River’s End ch 2- You See My Dreams

This would be my first time leaving my homeworld. Excitement hummed within me. I wanted to rush to the roof and shout I was finally beginning an adventure.

I was also terrified. Go alone and tell no one exactly where? What if I disappeared from the universe? Would anyone notice?

Ordering myself not to be so pessimistic, I slipped into my room, an octagonal space with each wall dedicated to a different function. My bed sat across from the door, blossoms sleeping as they ought during the day, closed into buds on tangled vines.

The feel of Lafdo’s touch lingered on my hand, and I marched to the wall alongside my bed. The swipe of my fingers on the pebbles prompted tiny valves in the ceiling to open. As cool, delicately scented water rained from above, a shelf popped out of the stones to offer an array of soaps, sponges, and oils.

With my pockets emptied onto my vanity, I peeled off my stained dress and flung it at my reading chair, then scrubbed vigorously until no trace of annoying ambassadors remained on my skin. When I was done, a potted tree provided an absorbent leaf to wrap around myself.

I ignored the heavy lavender getup hung out for me and threw open my closet. Cardinal red begged my notice, slipping over my head in an instant.

Zipping up the back of the fitted top and arranging the wild straps over my shoulders, I spun to watch the hem of the loose capris dance at my knees. Another piece hooked at my waist, a few shades darker and embossed with the swirled pattern required to appear somewhere on my attire. Once I added tall shoes, the overskirt’s pointed shape barely reached the floor.

The outfit framed my figure well, and the bold color bespoke power.

I could do this.

Like Kietyn had said, the datapin waited in my jewelry box. It was a lone ebony chopstick with crystalline beads cascading down near-invisible strings. Though they resembled frosted glass, the fossilized beads contained rewritable DNA for storing information.

Now I just had to find somewhere to put—

Fire. Everywhere.

With a gasp, I stumbled back. My closet had vanished, at least to my perception. My body still stood where it had been, but my mind and senses had been yanked through time and space to share a nightmare.

Flames cackled and roared, lapping at my ankles. The blaze formed an undulating blanket over the hills in every direction, and even the ocean burned beyond the shores of this island. Waves churned but did little to douse the inferno.

This was not the first time I had stood lost atop this pyramid’s staircase and witnessed this scene. As before, soft metal dented beneath my feet and hissed against my skin. Heat and smoke climbed up my nostrils.

I couldn’t breathe.

Through watery eyes, I scanned the horizon as I weaved through the maze of fire.

Where is he?

More explosions shook the structure, and one of the silver tiers near the top sloughed off. I fell to my knees, face to face with a toddler. Tears streaked the soot on his cheeks. He flinched as he saw me, amethyst eyes wide under a mess of scarlet hair.

“You can’t be here, Rosa.” A new line. Always before in this vision, he refused to acknowledge my presence at all.

“You shouldn’t be here either, Fredo. What’s going on?”

“It’s too hot. I’m not strong enough to shield you from it.” His helplessness seeped into me, an anchor dragging us both to the bottom of an ocean. Livid boils marred the small arms he threw around my neck. Smoke, tears, and pain choked his voice. “Please, Rosa, I’m sorry. I must have fallen asleep. I didn’t mean to drag you in here again.”

I squeezed him back. His tiny body was delicate in my arms, malnourished and lacking the muscle he had since acquired.

“If you know this is a nightmare, Fredo, change it. Douse the flames.”

“No,” he whispered. “Get out, Rosa, please.”

“Come with me. We’ll find a better dream.”

Just like last time, he tore out of my embrace and raced up the stairway. Already knowing what he would see, I didn’t follow. I didn’t wish to again witness the screams and terror. The helplessness. The woman at the top of the pyramid with raven curls aflame and deep purple eyes in search of any way out. Her pinched features twisted in pain.

My mother. Aside from the almond shape of my eyes and my curvy figure, I looked nothing like her.

Another explosion rang out on cue, and the pyramid collapsed.

It’s not real, I told myself as I fell, surrounded by debris and shrapnel. It’s in the past. I was never here.

But Fredo was. Recognition had brightened my mother’s eyes. She had grabbed him, wrapped around him, shielded and cushioned him with her own body. Had she known him? Or had she striven to save him only because he was a child and Seallaii-na children were far-between and precious?

