Break Away (Away, Book 1) (29 page)

“I never said you could stray from us,” I
heard Andras say, irritated, as he stepped next to me.

“Is that liquid mercury?” I asked, looking at
the glossy pool of silver.

“I guess it is for you, humans,” he said,
bending in one knee and taking out from his bag what looked like
some type of liquor flask made of iron. “For us however, this is
nothing more than the most powerful elixir nature gives us.” He
pushed the silver liquid into the flask with a small flat spoon
until it was full. “This is for us the equivalent of a human
vitamin—an extremely powerful vitamin.”

I frowned in confusion as I watched him close
the flask. “Isn't liquid mercury toxic?”

He shoved it inside his messenger bag and
straightened. “Don't apply your human laws to this world. They're
not the same.”

“Are you saying you take liquid mercury as an
elixir?”

I felt some tugging at the hem of my shirt
and looked down.

“Silver elixir very good for health, human
girl,” Smooch said, his bony fingers still perched on the fabric of
my shirt. “It allows energy of garden flow better in body.”

“You mean the energy that is collected in the
garden and then distributed throughout Chimera?”

Smooch nodded, flapping the ends of his
elephant-like ears against his chest.

I knew liquid mercury was a good conductor of
electricity and was sometimes used in electrical switches, but to
ingest it just so it could conduct the energy in your body better
was…crazy. It sounded somewhat logical, but still foolish and
unwise.

“I don't get it,” I said, shaking my
head.

“You don't have to,” Andras said, looking at
me defiantly.

Smooch tugged at my shirt again and signaled
for me to follow him. We stopped in front of the tree trunk and he
beckoned me to inch closer. “See,” he told me, pointing at
something in the trunk. “See silver elixir.”

I drew closer and eyed the area he was
indicating. Indeed, silver liquid ran underneath the bark ridges,
like still rivers of metal. I looked up, following the fissures and
glossy channels along the trunk, until a weird movement in its
middle startled me. As if it was a human chest, expanding while air
streamed into the lungs, the trunk moved as well, contracting as
the air left through its…leaves?

“Is the tree actually breathing?” I asked in
shock, as that spot in the trunk inflated again, slowly.

“Don't they always?” Andras said, as if
exasperated by all my questions. “Last time I checked, trees also
breathed in your world, so why the surprise?”

“They don't move!”

And they have resin dripping from them,
not liquid mercury!
I wanted to say.

“A tiny difference,” he shrugged, like it was
no big deal. And as if sensing another question coming his way, he
stepped ahead and started talking. “They give us elixir,” he waved
his eyes to the silvery rests on the ground, “And much needed clean
air, and in exchange, we give them love and respect—something you
humans should learn to do.”

I rolled my eyes at the sharp disdain in his
voice. Though he was right, I couldn't help but thinking he was
biting the hand that
literally
fed him. From what I'd
understood, all these beautiful plants and beautiful—though
insufferable—people, lived off of the energy that was emitted from
our dreams. Which brought to my mind an idea. A place this
beautiful—I didn't need to see more of Chimera just to know this
world exuded beauty everywhere—and idyllic couldn't have had
pollution. Then why was Andras talking about trees giving them
much needed
clean air?

“Don't you start again with your questions,
human girl,” Andras warned, stopping me in my tracks. “Weren't you
in a rush to get your sister back?”

The truth was, since I didn't really believe
this wasn't a dream, I found myself wanting to explore more of this
world my mind had created. But even if it was a dream, I couldn't
refuse the chance to see Buffy and do something for her, even
though it wasn't real.

At least
, I told myself,
my heart
and mind will know momentary peace
. Once I awake and get back
to the real world, I'll leave Comus' house and keep searching for
reasonable solutions.

“Let's go,” I told him and Smooch with a
short nod.

And on we went through that fantasy forest.
Destination: the Garden of Wandering Souls.

I smiled. I really couldn't wait to see what
my mind would come up with for this.

