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It took almost an hour for them to rip down the masses of vines that covered the courtyard walls. They scraped dirt away to reveal runes that had been covered for hundreds of years. Soon, enough runes were uncovered to show a complete circle – exactly like the one that had been down in Guyan’s valley.
“So why couldn’t the storm dragons find this?” Tercel asked. He looked up to the sky where the courtyard would easily be seen from the air.
“It used to be covered in,” Zaine told him. “Perhaps they didn’t look inside buildings?”
“The castle must have been built around it many years before I arrived here,” Guyan guessed with a slight shrug, as if it didn’t really matter any more. She was following the runes around the courtyard, and she stopped suddenly as she reached the main door into the courtyard. “Here. This is why the circle isn’t working.”
It didn’t take Zaine long to realise what Guyan meant. His eyes followed the familiar runes as they ran down the stones and along the ground. They stopped abruptly at the edge of the marble path that led to the tree.
“Have they been destroyed?” Maata asked.
“I don’t think so.” Tercel knelt down and pointed to the edge of the path. “It’s slightly higher here than the rest of the courtyard, as if it’s resting on something.”
Guyan ignored them all as they discussed the path. She looked quickly around the courtyard. Clearly she could not see what she was looking for and she stepped back into the castle. She emerged a few seconds later with a solid silver candelabra. She stood on the edge of the circle and swung the candelabra at the marble with a strength that did not seem to match her small stature. The blow only cracked the edge of the marble, and Guyan raised the silver candelabra to strike it again.
“If they had destroyed the runes, it would have set your world free from Zhan and time would have wandered freely,” Guyan said as she struck the marble a second time.
“Like it is now?” Tercel asked. “Maybe that is what has caused time to slow down?”
Zaine quickly fetched a candlestick, tossing the candle aside as he hurried back to the courtyard. He joined Guyan in her attack of the marble, and it was a dozen strokes later that the marble broke apart enough to lift it.
“Stay outside the circle of runes,” Guyan warned them. She pulled up a chunk of marble, and a small smile twitched at the edges of her mouth as a line of runes was uncovered. Relief softened her eyes and a tear slipped unchecked down her cheek.
“Are you sure it’s not damaged?” Maata asked, leaning closer to see the runes.
Guyan did not reply; her attention was on the circle of runes. She and Zaine were clearing all the marble from the runes. After they had swept some of the rubble from the circle, Guyan sat back on her heels, with her back by the door, and stared at the circle.
She turned to Zaine and pointed to a rune on her arm, indicating he should speak it.
It was the first rune Zaine had ever learnt and he said it loudly. Guyan’s joy seemed to be fading and a frown creased her forehead.
“It’s still broken,” she said in a voice close to tears.
“How can you tell?” Tercel asked.
“We should be able to see my world,” she replied. She walked around the circle a little way, then knelt down and brushed the runes clean. “Speaking the unsealing rune should have opened the gateway, even though it stays open for only a dozen heartbeats. If you drew the rune, the gateway should open and stay that way until it is closed with the same rune.”
She blew the rest of the runes clean. Zaine traced the matching rune slowly with one finger, speaking it at the same time. Then he looked into the circle, almost willing the vision of a field of long grass to appear – but the single tree remained.
“One of the runes must still be covered,” Zaine suggested as he began to walk along the edge of the circle, examining the runes.
“We need a broom to clear the rubble more,” Tercel said, heading for the door.
“I’ll show you where one is,” Maata offered, following him into the castle.
Zaine ran his hand along the string of runes – reciting them silently as he went. At first he could not see anything wrong, but as his hand slid up the base of one of the stone pillars he stopped. His hand had struck a rough patch where a chunk of stone was missing. He leaned in closer and saw that a rune was completely missing.
“It is where the lightning from the storm dragons struck,” Guyan said, making him jump. She was standing next to him, staring at the missing chunk of rock.
“They didn’t strike this one though,” Zaine said with a sinking feeling.
“Remember the one in the valley was just a copy of this one. When they struck that stone, it damaged this one as well,” Guyan explained. “Luckily it was not enough to destroy the link, just the copy.”
“When the dragons were trying to strike me down, I hid by the stone,” Zaine defended himself with a small gulp. Now that they had found the circle, it was his fault that it didn’t work.
“It can be fixed,” Guyan said, putting a hand into her pocket and taking out the polished pink glass that Zaine had given her. “Make sure you don’t step inside the circle.”
Zaine shuffled back so that he was as far back as he could go with his back pressed against the courtyard wall. His feet were half on the runes, but not over them.
Guyan stepped back as well. She looked briefly at the repeating image of her mother and little sister, and then pressed the glass onto the side of the stone.
Zaine heard a distinct click as the glass touched the stone and Guyan let go. The polished pink surface still shone, repeating the scene he had called up, but it was sealed to the stone once more. The rune was undamaged and completed the circle perfectly. The circle of runes glowed briefly.
Guyan was staring at the edge of the circle and so Zaine turned to face it. What he saw filled him with both relief and horror at the same time.
The tree was gone – and in its place was a vision of a land so familiar that he felt a chill run down his spine. Instead of the field of long grass he had expected to see, they were looking at a barren land filled with colourless light. Mountains rose next to deep canyons, and remnants of long dead forests lay scattered in deep shadows next to the mountains.
“It’s the same as the Circle of Dreams at Willow Castle,” Zaine said, his mouth suddenly dry. “I thought it was supposed to lead to your world.”
