By James Bow

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The Dream King's Daughter - Chapter Nine: Aurora Ascends

Aurora stood with her hands in her jacket pockets. She turned slowly, keeping Roger in view as he circled.

"I didn't think you'd come," he said.

"Well, here I am."

His fists were clenched and his shoulders tense, but she could see the confusion in his eyes. She heard the slight quiver in his voice.

Nobody's ever pushed him like this before, she thought. He isn't sure what to do next.

"I'm not afraid of you," she said.

"You're in for a world of hurt," he snarled.

That sounded just like the TV shows he loved. I can just see him watching cop shows and cheering on the criminals.

A part of him wants to back down, but he won't. He is bigger than me and he knows how to hit things. He could hurt me, if I let him. But I'm not going to let him.

I'm going to change the rules.

"You be careful," she said.

"Think you can beat me?" He laughed aloud.

"Maybe."

"Well?" he demanded.

"Well what?"

"Are you going to put 'em up, or what?"

Aurora tilted her head. "Why?"

"To fight, of course. Or are you scared?"

Well, here goes nothing. Her grin showed her teeth. "No. I'm not. But you should be."

Roger laughed, but now he sounded unsure.

"He's coming for you, Roger," said Aurora.

He shook his head. "What are you talking--"

"Remember the contract?"

He froze. Aurora pressed on. "You signed it. You signed it in blood. There's no getting out, now that he's coming for you."

"What are you talking about?" The colour had drained from his face.

"What did you sell your soul for, Roger?" Aurora began to circle him. "So you could hit people?"

"It was just a dream!" He took a step back, tripped and fell. Gasps came all around. He scrambled up. "I saw it in a movie. It ain't real. It was just a dream."

Aurora chuckled. "If it was just a dream, Roger, how would I know?" She leaned towards him. "Can't you hear it? Can't you feel it?"

Sweat ran down his face. And to her surprise, Aurora heard a distant rumble. She felt the ground shake. It was already dark, thanks to the socks over the lamps, but now the light was going out of the sky. She could feel heat rising from behind Roger's back.

The other kids crowded forward, whispering at each other, no idea what was going on. This was all happening in Roger's head. She was making the dream play out for real in front of his eyes. And she was inside his dream. She could see what he saw.

She grinned. I can use this.

She threw her arms wide. "He's here!"

Flames leapt up in Roger's vision. The ground cracked and smoked. Aurora cackled. Roger yelled.

In her vision, the buildings became the walls of Roger's bedroom, draped in shadow and fear. A mailbox became a distorted version of his chest of drawers. A doorway was his closet door. It shuddered under the pounding of something inside. Roger crouched in his bed, knees to his chest, shaking. She could see Roger's vision of Albijana superimposed on her own. As the girl stared in the real world, perplexed, Roger saw wings of smoke and ash brush against his bedroom wall and flash with flame. Albijana opened her mouth, and behind a set of fangs was a cavern of fire.

Roger curled up into a ball on the concrete. He sobbed hysterically. "Mommy! Mommy! Make it stop! Make it go away! Make me wake up! Mommy!" His cries filled the alleyway.

The kids crowded around, eyes wide. "What's wrong with him?" The crowd jostled and Anne burst through, dragging Mr. Singh, the owner of the corner store, behind her.

Albijana was at Aurora's side but not too near. "What did you do? What did you do?!"

"What d'you think? I fixed him. I paid him back."

Aurora turned back to Roger. Her triumphant grin faded. Mr. Singh was kneeling beside him, trying to touch him, but Roger flinched away. Finally, Mr. Singh picked up Roger and carried him away while the boy screamed.

The crowd melted away. Albijana went with them. Aurora watched them go. Twilight deepened to night.

Aurora stood alone. What have I done?

"It was just his dream," she muttered. "He'll be okay."

She shoved her hands in her jacket pockets and started home. A squawk made her stop and turn around.

In the light of a street lamp, Aurora saw a crow perched on a branch. It looked at her with one eye and then the other. It cawed once. Then, it stretched out its wings and flew away.

#

Aurora stared at her distant reflection in horror a long moment. Polk stepped back from the roof edge, changing back into a teenaged boy.

Aurora changed back too. She kept staring at her reflection across the street. Her breath shook. "I'm a crow!"

Polk took a step away.

"I didn't tell myself to become a crow," she went on. "I just said bird and the dreamscape changed me into the most natural form it could find. So, I'm a crow."

"Aurora..."

"The Dream King only sends out crows."

"Aurora, don't worry about this." Polk's voice was desperately calm.

"It really is true. I really am his daughter. No wonder he's been looking for me after all this time. He'll never stop unless I find him first."

Polk shifted on his feet. Something about the noise made her turn around. Polk had pulled a dagger from his sleeve. The light glittered off the tarnished bronze and played over runes that decorated its hilt.

