1 The Dream Rider (20 page)

“All he could do was watch as I executed his wife in front
of him. Is that the kind of world you want, the kind of leaders you follow?
Pathetic weaklings? He cried in the presence of my generals as I cut her
throat. He should have taken his own life. At least then he would have
preserved any scrap of honor he may have had left. But he didn’t.”
 
He raised his eyebrows, reflecting. “He
could have struggled, tried to free her, but he just stood idly by and wept,
begging us for mercy. Some warrior this king turned out to be.”

His demeanor changed again and he stepped towards me. “I
wonder, Finn. Are the leaders of your world so weak? Perhaps I should pay Earth
a visit. It may fall even easier than Sideros. I heard it is a world rich with
resources, even larger than this planet.”
 

Rage began to course through me. I threw myself at him,
covering the space between us instantly. I led with one foot, intent on
striking him in the head with a deadly blow. Instead, he raised a hand and
caught my shoe with almost no effort. It was like I had struck a wall. He held
it up for a moment before gravity pulled my body to the ground. Then his boot
kicked hard at my midsection. The blow sent me flying from the terrace through
the open door. I crashed sideways against the wall inside, landing next to the
bed. I crumpled to the floor in heap. Intense pain resonated from my abdomen. I
coughed, trying to catch my breath for a second.
How had he done that? How as he so strong?

I looked up only in time to see Mallock standing over me.
A storm frenzied in his eyes as he gave me a taste of his wrath. He reached
down and grabbed me by the neck, lifting me up like a doll and pinning me to
the wall. “You should have accepted my offer, boy,” the act of lifting me up
didn’t even seem to strain him in the least. I struggled against his grip, but
it was too strong. And there was something else, something terrifyingly
familiar:
 
the cold touch of his
fingers to my skin. It was exactly like the dream I’d had where I was being
choked.

“It was you,” I managed to gasp.

“Very good,” he confessed in a mocking tone with a sickly
grin on his face. He dropped me to the floor, jarring my senses. I huffed
desperately for air, relieved to fill my lungs again. He stared down at me
contemptuously like I was nothing more than a pathetic, helpless creature.

“You can kill me if you want, Mallock. Someday, someone
will take you down.”
 

“Kill you?” he laughed mockingly. “Oh, I’m not going to
kill you. Though, I could. No, that simply won’t do. You see I gave you a
chance to join me, to stand by my side. We could have ruled this galaxy
together. Nothing would have stopped us. Every planet could have been yours for
the plundering. I could have taught you much more about the power than you ever
imagined. But in your ignorance, you refused. And now, you will suffer.”
 
I didn’t get a chance to ask what he
meant by that.

He pulled a small metal cylinder out of one pocket and
reached down, extending it towards me. I tried to slink away but as soon as the
end touched my neck, a small needle shot out then retracted instantly. I felt
something burning through my veins like a snake made of hot lava. My eyes
became suddenly heavy. Everything began to slow down. I groggily laid my head
on the floor, still wondering what Mallock had in store before I gave way to
the darkness.

I lay on my back amidst tall grass. My eyes opened slowly,
looking around like I was in a drunken haze. I wasn’t sure where I was. I was
alone, completely alone. A few white clouds patched the blue sky above. I sat
up and, as I gathered in my surroundings, realized I was in my favorite camping
spot, back on Earth. I’d been going there for years, to a mountaintop in the
Nantahala Wilderness.

Birds of different varieties chirped and sang in the trees
just on the edge of the meadow. A constant breeze flowed through the grass and
across my face. I felt so at peace. I was home.

Or
was I?
I could
hear the sounds of something strange in the distance, but I wasn’t sure what it
was. I pushed myself up off the ground and started walking down the path
leading away from the meadow and into the dense forest. The wooded mountain
sloped up dramatically,
rising
another 800 feet
higher. I remembered making the hike to the top once when I was in high school.
It had been an arduous trek, but the view at the end was worth the effort.

Suddenly, I heard something rustling through the leaves
nearby. I turned to the right and froze, terrified. I immediately recognized a
site that no one wants to encounter out in the woods by themselves. A giant
black bear was standing only twenty feet away, looking right at me. The beast
roared angrily, but I couldn’t make my feet move. It began to lumber towards
me, first stepping slowly with its large paws, then moving faster until it was
only a few feet away. I’d never even seen a bear in the wild before. As it
charged at me, the terrible reality of the moment was so surreal.

Then, inexplicably, the animal stopped and bowed its head low.
For a moment, my eyes narrowed in confusion. I stretched out my hand and put it
on the bear’s head, feeling the soft, thick fur. The creature grunted but kept
its head down as I ran my hand along the back of its neck. Then after only a
few seconds, it turned and sloughed off into the forest, disappearing into the
shadows just over the ridge.

