Cat was surprised to find the water in the taps looked almost pristine. She finished washing her hands but was so intrigued by it that she left the tap running while she watched the water falling.
When she looked back up at herself in the mirror she found the edges of the world fuzzy, like everything had faded away a little and she’d fallen into one of those drawings Baz sometimes liked to make. She recognised the feeling of the dreamworld. There had to be a gate set up somewhere nearby, for her to be so easily pulled in. She hadn’t intentionally arrived here but now that she was she found she had a lot more control. She could sense something nearby as well, no not something, someone. Wondering if it might be Srius or Kass she reached her mind out for them. Instead she found Amanda.
The woman was surrounded by darkness. She was clawing at it frantically, as if digging in soil. As Amanda scrambled back away from something Cat reached for her without thinking.
When Amanda resisted, Cat spoke to her. “Relax, it’s me.”
Amanda didn’t immediately stop resisting but she slowed down enough that Cat could pull her to her feet and help spin her around so they were facing each other.
Once Amanda saw Cat she relaxed. “How’d you get here?” she asked in a breathless voice.
“Dreamwalker remember.” Cat wasn’t sure what this was but she was confident that this was no trick. The real Amanda stood before her. And remembering what Amanda had told her earlier about Cat pulling her from the dreamworld she wondered if this was that moment. If it was, it meant she had a shot at getting Amanda out of here, well this Amanda at least. Did she want the same thing to happen? What if she told Amanda differently? Then she remembered how the freaky deer had burst into flames at just the right moment. Best not to mess things up if this was the past.
Before she could think through it any further Amanda spluttered, “Sirius is...”
Cat wasn’t sure how much time she had. If this was time travel the house might throw her back at any moment. She should get Amanda out first then try to wake the others with whatever time she had left. “Listen,” she said, interrupting Amanda, “There’s no time for that. I’m going to get you out of here and then you have to come and find us immediately. Understand?”
Cat noticed Amanda hesitate.
Before the Amanda could say another word Cat continued, “It’s important. I don’t know how to get there but it’s second floor in the other wing okay, and you have to go straight there. I have no idea which room, nearer the centre of the house. The others will be fine I promise.” Cat didn’t know if that was true but it was what Amanda needed to hear and Cat would do her best to make sure she kept that promise. Of that she was certain.
What felt like and eternity to Cat passed. Finally Amanda nodded.
Satisfied, Cat eyed their surroundings and considered how best to do this. Probably the usual way. She hoped it worked. This wasn’t the usual dream. “Okay,” she said and closed her own eyes, focusing instead on what she felt about her. She fixated on Amanda, on pushing her out of this place.
When Cat next opened her eyes she was lying on the floor of a bathroom. Amanda’s voice floated gently through the door.
“Cat? Are you alright?”
Cat sat up. Above her the tap was still running. “Yeah, I’m fine,” she called back as she got shakily to her feet and switched the tap off. She exited the bathroom after one wary glance backward.
Amanda gave her a worried look which quickly shifted to Indi as Indi pushed past Cat and locked herself in the bathroom.
“What?” Did you get lost in there?” Wolf asked.
“Don’t even joke about that,” Zephyr said with a shudder.
Coal raised an eyebrow at Cat but said nothing. Upon seeing Amanda’s worried expression again, Cat decided to explain.
“You were right.”
It didn’t ease Amanda’s worried look. “About what?” Her eyebrows knitted closer toward the middle of her face and she brought her hands to her front and wringed them together.
“About me pulling you out of the dreamworld earlier. I don’t know how it happened but somehow I was there, or I time travelled back to there. I don’t know, but I did just tell you to come find us.”
“Right now? In there?” Amanda nodded at the closed bathroom door.
“Yup.” Cat nodded.
When Amanda continued looking worriedly at the door, Cat added, “Don’t worry, I’m sure she’s fine, she’s not a dreamwalker... probably.” Cat trailed off wondering if it was possible for Indi to be pulled in. Maybe. It was a particularly strong spell, whatever it was.
Cat rapped on the door, “Indi, you good?”
“Yes, just gimme a sec,” came back the reply.
Cat gave Amanda a satisfied smile. Amanda’s shoulders did relax slightly but the wrinkles remained on her forehead.
Noticing this, Zephyr chimed in, “I’m sure Cat can pull her back out if she falls asleep.”
Amanda didn’t relax fully until Indi was back out in the hallway with them.