When help finally came, nothing remained on that island but parched stone and Fredo.

The scene faded, replaced with the environs of my closet. My jewelry box sat open on its shelf. Tears wet my face, dripping onto the datapin clutched tightly to my chest, and I panted, blinking rapidly.

“A week,” I breathed. “One week since I first saw that nightmare, and now I’ve lived it three times.”

Twisting my wet hair and skewering it with the datapin, I tried to chase away the dream’s lingering unease by concentrating on what I needed to do now. My instructions said I could only inform one person of my departure, someone who could cover for me. Fredo naturally came to mind first, but he had no authority here, especially not while hiding from my sister.

After choosing a sheer red veil that didn’t conceal anything—particularly as I left one side unclipped and let it dangle in front of my right ear—I slipped back into the hidden passages, determined to track down my other best friend.

Her room was unoccupied, as were the next three locations where I thought her likely to be. Finally, I spotted Dollii—or Dollicia as her mother insisted she be called—in a narrow back corridor, peering around a corner into the armory.

Sidling up next to her with my back against the dark marble wall, I whispered, “Spying on the trainees again?”

She covered her mouth to stifle a yelp and whirled to face me. Loops of braids the color of sunshine swayed about her ears.

“I, um…Rose.” Dollii had a naturally breathy voice, but strain pitched it high this time. “Have you gotten taller?”

“Nope.” I stood straight so my chin came level with hers. “I’m wearing shoes, though, and you apparently aren’t.”

A violet blush colored her cheeks as if trying to match the cool periwinkle of her eyes. “You’ve told me some cultures never wear shoes, so I thought I’d try it.”

“And your verdict?”

“It makes sneaking easier.”

I giggled and leaned around her to catch a glimpse inside the weapon room. “Any cute ones?”

Before I saw anything, Dollii blocked my view and herded me away from the door. “Rose, um, about my bare feet, don’t say anything to my mother? Her head might explode.”

“Your mother’s head explodes on a daily basis.”

I insert here that at our introduction, Lady Lokma told me not to bother remembering her first name as I would never be in a position to use it. I used it anyway and was punished. I then rebelled by claiming she had no first name. In this official record, Lady Lokma has no first name. So there.

Petty, I know.

I twirled around Dollii, again attempting a peek in the armory, but she pirouetted like a ballerina. Her overskirt’s floor-length cascade of cyan silk resembled a whirlpool as she impeded me again.

“Were you looking for me for a reason?”

Recalling Kietyn’s words about the Shlykrii-nas watching us, I pulled Dollii far into the hidden catacombs before telling her anything.

“I’m going to Grenswa.”

The smile that curved her soft, slender features matched the exuberance I had forced to the forefront of my voice, all doubt stamped down.

“How intriguing! For a lesson, I assume. It has been a while since they took you on an outing, and it’s not just to a nearby village, but another planet!”

I shook my head, and her delicate brows twisted.

“No, it’s a mission. Shlykrii plans to attack Grenswa, and I’m supposed to warn them. I’ll carry information they can use to protect themselves.”

A blank glaze overtook her. This was Dollii’s I’m-not-freaking-out-at-least-on-the-outside face.

My words rushed on, nervousness sliding over me like high tide, and I spilled the story as if I only had that one last breath. “Kietyn said Shlykrii watches us and we cannot be seen to interfere, so this is all top secret, and I can only tell one person I’m leaving, so I chose you because you have to cover for me while the Shlykrii-na ambassador is here.”

“Rose, we are children.”

True. I was almost eighteen, Fredo was nineteen, and Dollii had just turned twenty-one. We wouldn’t be considered adolescents until thirty or adults until ninety.

I waved dismissively. “Are you implying we’re not good enough to be entrusted with important things?”

“I’m saying this sounds suspicious and you should question it.”

“Then I might not get to go,” I grumbled, gaze on the thin line of grout beneath my heel.

“I know this is your dream.” The loose portions of her wavy, golden hair cascaded over her shoulders as she leaned, arms extended in an embrace that didn’t touch me. “Still, no foreigner has stepped foot on Grenswa’s soil for decades, and our last ambassador was killed.”

“Accidently killed.” My stomach churned, but I met her concerned stare. “Merchants go to Grenswa.”