“Finn,” I heard a voice calling my name. “Finn, wake
up.”
 

I frowned.
Wake up?

The scene began to fade as I blinked my eyes slowly. The
sweet smells of the forest gave way to a familiar, disappointing scent that
could only be coming from the underground prison.

I opened my eyes and saw Jonas and Nela standing directly
over me. Petra was holding my head in his massive hands. The dirty floor of my
cell was cold underneath my body. Several of the other members of the green
group were hovering around the doorway, looking on with concern.

“What happened?” I asked groggily, trying to sit up.

“They drugged you,” Jonas informed. “Then they brought you
here. Do you remember anything?”

It all started coming back to me. The room in the tall
building, the terrace, the talk with Mallock, it all hit me at once.

“How long was I out?” I tried to sit up but my head was
still spinning.

“You’ve been gone for two days. The guards only brought
you back a few minutes ago,” Nela informed me.

The dizziness began to dissipate allowing me to sit up a
little straighter. I stared at Jonas. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Tell you? Tell you what, Finn?” he seemed genuinely
confused.

I stood up, feeling a little woozy at first. When I
regained my balance I stared at him intensely. “That you’re the king.
Apparently, the king of this entire planet.”
 

“Ah,” he nodded slowly and turned away, walking over to
the wall for a moment. “Mallock told you, did he?”
 

“Yes. He told me,” I looked at Nela. “Princess.”
 
She lowered her head, seeming almost
ashamed, though I had no idea why. “I don’t understand why y’all didn’t just
tell me.”

“Because, Finn,” Jonas explained twisting around, “if I
told you I was the king of Sideros then how could you have known anything I was
saying was true? You may not have trusted me. A fallen king will do anything to
reclaim his throne. I didn’t want you to think that it was about regaining
power or prestige or material wealth.”
 
He sighed. “I care not about my throne or anything I ever owned. I only
care about the people and what is right for them. And I care about
justice.”
 

I tilted my head to the side. “Mallock said some pretty
nasty things about you.”
 

“He’s a liar and a murderer!” Nela butted in, angrily.

“I have no doubts,” I tried to calm her down, raising a
hand that showed I understood.

An uncomfortable silence invaded the room for several
seconds as we all looked around at each other.

“What else did Mallock tell you?” Jonas finally asked.

“He told me that you were an unjust ruler. That you kept
all the wealth from the people and now they are better off because they are all
equal. He also tried to convince me to join him.”
 

Jonas raised his eyebrows. “Join him? That is an
unforeseen move on his part. He must feel threatened. That’s the only
explanation. Now that he has seen your power firsthand, it would only make
sense for him to try and sway you to his side. I should have considered he
might attempt that.”
 

“Don’t beat yourself up,” I consoled. “After the fight,
they took me to some room, high up in the tallest building in the city. I woke
up and he was there. He attempted to tell me about all the good he’s done and
how benevolent he is.”
 

I could see Nela tensing up in the corner as I spoke of
Mallock. The emperor was obviously a sore subject with her.

“He truly believes it, too,” Jonas added. “He thinks that
he has given this world a better way of life. When all he has done is take away
free will and replace it with a menial existence of servitude.”
 

“Well, he was none too happy when I refused to help
him.”
 
The last statement seemed to
give Nela a little relief. I returned my attention to Jonas. “He said he wanted
me to run this world while he went to invade other planets. Do you know
anything about that?”
 

“No,” Jonas said solemnly. “But if he has more ships, he
could do the same thing to other worlds that he has done to us. Apparently, he
doesn’t trust his second in command to take care of Sideros while he is away.
That, or he could just be trying to lure you in.”
 
He seemed deep in thought as he finished speaking.

“I saw the ships,” I confirmed. “There were more than I
could count. Some were enormous. They were like something out of a science
fiction movie.”
 
I could tell the
last reference was lost on them from the confused looks on their faces.

“You saw them?” Nela interrupted.

I nodded. “Yeah, and wherever he’s going with them will be
in a lot of trouble. I don’t know what kind of technology you would need to
defend against something like that.”
 

“Defenses won’t matter,” Jonas’s voice was distant.
“Nothing will be able to stop him. None of the worlds in this galaxy are as
advanced as the technology he has at his disposal. And more than that, he has
other, more powerful means of force.”
 

His last comment got me thinking about Earth. We had a lot
of weapons, nuclear and otherwise. And most Americans were armed. Both were
facts that Jonas was probably aware of.

He seemed to read my mind. “Earth will fall to him
eventually, Finn,” his voice lowered.

