Kyle2: A bad dream

Avett woke up gasping and sweating. He looked around frantically still reeling from the nightmare he had seen. He was in a big dark hall lying on the ground. But the ground wasn’t hard, it felt like a mattress. It was then that he realized he was sleeping in his half zalz form. No wonder the ground didn’t feel hard. His skin was thick and hard in his zalz form.

He looked around and saw many people sleeping in the hall in different forms. Zalz, neferati and wolves. He didn’t see any lycos among them. Some of them were in power bubbles suspended in the air, the air inside the bubble crackling with energy. It was a strange sight for Avett and it didn’t help soothe the fear from his nightmare one bit. He was not sleeping in his bed, he was sleeping in the illumine den.

“That must have been one nightmare for you to be so shaky, Sebastian.” A girl beside him said. For a while Avett didn’t realize the girl was addressing her but when he did, he looked at her and his eyes widened in surprise. How come he was sleeping in between what appeared to be ten women?

“What are you all doing around me?” he demanded the girl he recognized as Erin.

Erin grinned. “I didn’t think there would be a day a man was not glad to be surrounded by women when they are sleeping. You know why we sleep around you. You are the only man among us who don’t have terrible nightmares. You don’t thrash around in sleep. We feel secure sleeping around you because you have a calming aura surrounding you. But tonight I just don’t sense it.”

Avett growled “This is not funny. I don’t like people near me when I sleep.”

The girl on his other side woke up and he cringed as he realized it was Isabel. Did she touch him in sleep thinking he was Sebastian, he thought in horror.

“Why are you up at this time? It’s still not night. Most of them are in their power sleep as you can see. Be quite you two” Isabel said in a sleepy voice.

Avett moved away from her and kept thinking if she had touched him and he finally blurted out the question. “Isabel, you didn’t touch me when I was sleeping did you?”

Isabel had an odd look on her face as she asked incredulously “Excuse me, Are you mad I didn’t touch you when you were sleeping?”

Avett got up, sighing with relief and excusing himself headed straight to the door.

Isabel was saying “Bah, men. I don’t think I’ll ever understand them. What was he thinking? If I had touched him in sleep he would have torn me to pieces before he even woke up to see who it was. No thanks. I am not interested in getting myself killed.”

“Don’t mind him Izzy. He’s just a bit rattled, after getting up from some nightmare. Not fully awake I guess. They are all grumpy when they rise” Erin said to Isabel.

Avett didn’t hear what went on after that as he went out of the door to the cheery looking common room. Sitting on one of the overstuffed blue sofas he saw Riut lying on a lounge beside the sofa set playing a game.

“Damn, I lost again. This is unbelievable.” Riut said in disgust. He had not slept and he was still a small kid. Riut noticed him then and gave him an impish smile. “Why are you not sleeping? It’s not like you would be forced to marry in a week if you heal properly.”

Avett looked at him, thinking Riut had been in his dream. For a while he didn’t answer his question as he thought about the dream. It was about their plan about raiding the anazari castle. In his dream he had seen a very handsome man tied to a king sized ivory bed frame. He was sitting on the floor naked, slowly bleeding to death. The navy blue and black carpet beneath him was completely soaked in red as more blood kept dripping from his nose, mouth, ears and eyes.

There was an ugly looking wound on his shoulder that looked as if an animal had clutched its sharp talons into his shoulder. That wound oozed black blood. Several other barbed whip wounds were visible on his chest, thighs and legs and they were bleeding black blood too. The stench of blood clung in the air. Avett had felt sympathy for him and was going to touch him when he looked up at him. Even in sleep he had gasped in shock because the man looking at him was no longer the man he had originally seen. It was him and he said in a snarl “This is all your fault.”

Reeling Avett had moved away from himself and suddenly he saw the kid Riut and Magnus come in through the door. Magnus had his sword drawn out. Then another man appeared right infront of Riut. He was calm and had a smirk on his face. This man had black hair and piercing grey eyes and his presence itself made people’s skin crawl. He made the whole room so foggy as a red thunderbolt struck Magnus and more anazari appeared.

Magnus fell to the floor but fought bravely as a wolf, his sword arm and sword broken from the thunder bolt. Then the man had calmly approached Riut and touched his face almost lovingly looking into his eyes. Riut had jerked at the first touch and started crying writhing but still not being able to jerk himself away from the man. In a while Riut fell dead, his small body tinged in grey. Magnus had charged the man at that with a battle cry and the man simply struck a lightening bolt into his chest and with a look of disbelief and horror Magnus had fallen on his feet and died. Avett had woken up at that.

He heard Riut asking with concern “Hey Sebastian. You okay?”

Avett blinked and looked at Riut. That was just a dream, he told himself. He nodded after taking deep breaths.

“You look kinda green mate. I think you really need some more sleep. Are you worried about raiding the castle?” Riut asked him quite intuitively.

Avett smiled and said “Nah, just a bad dream is all.”

