Excerpt
ACT 1: CITY WITH NO CHILDREN
Chapter 1: When I Live My Dream
At seventeen, Will Dreycott was a superhero.
In his dreams.
Happily for Will, right now, he was dreaming.
To start his night as the Dream Rider, he "awoke" as usual on the Bed of Awakening in the House of Four Doors. Will knew he wasn't really waking. He was asleep. But entering Dream always felt as if he had finally woken up. As if his time spent in the "real" world was time spent asleep, waiting to return here.
To return to Dream. To be the Dream Rider.
Brian, his favorite Doogle, waited for him. The creature sat beside the bed, its head on the covers, staring at Will.
Doogles were dog-shaped—sort of. Kind of like a Dalmatian, white with black splotches, or the other way around. But with a snout like an anteater, ears like a koala, and eyes like an owl.
Big nose, big ears, and big eyes. The better to smell, hear, and see you with, little girl. Or old man. Or middle-aged woman. Or whoever or whatever Will set his Doogles to search for in Dream.
Okay, so they weren't much like dogs at all. But they were his creations, his logical constructs in Dream, and he thought of them as his dogs.
Dogs that searched.
Doogles.
Will stood and looked around. The House changed each night. Tonight, it was a round, domed chamber of white marble with dark wooden doors of varying shapes—rectangular, round, oval, and square. The four doors were carved with writings in Latin. Or Greek. Or something. Languages weren't his strongest school subject.
He scratched Brian behind his ears. "Evening, Bry. I missed you, buddy." In reply, Brian curled his long, whip-like tail into a spiral, a Doogle display of happiness.
Will tugged at the costume hugging his slim frame, again regretting the form-fitting spandex. But by now, hundreds of millions of people recognized the Rider—and that recognition gave him power in Dream. Too late to change his appearance.
Besides, the costume looked cool. It was black as the night sky, its surface speckled with blazing red comets with silver tails. Gray clouds drifted over his chest, obscuring then revealing the moon behind them. The moon, which changed phases like the real one, was full and bright tonight.
A black cloak, its hood currently thrown back, completed the look. A jeweled clasp in the shape of a twelve-pointed crystal star fastened the cloak at his neck.
Yeah. Cool.
He considered the four doors the House presented tonight. Which to choose?
"Nyx!" he called.
A cloud of gray mist the size of a beach ball formed before him. Inside the cloud, a woman's face appeared—blue skin, violet eyes, and long, purple hair floating around her head. She was striking, but too sharp-featured to call beautiful.
Seeing Will, Nyx rolled her eyes. "Really? You again?"
"Uh, since you're my subconscious, who did you expect?"
She pursed dark blue lips. "Someone better looking? I mean, a girl can dream, can't she?"
"You are dreaming."
"Have you ever wondered why your subconscious appears to you as female?"
"I'm in touch with my feminine side. Just give me the data file I prepared on the missing little girl, please."
"Lisa Carter? Well, at least you bothered me for a good reason. Here."
He held out his hand. A crystal sphere the size of a baseball appeared with a "pop," dropping into his palm. Inside the sphere, words, numbers, and images scrolled and tumbled, appearing and disappearing.
"May I go now, oh Great Master?"
"Please. And lose the sarcasm," he said. Nyx made a rude sound and disappeared.
He offered the data ball to Brian. "Here you go, boy. It's everything I know about Lisa."
The Doogle bent his snout up to sniff at the sphere. A long black tongue shot out, wrapping around the ball and sucking it into his mouth.
Brian swallowed the ball. Sparks of light danced in his black eyes. He began a circuit of the House. After sniffing at each door, he returned to the oval one, cocking his round ears forward. His tail sprang straight up, then bent into an arrow shape pointed at that door.
Will walked up to him. "You sure?"
Brian's tail whipped out, smacking Will on the leg before forming the arrow again.
"Okay, okay. Don't get grouchy." He patted Brian's head. "We have to be sure, pal. Tonight may be our only chance to find her before…" He didn't finish. Before it was too late. Before Lisa Carter was dead.
He pulled up the hood of his costume. Now anyone meeting him in Dream would see only blackness where his face should be. A blackness no light could penetrate.
He grabbed his skateboard from beside the bed. Across its black surface, constellations spun behind a thin veil of cloud. He touched the door. It swung open, and he stepped into Dream, Brian at his heels.
***
