The Tower of Dreams

"I'll prove it!" said Kore. "I'm going to open the door!"

The pounding continued from without. Now it was combined with a terrible smell.

"No!" cried Taerlen. "I'm afraid! I can't face what is behind that door!"

"That's what the tower is counting on!" cried Kore through the tumult. "It will manifest anything your mind suggests to keep you enthralled in its power!"

And with that, she flung open the iron door.

She gasped with shock. Even she hadn't expected what they saw now.

The hall they had passed thru was not the same. It was no longer a hallway at all. Instead, there stood before their amazed sight a large luxuriant chamber. The floors were carpeted with thick richly woven rugs. The walls were draped with beauteous tapestries depicting colorful scenes of satyrs and nymphs frolicking thru flower dappled meadows.

Near the rear of the room, a vast marble stair swept down to meet the floor. A man was descending that stair. He was naked. His sex stood erect before him like a proud standard as he moved towards them. He smiled. Kore felt an urge inside her to touch him, to run her hands over that smooth muscular body, to lock her fingers in that mass of black curly hair. She felt the urge of her sex calling to her in a way that she had never felt before. She realized with a shock that she was wet.... and she wanted him.

She knew it was a dream of course. Perhaps the play with Taerlen had all been a dream as well. Had they both only shared the same dream?

She no longer cared. So what if it was a dream? He was there. She was there. Taerlen was there. Why should they not? She saw the sex of the god man and it seemed harder and bigger than ever. Her desire rose up in her unbidden, a fiery wave that she could no longer dispel. She reached out for that beautiful cock. Surrender to the moment, her body was telling her. Just let it happen.

The she saw the man's upper shoulder and on his flesh was the blackened mark of a woman's hand.

Instantly, she drew back, as if from a viper! The scene before her wavered. To her dismay, the elegant chamber vanished. Everything was now in a miserable state, as if it had been shattered in a war and left for a century to rot. All was in chaos. Nothing was as she remembered it.

The man before them was no longer a man. A monstrous black snake slithered away from them, weaving thru the fallen rubble. Kore directed her mind out swiftly and lashed out with a stunning spell, followed by the bars of bitter confinement. The creature was frozen in its tracks.

"What is it?" asked Taerlen. "What happened to us?"

"Nothing happened to either of us," Kore answered. "Nothing happened. Our psyches were manipulated by some malevolent magic from eons past. They say that in the Elder Days, before the first mountains fell, there were workers of a great magic called Dream Twisting. They served those who wanted to gain some purpose in dreams that they couldn't achieve in the reality of their lives. They used these dream-towers as places to act out the fantasies and scenarios of those that hired them. But this is dream magic gone mad."

"It seems to be a man after all in his true state," said Kore, kicking at the fallen form of the naked stranger with her boot. "Though not nearly as handsome as he appeared moments ago!"

Indeed, it was true. The man was darkly handsome and very similar to the man they had seen before, but his body and face held none of the near godlike perfection of the male creature they had just seen. He was rousing now, but was still held captive by Kore's spell of confinement.

"The tower..." he whispered.

"What?" asked Kore, leaning down to hear him better.

"The tower is for dreaming," he said laughing half maniacally. "I came here seeking ancient power, and I found it, but I never guessed what form it would take! Now I am captive of my own dreams. All the treasures men have ever sought their lives over are herein contained. And here all dreams are realized! But there is no escape from them! There is no respite! I've been trapped here so long by my own dreams I'm not sure what is real anymore. Perhaps you are a dream as well."

"Dreams don't have names," said Kore. "I am Kore. What is yours?"

"I am called Marzak," he said, rubbing his tousled black mane. "I came from Nantarri, to the east. I came here seeking an icon of power, but I was trapped in this tower and know not how long has passed since I passed into its domain."

"This is my friend Taerlen," answered Kore. "This is the year of the dog, in the second cycle."

"Three long years I have been trapped here! His brown eyes widened, then darkened with fury and despair. "Little wonder that I've gone nearly mad! If I hadn't accumulated many years of experience in matters of arcane knowledge, I think I would never have survived!"

"It holds us here with our dreams," said Kore. "Why can't we escape with dreams as well?"

"It's not that simple. How do you find the exit?" asked Marzak. "Can you find that with your dreams? The tower has a thousand ways to deceive you."

"The illusions are meant to entrap humans," Kore mused. "But would they have the same power over beasts? Taerlen, when you came here, why did you change to your human form?"

Taerlen hesitated. "I don't know for sure," she admitted. "It was a compulsion I felt unable to deny. To tell the truth. When I was in my natural form of a feline, a great terror was upon me and I couldn't bring myself to follow you here. Only in human form did I at last find the courage to pursue you."

"That is the answer," said Kore. "Only humans believe in their dreams, and I suspect only humans can be trapped by them. Can you change back now to your feline form?"