Sensing the atmosphere Indi said, “What’s with you guys, you look like you saw a ghost.”
“We almost sort of did,” Cat replied with a twitch at the corner of one lip.
Indi gave her a confused look but Cat turned to face the open hallway. Taking this as their cue, the others started moving again too.
Coal paused and gave the bathroom a quick peek, just in case there was something obvious linked to all the dreamwalking. Seeing nothing he turned and followed the others.
“You know, I think there’s a dreamweaver here,” Cat remarked as they reached the top of some stairs.”
Wolf growled softly.
“A dream what?” Zephyr asked.
“They’re worse than shades,” Cat explained. “They make the dreamworld, sort of. They’re like dreamwalkers but not.”
“So, bad?” Zephyr asked.
“Well not exactly, not always, but dangerous yeah. We just don’t want to get too close is all.”
Down the stairs and a little further along Wolf stopped by some bars. He was frowning. “They were through there.”
Amanda looked but she couldn’t see anyone.
“How do we get through?” Indi asked.
There were a few shrugs and questioning glances. Not from Amanda though. She stepped up to the bars, placed one hand on each and filled them with a magical heat. Not so much they melted but enough that she could bend them outward. She made enough of a gap that they could all easily fit through.
“It’s a strange thing to have in a house like this,” Coal remarked as he squeezed through the bars.”
“If you think that’s the strangest thing in this house you haven’t been paying attention,” Cat replied.
Somewhere behind them, out of sight and near the floor, a small vine worked it’s way up through a crack in the skirting board.
Once Amanda reached the intersection she realised she recognised part of the hallway but not all of it. The end to her right was the one they had been in earlier. She could even see the door with the dream runes on it. But this area and further to her left were different than she remembered.
She almost jumped out of her skin when she looked to the left. For a moment she thought there was a giant figure standing at the end of the hallway but it was just an oversided figurine. It was person height and person shaped and all white, round and bulbous and shiny, made of plastic, like a new age art piece that definitely didn’t fit in with the rest of the house’s asthetic. Amanda eyed it warily.
“Now that is creepy,” Cat observed as she came up next to Amanda. She glanced back to find Coal and then pointed to the weird art, “see.”
Coal responded to it with a disturbed and confused look.
“I think somebody should keep one eye on that thing,” Indi suggested.
A few of the others nodded.
Without taking her eyes of the weird figure Amanda spoke to Wolf. “Where did you see them?”
“They were just here, at this intersection,” Wolf replied. He transformed back into Wolf form and started sniffing about in different directions. He even gave the strange statue a sniff and seemed happy enough with the result to turn his back on it.
Amanda sighed and rested against one wall. She rubbed her chin with one hand trying to think of a new plan.
Wolf padded off down the hall toward the room with the dream runes. Realising where he was headed Amanda pushed off the wall and followed after him. “Wolf!” she called.
She was relieved when he paused just outside the threshold to the door. The rest of the group followed Amanda as she caught up to Wolf.
Before Amanda could say anything Indi gave a cry from behind. “Hey, the hallway changed!”
The rest of the group turned to see. This time Amanda recognised the end of the hallway.
Indi gave an excited laugh and started to take a step back the way they had come. Coal grabbed her arm.
“Hold up Indi,” Amanda warned. “Let’s just stay together.”
“We can’t be far from the exit right?” Cat asked.
Zephyr follower her line of sight wistfully.
“This is where you were before?” Wolf asked, having transformed back again. He nodded at the dream rune which Amanda had described to him on the way here.
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Amanda gave a single nod. Then she remembered something. “There was a dollhouse with...” Knowing Cat was nearby and thinking of nothing more than finding Sirius she pushed past Wolf into the room.
He grabbed her wrist and followed her in, letting go once past the threshold. He glanced back at the door and seeing the others on the outside he gave a shrug. They all trooped inside. Amanda headed straight for the dollhouse.
“I like this room,” Indi remarked looking at all the plants.
“Even after that other plant attacked you?” Zephyr asked.
“These ones are smaller and they look more friendly. Look at the pretty flowers on this one.” Indi pointed, her fingers getting far to close to an unusual bright yellow petal for Cat’s liking.
“Don’t touch anything,” Cat warned.
Wolf, who had started to follow Amanda glanced back at Cat’s words and shot Indi a serious look.
