I left Mak to give my love to Herald, and to think of a good way to introduce the staff to the fact that they had a rapidly growing creature of legend in the cellar of their workplace.
While I really had wanted to take her along, flying alone had one major benefit: I could fly above the clouds without worrying about what that might do to any potential soaked passengers. And my pouch of gold coins was even small enough that I could keep it in my mouth and rapidly Shift back and forth to shed all the water once I got up there, allowing me to fly dry for the first time in days, something that I now knew that I’d been taking for granted.
Twenty minutes at cruising altitude, a quick detour to my mountain stream for a long drink, and another Shift in and out later, and I was dry and comfortable inside my mountain.
When I poured my latest acquisition onto my bed of coins I was prepared for the pain that followed. It wasn’t quite as blinding as last time. My legs only gave out, rather than spasming. It was still pretty damn awful, and I was sure that when I returned to the Favor I would again be visibly larger than when I left.
Saying that the pain wasn’t as bad as last time was like saying that being hit by a car wasn’t as bad as being hit by a truck. I still ached all over, and Mercies, but I was glad that my only plans for the next sixteen or so hours involved sleeping. I didn’t even bother getting to my feet again after my legs failed me. I just wiggled to get more comfortable, let my muscles turn to soup, and waited for sleep to take me.
----------------------------------------
The transition from relaxed wakefulness to dream was absolutely seamless. One moment I was laying on my hoard, inviting sleep to take me, and the next I opened my eyes to the sea of stars that was the dreamscape. Or at least how my brain interpreted whatever it was that it was picking up from everyone around me.
There were two people I wanted to visit that night. I’d recently spoken to Zabra, but visiting her in her dreams would fill two purposes. The first was that I could learn things about her from her dreams that she would never think to tell me, and I wouldn’t think to ask. The second was that I wanted her to feel that, for good or for ill, I was watching over her.
The other person, who I needed to visit more urgently, was Tammy. Leretem, my horrible Tekereteki mercenary, who I’d broken into a worshipful mess and then returned to her company. I told myself that I only wanted to use her, that, as a mercenary on the other side of the war that had just started, she was in an excellent position to learn things that could be strategically important. I could lie to myself all I wanted. While it was true, the real reason was that I needed to know that she was okay.
I found her with a thought. Perhaps it was thanks to experience, or perhaps carrying more Heart made dreamwalking easier. Perhaps it was something else entirely. When I called her a worshipful mess I wasn’t exaggerating; the way she treated me was practically religious, and perhaps that fervor translated into her star, distant as it was, being particularly bright. Considering that only Herald and Mak could rival her, there might be more than a little to that.
Whatever it was, I had barely thought of her before I stepped into her dreams.
Tammy was riding, fast and hard, her mount strong and surefooted as it ate up the miles through the high hills of some mountain range I had never seen. She was younger than when I’d seen her. Her hair was longer, whipping free behind her, and tears streaked her temples, wetting the hair above her ears.
She had both her hands.
With a wish, I had her standing before me in the short grass. She looked about in confusion, then realized who it was that towered above her. A look of complete rapture came over her face, and she fell to her knees, looking up at me.
“My lady Draka. Great one,” she said, her voice trembling. “You came for me!”
“Hello, Tammy. Have you learned anything of use to me?”
She inched closer, never getting off her knees, her eyes never leaving mine, until she could put her hands on mine. “I have, great lady! I have! Word is that commander Lakateke took the navy north towards Karakan, but that his supplier of slaves in that city has vanished.”
“And the slaves themselves?”
“All sent to Tekeretek, great lady.”
I snorted with annoyance. I’d expected that, but I’d hoped for something else, something that would make them easier to rescue. Tammy instantly bent double, pressing her head to the back of my hand. “I am sorry, great lady! I wish I had more pleasing news, but it is the truth!”
“It’s not all your fault,” I sighed, pushing her back so that she was sitting straight again. “Could you get to the city of Tekeretek?”
“To the city itself? Perhaps, but it would be odd. A— a provincial commoner like me, to travel to the city, it’s— it would raise questions, great lady. Shall I do it?”
