CHAPTER 2

Dreamfasting was like diving into a pool of water without knowing its depth or what might wait below. Kylan remained at the surface at first, sensing Rian’s memories and knowing at the same time Rian could peek into his. It was often disorienting in the beginning, to dreamfast with someone for the first time. Even when they had agreed to dreamfast, there were still so many thoughts and visions, protective barriers and waves of wariness.

After a moment the waves calmed, and Rian began. His mental voice sounded far away and inside Kylan’s mind all at once.

I was a soldier, like my father . . .

The vivid image that came first was of the Castle of the Crystal, obsidian and magnificent, towering over the Dark Wood like a claw and crown. Rian’s memory of the castle was powerful and detailed. He knew every spacious hall and stately room, had traveled and patrolled every spiraling passageway. The only chamber he had not seen was the center pavilion, forbidden to the Gelfling guards and servants. Only the Skeksis Lords, the raptorial velvet-cloaked keepers of the castle, were allowed to enter that place. There, they and they alone communed with the Heart of Thra—the heart of the world. After they heard Thra’s song, they entered its words in tomes and sent out orders to the maudra of each of the Gelfling clans. So the will of Thra was passed on.

Or so it seemed. Kylan already knew the terrible secret the Skeksis kept. He had seen its evidence himself and in dreamfast with Naia after the nightmare they had survived. Now he waited to see it as Rian had.

Our friends went missing, one by one. When we asked the Skeksis, they paid no heed. Then they called for Mira . . .

Kylan saw a flash of a Gelfling girl, all winks and tall tales. Rian walked with her, back to the castle after an evening patrolling the wood that bordered the grounds. In Rian’s hand, hidden in his uniform cloak, was a glowing bellflower. He would give it to Mira when they said good night. He would tell her that even though they had been on duty, he had enjoyed their time together, and perhaps they could enjoy time together some other evening . . .

Two Skeksis were waiting at the castle, the decorated Chamberlain and the Scientist, Lord skekTek, a shrewd, tendony beast with a metal-and-glass eye. They crowded around Mira, the Chamberlain beckoning her for official business.

“Vapra, are you? Oh yes, lovely Silverling . . . come for orders . . .”

The Skeksis with the mechanical eye jabbed a talon-like finger at Rian.

“Retire for the evening, guard.”

Kylan felt Rian’s memory more than he saw it: anger, fear, anxiety. He knew he should trust the lords, or at least obey them, but his gut was telling him that something was wrong. Then impulsiveness as Rian followed, knowing if he were caught, he might be discharged, but if his instinct was right, Mira could be in danger.

She was. The memory was a rush of disorganized fragments of sounds and images: Rian’s path through the castle, the jarring echoes of the Skeksis’ harsh laughter. Mira’s questions that started calm but escalated into alarm. Over it all, Kylan heard the memory of a grating crank, as if an enormous piece of architecture was in motion on a hundred gears and cogs.

Here the vision was sharp and painful. Rian found his way to where the Skeksis had taken Mira. The Skeksis Scientist’s lab, deep in the gut of the castle. The door was open a hair, just a sliver of fiery red in the dark hall. Mira’s voice was quiet now, just whimpers, and Rian peered through the crack in the door. He saw her bound to a chair, facing a panel in the stone wall. skekTek, the Scientist, stood near the panel with his claws on a lever. The cranking and shuddering of machinery intensified, and then the panel opened and flooded the room with brilliant red.

“Look into the light, yes, Gelfling,” skekTek said. He reached to another lever and maneuvered it, bringing a second piece of the contraption into view—a reflector, suspended in the cavern of fire beyond the wall. Mira began to cry out for help, struggling against the bonds. Rian almost burst in then, but skekTek rotated the reflector, placing a blinding dagger of light on Mira’s face. The instant she looked into the light, she went still.

Kylan felt the memory weaken as Rian’s focus lapsed.

It’s all right, he said. You don’t need to show any more. I understand . . .

No, Rian replied. No, it’s important. You should see it. You should see just how terrible the Skeksis really are.

Kylan watched through Rian’s eyes as Mira’s limbs went limp. Her skin paled and dried, her hair turning withered and brittle, as if her life force was being drained from her body. As she slowly died, her eyes turning milky and unseeing, another machine went into motion. A series of tubes shuddered to life, slowly filling with a glowing liquid. The substance was pristine, blue tinted, almost like liquid crystal, and it passed slowly through the conduits until it finally filled a glass vial, drop by drop.

The worst came next. The Skeksis Scientist plucked the vial once it was full. He sniffed it and gave a pleased sigh, and then, to Kylan’s horror, tipped the vial into his mouth for a tiny, sickening sip. As the drops touched his tongue, light flashed in his eyes, clearing them of their aging haze. The wrinkles and distortions in his withered face and beak smoothed, the hairs on his scalp growing thicker and filling with a glimmer of shine. Mira’s life force was now his, her youth flowing into his old and deteriorating veins.

Her vliya, Rian said. As if it’s wine.

Kylan shuddered. Naia had told him as much, but seeing it so clearly in Rian’s memory was horribly different. He was relieved when the vision dissipated.

