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“We met once—some time ago.” She brushed a long strand of dark blue hair behind her ear and I saw that it was pointed, just like mine.
“Oh—you’re an elf…er, a Fae! Like me!” I said excitedly.
“I am.” She nodded and smiled. “I met you about twenty or thirty years ago in the Mortal Realm. It was at a tavern called ‘Harry’s’ I believe.”
“Harry’s? I used to hang out there in college all the time!” I exclaimed.
Then suddenly, everything clicked and I remembered.
“You were there that night! The night that creepy bastard slipped something in my drink!” I exclaimed. “He and his friend were trying to take me out of the bar to assault me but you stopped them!”
She nodded gravely.
“I could not let him steal your virtue.”
“It wasn’t just my virtue at stake,” I said grimly. “Do you know it came out later that those two were assaulting women and then strangling them and dumping their bodies in the woods? You saved my life that night—whoever you are.”
“I am Alira of the Seelie Court,” she said. “Though I am a different kind of Fae from you, we are still sisters in a sense. I believe I was sent to save your life that night at the tavern and now I believe we are sharing this dream for a similar reason.”
My heart went cold in my chest.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“I have been given a warning to give to you,” she told me. “Listen carefully—Those in power seek to take…you must face them when you wake. And though all alone you stand…the power you need is close at hand.”
I shook my head.
“I don’t understand.”
“You will,” Alira promised me. “When the time comes, you will find your magic—just as I did.”
“But my magic is so weak!” I protested. “Somebody stole me away as a baby and left me in the human world—er, the Mortal Realm—so my powers never developed. I can barely make a seed sprout! And I zapped Seldarin once because I was upset, but I haven’t been able to even produce a spark ever since.”
“Nevertheless, you will find the power to take what is yours,” Alira told me. “This was promised to me and now I promise it to you. You are stronger than you think and you are not alone.”
“Well, that’s true, anyway,” I said. Thinking of Sel and Krynn sleeping in bed beside me made me feel warm and safe.
But Alira shook her head.
“You may wake to a different situation than you went to sleep in, my sister. I believe you have been drugged—you are deeply asleep, which is one reason I am able to reach out to you, making a bridge between Realms in the Dream World. Now watch—I am permitted to warn you of what you will find when you wake.”
Her image faded for a moment and I saw a scene that frightened me. I was looking down on myself, almost as though I was floating above my own body. Krynn and Sel were sleeping next to me on the bed, Krynn with his head on Sel’s chest and his arms wrapped around his friend’s waist. Sel had an arm around his shoulders and the two of them were deeply asleep. Somehow I had drawn away from them and was sleeping with my back to Sel.
As I watched the three of us from above, I heard a soft, spooky flute-like music begin to play. It drifted into the Cavern of Lolth and seemed to tug on me, making my sleeping form turn over restlessly in bed.
Beside me, Krynn and Sel both sat up. They had blank looks on their faces as they got out of bed. To me, they looked like two sleepwalkers. As the flute continued to play, the two of them shuffled away from the bed, heading for the back of the Cavern where the tunnels lay. Neither said a word and they stared straight ahead as they walked down the long tunnel, following the sounds of the flute.
I left my body, which was still twitching restlessly in bed, and flew after them. I watched unhappily as they came out of one of the twisting tunnels into a small, secret room I had never seen before. Waiting there for them were Mordren and Elgiana—it was she who was playing the flute.
The instrument was strange—it looked like a primitive recorder carved out of some kind of yellowed bone with black markings burned into it. There was a palpable sense of evil around it and I knew instinctively that no one with an uncorrupted soul could play it.
“Here they are,” Mordren said. Then he frowned. “But where’s the Princess? I thought you drugged all three at the banquet?”
Elgiana stopped playing and frowned.
“I put the sleep potion in every cup—it must be the Jewel of Lolth which keeps her from responding.”
“Well, at least we have these two.” Mordren nodded at Krynn and Sel, who were still standing there like zombies. “She’ll come out soon enough looking for them when she wakes and they aren’t there.”
