Total pages in book: 134
Estimated words: 127026 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 635(@200wpm)___ 508(@250wpm)___ 423(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 127026 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 635(@200wpm)___ 508(@250wpm)___ 423(@300wpm)
“How do I find them?” Kerrigan asked.
Cleora looked at her sharply. “All this knowledge, and you know nothing of the shape of another’s casting?”
“Um … I know that some people have individual signatures. I found my dragon on the spirit plane that way.”
“Yes, similar concept. Once you know the shape of their casting, you can find them anywhere. A crux can sometimes help you locate a person. So, we’ll begin with that.”
Cleora drew her magic to herself. Only spirit could be seen on the plane, and it lit up gold between her hands. She rotated her hands three times, as if she were turning a dial, and then held it before her.
“Create your construct, and as you twist your hands, think about the person you are searching for. Put your intention into the construct and their signature, as you say, will be revealed.”
Kerrigan thought about Clover first, drawing her spirit to her and twisting it up with all the feelings she had toward one of her closest friends. The red vest she always wore for Dozan. The sharp smile she used only for her. The flick of her hands as she dealt the cards. And then she smelled it—loch and cinnamon.
She gasped at the unmistakable smell of Clover that enveloped her.
“Good. Good. Now, think inward and not outward. Stay a heartbeat and pull yourself out.”
Kerrigan concentrated and fell forward toward Clover. A second later, she was in the Wastes with Clover behind the card table. Darby stood to her left, and Hadrian stood to her right. She winked at one and then the other before glancing up in surprise to see Kerrigan there.
She hastily yanked herself out and fell forward out of her chair and onto the ground. She took a steadying breath. “Holy gods.”
“How did that go?”
“It worked. I saw … a dream, I think. It was my friend. She saw me.”
“That’s normal. You’ll want to jump in and out just as quickly, but not more than two or three a week. You will tire from it, and it becomes too suspicious. If you get good at it, you’ll be able to cloak yourself in a dream. So that the user cannot see you and you can only peer in on them. But it takes years to master that level of walking, and it is only used by highly trained users. As far as I know the emperor himself only has one such dreamwalker for this level of subterfuge.”
“People could spy on you through your dreams?” Kerrigan asked.
“Indeed. I don’t recommend it.”
“What do you recommend then?”
“I find it preferable to draw someone else into your dream rather than the other way around. It is much more difficult than everything but cloaking.” She glanced backward, suddenly fearful. “We’ll save that for next time. Bring your dragon if you must and keep working on walking.”
“But, Cleora—”
Things were finally getting interesting!
“I must go,” she said and then popped suddenly out of existence.
Kerrigan sighed. She wondered what it was exactly that Cleora had been afraid of. But she was gone, and Kerrigan should go with her. She could feel her magic was depleted from the few things that they’d worked on. Now, she had homework until the next full moon.
She stood from the chair, prepared to walk back into her physical body, and then she stopped. She knew how to find an individual person’s signature. Which meant she could theoretically find them anywhere in this world or the next. She had found Clover in seconds.
Did that mean she could find Fordham?
12
THE DREAMWALKING
Cleora had said dreamwalking was dangerous. Too dangerous to try to enter someone else’s dream for more than a second at a time. Kerrigan had learned nothing from stepping into Clover’s dream for only that moment. Only that she hoped for a future with both Darby and Hadrian at her side. Something Kerrigan knew already.
She could enter Fordham’s dream, but she doubted she would be able to find where he was in the physical world. It would be so much better if she learned how to pull him to her. Of course, that was the dreamwalking that Cleora hadn’t shown her how to do. She was just supposed to study with dropping into people’s dreams for the next month until their next meeting.
Another month without Fordham felt like torture. The last couple of weeks had been hard enough. She would have to deal with March all that time, pretend she wanted this insufferable marriage and cave to his stupid whims. The thought made her feel sick.
No, she needed Ford. She needed to find him and break the curse and return to a life of normalcy. Not the horrible one she was enduring presently. He’d know what to do about the Collector and her nomination to the council and March. They would figure it out together. Without him, she felt only half a person. A thought that crashed over her with its reality.