The Remembered Page 4

  Wyatt looked at the rest of the Representatives and saw smiles spreading. He looked at Ms. Abagail and saw confusion on her pale face. He turned back to Lucy and saw weariness unfitting of a child. He cleared his throat. "If the worlds stay as they should," he said slowly. "And there is the matter of the Regency having my...uh, well, they may be able to shorten that distance quite considerably."

  Benjamin's smile melted like the snow that dared fall too near the fiery metal rose. "You're saying the Regency has the ability to enter Sanctuary much as you three did?"

  Wyatt tightened his hold on Lucy, hoping to derive some strength from their closeness. "I don't think so. At least, not like we came here. If they could, I think they would have already. They would have dropped right on our heads back at Greenwood. And hopefully Lucy can...well, do whatever she did before and keep the worlds separate."

  "What are you saying, exactly?" Benjamin asked. "We need hard facts, not postulation."

  "I don't know for sure. This is new for us, too."

  Benjamin nodded slowly. "Well, that will have to be enough. Now, if you'll excuse us, we have much to confer on, and much to call to vote. Including what to do with the three of you."

  "Hey—" Wyatt said.

  Ms. Abagail grabbed his shoulder tightly and cut in, saying, "We understand. Is there...we've been through a lot tonight, and well..."

  "You will be shown to quarters of your own and afforded every bit of hospitality Sanctuary has to offer. For now." Benjamin stood as he spoke and nodded at the stairwell.

  "Thank you," Ms. Abagail said.

  She elbowed Wyatt in the side. He jumped at the strike, but recovered quickly and added a dry, "Thanks."

  "All right," Ms. Abagail said, standing and leading Wyatt and Lucy from the table. "Let's get Lucy into bed. Something tells me we're going to need our rest."

  "You are very wise, milady," Benjamin said.

  Wyatt felt Ms. Abagail falter at his side, but found it difficult to think of anything else but the imminent doom he was certain to have brought down upon a city set on peace and freedom. Was it not enough that he had destroyed Ouranos? Was it not enough that the elven city in the Gazarian Pines burned to cinders? And there was still the matter of finding Athena, Maia, and Rozen. And they had to find some way to destroy the Bad Man. He and Lucy had figured it had something to do with the memory of how their parents died, but was that it? Wyatt knew they were killed in a traffic accident and he had reunited with his forgotten sister, but nothing had changed. Or at least, nothing had improved.

  "This is far from over," Wyatt said to himself.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  MS. ABAGAIL WAS pacing. Wyatt was sitting on the edge of Lucy's bed, watching the young woman walk back and forth across the small room, fussing with the stripe of pink in her hair and muttering to herself.

  "You're starting to lose it," Wyatt said. "You're gonna burn a hole in the floor if you keep that up, and another hole in the floor is the last thing we need right now."

  Ms. Abagail increased her pace, nearly running now. "Well, excuse me, but this is all a bit much. Maybe you're used to this, but I'm not. I mean, one minute we're at Greenwood running from some flying fire things and then we're falling into a freakin' castle in the middle of the mountains! And then we're talking with the rulers of this place about a war with the Regency like it's just another day. And Lucy goes all magic and—"

  "Ms. Abagail," Wyatt said sharply.

  Ms. Abagail stopped for a moment, looked at Wyatt, and shook her head, saying, "This is nuts. Just plain nuts."

  She started to pace again, though slower this time, and without the muttering. Wyatt sighed and looked back at Lucy. She was snoring softly beneath the heavy blankets, looking wholly at peace—a sharp contrast to Ms. Abagail. Wyatt wondered if she was dreaming and what that would mean for them if she was. Strangely, he felt a swell of pride in the moment. Lucy was the Druid now. With power far beyond anything he had before. And, most importantly, she was his sister.

  After leaving the Observatory, the trio had been led to a simple suite and given clean clothes. Wyatt and Ms. Abagail helped Lucy get changed, and once they got her into bed, she passed out immediately. Ms. Abagail had begun pacing soon after and hadn't stopped.

  "That's not helping, you know," Wyatt said after a while. He stood and looked over the clothes folded on top of the bureau. He set aside those intended for him and picked up Ms. Abagail's. He stood in front of her and held them out. "You'll feel better with clean clothes."

