THOMAS SAT up. It was morning. He was in Rachelle’s house.
For several long moments he sat there, frozen by a barrage of thoughts from his dream in Bangkok. The situation had gone critical—he had to uncover the truth about the Raison Strain.
True enough, unless that was all a dream.
But there was another reason, wasn’t there? He had to learn the truth about Teeleh’s claim that Bill and the spacecraft were real. He had to eliminate the confusing possibilities, or he would never settle into the truth.
And yesterday Tanis had shown him how he might be able to mount his own little expedition into the black forest. The colored sword. It was poison to Teeleh.
He jumped out of bed, splashed water on his face, and pulled on his clothes. After leaving Tanis and Johan yesterday, Thomas had intended to eat the nanka that Johan had brought him and fall asleep. But as it turned out, he didn’t need any help sleeping just yet. By the time he reached the village, it was almost time for the Gathering. He couldn’t miss the Gathering.
Something strange had happened to him that evening while he was in the lake’s waters. A momentary shift in his perspective. He’d imagined being shot in the head, but the vision was fleeting.
When he got back from the Gathering, they ate a feast of fruits as they had the first night. Johan sang and Rachelle danced along with Karyl and Palus told a magnificent tale.
But what was Thomas’s gift?
Dreaming stories, he told them. He didn’t dance like Rachelle or sing like young Johan or tell stories like Palus and Tanis, but he sure could dream stories.
And so he did. He dreamed about Bangkok.
“Good morning, sleepy dreamer.” Rachelle leaned against the door, backlit by the sun’s rays. “What did we do in your dreams? Hmm? Did we kiss?”
Thomas stared at her, caught by her beauty. The sound of women giggling drifted in from outside.
“Yes, my tulip, I believe I did dream about you.”
She crossed her arms and tilted her head. “Maybe this dreaming of yours has more possibilities than I first imagined.”
In fact he had dreamed about Rachelle. Or at least he had dreamed of talking about his dream of Rachelle. Could he talk to her as if she were Monique?
He crossed to her and leaned against the wall. “If you were held captive and would like me to rescue you, where would—”
“We did this just yesterday,” she said. “Are you forgetting again? You still haven’t rescued me from the cave with the bottles.”
“Well, no . . . you couldn’t be rescued.”
“You never tried,” she said.
He stared at her for a moment, lost. Clearly it wasn’t so simple.
“I think I’ll go to the forest and think about how to do it,” he said.
She stepped aside. “Be my guest.”
The women he’d heard laughing were up the path when he stepped past her into the sunlight. They glanced back, whispering secrets.
“Okay, I’ll be back.”
“Don’t be long,” Rachelle said. “I want to hear what you’ve concocted. All of the delicious details.”
“Okay.”
“Okay.”
He made it out of the village after being stopped only twice. Thankfully not by Johan or Tanis. Even more thankfully not by Michal or Gabil. He didn’t need the distraction at the moment. Or any dissuasion. He had to keep his mind on this task of his, and if Rachelle wasn’t going to shed light on his dreams of Monique, he had to try the black forest before he lost his resolve.
It took him an hour to find the exact clearing where he’d met Tanis yesterday. There, twenty feet to his left, lay the sword. He wouldn’t have been surprised if Tanis had returned for it himself. But he hadn’t.
He picked up the sword and swung it through the air like a swashbuckler, thrusting and parrying into thin air filled with imaginary Shataiki. It felt uncommonly good. There wasn’t much of a handle, but the stick fit his grip perfectly. The blade was thin enough to see through and sharp enough to cut.
He would at least test the Shataiki’s reaction to this new weapon of his. What did he have to lose? Surely the beasts would have sentries posted. Within minutes of his appearance at the Crossing, the place would be covered with the bats, and he would pull out the sword and see how they reacted. If the test went especially well, he would see where it might lead.
Thomas glanced at the sun. It was midmorning. Plenty of time.
He reached the white bridge in well under an hour at a steady run. A few days ago it would have taken him longer. He was as fit as he could ever recall.
He stopped at the last line of trees and studied the Crossing. The arching bridge looked unchanged. The river still bubbled green beneath the plain white wood. The black trees on the opposite bank looked as stark as he remembered—like a papier-mâché forest created by a child, branches jutting off at ungainly angles.
The unmistakable flutter of wings drifted across the river. Sentries. Thomas pulled back and dropped to one knee. For a moment the whole notion struck him as both ridiculous and absurdly dangerous. Who was he to think that he could fight off a thousand black Shataiki with a single sword?