“They don’t get off their ships.” She sighed, two fingers rubbing at her left eye. “The Grenswa-nas have made themselves plain: Any body part that touches their land will get cut off.”

I gulped. “They wouldn’t do that to someone who came to help them.”

“If they’re not expecting you, how will they know you aren’t a trespasser?”

Good point.

I looked sideways at her. “I’ll tell them I have an important message for their leaders.”

“They won’t give you time to say that. They’ll turn into a mob and throw you off a cliff. Or maybe they’ll drown you in their myriad of oceans. Or—”

“What if I look like them? I can go in disguise.” I put a hand on my hip. “And don’t discount our charisma. The Sojourners use it all the time. All I have to do is smile, and the Grenswa-nas will love me.” At least, I hoped it worked that way.

Dollii’s small lips pursed. “Maybe you should try it on Ambassador Lafdo first to make sure yours is working.”

“I don’t want that guy to love me.” I crossed my arms. “Maybe I could capture him somehow and take him to Grenswa with me. Then the mob could drown him in the oceans.”

“That would be ten times worse.”

“Joking, Dollii. I have to leave him here to entertain you.”

Her sightline dropped to the dusty floor. “I’m supposed to just watch you fly off to your death? You weren’t given any more instruction? No network of covert operatives? No contacts on Grenswa? No ship?”

“Kietyn said my pretty pink eyes are the sign of an eteriq, so I should be able to figure something out.”

Her gaze jumped to me, sharp and bold. Its palest purple held none of its usual softness. “You are not an eteriq.”

“No, but I am a Sine. The River Guardians claim me because I have the potential for genius.”

Dollii paced in small circles, skirt sweeping a shiny path on the floor. “The River Guardians take any pink-eyed children because eteriq always have eyes of that hue, but not all those with pink eyes turn out to be eteriq.”

“I’m still smart.” My fingers curled. “I think Kietyn’s words are a test.”

She paused, eyes narrowed. “Like a riddle?”

“What pink-eyed historical figure helped Grenswa rebuild when Shlykrii nearly wiped them out?”

She didn’t move, and it worried me. I couldn’t tell if she found this theory plausible or preposterous.

“You think your Uncle Sjaealam is involved.”

“I know he is. This is my chance to be like him, to be a Sine who matters.” I stood as straight as I could, chin perhaps a little higher than hers.

“What if it’s more than that?” Dollii sucked on the corner of her lip. “What if his name is a code, and if you transmit it to the world he saved, they’ll welcome you with open arms?”

“That’s brilliant!”

“It’s only a guess. Promise me something, Rose?” Her fingers twitched as she turned to me, hands pulled rigid to her sides. She had on her oversweet, I-am-perfectly-in-control face, eyes closed in crescent moons over her high cheeks. “Send a message to Grenswa before you step on their land.”

I nodded with no reservations. Dollii always had amazing ideas.

“This is why I’m glad you’re my friend.”

Her eyes opened above a wan smile. Serenity sketched her posture with long, smooth strokes, but desperate energy hid in her stillness. “Be safe, Rose. Keep Fredo safe.”

I stepped back. “I’m not telling him I’m leaving.”

The distance between me and this tsunami of cyan and gold vanished. I planted my heeled shoes, but she never touched me.

Her swirling skirt brushed my toes as she whispered in my ear. “Fredo is your mykta, official or not. Even if you try to leave him behind, he will go with you.”

“If he doesn’t know—”

“He will know.” As she leaned back, her sightline pounced on me, doubt nowhere in her expression. “Fredo will go with you.” A promise. A threat and an assurance.

Dollii was not a River Guardian and so not allowed to touch me, but the confidence and concern teeming in her steadfast gaze was the equivalent of a hug.

* * *

Dollii’s words echoed in my mind after we parted. I wandered aimlessly, lost in a sea of memories and old promises.

The first thing I ever said to Fredo was, “Hey.”

I was three, and after a morning spent studying Grenswa, I had been sent to the citadel’s lab to experiment with color. His crimson hair had distracted me. Undeterred by the doctor’s warning that I couldn’t come into the treatment room, I approached the boy sitting on the end of a table staring at the wall.

He didn’t look at me, not even after I called, “Hey!” eight times.

“Honored Elder not much older than me, you’re being rude!”

