guys in there?” Gretchen's voice sounded
out, bland above the rising wind. What was she doing out
here?

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249

“Yeah,” I called out and a pang of guilt pierced my shield
of self-loathing.

Here I was, hiding out for fear of being manipulated by
the Dream Snatcher, while Gretchen spiraled further into
oblivion. Three months had passed since her being taken
and neither the Waking World nor the dreams offered any
consolation. The distance between me and my older sister
had widened into a gulf. She barely talked to anyone
anymore, not even her friends who called less and less
frequently asking for her. She seemed perpetually
absorbed in whatever it is she did when not at school or
performing tasks demanded by Mom.

“Here’s an extra blanket.” She shoved it through the
narrow entrance and all I saw was the flash of her pale
hand before she turned to leave.

“Thanks,” I called out.

“Mom made me do it.” Her tone finally contained a hint
of feeling, even if that feeling was anger. “It’s supposed
to get cold tonight.”

Her footsteps continued in the snow and I mentally
smacked myself for not noticing it sooner. Why could I
see her hand at all? Why wasn’t she wearing mittens or
gloves? The temperature was near zero.

I scrambled out of my blanket and squeezed through the
entryway. Gretchen strode off through the forest, almost

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250

obscured by the pine branches. My sister wore her typical
school attire: jeans and a blouse. She did not shiver, even
as the wind whipped her blonde hair into a fury. The cold
was as meaningless as the brothers she left behind in their
fortress—the ones who kept pretending they could save
her.

++++

We stayed in the fort that night, but the cold and the
fractured dreams kept me from any semblance of rest. I
knew upon waking that the brief reprieve was over. Since
Mike wasn’t coming home for Christmas, Jake and I
continued sleeping in the basement. The nights leading up
to Christmas brought the dreams back with undiminished
clarity.

The night we resumed sleeping in our bunk beds, Jacob
and I met Adrienne in the Underlay. We recounted our
adventures to the Kook's house and D.R.E.A.D. She took
a keen interest when we told her about the vision Jacob
experienced when he attacked the Dream Snatcher.

"The message is important, but your mind-sight is the real
gift," she said.

I was a bit jealous after the comment. All I could do with
any certainty was shift about the Underlay and Adrienne
had never said it was a gift.

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251

Waking or Dreaming, I spent entirely too much time
studying the basement floor and the place where the
Dream Snatcher had pressed my head into the cement. I
spent my dreams searching the basement, searching the
potato cellar and the storage room. I led Adrienne and
Jacob to believe that I didn't know the exact location of
the Stedgate and we must go hunting for it.

I did know.

The Dream Snatcher had been wrong all along about its
location. If it could be accessed or not remained to be
seen, but I knew where it was and still I continued to wait,
unwilling to open the door, convinced that it would give
the Dream Snatcher his heart's desire.

I expected the Dream Snatcher or General Kobetz to
make an appearance, but as the days ticked by I knew
they didn’t need to. Day by day Gretchen’s demeanor
worsened. Getting her out of her bedroom required
interference from Dad. She’d obey and sit sullenly until
Dad either stopped paying attention or said she could
leave. I caught her staring at me during those periods
when she had to tolerate us and it made the weather
outside seem warm in comparison.

That Christmas went on record as the worst in family
history. Mike’s absence from the festivities turned what
could have been a tolerable holiday into a disaster. A
snow storm hit that blocked the roads and the cold kept us

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252

indoors, save for feeding the farm animals. Gretchen
graced us with her presence for an hour on Christmas
morning to open gifts and then she retreated back to her
room. Dad and Mom both seemed helpless as how to
remedy the situation. Emily ended up crying because she
wanted her big sister to play with her, but Gretchen’s
bedroom door remained shut and the pleas fell on deaf
ears. Jake and I attempted to cheer her up and failed
miserably, not being well versed in how to play dolls.
That night as I lay on the top bunk, staring at the cross
beams that held up the house, I decided I’d waited—
hesitated—long enough. If Christmas held any mystical or
holy power I must call on it to get us through the Stedgate
and back safely.

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253

Chapter 8
The Necromancer

Jake, Adrienne and I stood in a semi-circle, looking at the
basement floor in the muted light that came in through the
two half-windows. I knelt down and placed my hand on
the cement floor in the spot where the Dream Snatcher
used to crush my skull.

“We've been all through the basement," Adrienne said.
“And we aren't getting any closer to finding it. Why are
you sure we are getting through tonight?”

“I have an inkling of what to do,” I said. “The Dream
Snatcher had his methods. And I think he was onto
something, even if it didn’t work.”

During third and fourth grade I’d spent much of my spare
time studying anything to do with astronomy and space
exploration. One image from that time stuck with me. It
was an engraving titled “Man looking into the inner
Cosmos.” The picture portrayed a man kneeling on a field
of grass and he had somehow managed to get his head
through the sky and stars—the very dome of heaven—to
catch a glimpse of the mysteries that lay beyond: the
wheel within the wheel, suns and moons rising and setting
into the clouds that swirled around an alien destination.

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254

I must be that man now for Gretchen. I must make it
through the Stedgate and into that world with the starless
sky. I knelt on the ground and placed my head to the floor,
listening for the noise I heard all those years ago, the
gears grinding together of a monstrous machine. At first
there was nothing, save the cold cement floor against my
cheek and ear. I held my breath and listened again.

There it was, fainter, but still churning away—the
machine that locked the Stedgate, the gift from Dr. Meyer
that infuriated the Dream Snatcher. My hand pressed
against the cold cement. I expected something like a
garbage disposal underneath, unsympathetic gears that
chewed up anything that tried to break through.

"So are you going to smash a hole in the floor?" Jacob
said.

"No." I pushed myself up. "This isn't the way through,
never was. The sound comes from here, but it isn't how
we access it."

I walked over to the sump pump near the washing
machine. "This is how we get through."

"The sump pump?" Jacob folded his arms and shook his
head. "That thing is only like three feet deep. If it was

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255

down there you'd figure the Dream Snatcher would have
found it by now."

"In the Waking World it's three feet deep. I'm sure some
nights the Dream Snatcher probably drowned me in it, but
he never went into himself," I said.