“Damn it. No, not yet. Have you learned anything else that might interest me? Anything about the war?”
New hope blossomed on her face. “Yes, great lady! The Happarans have established a number of footholds across the Divide. Pushing north has been slow, but rumor has Tekereteki troops arriving to reinforce the Happarans within a tenday. And the fleet is expected to launch an attack on the League’s navies before they can combine, followed by a declaration of war.”
Well, shit, I thought. Tekeretek getting involved openly was one of the possibilities that had been discussed for why Happar felt confident enough to take on the entire League.
“How reliable are these rumors?”
“One of my comrades, who is a trustworthy man, insists that he heard the commander herself speak about it with one of the Happarans!”
“Right. Right, right… Well done, Tammy. That’s definitely useful. Anything else out of the ordinary?”
Tammy’s eyes lit up at my praise. “Goblins and other monsters are being driven north across the river!” she said, eager for my approval. “The Happarans don’t admit to it, but enough people have seen it that nobody questions it!”
“All right! Good. Very good, Tammy!” I’d been wondering why they’d let all those Nest Hearts grow along the border. It sounded like they were using the spawned monsters as a distraction, or as a first line of troops or something. “I’m very pleased with you, Tammy. Try to learn anything you can about the Happaran and Tekereteki war efforts without looking suspicious.”
“Yes, my lady! Thank you!”
Tammy shone with such sheer, pathetic joy at my words that I almost forgot what a terrible person she was. Or had been, perhaps. I couldn’t imagine that she’d turned into the obsequious creature she was now without some pretty major changes to her personality.
There was just one thing left to ask about before I left her to her dreams again.
“And yourself?” I asked. “How are you doing? Did you find a healer?”
“I’m humbled that you ask, great lady,” she said, bowing her head. “I have been unable to find a healer. Bekiratag was our only magical healer, and there are no healers we can access near the front who can regrow limbs. I’m unlikely to be able to get my hand back until we leave for a major city. But the commander assures me that the company will cover the cost!”
“And other than your hand?”
“I— Kordon and Sergen, they know that I’ve recognized your greatness. I’ve tried to convince them that I was only placating you so that you’d release us, but I don’t know how successful I’ve been. I get sidelong glances from the others, sometimes. And it is hard to be so far separate from you. Oh, but the commander tried to get rid of the tracking medallion, and I snuck away from the camp and dug it up! It makes the distance more bearable. I’ll endure, great lady. For as long as you need me here, or in Tekeretek, or anywhere else, I’ll endure, and dream of the day I can return to you.”
“Right…” I said, thoroughly weirded out. “Good initiative to get your hands on that medallion, though! Keep it hidden so they don’t find it and, I don’t know, hang you or something.”
“I’ll go on keeping it well hidden, great lady.”
“Great. Well. Sweet dreams, then, Tammy.”
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With that I willed myself to leave her. I didn’t want to give her the opportunity to beg me to stay or come get her or anything like that.
Part of the reason for that was that I was genuinely pleased with her, and I didn’t trust myself not to impulsively promise something I didn’t want to make good on. She’d definitely given me some interesting news. Her having the medallion rather than the commander was good, but knowing that Tekeretek was likely to join the war soon was huge. I had to get that to Sempralia and the rest of the council; even if their own intelligence had told them as much, confirmation couldn’t hurt. And they should hear the stuff about monsters being driven over the river, too, since I’d never heard of that being a thing. If using monsters in war was a thing, I should have heard about it by then.
My other target for the night was Zabra. I’d been worried that she wouldn’t be sleeping properly, but she must have taken my wishes to heart, because I found her with no trouble. And what I saw made me almost regret intruding.