Indi clasped her hands behind her back and did her best to look innocent. But the second Wolf turned she had her hands back out and was looking at all the things around the room again. She did avoid touching anything at least. Cat watched her just to be safe.
Coal watched the entire interaction with an amused expression then paused by the door to get a good look at the dream rune.
Zephyr wandered around the room behind Indi, feeling safe, but wanting to make sure she didn’t take anymore items. This room was well lit, even if he was pretty certain that the sun shouldn’t be that high in the sky. He had no idea what the time was now, if it was really daytime or nighttime.
Seeing Zephyr was paying attention to Indi, Cat sidled over to where Coal was.
“How come you never told me what really happened to your parents?” she ventured boldly.
Coal turned, one eyebrow raised and a bemused smile on his face. “I’m guessing Indi told you?”
Cat nodded.
“Not much of a secret keeper is she?” Coal added but he didn’t lose his smile.
“How come you never told me?” Cat repeated.
“You never asked.” He turned to look at the rune again. The he stood up and took a small vial from his pocket. He twisted it open and poured a bright blue powder into his hand. He put the vial away and then summoned a small cardboard cylinder and snorted the powder into his nose.
“What’s that for?” Cat asked.
“It’ll keep you awake.” He pulled the vial out and shook it, offering it to her.
Cat eyed it warily.
When she didn’t take it Coal explained further, “Provides resistance against dreamwalker magic.”
Cat shook her head. “I am a dreamwalker, I think I’ll be fine.”
“Suit yourself.” Coal started to put the vial away.
“What’s that?” Indi had noticed them talking and, ever curious, had wandered over.
“Dreamskeep. It keeps you from sleeping.”
“You mean it’ll stop you getting sucked into the dreamworld by accident?”
Coal nodded. “You want some?”
Indi glanced at Cat and Zephyr. Cat rolled her eyes and Zephyr shrugged.
Having seen Coal take some Indi decided it couldn’t possibly hurt. “Sure, how much do I take?”
Coal indicated for Indi to hold out her hand. She did so and he tapped some powder into it. He paused, studied the amount then tapped a dash more.
“Now what?”
Coal handed her a small straw-like cylinder of cardboard.
“I’ve never snorted anything before.” Indi giggled.
Cat gave a snort in reply. She wasn’t watching though. She had her eyes on Amanda and Wolf who were down by the dollhouse pointing at parts of it and talking in voices too low to be heard from here.
Indi looked at Coal for help.
“You just put the end of the tube near the powder, one nostril at the other end and suck in hard,” he explained.
Indi giggled nervously again and glanced at Zephyr for reassurance but Zephyr looked as unsure as she did. Well Coal had taken it, it couldn’t be that bad.
Indi gave it a go. She felt a rush hit her almost immediately and then her nostrils felt really itchy and she started to sneeze and she couldn’t stop. She sneezed about 5 times before she could get a breath in and even then her nose still felt twitchy.
“What are you doing?”
Indi’s sneezes had drawn the attention of Amanda.
“Coal has Dreamskeep,” Indi looked at Amanda warily both worried and curious what her reaction might be.
There was an obvious flash of recognition and Amanda pursed her lips.
Coal offered her the vial with a little shake and the raise of a dark eyebrow.
Amanda eyed it but didn’t take it. Finally she replied, “That stuff’s dangerous. It’s easy to overdose, and I hope you have the antidote?”
Coal shook a different vial of white powder in response.
“Hmm.” She thought about it. Then she looked at Indi, “Did you take it?”
“Yes,” Indi replied in a meek tone worried she’d done something wrong.
But Amanda didn’t curse or look worried Instead she sighed and eyed the bottle once more, still thinking. “I’ll pass,” she shook her head.
“Should we take some?” Zephyr asked.
Amanda met his eyes. “That’s up to you.”
“What’s the risk?” Zephyr asked.
“What’s the cost?” Wolf added with a look at Coal.
Coal shrugged. “We’ll just say you owe me a small favor.”
Wolf gave a soft snort and replied, “No thanks.”
Amanda gave Coal a measured look and then glanced at Indi.
“I’ll bake you a cake,” Indi replied.
Coal smiled smiled slyly then upon meeting Amanda’s eyes added more seriously, “It’s on the house.” He offered it to Amanda and Wolf again.
Amanda just smiled and shook her head, as did Wolf.
Turning back to Zephyr Amanda explained, “It stops you from sleeping but the dose is hard to get right...” she trailed off there, wondering if it would be wise to scare Indi with the possible side effects given she’d already taken some. She was then faced with the dilemma of how best to sum it up for Zephyr without making Indi anxious.
