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Chapter Four

Since childhood she’d had the dreams. Some nights they came when she lay in her bed, and the forest whispered to her from across the heath, the dark trees calling her name.

           Cassidia!

           Some days she went out to the forest, under the shade of the cool branches, the sun’s rays casting dappled spots across the forest floor. Barefooted, she walked along the stony stream-beds, out into the wilds where her parents would never find her. There she lay down on the mossy bank and slept, and they came.

           They had many shapes. Some of them were tall and slender, like the trees. Others were swift, antlered beasts. They had wings, tails, or horns – they shared only one thing; that they shone like pale moonlight in the forests of her dreams. In that other forest, everything was backward, like a mirror.

           Sometimes they spoke to her, and sometimes she could understand them.

           She stood now at the top of the waterfall on the hill, looking out over the forest. She could see the treetops, and the heath beyond, and the small farmhouse where her parents lived. Beyond it lay the fields and the grassland, into the distance, and across the grassland stretched the broadroad. Over it all hung a dim sky empty of both moons and stars. She knew that none of it was real; yet if she awoke she would find herself gazing out at a similar vista.

           Beneath her feet, water from the falls flowed upstream, pushing against her toes.

           Cassidia!

           She smiled in delight at the voices. It was difficult to tell if there were many voices, or only one. She didn’t care. “It’s been months! Where were you? Have you come back to play with me again?” She didn’t care if it was a childish request. She had used to run with them, to chase them, to ride on their backs. Now that she was older, they seemed less interested in such things—though she wasn’t.

           They flowed from the trees, graceful forms of light.

The time for play is over, Cassidia. There is a new time.

           “What do you mean?” she asked, offended. “What time?”

           The time for you to meet your destiny.

           They’d spoken of such things before, but never openly. It was always far-off, with the hedge that everything would be revealed in time. Yet she’d taken it to heart. If it was time, she was ready to listen.

           “Okay… what is my destiny?”

           Listen. Something has happened.

           Away upon the horizon a city had appeared – Telel, the blue city. Its towers which usually shone like jewels were blackened, and smoke rose from it.

           She felt a chill. “Why are you showing me this?”

           Now, far off down the road, a long train of vehicles approached. Troops of men marched between them. They were fleeing from the city.

Go to them. You must help them.

           “But how?” she asked. “How can I help them?” Even she could understand that she had nothing to offer an army.

           With this.

           A strange vision was set before her. In midair she saw a cube, spinning on its axis. It was covered with intricate carvings which glowed green as from an inner light.

           Find it. Without it, Valerian is lost.

           “What? What is it?” Her questions received no answer. She reached out to touch the cube, but as she did, it vanished.

There was a blinding flash and then silence. She awoke on the ledge next to the waterfall, lying in a patch of moss under a clear blue sky. The wind sighed through the branches, but the trees made no other sound.

           She rose to her feet, and waded into the pool above the falls, where she had been standing in the dream. She could see out over the forest and beyond, down to her family’s little farmhouse, and the road. The road was empty.

           Cass started the climb down from the falls. She was by now an experienced climber and it took her only a few minutes to reach the bottom.

She was still mulling over in her mind what to do with the vision they had presented to her. The city. The army. The cube. What did it all mean? Cass had never been to Telel, despite living inexcusably close to it her entire life. Sometimes her father went there to sell their produce – beautiful greenberries and ripe slugapples.

She started out for home, but at the edge of the forest, she paused. In one direction was the farmhouse. In the other, the road. And from the road she heard a noise, like a distant tramping. A rattling, a stamping, and a deep rumble of engines.

It was the sound of destiny.

Cass waded through the long grass toward the road. It was raised on a causeway above the heath and she could not see far from her vantage point, but she could hear the engines growing louder. She crept up to the side of the road, and moved along in the direction of their approach for several hundred yards before she saw the first armored vehicle.

           Cass ducked, crouching in the grass.

           The vehicle resembled a grotesque beetle. Its front end was lined with spikes above the giant chained treads. On its back were mounted guns; at its sides the folded shapes of two clawed mechanical arms.

           Behind it came the first bloc of soldiers. They marched four abreast. Their armor was dirty and scuffed, and most carried their helmets rather than wearing them. They were grim and mostly silent, eyes fixed on the road or on the man ahead of them.

           Cass stood up. “Hi! Hello!” She waved her arms.

           Not a one so much as glanced at her.

           She ran up and down the roadside as the next vehicle passed, and then the next bloc. She had to find a way to get their attention. But how?

           Cass did not know how to recognize an officer. He must be dressed differently than the others, she thought, but she could not be sure. When a man wearing a slightly lighter shade of blue came into view, she ran out onto the road in front of the bloc.

           “Sir! Sir!”

           The soldiers marched toward her in long, even steps.

           “I have to talk to you!”

They showed no signs of slowing. Her reflexes commanded her to retreat; she overruled them by kneeling. “I have something to tell you! It’s very important!”

They were almost upon her—they had to stop or trample her—

           A rough hand grabbed her by the sleeve and dragged her to her feet. “What’s your problem, girl?”

           She found herself staring into the annoyed face of a man with greasy, dirt-smeared skin and several days’ facial hair. She could smell the sweat on his body, and the unpleasant odor of whatever he was chewing. He had not stopped walking, and since he still had a hold on her sleeve, she was forced to trip along beside him.

           “Sir. I’ve been told that something terrible has happened in Telel.”

           He snorted. “You don’t say. That all?”

“Please, sir, the Sylphs speak to me. They told me you would come.”

“Sylphs, eh?”

“Yes, the Sylphs.” Cass was encouraged. “They speak to me.”

“Hey Sergeant!” the man yelled.

“Eh?” grunted a man walking a few paces behind.

