The Way of the Ram Page 19

  Dreamer glanced over her shoulder at the fallen trees behind them. She realized that their attacker had leveled an area of a few hundred square feet. “Healer, double back! Stay with me!”

  Healer turned back and followed her. The two hopped over the fallen trunks and made for the middle of the newly made clearing.

  “Oh, I get it,” Healer said. “From here, none of those other trees are tall enough to fall on us.”

  “That’s my plan so far,” Dreamer said, keeping a lookout all around them. “But if it’s Optera trying to kill us, I’m sure she already thought of that.”

  “Of course I did.”

  Dreamer whirled around, hearing the voice but seeing nothing in the trees, in the air, or across the canal.

  “Why don’t you come out and face us, Optera?” Healer bellowed. “Why hide behind traps and send your lap-dog Karkus to get rid of us? Surely a couple of sheep would be a trivial little nuisance for the Goddess.”

  “I’m far too busy to deal with you,” said the harsh voice. “I’ve been undoing the mental damage the two of you have inflicted on my perfect creation. However, this presents an opportunity for a field test. If I have regained enough control over Render to get it to destroy you, then there’s nothing I can’t make it do.”

  “Render won’t hurt us,” Dreamer snapped.

  “An experiment, then. My theory against yours. Render, kill them both.”

  The sound of Optera’s last word had not even faded out before the red-cloaked creature burst through the underbrush. Startled by the ferocity of its entrance, Dreamer ducked down to put a tree trunk between herself and the approaching onslaught. Healer rushed forward to meet Render’s charge.

  With an echoing crack like a bullwhip, Render swatted Healer aside with a backhanded smack. It spun in the middle of its leap to give Healer a dismissive cut across the hindquarters as it passed by him. Then it sprang for Dreamer.

  She stayed low and close to the trunk, getting under a thick branch to keep away from Render’s claws. The beast swung its arm and lopped the branch off, nearly catching her. She scrambled toward another fallen tree. Render followed close behind, driving its right hand forward for the fatal strike.

  Dreamer banked hard to her left just in time, and Render’s claws sank up to its fingertips into the pine. It roared with irritation as it tried to wrench its arm free. Then it reached out its left hand to make an ineffectual swipe at the ewe standing just out of range.

  “We are conflicted,” Render growled at her. “The Goddess demands that we obey. But our insides command otherwise. We do not wish to kill our liberators.”

  “You don’t have to kill us,” Dreamer declared. “You can throw off Optera’s control. We’ve seen you do it before. We’re going to take you home now.”

  Render braced its feet against the tree trunk and used the strength of its entire body to pull its claws free. It flexed its fingers as it straightened up and glared at her.

  “We are home… with the Goddess.”

  Healer crashed into Render from behind, throwing it face-first into the dirt. He pressed his advantage, struggling to pin it down and get his forelegs around its neck.

  “Why is it going after you?” he shouted to Dreamer.

  “Because Optera knows what we’re planning,” Dreamer replied, her gaze turning hard. Her violet eyes flared to match her rising temper. “I’m the threat. You can’t hurt Render, but I can break her control over it. Healer, hold Render down.”

  “Working on it.”

  The beast rolled over with a surge of strength that Healer had no hope of resisting. But he adjusted his hold, wrapping Render’s head with one foreleg and an arm with the other. With his hind legs locked around Render’s waist, he kept its head turned and its spine cocked to one side. In this cramped position, its lack of leverage kept it from overpowering Healer. It could not stand up or throw him off.

  Dreamer jumped onto Render’s chest and lowered her head so that she was face-to-face with it. “Look at my eyes,” she commanded.

  “Will not. We obey no one but the Goddess.”

  “Render might be the slave of Optera,” Dreamer replied, “but Render isn’t who I’m talking to. My friend Ponder is in there. My best friend in the whole world. That’s who I’m talking to. You hear me, don’t you, Ponder?”

  Render slashed at the air with its free arm. Dreamer easily stepped out of reach, and the monster strained to go after her. For a second, it looked like Healer was going to lose his hold. But he gritted his teeth and hung on.