But Coal picked up the baton and gave an explanation at least as good as any she could have. “The risk is it lasts for days, if you don’t take the antidote...” Coal shook the vial of white powder, “... then you don’t sleep. The body needs sleep. If you don’t sleep, eventually your organs start to shut down. It’s not a nice way to go.” Catching a glance at Indi’s widening eyes he added, “But don’t worry, I have this so that won’t be a problem.”
Indi stretched her arms out in front of her. “I feel really wired, and kind of jittery, and sweaty.”
“Temperature increase is another side effect,” Amanda added.
“But it works?” Zephyr asked.
Amanda nodded. “It will keep you from getting sucked into the dreamworld.” She eyed the vial in Coal’s hand once more, considering it.
Zephyr noticed the look and made a decision, “Okay. Maybe just a small amount.” He held out a hand. Coal poured him some powder and handed him the cardboard straw. Zephyr snorted it. He gave his head a shake but didn’t sneeze like Indi did.
Amanda nodded at Coal, then jerked her head back toward the dollhouse. “I want to show you something.”
Coal followed her to the dollhouse. Wolf walked with them. The others stayed together, with Indi and Zephyr comparing how they felt and Cat keeping half an eye on each group, wanting to follow Amanda but not wanting to leave Indi and Zephyr unattended. Finally she let her curiosity get the better of her and wandered down to see what Amanda was showing Coal.
“Are those poppets? Of us?” Cat exclaimed with a hint of dread as she saw what was in the house.
Amanda nodded. “There’s none of Sirius and Kass.”
Cat reached out a hesitant hand toward her poppet.
Coal grabbed her wrist and shook his head.
Cat withdrew her hand. “What does this mean?”
Wolf was frowning. “I’ve never seen anything that can do this, create a poppet from nothing.”
“It could just be an illusion?” Amanda wondered with a sideways questioning look at Coal and Cat.
Cat shook her head. “I’d know if we were dreaming.”
Coal wasn’t so quick to answer. He gaze tracked to his pocket where he’d stored the dreamskeep powder, then up to Cat’s face.
She stared back at him with a fierce expression, as if daring him to contradict her.
He turned to look at the poppets. “An illusion doesn’t necessarily mean we’re asleep. Have you touched them?”
“Kass did before,” Amanda admitted. “She said she took some from the house but she put them back in the same place.”
“Whose did she take?” Cat asked with an expression that was a mix of anger and worry.
There was a moment of silence before Amanda met her eyes. “Yours and Zeph’s.”
Cat’s eyebrows came together hard. “Fuck!” she swore.
Coal frowned. “She took them out and she put them back, that’s all?”
Amanda nodded. “I think so.”
Cat threw her hands in the air. “What if that’s what caused Zeph and I to time jump right when Indi and Wolf came back down from the other room they were in?”
Coal raised an eyebrow. “It’s possible.”
Wolf studied the dollhouse. “If she did it before, and everything is fine now...” Wolf trailed off with a gesture.
Cat gave him a potent dark glare.
Amanda bit her lip then shook her head. “I don’t see how that would help us.”
“We could figure out how it works,” Wolf replied.
“And then what?”
“Maybe we can teleport with it?”
Cat butted in, “We didn’t feel any different when...” but she trailed off there because now that she was thinking back on it, the truth was that she had felt something, like the light outside had suddenly shifted. Thinking about how she might have just not existed for a short period of time made her feel very unsettled. The others were staring at her now, waiting for her to finish her sentence. She stood for a moment mouth hanging open unable to think of anything.
Coal raised an eyebrow. Amanda was starting to look worried. Wolf’s stern expression never changed.
Finally she shook her head. “I think that’s a terrible idea.”
Coal turned to Amanda and was about to say something but Amanda got there first.
“What about a teleport spell?”
“That needs a prepared location at the other end.” Coal replied.
“What and you don’t have one?” Amanda asked with a some humourous disbelief.
Coal fixed her with a measured stare, “I have a single teleporter infusion that doesn’t need an external location prepared. Problem is it only takes two maximum.”
Amanda’s eyes widened, surprised he hadn’t used it himself.
“What takes two?” Indi asked. She and Zephyr had finally joined them.
“The teleporter Coal has,” Amanda replied.