He turned, slowly, as if he had to fight a riptide to do it. He had a lot of bandages and was skinny, but Lady Lokma would have griped at me for pointing that out. Instead, I asked, “Have you ever met anybody younger than you before?”

He blinked. I waited patiently for him to answer, but he didn’t say anything. My feet grew tired of being still.

I stood on my toes. “Do you not know how to talk?”

A narrowing of the clearest amethyst eyes, something between a wince and a glare, and I took that as a yes.

“That’s okay, I can teach you. I’ve always wanted a student I can boss around, and I’m good at talking.”

I climbed up to sit next to him, legs swinging over the side of the experiment table. He tilted his head, peering at me like my face was on upside down, but he didn’t specifically say I couldn’t be his teacher.

“Learning to talk starts with lots of listening, so I’ll tell you about all my adventures.”

I never stopped. I always told Fredo everything.

My steps stilled at the entrance to the armory. Inside, Fredo sat on a bench and polished a set of wicked knives—hybrids of daggers, arrowheads, and hooks. I didn’t know how I knew where he was. I wasn’t looking for him anyway.

I didn’t say anything, but he knew I was there.

“Lafdo has a strange name, don’t you think?”

“How so?” I prompted.

“The first part is like the English word for laugh, right, and isn’t the last bit Menyazé for weird?”

“That’s dedó!” I corrected, quickly lowering my voice. I wasn’t supposed to have taught him any Menyazé. Or Earth-na languages, for that matter.

“What about—”

“Please let’s not talk about him.” Again, I stared at the floor.

“Tell me about our trip and why you thought you could hide it from me.”

I stiffened. “You can’t read my mind, Fredo.”

“I can’t?”

“Then I’ll pick a number between one and a billion, and you tell me what it is, decimal places and all.” I threw him a grin in challenge, but he didn’t see it, gaze on his hands and the sharp objects they held.

“You know it doesn’t work like that.” With a slow sigh, he set down the knives and looked up at me. “What Kietyn said both scares and thrills you.”

“What Kietyn said...” I retreated a pace.

“I don’t know exactly what he said. I know you’re going somewhere dangerous, and I am going with you.” He stood. “You can read my mind, too, so you know I mean it.”

Disobey my sister, future ruler of the world, by keeping Fredo at my side? We did that every day. But he had to let the mind-sharing thing go.

“I can’t read your mind, Fredo.”

“Keep telling yourself that, but you can’t deny”—he leaned close, breath tickling my ear—“you see my dreams.”

My heart fluttered like the wings of my sister’s golden transport, and my face surely matched the purple of Fredo’s eyes. “You do that on purpose.”

He grinned.

My voice escaped on a barely audible breath. “Seriously, Fredo, I wish you had better dreams.”

He matched my volume. “Maybe you could give me a better memory?”

“What kind of cavorting is going on in here?” Our favorite Shlykrii-na ambassador plodded into the armory. Recollection flashed—his hand reaching for my hair, my fingers trapped in his grip.

Before I registered it, my veil was clipped crookedly across the lower half of my face, but I still felt exposed. I wished I had chosen a more opaque covering. My skin retched at the thought of the ambassador touching me again, and I determined to take another shower.

I hadn’t noticed Fredo move, but discreet distance appeared between us. I followed his dagger-like gaze, whirling as he again placed himself between Lafdo and I. Three Sentinels followed the ambassador, automaton soldiers that resembled skeletons with viridian diodes for eyes.

A frown fell on me. Menyaza was devoted to peace. By extension, so was the Citadel of Menyaza. Mechanical soldiers should not have been allowed here. It should have been an offense for them even to step on Seallaii’s soil.

“Are you lost, Ambassador?” I beckoned with more disgust than politeness would call for. He had already been on the bottom rung of my ‘approval ladder.’ Now that I knew what his people planned, that rung was broken, the ground had collapsed under him, and he plunged headlong into the molten mantle of this symbolic planet.

“A Surra-na is never lost, but Lafdo’s room appears to be. This maze must rearrange itself when our back is turned.”

“It doesn’t do that.” Well, it could, but it usually didn’t. “Admit you are lost, and I will help you find your way.”