“W
hy is it that you
think no one will see me in the garden?” I asked and almost
stumbled upon a silver-specked rock, which I'd been told was
solidified mercury. Apparently everything in Chimera had mercury.
From living organisms to rocks, mercury was present everywhere.

“No one goes into the garden,” Andras said,
as he strode through the woods, without turning to look at me.

“Because it's forbidden?” I said,
panting.

The bad thing of following a person as tall
as Andras was that one step of his translated into two steps for
me, which meant double the exertion. I was on the verge of asking,
“Are we there yet?” but restrained myself from the childish
question.

I didn't know how Smooch could take it with
those toothpick-thin legs of his. Habit, I guessed.

“Don't you
ever
get tired of making
questions?” Andras sighed, his patience rubbed thin.

“It's only logical to need these answers. I'm
the one who's going in there.” For some reason, I took pleasure in
this annoyance I provoked in him.

He paused for a moment and decided to answer.
“The garden harbors too much energy. Our bodies can't take it.
Going in there would be like…electrocuting ourselves.”

“And you're allowing
me
to go into
that
frying pan
?” I said, outraged, and doubled my pace to
reach his side. “What do you think I am, huh? A sausage waiting to
be sizzled?”

He glanced at me with indifference. “Weren't
you willing to do anything to save your sister?”

“Not if 'anything' implies me ending like a
charred wiener, ready to be placed on a hotdog bun before I
actually get to save her!”

“Relax, human girl,” he smiled, as if seeing
me angry was something he liked as well. “The deadly overload of
energy only applies to the citizens of Chimera, not humans—and if
you're going to ask why—which I know you will—it is because you
can't be killed by your own energy. Your human body is already used
to it. Our bodies however, aren't. Everything that's foreign to a
body will kill it if in a sudden excess.”

I wasn't really sure about his certainty of
me not ending like a human hot dog, but since this was a dream,
dying didn't really matter. Anyway, they said that whenever you get
to that crucial point in a dream when you're about to die, you
always wake up. So, maybe that was what was going to happen to me.
Death or no death, I was going to die in the try, and that
lightened my conscious considerably.

“Okay, so…what's the plan?” I said now that a
small clearing seemed to be right ahead of us.

“Easy,” Andras said, decreasing his pace as
we reached that brightly lit spot. “Smooch and I will distract the
guards as you slip inside the garden. It's in front of Intork, the
tower—”

“—that serves as the main energy conductor
here in chimera, blah…blah…blah…I know the story.” I rolled my eyes
at the useless information. My mind already knew this. What was the
point of bringing it out in a dream? I guessed my brain lacked
creative juice when it came to making conversations in dreams.

“And you know this why?” He stopped before
the shadowy edge that surrounded the clearing and turned to look at
me.

“Comus, obviously.” I gave him a look.

He cast a sharp glare at Smooch, who lowered
his head in shame, and stared back at me. “The tower is made of
crystal quartz, which helps to store the energy and conduct it more
efficiently throughout veins of quartz that run underground. You'll
find in the garden clusters of these crystals jutting everywhere.
Make sure not to touch them since that'll alert guardians of a
breach.”

“Okay.”

He stretched out his hand to the side,
signaling me to go into the clearing.

I took a step forward and my jaw dropped.
“Oh, my God,” I said as I stopped in wonder at the sight spreading
before me. A small pond of an intense turquoise color sat on one
side of the tree line, making it look as it was the eye of a
precious gem waiting to be touched. A multi-hued sky, ranging from
pink, orange and pale purple, embraced cotton candy clouds on the
background. I remembered how I'd wondered why all those rays of
light I'd seen seeping through the canopy of leaves back in the
woods had had that shade of pink. Now I knew why.

Above the lush mantle of tree tops, a tall
crystal tower rose magnificently. Instead of being straight and
rectangular, this one had a McDonald's sundae shape—something I
didn't say out loud because of the risk of being murdered by such
comparison—I didn't want this dream to end yet—which started wide
on the base and narrowed at its top with a bright, gleaming point.
Waves of muted spectral colors seemed to swirl beneath the crystal
structure, like they were dancing a slow, sensual song. Some of
them sparkled from time to time, as if they were wired with
sizzling energy.

