Back in the Chamber of Dreams
author(s): Teri, Stana, Dave, Emily, Ian
Date: Tue, 22 Jun 1999 16:35:34 EDT
* * *

The Dreamer took up a slow chant, face screwed up in concentration,
gradually growing louder and louder.  It was a harsh, grating chant -
and
obviously not something the Dreamer liked performing, from the look of
distaste on his face.  The chant swelled until it echoed painfully
around
the room, causing Tad to wince.  *Well,* Tad thought, *if anything'll
wake
them up, this will.*
        With a loud, clamorous shout, the chant ended and the Dreamer's eyes
opened.
  The five forms around the room gasped simultaneously, and five sets
of
eyes  shot open.  Several of them gasped and shouted, looking around in
confusion, Teri crying out Stana's name.
        Tad looked hopefully down to Estela just in time to meet her eyes as

she  screamed, then shot bolt upright.  For just a moment, she
shuddered
with pain.
   Her eyes cleared slightly, filling with tears, and she blinked up at
Tad.
 Then she lunged upwards and threw her arms around him, sobbing into
his
chest.

        "Tadrinƒ it hurts, Tadrin....," she whispered, "My wingsƒ"

***

Stana's body jerked to full consciousness, she felt the arms around her
as restraints and angrily shook them off.
Where was she? Where?
  "Lady..." one of the maids asked tentatively, hands still
outstretched in a gesture of comfort and support.
Stana saw Teri relaxing against that comfort, and Tadrin with Estela.
She saw all of that.
  "I'm fine." she said flatly, refusing to be soothed.
  "But-you've blood on you..."
  Stana dropped her eyes to the gore splatterd outfit she wore. Her
fingers touched it, then she brushed her mouth, fingers coming away
with a trickle of red.
 "Most of it would not be mine." her mouth twisted sardonically as she
got to her feet. The tattered Book lay at her feet ignored.
  Oraiyas noted the movement and came over. She saw an accusatory glare
thrown to the Helper, who blushed and did not try to defend herself.
  "You should rest. The Healers will look you over in a moment."
  "It was not her fault." Stana said "I did not allow her to coddle as
she would have." The remark he made about the healers she did not
address at all.  Instead she moved to the still quiescent Unicorn at
her side.
  "He did not waken?" the Dreamer asked.
  "He was covering our escape." She replied. "There is more than one
way to injure a person through their dreams."
Oraiyas glanced sharply again at the girl. He had wakened them all, but
was getting the sensation that this one was, in some way, still
sleeping.
  She filtered the foolish Dreamer from her thoughts, as she placed the
flat of her palms against the equine neck. Stana's voice was a whisper
as she spoke his name.
  Clip snapped awake, nostrils' flaring and eyes violent. The gaze fell
upon the human beside him, and like that the wildness had gone.
With a grunt  he managed to get to his feet, and allowed himself to
lean lightly against her hands for a few heartbeats.
  It was evident that something had changed between the two, but it was
not clear exactly what. He took the sight of her face in one more time
before
disengaging gently and going to a corner to address his own hurts.
  The two watched for a moment before Oraiyas returned to his
irritation.
  "You should rest." he repeated.
  He didn't think she heard him. For a moment, emotion welled in him,
but then she turned, and with a ghostly flicker of the lips she
appraised the room.
  "Yes. I guess I should." But she made no real move to do so. Oraiyas
gestured to the Healers with a short panicked movement. The one
finished with Teri came over.
  The Healer took her arm with a firm hand, and led her back to the
pallat. The Dreamer watched for a moment, then hurried away, feeling
the gaze of the Earth Elemental marking his back. Out of her direct
sight it was wasier to admit the emotion she was engendering in him.
  Fear.

***
Teri had snatched the warm towel and basin from the woman the moment
she
sat up and quelled the spinning in her head. With nearly neurotic
frenzy
she
launched upon the task of scrubbing herself down. She ignored the
sloshing
of the bowl or the faint reddish-brown tinge of the water as she
continued.

