I woke up in the morning and realized that Donavan and Keegan had taken all of the watches. Both were outside of the tent, and I could hear their voices, chatting quietly with one another.

  We quickly took apart the tent and prepared to leave. Emilia joined us as we mounted our horses and set off through the mist.

  The next few days were a monotonous blur of the clip-clopping of the horses’ hooves, the shadowy mist, meals of dried meat, and nights of keeping watch. After the first night, I insisted that Keegan and Donavan wake me for my turn at watch. They ignored me, and I resorted to taking first watch so that they could get some more sleep.

  As the days went by, I noticed that the tattoo on my arm was fading, and Keegan and Donavan no longer started when I closed my eyes. Donavan and Emilia told us many stories of their Dreamwalking, both uproariously funny and intensely exciting. As time went on, I could tell as I watched them, and as I felt their emotions, that both Keegan and Donavan were beginning to respect each other. Their many similar experiences were drawing them together, and I was glad that whatever Donavan knew about Keegan, it was not keeping him from forming a friendship with him.

  After a few days it began to feel like one of those annoying dreams where you are always trying to get somewhere but are never moving forward. The air was always full of mist. The ground was always wet. We were constantly on the watch for areas that would suck our horses into the mud. I was glad at least that the temperature was relatively warm, although the mist made it feel cooler.

  Emilia assured us that we were getting close to Lake Vesnice. Once we reached the southern tip of the lake, we would be almost in Severak, and that was where it would begin to get truly dangerous. Cyrus’ men were everywhere in Severak, and his army was already on the move with him leading it. There would be soldiers and Dreamers all around.

  The closer we got, the more people there were. We never actually saw any of them. I was getting pretty good at giving people emotions, and anytime anyone got too near, I would magnify the fear I was feeling and send it to them. When I told Emilia what I was doing she chuckled.

  “Soon people will think this area is haunted,” she said. She nodded her approval, “It is good.”

  On the fifth day, the mist started to clear, and the ground began to get dry. There were so many people around that I had to stop feeling for emotions. There were too many, and I was still not sure how to keep them from overwhelming me.

  “We are getting close to Lake Vesnice,” Emilia told us.

  Just then, a wind blew through, and the mist disappeared. Directly in front of us was a large group of Ravens on horseback. We had no chance to change course. It would only make them more suspicious. Keegan reached out a hand to both me and Donavan, about to pull us out of the dream.

  “Not yet,” said Emilia calmly. “Maria, make them believe what I tell them. At least the leader.”

  I hesitated. I was not even sure which one of the group was the leader.

  “The one who talks to us,” Emilia explained, understanding my confusion.

  “I’ll try,” I replied. “Keegan, be ready just in case, okay?”

  “No worries, Ria. I’ve got it,” he said, reaching out to take my hand.

  We continued along the road.

  As we neared the soldiers, one of them called out to us. “Hello there, stop in the name of Cyrus the king,” he said, his voice much younger than I expected. It was difficult to see his face because he was wearing a helmet with a skull on top of it. All of the rest of the soldiers looked similar to the ones who had raided Drevalecia, faces painted black, with armor that was black or made of bones with bits of hair attached.

  I concentrated on the leader of the group, only allowing myself to feel his emotions. I knew that I would have to make the swap very gently, or else he would know that something strange was going on.

  He was feeling proud, powerful, and slightly nervous. I wondered why until I saw that most of the men with him were older than he was. I realized that he must be new at this. He was trying to prove himself, which could make him dangerous if I wasn’t careful.

  We came to a stop, only a few yards from the group. Keegan was still holding my hand, and he stayed near Donavan, ready to get all of us out of Wendellia if it became necessary.

  “Who are you, and where are you going?” demanded the young soldier in charge.

  “Please, Sir,” Emilia said in a timid voice. “We are traveling to Berul. My sister lives there, and I hear that she is rather ill. I want to be sure to see her before she dies.”

  I gauged the man’s feelings. He was still unsure of Emilia’s story. He didn’t disbelieve her yet, but he was not going to let us go easily in front of his men. Very carefully, I sent him just a tiny bit of belief in Emilia’s story.

  “And the rest of you?” he demanded.

  “This is my granddaughter,” Emilia said, gesturing towards me. “Her new husband, and a friend,” she continued, nodding towards Keegan, then Donavan. “I didn’t want to travel alone, so they agreed to come with me.”

  The man’s eyes narrowed as he looked at Keegan and Donavan. “Most young men your age have been conscripted into the army,” he said. “Why aren’t you serving the king?”

  “We plan to sign up in Berul,” Donavan said, without hesitation.

  “Cyrus is no longer in Berul,” the soldier said. “Although, you will have to go there to enlist and be properly trained.”

  Donavan nodded. I could feel the soldier beginning to believe us. Some of the men behind him, however, looked suspicious. I was about to send them feelings of belief, when I realized that it might be a good thing if they were always doubting their leader. It would make it more difficult for him to command them. I decided to leave the other men alone and sent the leader another trickle of belief and a bit of impatience.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  He nodded curtly. “You may continue. Be sure to enlist once you reach Berul. However, we will take your horses. The army has need of them.”

  I looked quickly at Emilia, alarmed and unsure of what to do. Emilia gave me a look of warning and dismounted. The rest of us followed her example, and although both Keegan and Donavan looked mutinous, they said nothing.

  The rest of the soldiers looked on with more approval as the young leader took the reins of our horses and passed them to another soldier.

  “Thank you, Sir,” said Emilia. We all moved to the side of the road to allow them to pass. I saw some of the men eyeing us as they passed and knew that not all of them believed our story, but were glad to get the horses.

  “Good job, Maria.” Donavan smiled at me.

  “Not that good,” I said, disappointed in myself.

