A Dream of Mortals

CHAPTER THIRTY THREE

Thorgrin flew through the air at full speed, his head racing through the clouds, not understanding what was happening. He looked down and realized he was riding on the back of a dragon, and was elated to see it was his old friend, Mycoples. He did not understand how she got here—or how she was even alive. As he flew on her back, racing through the skies, he felt alive again.

“Mycoples!” he called out, leaning down to hug her. “My old friend. How did you return to me?”

She purred, arched her neck, and raced faster, and Thor wondered where she was going. He did not care—as long as he was riding her, all felt right in the world again.

Thor suddenly heard a baby cry, and he looked down and was shocked to see, below, in Mycoples’s claws, Guwayne. She held him gingerly, wrapped up in her talons, and as he cried he opened his eyes and Thor saw they were piercing blue. Thor felt overwhelmed by his connection to his son.

“Guwayne!” he called out.

Mycoples suddenly dipped down, beneath the clouds, lower and lower, and as she did, Thor saw looming beneath them the great expanse of ocean. A series of rocky cliffs, formations of rock, jutted up in the water, spread out from each other, dotting the ocean like great jagged boulders dropped down from the sky, like steppingstones to another world, shining beneath the light of a sole sun. The skies turned dark, despite the sun, and as they dove closer, Thorgrin sensed somehow that this had become the Isle of Light. Ragon’s isle.

Thor heard Guwayne scream and he looked down and his heart fell to see that Mycoples had released his baby. Guwayne dropped from her talons and Thor watched, horrified, as he fell through the air, soaring right for the Isle of Light.

“GUWAYNE!” Thor shrieked.

Thor woke screaming. He looked everywhere in the blackness, sunlight streaming in through narrow slats, and wondered where he was. A cold sweat ran down the back of his neck as he sat up, rubbing his eyes.

It had felt so real. It took him several moments, breathing hard in the blackness, to realize it had just been a dream. An endless nightmare. He looked everywhere for Guwayne and realized he was not here, and felt a sense of relief. At least he had not fallen through the sky.

Yet, still, it nagged at him, as it had felt like more than a dream: it had felt like a message. But what? What were his dreams trying to tell him?

“Thorgrin?” came a voice.

Thor looked over and saw in the blackness, on the far side of the hold, was Angel, staring back. Thor realized he was on the ship, beneath the deck, as Angel came over to him and placed a wet compress on his forehead.

“You were dreaming,” she said. “You were talking in your sleep. Something about Guwayne and a dragon.”

“Angel,” Thor said, giving her a hug, getting his bearings, remembering. “Where are we?”

He looked over and saw that dawn was breaking, and realized he had slept the whole night—for the first time in he did not know how long.

“We’ve been sailing all night,” she said. “I hear a great deal of commotion up above. I think we’re nearing the entrance to the Empire.”

Thor, remembering, jumped up immediately and raced across the hold, throwing open the wooden latch and hurrying up the steps two at a time—Angel right behind him.

Thor emerged into a beautiful sunrise, the golden suns washing over everything with a soft muted orange, and as he came up, he saw Reece, Selese, Elden, Indra, O’Connor, and Matus standing at the bow. They sailed alongside Erec and Alistair’s ships, and Thor saw his sister and brother-in-law standing alert at the bow, too, along with Strom and all their men. They were all transfixed, looking straight ahead, and Thor turned to look, too.

Land. It took Thor’s breath away to see it, after all this time, and his heart soared with relief. It was a land unlike any he had ever seen, and immediately he knew they had reached the Empire’s shores.

Thor felt their boat slowing, the tides changing beneath them, and he looked out to see the ocean blending its way into the mouth of a river. The river, he saw, snaked its way and disappeared into the horizon.

“The River Volusia!” Erec called out, as Thor walked to the bow. “It flows all the way through the heart of the Empire. It will take us all the way north, to the city of Volusia.”

Thor paused, looking out at the Empire, knowing that Gwen, the love of his life, was out there somewhere, and needed him. On the one hand, his heart beat with anticipation to see her again; yet on the other hand, he felt overwhelmed with guilt: how could he face her without Guwayne?

There came a distance screech, high in the air, and Thor turned and watched the skies, searching, remembering his dream. It was no ordinary screech. It was the screech of a dragon—and the second it rang out, he knew it was meant only for him.

Sure enough, there emerged from the skies a lone dragon, circling high above, and Thor’s heart lifted to see it was Lycoples. It was uncanny to see her now, at all times, here at this crossroads, when he was unsure what to do—and after such a vivid dream. It felt as if his dream had become reality.

All the men on the ships stopped and looked up in terror, as Lycoples swooped down for them.

“A dragon!” one of Erec’s men called out. All the men cowered, dropped down to the deck, terrified—all except for Thor and Angel. Thor alone stood his ground, knowing there was nothing to fear, and Angel, fearless and mesmerized, stood beside him.

Lycoples dove down right for him and then, at the last second, she screeched and flapped her wings and lifted up, barely missing him.

She did it a second time, then a third, until Thor knew there was no mistaking it: she was trying to give him a message.

Lycoples then turned and flew off into the horizon, in the opposite direction, away from land, away from the Empire, and back over the open seas. Thor watched her go, watched her disappear, and he knew. He just knew.

She wanted him to follow.

Then, suddenly, in a rush, Thor was filled with clarity. Thor felt certain, more certain than he’d ever felt in his life, what it all meant. The mystery unraveled all at once.

Lycoples wanted to lead him back, back to the Isle of Light, because on it, there awaited someone very precious to him.

Guwayne.

Thor hated himself at that moment. How could he have been so stupid not to see it all this time? All this time, Guwayne had been right in front of them, right before his eyes, and he’d sailed away.

“Turn our ship around!” Thorgrin commanded.

They all looked at him as if he’d gone mad.

“Are you mad?” Erec called out. “The Empire lies before us, not behind us!”

Thor went to the rail and smiled back.

“You don’t understand,” he called back. “My quest lies behind us—not before us. Guwayne! He lives! Lycoples is leading me to him!”

They all stared back, shocked.

“I cannot return to Gwendolyn without him,” Thor called out. “You go ahead. Go to Volusia, find her. Tell her I will follow soon—with our baby. Go now, my friends!”

Alistair and Erec clearly saw the look in Thor’s eyes, saw his determination, and they nodded back in understanding. They sailed their ships closer, so close that Thor could reach out and clasp Erec’s forearm, and reach over and hug his sister.

“Until we meet again, my brother,” Erec said.

“I love you, brother,” Alistair said.

“And I you, my sister,” he replied.

Thor allowed the seas to separate their ships, until they drifted further and further apart. His men, Angel ordering them, hurried to take up the sails, to turn the ship, all of them eager to follow Lycoples’s trail.

Thor turned and faced the open seas himself, and for the first time since he had begun this quest, he felt certain.

And this time, he would stop at nothing—absolutely nothing—until he got his son back.