I frown up at the sky. The sun is setting, fiery orange and dark purples streaking across the navy blue. “I was in a tunnel,” I say. “There were voices. Carys and… another voice. It was disturbing. Like my life was in danger, but I didn’t know why. The dream just kept sort of fragmenting or repeating or something.”
A deep gulch appears between Alys’s brows when I turn to her again. “Has that ever happened before?” she asks.
I shake my head. “I’ve had episodes before—dizzy attacks that make me suddenly fall over or leave me literally unable to move without fainting or vomiting.”
The blood drains from Osheen’s face, giving away just how much those moments affected him as well. Yet, he’d never left my side when they happened.
“It’s been about two months since I’ve had an episode, but this certainly isn’t the same. It wasn’t even the same as the other dreams from Carys I’ve walked into. I didn’t see her, but I heard her.”
Alys makes a thoughtful face. “You were awake when this happened so maybe…” She twists her lips to the side for a moment. “Perhaps, you were pulled into her dreamscape.”
“That can happen?”
“Yes. It could be daywalking—same as dreamwalking, but while you’re awake.”
Great.
“It’s complicated. In your case, it could also be in part because you’re still wearing your dampener, so your powers are sort of fragmented. It means you’re getting stronger, overpowering the runes.”
I glance down at my bracelet, then back up at everyone again.
Chiyo laughs. “Lugda’s hells, Durvla, you’re going to beterrifyingonce you get some training.”
I wince. Being terrifying is the last thing I want.
Kilkenny and Alys exchange glances, and I want to shake them both because it’s not the first time they’ve done that. Their expressions speak of a multitude of things. Aboutme. But I barely have the energy to be annoyed with the very obvious fact that they’re keeping something from me; I certainly don’t have the energy to speak out about it.
“Chiyo is right, you know,” Kilkenny signs. “You’re getting stronger.” Pride crosses his face for a split second before it’s replaced with concern again. Or maybe I’ve even imagined it.
Then the meaning behind their words really hits me. My dampener didn’t work, or only half worked? “I don’t want this to happen again.”
“I understand.” He nods compassionately. “We need to start training more when you’re awake.”
I heave a sigh. Lovely.
Just moments after we begin riding, the onset of a raging headache renders me almost incapacitated. So, training doesn’t happen. I barely manage to keep myself atop Ghendor, though by the next stop we make further down the river, I can at least make sense of my surroundings. We’re closer to the larger body of water, as well as the mountains looming ahead beneath the night sky. Everyone takes their turn relieving themselves and even washing up as quickly as possible in the river.
Afterward, Osheen starts a fire and sits beside it, warming his hands as Chiyo and Kilkenny do a terrible job trying to catch fish. Alys has retired to her bedroll to “rest her eyes.”
I join Osheen in front of the fire and sigh blissfully from the warmth that radiates from it. I’ve not been able to get the dampness out of my body since that miserable maze of a dreamscape, and my head is steadily pounding, my body exhausted. I hate that training has again been delayed, this time because of my ailment.
Osheen does a double take when he catches sight of me. He waves, a small, tentative smile on his lips. His blue eyes are dark in the weak light of the flames. “How are you feeling?” he signs.
“Confused.” I fiddle with my dampener and shrug my shoulders. “I just can’t wait to get to the Verge and see Taig again.”
“Same.” He smiles and I believe him. Then his smile drops. “I’m sorry you have to put up with those dreams. They sound awful.”
Awfulis an understatement.
“I’m not sorry about you having powers, for the record. I just mean?—”
I rest my hand on his arm gently. “Please stop being overly cautious about everything you say. Let’s move past that.”
The tension melts off his body and his shoulders droop. “Thank you.” He smiles warmly as he signs.
For a moment, I stare into the flames. Carys had truly sounded so pained in the dreamscape. The paralyzing fear starts to seep back into my body, and I quickly wrangle my thoughts and redirect them. I turn back to Osheen. “So… you and Chiyo…” I quirk a brow at him.
He makes a face as color rushes into his cheeks. It’s adorable, honestly, but a moment later, he heaves a sigh and says, “No romantic prospect.”