The Zabra that I saw as I watched her dream was neither the cold-hearted, arrogant woman who’d had my friends tortured, nor the anxiety ridden shut-in that I’d met the night before. She was happy and vivacious, and while she looked the same as I’d seen her I got the impression that the Zabra in this dream was actually much younger. She was walking in a garden, dressed in a child’s tunic of fine cloth, and next to her walked a small girl, similarly dressed, who by her height couldn’t have been more than five or at most six years old. The younger girl’s face was indistinct, almost half-formed, but I could recognize Kesra in it in that way that you know who someone is in a dream, even if you later realize that their face was all wrong.
Zabra was happy, excited, speaking quickly in that same mix of Karakani and Barlean that they’d used when it was just the two of them, while Kesra only gave short answers or replied with questions. Their mother, Zabra said, was going to come and get them.
“Mother can’t come. She can’t,” Kesra told her older sister, sounding just like the child she looked like. “She died when I was born.”
“It’s all right! It is!” Zabra insisted. “She’s all better! Lord Vassaram found her. He did! She’s waiting for us at the other end of the garden, and she’s coming to live here!”
As Kesra kept protesting that their mother was long dead, Zabra kept pulling her along, speaking with the certainty and joy of someone who’s discovered that all the terrible things in their life was just a bad dream. But the garden path stretched out infinitely. They’d never reach the other side, and Zabra would never see her mother again.
With every second that passed, the sense grew stronger that Zabra’s joy was only building for a higher, more painful fall when she realized the truth. Despite her many horrible crimes, despite all that she deserved, I couldn’t watch. I simply couldn’t stand by and let this child in the body of a grown woman get her heart broken. I stepped in, a dozen paces ahead of her on the infinite path, and the anticipation in her eyes shifted quickly to confusion, then regret. Finally they cleared, and the diffuse representation of the child that Kesra had been vanished, like it’d never been there.
“It’s true, then, “ Zabra said, looking at me in awe. “You really do come to us in our dreams.” She looked around, and the garden around us shifted, becoming smaller but more real, until it looked like the garden of a sizable city estate. Bursting with tall plants, with short sight lines and narrow paths, it was the kind of thing that might look to a child like a whole world in itself.
“Is this Lord Vassaram’s garden?” I said, looking curiously at how the half-remembered plants shifted and morphed before settling down into recognizable shapes.
“It is. The garden at one of the largest estates in the city. I spent a lot of time here, but I don’t think about it very often. It’s weird that I’m dreaming about it.”
“Did you live here for long?”
She looked at me with surprise, but didn’t question it. “For seven years. Here or at the country villa.”
“And this Lord Vassaram, he took you in?” I asked, thinking back to what Kesra had said. “After your mother died?”
She strained not to answer, and I wondered why. A painful memory, perhaps? But she couldn’t refuse me here any more than she could when we were physically face-to-face. “He did,” she said finally. “But there was over a year between Mother disappearing and him recognizing us in the street, and bringing us to his home.”
“Why’d he do that? I haven’t exactly gotten the impression that most rich people would offer to take care of two kids from the street.”
“He was a frequent client of Mother’s. I didn’t understand back then, of course. I was only seven when she left one night and never came back. As I grew up I got that she was a courtesan, with the way so many men came to our house, and the way she often had to leave for the whole night. And he was one of the most common. I think they actually liked each other, do you know? And he was always very kind to Kesra and me. When he saw us begging, filthy and hungry and scared, the moment he recognized us he didn’t hesitate. He asked if I remembered him, and then he took us home with him.”
She swallowed loudly, and when I turned from the shifting plants back to her I saw that she was crying. “We never talked about it, but I’ve always suspected that he was our father.”
“So what happened? Why did he kick you out?”
“I was stupid enough to fall in love, and to let that love be returned. And when we got caught… I don’t blame him. Not really. He only had one legitimate child. And she needed to become matron of the House.” Her voice turned bitter, filled with a venom that I’d never heard, even when we held her captive. “She couldn’t be wasted on a childish romance with some foundling girl.”
“So he threw you out to get you away from his daughter?”
She nodded. “Even then— Mercies, no matter how cruel that was— I blamed myself, for so long. Kesra never forgave me, not really, but I did. But he didn’t just throw me out. He offered to find me a husband, or even a wife. And when I refused, in love as I was, he gave me money, enough to start a new life. He was even going to let Kesra stay.”
