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 Six It lurked quietly around the edges of sleep, nibbled on the borders of their dreams. "Jehan?" "DreamWalker?" She was kneeling beside his mattress on the floor. "Don't you sleep?" "No. Will you help me?" He climbed through the muddle of sleep to puzzle through her words. "Help...?" "I can feel it. The beast. I must track it before I lose the trail. It is above ground in the city, you do not look like a gypsy." "Mmm." "Bring a dagger." The two gypsies slid silently through the streets of Paris near dawn. The path Rayven led them on twisted and turned. At times they walked slowly, pausing now and then, but now and again she would drag him along at a breakneck pace and Jehan marveled that she could move so fast with a limp. Jehan followed her for what seemed an eternity. When she had first dragged him out of his tent and into the pre-dawn light he had been struggling to wake his mind, but the labyrinthine trail Rayven led him on combined with the morning fog gave such a surreal effect that he began to think he had never woken in the first place. In front of him Rayven suddenly shied away, although he could see nothing. Then there was a faint scraping sound from one of the alleys beside them and Jehan turned just in time to catch a glimpse of something pale, almost white, as it slipped away. Rayven grabbed his shirt sleeve and dragged him in pursuit, although it was not necessary. They reached the stone wall at the end of the alley and Jehan turned to look back the way they had come, but the alley was empty, nothing breathed hiding in the still shadows. He turned back to the one who had guided them there but she nodded no and softly slid down to sit on the dirty cobblestones. "I've lost it." "We've lost it. No fault of yours." "But now I have an answer to my question." "What?" "I know what I've been tracking." She struggled to her feet again and, limping painfully, led him back to the Court of Miracles without a word. "Your majesty?" Clopin looked up to see Rayven holding one tent flap open, smiling softly. He had avoided her since that night she had ventured into his dream, and she had not approached him. "And what can the King of Thunes do for you?" "I require the aid of those of your tribe who do not appear to be gypsies." "You're paranoid." "It is a mission to be carried out in broad daylight. I need a victim." Clopin raised an eyebrow in inquiry. "Do elaborate." "Someone the beast would hunt. To keep it occupied. And then I may require many more gypsies after that. With daggers." He stroked his goatee in thought. "Clopin? Would you like to come hunting?" .....Then there was a shadow of darkness in the street. "Mama?" He scampered into an alley like he'd been taught. "Now don' go botherin' rich folk!" She had always told him. "Mama?" Was he dreaming? He could feel something, dark and monstrous, pursuing him. He climbed the wall at the end of the alley..... Rayven slipped out of the poor child's mind, hoping the beast hadn't noticed her. The bait taken, she rose and made her way past the gypsies set to watch over the child to where Clopin and a hand-picked hunting party awaited her direction, armed to the teeth. She pulled Clopin's head down to her level to whisper in his ear. "You're overdoing it. The quarry is smaller than you realize." "It will be more fun this way!" Laughing quietly to herself she followed Clopin and his hunters up to the streets of Paris. It had not taken the gypsies long to find a street urchin that the beast had already latched onto, and they had waited, caring for the sick child and reassuring him until evening. Now the gypsy hunters crept out into the city under cover of darkness. "Keep within sight of each other on the rooftops. You must form a loose circle around myself and Clopin on the ground. It is not killing the creature that will be difficult so much as catching it." Glad for Clopin's physical support Rayven opened her mind once more to scan the area until she caught the mental 'scent' of the creature and guided them in the proper direction. It was more elusive tonight so that she had focus her energies on tracking it, forgetting the pain in her bad hip and the crowd of gypsies watching from the roofs. She was focused so intently that Clopin brought her back to the physical world rather abruptly when he had to stop her from walking into a wall. She realized they were in front of an abandoned building close to the Seine. Some of the windows were boarded up and the whole structure looked in danger of collapse. "In there." She whispered hoarsely. "You all right, mon ami?" She nodded mutely. "Call them down. Surround the building." The gypsies spread out around the building at street level on a gestured command from their king. Several came forward to protect Clopin and the DreamWalker, daggers drawn. As a group they circled the building, looking for a way to get in. The door was firmly barred, but they found loose boards in the back, some of them half rotted away, and one by one, they slipped inside cautiously. There was the sound of faint, harsh breathing in the darkness, but it was impossible to make out any shapes and the hunters had to be careful not to bump into each other. Each of them made more nervous by the thought that this small building held a horrific beast. It was then that, in the black of the room, one of the hunters dimly made out a figure, and crept closer to investigate. She found a small, young girl, very pale. Even her hair was white. And her eyes, when she opened them, were a terribly pale blue, almost clear, and inhumanly large. The others heard the cry, and light flared up as two of them managed to light the torch they'd brought. Unfortunately, in doing so they'd had to sheath their daggers. Everyone caught a brief glimpse of something small and pale, with slits for eyes, before two more cried out and fell, and the room was dark once more. Clopin knelt silently and picked up the torch. He felt the wrist of the nearest fallen gypsy and let out his breath when he felt a pulse. In the dark someone grabbed his wrist and he nearly struck out, but hesitated when he felt it was a human hand. He followed his guide to where the other two gypsy hunters stood, clinging to each other and their daggers. "Ray--" he felt her hand on his lips. He linked hands with the others, and at once felt himself pulled along quickly, nearly stumbling when his foot hit the bottom step of the stairs. Then the humming started in front of him, softly at first, but rapidly increasing in volume. Usually her tunes meandered slowly, but this time it moved rapidly, shifting in pitch and intensity until it seemed to fill the house. His ears buzzed as he stumbled up the stairs, and brilliant hues of color swirled behind his eyes, blinding him. Dimly he felt the grip on the hand behind him loosen and heard a faint thud. Then he, too, was falling. The watery morning light coming through the cracks in a boarded window woke him. There was a strange noise somewhere above him. Then he oriented himself and noticed he was halfway up a stair well. Groggily he crept up the stairs and found Rayven in the room at the top. He had never, in all his life, seen her cry. She sat cross legged on the wood floor, a white, misshapen little figure in her lap. Her tears fell glittering like diamonds and lay shimmering on the white hair of the 'black beast'. After a moment or two she rose and the pale creatureslid off her to lay in a crumpled heap like a broken doll. Clopin could see the tears slide off the downy hair and hit the floor. Some of thembounced and shattered into smaller droplets before soaking into the wood floor. She came to him and helped him to stand, swaying. The creature on the floor was too frightening to look at, terribly human and terrifyingly inhuman all at the same time. He felt a sudden rage inside him, and an overwhelming confusion at the DreamWalker's behavior. Then, as one, they turned and walked away. Chapter Seven