Harvest of Dreams (The Gods' Dream Trilogy) Read Free Page B

hear that. I will still bid you peace. Shalom .”
    She nodded a dismissal.
    He stepped outside the room. “ Shema Yisrael …”
    Sadie strode over to the door and, for the sake of her grandmother and the other patients, didn’t slam it shut. Once she’d closed the door, she leaned back and let out a tired exhale, then walked over to resume her vigil at her grandmother’s side.
    Sadie stayed with Bubby through the quiet hours that followed, until her grandmother slipped away to join her husband and son.
    The minute her grandmother’s spirit left her body, Sadie felt the transition—an absence of the loving presence that had supported Sadie all her life. One minute her grandmother was there , the next she was gone .
    “Good-bye, Bubby . I love…” Sadie whispered. But she couldn’t finish the words. Leaning over, she rested her forehead on her grandmother’s hand. “What am I going to do without you?”
    ~ ~ ~
    Sadie floated over an azure sea, drawn to distant peaks rising from the ocean. Overhead, the sun brightened a lavender sky. Curious, she allowed herself to be pulled through the air, almost as if she’d caught a current.
    As she drifted closer, the peaks turned out to be islands rising from the ocean, although instead of the tropical lushness she expected, a gray miasma swirled and undulated above the land. Waves thrashing against the sides of the islands parted the mist and briefly revealed clinging vegetation before the grayness swallowed any sight of the rocky sides.
    The wind current pulled her until she hovered above the scene. From the overhead view, Sadie could see three mountainous islands piercing the fog, each one the point of an equilateral triangle. Harbors on all three isles faced away from the middle. Buildings made of lava rock stair-stepped up the foot of the mountains. Wooden sailing ships like the ones she’d seen in historical movies floated in the harbors. Massive walls of lava brick separated each village into two sections, reminding her somehow of the walls that had imprisoned the Jews in concentration camps in WWll.
    The ocean in between the islands roiled storm-gray, so different from the translucent turquoise water she’d flown over.
    They’re too perfectly aligned to be natural.
    A gray light like a searchlight beamed from the top of each island, converging at a midpoint between them at the surface of the water. Here, the ocean churned.
    The air current lowered her closer, and Sadie shrank away, backpedaling to avoid getting sucked into the lasers or whatever they were. But her wishes didn’t matter. Instead, she dropped within ten yards of the ocean’s surface. She braced herself for the impact with the water, but instead, her momentum stopped, and she hovered above the sea like she was cupped in an unseen hand.
    Now Sadie could see into the water. Something lurked underneath the spot where the three beams met. Since it seemed important, she narrowed her eyes, trying to make out what was there.
    She thought she saw a man, a giant man. No, it couldn’t be, not under water.
    Again, she peered. But it was. He sat in a high-backed chair, like a throne. The chair didn’t move with the water, but remained fixed. The man…alien…whatever he was, slumped against the back, his head lolling. Something rested on his lap; she couldn’t discern what. But a wave smoothed for an instant, and she saw a golden trident, broken in two pieces.
    Neptune?
    This is a very weird dream.
    But it didn’t feel like a dream.
    Murmuring came, not to her ears, but inside her mind. She strained to decipher the words. They repeated over and over until she finally understood.
    “Help me!”
    ~ ~ ~
    The residual impressions of the dream stayed with Sadie the next day. Already feeling heart-heavy with grief, her thoughts kept moving from images of her grandmother to a vision of the submerged man. To distract herself, she continued the sorting and packing she’d been doing with her grandmother’s