He looked to see Isabel beside him, looking concerned at him. “If you are not ready to raid the castle Seb, you need not go. Is it your injuries? If it hasn’t fully healed you can tell Magnus. He is not that draconian, you know.”

Avett shook his head at that “I am fine Isabel.”

Magnus came out at that. His wife was beside him. “I heard my name in your conversation. Is there something I need to know?” he asked, looking at all of them curiously.

Isabel sighed looking at Avett. Avett shrugged and said “Nothing Magnus.”

Magnus shrugged too at that and asked “Where’s Edan and Haidis?”

Edan and Haidis came out of the kitchen. Edan was drinking something from a mug. Haidis asked “So when are we leaving?”

Magnus shook his head “Ready as always huh?”

Haidis muttered “Hell, I can’t wait to die.”

Magnus laughed at that. “Hmm. Meet me in the meeting room all of you in ten minutes ready to go out. We are making this a bit earlier than planned because an unfortunate development has come forward.”

He left them in suspense as he headed towards the meeting room. Avett went to ready himself, taking the sword and wearing the warrior clothes in black. When he met the men in the meeting room their spy was there again. He looked very edgy.

“Okay, sit down men.” Magnus said, his expression troubled. “It looks like this little raid is going to be more risky still. Azekeil had moved Dimitrius into his bedroom last night and as far as we know he’s still there. This would mean we’ll be traipsing around where we would have a really high likelihood of meeting Azekeil or his leaders. A confrontation is inevitable I am thinking. Are you guys still upto it?”

Haidis shrugged. Avett looked nervous. This was appearing to be more and more like his dream. But he never was a visionary to dream things that happened in future.

Magnus continued “However, if we attack in an hour the chances of meeting Azekeil would be much less because he holds his council meetings with the anazari sometime between 6 and 8. So at that time we should be safe to take away Dimitrius.”

“If I may ask Magnus, why has Azekeil moved him suddenly to his bedroom?” Edan asked.

Magnus looked at him, hearing the unsaid question and said “It’s only Robert who knows of our plans as an outsider. But I can assure you he is a decent man and not a worm. I don’t believe Azekeil knows that we are going to raid the castle.”

Haidis muttered “So what’s the plan?”

Magnus tapped his hand on the map showing the tower where Azekeil’s room was in. It was right in the middle of the huge buildings that made up the Anazari castle. “His bedroom is on the top floor. There will be people guarding the balconies in all the stories below it. His bedroom is in the end of a pathway that Robert says have atleast thirty anazari guards guarding his room at all times. I have considered going into the room from the back but there are no windows at the back that would allow us entry into the room. The big windows on the sides lead to a balcony but these windows are completely blast proof. No one could get in unless Azekeil allows it and the windows have sensors that would immediately alert Azekeil. Our best option is to fight our way through as silently as possible towards the door.”

“What about the door? Wouldn’t the door have any sensors? He seems very paranoid about security. What makes you think the door would not have sensors?” Riut asked.

“Realistically speaking, the door should have sensors. But Robert says the doors sensors were down today and we are expecting it to remain so.” Magnus said with a frown.

“That doesn’t seem very likely given that Azekeil is so obsessed now about security.” Haidis said with a frown.

“But I sense Robert is telling the truth about it Haidis. It does seem too good to be true but it appears to be so. Anyway, we’ll have a contingency plan. If there are sensors and we haven’t been able to open the door we’ll blast it open. The door is made from wood. Then we snatch up Dimitrius and leave before Azekeil appears.” Magnus said.

“You assume Dimitrius will come easily.” Edan said.

“Well, he is a human in chains. Robert tells me he was registered as just a scientist and not a part of anazari. So he’s just a Jupiterian human. How much resistance could a human in chains put up, when we are there to save him from his misery?” Magnus asked.

“It looks too simple. I have a sick feeling about this Magnus.” Riut said nervously.

Magnus even appeared troubled because he knew that plans that looked so simple always had a way of going very wrong. “Well, I think we agreed we’ll raid the castle and the evidence shows that we could escape without a scrap, so there is no way we back out of this. Any questions?”

Haidis asked uneasily “What if Azekeil had moved Dimitrius back again to the torture cell?”

Magnus considered it and said “We’ll divide. Me, Edan and Sebastian will go in to the room. You would wait for my orders near the area of the torture cells. If we give signal he is not in the room and we have not been discovered you go along and find him in the torture cells. We will join you soon. On the other hand if he was not there and we were discovered you come in to help but if I ask you to stay away, you head straight home, got it? Any problems with that?”

No body said anything and Magnus continued “Well, finally I tried my best to get a picture of Dimitrius and Azekeil. Azekeil’s picture was easy enough to get, but Dimitrius had no pictures taken of him at all and we can’t do a memory check to get his image from somebody’s memory either because he was seen by very few people. Well here is a picture of Azekeil. If you see him, stay far far away.”

Avett felt his stomach churn as a picture of the black haired man he saw in the dream filled the screen. A woman might call him sexy but he was not typically handsome because he had too dark and sharp features. Magnus continued showing them the pictures of Anazari leaders they should avoid taking a fight with, if they can help it. There were twenty seven of them who Magnus considered dangerous. All twenty seven of them should be in the meeting at the time they raid the castle if their plan went well.

