The Tower of Dreams

"How does one describe such a cat? How does one describe such beauty, such perfection? And she is a brave and courageous as well! Many moons ago, a tribe of humans invaded our lands from the south. They slew many of our number for our pelts, which they evidently valued highly. Shiamat herself led us into their hunting grounds in the middle of the night while most of their number still slept. She tore out the throat of the waking guard and led the attack on the rest! So sudden and brutal was our fury that no human escaped alive to tell tale of their destruction."

"If all humans are so evil, then why have you befriended me?" Kore asked.

"Not all humans are evil," Taerlen replied. "Often they're just ignorant. Sometimes they just don't care. Then there are many who place responsibility for their own actions and fates on entities called gods, and this serves to allow them to console them for the foul deeds of their wasted lives."

"Sometimes I too wish I were a cat," said Kore.

Taerlen eyed her strangely.

"I think you would make a good one," she said, smiling.

3.

The morning found them walking towards a line of low hills which had etched themselves against the light of the rising sun. Taerlen paced a short distance ahead, leading the way. Suddenly she stopped, lifted her head and sniffed at the air.

"I can go no further," she said. "Here begins the Vale of Ghosts, and fear is on me now. Will you not reconsider your rash decision?"

Kore gazed to the east. A range of low green hills beckoned enticingly just beyond a last long stretch of desert. To the North, the direction Taerlen insisted they take, the desert stretched as far as she could see.

"I will take the path through the Vale," she said. "I go alone. It is my own folly. You've led me well and true and have been a rightful and honest companion on the road, and I thank you for your aid."

Taerlen lowered her head.

"It's certain death to enter the Valley of Ghosts," she said. "I salute your spirit, friend Kore, but I fear I'll see you no more in this world."

"Perhaps a greener world awaits me beyond this mortal vale," Kore said. "I don't fear death. Naught that's happened in my life so far makes me want to cling so desperately to existence. It's a worse fate than death that I fear."

"Take care still, Kore," said the pantheress. "Your life may have meaning to others, if not to yourself."

With these words, Taerlen glided away across the desert sands and vanished into the bright haze of the morning.

The mysterious hills still beckoned in the hazy distance. Kore pushed on towards them.

The silence was now absolute. Not a single bird crossed the desolate sky. The hours passed and the day wore on. Black clouds scrawled over the sun, shadows bringing blessed relief from the incessant heat. Dark fingers of storm sprang out of the glowering hills. Lightning shattered the sullen sky and the distant rumble of the storm gods echoed across the plains. But still no rain fell. The stark hills were still waited an unguessable distance away.

Kore increased her pace. The air grew sullen and still and the sky turned black as coal, but the gods of the clouds toyed with her, refusing to unleash their fury, though they continued to glower above her like a horde of hungry ogres. Peering through the gloom, she thought she glimpsed a spark of silver, as of moonlight reflecting from some distant metallic object. Could it be the tower that Taerlen had described?

Her blood was racing through her veins. Some ill-defined fear spurred her on so that she nearly flew across the sands. Her green eyes darted this way and that, striving to pierce the darkness that had descended on the land under the shadows of the clouds. A stroke of lightning washed the plains in sheets of ghostly shimmering light, revealing that she stood amongst the ruins of an ancient city. And there before her, shining like a brand of crimson fire piercing the storm-ravaged skies, a tower stood, just as Taerlen had predicted.

Wary as a lioness, Kore approached the tower. As she drew nearer she was able to observe more details of the miraculous structure, a silver needle piercing the firmament of the night, fashioned with an ethereal and delicate strength that seemed far beyond the capabilities of mankind. Its surface gleamed as if encrusted with a thousand jewels.

A high wall surrounded the entire structure. A pair of massive twisted-iron gates formed the only entrance to the courtyard within. Kore pushed against the gate. To her surprise, it opened easily under her touch, as if it had been waiting to make such an invitation to some weary traveler. Only gods themselves could have erected such a tower, she reasoned to herself.

Perhaps Taerlen had been right to avoid this place after all.

She passed within the wall. Thunder rolled once more in the black skies above. As she approached the tower, she observed for the first time the golden stair which spiraled along it's side, leading to a dark aperture in its surface that once must have been a door.