"Have you known for a while?" Adrienne asked with a
trace of accusation.

"I have. I'd say I didn't know, but I chose not to know, if
that makes sense."

Jacob walked up next to me and squatted down next to the
cylindrical collection reservoir that was cut into the
cement. It was barely large enough for a full grown man
to squeeze into. Mom kept a plywood board over the hole,
allowing a gap for the pump motor to poke through. It
turned on when Jacob approached, churning the discarded
water. As a child, I had sometimes dropped toys into it
purposely to see what would happen. I'm sure I caused the
basement to flood on more than one occasion, but Mom
never figured it out.

"Are you sure about this?"

"As sure as I can be. But one of us has to go down there
and find out."

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256

Adrienne immediately stepped forward, but I shook my
head. "It has to be me this time. Whatever Dr. Meyer did,
I doubt either of you will be able to open it."

"You get no objections from me," Jacob said, sliding the
plywood board out of the way.

"Don't worry, if I'm right, you'll get your chance to come
in." My laughter broke short when I looked into the
murky water.

I eased into the water slowly, the chill creeping up my
ankles, legs and waist. I held onto the edge of the cement,
searching with my feet for the bottom. There is no bottom.

"We can lower you down further," Adrienne said.
Adrienne grabbed one of my hands and Jacob grabbed the
other. They continued to lower me deeper into the sump
pump and the water rose over my neck and chin.

"Can you feel the bottom yet?" Adrienne asked.

"No. Let me go. I'll find it and return to get you."

I took in a deep breath of air and they dropped me. I
plunged below the surface of the water and felt around
with my hands, searching for any break in the cylindrical

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257

cement wall that might indicate the location of the
Stedgate. The wall continued on unbroken as my hands
swept from one side to the other. Finding nothing, I
forced myself deeper into the frigid, filthy water. My feet
touched the bottom as my lungs began to demand fresh
oxygen. I swept the last area frantically and then I found
it, a slit barely wide enough for a body to squeeze into. I
opted against going back up for air and pushed myself
into the side passage on my belly. The narrow margin of
error above and below me caused a claustrophobic terror
to settle in the pit of my stomach.

Then my hand struck it, and I momentarily forgot I
needed to breathe. The smooth dome and two empty holes
I felt first made me think someone had stuck a bowling
balling under the cement foundations of the basement.
Then my thumb brushed against jagged edges, a few
inches below the two sockets. Teeth. A skull of someone
as stupid as you who thought they could open the
Stedgate. A few squeamish bubbles of air escaped my
lips. I searched with my hands around the skull, looking
for any other sign of where the gateway might be.

I knocked the skull to one side in my searching and found
another gap. The texture, difficult to distinguish in the
absolute darkness and water, felt different than the
cement. Metal? A metal plate, maybe, with a narrow slit
in the middle. A hand, if it was spread flat, could fit into

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258

it. The churning of the sump pump grew louder behind
me and a deep fear seized me. I knew where my hand
must go, but the uncertainty of not seeing where or what I
put it into almost stopped me. Nothing good could come
from this—let’s try again a different night.

I lay my hand flat and forced it in anyway and almost
immediately felt the irresistible tug of whatever waited on
the other side. I pulled my hand out and pushed myself
backwards out of the side tunnel as more air bubbles
escaped my lungs in the uncontrollable command for air.
Once I cleared the side tunnel I gathered my legs up under
me and shoved myself towards the surface.

Adrienne and Jacob grabbed me and hauled my body out
of the sump pump and onto the cement floor of the
basement.

"I was about to go down after you," Jacob said.

"I found it," I gasped, between fits of coughing up the
soapy, gritty water.

Adrienne patted me on the back gently. "You were down
there a long time."

I sat up and cleared my throat. "Once you hit the bottom
of the sump pump, feel around about chest level and

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259

you'll find a narrow passage. At the end of that there is the
Stedgate... I felt it trying to pull me through."

"Ok," Adrienne said. "We'll follow you one at a time.
Whenever you are ready."

"I'm ready." I scooted to the edge of the hole and dangled
my feet in. "Count to ten and then come down."

I plunged into the water and quickly sank to the bottom
and slithered into the side passage. I found the metal plate
and placed my hand on it to keep a reference point. A
pointy elbow hit me in the side as Jacob crawled up on
my left hand side. He gripped my shoulder and I nodded
in response, feeling like an idiot a second later since there
was no way he could have seen it. Adrienne crammed her
body into the space on my right and placed her hand in
the middle of my back. I'm about to open the Stedgate. If
Jake read my thoughts, he gave no indication and I wasn't
waiting. I pressed forward and eased my hand into the gap
in the metal plate.

My fingers crept to the gap, searching. A few inches
inside my fingers pressed up against two metal gears that
ran the length of the gap. They ground together in an
endless, lazy circle reminding me of Mom’s meat grinder
that chewed up chunks of meat and spat out hamburger. I
drew back slightly when I felt the gears, startled by the
force that tried to draw me in deeper, the way they tore at
my fingers. Maybe this isn't the Stedgate? Or maybe Dr.

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260

Meyer made sure that whoever came after him would be
ground to death.

Air bubbles escaped next to me. Jacob tightened his grip
on my shoulder. There was no going back. I slammed my
fingers in as far as they would go. Pain lanced up my arm
and a silent scream escaped my lips. The pain settled
behind my eyes, causing white spots to appear in the
darkness. The gears pulled me in up to my elbow. The
gap never widened—the gears continued to pull me
through as I stretched and contorted into an impossible
shape, entering into whatever lay beyond. This is how I
die. Everything spread out as I passed through—it felt
like my atoms were strung end to end across the expanse
of the galaxy. The pain stopped for a moment, as the
gears chewed up my feet and spat me into the void
between worlds.

+++

Then the pain returned as bit by bit my body formed on
the far side. The first thing I saw was my hand that had
reached through, trembling in the gray light of an alien
world. I looked down, half expecting to see a mess of
intestines and gore where my body should be. It was
whole. Normal. Behind me Adrienne and Jacob already
stood, unharmed.

"That was nothing like passing through the first Stedgate,"
I said to Adrienne.

