The Dreamer's Crown

Chapter One

The city of Port Creave celebrated in the night, in the light of lanterns. Quick-silver music spun like lyrical gold around every corner, hundreds of sweating musicians bent over instruments, fingers flying. Men, women, and children danced like every movement prolonged the night, exultation seeping from every pore. In another hour, this frenzy of joy would reach a fever pitch and the annual Festival of Souls would be in full swing. Even the unwashed masses that lived on the waters edge observed this occasion in feverish festivity. Port Creave relished celebrating the existence of humankind.

Not all celebrated, however. Corinne Loucair ran along a dark street, in one of the lowest tiers – the one the residents called the Butchery level. It's main purpose was explanatory: it served as the city's designated spot to butcher livestock. She'd been running up for a while now, and through the exhaustion, she wondered distantly if they'd gone from that tier into another already. Perhaps even several — climbing through the city up towards the palace. She'd forgotten to track the time.

Far from the revelry — indeed, far from the joy, Corinne slowed from her sprint to a heavy jog. Every movement jarred the bones in her body into each other. The corner ahead bent at a ninety degree angle, the shadows of the alley walls bearing down. Dirt and other refuse lay in pools of sludgy liquid on the cobblestones. She splashed through these without hesitation like a tall, thin skeleton, pale in the meager moonlight. Each breath came in a heavy gasp; every step sent a lance of agony arching into her body beneath her left ribs. Besides her own noise, silence hung like a frozen, sharpened icicle. Waiting to fall. Waiting to break.

Breathe, Corinne told herself, even as her hands curled into fists. The dull wub, wub, wub of her heartbeat thundered in her ears. She turned the corner.

In the murky dampness, a stocky creature crouched, just a few leaps away. Intelligent, mad-dog eyes met her own. Her muscles seized, and she stumbled to a halt, the blood draining from her face. Fear swept like ice down through her limbs — her skin pebbled, and a faint, frightened noise flew from her lips. It wasn't supposed to wait for her. It wasn't supposed to care that she'd been following.

Corinne didn't think she'd ever seen anything look so malicious. Even after following the creature for several minutes at a near sprint, she hadn't thought it would stop to attack it's pursuer. They'd wound up and about and through the streets, taking turns and twisting through the many levels of the city, always on an upward trajectory. It never once had slowed down, so she'd lured herself into a false sense of security.

Now, as she stared into the eyes of the stocky, muscled animal, all reasoning drained away — and she stood like a frozen deer, mind a blank slate. A distant part of her mind registered disgust; she stood directly in an inch of slimy water, but she couldn't tear her gaze away. Her mouth dried out, and she distantly became aware that she'd begun shaking.

It snarled. A low, rippling note, the lips peeling back from the dripping fangs, the dark, animal eyes shining. It took one step closer. The muscles covered in thick brown fur rippled, and her chin lifted, her eyes stung. She rolled her jaw, swallowed. It could not get closer. If it got closer, she didn't know what it might do to her. Hearing her breath rasping in her ears, Corinne slid her foot back through the puddle along the cobblestones, slow, quivering as she did.

She'd never been so afraid of a dog in her life, never felt such paralysis of her mind. She knew what it could do if it got ahold of her. Perhaps it would slowly rip her apart like it did that little boy several tiers below.

She'd shared food with that boy yesterday night. Sitting on overturned barrels, trading a loaf of stale bread in silence. Such generosity in these starving times was so rare, Corinne had known she'd be taking the boy under her wing after that. Just to ensure he survived the coming months.