Taerlen shook her head. "I don't know," she said. "The thought of transforming now overwhelms me with terror. But I'll try."

It was uncanny and more than a little frightening to watch the hair sprout from Taerlen's flesh, to see her body shifting from a beauteous woman to a sleek and dangerous feline. Yet when it was at last done, she couldn't deny that she still recognized the familiar form of the woman hidden in the cat. Taerlen's bright eyes glittered greenly in the shadows.

"I see now," the pantheress said. "The tower is not what it seems. It is nearly fallen and its power is almost vanished. Only the dream spell keeps us here enthralled. We believe we're still trapped when indeed we've always been free."

"You are mad," said Marzak. "The tower still holds us prisoner. It will never release us."

"No," answered Kore solemnly. "You're wrong, Marzak. We are already free."

Starlight streamed in from somewhere above. She peered up to see to her surprise that there was an immense crack in the side of the tower which she'd never before noticed. That crack widened even as she watched.

"There is our exit," she said. " I suggest we take it now!"

Swiftly, they clambered over the fallen rubble. Soon, they had fully emerged from the tower and the feel of the open air on her flesh was delightful.

When they looked back, they saw that the tower was not as they had first seen it. The regal gates were crumbling. Most of the upper walls had long ago collapsed.

They made no further attempts to explore the shattered corridors in that ancient placer. Descending the short flight of steps, they fled away as quickly as they could, never daring to look behind them.

"Free!" whispered Marzak. "At last I am free again, after praying so long for release! I think I had given up hope long ago."

"It was all just a nightmare," said Kore. "When we stopped paying attention to it and being afraid, it lost hold of our minds, and the illusion was shattered."

"Well, we have all made an amazing escape, in my opinion," said Taerlen, licking her paws. "Now we know why no one ever comes here!"

"This is a terrible place," Kore agreed, "And we were lucky to escape with our lives. We were what this city still lived for. The substance of our dreams are its life blood. I think it won't last much longer with no dreams to sustain its existence."

A shimmering field of shadow was emanating from the shattered tower. It reached out, further and further towards them, but at the last moment, just before it could touch them, it vanished. In the next moment, the last remaining walls of the silver tower crumbled in a massive cloud of rubble and dust.

"The curse of the dream tower is ended," said Kore. "Our combined lack of belief in the power of its reality was its final death stroke."

"You seem to know much of sorcery, perhaps even as much as I," noted Marzak. "Under what school did you study?"

"I went to no school, but was tutored by the sage, Azimuth of Werewood in my childhood," Kore answered.

"Azimuth!" gasped Marzak, his eyes growing wider. "But he is a legend! His adventures are no more than tales told to children!"

"I assure you that he was very real, though he is dead now."

"I should think he would be," agreed Marzak. "Even the stories of his deeds are centuries old."

"Only centuries?!" Kore repeated. "Azimuth claimed to have lived more than a thousand years."

"And that is the truth," said Taerlen. "You remember that I told you that Azimuth had saved Shiamat, queen of the cats? That rescue took place almost 800 years ago!"

"This is like a tale out of the old legends," said Marzak. "Not even a wizard can live that long!"

Taerlen led them out of the valley. They traveled for many long hours afterward, but at last they came to a place where grass grew and here and there were even clumps of tamarind and patches of clover.

"We have passed out of the wastelands," said Taerlen. "My task is done here. I accomplished my mission, and though I do not understand all that's happened here, I will tell her the full tale of this adventure to my queen. She is wise."

"I wish you well, friend Taerlen," said Kore. "Give my thanks to your gracious queen. And also I thank you. Without your aid, my bones would surely have blended with all the myriad of other fools who have perished in the dreaming tower. And more than this, I will miss you and your company."

"Fare well to you, Kore," said the great cat, rubbing her massive head momentarily against her thigh. "I pray that we'll soon meet again. You're most unique for a human."

And so, swiftly and silently as she had come, Taerlen vanished once more into the desert haze.

"Whence go you now?" asked Marzak.

"I am bound for Nantarri, on the Western Sea," Kore answered.

"Nantarri is where I now return. I'll accompany you, if you don't mind. Together, we might stand a better chance of making it than alone."

"Agreed," said Kore.

"I can't say I'm sorry that I've finally been liberated from that accursed place," said Marzak. "I'm in your debt, make no mistake, and whatever you might ask of me, it is yours." Yet, even now, I yearn for those dreams I lived, and I dream also of those dreams I might have gained if I had been able to gain control of the tower and the powers therein."

Kore sighed. She wanted to put such thoughts behind her. She still lived, that much she knew, whether it was a dream or not. And she was still accursed. In the east, the sun was rising, dispelling all dreams and nightmares in the glare of its scorching reality.

Kore and Marzak walked towards the dawn.

THE END