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261

Adrienne wobbled on her legs. "No. It wasn't." She
pointed at a metal plate built into a foundation made of
granite blocks. "That's what we came through?"

I examined the metal plate, and although I'd only felt it in
the water, I estimated it was the exact same dimensions as
the one underneath the basement floor. Probably not
much larger than a mail slot.

"What does it mean?" Jacob asked.

"I'm not certain," Adrienne said. "If Doctor Meyer
tampered with this Stedgate he wanted to make sure we
ended up here."

"So we could see that?" Jacob said, pointing up.

I looked up and saw that on top the granite foundation
was a stone statue of a seated man. The statue rose at least
fifty feet above me, arms outstretched as if welcoming us.
That seemed promising until I noticed his hands. In one
he held a severed head and in the other a sword that
pointed to the earth. The head’s mouth hung open and the
eyes were closed. The man on the throne wore a crown
that encased his smooth marble dome and his grim
expression promise swift retribution to others who dared
to disobey.

"All hail the bald king," Jacob remarked. None of us
laughed.

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262

On the spectrum of color, the horizon started out a sickly
tint of green and then slowly changed to gray towards the
apex of the sky. The clouds lay flat and dull above us. The
landscape looked no more promising than the sky
above—it was as if a giant scalpel had reached down and
cut the land to the bone. Boulders cropped up from the
dead grass—massive black teeth that dotted the hillsides
and fields. The trees I saw were scattered far apart,
desperate skeletons barely clinging to life.

Even with Jake and Adrienne next to me, I was alone, as
if solitude was part of the air and every breath I took
moved me further away from anyone I had ever known or
loved.

“Look there,” I pointed. In the distance, almost on the
edge of the horizon, I caught sight of a stone tower. It did
not resemble the white tower from Gretchen's poster, but
it could serve as a starting point. Jacob scanned around us
in all directions. "I don't see anything else. To the tower?"

"To the tower," Adrienne agreed.

The withered grass underfoot set up puffs of dust when
we stepped on it. Moisture permeated the air, and droplets
of sweat sprang out on our foreheads as we trudged along.
I wiped my face more than once as the salty fluid dripped
into my eyes.

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263

We came upon a shallow gully that intersected our path
for several hundred yards. Boulders littered the bottom,
and there were signs of erosion, as if a powerful river had
once cascaded down the barren creek bed. One of the
boulders caught my eye, due to its massive size. It lay on
its side, probably twelve feet in length, and roughly six
feet in diameter.

As we drew closer, the back of the boulder rippled. It
started at one end of the boulder and panned out to the far
end.

I stopped in my tracks, squinting. Jake halted next to me,
looked at my face and then turned his head to follow my
line of sight.

“Hey, that boulder is moving,” he said, pointing
nonchalantly.

“I thought I was seeing things.” I wiped the sweat out of
my eyes.

Adrienne turned around sharply, dangerously close to the
edge of the ravine.

“Seeing what?” she asked.

She took a step forward, and the dirt gave way and she
lost her footing. My hand stretched out for her, and our
fingers touched, but they slipped right through my grasp.
She tumbled down to the bottom of the gully, but

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264

scrambled quickly to her feet, brushing the dust off her
clothes.

Another cloud of dust engulfed her as Jake jumped
recklessly down into the gully. Adrienne coughed and
sputtered, waving the dust out of her eyes.
“That was real smart,” I shouted down to him.

“Be careful,” he said, beckoning me to follow.

I slid down and came to a halt by them. The living
boulder rested a few meters away. Rough black hairless
skin covered its body. Small bumps and blemishes
covered it, and tanned splotches were splattered across its
back. It stretched out, like an enormous caterpillar. A
smell wafted from it, reminding me of the water that
collected in the barnyard during rainstorms and turned
rancid after a few days.

The creature’s underside hovered about a foot off the
ground and I tried to imagine what kind of appendages it
must need to support its giant bulk. Jake bent over and
craned his neck to stare under the creature.
“How on earth does it stay off the ground?" He wondered.
"Hey. There’s something under it."

“What is it?” I said.

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265

“Heck if I know,” he grunted. “I’m not going under it to
find out. It’s moving, whatever it is, and it doesn’t look to
be part of the beast.”

Crawling under the obese caterpillar didn’t appeal to me
either. I sprawled on the dirt next to Jake and gazed into
the dark recess.

“Feel free," he smiled at me and gestured towards the
beast.

Adrienne knelt down next to us and bent her head to look
under it. “We should be moving. Whatever it is can stay
there.”

I was on the verge of agreeing with her when I saw
something move. The light coming in from the other side
of the beast outlined it perfectly—a human hand.

“I’m going in.”

I stifled my gag reflex and plunged in, my back to the
beast and my belly on the rough earth. The first thing I
noticed was the dampness, my shirt was already drenched
in some sort of liquid that oozed from the underbelly of
the beast. As it soaked through my clothes and came in
contact with my skin a strange sensation passed through
me that left me refreshed and revived. With a renewed
effort I reached my hand forward towards the mysterious
person.

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My skin crawled with the sudden contact when I felt the
hand close around my outstretched fingers. I gripped the
hand and pulled. I heard a sound, like a suction cup
popping off a bathroom mirror. I wiggled backwards,
dragging the person with me.

The beast shifted and I heard Jake yell a warning from the
outside. I scooted backwards as the beast lowered its
body. It ground me into the rocks and I managed to push
backwards one more time before I stuck.

“Pull on my legs!” I shouted, the panic in my voice
seeping through. I still refused to let go of the hand.
“Now!”

I heard Adrienne yell instructions to Jake and one of them
gripped my legs. The other gasped with abrupt exertion.

Was one of them actually trying to push on the beast?
Good luck! I thought as the air was slowly crushed out of
my lungs.

Whoever held my legs locked onto them and pulled. I slid
out more and finally emerged, still clinging to the hand.
Jake, braced with his back against the beast, saw the
dilemma and strained again, the veins on his head
popping out as he tried to move the gigantic animal.

Adrienne joined me and together we inched the body out
until it broke free and we tumbled onto the ground with
the person in our laps.

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267

Jake stumbled away from the beast, clutching his head
before sitting down next to us.

