Dreamwalker's Bride - Chapter 423

Chapter 423: Not this time
Trace blinked as he watched his father come towards him, riding atop one of the bizarre monsters that had escaped from the Emperor’s dream.

“Trace. You’re safe,” The older man smiled with relief. “I was wondering if all of you…”

“We’re all right, for now.” Trace responded with a grin of his own. It was good to see the old man. “Want to come inside?”

“That invitation open to everyone?”

Trace noticed for the first time a second man atop the monster. Martin.

Of course, Mia had mentioned finding Martin, he just hadn’t heard the rest of the story.

Trace glanced at the wights, who stoically stared forward.

“They’re not saying no.”

“Are they gonna send dragons to snatch me up and carry me off? Who else did they kidnap?” Martin glared warily upward, and Trace was confused for a moment.

“Oh. They brought back Princess Sapphira and her husband as envoys from King Harold to try to negotiate peace with the wight Emperor,” He explained tiredly.

Blank stares were the only response.

“Better?” The wight’s pale face stared at Trace with a faint mark of urgency.

“Yes, we can go back inside now,” He answered the question that the wight was probably actually asking. “I want them to come, too.”

The wight waited several seconds before inclining its head. That was as much of a ‘yes’ as they were likely to get.

“Webster, too?” Trace’s father pointed to the grotesque beast he was riding. The monster raised a foreleg and wiggled its claws.

“You’re in control of it?” Trace assumed. “You think you can keep control away from the forest?”

“Pretty sure, yup. Caught him back in the tunnels.” Grandpa confirmed. The wights turned and whisked Trace back into the castle, leaving the two men and the antlered abomination in their tracks.

Trace hoped they would be able to find their way.

The return to the Emperor’s bedchamber was a bit of a shock.

In Trace’s absence, several smaller creatures had escaped the dreams. However, smaller still meant at least half the size of a human and twice as vicious.

The four-legged creatures spat venom that singed the beautiful bedspread.

Anaisa struggled against one, and Trace jumped to her aid, using his renewed magic to conjure an arrow that flew directly at its left eye, killing it instantly.

“Dream,” The wight warned, and Trace’s eyes flickered to the source of the monsters. He needed to stop the flow before he could worry about defeating the ones that were already out.

And that would take all his concentration.

Focusing, he worked to seal the breach in the dream, which was blessedly small–for the moment. It could easily have cracked and broken loose into something larger if he hadn’t been here to stop the spread.

The others were working; thankfully Ben had brought a sword, and had that to defend himself and the princess.

Trace could only spare them a look every now and then as sweat beaded on his brow.

“Have you gotten them all?” He asked, strained.

“No, they’re stubborn!” Anaisa’s voice both worried and comforted him. She couldn’t sound so annoyed if she were gravely injured.

Or, maybe she could. His wife was quite a woman.

The fight raged on. Ford and Mia, he realized, he hadn’t seen, but the occasional death squeals of the creatures attested to the fact that Ford had his weird power of invisibility back and was using it.

The fact that his niece was protected did make him feel a small amount of charity for the young man. That, and Denholm’s utter contempt, fueled a nugget of goodwill to the young man who was apparently related to his wife one way or another.

He’d processed a lot while Mia had been telling him the tales of their journey, but her occasional glances at Denholm led Trace to believe he’d received an edited version of the events.

After all, who would want to spill every heartache and danger with someone as unfeeling and cold as Denholm?

“There are too many, we can’t get them all!” Ben called–though whether to Trace or someone else, the dreamwalker couldn’t tell.

He was too consumed with preventing a further breach. He could be no help to them no matter how dire.

It was an annoyance that the wights looked on instead of defeating those dangers their own Emperor conjured. Maybe they thought it would be blasphemous or disrespectful to kill something their master had created.

He’d asked once before, but received no answer. Maybe he should ask again.

Stubborn things.

“Get them out the door if you can’t handle them,” Trace called. “Better out in the wild for a bit than killing us in here!”

“Sure, send them towards the door where your elderly father is!” Grandpa’s voice was oddly good natured in light of the circumstances. “At least I’ve got Webster on my side.”

“Grandpa, help us!” Anaisa’s voice broke through the melee, and Trace chanced a look over his shoulder.

The little monsters had rallied together, forming a tightly grouped pack with fewer vulnerabilities than the individuals.

“I’m comin’,” Grandpa called, and soon, the enchanted monster peeked up over the edge of the bed. “I’m not gonna wake him running past his legs real quick, am I?”

“Go right ahead,” Trace put extra effort into his work while Grandpa took a shortcut across the top of the bed. Webster crashed into the rear of the formation, killing most of the remaining creatures with a few well-placed blows.

“Hard to control a weapon like this while you’re riding him,” Grandpa complained as Webster faltered. “Gotta remember how many legs to walk with and how many to fight with!”

As the screeches died down to whimpers, the dream seemed to recede. Perhaps, subconsciously, the Emperor realized that his newest creations were outmatched in the real world for the time being.

At least, that’s what Trace hoped.

“Everyone all right? We’ve got no more healing water, so no one’s allowed to get hurt too bad.” The old man proclaimed. “These wights treating everybody well? Maybe they got some.”

“No, no one’s hurt,” Anaisa announced as Ford and Mia flickered back into sight. “Not this time.”