DREAMWIELDER Book 1 of The Dreamwielder Chronicles

Chapter 14: NIGHT FLIGHT

Taera woke with a start. She had seen the cavern beneath the ice in her dreams again and a new face: a woman who was smiling, beckoning from above. When Taera had first seen the cavern in her dreams, weeks before, it carried a foreboding sense of danger with it, but now it was different. The thought of the cave warmed her somehow. And the woman, too. Taera sat up and checked on Makarria, who lay sound asleep beside her. Taera hated to wake her, but she felt compelled to go up onto deck. The woman is waiting for us, Taera realized.

"Wake up, sweetie," Taera whispered, shaking Makarria's shoulders.

"What's wrong?" Makarria asked, sitting bolt upright. "Was I dreaming?"

"No, everything is fine. I just need you to come with me."

"Where to?"

"I'm not exactly sure," Taera replied as she got up and shed her sleeping gown. "Just come along. Get into your britches and tunic. It won't do for us to travel in our nightclothes."

Makarria was confused, but she did as she was told. When the two of them were dressed, Taera grabbed Makarria by the hand and led her out of the cabin and up onto the main deck. It was well after midnight, and not even the moon was up anymore. Only the stars lit the waters around Pyrthin's Flame. The damp, salty air around them was completely still, and the only sound was the water sloshing against the hull of the ship.

"Where's the crew?" Makarria asked.

"Sleeping," Taera replied, leading Makarria toward the stern castle.

"But shouldn't there be a helmsmen or a watch at least?"

"Don't worry about it, sweetie," Taera said in a flat, dreamlike tone.

Something wasn't right, Makarria could tell. The flaccid sails were raised, but no one was on deck. It was like a ghost ship. "Taera?" Makarria asked, but Taera was already climbing the ladder up to the stern castle. Makarria hurried up after her. "Taera?" she asked again as she reached the top.

Taera paid her no heed though. Her attention was instead focused on the woman standing at the stern of the ship, the woman from her vision: Roanna.

"Greetings, Princess Taera," Roanna said with a slight bow of her head.

"Who are you?" Makarria asked.

"I am Roanna. And you?"

"She's my attendant," Taera said. "She'll be coming with us."

"You know that I'm taking you away then?" Roanna asked.

"Yes. I've seen it in my visions. And I've also seen that Makarria will travel with us. She must come along. It is not negotiable. If she stays, I stay."

"No need to make threats, Princess. There's plenty of room for two." Roanna turned and grabbed a rope ladder that swayed in the air behind her. Makarria gasped as she followed the ladder upward with her eyes to see the dark airship floating above them. "Quietly now," Roanna said. "Up you go. Both of you."

Makarria opened her mouth to protest and say she couldn't go anywhere without Parmo, but Taera hushed her and pushed her toward the ladder. "Please, just trust me," Taera said. Makarria nodded and grabbed the ladder from Roanna. She climbed easily, despite the sway of the rope ladder, and thirty feet up she reached the deck of the airship. Two massive hands reached over the starboard side rail to help pull Makarria on board, and with little effort on her own part Makarria found herself on deck, face to face with a huge, dark-bearded man clad in furs.