  “You’re exhausted,” Healer said. “You took off without any rest after the fight with Chugg. You’ll tire out before I do.”

  “That’s not why you’re not fighting your hardest,” Dreamer added. “It’s because you don’t really want to hurt us.” She thrust her glowing eyes close to Render’s face. “Let me in. Ignore Optera. Let me free you from this. Let’s get the voices out of your head. Let’s give you back the power to make your own choices.”

  After a final lurch of protest, Render relaxed and went still. It met Dreamer’s gaze, and its round orange eyes turned violet to match hers. Dreamer stepped into Render’s mind, bringing Healer along.

  Chapter 68

  Nothing in all of her experience with diving into other people’s minds had prepared Dreamer for this. She found herself struggling to keep her footing in a landscape that looked like a perversion of the outside world. The ground shifted and warped under her feet. So did the hues of everything around her. At the horizon, the ocean blurred with the sky, melded together, and separated again. Mountains wobbled as if they were paper-thin backdrops. The border walls of the quarry and Megatropolis squirmed like snakes. Most of all, the whole place was compressed and cramped. She felt like she was in a miniature snow globe version of the land she had grown up in.

  Above her, a dead tree reached out from the mountainside like a withered hand. Ponder hung suspended from the branches by dozens of hooks on ropes, her wings spread out, head and jaw slack. Below, the grassy plain yawned open into a fiery chasm. Mauler crouched on a stone pillar in its center, held down by chains across his back, limbs, and neck. Both of them stared ahead, inert, looking at nothing. With the proportions and perspectives as skewed as they were, Dreamer could have reached out and touched both of them.

  At the base of the tree stood Optera, wings folded contentedly around her shoulders. Karkus stood on the stone pillar, one of his hands gripping the back of Mauler’s neck.

  “Welcome,” Optera said. “I was perfectly confident in my control over the Render, but it appears I have some work to do here.”

  “What is this?” Healer shouted.

  “The mind of the Render, of course.” Karkus made an ugly grin. “Fractured. Scattered. Grasping for any semblance of meaning, any straw that even remotely feels like a sense of purpose. You drove it to kill the pigs for me. Now it will lead dogs and birds to take their place.”

  “Then what?” Dreamer demanded. “Will they have some sanity when all your goals are met?”

  “I don’t see how.” Optera shrugged. “This is how they were made. The two champions were made to be incomplete on their own. They were designed to seek each other out, to attach to one another, to seek completion together. That was the way to create a perfect creature, one that neither Karkus nor I could have made on our own. So you may as well leave now and go on your way. For all you’ve done to escape us and subdue the Render, you can never make it more than what it is. It is our slave.”

  Healer laughed. “You failed. You’ve completely and utterly screwed it up. And not just because Dreamer and I were able to influence Mauler and Ponder. Look at you. The two of you couldn’t even agree on what you were going to have your perfect creature do. You’d think that would be, I don’t know, the first thing you would hash out. Toxid and Chugg were right about you. You lost control of your Render the same way you lost control of this world.”

  Karkus frowned. Optera, however, spread her wings a
nd shrieked with outrage.

  “Hold your tongue, mortal!” she screamed.

  “Yes, it’s time I stopped talking,” Healer replied. “In fact, I’m going to do what you should have done in the first place.”

  Dreamer beamed at him as he called up his special ability and turned it on the restrained champions. The chains around Mauler snapped, and the ropes binding Ponder frayed and broke as the hooks dropped away from her. Karkus roared and Optera screeched as they hurtled out of the mind of their creation and vanished. A second later, as Render’s consciousness split in two, Healer and Dreamer were forced out as well.

  Chapter 69

  Dreamer got to her feet. To her surprise, she was relieved to be back in this half-dead forest a few yards from a smelly canal full of sludge. Next to her, Healer stood tall, looking pleased with himself. A dark red mass lay on the ground in front of them.

  “What’s happened?” Dreamer asked, looking around. “Did you fix them?”

