Steven Harper - Dreamer

I’m Silent.

Those words make me feel so free! I hadn’t realized just how scared the voices and dreams made me until Kendi touched me in the restaurant and jolted me all the way down to my feet and told me I was Silent. The voices and the vivid dreams are all normal, he says. I’m normal! It makes me feel like I could fly, even without zero gravity.

I like Kendi. And not just because he saved my ass, what? Two times? Three? He listens to me, believes me. I don’t know about Ara, though. Mother Ara, I guess I’m supposed to call her. I mean, she was stalking me? And she has this way of looking at me, like she’s sizing me up. It kind of reminds me of the look some jobbers get, jobbers that make me want to run far and fast because they want something I don’t want to give them. Other times she seems nice and caring. When she’s like that, she reminds me of Mom.

I don’t know what to think of Mom. She dumped a lot of stuff on me just before we left, and there’s no way to talk to her about it. I want to know more. I mean, I have two brothers out there somewhere? And a sister who was kidnapped? And then there’s my dad. I mean, Mom always said he was “gone” whenever I asked, and I just kind of assumed she meant he was dead. But now I hear he (and my sister!) just disappeared one day. I’ve got a whole family out there somewhere, but now I’m leaving Rust, and I’ll never find out any more about them. How could Mom not tell me this stuff? And who the hell does she think she is getting mad when that bitch Harenn told her I was tricking? Like Mom has any right to be angry after she sold her own kids!

Sometimes I get so mad I want to pound something, but I’m not going to ruin anything for myself on the Post Script by flapping off. I’m even polite to that bitch Harenn.

I hope Mom found the money okay. I’m worried about her.

Anyway. The hull’s almost fixed. It broke open when we were running away from the Unity. I thought we were dead for sure, and I still get nightmares about it. One of the guys who came to get me when Kendi and I were at the spaceport-Brother Pitr was his name-died making sure we’d get away. I didn’t even know him, barely talked to him, but he gave up his life for mine. Mother Ara held a service for him and jettisoned the body into space. Then everyone who was Silent-Mother Ara, Kendi, Sister Gretchen, and Sister Trish-went into the Dream. Kendi told me later that they hooked up with a whole bunch of other Silent and had another service. Then they all went back to work repairing the ship.

Anway. Like I said, the ship’s almost completely repaired, and that’s good news. A red-headed guy named Ben helped get main power restored so they could turn the gravity back on. I felt heavy at first, but now everything feels normal again. Fen’s a lot happier, anyway.

I remember where I’ve seen Gretchen-Sister Gretchen-before. She bumped into me when I was getting out of a jobber’s car. Kendi said she planted a bug so they could follow me easier. When I got mad, he said they did it because they wanted to be able to keep an eye on me in case something bad happened. I still don’t know. I can’t get pissed at everybody. Can I? This whole situation is screwed up.

Anyway. I still like Kendi, I guess. He treats me like a younger brother. It’s kind of neat. He sits next to me at meals and cracks jokes that almost make me wet my pants from laughing so hard. And he knows what it’s like to be scared about being Silent.

He told me about the Children of Irfan, who they are and where they came from. Now I’m going to be one of them. I’m excited and nervous at the same time. And I’m normal!

THE DREAM

Padric Sufur peered carefully through the branches of the pear tree. The round-bodied Mother Adept sat on the lip of her fountain, hands in her lap. At her feet sat a cabana chair. A male human Silent reclined in it and a tall glass with a pink umbrella sticking out of it hovered within his reach. The Silent had blond hair and wore an arrogant expression. Padric swallowed his distaste and forced himself to pay careful attention. He needed to find out if his information had been correct.

Beyond the garden wall, a section of sky remained blacker than a thunderstorm. Occasional flicks of red lightning streaked across the darkness. Even from this far away, Padric could feel the misshapen-ness of it. The area had cropped up yesterday over the giant canyon, and Padric hadn’t dared get close to it yet. Silent everywhere kept a wary eye on it and speculated on what it meant in frightened whispers. Meanwhile, however, Dream business had to continue. Padric carefully settled his wings about his tiny hummingbird body and listened.

“It’ll take another day to repair the hull to Harenn’s satisfaction,” Mother Adept Araceil Rymar said in her harsh human voice. “After that, it should take us about ten days to arrive at Bellerophon.”

The Silent sipped his drink and said nothing. His eyes, however, carried the rapt concentration of a trained Silent bent on absorbing every word. Once he left the Dream, Padric knew, the man would recite every word Araceil had said into a recorder. Good Silent always had highly trained short-term memories.

“I have not yet evaluated Sejal’s…destructive potential,” Araceil continued. “As Brother Kendi predicted, he seems able to possess the unwilling and non-Silent, though the exact extent of this ability we don’t yet know. I’ll conduct more tests back on Bellerophon.”

Every nerve in Padric’s body snapped to attention and his feet clenched the pear twig so tightly the bark dug into his skin. So his information had been correct. It was suddenly very hard for him to sit still, and Padric forced himself to remain motionless only with great effort of will. Although the form he had taken was tiny, his slightest movement would send weak ripples through Araceil’s portion of the Dream and she might notice him.

Araceil shifted on the lip of the fountain. “In anticipation of your Imperial Majesty’s next question, I don’t know how long it will take to determine if Sejal is dangerous enough to require…elimination. However, I am prepared to-” her voice faltered slightly “-to follow through on your wishes and will keep you informed. End classified transmission.”

Padric almost blinked. Araceil had orders to kill this boy? But of course. Humans were all alike in so many ways.

“The message will be delivered,” said the blond Silent in a toneless voice. He and his chair vanished without another word.

Araceil stared at the spot where he had been. Then a long sigh escaped her. The expression on her face was full of uncertainty, and Padric wondered if she was going to burst into tears.

“Dammit!” she suddenly yelled, and smacked the fountain water with one hand. Liquid sprayed everywhere. “And damn you! Damn you to a hundred hells, you damned Imperial bitch!”

Padric watched tensely from the tree as Araceil conjured up a vase and hurled it against the garden wall. It shattered with what Padric assumed was a satisfying crash. A hot wind rose, fluttering the green leaves and waving Padric’s twig up and down. Araceil raised a fist, and a lightning bolt cracked down from the clear blue sky. It split an orange tree from top to bottom. The concussion thudded against Padric’s fragile bones, and smoking splinters flew in every direction. He smelled burning wood.

“Damn you!” Araceil howled.

Another lightning bolt destroyed another tree. Nervously wondering if his might be next, Padric shot out of the tree, wings blurring, creating tiny ripples in Araceil’s Dream fabric. It was a risk, but Araceil was probably too distracted to notice right now. Besides, Padric was good.