  Ms. Abagail took the clothes with shaking hands. "Yeah, sure, but I doubt it will change anything."

  "Sure it will. You'll be clean and warm."

  "How can you be so calm about all this?"

  Wyatt glanced at Lucy and then looked back at Ms. Abagail. Her hair had dried, but was still plastered to her face. Mascara and eyeliner had long ago turned her cheeks black, and even her eyes appeared to be shaking. "I'm not calm," Wyatt said. "This is all my fault, remember? And we're miles and miles from Athena. And who knows where Rozen is? I've done nothing but let down everyone who counted on me. And now I'm doing it all again, this time putting you and Lucy in the crosshairs. And I don't even have my power anymore. Maybe that's a good thing, but I don't know. I have to find Athena and Rozen. And I have to stop an entire army from destroying everyone here. And on top of all that, I have to face the Bad Man and the Lord Regent, all while trying to remember everything I forgot about my past because somehow that's at the root of all of this."

  Ms. Abagail set aside the clothes she was holding and hugged him. She didn't say anything, and neither did he.

  Finally she let him go and took a step back. Wyatt wiped at his tears. Ms. Abagail did the same, shaking her head. They stared at each for a long time until Ms. Abagail let out a nervous laugh. Wyatt frowned. "What's so funny?"

  She shrugged. "Nothing. Everything. I don't know. Maybe we should just get some sleep."

  Wyatt nodded and looked again at Lucy. "I still can't believe I have a sister," he said.

  Ms. Abagail laughed. "Really? That's what you can't believe?"

  "Yeah."

  "Well, that's just one thing on a long list for me. But I'm going to get changed and try and get some sleep. Maybe things will make sense in the morning."

  "They won't," Wyatt said, forcing a smile. "But maybe we'll be able to handle it better."

  "Wonderful," Ms. Abagail said as she left the room. "Goodnight, Wyatt."

  "Night," Wyatt said.

  Once Ms. Abagail was gone, Wyatt changed his clothes. Then he found some extra blankets and laid them out on the floor next to Lucy's bed. He lay atop them and stared at the stone ceiling. Though his mind was still racing, his body was battered and weary, and eventually sleep won out, dragging Wyatt into the depths of uncertainty.

  Wyatt woke up in a bed he didn't recognize, staring at a ceiling that was even more foreign. Light streamed in through a window, warming his face and rousing him. Wyatt sat up despite the protesting of his stiff limbs and looked around.

  "Well, this is interesting," he said aloud.

  Instinctively, he grabbed at his chest, expecting to find the amulet that had made a habit of sending him between worlds at random. But he found nothing. No amulet and no explanation. Maybe I'm still dreaming, he thought as he climbed out of the four-poster bed and stood on a carpeted floor.

  He was in a bedroom, but one that looked decidedly like it belonged on Earth. There was no stone here, just blue walls and cherry-red carpeting. He spun slowly in place, desperately trying to discern if he was looking upon reality, a dream, or something else entirely. The only other piece of furniture in the small room was a dresser. Wyatt opened the first drawer and starting laughing.

  "What's so funny?" asked a voice from behind him.

  Wyatt whirled around to see Lucy standing on the opposite side of the bed, rubbing her eyes. She was wearing plaid pajamas, but that wasn't the strangest thing about her.

  "Lucy?" Wyatt asked.


  Lucy frowned at him. "Where are we?" she asked, looking around the room.

  "I don't know," Wyatt said, still fixated on the small girl standing across the room from him. "Uh, Lucy..."

  "What?" she asked, wandering around the bed, eyes still roaming.

  "You're...well, young."

  Lucy stopped and stared at him. She scrunched up her face. "Well, so are you."

  Wyatt shook his head. There was no doubt that the girl frowning at him was his sister, but she was younger than he knew her to be. The Lucy standing before him now could not have been more than five, though her voice and mannerisms remained as they had been.

  "No," he said. "I mean you're younger than you were before."

  "Yeah, and so are you, dumby," she quipped.

  Wyatt recoiled and looked down at himself. He was wearing a matching set of pajamas, and he knew at once that Lucy was right. He was younger, too. Or at least smaller.

