Chapter Fourteen: Adventures in Slumberland
Guardians of the Twilight Lands -- The Sixth Book of Unexpected Enlightenment
In her dream, she was riding her pony Widdershins across the moors, racing against a horse made out of cloud. Next thing she knew, Zoë Forrest walked towards her, her pixy-short hair and her long forelock braid a deep purple glittering with tiny silver stars glittering. The feather, in its spot of honor in Zoë’s braid, resembled the Milky Way.
Zoë waved, a silvery light shining around her. “Hey, Rachel, wake up! Er…rather, don’t wake up but … lucid up?”
Rachel blinked, disoriented. She had not intended to fall asleep. She had lain down to review the pages from her grandfather’s file and had drifted off after only the first page. Now, she felt awake, but she was still standing in her dream: The moors stretched out before her, but if she turned and looked behind her, she could see the forest that grew in the dreamland of Roanoke Academy.
“Did it work out? With the urisk?” she asked, looking around.
Zoë shrugged. “It was a bit tricky, with the Agents and all. But between Sig and me, we managed it.” Zoë gestured and began walking. “Let’s go. We have a lot to do tonight.”
Rachel followed her a short distance to where Joy and Nastasia waited among the trees of the dream forest. Together, they wandered up and down the undulating wall-like rivers of mist that ran through the landscape, peering into the oxbows and eddies at individual dream dioramas until they found Valerie. In her dream, she was standing in a swanky gentleman’s club interviewing fellow classmen Solomon and Solon Drake, sons of a famous judge. As soon as Zoë’s silvery light fell on her, she grew lucid. Zoë asked her if they should look for Salome, but Valerie shook her head, saying that her friend had not gone to bed yet and thus would not be dreaming.
As they searched for Sigfried and Lucky, Rachel saw a dreamscape that looked a bit like home. This person was also dreaming of wind-swept moors. Suddenly, she recognized the farmhouse in that dream. It appeared in a painting that hung in Roanoke Hall.
“Wait!” she cried, grabbing Zoë’s arm. “This is Gaius! Can we take him with us?”
“Sure. No skin off my incisors,” Zoë replied casually.
Joy hooked her arm through Nastasia’s. “It’s your vision, princess!”
Nastasia gave Rachel a sympathetic smile. “I believe young Mr. Valiant has proved himself, and I have already given my consent to his joining our expeditions. Let us wake him.”
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