She raised her eyebrows. "Is that for me?" she asked quietly.

Polk's Adam's apple bobbed. "Yes." His knuckles were white on the hilt. His face was as white as his knuckles.

"You said you swore to protect me."

"And to--" He swallowed. "--to kill you if you ever turned toward the Dream King." The blade started to shake.

"Polk," said Aurora levelly. "I'm stronger than you."

"Yes."

"We're in the dream world and I can move buildings with the power of my mind."

He nodded slowly. "Yes."

"I could crush you like a bug."

"Yes."

"And you are going to kill me?"

He grimaced. "That's what I swore."

"Okay." She tilted her head. "Do it."

He drew back sharply.

Aurora clasped her hands behind her back. "You have your orders, Polk. I won't stop you. Do it."

He looked from her to his knife and back again. He raised the knife high. He let out a yell. The blade swept down. Aurora closed her eyes.

She waited.

She opened her eyes. The point of the knife had stopped inches from her chest. Polk's hands trembled. Tears trickled down his cheeks. 

She stared at the knifepoint hovering in front of her a long moment. She hadn't stopped it. Polk had. The knife fell to the ground with a clatter. He sobbed. "I can't."

She put her arms around him. He embraced her. She pulled his face to hers and their lips met. They held the kiss a long moment, savouring the pressure of their lips and the taste of each other's tongues. When he let go, he cradled his head on her shoulder. 

"Don't go," he whispered in her ear. "For God's sake, please don't go to him."

She straightened up, looked him in the eye. "I have to. I'm sorry."

His hands tightened on his shoulders. "No!"

She turned into a giant crow and beat him back with her wings.

#

Polk snapped awake. He staggered back against the hood of a car, stunned by the sudden uproar of traffic. He gasped in the heat radiating off the asphalt of the parking lot. The bowlerama where they'd flown from the Dream King stood just behind him.

He looked around. Aurora wasn't there.

But a woman was striding towards him, a baseball bat in her hand.

"Dr. Perrault? What are you do--"

The air left him as Dawn swung the bat into his stomach. 

"I know what your orders were, Polk." She pulled back on the bat. "I know what you swore to do, and I'm not letting you get anywhere near Aurora."

Polk straightened up, wheezing. "No-- wait-- I'm not--" He grunted as she hit him again, in the chest. "Please! Let me explain!"

"You stay away from my daughter!" She yelled and swung the bat. She caught him hard between the legs.

#

Aurora stood on the roof of the tallest building in Saskatoon. She looked around once, then ran to the parapet, hopping onto it, her sneakers turning to claws and her arms to wings and her clothes to feathers. As a gigantic crow, she looked down on the trees, the buildings and the grid-like streets.

I'm ready.

Where would the Dream King's headquarters be? If he's in the realm of dreams, then he could be anywhere: a mystical portal in the middle of a farmer's field, or a deep pit at the bottom of the sea. Perhaps I only have to choose the location, and it would be there.

Down below, she could see the people: ghostly images, shadows in overcoats, walking with hunched shoulders, as if in rain. She couldn't see their faces.

But hadn't the Dream King pulled all the people out of the dreamworld? Maybe he'd just pulled them out of this dream? But people never stop dreaming, even when they're awake. Where do they go? As she looked down at the ghostly forms slipping through the streets, she wondered, am I looking down at all the dreams?

If bad things happen when I meet the Dream King, then let's go far, far away from here. There has to be a place to see him that is far from everyone.

She scanned the skies and saw a star, twinkling, bright even in the rising daylight.

There, she thought. Meet me there.

Aurora spread her wings and launched herself into the sky.

The air cooled rapidly. She shot through clouds, sudden blinding whiteness, then out into seas of cobalt blue. The air thinned. She beat up and up until the sky filled with stars in broad daylight and she could see the curve of the earth. Then she spread her wings and ran her gaze along the horizon. Far below, Saskatchewan was a patchwork quilt dotted with bursts of cotton batting.

Where was it? C'mon, she thought. Show yourself!

She felt her gaze turn as if hooked, to look at the eastern horizon. A star on the edge of space twinkled.

She angled her wings and shot forward at the speed of dreams. The twinkle grew brighter.

As she flew, she heard distant ripples of sound: people shouting. "Aurora!" her mother's voice. "Aurora!" Polk's. She ignored them.

The twinkle faded, but finally, she was there. Hovering in mid-air, she stared at the shape in front of her.

It was a door. A simple wood-panel door, unpainted, with a brass doorknob. Standing on a concrete step with a "Welcome" mat in front of it, mid-air where sky met space. Aurora tilted her head one way, then the other, waiting for it to change, to open, but it just sat there, waiting for her hand.

She flapped closer, reaching out for the doorknob with a talon.