  "So, what was so funny?" Lucy asked, walking over to the dresser and looking into the open drawer.

  "Aren't you concerned about any of this?" Wyatt asked, examining his hands.

  "It's just a dream," she said. Then, pulling out a padded bra from the drawer, laughed. "This is not mine."

  "The dream?" Wyatt asked, slapping aside the bra as Lucy waved it in his face with a grin.

  "No, the bra. Even before, I wasn't old enough to wear one. Is it yours?"

  Wyatt grabbed the bra from Lucy and stuffed it back into the drawer. He shut it and leaned against the dresser. "So, this is a dream?"

  "Isn't it?" Lucy asked, moving to the window on the far side of the room.

  "You tell me. This has never happened before. I mean, when I had my amulet, I would bounce all over, but never like this. I never got younger, or whatever. Where are we?"

  Lucy pressed her hands and nose to the window. "There's nothing out there."

  Wyatt raced to her side. "What do you—" He stopped, silenced by the view, or to be more precise, the lack of a view. "It's just..."

  "All white," Lucy said. "Weird."

  Wyatt turned from the window and rubbed his eyes. "This has to be something you're doing."

  "Me?"

  "Yeah. You're the one with the magic dreams or whatever."

  "Not like this," Lucy replied. "I only dreamed about the Realms. And you broke that, anyway."

  It was strange hearing Lucy speak like the nine-year-old he knew she was, though she was clearly in the body of a much younger version of herself.

  "Well, wake us up," he said.

  "Wake us up?"

  "Yeah, we don't have time to be messing around here—wherever here is. We should be worrying about the Regency and how to find Athena."

  Lucy shrugged and walked to the closed door, shouldering Wyatt out of the way as she did. "You can't just wake up because you want to. That's not how magic dreams work."

  "So this is a dream?" Wyatt asked, following after her.

  Lucy grabbed the doorknob and looked over her shoulder. "I don't know. Maybe."

  Wyatt returned a wry smile. "Fantastic," he said sarcastically.

  "Yep," Lucy said, pulling the door open. "Oh!"

  Wyatt stood just behind her, frozen as she was. If he had taken the time to wonder what lay beyond the small bedroom, what he saw would have been at the bottom of the list.

  "Cool," Lucy said, stepping from the carpet and onto a thick bed of pine needles.

  Wyatt followed, taking in the scent of pine and dirt. As he stepped into the forest, he heard the door slam shut behind him. He whirled around and found nothing but more forest. "Why is it always a forest?" Wyatt asked.

  "You know where we are?" Lucy asked.

  "Uh...I don't think so. The trees are too small to be the Gazarian Pines, but too big to be the woods outside Greenwood. And it's definitely not the Shadow Forest. Those trees are different."

  "So we're lost, huh?" Lucy asked without an ounce of worry in her voice.

  "Don't you find this strange?" Wyatt asked.

  "Nope," Lucy said. She pointed a finger past Wyatt. "But that's a little weird."

  Wyatt turned around and gasped as he watched the distant shape of a person running between the trees. They saw just a tiny smudge of color that kept passing behind trees, moving further away from Wyatt and Lucy.

  Lucy pushed past Wyatt and began running toward the person. "Come on, Wy, we got to follow."

  Wyatt kicked himself into action and ran after her. "Why? Who is it?"

  "I don't know," Lucy called, staying a couple strides ahead of him. Even as a younger version of herself, she was still faster than Wyatt. "But we have to follow. It's how dreams work."

  "But you're not even sure this is a dream."

  "Nope," Lucy said. "Doesn't matter."

  Doesn't it? Wyatt wondered to himself as he chased after.

  He managed to catch up with the spritely girl, and together they tore through the forest. They didn't seem to draw any nearer their quarry. And it was increasingly difficult to keep sight of the fleeing person.

  "I think whoever it is is faster than us," Wyatt gasped, coming to a stop and resting his hands on his knees.

  Lucy skidded to a halt and turned back to him, not nearly as winded as he was. "We can't give up."

  "Why not? I've done enough running around in real life; I don't need to be chasing people through my dreams, as well. And if this is a dream, why am I so tired?" Wyatt said, still struggling to catch his breath.