I’m sorry about Mira, he said.

Me too, Rian replied. Yet the grief had given birth to courage and purpose, it seemed, Now tell me the tale you and Naia share. Tell me how you came to join me in the fight against the Skeksis, who’ve sent the rest of our people after me as a traitor and a liar.

Kylan took hold of the dreamfast, remembering what he knew of Naia’s journey. He had to speak for her as well as himself. Although they had dreamfasted together during their travels, and she had shared with him the story of how she’d left her home and traveled north, it was impossible to dreamfast another’s dreamfasted memories. Instead, he had to speak it, so he kept it short and to the point.

Tavra, one of the All-Maudra’s daughters, came to Naia’s village searching for you and Gurjin. When Tavra didn’t find Gurjin there, Naia left for Ha’rar to defend Gurjin’s honor. I met her north of Sog, when she passed through the Spriton plains.

Kylan remembered the day Naia had come to his village, knowing that as he called up the memory, Rian would see it, too. He remembered Naia’s aloof appeal, and how reluctant she had been to make friends, but Kylan had liked that about her. He had seen his own outsiderness reflected in her. It might not have meant much to her, but for Kylan, it had been the beginning of the journey that had eventually brought him here, to share in this dreamfast with Rian, and to fight against the Skeksis.

The lands were filling with darkness, he told Rian. We saw the darkened creatures, mad with a sickness from looking into the earth. Even the trees in the Dark Wood were ill.

He showed Rian the night they had been lost in the woods. Kylan stood watch while Naia dreamfasted with the Cradle-Tree, trying to calm its madness. She had healed the tree, but it hadn’t soothed the darkness. Those shadows had been born somewhere else.

In the end, we went to the castle . . .

That was where he’d learned that the Skeksis Lords had betrayed them. That they had captured Tavra, the All-Maudra’s noble daughter, and put her in front of the reflector in the Scientist’s laboratory. That the Crystal itself was the source of the darkness, and the Skeksis were responsible.

And Gurjin? Rian asked.

The solemn question brought only one memory to mind: the terrifying Lord skekMal hunting them in the wood, chasing them like a shadow storm with glowing, fiery eyes. That was all Kylan had seen, and so that was where the dreamfast ended.

Kylan folded his arms around himself. His senses returned to reality, but it wasn’t immediate, just as one couldn’t be instantly dry after emerging from a swim. Naia sat on a patch of moss, waiting attentively beside the sleeping horner, while Mythra ate a fat peach-berry plucked from her traveling pouch.

“He sacrificed himself so that we could meet you and warn the rest of our people,” Kylan said. “As did Tavra.”

Kylan watched Rian’s face, trying to guess what was going through the soldier’s mind. Seeing Rian's memory had been difficult, and he couldn’t imagine what it was like to relive it. Rian shook his head, thick brows eternally furrowed.

“Gurjin died proud as ever,” Rian said. “We won’t waste his effort. Nor Tavra’s, nor Mira’s. The Skeksis will pay for what they’ve done. I’ll see to it single-handedly if I have to.”

“You won’t. Gurjin is—was—my brother,” Naia said. “If anyone will teach the Skeksis what Gurjin’s sacrifice meant, it will be me.”

“You? Who haven’t seen a day of duty in the castle?”

“I’ve seen plenty of days in other places.”

“The Skeksis would crush you a second time! I will do it alone.”

“Stop it!” Mythra scolded, so forcefully that a bit of fruit flew out of her mouth. “Rian always tries to go it alone. Look how that’s worked out for you so far, big brother!”

Rian scoffed, blowing his shaggy bangs away from his face.

“I do it for you. And for Timtri, and Mother. I always have, and I’ll continue to do things on my own if it saves the Gelfling people. I don’t need anyone else’s help.”

Naia rolled her eyes so hard, her whole head moved. Kylan couldn’t decide what to think of the Stonewood soldier. He was certainly brave and willing to act, but he had a streak of nerve that had nearly been the end of him at least once. Following the Skeksis scientist into the depths of the castle could have been the last thing he had ever done, but instead he had escaped and lived to tell the tale. Either his courage was being rewarded or he was just plain lucky.

Mythra finished the peach-berry and threw the pit at her brother, who deftly avoided it.

“Speaking of Mother. She wants to invite you all to supper—like we used to do, before Rian left to serve at the castle.”

“I should stay here in the wood,” Rian said. “I’m a traitor, remember?”

“Mother says it’s important for you to come home. She left early this morning to go digging for your favorite merkeeps. She wants to thank Naia and Kylan for believing in you. Joining us is the least you could do to show some gratitude, since you don’t seem very interested in thanking them yourself.”

Rian flinched.

“I’m not ungrateful. I just don’t want anyone else to get hurt. After what you’ve done and seen, you might want to consider keeping out of sight, too.”

The warning was all too practical. It didn’t matter if they were innocent. The Skeksis’ accusations were more important than the truth.

Mythra snorted. She hopped down from her perch and headed up the path, back toward Stone-in-the-Wood.

“Just be home in time for supper.”