  “Better than that.” Healer grinned. “Remember when the gods said they would never feel complete on their own? I healed that. And along with it… well, just see for yourself.”

  The mass moved—breathed—and Dreamer took a step back in shock. She realized that it was not the fabric of Render’s cloak. It looked like fur. The red thing rolled over, and Dreamer’s heart skipped as she recognized it.

  “Mauler!” she cried out.

  Their friend the hairy beast shook himself and looked at them. It was him, all right. But he had changed. Instead of the patchwork colors of fur he had before, his coat had changed to a uniform wine red. His bleary orange eyes regarded them, seemingly half-asleep. The edges of his forearms were lined with small feathers of a deep indigo color.

  His eyes went wide and his long ears flicked. “Where’s Ponder?” he snarled.

  A soft sigh behind him got his attention, and he spun. Healer and Dreamer ran to his side.

  “Oh…” Dreamer said helplessly. The sight brought her to her knees.

  The creature that lay on the ground near where Mauler had awakened looked just like him, with long ears, a flat snout, and a narrow mouth full of sharp little teeth. It differed from him, however, in that it was much smaller, its fur was brighter red, and it had long blue feathers on its forearms and tail.

  The new beast reached out. Mauler looked on with trepidation, but allowed it to touch his face. Its large, round eyes turned from black to purple and back again.

  “I… I can move?” it managed to say.

  Mauler smiled. “I know your voice.”

  Dreamer wiped her eyes. “Ponder, is that you?”

  The little creature’s head turned to her. “Ponder… that is my name.”

  “But how?” Dreamer looked to Healer.

  “Like I said, with the mental completion came physical completion.” Healer was still smiling. “When their minds separated, it seems like they left some traits behind in one another. What you’re looking at is a pair of champions that are whole in and of themselves.”

  Chapter 70

  Healer wanted to rush forward and reunite with his friends. But the intensity with which Ponder and Mauler stared into each other’s eyes made him hold back. If he and Dreamer had ever looked at each other like that, he wouldn’t have wanted anyone to interrupt.

  Taking slow and deliberate movements with her new body, Ponder got to her feet. Her hands clasped Mauler’s. “Look at us,” she said.

  He embraced her. “We’re the same.”

  Ponder wept, clinging to Mauler and pressing her face into his shoulder. “We are free, my love. The voices are gone from my head. We can be together.”

  “That’s right, Ponder. We’re leaving. Just like we talked about.”

  Dreamer exchanged a glance with Healer. “Leaving?” she inquired. Mauler and Ponder finally turned their attention to the two sheep.

  Ponder wiped her eyes. “Dreamer, Healer… thank you.”

  Healer stepped forward. “It’s good to have you back. It’s even better to see you both free. But I’m with Dreamer… we want to know where you’re going.”

  Mauler sighed. “We saw into the minds of the gods. There are islands in the ocean off the quarry coast. Very beautiful. We’re going there.”

  Ponder reached behind her and put a hand on Mauler’s forearm. “We have had a plan to leave since we have been in prison.”

  Dreamer lowered her head. “Why won’t you stay with us? We wanted for so long to see you again.”

  “We understand, dear Dreamer. But this experience… this Render… it was horrifying. It was too much. We cannot stand to be around this place anymore. We want nothing to do with gods or pigs or dogs or birds.”

  “Leaving us again…” Dreamer bit her lip, her eyes squeezing shut even as the tears came. She broke down into sobs and leaned against Healer, who kept a steely face.

  “I don’t blame you,” he said. “You’ve got your freedom and you deserve to do with it what you like. How can we help you?”

  “Our plan is in place,” Mauler said. “We will go to the quarry, build a boat, and leave this land. We will make our home away from here, on one of those islands, and we are never coming back. You’ve done all for us that we need, and we thank you for it.”

  “We’re also going to the quarry,” Healer said. “I have work to do there. You freed those lambs and they need my help.”

  “I suppose, then, we will travel together one last time,” Ponder replied.

  Chapter 71

  “There it is,” Healer said. He stood on his hind legs, propping himself with his forelegs against the fence around his property. “I hope, in some way, it redeems my dad’s legacy.”