“Get a load of this. This girl says she can talk to Sylphs.”

The man known as Sergeant raised his eyebrows, and jogged up into step with the soldier of the light blue uniform. “Sylphs speak to you, girl?”

“Yes!” Cass repeated.

“And what do they tell you?”

“They tell me all kinds of things.” She didn’t want to smile at these men, but she did it anyway. “They told me about something very important, that they want you to have.”

           “What’s that?”

           “I… it’s…” she was suddenly at a loss. “It’s a thing, it’s sort of greenish—Please, you have to believe me!”

           The Sergeant laughed derisively. “Don’t you know a dozen swindlers a year claim to speak to the Sylphs?” He took a mocking falsetto. “The Sylphs know the secret to instant wealth. The Sylphs can cure every disease known to man. And then some man don’t know about. Girl, nobody has spoke to the Sylphs for a thousand years.”

           Cass gritted her teeth in anger. “No, I swear! They told me… I…”

           “What’s going on up there?” asked a third soldier behind them. He was younger, with a blonde beard and pale blue eyes. He caught up with the rest of them. “What’s she doing here?”

           “Go away, Andersen,” said the chewing man.

           “Come on, guys, I heard somebody say sylphs.”

           The Sergeant groaned. “Looks like you got yourself a believer.”

           “The Sylphs have spoken to me,” Cass said. “They sent me a vision, they said that you would come. I have an important message for you. There’s something that you need to find, or Valerian is lost.”

           “Do you have anyone who can verify this story?” asked Andersen.

           “Yes! My parents know I have this gift. Just come with me, you can ask them.” It was a desperate move, but it was all she had.

           “Well?” asked Andersen. “You gonna send somebody to check this out?”

The chewing man spat.

           “Dammit, Andersen,” said the Sergeant. “Only if you want to go with the hick girl down to her hick house to meet with her hick parents.”

           “Hick yeah.”

           The other two gave him an utterly disgusted look.

“Permission to break rank?” asked Andersen. “We’ll catch right up.”

“Who’s we?” the chewing soldier asked.

“Relax, Joe, you don’t have to come.”

“Whaddya mean?” said Joe indignantly. “Are you trying to get rid of me?”

Andersen smirked. “As I said, we’ll catch right up.”

The Sergeant rolled his eyes. “Fine. But be quick about it.”

The three of them marched across the field so quickly that Cass could barely keep up, let alone lead. The farmhouse was just out of sight from here, around a projection of the forest. She almost stumbled on her skirt in the grass. “There it is.”

At the sight of home, her optimism started to wear off. She hated the way it always brought practical concerns to bear against her dreams. For example, she was about to have to explain to her parents why she was bringing soldiers into their house. She didn’t suppose they would be too happy about that. But they were the sort of parents who’d long held her up as special, or unusual, for whatever that was worth. Surely they would realize that things were beginning to happen, that her visions had come to something, and it was, as the Sylphs had put it, “a new time”. In anticipation of that, she put on a look of determination and a fresh face.

Andersen pushed ahead of her and knocked sharply. The three blows echoed through the house, and there were footsteps on the wooden stairs.

The door flung wide open behind the screen. Cass’s mother stood there in a plain wool housedress which matched her graying hair. Her jaw dropped. “Good…good morning, sirs.” Her shock changed to annoyance when she saw her daughter. “Has Cassidia been trespassing somewhere again? I’m terribly sorry about that.”

“Not at all, Ma’am,” said Andersen. “We’re investigating your daughter’s claim that she can… speak to Sylphs.” Even he sounded a little embarrassed having to say that out loud.

“I… I…” Cass’s mother wore a look of consternation. “Why don’t you come inside for just a moment?” She tucked a stray hair back into her tight bun. “I’ll go into the kitchen and make some tea. Do have a seat.”

Cass felt slightly encouraged by this behavior, but more than a little nervous.

“We can’t stay long, Ma’am. We’re just looking for someone to corroborate this story.”

“Yes, indeed. Well…”

Just then Cass’s father appeared around the corner of the stairs, in his slippers. “Elaine? What’s going on? Who’s that?”

“It appears that Cass has gone off and told these gentlemen that… ahem…”

“Sir,” said Andersen. “Your daughter has made the claim that she can speak to Sylphs. Is this true? Do you have any evidence to back it up?”

Cass’s fresh face was rather hard to maintain, but she did not back down. Her mother and father looked at each other.

“Well, you see…” said Cass’s father. “Our daughter has… a very active imagination.”

Feeling the knife in her back, Cass’s mask slipped off entirely. They knew she was telling the truth. They knew. What?!” she demanded.

“She likes to play and make things up,” said Cass’s mother. She looked directly into Cass’s eyes. “I’m sorry.”

Cass began to tremble, clenching her fists. “Mom! Dad!” Hot tears started down her cheeks. “How? How could you?!”

Andersen and the man called Joe glanced at each other, then stepped away from her. Without another word they walked out the door. The screen snapped behind them with a bang.

“How could you do this to me? Why?” Cass choked.

Her father frowned, not angrily, but with a troubled expression. “This is not the life you want or need. To run off and join the military. You’re only seventeen. We can’t lose you that way.”

“But I have to! I have a gift!”

“Those pictures,” said her mother. “Keep drawing those pictures. That is your gift. But please, stay at home and don’t do anything foolish.”

           Cass stormed up the stairs. She slammed the door of her room and threw herself down on the bed, weeping bitterly. Wasn’t seventeen old enough to make decisions for herself? How could they refuse to back her up? They knew the Sylphs were real. They themselves had been the ones to teach her their religion—even before she’d seen it for herself. Had they really only been pretending to believe all these years? No matter – she wouldn’t wait for their permission. She had a Destiny to attend to.

Next Chapter: Chapter Eight