Universe Twister - Keith Laumer [190]
"How—how in the world did you do that?" he gasped.
"Tazlo—you are just playing a game, aren't you—"
"Game? The game of going out of my mind—" Lafayette caught himself, drew a breath, managed a shaky laugh of his own.
"I keep forgetting. I'd just about decided this was all real instead of a dream. Then you walk through a wall and spoil the illusion. But it's really time I woke up." He slapped his cheeks lightly. "Come on, O'Leary—wake up! Wake up!"
"Tazlo!" Sisli caught his wrists. "Please—stop acting like one who's lost his wits! If Wizner Hiz should see you—terrible things would happen!"
"I've always had this trouble with too-vivid dreams," Lafayette said. "And it's been worse since I read all those books on mesmerism and hypnogogia. If Central didn't have a Suppressor focused on me, I'd be tempted to think I'd been transferred into another probability continuum—"
"Please, Tazlo," Sisli wailed. "Why don't you lie down and have another nice nap—"
"That's just the trouble, Sisli: I'm asleep now, and dreaming you. I have to wake up and get busy saving the kingdom—"
"Save what kingdom? Thallathlone isn't a kingdom—it's a limited mythocracy!"
"I'm talking about Artesia. It's a bit old-fashioned in some ways, but all in all a very nice place. I used to be a king there—at least I was for a few days, until I could abdicate in favor of Princess Adoranne. That was after I killed Lod, the two-headed giant, and his pet dragon. It wasn't really a dragon, of course, just an allosaurus Goruble had transferred in from a primitive locus—and—"
"Tazlo—lie down, just close your eyes and all these wild fancies will evaporate!"
"They're not wild fancies. This is the wild fancy. Don't you see how ridiculous it all is? People with wings, who walk through walls? Typical dream-images, probably reflecting a subconscious wish on my part to be freed of all restraints—"
"Tazlo—think! Of course we have wings! Otherwise how could we fly? And of course we walk through walls; how else would we get outside?"
"That's just it—it has all the illogical internal logic of a well-organized dream."
"All that talk about giants and dragons—that's the fantasy, Tazlo—don't you see that? They're symbols of the obstacles you feel you have to overcome; and that bit about being a king—a transparent wish-fulfillment. By imagining you abdicated, you have all the prestige of royalty without the responsibilities."
"Say—you know the jargon pretty well yourself. But I suppose that's to be expected, if you're a creation of my subconscious."
Sisli stamped her foot. "Your subconscious! Tazlo Haz, I'll have you know that I'm a real, live, three-D, living-color female, and your subconscious has nothing to do with it!" She threw her arms around Lafayette's neck, kissed him long and warmly.
"There!" she gasped. "Now tell me I'm your imagination!"
"But—but if you're real," Lafayette stammered, "then . . . what about Artesia—and the Red Bull and the cave full of gimmicks, and the old man in the coffin, and Lom, and—"
"Just something you dreamed, Tazlo dear," Sisli murmured. "Now lie down and let me feed you some cold boolfruit, and we'll talk about our future."
"Well . . ." Lafayette hesitated. "There's just one thing." He eyed the blank walls that encircled him. "It's all very well for you to walk through solid wood—and your pop and brothers, too, it seems. But what about me? How do I get outside?"
"Tazlo, Tazlo—you've been walking through walls since you were a year and a half old!"
"I guess that's about when I learned to walk—but not through teak paneling."
"Silly boy. Come . . . I'll show you." She took his hand, led him to the wall, slid into it. Lafayette watched as the wood engulfed her flesh, her body merging with the wall as if she were sinking into opaque water. Only her arm protruded, holding his hand. It withdrew swiftly, the wood closing around her forearm, her wrist—
Lafayette's fingers rammed the wood with a painful impact. Sisli's hand still gripped his;