Dreamstrider Read Online Free Page B

winter frost. Come, they beckon. Forget these worlds. Forget your dreams and your life that can’t compare. A simple request, as insistent as sleep tugging at my eyelids. You needn’t struggle any longer. Surrender, and suffer no more.
    “Livia, please, stay with me,” Brandt pleads, as he guides me through the Citadel. Then he says, softer, “Dreamer, please show us the way…”
    The Wastes chuff at me like a wolf checking its prey. Their tug is so strong, stronger than it’s ever been before. Where once the Wastes whispered behind my back, they now seem to have surrounded me, their urges twisting around my limbs like rope. You’ll only fail again. Surrender to us, pay the price for your weakness … It tempts me more than it ever has before.
    Hay, I smell hay and the tang of manure flooding General Cold Sun’s nose. Please, Dreamer, protect me for just a moment longer. I can’t feel the general’s feet or his hands; I don’t know if we’re close enough yet for my soul in Oneiros to seize the tether to my own body. His consciousness presses in on me like all-consuming flames. And still I cling to his body. I can’t be cast out, open to the Wastes.
    Then I catch a glimpse through Cold Sun’s eyes—I want to weep at the sight of me, crumpled in the stall. I take a deep mental breath and prepare to seize my body’s tether to return to myself. Just a bit closer.
    But the general’s body swings around, and he turns on Brandt, his thoughts crackling like flames. No! I try to scream at Brandt, because I’m not certain we’re close enough for me to seize the lead to pull me back into my body.
    Cold Sun is awake and forcing me out.
    “What is the meaning of this—”
    Brandt cocks his fist, swings it at us—
    And everything goes black.

Chapter Two
    I’m swimming through blackness with the scent of blood heavy in my nose. The general is unconscious again after Brandt’s blow, but now my soul is completely out of his body, vulnerable to the Wastes. They call to me like rocky cliffs, begging for fresh meat dashed across their faces. Disappoint your friends no longer … Surrender to emptiness …
    Visions dance before my eyes—some memories, some not—of my life back in Barstadt. The way the other Ministry operatives fall silent and move to another room whenever I’m around. The Incident, with the crackle of flame and scent of charred meat hanging thick in the air. A glimpse of my mother’s milky eyes, roving the tunnels in search of help that never comes. Other illusions appear, too, of failures I fear are yet to come—Brandt, his throat slit by a gang leader’s blade when I’ve botched yet another operation. And always, always, the fear of Brandt disappearing into his other life, the life of aristocratic dinners and alliance-building, a world I can never know.
    “Livia.” Brandt’s voice pierces the veil of whispers and sorrow. “Livia!”
    I reach, desperate, scrabbling, for the lead that will pull me back into my body. Almost close enough … I can see my body’s tether dangling down into Oneiros now that we’ve moved closer to my body in the real world. I fight against the Wastes for just another second—
    You’ll destroy him—
    Brandt. They’re right. I’m only going to cause him harm—
    “Livia!” Brandt calls.
    I bump into the tether, take hold, and snap. I plunge into myself and awaken with a gasp.
    “Livia!” Brandt seizes me by the shoulders—my shoulders, with my hair draped over them, crusted with hay. He brushes his fingers along the side of my face as a pent-up breath escapes his lips. “Are you all right?”
    I flow back into my body a little more with each hammering of my frantic heart. I try to grip his forearm, but my fingers flop against his elbow. My skin feels scrubbed raw; everything is too loud, too smelling, too feeling.
    “Water,” I wheeze.
    Brandt fumbles a waterskin free from his belt and holds it to my lips. The sweet, cool water is just what I need,