To Walk Through a Dream Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven With Wavering Footsteps Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Stone Song Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three A Tale of Winter Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Destiny Inescapable Prologue Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Epilogue The Cycle's Continuing Beginnings Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Two Spirits Akin

To Walk Through a Dream Chapter Four "It's a shame she isn't conscious so we could talk to her first." Melisande said, hanging worriedly over the inert form of Marya. "She is stubborn and secretive. If she were conscious she would object." Clopin pointed out. Jehan shushed them both and their attention turned once again to the DreamWalker. She had been sitting there for some time with her eyes closed, watching Marya's dreams. Marya awoke, startled, and Melisande gave her some water and fretted over her while the DreamWalker rose stiffly and left the tent. Clopin found her just outside the tent flap, wiping away her tears. "Carranza! Her fear of illness is as strong as the guilt." She said softly. Clopin gently wiped a teardrop from her face with a black-gloved hand. "Can le corbeau de reve heal her?" "It will not be easy, but I can. Will Clopin let the Raven of Dream heal him?" The gloved hand jerked back as if stung and he turned away from her. "What Clopin will do is Clopin's right. You will not make Clopin forget her." "Clopin is a king, and must look to his responsibilities. Should Clopin choose to allow the pain and guilt to continue to grow, that is Clopin's right. But it is not his right to make his subjects suffer." She came around to face him and held him there with her eyes. "If Clopin would make that decision he must also step down as king." She turned and headed into the tent again, but he grasped her arm. She turned to look at him again and he searched her eyes wordlessly for a long moment before he spoke. "Clopin will not forget." "I cannot know before I have even tried." He let her go and walked off with a casual air. "Clopin will consider." His heart pounded wildly in his chest. A month ago she had been happy and wild. Even after the death of her parents she could rejoice at the beauty of the world with her younger brother beside her. Now he lay on the pallet before her, pale and feverish. She had tried all she knew of the healing arts, still he grew worse. If only she had listened more closely to her mother's teachings! If only she had taken better care of him! Now her only brother would die and it was all her fault..... At the same time she was also aware that this was only a memory two years past, was aware of herself now in Paris, lying similarly ill below ground in the Court of Miracles. She was aware of Melisande and Jehan watching over her in her sickness. She was aware of her brother at the foot of the bed. "Janus!" "Hello Marya." "I shall die now too." "Why? It is not yet your time." "I deserve it. It's my fault you died." "You were only eleven." "You were only nine. If only I'd--" "You did what you could. It was no fault of yours. I gave up. I let the sickness take me." The black beast loomed behind her. "You are guilty of nothing, unless you give up too. Will you do as I did, and leave these new friends who care for you so with a sense of false guilt?" He was fading now, as the beast reached for her. "Never give up." She remembered the nights by his bedside. She'd said those same words to him until the very last. But something about the memory had changed somehow, it was lighter, she was free. She flew from the beast's grasp like a songbird from a cage. Dimly she heard Melisande's voice. "Her fever's broken!" "I wish we could have been of more help." Jehan apologized outside the tent. "It happened before she came here, and she never told anyone. You could not have known. Don't you start feeling guilty on me." When Marya awoke she smiled, something she had not done for two years. Chapter Five