Reign of Shadows - Deborah Chester [88]
“I see you,” Elandra said, twisting harder on the woman’s robe. “I have caught you, watcher. Tell me his name!”
“Yes, tell,” commanded another voice.
Startled, Elandra looked around and saw Hecati standing in the fog. The old witch stood cloaked in murkiness, as though smoke billowed around her. Elandra smelled a scent of something burning, and knew Hecati’s magic was at work. Strangely, in her dream she did not fear.
“His name!” Hecati commanded.
The watcher tried to pull free of Elandra’s hold. “No!” she said to Hecati, lifting one hand in a gesture of repudiation. “Begone, intruder. You have no place here!”
Hecati threw back her head in laughter, and Elandra stepped closer to her captive.
“Quickly,” she whispered. “Explain to me why—”
Something invisible hit Elandra a stunning blow. She staggered back, unable to breathe or even see. The world spun around her and went entirely dark.
Then she could breathe again. With a gasp, she struggled up only to find her face and shoulders entangled in insect netting. Through the tent flap, bright moonlight shone over the camp and cast a shadow from the silhouette of the sentry who paced outside.
Elandra drew in an unsteady breath and shoved her hair back from her face. She was covered with perspiration and breathing hard. Her nightgown stuck to her damp skin.
Unlike the usual sort of dream that faded immediately, this one remained vivid in her mind, haunting her. Who was the woman who watched? Why had she been in Elandra’s dream?
And who had been the man?
Remembering how she’d responded to him, Elandra blushed in the night. Was she mad to dream of her future husband like a silly field-hand girl? Hers would be a marriage of convenience and dynastic alliance. The union would strengthen her father’s power as a warlord. It would provide her with a home, a name, and possibly children, but nothing more.
Love ... how could she dream about it like that, as though she’d been molten candlewax poured into a new mold, pliant for whatever he willed, eager to give herself like . . .
Breathing hard with embarrassment, Elandra pressed her hands against her cheeks in an effort to calm herself. Perhaps the woman she’d chased was only a symbol of her conscience, standing as a witness. But why had she run? And what had Hecati been doing there?
Perhaps she’d been visited by a dream walker.
Even as the thought entered her mind, Elandra shivered with dread. Dream walkers were creatures who entered the dreams of the unsuspecting and shaped their minds while they slept. Creatures who stole dreams and twisted them into dark magic. Creatures who might do worse.
She flung off the netting and stood up in the dark tent, restless with alarm. The camp was protected with jinjas. No dream walker could reach her without an alarm being sounded.
But even as she tried to reassure herself, a tiny voice in the back of her mind reminded her that Hecati practiced small magic all the time and the palace jinja never noticed.
Hugging herself against another shiver, Elandra paced slowly back and forth in the cramped confines of her tent. Outside, a predator screamed in the jungle, but the camp slept on peacefully. No alarms. Her dream was only a dream, nothing more.
Still trying to convince herself, Elandra continued to shiver in the hot silence of the night. She did not return to her hard cot. There would be no more sleep tonight.
Chapter Sixteen
IN THE MORNING, Elandra said nothing about her strange dream, not even to Magan. The world seemed filled with mystery and danger. Wary and nervous, she caught Hecati’s speculative gaze on her more than once, and Elandra made certain she stayed as far from the witch as possible. If ever the gods granted her a secure home or wealth, she vowed she would never again travel without the protection of a jinja of her very own.
At nightfall, she found her dreams once again restless and troubling, but nothing like the one in which she had kissed the tall stranger.
On the following day, their trail began to climb. They left the steaming jungle for the foothills and