  Emilia disagreed. “If you had pushed him any more, the other men would have known something was amiss. As it was, they were already suspicious.”

  “Well, what are we going to do now?” asked Keegan.

  “We continue on,” said Emilia. “We will draw less attention on foot anyway. I only regret not being able to return the horses to Robert. And it will make our journey longer.”

  “I could…” began Donavan, but Emilia interrupted him.

  “It is too dangerous to Travel. There are too many people who could see us and know what we are.”

  We decided to continue on the road. Emilia explained that there was no avoiding people now, and we looked far less suspicious walking along the road than we would trying to sneak around. Our big worry was the Changelings.

  “There will actually be fewer out and about now that Cyrus has Soren,” Emilia said. “All Dreamwalkers who come here will appear with Soren, so the Changelings do not need to search for them. Besides, I heard that Soren has found a way to keep Dreamers away now. Cyrus will not be pleased with him.”

  I could feel concern coming from her and knew that the real Emilia was extremely worried.

  “We will get him back,” Donavan said. Keegan nodded in agreement.

  Emilia gave a curt nod. “We will. Meanwhile, we still need to be careful. It would not be good to meet a Changeling. The whole countryside would be after us then. All Dreamwalkers carry a high price on their heads.”

  We met more and more people on the road, most of them heading in the opposite direction. Everyone knew that Cyrus was on the move again, and most people just wanted to get out of his way.

  “Why does Cyrus do what he does?” Keegan asked one day as we trudged along.

  “Because he is evil,” said Donavan.

  “Well, yeah. But why is he in this Dream trying to destroy it?”

  We all turned to look at Emilia. She hesitated for a moment and seemed to be thinking. Finally she spoke. “There are many layers to this story. I can give you only some of them. To answer your question, Cyrus is in this Dream because he is Bound to it.”

  Keegan made a surprised noise.

  Emilia went on, “And he is trying to destroy it as revenge against Wendellia’s Creator, a Dreamwalker named Victoria.”

  “Wait,” I interrupted. “The Creator is a Dreamwalker?”

  Emilia smiled. “There is the Creator Above, who made all things. Then there are the Dreamwalkers who create the Dreams. Every Dream World has a Creator. It takes… special skills, which only a very few Dreamwalkers have. Even fewer are permitted to use them.”

  “The Weavers?” Keegan asked, somewhat astonished.

  Emilia didn’t answer him, but Keegan smiled and nodded as if some piece of information had clicked into place for him.

  Emilia shook her head. “You know too much,” she said.

  Donavan just laughed. “Your Order has its hand in everything,” he said. “It is not that hard to figure it out.”

  “Who are the Weavers?” I asked.

  Emilia, Keegan, and Donavan looked at each other. Finally Keegan spoke, “A very powerful group of Dreamwalkers. They have a lot of control over…”

  Emilia interrupted, glaring disapprovingly at Keegan. “Cyrus had the skills we look for,” she said. “And was chosen to join us. Victoria created this world to train him and made it so he cannot die here. Cyrus did well. He was talented and learned quickly. But then he began to dabble in forbidden practices, changing things that should not be changed, controlling things that should not be controlled. We assumed, we hoped, that those activities would be limited to this World, that he had so much control here because it had been created for him and he was so familiar with it. We were mistaken. He began to travel to other Dreams and test his abilities in other Worlds. Victoria, and then others, tried to curb his impulses, but his corruption and his power only grew. Eventually the Weaver Order decided to put a Binding on him that would bring him to this World every time he dreamed.”

  Keegan’s eyes narrowed, and I knew that he was thinking of his dad. “You people are all the same,” he muttered under his breath.

  Emilia ignored him.

  “The Order sent a group to take care of it, led by Victoria. She managed to Bind him to this Dream, but he had grown more powerful than we realized. He killed them all.”

  Donavan looked shocked. “He killed Victoria too?”

  Emilia nodded. “He has been working to destroy the Dream ever since.”

  Donavan looked aghast. “Emilia! You told me the Creator was the only one who could release the Dreamwalkers Tethered here! How will she do that if she died here and cannot get into the Dream?”

  “There are…ways to return to a Dream where you have died. And no, I cannot explain them to you. Victoria would have returned here by now except that Cyrus Wove the Dream to keep her out.”

  “Then there is no hope?” Keegan asked.

  “There is always hope,” Donavan muttered, and Emilia nodded.

  “She will find a way, Donavan,” Emilia said. “But in the meanwhile, we must try to stop Cyrus. The sooner he is defeated, the sooner Victoria will be able to return and release the Dreamwalkers who are Tethered here.”

  “What happens to someone if they die when they are Tethered here?” asked Donavan quietly. His pain was so strong that I felt it breaking through the wall I had up around my emotions.

  Emilia hesitated then said, “They die in the real world.”

  “So if we get Tethered here, we could actually die?” I asked.

  “That is not going to happen,” said Keegan before Emilia answered, his voice hard. “Ria, we’re leaving, now.” He reached out and grasped my hand.

  I yanked it out of his grip. “No, Keegan, we made a promise. We are going to go get Soren, and we are going to try to stop Cyrus. If we can’t stop him from destroying Wendellia, we can at least stop him from Tethering other Dreamers.”

  “Maria, it’s too dangerous,” Keegan said.

  “The promise is going to keep bringing us here, even if you take us away, whether we want it to or not” I said. I glanced at Emilia, “Right?”

  Emilia nodded.

  Donavan reached out and gripped Keegan’s arm. “We will not let anything happen to her,” he said. “Trust me. Trust yourself.”

  Keegan was silent for a long time, but finally nodded. “At the first sign of trouble, though, we are out of here. All of us. Promise or no promise.”

  Donavan nodded. “Good. I really do not want to be stuck here either.”