I let out a long breath. Images of my parents and friends
passed by my mind’s eye. I couldn’t let that happen. But there was a problem.
A big problem, actually.
Mallock had been stronger than I.
He’d thrown me around like a toy. I’d seemed almost helpless against him, like
I was back on Earth again, back in a life of mediocrity.

“Jonas,” I almost whispered. “I don’t know if I can beat
Mallock.”
 

“Sure you can,” he assured me. “Finn, no one can stop you
in this place. You have powers unlike anyone else.”
 

I shook my head. “I tried to…” I paused for a moment. The
back of my head still throbbed from hitting the wall when Mallock had slung me
across the room. “I fought him. He is more powerful than me,” my confession
stunned the room.

Petra had been silent the entire time. Now, he finally
spoke. “What do you mean, you fought him?”
 

“After I told Mallock I wouldn’t join him, he became
angry. He threw me against a wall like I was made of paper. I tried to fight
back but he was so strong. He lifted me up with one hand, and nearly choked me
to death. But he said he didn’t want me to die yet. He said he wanted me to
suffer first.”
 

“Suffer?” Nela wondered. “What did he mean by that?”
 

“I don’t know. But there’s something else.” I thought
about my experience with the dream from the day of my fight. “When Mallock put
his hands on me, they were cold, so cold they almost burned. It wasn’t the
first time I’d felt those hands.”
 
Everyone looked on, awaiting the explanation. “I had a dream the other
night that I was being choked by two dark hands. I somehow got away but when I
woke there were handprints on my neck. I’d been wondering who it was. At first
I though it was just a nightmare, that I was dreaming inside this dream.”
 

Jonas looked troubled. I could tell he was trying to
process the new information. “That’s impossible,” he responded quietly.

“I would agree with you if it weren’t for the raging headache
I have now from taking a beat down. Jonas, I think he has the same powers I
have, only stronger.”
 

He paced around the tiny room trying to understand the new
information. He stopped near my cell’s door, his face ashen. “This can only
mean one thing. Mallock is a dream rider, too. I don’t know why I hadn’t
considered the possibility before. Now it all makes so much sense. His
technology, his strength, the entire attack on Sideros seemed to be so one
sided. Even with all their advantages, we should have been able to defend
ourselves more adequately. Somehow, he must have learned the secret to dream
travel.”
 

The epiphany floored me. I’d possessed godlike powers only
to realize that someone else was stronger. I began to question my purpose in
being here. I’d thought I was supposed to be some superhero that would swoop
in, save the day, and go home. But Mallock, he was too much. I started to feel
some familiar emotions running through my brain. It was the feeling I got
whenever I faced adversity or a challenge. I’d always just given up in the
past. I wasn’t sure if I could do that now. I’d come too far to back down. And
there was an entire world that needed my help. The thoughts still tempted me,
though.
Just
let it go, Finn. You don’t need to push yourself too hard. You’ve done all you
can for these people. It’s not your problem. Let them sort it out for
themselves. Just go back to your average life. Average is easier.

I shook my head at the thoughts. Average was definitely
easier, but average never got me anywhere.

Jonas was considering the information I’d given. But he
didn’t offer any consolation. A man who usually had all the answers, at the
moment seemed lost for words. The pall in the room was palpable. It was
unexpectedly interrupted by the tinny voice of the game master, Jari.

“Good morning, prisoners.” He seemed to be in a more
jovial mood than usual. Everyone in the room stared at his pointy face as he
spoke. “We have a special treat for the good people of Sideros. Tonight, will
be a wildcard set of games. No one will know who their opponents will be until
they step out onto the floor.”
 

I looked around the room to see if anyone knew what was
going on. “I don’t understand,” I hoped Jonas had an explanation.

Jari continued to talk. “All prisoners must report to
their cells at once. The fighters will be collected and transported to the
games suites for preparation. Good luck to all the warriors. Die well.”
 
The last phrase was layered in a
disgusting lack of empathy.

I could hear guards approaching, their armor clacked as
the marched down the hall, ordering the prisoners to return to their cells.
Jonas cast me a deliberate glance and pulled me close. “I don’t know what is
going to happen, Finn
”
he said under his breath. “But
when the time comes, you can defeat Mallock. Someday, you will get the chance
to face him again, and when you do, you have to believe in yourself.”
 

The guards were almost to my room. Petra and the others
had already left. Nela was waiting at the door for Jonas. “Father, we must go,”
she said urgently.

His eyes locked with mine. “Remember. You can do more than
you realize, Finn. But you must let go of your doubts. Only then will you
unlock your true potential as the dream rider.”
 

Nela pulled him through the doorway, and they scurried
into the main training area. A few seconds later, they disappeared from view. I
could hear dozens of other prisoners hurrying around, trying to get back to
their cells like cockroaches running from the light. Several rushed past my
doorway, down the hall.