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“We’re looking for Ember. She didn’t turn up.”
Casey frowned. “That’s not like her.”
“Yeah.” My vague worry deepened.
Ash came in behind me.
“Knight! What are you doing here?”
“Looking for Ember. Was she with you?” I both did and didn’t hope that Ash could tell me where Ember was.
“Yeah. About forty-five minutes ago she used shadow boy’s powers to get to the stables. We found a random dead end in the palace. Damn thing is nearly as bad as Nic at keeping its shape. Wait, didn’t she turn up?”
I shook my head.
“Well, fuck. Where’s Nic?”
“He and Robby went ahead to scout. We are supposed to meet up this evening.”
“You and Dio had better get moving then. Nic is going to have to look for her.” Ash ran a trembling hand through her hair and shut her eyes for a moment. “Just when I start to think I’m going to like it here, more weird shit happens.”
“Hey, we’ll find her.” Hoping my worry didn’t come through in my voice, I headed for the door.
“Knight, please find my cousin. I don’t think I can bear to lose her, too.”
I turned. “Ash, I can’t live without her, and I don’t want you to have to, either. I’ll do everything in my power to make sure she’s safe. If I had thought she would get into trouble in the palace, I wouldn’t have left her side.”
Ash forced a smile. “Dio might have objected.”
“Ahh, well, maybe a little.” I couldn’t quite bring myself to laugh. “I’ll do what I can.” I left, hurrying back to the stables.
Dio was pacing when I arrived.
“Where is she?”
I took a deep breath. “Ash said they ran into a random dead end in the palace and Ember used her shadow powers to get here.”
“And she didn’t make it.” Dio clenched his jaw. “Damn it. We need to find her.”
“We need Nic.”
“Yeah, we need Nic.” Dio huffed out a breath, obviously not pleased he couldn’t go riding to the rescue himself. “Ready to ride?”
I nodded and went over to the white horse with the silver hooves that had agreed to carry me.
Once we were mounted, the horses set out at a brisk pace. There weren’t many people traveling the main road out of Dream Palace. Unlike real cities, there wasn’t a huge amount of travel in and out. Although merchant trains had been more common once when people dreamed of them long ago. Or so I’d been told.
The avenue we rode down cut between the more fantasy-ish side and the super modern and even futuristic side of Dream City. Planes and spaceships zoomed in the air off in the distance. There were supposed to be quite a few pockets of cities and even places that were like other planets in the vast world of Dream. I had yet to see most of them, however.
As soon as we were free of the outer walls, the horses broke into a smooth canter. They knew where we were going and there was no real need to direct them, so I let my attention wander and tried not to think too hard about what kind of trouble Ember might be in. I had no idea what dangers the shadow realm held, but the brief conversation we’d had the other day made me think we might have taken it for granted.
Ember
Panic was too mild a word for what I felt. When I tried to step out of shadow, something grabbed me and yanked me from my intended destination, the stables, to some place else, then trapped me. I couldn’t reform. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t even scream for help.
I’d thought I was getting good with my shadow abilities, but clearly, I’d been mistaken.
“Who do we have here?” a soft, sibilant noise whispered.