The person, dressed in a tattered brown rope, watched us
with wide blue eyes. The excess folds on the robe
indicated that the scrawny body inside was barely large
enough to keep it from sliding off. I reached one hand to
the hood of the robe and pushed it back. The face was so
drawn and taut from starvation that I did not immediately
notice that it was a girl, probably six or seven years old.
The sunken cheeks and muddy matted hair made her
appear much older.

She gazed into my face and raised one finger and put it to
her lips to indicate silence. Then she curled her head
down into the robe and closed her eyes. I held her, not
certain what else to do.

“I… I saw something,” Jacob muttered. He continued to
hold his head with both hands.

"The girl?" I said, confused.

“No, not her!” Jake groaned and hung his head between
his knees, breathing deeply. “I think I'm going to be sick.
It happened the same way as when I hit the Dream
Snatcher. Only this is worse."

"What did you see?" Adrienne said.

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Jake continued his ragged breathing and then spoke.
“Something happened when I touched the beast. First
flickers of images and then a...." He paused. “A vision.”

“A vision of what?” Adrienne said, encouraging him.

“I saw warriors on them.” He pointed at the animal.
“They mounted the beasts as if they were steeds and
fought on them.”

“Like jousting?” I suggested, having trouble envisioning
these bloated worms as a worthy steed for combat.

Jake laughed bitterly. “If only. No… it was a war—a war
that lasted for thousands upon thousands of years, all for
control and dominion over those beasts.” He stopped
speaking and glared at the animal.

He continued, mumbling to himself before his voice rose
again so I could hear him. “…Blood splattered across this
valley. I saw the river that once ran through here. I saw
the corpses falling into the river until it ran red as brother
slew brother for possession of a single beast. And far in
the distance, beyond the blood and the rocks, I saw a
tower, its highest pinnacle a glowing star of light. It rose
up into the sky, slender and white, like a bleached bone
against the darkening sky.” His tone was so autonomous I
thought he quoted them from a book.

I seized Jakes shoulder at the mention of the white tower
and jostled the girl awake. “You saw the tower?”

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269

He nodded, failing to make the connection from what I
had told him earlier about Gretchen’s one-way trip
through the Stedgate. “Yes…”

“Which way is it?”

“That way…” He pointed to the far side of the valley, in
the direction we were heading. “I don’t want to go there. I
saw something there, but I couldn’t… make it out.”

“We don’t have a choice.” I said. “That is the tower I saw
when Gretchen went through. That is where we have to
go.”

Adrienne nodded in agreement and helped Jake to his
feet. “What are you going to do with the girl?”

Before I answered, the girl stirred in my arms and peeked
out of her hood.

“Where is the Slough Beast?” she said, in perfect English
with no trace of what Mom called “baby talk.”

“The Slough Beast?” I asked.

“The Slough Beast was feeding me,” she replied, as if it
was the most natural thing in the world.

I looked at the massive beast, finding it hard to believe
that it could feed others. Did they crawl under the Slough
Beast to get nourishment?

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270

“That is the Slough Beast?” I asked, nodding my head at
the beast to be certain.

“Of course it is.” She tilted her head endearingly.

“I’ve never seen them.” I paused, trying to imagine the
huge mass actually serving a purpose. “What do they do?”

“They suck in the air, and it makes Laquan. We drink it to
live.”

Her mention of drinking made Jake’s complexion match
the horizon. Adrienne put a hand over her mouth and tried
not to laugh, considering the possibility that I had been
brushing against the creature’s teats. I decided it best to
change the subject. “What is your name?”

Her countenance changed rapidly, as if the question had
brought back memories that she did not care to remember.

“He calls me brat. Or wench. Or apprentice,” she
whispered.

“Who calls you that?" I said.

She did not answer, but instead ran a finger over my hand,
as if the lines etched into my skin were much more
interesting than our current topic.

I pulled my hand away from her. “We’ll take her with us,
but we have to make it to the tower.”

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271

“Fine,” Adrienne said. “I’ll help Jake. You carry the girl.”

“I can walk on my own,” Jake said. “I don’t feel like I’m
about to upchuck anymore.”

Adrienne found a suitable path up the other side of the
valley and herded us in front of her. I went first with the
girl in my arms which turned out to be a poor choice. I
slipped and banged my hip painfully trying to keep the
girl safe. Arriving at the top sweaty, dirty and bruised, I
rotated the girl onto my back and demanded that she cling
to my neck.

She obliged without a word.

We trudged through the rocks and boulders and drew
closer to the tower bit by ragged bit. The girl talked in my
ear about ancient battles, about how men fought for the
Slough Beasts, and how some of the Slough Beasts could
sprout wings and fly. These were the most coveted types,
and whole countries had been destroyed for a single one. I
nodded my head, too weary to comment.

“Well, she’s suddenly the chatty type,” Jake said. I’m sure
he lied about his sickness passing, but if he suffered he
didn’t show it. The sweat dripped down his face, leaving
tiny mud trails in their wake.

“Yeah,” I said. “She mentioned that some of those Slough
Beasts could fly.”

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272

Jake nodded. “I saw some near the pinnacle of the tower
in the vision, but I wasn’t certain they were the same
thing. The wing span on them was incredible… I
supposed it would have to be to get those fat things off the
ground.”

“Do you come from another world?” the girl whispered.

I hesitated before answering.

“Yes,” I replied.

“It was once prophesied that a man from another world
would save us, but no one believed the prophet. So the
wars continued. If you are the man you came too late.”

My head whirled as it tried to follow her bizarre logic.

“Don’t worry,” I said. “I’m not the man.”

“Yeah,” Jake said, pointing two thumbs at himself. “I’m
the man.”

He winked and smiled at the girl and she buried her head
in my neck, shy.

We entered the outskirts of the ruins.

“They waged a battle here as well,” Jake said. “Just like at
the river. One side must have retreated into the keep.” He
pointed to skeletal remains that littered the area. Some
corpses rested in hollows in the ground, as if the victors

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273

had tried to bury their dead. Maces, axes and bows were
clenched in tight fists of bone that refused to let go, even
in death.

