In that instant all of the feeling of adventure that had surrounded Dreamwalking disappeared. It was not fun anymore. It was sobering. It was terrifying. Horrible things could happen to me here, and I wanted out.

  Panic flooded through me again. My breathing came in short gasps. “Keegan,” I said, voice tense, turning to him, “Keegan, get me out.” I reached out and grasped his arm. “Keegan, get me out now.”

  “I can’t, Ria. I’m sorry. I can’t do it.”

  “Keegan!” My voice was almost a scream. It took everything I had not to fall apart as images raced through my mind.

  Keegan turned to Cyntia. “Please, Cyntia, let us go!”

  Cyntia ignored him.

  “Cyntia!” Keegan shouted. I could feel anger mixed with desperation rising in him. It grew and grew, emanating from him, filling the space around him.

  Suddenly, the air around him began to move. It started as a breeze. Then, as his emotions grew, so did the breeze, until the wind was wild, picking up snow and flinging it around us, whistling through the trees, sending their branches thrashing through the air. The panic that had been threatening to overwhelm me was pushed away by the wonder of what was happening around us.

  The anger coming from Keegan changed to surprise, and the wind stopped abruptly. Snowflakes floated gently to the ground, clearing the air. Keegan stood, staring into the sky, a look of surprise on his face. Cyntia was staring at him with narrowed eyes and a look of frustration, but I could feel the fear building in her.

  Keegan laughed. The feeling of amazement coming from him was so forceful that it pushed away my panic, and I laughed along with him. “Try it again!” I said.

  “I don’t know what to do,” Keegan said. “I don’t know how I made that happen.”

  “I can show you what to do.” A powerful voice came from further in the woods.

  We all turned to stare at a woman walking out of the trees. She was tall and lean, wrapped in a bright red blanket that reached to her moccasined feet. Her braided hair was pure white against her brown, wrinkled skin.

  Keegan was once again filled with wariness, but he nodded at her.

  “Not here,” she said. “You must come to me.”

  “What do you mean?” asked Keegan, confused.

  The woman didn’t answer him. She turned to Cyntia, “You can find your way?”

  “Yes, Emilia,” Cyntia said, touching her fingertips to her forehead.

  “Good. I will see you soon,” the woman replied. She touched two fingers to her lips, extended them towards us, then disappeared.

  Beside me, Keegan tensed.

  “Where did she go?” I asked.

  Cyntia turned to look at us. When she saw our faces, she laughed, and I felt some of the tension drain out of her. “That was not really her,” she explained. “She can send out images to several places at once.”

  “She’s a Dreamer?” I asked.

  “Yes,” Cyntia replied, setting off through the forest once again. We followed without hesitation. “She is one of the oldest Dreamwalkers in this world. She is not Tethered here, but she does spend most of her time here. She has been coming here since before I was born. She is well-known and well-respected.”

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  “Why did Soren want you to take us to her?” asked Keegan.

  “Emilia has several gifts. Other than projecting herself, she is able to sense what gifts other Dreamwalkers have.”

  “Like Soren,” I interrupted.

  “Yes and no. She can sense people’s abilities, but she can’t stop them. She can tell you how they work, and what you need to do to make them stronger.”

  “Good!” Keegan exclaimed.

  “What were the signs that you and Emilia used?” I asked Cyntia.

  “Fingertips to the forehead is a sign of respect. It would probably be good if you used it when you met Emilia. Even though she is from your world, she has spent much more time here than in your world.”

  “How?” I asked.

  “Think about it, Ria,” said Keegan. “If one night in our world is a couple of weeks here and you come here every night, you could spend twenty times as many days here as you do awake. Even if you don’t come here every night, you still spend a lot more time here.”

  “That’s crazy!” I exclaimed. “So if you spent ten years coming here of our time, two hundred years would go by here.”

  “Closer to five hundred, if I’m right,” said Keegan.

  Cyntia nodded. “Before Cyrus became so evil, our Dreamwalkers spent hundreds of years here.”

  I didn’t say anything as I thought about this. It was a hard concept to grasp.

  “The sign Emilia made was a sign of blessing,” Cyntia continued, as if there had been no interruption. She pointed through the trees. “There,” she said, “we have arrived.”

  In a large clearing, a small cabin made of logs was nestled against the bottom of a cliff, smoke curling up from a chimney. Emilia stood in the doorway waiting for us. She smiled at us as we got closer.

  “Come in, Cyntia, Keegan, Maria,” she said, as we approached, nodding to each of us and ushering us in the door.

  The cabin seemed larger on the inside than it had looked from the outside. Light filled the space from multiple lanterns placed around the room, revealing a cozy little home.

  “How do you know our names?” asked Keegan suspiciously.

  “I have spoken with Soren about the two of you many times,” Emilia explained. “Now sit. Eat.”

  The three of us took off our coats and sank gratefully into the chairs around the table. Plates filled with steaming meat, and several vegetables I didn’t recognize were at each spot. The food was delicious and filling. The vegetables tasted a lot like corn and carrots, even though they looked nothing like them.

  We didn’t say much as we ate. Emilia turned her rocking chair to face us and sat in silence, watching us eat. She had laid her bright red blanket down on the bed, and was wearing a gray woolen skirt and a light blue sweater. Even though she was thin, she did not look frail.

  At last we finished eating. I felt incredibly full and sleepy. I chuckled as the irony of the situation occurred to me.

  “What?” Keegan asked.

  “I’m just really sleepy. But, I’m asleep,” I said. “How weird is that?”

  Keegan laughed too. “Now that you mention it, I’m exhausted.”

  “You should both sleep,” Emilia said.

  I looked at her surprised. “Can we sleep?”

  “Oh yes,” she replied. “And it would be best if you did.”

  “Couldn’t Cyntia just unbind me and let us get some real sleep?” Keegan asked, pointedly.

  “No, I don’t think that would be wise.” Emilia looked at me. “Can you make yourself dream yet?” she asked.

  “No.”

  “You see,” she said to Keegan, “it could be months before she returned here.”

  “She took an oath,” Keegan argued. “She will come back here.”

  Emilia appeared to be thinking, but finally shook her head. “It would still be weeks before you both came back tomorrow night.”

  Keegan nodded grudgingly.

  “Get some sleep here,” she ordered. “Cyntia, you sleep here as well, before you head back.”

  Cyntia looked about to argue, but Emilia said, “Do as I say, Cyntia. I am trying to keep you safe.”

  Cyntia touched her fingertips to her forehead once again.

  “Keegan, you will have to sleep on the floor.” Emilia got up and walked to a closet I hadn’t noticed before that was set against the front wall. She pulled out a roll of blankets and handed them to Keegan. “Ladies, you will have to share,” she said, indicating the bed.

  I sat on the edge of the bed and pulled off the boot-like moccasins I was wearing. I crawled wearily to the side of the bed closest to the wall, pulled the covers over me, and fell asleep.