She stopped. Her eyes had caught some furtive movement near the top of the stairs. Was it only her imagination which seemed to glimpse a dark robed figure crouching in the shadow of the door? The figure was nodding at her, though Kore could discern no face beneath that shadowy cowl. Slowly it turned and vanished once more within the tower's mysterious depths, and she was left wondering if she had really seen anyone there at all.

Her instincts urged her to flee from this terrible place as swiftly as possible. But balancing that was her natural curiosity and her desperate need to find something to eat. She was starving. Throwing caution to the winds, she climbed the stair spiraling along the outer walls of the tower. Everything spun below her, a miniature world growing smaller and more dreamlike as she ascended. Finally, she came to the landing she had seen from below. She had climbed to an immense height and now could observe a great deal of the surrounding terrain. It wasn't a reassuring sight. Only the mountains to the East offered any possible haven, and they still seemed immeasurably distant. She turned to the dark aperture that yawned in the tower. All was silent, and her senses, amplified by a hastily whispered incantation, indicated the immediate presence of no living creature.

Thus reassured, she recited a spell of illumination, holding her right hand so that light cascaded from within her own flesh, opening the darkness before her. She was a white flickering ghost in the dark. The lambent glow revealed another landing within and another stair which led down into the depths of the tower's murky interior.

She followed the stair until she came to a door which glittered strangely in the spectral light of her magic. When she drew near, she discovered that the wood was embedded with tiny jewels of countless number and variety. Rubies, opals, diamonds, sapphires and dozens of other gems she couldn't identify formed intricate patterns across the door in lines of crystalline flame. She pushed open the door and stepped inside.

For a moment she was transfixed by her surroundings. She stood in a chamber filled with a golden light. Silver and crimson threaded tapestries, woven with the infinite patience and skill of long dead craftsmen, hung like ghosts in the air. A thin mist drifted through the chamber, like the swirling of ancient dust. Nothing seemed wholly solid or real.

She had stepped into a dream. The mist swirled and danced. A breeze blew in from a forgotten niche, carrying with it a scent of jasmine and fragrances of other days. Her mind drifted back to happier times, before she had been cursed by both Zhagmyr Khan and her own stupidity. She felt a sense of peace such as she hadn't known for many a moon.

Before her, half-obscured by the drifting mists, was still a greater marvel. There, set upon an ebony table carved with obscure and indecipherable symbols, was set a meal fit for any king or queen. Her mouth watered as she gazed upon a succulent variety of fruits, breads, and plates of steaming vegetables. All were laid out as if for a feast which she had unwittingly interrupted.

She picked up a chunk of the dark brown bread and smelled it. It was still warm from the baking chamber. She bit a large chunk off. It tasted delicious. She helped herself to a bowl of steaming vegetable stew and sat down to eat it with her back to the wall and her eyes fixed on the door through which she had entered. But no one disturbed her meal, and with her hunger at last fully satisfied, she rose from the table, deciding to make further explorations of the tower. After all, she decided, someone must have prepared this feast for themselves. She was determined to discover who.

She rose and left the chamber. Following her instincts, she found her self traversing a long and narrow hall. She manifested a sphere of illumination to lead her way thru the shadowed corridor. Cobwebs and dust clung to every surface, yet there was no sign of any spiders or insects nor any other living thing within. The silence was all consuming, and even the sound of her steps, stirring clouds of dust, seemed muffled by the thickness of the atmosphere.

She thought she glimpsed a shadow, a dark shape, long and sinuous, gliding into the deeper black. But it had been so swift she couldn't be sure. A doorway loomed before her. The ball of spectral light went in before her, revealing naught but an empty corridor, but in the next instant, it was miraculously extinguished.

She leapt back. But it was too late. The serpent sprang out at her from the depths of the dark, all sinewy and shadowy itself. Its coils were about her waist before she knew, shimmering like oil, they wrapped themselves ever tighter, the questing head slid up between her breasts. Its flickering tongue lashed at her lips.