“Okay, finally about Dimitrius, he is supposedly very handsome and blonde with blue eyes. Shouldn’t be hard to find an Adonis.” Magnus said in a dry tone of voice.

The spy looked at him and said “Sir, he really is considered very handsome.”

Haidis asked “Exactly how handsome? We are not really used to hearing anyone say a human is handsome to us because comparatively speaking we are supposed to be more handsome than the humans and here we are seeking out a human who is handsome. I am not quite sure what that means.”

The spy looked nervous “Everyone who has met him tells me he is unbelievably handsome. His voice is also musical. I’ve heard people say that when he is explaining a theses in a meeting all they see is how handsome he is and the melody of his voice. I am speaking about the anazari here. They have seen you guys so often. So if they say he is a god, then there must be something more to him than even you guys.”

Avett thought of the man he had seen in his dreams then. He hardly thought a man handsome. Yet in his dream he thought so. He dared not tell them that because he could see that his illumini friends did not believe the man. They were snickering at him.

Magnus rolled his eyes and said “whatever, you see this blonde god with blue eyes in chains, you capture him, got it? We’ll leave in half an hour. Say your good byes and be ready in half an hour.”

The spy said “Sir, I’ll have to leave now. I have to help in the preparation of the council meeting.”

Magnus thanked him and bid him good bye. A sickening feeling came over him as he watched the spies departing back. Something wasn’t right. He still felt perturbed by the nightmare. He consoled himself that Riut was not even going to the castle but still he had seen Azekeil, a man he had never seen before in his dreams.

Avett watched as Magnus went to kiss his wife good bye. Haidis sat on the sofa looking bored. Edan was talking to a girl he knew as Seren. Avett made his way to Jon and Aline’s rooms. Jon was with Aline when he came in. They both came and hugged him. Aline said “Come back to us Seb, we’ll be very scared if you don’t come back.”

Avett smiled at Aline and said “ I’ll come back, I promise.”

Jon said immediately “Not dead.”

Avett laughed “Of course silly. I’ll come back alive, I promise. Now, it’s sleeping time for you guys. How was the day?”

Both of them chattered on like eager children. Jon wanted to become a warrior suddenly his interest in becoming a scientist completely gone now. Aline on the other hand was so impressed by Magnus’s wife Solange that she wanted to be a doctor too. They went on talking how wonderful the place was when Erin interrupted them and said it was light outs time. They were conserving electricity underground.

Saying his final good byes he went out in the hallway when the lights went out and someone pinned him to the wall. Not harshly, but seductively. Grimacing Avett moved away quickly from Isabel. Even in the darkness Avett could see Isabel’s frown “What’s wrong with you, Sebastian?”

“Nothing” he said wishing Magnus would ask for him now. Isabel tried kissing his neck and Avett moved further. The next time Isabel launched on him as a wolf, pushing him down on the ground and licked his neck and face. “Hey let go of me” he muttered in an annoyed voice.

Suddenly she stepped away from him and Avett got up annoyed. Why was she so persistent? This time Isabel was looking at him suspiciously and she asked in a hard voice “Who are you? Why are you pretending to be Sebastian?”

Avett felt the earth move beneath him as he gulped and said “I am Sebastian.”

“You are not Sebastian. You cannot fool a wolf for long. You don’t taste like Sebastian but your smell is similar somehow to Sebastian. How is that possible? Answer me or I’ll kill you right now.” She said with a feral growl.

Avett looked sideways nervously and decided to trust Isabel to keep his secret “Ok, fine. I am not Sebastian. I am Avett. Sebastian is who you see in the coma.”

He explained everything to Isabel and saw her frown with concern now “Good god Avett, Seb told me all about you. How do you know to use Seb’s powers so well if you had never been a zalz before?”

“I don’t know. But using his powers is not difficult. I am assuming he trained his dragon very well so anyone could use it.” Avett said with a shrug feeling much better now that someone knew who he really was.

She looked up unconvinced and then Magnus called out to him. As he was leaving Isabel grabbed his hand and said “This is very dangerous Avett. Magnus might be a compassionate man but he would kill you if he discovers you masquerading as Seb. Please tell him, you are sick now.”

Avett looked at her appalled. He would never back out at the last minute, so he said arrogantly “No. I won’t back out now. It’s too late.”

“Avett, don’t be stubborn about this. You don’t know the men you are traveling with. All of them are ruthless warriors Avett. When they sense something wrong they are trained to reflexively strike it down.” She appealed to him.

“Don’t worry about me Isabel. Watch over my brothers and sister. I will come back safe.” He said.

Someone said dryly close to them “Sebastian, this is not the time to start family planning. We need to leave now.”

Isabel glared at Haidis. Avett smiled at her and left with Haidis to join the others. Flying off into the setting sun they flew in silence towards the castle their powers masked, so that no one would see them approaching.