Tuuri's dream started with a feeling of vague unease. She woke in the middle of a meadow, with drops of dew sparkling like tiny diamonds on the long grass and wildflowers like strips of silk scattered by the wind. Yet she knew something was wrong. She scanned the misty horizon, wondering what it could be.
Then she saw them. Shadows, lurking just outside the line of polished stones that marked the borders of her meadow. At first, they looked like part of the scenery. Then, as they drew closer, they took on a twisted imitation of human form, with emaciated arms and pale eyes in the center of their heads. The temperature in Tuuri's dream dropped rapidly as their dark limbs slid past her barrier like it didn't even exist. The soft light that had illuminated the dream slowly faded as the landscape darkened.
Tuuri didn't say anything. She couldn't say anything. Then the voices started.
The wind was full of whispered howling, screams of pain and hunger. All Tuuri could see was a whirlpool of darkness. The ring of spirits closed in around her, and she felt cold in her very bones.
"LALLIIIIIII!" someone was shouting. Their voice sounded distant and unfamiliar. "I need help!"
Tuuri recognized that voice. So did they. They hissed, turning to face the intruder, the meddler, the one who helped their victims.
Reynir tripped and fell headlong into Tuuri's dreamspace. A clumsy protective shield flickered into being, and the glowing lines of a rune spread over the grass. "LALLI!" he screamed again, not bothering to brush the grass from his clothes or get the small rock out of his braid.
"...don't have to... so loud," Lalli's voice said grumpily, as the mage himself appeared.
His eyes went wide as he saw the spirits battering against Reynir's shield. Then his expression hardened. Tuuri could see the same determined glint in his eyes that he got when refusing to talk to weird foreigners.
A gust of wind blew through the ranks of ghosts, rippling their shadowy forms like they were nothing but a reflection in a pool of water. Lalli shouted something to the heavens, something Tuuri couldn't hear because Reynir's shield was collapsing and she was drowning, drowning in cold shadows that covered her mouth and ears and eyes. The darkness roared and shrieked and howled, and the light from the two mages was dying.
Tuuri was dying too. She reached out and found her friends' hands, finding small comfort in the tiny bits of warmth. With a sudden rush of determination, she pulled the mages to their feet. They were going to go out fighting. That's what Sigrun would tell them to do. Even though Sigrun could be overbearing, she was a good captain. In her absence, Tuuri was going to be a good captain too.
Reynir's grip on her hand tightened, and Lalli's yell blasted outward with the flash of light that cut through the layers of shadow. They were gone.
Reynir swayed like a tree about to fall. "That was... we... have to..." He did not sit down so much as fall over into the grass and flowers.
"Thanks." Lalli's voice was so quiet, the word was barely there.
"You're welcome," Tuuri said automatically. After all, if she wanted to teach her cousin normal people manners, she had to set a good example. "Do we have to worry about the others?"
Lalli shook his head, swallowing hard. His voice was still hoarse. "No. They were after you... not a mage... not immune."
Tuuri shivered. "Well, that's great," she said. "Will they come back?"
Lalli shook his head. He wasn't smiling, but Tuuri knew him well enough to know that he was radiating weary satisfaction.
"Okay, good." Tuuri glanced at the exhausted mages. They were in no shape to be walking back to... wherever they had come from. "Why don't you both stay here tonight?"
Lalli nodded silently. Reynir seemed to be asleep.
Tuuri sat down next to Reynir and removed the rock from his braid. Whatever those ghosts were, well, now they knew what they were up against. They knew they had chosen the wrong non-immune non-mage to pick on. And if they didn't, Lalli, Reynir, and Tuuri would show them why they should never cross the borders of Tuuri's dream haven again.