Stubbornness flared in his cat-slit eyes. Shlykrii-nas valued competence and honor. Getting lost diminished both qualities. His gaze darted around in search of excuses amid all the sharp objects hanging on the walls.

“This is an armory.” He shuffled closer, eyes dropping pointedly to the knives Fredo brandished. “Artful swords of every size and shape. More advanced weaponry, too. You can’t deny it, so answer: Why have an armory if the Druojojneerpsrii are devoted to peace?”

I rolled my eyes at his use of the Menyazé word for River Guardian. Like most foreigners, he would have said it was out of respect for the caretakers of the universe, but really, Druojojneerpsrii was such a mouthful. Like most ‘respectful foreigners,’ he was only showing off.

He continued, “If Seallaii has no army, why the weapons?”

“Seallaii has no civilians. All will rise should the need emerge. Only River Guardians do not fight, and we provide the weapons.”

“That’s hypocritical.” Lafdo chuckled. “The Druojojneerpsrii do not kill, yet they provide others with the means.”

I clenched my fists. “Sometimes it’s necessary to prune off a few bad limbs to protect the whole plant.”

“That’s not the mantra.” Lafdo tutted. “Druojojneerpsrii do not kill anything. It’s a pithy excuse to pass a weapon to another and ask them to make a choice you would not.”

I had never thought about it like that. His reasoning pricked my conscience, but I wouldn’t lose an argument with him.

Quietly, I said, “Our weapons repay a debt.”

“Ah, because River of Menyaza killed so many?”

“Without Eteriq River, your people would still be trying to figure out what number comes after ten.”

“Hence, he has a special place in Lafdo’s memory and in the history books.” The Shlykrii-na’s hand waved over his heart. “The River Guardians are his namesake, correct? His relatives who took it upon themselves to ration the discoveries of the eteriq.”

I gave a sharp nod. “We watch over the universe and protect it. To do that correctly, we have to know all its secrets.”

“That is precisely why Lafdo, your humble ambassador, is here.” His gaze shifted to Fredo. “Is this another of your weapons?”

To Fredo’s brief glance, one eyebrow raised, I gave a shrug. Dressed as the night and with a glittering blade held between each of his fingers, my guard did look menacing.

“Come now, the Druojojneerpsrii are known for genetic tampering, and there is no way he is natural. The way he glides out of nothing. How his hair is the color of a planet’s core.”

The Shlykrii-nas’ coloring typically blended with their world of pastels and browns. While a few stood out, none were as vibrant as Fredo. For that matter, few on Seallaii were either. Yet, Fredo’s origins were too close to a topic I feared, so I took too long to reply, and the ambassador advanced his argument.

“In that vein, he is little different from these Sentinels. Wouldn’t you rather—”

He tried to sidestep Fredo, but my guard moved like the wind.

So did the Sentinels.

Within the time it took me to gasp, their blur of movement stopped. Knives lay scattered on the stone floor. Lafdo stood less than a handspan from me. Fredo was held against the wall beside us with a Sentinel’s built-in gun pressed against his temple and another to his heart. A machine gripped him on either side while the third’s clawed grasp viced his extended arm. The lone knife in that hand hovered a hairsbreadth from Lafdo’s ribs.

The Sentinels’ impassive faces sported red diode eyes aimed at their master, awaiting his next command. He told them nothing, gaze on me and grin predatory.

“The eteriq are amazing. We would value you properly. Seallaii cannot compare to a world of geniuses like ours.”

Though every instinct told me to run, I stood my ground. “I thought Shlykrii was a small planet. How did your head ever fit there?”

A flush and a sneer raced onto his expression. He spoke through his teeth. “We allowed our planet to be called Shlykrii before we knew what that meant, but our world’s name is Surra.”

Surra meant ‘strength that powers the universe’ or something pompous like that.

“Shlykrii describes your people well.”

“We are not murderers.”

“If I were Grenswa-na, I’d slap your face and hope you keeled over from the shame of that lie.” I whirled and stomped away, heels clacking a finite tune.

The ambassador’s lips flapped a few times before he sputtered, “D-did you hear how she spoke to Lafdo?”

“Sorry, I only hear what she tells me to.”

Lafdo’s jaw almost fell off as he turned to find my guard leaning against the wall, one knife flipping in his left hand, and all three Sentinels decommissioned on the floor.

As I reached the open doorway, my steps halted.