“Look at those siege weapons,” Adrienne said, pointing to
the rotted wreckage of what appeared to be a battering
ram. One frayed rope clung to a support beam and its
other end held up a log with a metal plate molded into the
shape of a screaming face.

Blocks of stone had broken off the main wall and now
covered the base of the hill. Large gaping holes dotted the
walls, and I saw clear through into the castle’s courtyard.
Three of the four towers had collapsed. The fourth tower,
closest to us, teetered precariously, its roof rotted away
and its rafters standing out like jagged spears against the
darkening horizon.

“Don’t go in there,” the girl begged me. “We should go
back to the Slough Beast, we can have food there.” Her
voice trailed off to a hair thin whisper, that only I caught.
“We’ll be protected.”

“We have to—“

I cut off my words. Something moved in the ruins. We all
heard it, the sound of tired, ancient footsteps stumbling
over the ground, bumping into boulders but heading
decidedly towards us. We froze in place, listening to the

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274

footsteps draw closer, and the person came into view, the
shadow of the ruins sliding sluggishly off its figure.

Its right leg was bent at an odd angle. I glanced at its feet
and saw that the ankle was snapped, and the foot trailed
on the ground behind him. The skin was mottled, turning
shades of green and purple along his exposed arms and
neck. Ragged shreds of clothing clung to its arms and
rusted plate armor encased its chest. When I looked in its
eyes, I saw no flame of hatred, or spark of life. It was like
looking down a dark well, and as I gazed into his eyes, all
I saw was death. It was death without hope, death without
a promise of eternal life.

Over and over again in my ear I heard words, words that
made the whole situation worse.

“Slough Beast, protect us. Slough Beast, protect us.
Slough Beast, protect us…”

The girl babbled the words in my ear like a prayer.

Adrienne stepped forward and put herself between us and
the oncoming man. The man’s mouth hung open in a
silent scream and it reached one arm towards us.

“Stop,” Adrienne warned.

“I don’t think it’s going to listen,” Jake said, sitting down
heavily on a rock behind us. He drew in a ragged breath

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275

and chuckled. “At least at its current pace it won’t be here
for another five minutes.”

I took the girl off my back and into my arms and shushed
her. “We can move around him. Keep going towards the
tower.”

Adrienne ignored me. She bent down and seized a block
of stone, well beyond her physical capacity to lift. Her
features froze in concentration that heralded all her
altercations with the rules that governed the Waking
World and by association, the Underlay. She raised the
stone up in her arms and as the dead thing stepped closer
she flung it forward. The plate armor made a hollow
dinging noise as it crumpled under the impact. He fell to
the ground, moaning softly, clawing at the rocks as he
tried to regain his footing. I spotted a two-handed
Claymore strapped on his back. Here he was—prepared
for battle, but a fate worse than death claimed him before
the blade was ever drawn from its sheath.

I set the girl on the rock next to Jake and walked up to the
man, avoiding his flailing arms. I drew the sword from its
scabbard. A coat of oil clung to the blade, shining in the
dull, fading light. As the man came to his knees, I swung
the blade around in an arc. I didn’t aim for any particular
spot. The weakened armor and the force of my blow
finished the deed. Body parts flew away into the gathering

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276

shadows and what remained fell to the ground and did not
move.

I threw the claymore on the ground and picked up the girl
from the rock. “Next time, listen. You frightened the
girl.”

Adrienne seemed on the verge of arguing, but instead she
pursed her lips, gauging her response. “Next time I will.”
She smiled at me and my heart flip-flopped. A shriek
from the girl rang in my eardrum and cut the moment
short. “The corpse warriors are rising! The corpse
warriors are here!”

The man I struck down was not alone. A heaving,
moaning chorus sprung up and drifted on the night air as a
throng of undead soldiers rose up from the courtyard,
from behind rocks, from the partially dug graves in the
earth.

“The tower,” I said. “There is no sense in going back. All
I need is a glimpse of the white tower. I have to see it
before this is finished!”

Adrienne and I jogged towards a hole in the castle wall.
Jake followed behind us and scooped up the Claymore as
he passed by it. Adrienne scrambled over the rocks and
quickly scouted the path ahead.

“Follow me.” She beckoned us forward.

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277

At the end of a narrow hallway a spiral stone staircase led
to the top of the tower. We fled down the shadow-sodden
hall, the movements and moaning of the undead bouncing
off the hollow stone and churning the evening air into a
crescendo that called for our lives.

Adrienne slowed her pace at the entrance to the tower.
Behind us I heard the shuffling and clattering of bone
against stone.

Jake lifted the Claymore in two hands and passed us,
taking the lead onto the stone spiral steps. “I’ll make sure
it is clear. Stay close behind.”

Before I could argue he plunged forward. Adrienne
grabbed my free hand and ushered me along behind him. I
realized what was happening. They were protecting me.
They were protecting me because I carried the girl and
somehow—they sensed it to—she was more important
than any one of us.

Ten steps and the darkness engulfed us and only smells
and sounds and the warm pressure of Adrienne’s hand
remained. Jake’s measured footsteps continued on as we
went round and round, higher and higher. The rattling of
death coming up behind us left no room for second
guesses. Jake’s movement stopped and I heard him
fumble around and then heard rusted hinges of a great
door creaking open after being left unused for ages.

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278

Finally, light! Even if it was only the paltry glow of the
moons I saw on Gretchen’s poster from what seemed a
lifetime ago. We rushed into the room and Jake pushed
the door shut behind us and collapsed against it, the sword
across his thighs.

“How long do you think that will hold them?” he said.

“Not long,” I said while walking to one of the narrow
lancets that looked out onto the desolate world.

The soldiers were forgotten for a moment, even though I
knew they made their way up the staircase, ready to
assault the last door that stood between us. On the far
horizon, in direct alignment to the castle, stood the white
tower I had seen through the fabricated Stedgate in the
Operations building.

Its surface rose smooth and unbroken as if hewn from one
gigantic block of marble. The circular foundation was
larger than the single slender leg that held up the diamond
shaped pinnacle. Its walls rose up, bleach white in stark
contrast to the horizon, and the moonlight made it glow.

“It’s there,” I breathed.

“Yes,” Adrienne said. “But how to get there? That’s too
far to walk and manipulation here is near impossible.”

