The Big Sleep (Duology)

Chapter Twenty-Eight - Trust

The Speaker's room overflowed with young Dreamwalkers and Dreamcallers. Beth sat on Jacob's lap, Billy and I crouched on the floor, and Kayle had climbed up onto a bookshelf, where she perched precariously. Other students littered the couches and the benches, the floors and the tables. The room was more than full.

"Where is he?" the cowgirl I had outshone on my first day of training asked, twirling a six-shooter on her index finger.

"I'm sure he's on his way," Beth said.

The cowgirl rubbed her upturned nose. "Doubt it. The guy's a wacko. Probably forgot he called us all here."

"He'll be here," Jacob said, his hand around Beth's waist.

As if on cue, the front door burst open and the Speaker stepped in, his grey eyes gleaming. "My people," he said, opening his arms wide. "You came."

The cowgirl snickered. Kayle dropped a book on her head.

"I have called you all here because I trust you," the Speaker continued, ignoring the interruption. "We can end the war with the Greymen tonight, but I'll need your help. Each of you will have an assignment and each assignment will be integral to peace. None of you can fail. Everything depends on it."

"Why are you asking us?" the cowgirl interjected, rubbing her head where the book had hit her. She dodged another. "Isn't this what the Knights do?"

"You are all Knights of the Night," the Speaker said. "You have each taken your vows and bent the knee. You are all Dreamwalkers. Most of you are Dreamcallers. This is what you do."

"But we've never done anything before," the girl said. "Why are you asking us now?"

She made a fair point. Until now, the Speaker, my father, and all the other higher-up knights insisted that no child take part in the war. We may have found our own ways to participate, but even that bordered on rebellion. Now, on the eve of the most important battle thus far, the Speaker enlisted us? The scores of trained and battle-hardened veterans that fought from the Green City should have this assignment, not a horde of untested children.

Kayle didn't drop a book this time.

"The other Knights do not wish to participate," the Speaker said, clearly choosing his words with extreme care.

"They don't trust her, do they?" This time it was Billy who spoke.

The Speaker walked over to where Billy sat beside me and bent over. "No," he said. "But I do. Do you?"

Billy nodded. "Of course."

"And Jenny?" the Speaker asked, straightening.

Billy was quiet for a second, then said, "Yes."

"Good." The Speaker turned to address the rest of the group. "Now, I'll have to ask the rest of you to trust me. Can you do that?"

A few kids mumbled a half-hearted response. I couldn't tell if any were to the affirmative. Kayle nodded at me and I stood, placing my hand on my chest in a sort of salute.

"I trust you, Speaker," I said.

Kayle hopped down from the shelf and mimicked my pose. "I trust you, Speaker," she said.

Billy stood, then Beth and Jacob. Soon almost the whole room was on its feet, hands on chests. "I trust you, I trust you." The words echoed through the tiny space. Only a few remained seated, the cowgirl among them.

The Speaker smiled, then waved a hand. "The room's crowded enough. Sit down," he said.

"Yes, Speaker," the room said in unison. Chairs scraped the floor and we bumped into one another as we quickly took our seats.

"I trust you, too," the Speaker said, once we were all sitting again. "Which is why I'm going to tell you everything. Please listen carefully.

"For thousands of years, the Greymen were a simple species ruled by a ruthless species. Their Masters bred them for war, for slavery, for invasion. They were the soldiers and the sentries.

"The Greymen did not like living this way. They exist between planes, roughly in the same area as our subconscious. Because of this, they are sensitive. They feel the pain they cause, they know the loss. But the Greymen could not disobey their Masters, for without the Masters, they would die. And without the Masters, they could not breed. So, the Greymen followed orders. But one day, the Greymen were sent to assault a particularly unique solar system. Ours.

"While the Greymen rained fear upon us, we did not balk. Our people fought and fought, endlessly trying to push the invaders back. And many succeeded.

"Dreamcallers—those of such strong mind that they bonded to the assaulting Greymen—were reborn from the ashes of our old world. We raised the Green City and razed the assaulters, freeing us from our eight day slumber.

"Years later, Dr. Farrah discovered that the bonded, the Dreamcallers among us, were breeding more Greyman every day. The planet was slowly filling, another Big Sleep coming.

"She tried to stop it. She tried to contain them, to educate them, to somehow pre-emptively bond them. But it was an inevitably of time. Thus began our second Big Sleep.

"Now, a bond with a Greyman goes beyond simple powers in dreams. It is deeply intimate. To breed, the Greymen need a bond. Now they bond with us. But first, they bonded with The Masters.

"And the Masters have not forgotten about this assault. They will be sending colonists to our system. Dr. Farrah predicts as early as next year."

He paused for a moment, allowing the room to take it all in. The heroes were the villains. The Dreamcallers, my father, even the Speaker himself, all of them brought the second Big Sleep upon us. They had bred the Greymen.

"We have an opportunity now. Those of you who are left alive are almost guaranteed to survive the bonding, as your ancestors survived the first Big Sleep. The dream world is less foreign to you than it was to us the first time, less dangerous.

"If we can convince the population of the Green City to form bonds with the remaining Greyman population, Dr. Farrah believes that we can control and regulate their growth before the Masters—"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa." Beth stood up. "You really are talking about a mass suicide?"

"Of sorts," the Speaker replied bluntly. "Do you trust me, Miss Beth?"

Beth sat back down and nodded, though her face did not relax.

"Good," the Speaker said. "Then I will begin doling out your assignments. Remember, none can fail. This is our last chance."  

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