47. Lily

Ihad the strangest dream that night. It was about a girl with beautiful deep blue hair and blue eyes to match. But her hair didn't look like it had been dyed—blue was her natural color, I thought, though I couldn't have explained how I knew that.

The girl looked somehow familiar to me, as though I had met her once in another lifetime. But somehow I just couldn't remember how or when we had met.

Then she spoke.

"Hello, Lily." Her voice was soft and sweet and kind—it made me feel even more strongly that I had met her before.

"Do I know you?" I asked, taking a step towards her.

"We met once—some time ago." She brushed a long strand of dark blue hair behind her ear and I saw that it was pointed, just like mine.

"Oh—you're an elf…er, a Fae! Like me!" I said excitedly.

"I am." She nodded and smiled. "I met you about twenty or thirty years ago in the Mortal Realm. It was at a tavern called ‘Harry's' I believe."

"Harry's? I used to hang out there in college all the time!" I exclaimed.

Then suddenly, everything clicked and I remembered.

"You were there that night! The night that creepy bastard slipped something in my drink!" I exclaimed. "He and his friend were trying to take me out of the bar to assault me but you stopped them!"

She nodded gravely.

"I could not let him steal your virtue."

"It wasn't just my virtue at stake," I said grimly. "Do you know it came out later that those two were assaulting women and then strangling them and dumping their bodies in the woods? You saved my life that night—whoever you are."

"I am Alira of the Seelie Court," she said. "Though I am a different kind of Fae from you, we are still sisters in a sense. I believe I was sent to save your life that night at the tavern and now I believe we are sharing this dream for a similar reason."

My heart went cold in my chest.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"I have been given a warning to give to you," she told me. "Listen carefully—Those in power seek to take…you must face them when you wake. And though all alone you stand…the power you need is close at hand."

I shook my head.

"I don't understand."

"You will," Alira promised me. "When the time comes, you will find your magic—just as I did."

"But my magic is so weak!" I protested. "Somebody stole me away as a baby and left me in the human world—er, the Mortal Realm—so my powers never developed. I can barely make a seed sprout! And I zapped Seldarin once because I was upset, but I haven't been able to even produce a spark ever since."

"Nevertheless, you will find the power to take what is yours," Alira told me. "This was promised to me and now I promise it to you. You are stronger than you think and you are not alone."

"Well, that's true, anyway," I said. Thinking of Sel and Krynn sleeping in bed beside me made me feel warm and safe.

But Alira shook her head.

"You may wake to a different situation than you went to sleep in, my sister. I believe you have been drugged—you are deeply asleep, which is one reason I am able to reach out to you, making a bridge between Realms in the Dream World. Now watch—I am permitted to warn you of what you will find when you wake."

Her image faded for a moment and I saw a scene that frightened me. I was looking down on myself, almost as though I was floating above my own body. Krynn and Sel were sleeping next to me on the bed, Krynn with his head on Sel's chest and his arms wrapped around his friend's waist. Sel had an arm around his shoulders and the two of them were deeply asleep. Somehow I had drawn away from them and was sleeping with my back to Sel.

As I watched the three of us from above, I heard a soft, spooky flute-like music begin to play. It drifted into the Cavern of Lolth and seemed to tug on me, making my sleeping form turn over restlessly in bed.

Beside me, Krynn and Sel both sat up. They had blank looks on their faces as they got out of bed. To me, they looked like two sleepwalkers. As the flute continued to play, the two of them shuffled away from the bed, heading for the back of the Cavern where the tunnels lay. Neither said a word and they stared straight ahead as they walked down the long tunnel, following the sounds of the flute.

I left my body, which was still twitching restlessly in bed, and flew after them. I watched unhappily as they came out of one of the twisting tunnels into a small, secret room I had never seen before. Waiting there for them were Mordren and Elgiana—it was she who was playing the flute.

The instrument was strange—it looked like a primitive recorder carved out of some kind of yellowed bone with black markings burned into it. There was a palpable sense of evil around it and I knew instinctively that no one with an uncorrupted soul could play it.

"Here they are," Mordren said. Then he frowned. "But where's the Princess? I thought you drugged all three at the banquet?"

Elgiana stopped playing and frowned.

"I put the sleep potion in every cup—it must be the Jewel of Lolth which keeps her from responding."

"Well, at least we have these two." Mordren nodded at Krynn and Sel, who were still standing there like zombies. "She'll come out soon enough looking for them when she wakes and they aren't there."

"The little slut!" Elgiana's lip curled. "I hope you're going to deal with her appropriately! I don't like the way she took over my servant." And she stepped up to Krynn and ran her long, sharp fingernails down his bare arm.

Though the lighter Fae's face was still blank, I saw him shiver at her touch. Remembering the horrible things she'd done to him in the past, I wanted to rush at the evil Fae and slap her or claw her eyes out.

"Leave him alone!" I shouted. "Leave both of them alone!" But the words that came from my mouth made no sound. And apparently I was invisible, because neither Mordren nor Elgiana seemed to be able to see me as I hovered above them.

"I'll deal with her, all right." Mordren's voice was grim. "I wanted to kill her, but the Court is quite taken with her now."

"Well, that's your fault isn't it, for forcing her to do a Public Quenching," Elgiana remarked.

He scowled.

"How was I to know she'd be able to generate that kind of Royal energy? I know her magic isn't much to speak of—it can't be—she's lived in the Mortal Realm her entire life."

Elgiana shrugged elegantly.

"You gambled and lost. You must be certain you don't lose again, Lord Regent."

"Never fear, I won't," Mordren promised. "By tonight you'll be calling me by a different title…the entire Court will."

I started to protest and try to shout at them again, but I heard Alira's voice in my ear.

"I'm sorry, Lily, but that's all the warning I can give you," she murmured. And then, somehow I was rushing backwards through the dark tunnels and back to the Cavern of Lolth. When I reached it, Alira reappeared in front of me.

"I hope that was helpful," she said and I thought she looked tired. "I am sorry but my magic is stretched thin—it isn't easy working in the Dream World."

"Why did you show me that? What are you saying?" I was beginning to feel panicky now. "Did that really happen, what you showed me? Are you saying I'm going to lose Sel and Krynn? Lose my guys?"

"I am saying that the power you need is all around you," Alira told me. Her image was beginning to fade. "You only have to reach out your hand and take it. And now, it is time for you to wake…wake…wake…"

Her voice echoed in my head even as my eyelids fluttered open. I sat up in bed and looked around me. I was all alone in the Cavern—Krynn and Sel were gone.

My nightmare was a reality.