Hero of Dreams - By Brian Lumley Page 0,65

would know for sure. For now they were in motion, feeling the flow of air against their faces as the life-leaf launched himself down a ramp of branches, hearing the swish of soft leaves giving way beneath them to ease the life-leaf's passage. More steeply yet the living carpet tilted and faster its forward, downward rush until, with the very gentlest of bumps-

They were airborne!

And no sooner were they in the air than the life-leaf moved beneath them, shifting and balancing its mass to form an amazingly efficient airfoil. A light wind blew off the sea to greet the oncoming dawn, and the life-leaf sought out its currents and rode them, rode high, until soon the hills, valleys and rivers were left far, far below.

Round and round in a wide rising spiral flew the life-leaf; and his passengers sat, hair streaming, flesh tingling, and gazed down wide-eyed on all the vastly improbable lands of Earth's dreams. Far out over the Southern Sea they spotted the lonely fights of fishing boats and other craft, and away to the east the first rays of the sun were dusting the edge of dreamland with a glow to challenge that of Lathi's wand. Somewhere in the dark, distant curve of the west a city's lights showed momentarily, and in the north the writhing wraiths of aurora borealis performed their ghostly dances.

But by now they had reached those uppermost limits of atmosphere beyond which the life-leaf dare not ascend, for to do so would be to penetrate realms inhabited by the flopping, shapeless and namelessly monstrous larvae of the Other Gods. Here the flight of the life-leaf levelled out and gradually his "prow" came round to point westward. Then, following the way pointed out by Thinistor's wand, the life-leaf began the long, gentle downward glide which would take the three adventurers to their destination.

Now, because of their altitude, the sun seemed like a blade of blinding light on the horizon far behind them; and as they drifted lower so its dawning rays turned dreamland's rivers and streams to ribbons of silver. Their speed was enormous, and towns, cities and mountain ranges passed beneath almost as quickly as they could be counted. As yet neither the light nor their orientation was such that the adventurers could name for a certainty the territories over which they passed, though certainly there was something very familiar about many of the bays and ports of the Southern Sea.

It was only when they sailed lower still and the mountains reached up toward them that they began to pick out specific places remembered of earlier wanderings. Then in the dawny distance the men of the waking world spied that winding, flashing snake of water which could only be the Tross, and they saw near its mouth the mist-wreathed city of Theelys.

Why, this was where it had all started for them! Right here in Theelys ...

Down, down floated the life-leaf, its buoyancy gases streaming out from pockets which emptied themselves, and as if to match or guide the leaf's descent so the knob of the wand in Hero's hand dipped lower and lower. Twice they circled high over the turrets of a castle on Theelys' outskirts, then tilted steeply toward the great gardens within the castle's low outer walls.

The adventurers held on grimly as the life-leaf skimmed trees and tall shrubs, gritted their teeth as it stalled and slipped sideways, and finally sighed in unison as it gentled to the ground and came at last to rest. As they climbed shakily from the settled leaf, slender coiled tendrils like long white worms fell from its stem, burrowed deep into the soil and immediately took root.

"Not the sunniest place in Earth's dreamland," said Hero, peering closely at the leaf where it now began to wilt upon the grass. "Still, I suppose he knows what he's doing."

"I shouldn't worry too much about him, my lad," said Eldin, the hint of a warning in his deep growi. "Not just yet, at least. I think we've one or two problems of our own. Look where your wand's pointing-"

Hero looked-and his hand instinctively flew to the hilt of his sword.

For the knob of Thinistor's wand pointed directly at the massive gates of the looming castle, and atop the high inner wall stood a figure in rune-inscribed gown and conical cap, his eyes fixed firmly upon his visitors and the shadow of a strange smile upon his wizard's lips....
Chapter Twenty-Three
The Tale of Nyrass of Theelys

Chapter Twenty-Three

The wizard beckoned with