He lifted the weapon and ran his finger along its edge. But it wasn’t just any sword. If he was right, the wood alone would scatter the vermin. A surge of confidence rippled down his back.
A small stick lay at his knee, red like the sword in his hand. Not too different from what he imagined a small dagger might look like. Thomas snatched it up and slipped it under his tunic at his back. Grasping the sword with both hands, he stood and stepped into the open.
He walked slowly, sword before him. Within twenty paces he reached the bridge. No sign of the bats. He paused at the foot of the bridge, then walked up the planks.
Still no sign of the Shataiki.
He reached the crest of the bridge before he saw them. A dozen, two dozen, a thousand, he couldn’t tell, because they were hidden just beyond the tree line with only a few red, beady eyes to show for their presence. But they were most definitely there.
He made a slight waving motion with the sword. The bats made no move. Were they afraid? Or were they just waiting for their leader? Wafts of acidic sulfur drifted past his nostrils. They were definitely there.
“Come out, you filthy beasts,” he muttered, straining to see them. Louder now, “Come out, you filthy beasts!”
The eyes didn’t move. Only an occasional shift among them even told him they were alive. He took a step forward and called again. “Bring me your leader.”
For a long minute there was no movement. Then motion. To his left.
Teeleh’s magnificent blue wings wrapped around his golden body and dragged on the ground as he stepped into the open. Thomas had forgotten just how beautiful the larger bat looked. Now, with the sun shining off his skin, the creature looked as though he had just flown down from the upper lake. At thirty paces, only his green, unblinking eyes disconcerted Thomas. He would never grow accustomed to pupil-less eyes.
Teeleh refused to look directly at Thomas, but aimed a stately gaze across the river. No other bats followed.
Thomas swallowed, shifted the sword in his sweating palms, and brought it to his left to bear on the Shataiki leader. The creature gave Thomas a fleeting glance and returned his eyes to the opposite bank. With a loud flap, he unfolded his wings to their full breadth, shrugged his shoulders, and then wrapped them around his body once again.
“So. You think with your new sword you have power over me. Is that it, human?” The beast still refused to look at him.
Thomas could think of nothing smart in response.
The Shataiki finally shifted his piercing gaze to Thomas. “Well? Are you going to just stand there all day? What is it you want?”
Thomas cleared his throat. “I need to know more about the histories. About the Raison Strain. And then I want you to show me the ship,” he said quietly.
“We have an agreement,” Teeleh said. “You bring me Tanis, and I show you the ship. Is your memory still slipping? Until you can keep your agreements, you can forget about the histories as well. What does it matter anyway? They are only dreams. Your reality lies behind me, in the black forest, where we have already repaired it.”
“I didn’t break any agreement. You said you would trade a repaired ship for Tanis. I want to see the ship first. He is waiting to come when I call him.”
The Shataiki’s eyes widened. Thomas knew then that the Shataiki didn’t know what happened outside their miserable black forest. Teeleh was having difficulty finding a response, and Thomas knew in that moment that he could beat this beast.
“You’re lying,” Teeleh said. “You are as deceiving as the others who’ve filled you full of lies.”
Thomas slowly stepped over the bridge toward the Shataiki. “I lie, you say. And what would this lie gain me? Surely you, the father of lies, should know that lies are spun for gain. Isn’t that your chief weapon? And what do I gain by this lie?”
The Shataiki remained silent, face taut, eyes unblinking. Thomas stepped off the bridge and the bat took a step backward. The stench of sulfur from the forest was almost unbearable. “Now, I think that you will show me my ship. What harm is there in that? You didn’t lie to me, did you?”
The black leader considered the words. He suddenly relaxed and grinned. “Very well. I will show you. But no tricks. No more lies between us, my friend. Just cooperation. I’ll help you, and you can help me.”
Thomas had no intention of helping this creature, and the fact that Teeleh didn’t seem to understand that gave him even more courage. In the end he was just a big bat with pretty skin and green cherries for eyes.
Thomas walked forward, sword extended.
On the other hand, Thomas had just crossed the bridge and now stood in the black forest. Was he crazy? No, he had to continue. He had to know. If there was a ship as Teeleh claimed, the histories meant nothing. If there was no ship, he would trade information on the histories for another promise to deliver Tanis. He would never fulfill his promise, of course. This was the battle of the minds, and Thomas could beat this overgrown fruit fly.
Teeleh stepped to the side and kept a respectable distance from the sword. A flock of wings took noisy flight when he reached the tree line. Thomas glanced back at the colored trees one last time before stepping into the dark forest.