Dreamworms Book 1: The Advent of Dreamtech by Isaac Petrov (drm ebook reader TXT) 📕

Yog, face lit up with sudden excitement. “I’ll do it. I’ll fight you all right and you can kick my ass all you want. But whatever happens, I want my place in the trial. Agree? No more tests—no more nonsense.”

“Alas, that is not possible, human,” Yog says. “I am not to intervene in the instruction except as instructor.”

“Well, okay, sure. We’ll keep it between us.”

Yog turns her gaze at Rew, and back. Ximena gets the distinct impression that the mare doesn’t know how to react.

“What?” Edda asks, looking first at Yog, then at Rew. “Nobody’ll be the wiser, will they?”

Rew speaks to Yog. “The moral flexibility of the human mind counts among the peak achievements of Earth’s evolution. Its ramifications throughout their history and ecosystem are of truly epic proportions. Alas, the concept is too complex to grasp by laymen. If you do excuse me, Overseer Yog, instead of trying, I shall just explain to Redeemed van Dolah that her idea is with no merit.”

Rew turns to Edda, who is already frowning.

“Your idea is with no merit, Redeemed van Dolah. We marai cannot lie. Not even to ourselves in the past, nor in the future. When we commit to do something, we do it. When we assume a responsibility, we embrace its consequences.”

Edda shakes her head in disbelief. “And you’re supposed to be oh so advanced? How in Goah’s Name did you make it so far? An ever-changing world requires… flexibility, doesn’t it? What happens when circumstances change? How do you mensas adapt?”

“We do adapt, Redeemed van Dolah. Without compromising the truth. Now, you shall allow the reassessment of your capabilities by Overseer Yog in a conflict of wills.”

“No.” She folds her arms and purses her lips. “You can’t make me.”

“You shall,” Rew says. “It is imperative that Woman Speese reaches the last trial. We do need her. You do need her more than anybody else. Your interests are intertwined.”

“Why?! I love her to bits, Elder Rew, but she’s… too distracted with nonsense. All that environment-saving and pollution-fighting—always in her head. And then there’s Piet, her lover—always in her crotch. There’s just no space in her life for things that truly matter.”

“You are being unfair and selfish, Redeemed van Dolah.”

Edda blushes. Touché, Ximena thinks.

Rew continues, “You are no fool that falls into the traps of self-deception. So do trust this one truth: you shall depend on Woman Speese’s abilities to pursue your goals to the end. It is in your nature, Redeemed van Dolah, to be weak alone, weaker than you think; yet strong with allies, stronger than you think.”

Edda stares at her in sulky silence, lips pressed in a thin line.

“Should you not comply with my request, I shall hereby drop my support as your instructor, Redeemed van Dolah. You shall cope on your own in the last trial.”

“Whoa, okay, okay!” Edda lifts a shaking hand. “Fine, I’ll do it. No need to crack the whip!”

She turns slowly towards Yog, draws a deep breath and puts her mind to banishing her fear. What is the point of fear in dreams, anyway? Ximena feels how her anger begins to take over. Why did this alien have to show up and mess her chances up so badly? It’s so unfair, so… arbitrary; like the marai has something personal against her. But that can’t be right. These aliens act more like robots than like people, and Edda has done nothing to her. And yet, the feeling keeps creeping inside her that the dislike is mutual.

Edda glares into Yog’s white, soulless eyes. “I’ll fight you, Elder Yog. You might kick my ass, but I sure as Dem will enjoy getting a good bite on yours.”

“You shall begin your attack,” Yog says, spreading her arms and legs in what appears to Ximena like a mock Da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man.

Edda glances at Rew, as if asking for instructions, but Rew remains stoically silent.

Edda sighs. “All right, let’s do this.” She picks up the bow that was lying on the weeds of grass and ferns that cover most of the forest clearing. An arrow, a simple, sharp stick with gray feathers, materializes in her right hand. She takes aim while drawing a deep breath, gives Rew a last, hesitant glimpse, and shoots.

Yog moves swiftly to the side. The arrow is going to miss.

Pure sin! Edda instinctively pushes the arrow with her will. Gently. Just a tad. Yes! Now it’s aiming true, straight for Yog’s middle body.

Yog appears to move her arms in a protective reflex over her abdomen, but as the arrow closes in, it dissolves in midair. Canceled.

Pure sin! Edda produces another arrow in her hand and tries to aim anew. Ximena realizes that it was a mistake to divert the arrow with will-control. That denaturalized it, removed it from the dream’s natural narrative, making it easy prey to will-canceling.

Yog’s arms and legs flatten at once into what looks to Ximena like elongated fins. She gapes at such sudden display of plasticity. Can mares do that? Maybe they’re also originally underwater creatures, like their masters.

With one powerful thrust of her four new fins, like a squid underwater, Yog disappears behind the wide trunk of an oak.

Before Edda has time to change her aim, Yog pushes herself anew behind another tree.

Goah, she’s getting closer! Ximena feels Edda’s anxiety rising as she once again tries to adjust her bow.

Yog then pushes herself into plain sight, even closer, and locks her blank eyes on Edda’s.

The fucking alien’s too close to shoot. Edda drops the bow. I need something for close contact. Ximena hears Edda’s hasty thinking as flashes of wargaming miniatures cross her mind. A melee weapon. Something simple and primitive that can survive will-canceling.

Yog slashes her four limps in one vigorous push that thrusts her body swiftly towards Edda in a final charge down a fern-covered slope.

A charge. What’s good against a charge?

A pike—a long wooden spear tipped in sharp iron—materializes in Edda’s hands. The ideal weapon against a medieval cavalry charge. But Edda is not a