The Dream Keeper

Chapter 9: The Vaults

Chapter 9: The Vaults

Parker and Kaelyn fell back onto Felix as Gladamyr and Cerulean were scooped from the stairs and thrown up against the granite walls. Cerulean’s body peeled away from the wall and slapped to the floor. Gladamyr shifted mid-flight into a creature the size of a rhinoceros and crashed hard into the wall, shattering the stonework. Parker smelled the stihl before he saw it. The odor of sewage and sulfur burned his nose, and he instantly retched. His eyes were watering so badly, he couldn’t see. It was as if someone had just shot onion juice in his eyes.

Forgetting the dreamstone and having to hold onto Kaelyn’s hand, he let go and covered his eyes. He moved away from Kaelyn and Felix and threw up on the last few steps of the staircase. He heard the stihl in the room but it seemed to be over by Gladamyr who, fortunately, was on the opposite side of the atrium. Parker could get to safety, but the only problem was he couldn’t see. His eyes would not stop watering, and the smell was so noxious that he was continually dry heaving. He heard Kaelyn too, coughing and spilling out the contents of her stomach, and for the briefest moment he wondered if their bodies were throwing up as well back in Awake.

“Parker, over here,” Felix said, and Parker followed the sound of his voice.

There was some sort of fight going on now between Gladamyr and the stihl, but without sight it was hard to know what was going on.

“Here,” Felix said, handing him something that felt like a fuzzy leaf, “put this on your eyes, and it will help. We need to get to the doorway just beyond. It will take us into the vaults.”

“Parker . . . Parker . . .” Kaelyn moaned, coughing once more.

Parker put the leaves on his eyes and they plastered themselves to his eyelids. With no need to hold them there, he reached out and found Kaelyn’s hand. She squeezed it lightly and tapped it with her other hand. They followed Felix blindly, one hand clutching the back of the dreamling’s trench coat, and holding hands with the other. The sound of Gladamyr and the stihl fighting got louder and louder, and Parker was sure that anyone else in the Crossing would hear and soon be on their way. Felix understood this too. The dreamling moved faster, only pausing for a brief moment when something large crashed in front of them.

Then something unexpected happened; a magical, beautiful voice began to sing. The music echoed around the room and Parker had a sudden urge to close his eyes and sleep. This, Parker thought, was the most ironic thing he’d ever thought; to dream of sleeping when he was already asleep. The lullaby continued and miraculously, the sounds of the battle between Gladamyr and the stihl stopped. Parker heard a loud gurgling yawn that he assumed came from the stihl and, without warning, a trumpeting snore. Parker wished more than anything that he could open his eyes, but they were sealed shut with some sort of paste that ebbed from the leaves Felix had given him.

“Is that Cerulean?” Kaelyn whispered.

“Yes,” Felix said, in reverent response.

Wow, Parker thought, that chick can really sing. Wasting no time, Felix moved them once more across the atrium. Soon, Gladamyr joined them and Parker felt Felix drop down and mumble something about stairs. The light shifted. Although Parker couldn’t see the the room they had entered, he could tell it wasn’t as bright as the rest of the Crossing. It seemed to be—

“Here, I’ll help take those off,” Felix said. “They should have done their job by now.”

Felix pulled at the edges of the leaves and soon Parker was able to open his eyes. Only then did he really look into Felix’s face, noticing that his eyes were bright green, sort of looked like a cat’s with a very large iris. Then he gazed at the place they had just entered. It was breathtaking.