“It does.” Guyan was still smiling, and didn’t appear bothered by the grim sight. “Keep looking.”
Zaine stared, trying not to remember the last time he had stood before a circle with a scene such as this – when his mother had banished him to be cast into the circle where dreams became your worst enemy. Slowly the scene began to change, and for a brief second Zaine saw a field of grass before it faded back to the barren land.
“I don’t understand,” Zaine said, turning away from the view, unable to watch any longer.
“Time is still running too slowly,” Guyan explained. She was smiling broadly now, despite her homeland being visible for only such a short time. “What you see there is the link between the two lands. It is a sort of holding space. We call it a dreamlink, because it binds the two places together. It is a place where the mind can create anything, even a link to hold a land in place that is as far away as the stars.”
“Or a mountain too steep to climb.” Zaine remembered when he had followed Maata into the Circle of Dreams and helped her battle a huge mountain. Anything she feared had become a reality, and mountains had been her biggest fear.
“Exactly,” Guyan said, nodding. “When Aldren created the circle back at Willow Castle, he managed to get to that link, but no further. Usually it takes only a heartbeat to pass through this link and it is almost impossible to see, but with time slowing down it can be seen clearly.”
Zaine was about to ask if she was going to go back to her homeland straight away when voices from behind him made him turn.
“We’ve got a broom,” Maata said as she hurried through the door, followed a step behind by Tercel.
“Wait!” Guyan said, flinging out her arm to stop them, but they were already stepping into the courtyard and jumping over the mess of marble rubble.
Zaine barely had time to draw breath as he watched his two friends vanish into the Circle of Dreams. One second they were in the castle, and the next they were shadowy shapes tumbling to the ground far away in the barren, wild landscape.
Zaine stared at the swirling winds and clouds in the uninviting world that was only a step away. He couldn’t help the nervous sweat that beaded on his forehead at the thought of anyone going into the circle. It took months of preparation to get into a mindset that allowed enough control of thoughts to allow you to survive in such a place. Instead, Maata and Tercel had had no warning at all.
“If they appear unannounced in Zhan, there will be trouble,” Guyan said, looking quickly at Zaine.
“If they get that far,” Zaine said flatly. As he watched, his friends stood up and looked around. He knew they would not be able to see him or Guyan any longer, except perhaps as vague shapes. In an instant he knew he was going in after them. He turned to meet Guyan’s gaze and saw that she knew what he was thinking.
“They will need both our help,” Guyan said, turning her hand over once again to show the black cross that stopped her using her runes. “Even this cannot stop me helping in the dreamlink.”
“We should tell someone where we’ve gone,” Zaine said.
“There isn’t time. Just jam the door shut so nobody else wanders into the circle.”
The broom Maata had fetched lay on the runes. Zaine slowly shuffled his way to the door. He pulled the green wooden door closed and jammed the broom through the handle and across the doorway. It seemed to take forever, and as he finished he realised that time was beginning to slow down again. He wanted to speak the runes to speed time up, but he felt Guyan grab his hand and pull him into the circle.
It was only one step across the runes, but the difference in surroundings was instant. The castle courtyard with the single, ancient tree was gone. In its place was the landscape that had haunted his dreams ever since he had gone into the first Circle of Dreams back at Willow Castle.
A seemingly never-ending land of barren, rocky ground, small forests and mountains was in a perpetual twilight that bled the colour from everything. He could feel Guyan’s hand in his, and he glanced to make sure she was okay. She looked strangely calm, and Zaine was instantly jealous, as his heart was racing with terror.
“We just need to wait until we cross into Zhan,” she said comfortingly. “It shouldn’t take too long.”
“I need to find the others,” Zaine said, pulling his hand free and scanning the surrounding land. Maata and Tercel were nowhere in sight, but then a sudden scream off to his left had him off running without waiting to see if Guyan was following.
It was definitely Maata’s voice, and it was coming from a small forest not far away. As he entered the trees, he heard footsteps behind him and hoped it was Guyan. He fought down the fear that it was something dangerous chasing him. If he let himself dream up some hungry creature, then he knew it would become real in this place.
He wasn’t sure exactly which direction to go in once he was in the trees, as Maata had only screamed once and he had lost his bearings since then. The grey trunks of the trees seemed to leap up before him, forcing him to change direction again and again. He knew he was lost, and he turned to see if Guyan was following. Perhaps she had a better idea of which way to go?
A shiver of terror flooded through him as he saw it wasn’t Guyan following him. Instead a dozen sets of yellow eyes shone out from the shadowy depths of the forest, and a low growl told him that he had dreamt up a pack of wolves.
“Typical,” he muttered to himself, trying desperately to imagine that they were gone, but failing miserably. He forced himself not to look at the hungry eyes but hurried on through the forest.
“Zaine!” A shout up ahead made him run even faster. It wasn’t a worried shout, though, and as he broke through the trees he saw that Guyan had already reached Maata and Tercel. She was helping Maata down from a tree while Tercel was throwing rocks at birds that were swooping in to attack them.
Zaine hurried over to them, breathing hard and wondering how the rune-marked girl had got there so fast. Guyan didn’t even look out of breath.
“You took your time. Did you get lost?” Guyan asked, looking slightly amused. Then her gaze drifted off behind Zaine and her eyebrows rose. “And you brought visitors.”