  Lucy frowned at him, but then shifted her expression into one of surprise. She held up a finger. "Do you hear that?" she whispered.

  Wyatt tried to silence his breathing as he looked around. After a moment, he asked, "Hear what?"

  Lucy waved her hands at him. "Shhhh."

  "Lucy—"

  "There!" she shouted, running past Wyatt again. She grabbed his arm as she streaked by, forcing him to follow once more.

  They ran a few steps and then stopped. "Do you hear it now?"

  Wyatt pulled his arm away from Lucy's grasp, but didn't say anything because he did hear it. "Sounds like...crying?"

  Lucy nodded and slowly walked ahead, scanning the forest on both sides of her as she went. Wyatt crept after, doing the same. They both walked in shared silence, driven on by the sound of stifled weeping. It grew louder with each step until they passed by a particularly thick tree and found the source huddled against the thick roots.

  Lucy and Wyatt looked at each other and knelt down an arm's reach from the figure. A head of black hair was wedged between knees, around which arms were tightly wrapped. Wyatt thought the person was girl, and perhaps a child, but it was difficult to tell in the dim light and with her curled upon herself.

  Lucy reached a hand out, but Wyatt grabbed her wrist before she could touch the stranger's shoulder. She glared at him.

  "We should be careful," he said.

  "But—"

  The crying stopped and the person bolted upright. Lucy and Wyatt fell backwards at the sudden movement.

  Deep brown eyes, brimming with tears stared at them, and Wyatt felt the bottom of his stomach fall out. "Athena?!"

  The girl started, fell away from them, and struggled to her feet. She was younger than Wyatt knew, but it was undoubtedly Athena, a mirror image of the photograph Wyatt had seen when he had magically appeared in her room at The Shepherd's Crook.

  "Athena?" Wyatt asked again, standing but holding his ground.

  "That's your friend?" Lucy asked. "The one we're looking for? Well, that was easy."

  Athena looked at Lucy and then whipped her gaze back to Wyatt. Their eyes locked, but there was no recognition within. Wyatt took a single step forward and held out his hands in peace. Athena took a step back.

  "It's okay," Wyatt said as softly as he could. "It's me, Wyatt."

  Athena frowned for a moment, but then turned suddenly to the side and screamed. Wyatt retreated a step and watched in horror as a large figure shot out from behind a tree, caught Athena
around the waist, hoisted her over a shoulder, and began running. Athena continued to scream and thrashed against the newcomer's hold, but it had little effect.

  "Athena!" Wyatt shouted, breaking into a sprint.

  Whatever man or creature had Athena was unnaturally quick, and in a matter of seconds was entirely gone from sight, leaving only a trail of wispy black fog. Athena's heart-rending shrieks lasted a moment longer, but then they, too, faded into haunting silence.

  Wyatt shouted a few more times and stumbled to his knees, staring at the last point he had seen his lost friend. Time hung suspended until a touch at Wyatt's shoulder shocked him into the present once more.

  "Was that really Athena?" Lucy asked.

  Wyatt nodded. "A younger version of her. Younger like we are. But she didn't recognize me. It was like she couldn't even see us."

  "Who was that man that took her?"

  Wyatt shook his head and sat back on his heels, chin dropping to his chest. "I don't know. What is this, Lucy? It doesn't feel like a dream."

  Lucy sat on the dirt next to him. "Maybe it's not."

  "Then what? If it's not a weird dream we're sharing, then what is it? And why are we younger? It's not like we time-traveled. That wouldn't make us younger, though it would explain why Athena was. But that makes even less sense than everything else I've gone through. Nothing like this has happened before—"

  "But you broke it."

  Wyatt looked at Lucy, dumbfounded and horrified. "I don't think this a dream at all. It's a—"

  "Memory," Lucy said flatly, still refusing to look at him.

  Wyatt nodded slowly. How had Lucy put it before? The memories are leaking...they had hypothesized that the Realms were constructed of memories, both good and bad, that Lucy had shuttled away, but Wyatt didn't know if he believed it. Until now. Beyond that acceptance, a new realization blossomed.