Chapter fifty-four

One dream, two dreamers

 

The steps led down to a sea cave, just as they had suspected; the sound of lapping water greeted them as they made their way gingerly down. This was unlike any sea cave that Celia had ever seen in her waking life, however, its walls were lined from floor to roof with shelves of books. She recognised it immediately – it was where she had hidden something in an earlier dream. Her memories came flooding back.

The air around them popped – the spell that had distorted their speech was broken.

She turned to Viola.

‘The note!’ she shouted, ‘I wrote a note…and I put it in your book!’

Viola blinked at her.

‘What?’ she asked

‘I was given instructions telling me how to get to Kratos’s island headquarters. I wrote them down in my dream and slipped them inside a book…’

Viola looked out over the vast space and the hundreds of book within it.

‘…but which book?’ she asked

Celia scanned the walls from left to right. Viola followed  her gaze.

‘I don’t know’ she said wearily, ‘I can’t remember’

‘Who gave you the instructions?’ asked Viola

‘A tall black elf – he called himself Ko-yo, or something similar’

‘Rhopadon’ whispered Viola, ‘the Imperial God of Misrule, the deity of tricks and mishief… That’s one of his names’  

‘I could tell he was a god…’ murmured Celia, ‘…and he was certainly tricky…’

‘Why did he tell you about Kratos’s headquarters?’

‘I’m not sure – everything is hazy… Perhaps he doesn’t want the world destroyed?’

‘He’s usually worshipped by the feckless, the amoral and the narcissistic… I doubt that he’d care’

‘Anyway… I need to remember this book… I think it was a history of some kind, or a collection of folk tales, perhaps… maybe something secret?’

‘What language was it written in?’

Celia struggled to remember.

‘Elven – Archaic Elven – and it was about Adrial, the old Emperor, and… Ophia’

‘Ophia?’ murmured Viola

‘Yes – she’s an old Elven god… they call her the Paramount Architect’

Viola nodded, a faint smile flickering across her lips

‘I know that’ she said, ‘but what does that have to do with me? An Emperor and a god aren’t my concern’

Celia frowned and nodded her agreement, it all seemed very strange.

‘What book would it be?’ Celia asked, but a name was already forming in her mind. It began with a “kappa”.

‘Kaltrops? Is that it?’

Viola corrected her, reluctantly.

‘Kalappos, it must have been him – he’s a famous Archaic Elven historian of the Empire’

Celia nodded eagerly.

‘That’s it. It was something called Secret History, I think’

Viola frowned deeply. 

‘I don’t think I like that name at all…’

She stopped and then continued softly, as if to herself.

‘But the New Prime told me to seek my hidden past – perhaps it’s revealed in Kalappos’s history…’

‘What?’ asked Celia, completely bemused.

Viola ignored her confusion.

‘What did it say in the book?’

Celia sighed.

‘I can’t remember – it was something to do with the god and the emperor, as I said – perhaps it was about Dwarven Magic…’

‘Whatever it’s about it’s clear that we need to find the book – for both of our sakes…’

 Celia nodded. She looked out over the stretch of water that separated them from the bookshelves.  She knelt down and dangled her hand into the water. She whispered ‘fferra’, waited a few seconds, and then pulled her hand back out again.

  The water in front of them froze instantly. It formed a bridge from where they were standing across to the thin ledge than ran alongside the bookcases

   Celia stepped on to the ice gingerly, but more confidently as she was certain that it would take her weight. Viola was temporarily distracted wondering how spells worked in dreams, but then she realised that it didn’t matter, as long as they could find the book. Celia half walked, half glided, to the side of the cave.

She looked back at Viola. ‘I think I’ve remembered where it is’ she shouted. Viola stepped, with even more care, on to the ice. She picked her way towards the witch. 

Celia had shuffled a few feet down the ledge.  She was pointing at a book with both hands. Viola hurried to join her.

  Celia took the book out of the bookcase and showed it to Viola. Viola stared at the spine with great puzzlement.

‘Western folk songs and tales? That’s not It, is it?’

Dismayed, Celia snatched it away from Viola and opened the book to show the title page. She read:

Kalappos of Oikonde – Secret History;

Being the Concealed Part of Skiophographia with Historical Facts Best Kept Hidden

Here Bound Separately For Ease of Reading.

Published on the Fifth Day of March in the Nine-Hundredth year of the Reign of the Basilieus George Palaeologus

Published Exclusively in Epipelagia

[NOT LICENSED FOR SALE OUTSIDE HELIOS]

 

‘It is the history book – look…’

Viola shook her head.

‘I can’t read it… It’s not appearing as it should to me’ she insisted, ‘tell me what page it is so that I can find it in the waking world. Then read out the page.’

Celia opened the book at where she saw a book mark. The mark, a square of paper fell out. Viola caught it before it flew off into the sea.

‘That’s my note…’ gulped Celia

‘One thing at a time’ whispered Viola, hoarsely, ‘read out the page’

Celia began to read it out in the original Archaic Elven

‘A the top of the page there’s a header. It says “Kalappos secret history – page fourteen-thousand, thirteen hundred and three, bound addition”’

‘How will I remember that?’ Viola asked

Celia shook her head.

‘I’m not sure – but perhaps if you write it down straight after you wake up?’

‘I can’t remember the whole page’

There was a noise behind them, a roaring that was increasing in intensity.

Celia turned her head. The sea was bucking tumultuously.

‘Give me my note, quickly’ she demanded

Viola handed the note over, but all the time she had her eyes fixed on the history book, which unfortunately she still couldn’t read.

Celia looked at one side of the note and then the other. Her hands were a blur.

‘It’s blank…’ she said, despairing.

Viola reluctantly tore herself away from the book and looked down at the square of paper.

‘No it isn’t – it has some instructions on it…’

The roar had become almost unbearable – they had to shout to be understood. They both looked up. A wall of water had formed some way out beyond the cave entrance. It was heading towards them at a ferocious speed.  

‘Tell me quickly’ shouted Celia, ‘someone is trying to shut down the dream!’

Viola read rapidly out loud. It was a struggle – Celia’s handwriting was scrawled and approximate and the note was in Ethian.

‘Make for the Green Isle of Hoy. Sail to it from the east, round it thrice anticlockwise on the north side, and then bear due south for a day. Don’t be distracted by anything…’

If there was any more of the note they would never know. The huge wave came in and engulfed everything. They felt nothing of the wave’s power or texture – it was only a dream after all. The books and the cave and the house and the island, they all dissolved away.

Isolated now in their own realities, they woke up instantly. The tangled spells were broken. Their shared dream was gone forever.