The Dream Keeper's Dragon

3.9 In Ruins

The castle was in ruins. The walls vibrated as new cracks formed and slip the bricks. Aurelie jumped over a hole in the floor. It grew larger as she leaped past it. Bricks fell down to the floor below, some bouncing off of a couch and landing on the tiles with a loud knock.

The corners of the walls and the frames of the doors were webbed as if the castle had been abandoned long ago. The walls were bare of paintings and mirrors. Aurelie held onto the side of her stomach, it cramped at the side from all the running and stopped at a passage that opened to her left.

"Aurelie!" she heard a voice call from this exact direction just moments ago. The wall to her right was broken. Thankfully, she had the moon providing some light. The stars, which floated just outside the castle, helped too, but the passage she was meant to follow was pitch black, and they didn't seem to be able to enter through the gap.

She extended her hand, cupping it, and willed fire to spawn from her palm. Nothing. Trying again, she focused on feeling the magic travel through her body. That always seemed to help when her fire was stubborn. Now, however, she could no longer sense the magic at all. Nothing stirred. Nothing churned.

"Aurelie!" she heard the voice again, more urgent this time.

Aurelie pressed herself against the wall and felt with her foot if the floor was stable beneath it before taking a careful step. About five steps in, her foot no longer found a solid ground. She knelt down on all fours and felt the edges of the hole with her hands. It went from wall to wall. There was no walking around it.

"Aurelie!" the voice called again, this time she could recognize it. Kirin. It came from no direction in particular. In fact, she was certain that the voice called her within her own mind.

With the same certainty, she knew she had to go forward to find him. Floor or no floor, he was somewhere in that darkness, and he was calling her.

Aurelie took four quick steps back, inhaled and ran forward, leaping just as her toes curled around the edge of the hole. No ground met her feet. She fell. Purple lights spiraled around her. Her innards hollowed. She caught her breath and braced for the fall.

***

Aurelie's eyes shot open. Sweat ran down her back and covered her face. A breeze blew through the open window and cooled her down. The stars were back where they belonged, far in the heavens and the girls in charge of watching her were spread across the couches, sleeping. She closed her eyes and forced herself back to sleep, hoping to catch the dream exactly where it ended.

When Cassandra came to wake her that morning, Aurelie was exceptionally grumpy. The dream did not return. Funny how it tormented me every damn night, and now that I want to be trapped in it, it suddenly forces me out.

"Have they had breakfast yet?" she asked Cassandra not bothering with morning greetings.

"Sheesh!" Cassandra exclaimed. "Good morning, Princess."

"Yes, yes!" Aurelie frowned and climbed out of bed. "Morning." I was so close!

"The Keeper is out, the King had breakfast in his chamber, and the nobles are being catered to now," Cassandra went over the morning's events while straightening her sheets. They had made a habit of it. "They think Valice is ready to move and a strange woman arrived earlier today. Mrs. Tina from the kitchen had to force the footmen up to serve food; apparently, her presence petrified half the staff." Cassandra fluffed a pillow and threw it on the bed, walking over to the other side. "The girls are fighting over who is to serve her if she stays the evening."

Aurelie's frown finally softened. "The necromancer!"

Cassandra paused, pillow in hand and turned to Aurelie with a crook in her brow. "A friend of yours?"