Dreaming in the Dark

05

Jo pushed her sisters behind her, facing the tide of snakes with fierce protectiveness, the kit yelping at her feet. Across the dark span of hissing scales, the other light grew stronger, approaching fast. It was a fox, a mother, bright as moonlight on the water. It snapped up a snake and shook it violently, then tossed it aside. Another was hanging from its side, fangs hooked under its ribs.

The fox barked, and swept a path for them with its bushy tail. The kit ran past it, and Jo grabbed Ange to make sure she would follow. Dez hesitated, but the fox locked gazes with her, and whatever communication transpired there was enough parts courage that Dez could move. She dashed ahead of her sisters, and the fox came last, shaking off more bites as it did so.

The kit led them to a larger tunnel, tall enough that the girls could hunch instead of crawl. Ange was pale and clammy all over, her hand hung limply at her side, but she wouldn't relinquish the fruit.

"That's a pomegranate," Dez said. "They're very strange. The seeds inside are like a thousand little eggs."

The fox and the kit showed them a path that led to a den, which must have been their home. They huddled there together for a while, not sure how to go on.

"Should we eat it?" Dez asked.

Ange shook her head, her face set with pain. "Not hungry," she said.

The fox that had saved them closed its eyes, and its light went out. The kit rubbed its mother with its nose, but it was gone.

"We're going to be okay," Jo said. "We just have to keep moving."

"I'm tired," Dez said, petting the fox that was gone.

"Where?" Ange said. "Go where?"

Jo picked up the kit and raised it to her face. "Do you know where we can go?" she asked. "Do you know where is safe?"

It whined, and she put it down. As she did, she noticed that the fox nest was made mostly of cardboard and paper. She picked up a few pieces to examine them.

"I can't read this," she said. "But it has markings."

Dez took it from her. "This looks like an instruction manual."

"How can you tell?"

"I don't know," Dez said. "I just can."

They looked through more of the papers but couldn't decipher anything of use.

"How about we go up," Dez said. "I mean, if we see something like a ladder, or the path turns up a bit, we go that way. And also we don't go crawling into anything smaller than this one."

"Great," Jo said, smiling radiantly. "See, we're going to be just fine." She helped Ange up again and they went down the passage together. Dez had picked up Edgar for his light, and also because it would be wrong to leave him with a mother that was gone.

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It was a long trek, and many times Ange had to lean against the wall to rest, but eventually the path did rise, and they came to a door with a wheel at its center. Jo let Ange balance on her own so she could turn it. It never occurred to her that the wheel might stick or lock, so it didn't. They entered a small utility room with steaming pipes and whispering machines. The next door opened automatically, and they discovered a grand brass hall filled with dark screens and plinths.

"Look at it all," Jo said. "What do you suppose it's for?"

"This," said a swimming, plangent voice that filled the space, "is the Hall of Dreams."

Something like a man was floating toward them from the far side of the hall. It had a man's face and body, but only the misty suggestions of legs. Its skin was covered in a rime of frost, or was that rime, and water droplets spotted the floor where it passed over.

"You're pretty," Jo said.

"Our friend is hurt," Dez nodded at Ange.

"My name is Kioku," the ice man said. "I am Guide of the hall and the keeper of its memories."

"Can you help us?" Dez asked.

"I can share my knowledge with you."

"Do you know how to help a snakebite?" Jo asked.

"I do, though I can't. You will need to visit the medical bay."

"Where is it?"

Kioku floated backward from them and the nearest screen came to life. A complex network of red and blue lines appeared, as well as a golden mark that was labelled "Hall of Dreams." Another section lit up, marked as the medical bay. It seemed a long way off.

"I don't know how to follow that," Jo said.

"I can," Dez said. "Let's go."

"Wait." Ange hadn't spoken in so long the other two startled when she did. "I want to know where we are."

"Of course," Kioku said, and another screen flared to life. They were given an image of a huge grey wing, a landscape of towers and battlements, ridges and defiles, a world without water or soil.

"You are aboard the ship Eternity. The only vessel of her kind. The Maker brought you here, for his own reasons. We have been adrift since we left humanity's home system a thousand years ago."

"Oh," Ange said, and promptly collapsed.

"I will send for a medical cart," Kioku said. "While you wait, I can answer more questions."

"We can carry her," Jo said, cradling Ange on the floor.

"No," said Dez. "We can't. It's too far, and we don't know what we'll find out there."

"We could," Jo said, almost sullen. But she didn't try to lift Ange by herself. Her golden hair had dried, raised in feathery layers.

"Well then," Kioku said. "What is your question?"