Chapter 20

Agnes watched over the sleeping young woman. It was only an hour ago that they had searched out leaves and made a pile for Mykella’s head as she slept. Agnes prayed over Mykella. She prayed that Mykella would find peace once the Dream Crusades come to an end – wherever that may be.

Agnes turned her head just as she heard a faint sound far off to her left. It sounded like marching feet coming in their direction. Which could only mean one thing.

She lowered herself down to Mykella’s restful body and gently laid a hand on her forehead. “Mykella, they’re coming,” she whispered.

* * *

Mykella had been running in the direction of the castle for a long time, it felt, but she stopped the moment she heard her name whispered in the air. She looked around, heart beating heavily. No one appeared to her. All she heard was that they were coming. Who was coming? Where are they going?

She reached up and pushed aside a low-lying branch and took her first good look at Orion’s Keep. She looked up and saw the dark clouds rising above the black smoke coming from tall bonfires.

Mykella looked at the castle and saw that there was nothing alive in or around the keep. Whatever Orion was really like, he sure as hell didn’t like living things.

She had tired herself of walking through the jungle trying to get to his castle, and she didn’t think she had enough energy to make it the last hundred yards or so to get to the front door.

Then two little words came into her mind as she stared hopelessly at the dark castle; Dream Crusader. She really didn’t know what that meant except that Agnes had told her that she was one. She must have some kind of powers, she thought, and closed her eyes.

Inside her mind she pictured herself standing in front of the enormous entrance, and when she opened her eyes, she was both surprised and somewhat suspicious that she did, in fact, find herself standing in front of the door. She was suspicious because these were powers of a devil and not an angel of mercy.

A mischievous grin fell across her face. One way to get to a devil is to be like that devil, she mused.

She closed her eyes and pictured herself inside Orion’s bedchamber, and she smiled to herself when she opened her eyes and found them looking down at a sleeping Orion. She watched him for a moment, eyes closed – his cloak hung at the foot of the bed and his boots on the floor. It was his eyes that she paid closer attention.

So this is what it's like on the edge of dreams, she thought.

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Since he wasn’t dreaming yet, she decided to walk around the chamber. She was nervous and terrified to begin the battle, but there was no way around it. She walked over to the bird cage and smiled as she looked at the dove.

Cautiously, Mykella opened the small door and inserted her hand, index finger extended. The bird wasted no time and flew down to perch itself on her finger. She smiled and pulled it out of the cage.

“You’re very pretty,” she said and walked closer to the open window.

She looked out and saw the enormous forest and longed to be in the freedom of that forest – away from the war. “You should be there,” she said to the bird and extended her arm.

“Please, don’t do that.”

Mykella jumped and spun around. She saw that there was about ten feet that separated her from Orion, who stood next to his bed with an emotionless face.

She looked down at the bird, then back at Orion and then put her arm out the window.

As soon as her arm was out, the bird took flight and headed off toward the forest.

Orion sighed and shook his head. “Do you always take things that don’t belong to you?”

Mykella stared at him for a moment, reaching up with her hand and grabbed the crucifix lying on her chest. An image raced through her mind that instant. She had seen a man nailed to a cross and brought up for all to see. She looked down at the tiny Jesus. It was this man, she remembered. It was his sacrifice.

So shall it be hers, too.

She let go of the crucifix and looked back up at Orion. “I didn’t know a man like you kept pets,” she replied behind sarcasm.

Orion smiled, looking almost like politeness. “You have no idea, Child.”

Mykella turned and watched the bird fly further from the castle. “I think it shows you have a weakness.” She turned back and noticed a slight change in his appearance as Orion looked irritated.

“Are we just going to stand around and talk?”

She smiled. “Actually, I was hoping to get to know you more before we fight.”

This surprised him. “Why would you want to know me – your enemy?”

“For as long as everyone knows, you’ve cast a feeling of fear for everyone,” she said. “I want to know why.”

Orion moved toward her with an emotionless gaze across his face. “You want to know why I love to distill fear into mortals?”

“You’re mortal, too.”

He laughed. “I once was mortal. Now I am past that. I have evolved into immortality once I ate from the Tree.” He was about to continue, but then he thought of something else to add. “I am god-like – King-God Orion here. And soon, I shall be the One God, ruler of the universe.”

“Why didn’t you try that before – destroy God to become, as you say, ruler of the universe?”

“Until now, I didn’t know His weakness.”

“He has no weakness.”

“Oh yes, he does,” replied Orion with a grin.

“And what is that?”

“You.”