  Dreamer stood next to him, her head on his shoulder. They both looked at a spot of freshly dug dirt a hundred feet or so from the clinic. Old-Timer’s resting place.

  Boxer and Caper sat in the grass next to the grave, heads low, seemingly not speaking. Swifter watched them from the porch with a quizzical look on his face.

  “It is impressive, Healer,” Ponder said, perched on a fencepost. “It is good to see this place fixed up.”

  “This land no longer smells of fire and death,” Mauler commented. “You swept away the ashes of the old home and built something new. It’s peaceful here.”

  “Thank you both. I’m very proud of this clinic.” Healer dropped to all fours. “I understand you’re anxious to leave, but I would love it if you decided to stay around and see what I do here. At least for a little while.”

  Mauler sighed. “Our minds are made up.”

  “Mauler is right,” Ponder added. “As kind as your offer is, we want nothing more to do with this land.”

  “Understood. Let’s get moving.” Healer turned to continue heading toward the quarry’s border wall.

  “Oh, hey. You’re here.”

  Healer looked up again to see the white sheep and the old owl and dog approaching them. All of them eyed the red-furred beasts.

  “These are Ponder and Mauler,” Dreamer said with a smile. “Promise. It’s a long story.”

  “I believe it,” Boxer said, looking Mauler over. “It’s a story I’m looking forward to hearing.”

  “Soon,” Healer said. “We’re on the move. These two want to get to the coast. I’m going to the quarry with them so I can treat the lambs rescued from Scurvert.”

  “And I’ve spent the last twelve hours thinking I might never see my dad again,” Dreamer added. “I’m going home.”

  “How long do you think you’ll be?” Swifter cut in.

  Healer shrugged. “I figure I’ll be back tomorrow. Can you do something for me?”

  “Yeah.”

  “If a pig named Swill contacts the clinic, call the quarry and ask for me. You don’t need to take a message from him or anything. I’ll just want to know he called.”

  Swifter cocked an eyebrow. “Uh, sure, dude.”

  “Caper and I will keep our eyes and ears open for anything unusual,” Boxer said. �
��It seems like we’ve won for now, but we should stay vigilant.”

  “Thank you for burying what’s left of my father,” Healer made sure to say. “It means a lot.”

  After a round of goodbyes, Caper and Boxer took their leave from the group. Swifter headed back into the clinic.

  The four completed their trip with little else in the way of conversation. By the time they made it over the wall and into the quarry, it was early afternoon.

  Dreamer and Healer stopped in the road in front of Shiver’s house. Mauler and Ponder kept going.

  “Are you getting started already?” Healer called after them.

  “Yes,” Ponder said. “We do not intend to waste any time.”

  While the two champions walked off down the dusty road, Healer looked along the path and then back the way they had come.

  “Where are all the dogs? In fact, where is everyone?”

  “My dad will know. Come on.” Dreamer tapped on the brick wall beside the curtain that formed the door to her home. The shroud slid aside and the black ram appeared.

  “Hey, sweetheart,” Shiver said, hugging his daughter. “I see you’re in one piece. I knew Healer would take care of you.”

  Dreamer scoffed. “I took care of him.”

  “Well, I believe that too. Come on inside, both of you.” Shiver made them comfortable, brought them drinks, and sat on his cushion in the middle of the room. “What brings you two out to my neck of the woods?”

  “We found out about some lambs that got loose when Scurvert was killed,” Healer said, “and I intend to give them my best therapy. But there’s no one out there. What’s going on?”

  Shiver snickered. “Well, when I got back here, the first thing I did was start asking around. That creature that showed up on your roof had just come from killing Scurvert. I mean he was freshly dead. His guard dogs had hightailed it right over the wall and back to the oak forest, their home ground. My co-workers said those dogs were so scared their hair was falling out. Anyway, everyone else is still here, just inside their homes. There’s no one to force us to do the work here anymore, but we know it’s still important work and we want to keep it up. We just figured we’d take off a day or two.”