“Whatever is in that tower already knows we are here,”
Jake said, his face contorting in hatred. “It can decide if it

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279

wants us there or not. That’s his welcoming party coming
up the steps now.”

“It will want us,” I said. I did not have to force the
statement in false hope. It was a fact.

The girl laid her head against my shoulder. “It will want
us…” she repeated. She continued to gaze at the tower.
"Don't take me back there," she whimpered.

The first blow against the door sounded, heralding the
arrival of the corpse warriors and interrupting my chance
to ask what she meant. The girl let out a short cry and
grabbed my neck tightly. Jake braced himself against it.

“Is there any way to barricade it?” he asked. Adrienne
examined what few items remained in the tower room.

“There is a table and a chair. Oh!”

“What?” Jake and I asked in unison.

“Another door,” she said and she pushed it open. “It leads
to the battlements.”

“Throw the table and chair against the door,” I said.
“Let’s move."

Adrienne shoved the table into position with Jake's help.
It was sturdily built with oak planks and legs so large that
they looked to be hewn from medium sized saplings.

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280

Jake threw the chair on top of the table and grabbed the
claymore.

I walked onto the battlements and looked up at the sky.
Not a trace of stars—only the moons that reflected the
light from the absent sun. Behind the moons, only
darkness, the same as when I gazed into the open door
that Gretchen had so willingly stepped through to save
Emily. The wind carried the scent of dead flesh on it.

About twenty paces from the door, the battlements ended
in a gap, smashed by some siege machine during the war.
I walked to the jagged edge and gauged the jumping
distance between myself and where the battlements
continued on the far side. If what Adrienne said was
correct, vaulting that distance would take all of our effort
and with the girl in my arms, it could prove fatal. The
courtyard below offered no hope, it swarmed with the
corpse warriors. They surged forward with one purpose,
to stamp out our beating hearts so we joined them in their
fate. Each boney fist clenched a rusted weapon and
moved with slow and deliberate steps towards the tower
that offered our only protection.

Jake came up behind me and looked down.

“Well, they are almost through the first door. Adrienne’s
closing the second. What’s the plan now?”

“We hold here.”

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281

“You certain the thing in the white tower will get us?”

“If he doesn’t, we’ll destroy his army until death takes us
or dawn wakes us.”

“I like it.” He raised his sword. “I’ll be up near the door.”

“I’ll be there in a moment.”

I set the girl down near a loose stone block and knelt
down next to her.

“Can you stay here? I need to go help Jake and Adrienne.
Don’t move anywhere.” I pointed to the hole in the
battlements. “You could fall down.”

She nodded and reached out for me as I stood to leave.
“No one has ever stood against the corpse warriors. They
knew it was hopeless.”

I pondered the many comforting clichés I could speak to
her, but opted for none of them. “Then they were
cowards.” Like myself. But I knew that even as the
thought passed through my mind that it presented itself in
the past tense. Gretchen’s sacrifice planted the seed of
defiance that drew me step by step to this moment. Like a
sapling being choked by vines, I had finally broken free to
feel the warm glow of a familiar sun. Fear still clung to
me, corrosive, sapping my strength, but if I kept a single,
relentless and reckless goal in mind we might make it to
the white tower.

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282

I gently placed the girl's hand in her lap and turned to
join Jacob, who stood resolutely with the claymore
clasped in both hands, ready for the first of the undead to
show their withered faces. "You two have to keep them
back," Adrienne said to me. "I can manipulate this world,
but it will take me time to prepare."

"What are you going to do?" I asked.

"I have an idea. Just keep them back as long as you can."

The door onto the battlements inched forward as the death
behind it surged towards us like an unending, putrid
wave. A foot appeared through the gap in the door and it
twisted and turned, forcing itself through until a bleached
hipbone appeared and then the torso. Rotting flesh clung
to its rib cage and its one arm held a battle axe. The other
arm appeared to have been shorn clean off from a mighty
blow in another brawl, long ago. It squeezed its boney
face through the gap, stopped as its other leg caught in the
door.

Jacob yelled and charged to meet it. The corpse warrior
swung the battle axe at him and I cringed, thinking Jake
was hit. He dodged at the last second and brought down
the claymore on the man's weapon arm. Bones splintered
and the axe clattered to the floor, still in the grasp of the
skeletal hand.

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283

"For you!" Jacob said, shoving the corpse warrior back
with his shoulder. He ignored the flailing limbs and
smashed into the corpse warrior again, flinging it over the
battlements into the courtyard below where it exploded in
gore. I sprinted to the battle axe and pried it out from the
fingers and turned in time to meet two more corpse
warriors who emerged from the doorway.

One held a rusted spear in its grasp. The other wielded a
two-handed sword, larger and more ruthless looking than
Jacob's. Notches covered its blade and I imagined the
number of heads struck from bodies that must have
caused them. The broken battle axe in my hand suddenly
seemed like a pitiful farm tool rather than a weapon meant
for killing.

You are a farm boy.

I leapt back as the corpse warrior with the sword swung at
me in a great arc. As the corpse warrior swung the great
sword for a return blow I stepped into its path and held up
the axe, gripped between my hands. Jacob and I play
stupid games in the barnyard when we were bored, where
one of us held a pitchfork or shovel between our hands
while the other tried to knock it down with a blow from
another farm tool. Generally the game ended with sore
fingers from the shock of holding tight against the blow.
Sometimes we let go in pain. Letting go was not one of
the options now.

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284

I braced against the blow and refused to let go, reaching
to the one thought that made it possible to bend the rules
in this world. Iron resolve, iron in my bones, iron against
the blow.

Wham!

The axe handle held and I skidded backwards a few
inches from the force. The corpse warrior paused, as if
surprised this wisp of a boy had actually stopped him. I
jumped forward, past his blade, and brought the axe down
on an exposed knee joint. It snapped cleanly under my
blow and the corpse warrior faltered, one hand reaching to
steady itself on the battlement, the other using the great
sword like a cane instead of a weapon. The axe fell apart
on the next blow, but it finished the job, severing the
corpse warrior's sword arm. He lunged at me, waving his
remaining limbs, and I shoved him over the side to join
his companion in the courtyard below.

