Page 40 of Nightmare's Dance

“You’re not going to try to kill Geraint, are you?” Ember’s mother asked. “We all love him so much.”

“No. I am going to make him squirm for a while, but it would be silly to help rescue him just to kill him. If I truly wanted him dead, I’d leave him with Baz. Excuse me,” I said, shooting a glance at Ash before leaving the room. Hopefully she’d follow after getting rid of Ember’s parents. We needed to get back to Nightmare.

I knocked on the door before letting myself into Ember’s room. She had curled up on her bed, a blanket wrapped around her shoulders. After a quick glance to see who was coming into her room, she went back to staring blankly at her bed, chin resting on her knees.

“We should plan our rescue attempt.” I sat in the rocking chair.

Ember sighed. “How could I have forgotten the three of you?”

“Likely a touch of magic. Someone hid your memories away, but didn’t delete them. It just took the right trigger to bring them back.”

“Okay, so what are we going to do?” She sounded so small and defeated. I wanted to seriously injure the being that had hurt her. Unfortunately, I was at least partially to blame.

“Ash and the jester should be here shortly. We should wait for them.”

“What’s a jester?” She huddled deeper under her blanket.

“Robby is a court jester. This means he’s an advisor to the high court, the king and queen of all of Dreamland. He’s also occasionally a spy, an informant, an actual entertainer, and many other things. I’ve never met him before, but I knew his predecessor from when I was young. She was quite talented, but went missing about the time everything else happened.”

“Everything else?”

“Baz’s break with realty, the strange nothingness taking over Dream, the arches breaking, the mirror dwellers vanishing, etcetera.”

“Oh.” Ember took a breath. “So, things are bad in Dream right now?”

“They’re certainly not good,” I admitted quietly.

A soft knock warned us before Robby opened the door, a succulent in one hand as he came in. He flourished the plant and bowed to Ember.

“Thank you, Robby,” she said, her eyes lighting up. She reached out, and he put the pot in her hand. She actually kissed a petal before stretching out so she could put the plant on the windowsill before curling back into her blanket.

Ash joined us, phone to her ear.

“Yes, dearest. That’s perfectly fine. Whatever color you want. Except that one.” She paused. “No, I’m joking. That color is fine. I’ll pick a few things to match it when I get home. Soon, dearest, very soon. Love you too, bye!” She slid her phone into her pocket.

“How’s Stacy?” Ember asked.

“Soon-to-be wifey is doing great. She’s planning.” Ash grinned.

“Am I still invited to the wedding?” Robby asked, humor coloring his voice.

“Yes, asshole,” Ash muttered. “But only if you manage to rescue Geraint.”

“Ahh, I thought his Highness was in charge of rescuing the errant knight?”

“You get to help,” I interjected before anyone else could answer. “Since you’re coming along.”

Robby bowed again. “Very well.”

“Besides, better that Baz blames you for interfering than me. He can’t do anything to Dream, but he’s so far avoided terrorizing everyone under my protection. That could change if he thinks I’ve actively gotten involved.” The thought of what Baz might do to my people chilled me, but I attempted to keep that to myself.

Robby gave me a knowing look, but I doubted Ember or Ash had any idea.

“So, what is your grand plan? Do we have a working arch? I assume there’s at least one since you got here. Have you found a mirror dweller?”

“Yes, jester, Bloody Mary is still alive. She says a few others are buried deep. Ember repaired an arch to get us here. I’m hoping she can repair two more, get us back to my residence, and then we can sneak into the castle and get the knight.”

“And what if she can only repair one?” Robby asked.

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