System Seven (30 page)

She stood and walked
to meet him.

• • •

Johan sat by the
French doors in Austin’s room, watching Anki tend to a sleeping Austin. Edward
lay in the bed next to him. Both men wore black sunglasses.

Sean sat in front of
four small monitors on a push cart laden with computers. Each monitor showed
different imagery. One of them was of Kaiya in a bar.

“How is that
possible?” Anki asked. “How can you see into his dream?”

He pointed to the
glasses. “They’re
shùils.
Real-time
visual intercept at the optic chiasm, the point where the two optic nerves meet
to combine visual data. Everything they experience flows through the brain.
We’re just tapping the stream.”

His expression soured.

“What is it?” Anki
asked.

“Edward’s blocked out.
They have Austin and he’s not fighting it. They’re fishing for clues about his
identity and location.” Sean stared at the video feeds. “This may not end
well.”

The Comannda had drawn
Austin to the Sarajevo dream. Edward’s attempt at intervention only made him
think he’d woke – the Comannda pressed again and locked onto Austin, drawing
him fully into their dream.

“What next?” Johan
asked.

“They’re trying to
bridge to his body and push a tracking signal from there.
Bràthair
are doing their best to block them but will fail soon.”

“Bràthair?”

“Our brothers, working
beyond their bodies. We need to get him out of here.”

Williams heard from the doorway and left to prepare.

“And where to? They’ll
triangulate,” Johan said. “You know they will.”

“I said we can try.”

“Stay.” Edward’s voice
broke like ice in the room. “Something is coming.”

Johan joined Anki and
Sean at the screens.

• • •

Austin held Kaiya’s
hands, soft and warm in his own. This was what he wanted. Like the dream in old
London, he wanted nothing more than to sink into her. Fears had painted the
earlier dreams, creating near nightmares. Finding her in this way was well
worth the trouble.

“This is all my fault,”
she said. “If I would’ve let them do the surgery we’d be together by now. I
guess tonight is all we’ll have for a while.” She went to embrace him. “Let’s
make it last.”

Looking into her eyes,
he hesitated. “Um...”

Her eyes weren’t the
glassy caramel brown he knew. Instead they were blue and had begun to shift. He
held her at arm’s length.

“Austin, what?”

Her eyes grew and
changed shape until the unmistakable eyes of his mother looked back at him.

“Mom?”

Kaiya’s face
contorted. “Leave him alone! He’s not going to–”

Pale colored skin
spread outward from her eyes, replacing Kaiya’s light olive tone. Her head
wobbled and then began to change shape and size, as did her cheekbones, nose
and chin. In a bubbling of morphing energy, Kaiya’s head was replaced by his
mother’s. Her familiar pursing of lips gave him the chills. It had been years
since he’d seen that expression.

She fixed him with an
intense glare. “Austin listen to me and listen good. This isn’t Kaiya and you
have to get the hell away from this dream. Get out, now. Your father–”

Kaiya’s terrified face
snapped back into place. “Austin, they’re using your memories to steal my soul!
If you leave me now, I’ll never wake up! Please!” She gripped his forearms
desperately. “Help me, I’m scared!”

“Biiiiitch!” Her mouth
gaped and her voice changed again midway through, her face once again his
mother’s. “I should have fought harder for you when I was alive. If I’d only
known. Your father–” She struggled against unseen powers. “Go now, run, Austin!
Wake up, keep running until you do!
Goooo!
”

The last ended in a
howl as her mouth grew and opened wide to reveal rows of razor-sharp teeth. Her
face morphed larger and blood-red eyes bulged with a look of murder. Her body
swelled and veins appeared. Claws extended from her fingers and pierced his
arm.

He screamed. With a
vicious effort he launched the creature across the room and ran for the stairs.

• • •

Anki flew across the
room and hit the wall, shattering a glass picture frame before falling to the
floor. Johan and Sean rushed to help her. Blood stained her blonde hair.

“I’m okay, I’m
alright,” she said. “He’s trying to break free. We need to help him.”

Johan told Edward, “Do
something.”

“We are,” Sean
replied. “Just didn’t see that coming. He’s tapping his power.”

“That’s wonderful as
long as he doesn’t tap us to bloody pieces.”

• • •

The creature hit the
wall and bounced back in the shape of a four legged beast. Its metamorphosis
complete, it growled and followed Austin’s path to the stairs.

Just a dream – just a fucking bad dream!

He rounded the corner
at the landing and took three steps at a time. Instead of reaching the first
floor, he arrived at another landing. He turned and climbed another flight
before arriving at yet another landing. “Fuck!”

“
Austin!”
The words were half growl, half Kaiya’s voice. “Come here,
Austin! Right
now!
” The rapid
click-tap of claws echoed. There was no end to the stairwell, and worse, the
bar was still just one flight down.

Lucidity grew, teasing
with possibility. It was his dream, too – had to be or else they’d already have
him. He thumped the wall and found the hollow space between studs. He climbed
up the next few stairs, turned back, and ran with all his might. He busted
through the wall and stumbled headlong into a thick bush. Blinking away dirt,
his eyes adjusted to sudden daylight. Smoke passed through tall trees and
stained a blue sky. The bar had vanished.

“Here! I have him in
sight! Here!”

A soldier in Roman
armor called out before starting down the grade of the hillside with sword at
the ready. Austin scrambled to his feet and ran, grateful to be wearing his own
clothing. He could easily outrun the soldier.

Flit-thunk!
An arrow struck a
nearby tree. He turned in time to see two archers letting fly their missiles.
More soldiers appeared over the rise.

“Shit!” He broke left
to follow the descent of the hillside, zigzagging as he went.
Where the hell was Edward or Marcel or any
of them?

