trouble tonight.
For once something mechanical seemed willing to give her a break.
When Sophie finally returned to Jillyâs room she thought she saw two girls peering in through the window, dark faces pressed against the glass, hair standing up in sharp spikes. She hesitated in the doorway, trapped by the impossibility of their presence, then blinked, and they were gone.
She crossed to the window and looked out, but there was no one there, of course. The ICU was on the third floor and there was no fire
escape outside the window. When she lifted her gaze she saw a pair of crows in the distance, winging off against the Crowsea skyline.
Jilly would say it was the crow girls, but Sophie knew better. All sheâd seen was an odd reflection on the glass. She might have an active dream life, but she didnât let it carry over into what the professor called the World As It Is. It drove Jilly crazy, but the only magic Sophie saw in the world was what people made for each other. Still, what she thought sheâd seen had been disconcerting, if only for a moment.
Youâre just not getting enough sleep, she told herself, rubbing at her temples.
The doctor came in then and she concentrated on what he had to tell her after heâd examined Jilly.
5
Once upon a time â¦
The forest seems familiar to me right away, but it takes me a moment to realize why. I stand there, absorbed by the towering trees that surround me on all sides, trees bigger and stranger than they have any right to be. Thereâs next to no undergrowth, just these behemoths, their trunks so wide that five of me couldnât touch hands around them. Light pours down from the dense canopy above in golden shafts and thatâs when I know where I am. The cathedral effect reminds me of what I call the place that Sophie goes traveling to at night.
Iâm back in the dreamlands again. The cathedral world.
Itâs not the city of Mabon that Sophie founded here, but a magic place all the same. It would have to be, wouldnât it, with trees like this. They must be close cousins of what Jack Daw used to call the forever trees, the giant growth that made up the first forest when the world was born.
I canât believe that Iâm finally able to cross over into the otherworld like this. While Iâd prefer to be able to go in my body, dreaming my way across is certainly the next best thing. But I would like to learn how to choose where I end up, the way that Sophie can. Iâll have to ask her how she does it.
Thinking of Sophie reminds me that I just saw her ⦠or was that a dream, too? She really didnât seem herself. Way too sad, for one thing. I know everyone canât be as exuberant as I tend to be, but couldnât she
have shown just a little more enthusiasm that Iâd learned how to cross over, too? Because now we can have adventures in the dreamlands together. And Iâll finally get to meet her mysterious boyfriend Jeck, that handsome crow boy that she can only be with in Mabon.
Sometimes I just donât get her. How can someone be so full of magic and still deny it the way she does? You only have to look at her to see the faerie blood in her, to know that sheâs as magical as anything you could find in or out of the cathedral world.
A little niggling thought comes worming up through my happiness. Itâs got to do with that last time I saw her. I remember her starting to say something about accidents and cars, but I donât want to go there. I donât want the World As It Is to intrude on the magic Iâm experiencing right now.
I take a deep breath and look around some more, trying to empty my mind of everything except whatâs happening at this moment. I want to exist in Zen time. No past, no future. Just now. Just being here.
I think Iâm alone until I smell the cigarette smoke. I turn in a slow circle and finally see a thin drift of it coming from the far side of one of the nearby
For once something mechanical seemed willing to give her a break.
When Sophie finally returned to Jillyâs room she thought she saw two girls peering in through the window, dark faces pressed against the glass, hair standing up in sharp spikes. She hesitated in the doorway, trapped by the impossibility of their presence, then blinked, and they were gone.
She crossed to the window and looked out, but there was no one there, of course. The ICU was on the third floor and there was no fire
escape outside the window. When she lifted her gaze she saw a pair of crows in the distance, winging off against the Crowsea skyline.
Jilly would say it was the crow girls, but Sophie knew better. All sheâd seen was an odd reflection on the glass. She might have an active dream life, but she didnât let it carry over into what the professor called the World As It Is. It drove Jilly crazy, but the only magic Sophie saw in the world was what people made for each other. Still, what she thought sheâd seen had been disconcerting, if only for a moment.
Youâre just not getting enough sleep, she told herself, rubbing at her temples.
The doctor came in then and she concentrated on what he had to tell her after heâd examined Jilly.
5
Once upon a time â¦
The forest seems familiar to me right away, but it takes me a moment to realize why. I stand there, absorbed by the towering trees that surround me on all sides, trees bigger and stranger than they have any right to be. Thereâs next to no undergrowth, just these behemoths, their trunks so wide that five of me couldnât touch hands around them. Light pours down from the dense canopy above in golden shafts and thatâs when I know where I am. The cathedral effect reminds me of what I call the place that Sophie goes traveling to at night.
Iâm back in the dreamlands again. The cathedral world.
Itâs not the city of Mabon that Sophie founded here, but a magic place all the same. It would have to be, wouldnât it, with trees like this. They must be close cousins of what Jack Daw used to call the forever trees, the giant growth that made up the first forest when the world was born.
I canât believe that Iâm finally able to cross over into the otherworld like this. While Iâd prefer to be able to go in my body, dreaming my way across is certainly the next best thing. But I would like to learn how to choose where I end up, the way that Sophie can. Iâll have to ask her how she does it.
Thinking of Sophie reminds me that I just saw her ⦠or was that a dream, too? She really didnât seem herself. Way too sad, for one thing. I know everyone canât be as exuberant as I tend to be, but couldnât she
have shown just a little more enthusiasm that Iâd learned how to cross over, too? Because now we can have adventures in the dreamlands together. And Iâll finally get to meet her mysterious boyfriend Jeck, that handsome crow boy that she can only be with in Mabon.
Sometimes I just donât get her. How can someone be so full of magic and still deny it the way she does? You only have to look at her to see the faerie blood in her, to know that sheâs as magical as anything you could find in or out of the cathedral world.
A little niggling thought comes worming up through my happiness. Itâs got to do with that last time I saw her. I remember her starting to say something about accidents and cars, but I donât want to go there. I donât want the World As It Is to intrude on the magic Iâm experiencing right now.
I take a deep breath and look around some more, trying to empty my mind of everything except whatâs happening at this moment. I want to exist in Zen time. No past, no future. Just now. Just being here.
I think Iâm alone until I smell the cigarette smoke. I turn in a slow circle and finally see a thin drift of it coming from the far side of one of the nearby
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