“We can get out?” Zephyr asked. The relief in his voice was obvious.
Cat spoke then. “So we send two people out who set up an external location.”
Amanda was already shaking her head.
Coal answered first. “That takes hours of preparation.”
“Surely someone already has one set up somewhere.” Cat countered, reaching for other options. “Or you could get more infusements?”
“That could also take hours not to mention how would we get back here?”
“Teleport? You said that thing takes two.”
“Two people, not two trips. There’s more energy used in establishing the connection than transferring the information. Plus, given the magic going on in this house I don’t think it’s wise to teleport into the middle of it.”
“I’m not sure how I feel about people being considered information.” Cat complained.
“How do you think it works?” Indi asked out of curiosity.
“Not like that.”
“So we could send two people for help?” Zephyr asked.
Amanda glanced at Coal to assess his thoughts. It was his infusement after all. What ever they decided he would have the final say.
“Help from whom?” Coal asked Zephyr.
“The police?” Zephyr replied.
Cat rolled her eyes. Wolf coughed, perhaps to cover another word.
Indi shook her head, thinking of their earlier experience with calling the local police. “Oh, they are so not going to be able to handle this place.”
Amanda was quiet. She saw the problem already. Coal would have others he could call for help. She was certain of that. The problem was how much it would cost. This house wasn’t a normal call the local cops kind of a situation. This was high level chaotic magic. And there were those in law who dealt with this stuff but they weren’t the kind of people you called without them getting thier noses stuck in other things. Coal wouldn’t want to call them. She was sure of that.
“Do you want to call in a favor?” Coal fixed Zephyr with a solid stare. One that said ‘be careful what you wish for.’
Zephyr hesitated and in doing so he looked to Amanda for an answer.
Amanda looked to Coal. Met his eyes with a decisive expression of her own, then stared at the dollhouse trying to think of something else they could do.
The corner of Coal’s mouth twitched. He turned back to Zephyr. “We’re not in any trouble yet. We just need to find two people and get out. If we use it now we won’t have it later when we really need it.”
Amanda nodded in agreement, still looking at the dollhouse. Finally she turned back to Coal. “What else have you got?”
He smiled, baring an array of perfect too-white teeth. “I might have a tracking spell. Or at least the ingredients for one.”
“You might have mentioned that before,” Wolf growled.
“Well, when I say I have a spell...” Coal nodded his head to the side indicating Wolf should follow him.
They walked to the other end of the room where there was a spare table. Coal summoned a parchment with the flick of his wrist. With the swipe of his fingers a number of vials appeared on the table along with some plant cuttings.
Coal gestured at the ingredients then nodded to Wolf. “You’re the spellcrafter here aren’t you?”
Wolf looked at what he had. It seemed mostly right but it was missing something. “That won’t be enough.”
Coal smiled and then placed a pen on the table. Wolf picked it up and studied it. There was nothing out of the ordinary about it unless you considered high quality craftsmanship to be out of the ordinary. But Wolf could guess at what it contained. “Infused?”
Coal nodded. “Tracker infusement.”
Wolf frowned. “We could just use that.”
Mmm, not quite, this one’s designed to need an interface. The spell is powered by the pen but the parchment also produces a result which gets compared with the former to improve the resulting direction.”
“Like using two gyroscopes?” Indi asked as she leaned over the table on her elbows, with her chin resting on her palms.
“Um,” Coal frowned, unsure what she was referring to.
“A spinny thing used for measuring rotational moments. In electronics they sometimes use two and average the result of each to get a more accurate answer,” Indi clarified.
“Right, exactly,” Coal replied with a nod. His eyes remained on Indi for a moment, an expression of interest on his face.
“Cool.” She replied with a smile. She studied the items on the table, and eagerly waited to see how they would make the spell work.
Next to her, Zephyr peered over the table with just as much interest. Amanda and Cat hung back from the table, talking quietly to one another.
“On their own they’re not very accurate, not in a place like this anyway. But I don’t remember how to mix the spell, and I believe it was quite a delicate process,” Coal explained.
“Surely you have a book somewhere?” Wolf inquired.
“Somewhere,” Coal answered with a smile, implying he did not remember where it was. For Coal’s summoning to work he needed to know the precise location of the object he was summoning.
Wolf sighed. “There’s one more thing.” he glanced back at where Amanda and Cat were talking. They didn’t notice.
Coal nodded. “Prepare the spell first. That part will be easier once it’s done.”