Events moved much faster after that. The corpse warriors
poured from the door and all that remained for Jacob and
myself was to react. We had no time to regroup, or check
on Adrienne and the girl. All that mattered was standing
shoulder to shoulder, supporting each other when possible
to keep back the tide of death. Inch by inch they pushed
us towards Adrienne, who knelt only a few feet behind us.
Behind Adrienne was the girl, huddled inside her robe,

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285

and after that the short plunge to certain death in the
courtyard.

"Forget them," Adrienne called out. "I'm ready."

She stood, her face calm and serene. We ran past her. All
four of us now stood on the precipitous edge of the
battlement. Adrienne posted her hands on the block of
stone and shoved it towards the oncoming corpse
warriors.

The block of stone left her hands, plowing forward slowly
at first. Then it picked up speed. The undead tried to step
over it, but Adrienne flung more stones after the first.
Each time more debris and stone worked free of the
battlements and joined the wall that pushed back the
corpse warriors.

Without looking away Adrienne said, "Take the girl. Now
go! You can make the jump."

"I can't!" Jake said.

"We'll jump together," I said. "Throw the weapons
across!"

I flung mine with one hand and it fell short, teetering on
the edge before falling into the courtyard.

"Ominous," Jake said before throwing his claymore
across where it landed safely. I scooped the girl up, put
her on my back and told her to cling to my neck.

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286

I grabbed Jake by the wrist. "Ready?"

He nodded. We sprinted forward and I left no room for
doubt. At the edge I pushed off, one arm reaching for the
other side, the other pulled Jake across the gap with me.
The air itself seemed to drag us down along with all the
other rules that occupied the Waking World. Gravity.
Friction. Mass. They seemed to sharpen with terrifying
clarity. And the thought crept in at the height of the arc...
We were not going to make it.

My free hand wind-milled as we neared the other side,
hoping for anything to grasp.

"Ugh!" All the air exploded out our lungs as Jake and I
hit, the battlement stones catching us in the stomach. Our
hands and fingers locked into the grooves between stones
and our legs churned frantically in empty space.

Jake slipped off the stones and slid backwards till only his
finger tips clung to the edge.

I reached with one hand for him, but with the humidity in
the air and the sweat on our hands, I may as well have
been reaching for an oil slick. He fell towards the
courtyard below. The girl, arms wrapped tight around my
throat, screamed in my ear.

"No!" I cried.

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287

I felt my own grip weaken and I slapped the hand that had
reached for Jake back into position and pulled myself and
the girl onto the stone slabs. I lay panting, cursing the
humidity, the broken battlements and my own ineptness. I
glanced over the edge. With the gathering darkness I
could not see Jacob.

The impact of a heavy body shook the battlements and a
deep, slow voice sounded above the noises below and
Adrienne's struggle on the other side of the battlements.

"I CAUGHT HIM." The voice made my skin crawl.
Human enough in its context, the impossibly deep
baritone rattled my nerves with its lack of emotion and
dry quality, a voice as dead and barren as the land around
us.

I stood, using one hand to steady myself against the
stones, and moved forward to identify the source of the
voice. An enormous, cylinder-shaped body outlined itself
against the night sky. Two wings spread out from its
body, leathery and thin, like a bat. The wings were large,
but in no way seemed to compensate for the bloated body
they must keep aloft.

"It's the Slough Beast," the girl whispered. "It heard me!"

"Where is Jake?" I asked, cautiously moving towards it.

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288

"I'm fine." Jake's own voice sounded weak and faint after
the creature's rattling call. He staggered out from the
shadow of the beast and I caught him before he fell.

"I WILL GET YOUR COMPANION."

The beast's wings fully extended and in two powerful
bursts it rose into the air and Jake and I struggled to keep
our footing in its wake.

"Are you ok?" I asked.

"I'm fine. It caught me before I hit the ground. I didn't
imagine they'd be so graceful in the air. Or that they could
talk." He shuddered. "That voice is disturbing."

Adrienne remained unaware of our close brush with
death. She concentrated all her effort in pushing the wall
of rubble forward until it sealed off the doorway onto the
battlements. Some of the corpse warriors themselves were
now part of her wall, limbs broken off by the force of the
stones. From this distance it looked like a morbid
montage, a cross section of a mass grave.

The slough beast landed behind Adrienne and she finally
noticed it. Her wall wavered and settled into quiet demise.
They appeared to converse for a moment then she edged
around the slough beast’s bulk and climbed onto it's back.

It took off and landed again on our side. The corpse
warriors broke past Adrienne's collapsed defenses,

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289

marched over their fallen brethren and off the edge of the
battlements, shattering in the courtyard below.

The Slough Beast reared its head and now that it was
closer I saw that a row of forcipules lined it's under belly.
They moved in slow motion, clicking and clacking
against each other, rippling along its length. Adrienne
jumped off the beast’s back and moved closer to us. Only
a few feet behind us was the drop into the courtyard and I
remained painfully aware that all this creature had to do
was slither forward, push us off, and we were all dead.

"YOU ARE SAFE. THEY CANNOT REACH US
HERE."

"Who are you?" I asked.

"I AM BUT A SERVANT. MY NAME IS NOT
IMPORTANT. COME, THE MASTER WAITS."

"Who is your master?" Adrienne spoke.

"THE MASTER OF THIS WORLD. THE LAST KING.
THE NECROMANCER," the beast said, as if the three
titles somehow explained all we needed to know. "HE
DEMANDS YOUR PRESENCE AND I FULFILL."

"You came from the white tower?"

The creature tilted its buggy eyes towards the sky as if
contemplating the question. "WHITE TOWER? AH!

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290

ZANTICOPULUS! THE THRONE OF THE ONE
RULER. YES."

Its forcipules opened, revealing a hidden crevice. "ONE
OF YOU MUST RIDE IN MY UNDERBELLY."

Jake shook his head. "Not me. No way."

"We will ride on your back," I said. "I will hold the girl.
With all of us on your back we will have more support."

The creature remained silent, thinking. "AS YOU WILL.
BUT TWO MUST SIT FORWARD OF MY WINGS,
TWO BEHIND."

