Dreamwalker's Bride - Chapter 404

Chapter 404: Stay
Trace stared in confusion as Denholm and the wight left, walking down the narrow stairs the creatures had built for the two humans to access the top of the bed.

He felt a brief flash of regret that Denholm wouldn’t stay to help, but he shook it off. Of course, he wanted someone else to share the burden he’d been carrying, but having Denholm here now would be… inconvenient.

Trace turned and pulled Anaisa more fully into his embrace once more, burying his face in her hair.

“I’ve missed you,” He whispered. Her arms tightened around him.

“Not half as much as I’ve missed you.” She replied, tears making her voice rough. “I can’t believe you’re alright. I had hope, after the dream you sent–”

“You got it?” He pulled back and looked into her face. “I didn’t even dare to hope it would come to you. I would have told you to go home and keep our boys safe–”

“It didn’t come to me,” She frowned at him. “It got to Ford.”

“Ford?” Trace frowned, trying to remember everything he’d said. “That good for nothing–”

“Don’t talk about him that way!” The vehemence in his wife’s tone made Trace’s eyebrows shoot up with surprise.

“What? Why not?” Trace hadn’t felt jealousy for anyone in years, but, “Did you say it’s been months since we’ve seen each other?”

“A lot has happened,” Anaisa sighed deeply. “It would take far too long to explain it all, but can you trust me that he is good and wants what’s best for all of us? We’d all be dead several times over if not for him.”

“All of us?” Trace glanced around.

“Sorry, we wanted to give you two a few moments, but, well, the wight seemed to know we were here, so it seems a bit silly to hide now.”

Trace blinked, unwilling to believe his eyes when he realized that Mia and Ford were standing at the edge of the bed, holding hands.

Seth would absolutely lose his mind.

“Uncle Trace,” Mia let go of the young man and rushed over, making Trace’s heart soften a little. It reminded him of when she was small enough for him to grab and toss into the air when she came running towards him, and he released Anaisa briefly to hold the young woman in a hug.

“You’re all right?” He looked her up and down. The last time he’d seen her had been… “It’s been months, really?”

“Two or so. We’re here to rescue you,” Mia told him as she pulled away.

“The three of you?” Trace shook his head in confusion. This was all too strange, but then again, his whole life had been strange for a while now.

“Well, more, but…” Mia hesitated, looking around.

“Tell us what we need to do to get you out of here,” Anaisa interrupted. “You told the wight you wouldn’t leave.”

“Ah,” Trace sighed, seeing the wisdom in filling them in on everything here, despite his burning curiosity about all the information of the outside world. “That thing there is what the wights call ‘Emperor’.”

The gargantuan occupant of the field-sized bed continued his snoring as Trace took a second to quickly eliminate a few of the most terrifying elements of the dream he was having.

“My understanding from the wights, although they’re not exactly verbose, is that the tree we know of was stolen from the forest here some hundreds of years ago as a seedling. Since it was so small, the emperor did not notice the magic decrease at the time. The humans of that time had some manner of treaty not to invade wight land, and vice versa.

“I’m not clear on the specifics, but apparently whoever that was dug up a little tree and took it with him. The wights suspected, but could not confirm, that it was gone, and have been subtly searching all this time in secret.

“It was technically breaking the treaty on both sides, but since no one could prove anything, there was a measure of peace. When the tree we know was severely injured, they could feel a dip in the magic within the world and narrowed down their search area.

“The emperor became enraged, but had no target for his anger since he didn’t know why he felt the world’s magic wounded. It was only once the wights found and brought the tree back that he learned that the treaty was long-ago broken.

“Rather than risk a full-scale obliteration of the human race, the wights brought Denholm and myself back, determined to keep him asleep until his anger faded somewhat. His dreams are violent, and come to life, so I’ve been doing my best to contain them. Unfortunately, some of the monsters have escaped.”

“Giant white crocodiles? Chimera? Terrible spider-insects with antlers?” Mia interrupted, her eyes wide.

Trace grimaced. “Amongst others.”

A flash of ice shot through his veins at the thought that his wife and niece had encountered such awful creatures. He didn’t have a 100% success rate at containing the Emperor’s horrible dreams or the creatures they spawned. The chimera had been one of his first failures.

“Denholm’s responsibility is to make the emperor overwhelmingly sleepy. Makes him feel heavy and warm, I gather. Once the emperor is asleep, I can do a fairly good job of keeping him there, with creative solutions, but they are exhausting.”

“The sleeping powder was a stroke of genius,” Anaisa complimented him, sidling closer. “But what do we do now? How do we get you home while guaranteeing that he doesn’t wake up and destroy the world in his anger?”

“I’m not sure, but I don’t think they would have let you stay if they didn’t think it was possible,” Trace frowned. “They kicked out Martin immediately when we came even close.”

“That’s what he told us, and why we came in while invisible,” Mia sighed. “There must be a way, if only we could find it.”