I shouldn’t leave this spy in the armory.

Fixing up my sweetest expression, I turned back. “Ambassador Lafdo, do you want to go somewhere fun?”

He was wary, and I let him at least get his machine soldiers standing again. Fredo stood alongside me, and we both watched his hasty repairs, I with a look of mild fascination mixed with superiority, and my guard with disapproval tempered by boredom. I think we succeeded in making him feel super awkward.

As the Shlykrii-na and his mechanical stalkers followed me into the corridor, I slid my hand along the wall, and it scooped him into another passage. He squawked like a befuddled bird, and I giggled.

“He’ll starve if you don’t let him out of there.”

Striding down the hall, I waved Fredo’s warning aside. “Dollii can come get him later.” After I left.

Fredo trailed me, long paces quickly catching up. “Dollii’s not a River Guardian. She can’t command the citadel with her fingertips.”

I didn’t slow or look at him. “As the lordly family elected for the Lokma clan, her parents have a key, and she knows where it is.”

“It only opens one passage in the deepest basement. Your sister’s royal key would be better.”

I shrugged. “Eh, hers doesn’t work as well since it’s a replacement. The original was that silver, wing-shaped pendant my mother was wearing when—”

We both stopped.

After a beat, Fredo finished, “When everything went up in flames.” Another beat. “Rosa, we need to talk about this.”

Tears warmed my eyes, and I walked on, strides as long and swift as I could make them. “Unknown origins aside, Fredo, you are not supposed to be capable of forming a mykta’s bond.”

“We can’t ignore my unknown origins. We don’t know who or what my parents were.” He stepped in front of me.

I turned left and advanced down another corridor, heels clomping against the stone floor.

A memory splashed over me, my own three-year-old voice thrown at my face like a bucket of cold water. “You have to talk sometime, or I’ll be a failure of a teacher. And you probably have a pretty voice, Fredo. Don’t you want to hear it?”

He had frowned, and finally, months after our first encounter, he spoke his first words to me. “Why do you call me that?”

“Because the doctors call you Fredondii.”

“That’s my name.”

“Did the doctors give it to you? Or your family?”

His gaze had fallen to his lap. “I don’t remember.”

“Probably the doctors, then. Fredondii is the name of an alien plant that makes friends with whatever you stick it next to, but for a name it’s boring and too long. Fredo’s better.”

Point made, the voices faded, leaving me motionless in the present. I pivoted my head and peered at Fredo through my twisted hair. Arms crossed, he leaned against the wall and stared at me. Had he pushed me into that memory?

That was impossible.

But there was that dream. Surely it wasn’t a creation of my own imagination.

Fredo officially had no recollection from before they found him, but what if that wasn’t true? What if that nightmare was his memory haunting him?

They had found him on that charred island. He was there when my mother died.

The faded scars on the backs of his hands matched the boils on the burned flesh of his child self in the vision. It had been real, and somehow he had pulled me in to witness it. By accident.

“We can’t read each other’s minds,” I whispered.

Another memory crashed into me, and I saw my own ten-year-old profile from the perspective of someone hiding behind my chair in a theater, a talent act on the sunken stage beyond me.

Fredo’s preteen voice came out of the observer. “Why does your sister know everything Kietyn does?”

“Because he’s her mykta, part of her entourage. A royal’s mind is linked to each person in her entourage, so she can see through his eyes if she wants.”

Fredo’s hands alighted on my shoulders, yanking me back to the now.

“Stop doing that! It’s making me dizzy.”

No apology rested in his gaze. His irises claimed neither the whispering periwinkle Dollii’s did nor the night-sky purple that belonged to my mother and sister. His was more vibrant, like dawn.

Staring into those eyes also made me dizzy.

“If this is the beginnings of a mykta’s bond, you understand why it’s unfair for you to leave me behind, right?”

“Yes.”

That was exactly why I feared and denied this was such a bond. My mother’s face from the dream flashed in my mind—the only memory I had of her, and it wasn’t even my own. Not all of her entourage had been there on that island, but those safely at home had perished anyway. Because she did.

Fredo put my worst fear into words. “If I fail to protect you and you die, I’ll die with you.”

Continued in chapter 3- Stand Back! I’ve Got Sauce!

Thank you for reading!