Her voice broke at that, and it took a while for her to gather herself again. “She still blames me. I don’t think she remembers that she insisted on coming with me. She didn’t want to be separated from me. I tried to talk her out of it, but she absolutely refused, and I loved her for it. I still do. But I don’t think she remembers that it was her choice to follow me. And then I wasted the money, and I didn’t have a lot of options. May I— may I stop there? I think you know the rest.”
“Yeah. That’s not what I’m here for anyway.”
“Why are you here, if I may ask?”
To show you what I can do, I thought, but it rang suddenly hollow. Was that really why? Zabra already knew that I could do this, taking control of people’s dreams. Kesra had told her. “I’m not sure,” I admitted. I didn’t even hesitate. There was no point in keeping secrets from someone like Zabra; it was like admitting something embarrassing to your dog. They’d never judge you anyway.
I did my best not to think about how that paralleled with the people in Zabra’s situation that I actually liked.
With that admission, I stopped worrying about what I said. “Maybe I just wanted to talk to you like this, away from Kesra. You’re a lot less guarded now than you were the other night.”
“It can be hard to talk around her, sometimes. I’ve failed her in so many ways, and when she’s near it can be hard to think about the things I’ve done right. Her Advancement makes it worse. Not that I blame her for taking it; she did what she had to. But I don’t feel it at all now, so…”
“In that case: Zabra, do you feel safe around your sister?”
There was a flash of indignant surprise, right on the edge of anger, that quickly faded away. “Of course I do, my lady. She’s my sister. We love each other, and we’ve always kept each other safe. There is no one I trust more. Why do you ask?”
“She admitted that she used to hit you. Is that true?”
“It is.”
“And she said that she hasn’t done it for months now. Is that true?”
“It is.”
“What was her excuse? The last time.”
“I— we have a warehouse in the harbor, where we store the goods our trading ships bring in while she negotiates sales. There was room, so I’d had my people stash some smuggled goods there. She found out.”
“So she hit you?”
“If the port authority had inspected the warehouse and found my stuff they’d have seized everything! Kesra, she— I keep doing things like that! Sometimes I get too excited and I take risks!”
“That doesn’t justify her hitting you.”
I could tell that she wanted to argue. It was clear on her face, and in this dream I could feel it, almost like how I imagined Mak felt my emotions, or the intentions of others. But she couldn’t go against me, so she stayed silent, still looking at the ground.
“I’ve made it clear to your sister that she is never to hit you again. She has promised that she will not, and that she will be loyal to me. But I will not trust her not to lose control, and I command you to tell me if she does.”
Zabra closed her eyes, and trembled as she whispered, “Yes, my lady.”
“I will not harm her. I know that you’ll do as I’ve commanded, so I don’t want you to agonize over your actions putting her in harm’s way. But I will break her. Do you understand what I mean by that?”
“N-no, my lady.”
“It means that I will make her like you.”
Zabra’s breath hitched at that, and I wasn’t sure how to interpret it. The impressions I got from her were terribly muddled, shame and joy and fear all mixed up.
“I’ve refrained, because even though I could see her becoming a problem, she was innocent. She had nothing to do with what you did to me and my family. But make no mistake, Zabra. You belong to me, and I won’t tolerate anyone hurting my humans. If they do, I will take steps to make sure that it doesn’t happen again. If I have to strip away some of your sister’s free will so that she’ll stop beating you, I won’t hesitate. Just like you won’t hesitate to tell me. Will you?”
“No, my lady.”
Zabra looked like she was about to be sick. Her Advancements couldn’t affect me here, and I still almost felt sorry for her. I was well aware that I was putting her in a terrible position, but I was entirely justified. I’d let her off lightly after what she’d done. She deserved far worse. But now she was mine, and even if she hadn’t been I still wouldn’t have even tried to convince myself that anyone, even her, deserved to be abused by their own family. So it was with a small measure of sympathy in my voice that I told her, “See that you don’t.”