• • •

Edward removed the
glasses
.
“I cannot help him but
Cathbad will try.”

“Cathbad?” Anki asked.

Edward told Sean, “He
and Mug are going in. Use their relays for viewing.” To Anki and Johan he said,
“Cathbad leads the Runa Korda. Mug is his Second. If anyone can break Austin
free, it is them. The Comannda have suspended his rathad in the dream state. There
is no waking him here,” he gestured to Austin’s body, “as long as they have him
there. If not for his mother, their trace would’ve gone much easier. He’s
fighting them now. It buys us time, at least.”

“Was that really his
mother?” Anki asked.

“The dead can appear.
Or he may be working this out for himself. The good news is he’s trying. He has
powers he hasn’t yet realized.” Edward donned the shùil again. “Do you have
them?”

“Yes,” Sean answered.
“They’re waiting outside Hunnenring.”

Edward met with the
two elders at a brook below a hillside fort accompanied by a squad of bràthair.
Morning mists swelled from a forest aglow with the rising sun. An apprehensive
Mug squatted to splash water on his face while keeping an eye out. Cathbad
joined Edward in counsel.

“Be ready with the
Concord of Ascension. You must keep it formal and strong. The Family must not
falter.”

Edward nodded. There
was no questioning him, regardless the danger. “Aye and well.”

Cathbad gazed up at
the fort and the hills beyond. “If the Words of Kornilian are correct, Austin
is the Change.” He looked back at Edward. “I won’t let it end like this.”

History indicated
druids kept no written records, using oral tradition instead. While true, the
Words weren’t just words – often they were actual memories passed on since the
earliest families. Most important were those of the
welets
, druids known to glimpse the future. The Words of Kornilian
surfaced between them as they waited.

...by the firelight
the band huddled against winter’s brace at the foot of the mountain. Forced
into nomadic life by the hunters, the nine were destined for the Strait of
Gibraltar, less than a month away with God’s hand upon them. Brother Pierce had
weakened, unable to keep food down as a result of the poisoning by the
innkeeper at Horta de Sant Joan. Before first rest Brother Kornilian bore the
message to the group again, speaking the words only, as the message had passed
thinly into his keeping, without original vision. “He that would move the wind,
that would Travel the world as a boy, and that would appease the animals, will
be the Change. He that would master Saoghal and move without peer in the World
of Dreams, will be the Change.”

Predictive visions of
the welets had proven valuable for hundreds of years, accurately forecasting up
to the second World War. Since then, events had gone strange, incompatible with
the Words. Worse, there hadn’t been a welet born nor found in two centuries,
bearing credence to fears the Comannda were gaining control over the mysteries.
Kornilian’s salvage of a vision involving the Change continually fired the
family’s will to survive. Austin’s appearance and abilities marked him as the
Change, save for his lack of dream control. The rise of the Runa Korda against
the Comannda was nearly at hand and he had to be made ready.

Mug stood, still
apprehensive. “Sir, we are to begin.” He turned to the squad. “Prepare!”

In ones and twos, the
bràthair disappeared, off to form protective barriers around the meta cores of
the two elder druids. Should either be caught in a dream, the bràthair would be
the last defense against invaders seeking to track back to Raon to reveal their
location.

Cathbad nodded and
closed his eyes in prayer.

Edward said his own,
especially for Cathbad. The man was nearly four hundred years old and his
passing was as inevitable as ever. To have him face the Comannda now and fail
could bring division to the Family, a strife that would dishonor the Concords
agreed to so long ago. He prayed for success.

A distant horn sounded
from beyond the fort.

“Entry’s made, the
path is in place. God’s strength to you both.”

• • •

More archers appeared,
more arrows cut the air. Trees and their roots made for treacherous footing.
Every step seemed his last, a fated arrow surely in flight. Austin knew that if
one were to stick they would have him. He zigzagged towards the wall-high
thickets some twenty yards away. He cringed as he neared the vegetation. To
scout for an opening would leave him exposed so he built momentum and aimed for
the bushes, bracing himself.

He barreled into the
thicket and abruptly halted in a flurry of green – only now, the branches and
vines were replaced by two sets of hands holding him in place.

He stood in a
clearing, instantly familiar as the one seen during the cab ride through Epping
Forest. Looking beyond the entrance, he saw no roads or buildings – just trees
and sunlight dancing with shadows on wild grass. The two men holding him wore
battle robes made of leather armor inlaid with metal studs and rings. One of the
men was infinitely old, not so much by appearance but by aura. They looked like
old world druids.

“Calm, Austin, be
calm. We’re here to guide you from the dream.” Jumping ahead of the suspicion
forming, he said, “Keywords to authenticate: trainer Marcel, protector Meng,
knightly Edward, Kaiya love, missing father, wise Javier, dead Jacob. Now, can
you align with us?”

Still catching his
breath, it took a moment to process what he’d heard. “Yes, yes, I see, I get
it. Now how do I wake up?”

The druids relaxed
their grip but still held his arms. “We’re doing what must be done. We hide in
the spaces between their own creation, pacing them. It should end soon.”

“Who are you?”

“Korda. Nothing more
until you awaken. Do nothing but relax.”

He tried to empty his
mind and just stood with the two men, waiting. Breathing slowed. His eyes
wandered. Such a beautiful land; an unavoidable thought. The grass was
untrodden, the trees clustered to form a private court with one entrance. A
calm saturated the clearing and held all the magic and history he’d glimpsed
before. He could imagine a night here, stars and moon overhead, where the
spirits might appear to converse with the living. The earth’s voice seemed to
rise from the silence, a rumbling force that spoke directly to his soul. The
next moment, the druids tightened their grip as the rumbling voice became the
thundering approach of horses.

Both druids looked
alarmed and pained. The younger druid shook his head.