The Shattered Land_ The Dreaming Dark - Keith Baker [154]
“Leave us ALONE!” he cried. “Stay out of my life. Stay out of my dreams! Go back to your wretched gloom and STAY THERE!”
Then it was gone.
The voices that had carried him forward fell silent. The shadow beneath him dispersed like smoke, and there was only a young woman with pale skin and long white hair, her dark clothing streaked with blood. Daine’s blade was raised for a final stroke when her eyes caught his and he froze. It wasn’t the power that was in them … but the pain. Her mouth worked as she struggled with a final word. “I …”
Kill her!
“I …”
Kill her! But the rage was fading. A moment ago she had been a monster. Now she was just a dying woman. He knelt down next to her.
“I … cannot … dream.”
The last embers of light faded from her eyes.
For a moment Daine just stared at her. He could feel the charge of mystical energy building in the air, and he knew he should feel satisfaction, but standing over the ruined corpse, the victory felt hollow. I cannot dream … what did she mean? Why deny what she’d done?
“It’s over,” he said.
“Oh no,” Lakashtai said. “It’s just begun.”
She laughed, and he realized it was the first time he’d ever heard that sound … sharp and deadly, like chimes of glass.
Daine stood and turned around. Lakashtai was standing on the altar, and the orb was in her hands. Lei was slumped next to her, though Daine could see no sign of harm, and Pierce lay frozen against the edge of the dais.
“What is this?” Daine said. He glanced back at Tashana. Had she somehow fled her body and possessed Lakashtai?
Oh, no. It was Lakashtai’s thought in his mind, but as sharp and cold as a blade of ice. “Tashana has played her last trick, thanks to you, and in truth, treachery was never her strength.” She laughed again.
A terrible chill gripped Daine’s heart. I cannot dream. Yet it was in dreams that Tashana had threatened him, dreams or as a telepathic voice. The two times they’d actually met in the flesh, Tashana hadn’t even said his name. She’d dismissed him out of hand. She was only interested in …
“Lakashtai!” Daine charged toward the altar. He didn’t know what was going on, and at the moment, he didn’t care, but Lakashtai was standing next to Lei—and Lei wasn’t moving.
Lakashtai’s eyes glowed like twin stars, and Daine felt as if he had slammed into a wall. The force pinning his thoughts was a hundred times more powerful than that of the woman he’d just killed. He was as helpless as if he’d been caught in a block of ice.
Lakashtai stepped down from the block and walked toward him. “Daine, Daine, with your valuable dreams and hidden secrets.” She stood next to him, and she reached out and ran two fingers along his cheek. “This was never about you. You are a piece on a board so vast you cannot see the squares.”
Take whatever you want from me! Daine couldn’t speak, but he could still think. Just leave them alone!
“We don’t want anything from you, little Daine,” Lakashtai said. She glanced back at Lei. “Sometimes the best way to achieve your goals is to threaten another piece, but I’m sure you can understand that. After all, ‘Perhaps, when you’re mine, I’ll make you kill her myself.’”
Suddenly he remembered the terrible presence he’d glimpsed in his mind when Lakashtai had helped him so long ago in Sharn, and the crystal … the sliver of crystal he’d kept close at hand, which she’d said formed a bond between them. He’d let her in.
“Yes.” She paused for a moment, as if listening to some distant sound. “If only there was more time, but who can say …” She ran her fingers along his cheek again. Perhaps I’ll see you in your dreams.
He heard her laughter in his mind, and she slowly faded away, with the crystal orb clutched in her hands. The aura of magical energy faded with her, as did the power pinning his thoughts; he almost tumbled forward as the paralysis faded. He tore the emerald shard from his pouch and dashed it against the ground, and as it shattered he felt a pressure fade from his mind, a touch so faint he hadn’t noticed it was there.
Across the chamber,