A gigantic dove shot up from below and struck her full in the chest.

Aurora cartwheeled, screeching in pain and anger. White feathers beat at her, filling her vision. She struck back with her black wings. The dove fell back.

She looked around. Distant specks, white, black and grey, were rising into the sky. There were dozens -- no, hundreds -- and they were flying right at her.

She squawked angrily. You think you're going to stop me? She turned back to the door, but the gigantic dove swept on her again, its claws gouging at her wings. Aurora screamed. "Leave me alone!"

She twisted and pecked hard at the dove's chest. It crumpled but held on to her. They fell, spinning, like a broken plane out of the sky.

Aurora held the big dove tight in her claws and gazed deep into its beady black eye.

"Who are you, and why are you doing this?" she screeched.

The dream hit her like a grenade exploding.

Matron bursts from the elevator into the Maternity reception area. A dozen eyes stare at her from the waiting room. A boy, barely a toddler, sucks his thumb.

Matron blanches. "Polk?" She rounds on his father. "What's he doing here? What are you all doing here?"

"Your brother invited us," says Polk's father.

The head nurse steps behind Matron and clears her throat. "Can I help you?"

Matron whirls around. "Where is Dawn Perrault?"

"Who are you?"

"Don't waste time, woman," Matron shouts. "Where is she?"

Salvadore stands up from his seat in the waiting room, his eyes sparkling with mischief. "Matron? What's wrong?"

The head nurse bristles. "Dawn Perrault is currently in a birthing room. The labour is going well. The father of the baby is with her. Are you related to the family?"

"Idiot." Matron pushes past the nurse. "Get him out of there!"

The nurse grabs Matron. "If you're not directly related to the mother, I can't let you go into the birthing room. Madam, if you continue, I'll have to call security!"

"I'm his sister!" Matron shouts. "He doesn't know what he's dealing with!"

A cry makes both women stop. A baby squawks.

"There, now," says a midwife in a nearby room. "There--"

The midwife screams.

Then a doctor.

Then the nurses in the next room over.

People rush for the emergency exit, pushing past the people in the waiting room who have stood up one after the other.

The head nurse rushes forward. "What's happening?" She runs partway down the corridor, then stops. She looks at her hands, eyes widening. She flexes her fingers and screams.

Matron shoves her toward the emergency exit. "Go! Get out while you still can!"

The hospital corridor twists, oozing like lava. Shadows scuttle across the walls, floors and ceiling, turning light into dark.

Matron faces the people in the waiting room. "Damn it."

"What do we do?" Polk's father asks.

"Get the Dream King away from his daughter."

Matron marches down the twisting corridor. The others follow.

Aurora broke out of the dream. She was still falling, still clawing the giant dove. The ground loomed closer.

"Matron?" She'd meant to say it, but the words came from everywhere. 

"You have to stop!" Matron's claws dug in.

"No!"

"Stop, girl, or else--"

"Or else what?" Aurora snarled back. "You'll kill me?"

"If I have to!"

"Go ahead and try!" Aurora stabbed wildly. Her beak sunk deep into Matron's shoulder. Red spilled across the dove's white chest and flecked Aurora's face. The dove screamed. The claws loosened, and Aurora pulled free. She soared.

"Aurora!" Matron screamed, struggling to stay aloft with one broken wing. Aurora watched as Matron lost altitude. A lump formed in her throat. Down Matron fell, until she became a speck against the ground. Then her wings swept wide, and she sailed across the patchwork quilt. Aurora let out the breath she was holding.

Then she looked around her. The air was becoming full of sounds, bird cries, bat screeches, snake hisses, the chitter of insects. She'd forgotten about the oncoming flying things. They were closing in on her.

Aurora turned towards the door. It had changed back to a sparkle of light. She angled up, and a gigantic bat swept forward and caught her full on the chest. 

The air left her. Her body changed. She was Aurora, a teenage girl now, though her arms were still crow's wings. 

She beat the bat off and sent it flying with a kick. She beat her wings and sailed up towards the sparkle of light.

The creatures were like a cloud, now; a mish-mash of wings and arms and talons, clawing at her feet as she struggled for every last beat of air. Their cries buffeted her ears. Something grabbed her sneakers. She let her shoes slip off and soared up barefoot.

She landed on the concrete doorstep, wings changing to arms. She grabbed the doorknob. The door opened inward. Darkness yawned. 

Something grabbed her ankle. Aurora fell against the doorstep. She lay, limbs splayed, for a moment transfixed by a face of statuesque light, like an angel. Its beautiful mouth opened into a gaping hole lined with fangs. Its wings snapped like sails.

She threw the welcome mat at it, then kicked it in the face. It let go. More arms grabbed at her over the doorstep. Aurora crabbed backward into the darkness. 

The door slammed, and darkness took her.

Forward to Chapter Ten ->>