I smile, trying not to appear as nervous as I feel. “Me neither, honestly.” I glance toward the tree. “Have you always had dreams of this tree? Where is it located?”
She tucks her paintbrush behind her ear and slides her hands over the front of her dress. “Since … a year ago. And I’m not sure.”
“Do you ever have the urge to leave your home? To follow some … invisible force?”
She nods, her caramel eyes wide. “How did you?—?”
“Have you had that feeling lately?”
She doesn’t respond.
My teeth sink into my lower lip as I try to think of a casual way to ask one last question. “Do you have a special stone? I have a moonstone. It’s not until after it was in my possession that I began sharing your dreams.”
She steps closer again, nodding. “Actually, I do. It’s—” Her hand moves to the pocket of her dress, pressing against it. “I’ve anchored it to something dear to me, but yes, I do have a stone.I don’t know anything about it. I don’t even know how I got it. I just … woke up one day and it was in my hand.”
I feel my brows pucker. “That’s odd.”
“There is no shortage of odd things happening to me, quite frankly.”
I laugh softly. “I can relate.” I mull over my thoughts for a moment. “I’ve never accidentally dreamwalked to someone I didn’t know until this stone. And only when I see you in my mind’s eye do I get images of a tree, of a strange place. My guess is that it’s a land called Siad Nahar. Have you heard of it?”
Her entire body stiffens as her face goes ashen.
“Winnie?”
I don’t miss the tremor in her hands as she clutches the part of her skirt where I’m guessing she keeps this item dear to her. The ground beneath me begins to quake. I plant my feet firmly, having nothing to grasp.Winnie’s fists are clenched as she takes a step back, then another. Fissures split the soil of the dreamscape, traveling between us and creating a rift that widens.
“Winnie?” I call out as she squeezes her eyes shut. “I’m sorry if I’ve upset you!”
I step away from the rift, but the whole dream is rumbling, debris falling from above. I beg Winnie to calm down, but she doesn’t seem to be listening. Uncertain of how this will end if I keep holding on, I breathe out and release my hold on the dream.
I wake with a gasp, immediately pushing backward on my bottom to escape the threat.
“Durvla! You’re alright!” Tiernan’s voice shouts in my mind, making me wince.
I blink rapidly and adjust to the sights around me. No debris, no fissure, no Winnie.
There are mountains and slender trees all around us. I tune in to the feel of the ground beneath me, of Tiernan’s arm around me, and the crisp mountain air. I turn my face toward the blue sky, the fluffy clouds floating by without a care in the world.
When I feel less shaky, I look at Tiernan again. “She’s a Terraforger.”
Tiernan’s eyes widen.
“I think she’s how we can get into Siad Nahar. It explains why we can’t get to it when, according to the map, we’reright here.” I gesture to the mountains in the general vicinity.
“You’re telling me we need her to literally move a mountain?”
I shrug. “Or perhaps make a path through it?”
Tiernan seems lost in thought, his eyes looking past me. “Well fuck, Ava is going tolovethis,” he says.
I grimace. “Well, no point in stalling, right?” I wrap the stone and slip it back into my pocket. Together, we head back to the others.
Ava rises from where she was sitting as soon as she spots us and makes her way toward me. Her face is expectant, and I’m already terrified to break the news to her.
I wrap my arms around myself, and before I lose my courage, I spit the words out. “We can’t get into Siad Nahar on our own.”
Ava frowns. “What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”