She screamed. The creature was startled by the sound, drawing back. In that instant, she drew deep within herself, called forth the heat of her inner fire and directed that intense temperature into her hands. Fire blazed like a crimson star in the aura that emanated from her fingers. There was a hiss of burning flesh and the snake recoiled. Its grip around her waist was instantly loosened. Kore could see the mark of her hand scorched black in the coils of the snake as it slithered away into the darkness once more.

She cast another orb of light. The snake was nowhere to be seen. Just then, a figure stepped through that door. Kore leapt back.

A woman stood before her. Her strange golden eyes flared when they saw her, like those of a wild animal. She was as beautiful as some heathen goddess, thought Kore, standing entirely naked and unashamed. Her muscles rippled across her arms and legs as she moved as lithely as a jungle beast. She tossed the mane of her long ebony hair behind her shoulders. The light that reflected in her jade green eyes was strangely familiar.

"Who are you?" she asked. "What do you in this tower?"

"Don't you remember me?" asked the girl. The she shook her head and laughed. "Of course, but how could you recognize me? It is I, Taerlen!"

Kore was too shocked to answer for a moment.

"Taerlen!" she cried. "You came seeking me after all!"

"I could not let you face the horrors of this tower alone," she said. "But now let's get away from this place as quickly as we can!"

"But how?" asked Kore. "You were a cat, and now you are a woman!"

"I think you already know that that there are those who still know the secret of how to transform into more than one form. Since I am daughter of Shiamat, I have been trained in this knowledge."

"I thank you for coming here for me," said Kore. "I know how hard that must have been for you."

"This place is terrible," said Taerlen. "And there's something here, a snake I think, but it doesn't seem to like my smell, and avoids me when I come near."

"It attacked me," Kore informed her. "But I suspect it will think twice about doing so again."

"Good," said Taerlen. "Now we really should leave. Continue east from here as you like, but rest not here in this haunted place!"

"I sought naught here but momentary rest from the desert sun," Kore replied. "I would willingly depart now."

Taerlen lifted her head, turning her eyes this way and that. Her nose sniffed the air.

"There is danger about," she said. "Something else is coming."

Kore too felt a sense of growing apprehension. A wave of almost physical cold seemed to pervade her entire body, and it had enveloped the entire chamber. There came a sinister sibilant whispering, as if from within the depths of the walls. Then came a terrible, persistent pounding, so tremendous that Kore feared the entire tower would be shaken down from within.

"Prepare yourself!" said Taerlen. "Something comes!" The pounding grew louder, still louder, until Kore was holding her hands over her ears.

"Its too much!" she screamed. "Make it stop!"

The doors at the opposite end of the chamber burst open. But there was nothing there! Only a cold and nauseating presence. Something huge and breathing heavily had entered the chamber, a curious repulsion, a slobbering hiss. The floor boards sank creaking as if beneath a massive weight as it lurched towards them. The horror was coming for them!

They ran. Through doorway after doorway, they fled with the horror on their heels. At last they came through a passage of an iron door and barred it behind them. Kore secured the lock just as the invisible creature began to pound at the door once more, seeking entrance.

"We're trapped here," Taerlen said. "There is no exit but the way we came in. We can only pray that this door will hold it back, at least for a while."

"What is it?" Kore asked

"Who knows? But I suspect it's the same creature that drove away or killed all the former inhabitants of this city. I fear we'll probably never know the true answer."

The pounding continued. It sounded as if the whole tower would soon come tumbling down around their heads.

Kore calmed her mind, deliberately shutting out the tumult that besieged them. She reached out with her psyche, trying to determine more of the nature of the being

that stalked them. Immediately, she sensed something was terribly wrong. It was like leaping into a vortex, a whirlpool that threatened to drag her soul out of its framework. There was really nothing there. She leapt back into her body, falling shuddering into the Taerlen's arms.

The nearness and nakedness of her body, her flesh was warm and silky against hers. Again, she fought off this sense that she was falling into a dream state. Taerlen was truly beautiful as a human female, thought Kore, as beautiful as a goddess.