"Ok," I said. "Adrienne and Jake, you guys get on first. I'll
be on last with the girl."

The beast lowered itself onto its belly. It still proved a
difficult task to climb up its leathery, rippling sides and
seat ourselves. I placed the girl in front of me and
plunged my hands into the hide of the Slough Beast. Its
wings spread out and beat the air. More power was
required to lift off the ground with its human cargo, but it
managed to rise into the air after one false attempt. The
battlements fell away below us and we came into
alignment with the keep's one remaining tower.

Corpse warriors still trickled from the door, marching
forward, indifferent to their fate or the drop into the
courtyard. One stopped before going over the edge and

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291

threw a spear at us, but it fell short. The Slough Beast
adapted to the extra weight and it arced slowly through
the air until the white tower lay directly in front of us.
Zanticopulus.

The night air rushed over my hot skin, carrying away the
heat of the day. The girl's cowl fell back and her hair
whipped me in the face as we picked up speed. I clung
tighter and watched Adrienne and Jake flatten themselves
against the beast to keep from being tossed off.

The tower rapidly drew closer and I saw oval windows
that went round the pinnacles entire circumference,
separated by a narrow band of white stone. Each oval
window was roughly the size of our monstrous chariot, if
its wings were folded. The tower seemed to be carved out
of a single rock—not a single fracture line or groove
anywhere on its surface.

The slough beast dove out of the night sky, pulling in its
wings and sliding its massive bulk through one of the
windows while still leaving us enough room to avoid
having our heads smashed against the window's edge. Its
landing proved to be slightly less graceful, but effective.
The forcipules on its underbelly gripped the floor and the
slough beast skidded a short distance before stopping.

I slid off first and caught the girl in my arms when she
jumped off. Adrienne and Jake jumped down and we
stood, gazing at the room that lay within the pinnacle of

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292

the white tower. The ceiling of the room rose high above
our heads and rounded into a dome. The floor was black
marble, but the ceiling was white, white like the outside
of the tower. The windows that went around the entire
circumference of the room allowed me to see in any
direction for miles and miles.

The slough beast twisted its head towards a table in the
center of the room.

"MASTER, I HAVE RETURNED WITH THEM."

The table matched the black marble floor. Four slender
legs at the base merged together into a single stem that
supported the table's circular top. Its surface reflected the
moonlight filtering in through the windows. Behind the
table, in shadows, was a throne, raised up on a platform
with three steps. A fan of jagged spires arched over the
top of the throne and on the center spire rested a skull of
some unknown beast.

"Then go," a voice rasped out of the dark shadows of the
throne. "Get the others."

Others? Only three people came to mind who might have
found a way to slip through the Stedgate with us.
Adrienne traded a glance with me, but said nothing.

The Slough Beast slunk away, its face towards the throne,
its centipede legs moving it backwards until it crawled out

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293

one of the windows in reverse and jetted away into the
night sky.

A shadow detached itself from the throne. I heard the dull
sound of a staff striking the floor, and a man came into
view. His face was ageless. No wrinkles, but the sunken
cheeks and smooth forehead looked taut, as if the
colorless flesh was pulled too tight, stretched too thin. I
noticed the smooth, hairless head similar to the statue of
the bald king. Was it the same man? I wondered.

An owl perched on his shoulder, golden eyes unblinking.
It turned its head toward me sharply and emitted a short,
“Who? Who?”

“There now, Lazarus. I don’t think he is going to hurt
you.” The man lifted a thin finger and delicately traced
the owl’s beak. He looked at me, his eyelids half closed.

"I see you found her," he said, eyeing the girl. "My
wayward ward. You've come to return her to me."

The girl buried her head into my shoulder, her eyes
squeezed tight.

"No, we didn't come to return her. We took her with us
after we found her under a Slough Beast," I said, wary.

"Put her down. She has duties to fulfill after her absence."

I clutched her tighter. "She stays..."

Copyright © 2016 by M. A. T. Blackthorne
All rights reserved.

294

"Put her down!" the man thundered. "She belongs to me!
If you want any sort of civil discourse with me then you'll
do as you are told!"

Jacob and Adrienne stepped forward protectively and the
girl wiggled in my arms, trying to escape the threatening
voice. This is the only being that might have any
knowledge of Gretchen. Do you want to anger him so
quickly?

I slowly sank to one knee, to show compliance and asked
a question at the same time. "Where will she go?"

"Back to her writing. She is my apprentice." He pointed at
a child's size wooden stool and plain table covered in
papers to the left of the throne that I had not noticed. I let
go of the girl and she sulked across the marble floor,
keeping clear of the man, and sat down quietly at the
table. With no apparent harm coming to her I turned my
attention back to the man.

"Are you the Necromancer?" I refused to call him 'master'
or 'the last king'.

"No one remains who called me by that title... where did
you hear it?"

"Your flying Slough Beast."

"Ah." He gazed past me, out the window that it had
departed. "I'm certain it had something to do with the

Copyright © 2016 by M. A. T. Blackthorne
All rights reserved.

295

brat's disappearance as well." He looked at the girl who
held a quill in her hand and scribbled on a piece of paper.
"I'll have something for it later." His eyes shifted back to
me. "I am the Necromancer."

"My name is..." I began.

"I don't care who you are. If you weren't here to return my
rightful property to me, what do you want?" The
Necromancer said.

I swallowed a lump in my throat. "I... My sister is here,
somewhere. A man sent her here. The Dream Snatcher."

"And what makes you think I know of her?"

"I saw the white tower when she went through a
fabricated Stedgate."

"And Zanticopulus is the all-seeing eye? Ha. I rule in
solitude. Yet I can't quite escape to dream in solitude.
Someone is always pounding on my door, waiting to be
let in. Sometimes, something slips through. You aren't the
first, but you are the first to come through in many years.
You claim to be searching for your sister. If that is true
you are the first who isn't after my knowledge of
dreams..." He smiled, exposing his pointed canines. "Of
Death. So tell me, sojourners from the frantic planet, since
you aren't here after my knowledge, you must have a
great deal of your own. What decides the outcome of the
dream? What do you use to win when you fight this

Copyright © 2016 by M. A. T. Blackthorne
All rights reserved.