Never in my life had I seen something so
beautiful. Not even in movies. I praised my brain inwardly for
coming up with such an astounding landscape. Spielberg would be
jealous of my creative prowess.

I looked down and spotted several white
dandelions on the neon-green grass that seemed to hum with power. I
kneeled hesitantly; afraid my legs would turn into French fries,
and lowered my gaze to one fuzzy ball. I took in a small breath and
blew over its feathery surface. The tiny parachutes didn't lift off
and spread like falling snow as I was expecting, but turned into
white smoke as my breath brushed them.

“Cool,” I whispered with a smile. My brain
definitely kicked ass in special effects.

“Are you finished having fun yet?” Andras
said with a smile in his voice. He'd followed me and was standing
next to me. I looked up at him and saw, for the first time, an
unmasked honest-to-God grin on his stoic face.

“Wow,” I said, rising to my feet. “And here I
thought you weren't capable of smiling—especially to a human.” And
what a smile that was. I bet angels sang a sighing tune every time
he showed his straight, white-as-snow teeth this way. “By the way,
you have beautiful teeth,” I told him. Something I would've never
done in real life. But dreams were meant to get crazy and do things
you would've never done in a million years, so why not being bold
and let words flow freely out of my mouth?

He arched his eyebrows. “Beautiful
teeth?”

“Yep,” I said, shrinking the distance between
us. “White and healthy, beautiful teeth. You know, like the
feathers of a peace pigeon or brand new pearls.”

He looked down at me with a small, sexy
frown. “I have no idea what you're talking about, human girl,” he
said, his voice getting low.

“My name is Dafne,” I said softly, feeling
bolder by the minute.”And you know what I'm talking about.”

His chocolate colored gaze lowered to my
mouth. I felt my stomach doing a sharp flip flop and my lips parted
in invitation. His nostrils flared as he took in a deep breath and
locked eyes with mine. I could see a raging battle going on in
those pools of rich brown, hesitation and resolve fighting against
each other.

He cleared his throat and turned around,
taking a few steps away from me. “Are you ready to go into the
garden, human girl?” Andras said, a bit tightly, shoving aside
whatever that intense moment had meant.

I lifted my eyes to the multi-hued sky at the
avoidance of my name. “Yes, I am.
Very
.”

“Even knowing you could die or remain there
forever?”

As if a bucket of ice-cold water had been
splashed onto my face, I forgot my annoyance. “I knew it!” I
snapped my fingers. “You really aren't sure if all that energy
won't turn me into human roast.”

“I'm not,” he said honestly, turning to look
at me. “It's just an obvious guess, but I could be wrong.”

I narrowed my eyes. “Why are you telling me
this? I thought you wanted to get rid of me as fast as
possible.”

“Oh, I want you to leave. But letting you go
without you knowing that possible outcome would be bad.” He
shrugged. “I'm just giving you an opportunity to think it over. We
could…hide you for some time.”

Smooch's eyes widened in delight at the
possibility of me staying. The small, funny-looking creature liked
to be around humans a lot, apparently.

I gave a faint shake of my head. “I'll go,” I
told them after a few heartbeats. “I'll take the risk. I can't
stand the thought of my sister trapped in there.” Dream or no
dream, I would try to save my sister.

“I already told you all those humans aren't
in the garden against their will,” Andras said.

“I know you believe that, but my heart tells
me otherwise.”

He stared at me, the renewal of something
intense taking place in his eyes. It could've been admiration, but
I knew how low his esteem for humans was, so no chance there.

After a moment, he lifted his hands in the
air, as if giving up. “It's your choice.”

I sighed. “Okay,” I said, rubbing my hands
together in anticipation. “Where do I start, then? What's the next
step?”

“You walk straight to that line of trees,” he
explained, pointing to the not so far green area ahead of us, “And
stride through it. Before you go past the edge, wait for about
twenty minutes. That'll give us time to get to Intork and distract
the two guards.”