The healer checked her over, and finding no obvious wounds save a few
nasty
scrapes, moved on.

"Do you have any bandaids?" the fire elemental asked- cursorily clean
and
more pale than the linen's original color.

The Healer's assistant, left to apply salve to a few of the scrapes,
blinked in confusion. "Bandages?"

 "No, Bandaids. I am stuck on bandaid brand cuz.." Teri sighed,
suddenly
remembering where she was. "Nevermind. Where's--?"

"Here," Shinji said, waving his attendants away and standing shakily
from
his pallat. He faced towards the door, his profile to her, and she saw
the
determined, forward set of his eyes. He addressed her, but did not look
at
her.

She looked up from where she still sat, legs folded beneath her.  The
shadow of his torso fell across the edge of her pallat. A normal
shadow,
she
noticed with relief. The red ceremonial tunic was torn, thin strands of
gold
embroidery hung unravelled. The re-lit candles played with the light in
his
hair as he cleared his throat, rubbed his forehead, and walked out of
the
chamber.

It wasn't until the basin water was cold that Teri realized he was
gone,
and the echo of his footsteps run hollow, chill within her.
***

Shinji had barely cleared the doors when a wave of dizzyness hit him.
He
brached against the wall, waiting for it to go. It did, but it did so
slowly and grudgingly. His chest was burning dully, and his free arm
came
up to feel under the tattered shirt. No wound, but the skin was burning
with fever. A cold sweat clung to his forehead, solitary drops
occasionally
oozing their way down his face.

"The poison..." he muttered. Breathing was getting difficult. He
glanced
down and saw the quickly spreading red stains across his chest.
Apparently
dreams aren't always just in the mind. He tried to take a step, but the
dizziness came back and forced him to lean against the wall, his chest
tightening painfully. Suddenly he felt someone grab his arm to steady
him,
and he felt himself being lowered to the ground to lean against the
wall.
His eyes focused on one of the healers, who was looking at him with the
practiced eyes of a physician.

"Sir, what's wrong?" she asked, grabbing his wrist to feel for the
pulse.
Shinji tried to straighten his head, to keep the room from spinning,
but it
didn't seem to be helping. His breaths were becoming very shallow, it
felt
as if someone was choking him from the inside. Frantically, he forced
his
eyes to lock with the Healer's, and his lips to move.

"...poisoned..." He murmured so softly he feared she hadn't heard him,
and
moved his collar down to reveal the ugly red bands. He thought he saw
her
eyes widen, but his vision was being slowly replaced by shadows and
lights.
He heard her bark something he hadn't understood, everything sounded so
far
away now. Movement, probably more healers. His sense-deprived state was
suddenly pierced by a sharp pain in his side, which ended almost as
quickly
as it came. His chest suddenly tightened excruciatingly, and he feared
that
the end had finally arrived. But then the pain began to ebb. He opened
his
eyes, and saw the world slowly beginning to swim back into focus. He
suddenly felt exhausted, the fatigue he had been ignoring for the
entire
mission taking it's toll upon his body just as the poison had. The last
sensation he had before he drifted off into unconciousness was that of
being carried away.

* * *

The Healer watched them drag the Fire Guardian away, and used her
sleeve to
wipe her brow. She glanced down at the long reedy needle in her hand.
Touch
and go. The poison had begun to take it's effects as soon as he had
woken
up. She had no idea how he could have been infected by it, unless it
had
happened sometime while they were "gone" as Oriyas had explained to
them
before hand. Such matters didn't make sense to her; they were of a
branch
of magic she neither understood or really cared to. Leave that to the
professionals, she supposed. The antitoxin had proven effective,
although
at first she hadn't been so sure.

She turned and began walking towards the Dreaming Chamber. Per her
orders,
the boy would be brought to his room to sleep off the final effects of
the
poison.  He'd be fine in time for that night's celebration.