She was so lonely. The natural passions of a young woman long repressed, the aching need for tenderness and gentleness long unfulfilled....... She could not tear her eyes from Taerlen's magnificent body. Her eyes were burning coals as they met Kore's gaze. With a wordless cry, they fell into each others arms. Kore felt she was being swept away on a tide of passion so swift that it threatened to overwhelm her.

Their hands caressed their welcoming flesh, sending ripples of pleasure up and down their spines. Taerlen's touch was soft and warm and strong, traces of fire on the silk of Kore's flesh. Her mouth rained hot kisses on Kore's lips and throat. Delicious stirrings like fiery electric sparks coursed through her nerves, igniting an unquenchable flame that burned with a delicate ache in the depths of her body.

She sighed as Taerlen's roving hands filled themselves with the substantial weight of her breasts. They ached with long repressed desire as she kneaded the hard buds of her nipples between her fingers, tugging gently but demandingly upon them. Tremors of joy passed through Kore's body. Somehow, her breeches had been removed and Taerlen's beautiful face was between her legs, her mouth and lips kissing those secret places she so desired to be touched.

The pounding of the demon continued without, but within, Kore knew naught but the ecstatic shudderings of her own body as her lover drew wave after wave of pleasure from her with the skill of her nimble tongue and eager lips.

After she had wrung complete and utter surrender from her for the third time she showed Kore how she might please her in return. Kore kissed her golden belly and silken thighs, then she showed her how to use her tongue on a woman's sex. Kore, grateful for the chance to repay the wonderful sensations she had experienced, eagerly responded, pressing of her tongue and lips firmly up and down the crevasse of her slit as she asked. She continued to direct Kore's mouth to those specific places she wanted kissed and caressed until as time passed, she began to breathe more heavily. She moaned, pressing her mound tightly against her face as she writhed in pleasure-joy. Her face became flushed and her nipples taut and swollen. Her eyes took on a new tenderness. She then cried out and flooded Kore's mouth with a jet like spray of her nectar. Kore continued to kiss her as she felt Taerlen's sex pulsing beneath her lips and her body convulsing in its ecstatic moment.

She was fully wet and open. Kore slid two fingers inside the heated furnace of her pussy. She opened her legs and curled her body around her.Her fingers encountered Kore's own sex, entering her with more ease than she would have thought possible. They remained silent and still beside each other indulging in the pleasure of the closeness of their bodies. The fingers felt good inside her. Little ripples of pleasure cascaded through her loins. She trembled in her lover's arms.

Slowly, she began to ride her hand. Fingers slid deeply into her, and the mouth of her sex clasped greedily at them as they withdrew and plunged in once more. She felt more alive than she had ever felt. Sensations like the purest essence of magic touched her deeply within, growing stronger and stronger until she cried out again in ecstasy, flinging her self at the stars with her lover at her side. With the fury and abandon of a wild beast, her pleasure surged through her. Her mind left her body. Fiery stars whirled through the vast black depths of space.

In that instant of total immersion in oblivion, she saw the truth. Her mind reached out into the history of the tower as her spirit was hurled back against the current of time. She came into a world such as she had ever known, to a time when the Lemurians had still inhabited the ancient city and this tower had been their pleasure hive, where they could rove freely in their fantasies and see and feel and hear and think them as well. The tower was a tower of dreams, where the very thoughts of the Lemurians had been brought to life, where jaded Lemurian men had dreamed dreams of long limbed women stroking their cocks and tired middle aged Lemurian women had indulged their wildest sexual fantasies. And now it still stood, an ancient abandoned plaything of the Lemurians. But it had not gone to sleep. In all the years since its construction, it had grown to crave the dreams of men, and now it would still do anything to trap humans here, dreaming until they died.

"Now I understand!" she said with a gasp. "Nothing here is real. No sight or sound here can be trusted, feared or lusted after! The demon isn't really there!"

"I don't understand," said Taerlen. "It seems very real to me!"

"We must go," said Kore. "The substance of our dreams are its life blood. Even the passion we've shared in this chamber is made into its sustenance. It's waited here far too long without dreams, and now nightmares are its only trade. If we stay here much longer, it will invade our dreams once more, drawing us back again and again to sate its bizarre appetite. It will never let us escape. We are it's only source of dreams."