The Shattered Land_ The Dreaming Dark - Keith Baker [78]
“What happened?”
“From talking to Lakashtai, it appears that some of the Riedrans we were fighting have the power to shift the location of matter with their thoughts alone. This was—a sort of partial teleportation. It’s an interesting—”
He put a hand over her mouth, stopping her in mid speech. It was all he could do to keep from laughing. “What happened to you?”
“Oh!” She glanced away. “Well. It seems that I was struck with the same form of attack that you were.”
“You were dead, Lei. One moment you weren’t breathing, the next you’re running ahead of me.”
“I don’t know, exactly.” Her eyes were distant, and her voice had dropped to a whisper. “I …” she held up the wand in her hand. “This is livewood. It’s a perfect vessel for healing energies. By binding power into the wand, it becomes a reservoir of healing, magical power that can be released later—”
“Lei. I know what a wand is.”
Lei nodded, the corner of her mouth twisting down. “Yes. Well. I was carrying the wand. I thought we might need it. As best as I can tell, when I was struck by the attack, the wand healed me.”
“You were unconscious. It wasn’t even in your hand.”
“I …” She shook her head. “I know. Someone needs to activate a wand to release its power, but somehow—I can’t explain it. It’s as if the wand acted on its own, as if it sensed my need.”
“Is this a breakthrough, my lady?”
Dusk was beginning to fall, and Daine hadn’t noticed Pierce in the shadows. He might have just arrived, or he could have been there for the entire conversation. My lady, Daine thought to himself—it’s been a while since I’ve heard that.
“No. I don’t think so. I don’t know. Everything I did …” She studied the wand in her hand, holding it gingerly. “There’s nothing unusual about the design. A wand can’t act on its own.”
“And you felt nothing else? I too once stood on the edge of life and death. Did you … dream?”
Lei glanced at Pierce for a moment, and Daine could see the tension building in her. She shook her head. “I can’t talk about this right now.” She looked back at Daine. “I … I need to be alone right now.”
He just nodded. Confusion, pain, joy—his emotions were a storm within him, and at the moment he just wanted to close his eyes and let it all go. He gave her arm one more squeeze, then she stood up and walked away. Daine let his head drop back against the deck, glancing up into the sky. The boat rocked beneath him, and the sound of the surf seemed to wash away his thoughts. Pierce was standing over him, as silent as any statue, and the face of the warforged was the last thing he saw before he drifted off to sleep.
When Daine opened his eyes again, the sky was dark; the faint glow on the horizon hinted at the approaching dawn. Someone had draped a blanket across him, but he still felt a shiver run across his skin. Though the images were quickly fading, the night had been filled with disturbing dreams. Probing eyes, beating wings, masses of tentacles barely held at bay by a fading shield—he had been standing in the center of a hurricane, and with every passing second it threatened to come crashing in upon him. Even now, with the sun rising in the distance and the fresh tang of warm, salty air, he still felt a cold and inevitable dread. The darkness was there, waiting, whenever he closed his eyes. How could anyone fight something like that?
“More bad dreams?”
Lei was next to him, wrapped in a ragged blanket of her own. Lakashtai had yet to emerge from the cabin, and Pierce was nowhere to be seen. Gerrion was back at the wheel, but his eyes were fixed firmly on the coastline.
Daine just nodded, sitting up and leaning against the side of the boat.
She glanced away, looking out into ocean and night. “I … I know how unsettling that can be.”
“Really? What’s trying to destroy your mind?”
She looked at him, and for a moment he wondered if he’d crossed a line—if there was something she wasn’t telling him. She’d been on edge for weeks, and her expression