—We’re trapped—whispered Honora.—It’s the dream within the dream—
Lee looked to Ella, but her eyes were on the little girl. The girl was kneeling on the frozen lake, hands clasped in anguish beneath her chin like someone at prayer, eyes streaming with tears as she sobbed uncontrollably. Ella was mesmerized. Lee saw in Ella’s eyes a glitter, like sunlight on frost, of the mad priestess. He realized with shock and admiration that she was about to take charge. Her confidence fluttered around her like a protective cloak.
—Keep moving! Don’t stand still! We have to undo what was done!—Ella’s words eclipsed everything. She had remembered the golden thread she had been spinning before falling asleep. It came out like a formula, like a spell.
—Church and steeple! Door and people!—She was yelling at them, without shifting her eyes from the kneeling, weeping girl.— Faith and desire! We have to end our mistrust! No more indifference! Honora, take your curse from Brad’s head! Do it now!—
—How can I?—
—Just lift it! Lift the curse!—
—But it’s only words! Words are not real things!—
—Just! Lift! It!—
—I unmake it I unmake it I unmake it!—Honora was screaming. She was hysterical. She wanted to run to the girl but Ella held her back.
—Open the door! We must open the door! Can’t you see it! Open the door and the people will escape! Here are the people! We are the people! Dream a hole in the ice!—
But Ella didn’t wait for the others. She turned her gaze on the clearing of snow, at the figures floating beneath the ice. Remaining perfectly still she recalled all the forgotten powers of dreaming and focused them on the submerged figures. She was willing the ice to melt. Lee and Brad were activated by her raw energy. They followed her lead blindly, standing perfectly still, concentrating their minds, dreaming a hole in the frozen water. And slowly the ice began to melt.
None of them heard Honora moaning softly.—I’ve been in this dream before! You must stop! I’ve seen this!—
It was too late. Tiny hairline cracks suddenly began to appear in the ice, multiplying and discharging in all directions. There was a thudding sound from somewhere beneath them, like the banging together of great ice floes or the grinding of huge rocks.
—No! No!—
Now Lee saw what Honora was most afraid of. It was his turn to panic.—We have to get off the ice!—
—Not yet! Break open the ice! Dream open the door! Release the people! Here is your golden thread, Lee!—Ella still commanded the situation.
The lake answered. From deep, deep under the ice came a low, blasphemous groan. There was a series of dull, sonorous thuds like distant detonations, followed by a terrible tearing sound. The ice began to tremble.
—Wait! Wait!—
This time the sound of groaning and splitting sounded loudly in their ears and a violent tremor in the ice sent them rocking. Ella staggered backwards. The cracks in the ice expanded into jagged black forks, splitting off in all directions. Lee saw that Honora and Brad were paralyzed. They wanted to escape from the lake but were unable to tear themselves away. Ella was still locked into the consummation of the ritual she had initiated. He couldn’t seem to make her hear him. She was entranced by the ugly, multiplying fractures in the ice. Lee shook her violently. She looked back at him as though he were someone from another world. It was like looking across time.
The ice was splitting everywhere. Ella came to her senses. She took hold of Honora. Lee propelled both of them towards the bank. They clung to each other, slipping and skidding as they tried to scramble off the ice. With the sound of ice splitting and splintering around them, Lee hoisted Brad off his knees; but in flailing and staggering wildly Brad brought them both down. Lee tried to struggle to his feet but Brad clung desperately to his legs. The two men slithered hopelessly.
Ella and Honora stood on the edge of the bank screaming at them. Brad groped blindly at Lee, dragging him back. At last they scrambled to the edge, where the two women pulled them to safety.
—The girl!—said Honora.—Where is the girl?
No one answered. Behind them was a mass of deep interlacing cracks, darting across the lake like snakes’ tongues and splitting still farther as they watched. Then the ice began to groan like a wounded primeval beast, folding against itself and crushing upwards, breaking up in huge slabs which collapsed in clouds of steam. Churning grey waters tossed in the air, waters that broiled and bubbled and released billowing jets of cloud.
A wind of hurricane strength blew up from nowhere, or from within the depths of the lake itself. It threatened to pick them up like straws. The willows screamed as the wind tore through their dead branches, and the old charred oak creaked and leaned with the wind. Ella stood behind its huge trunk, her hair whipping in her eyes as she called to the others, urging them to make a chain around the tree. But the wind stole the words off her mouth as she reached out for Lee and pulled him to her. Honora saw them, and with the hurricane shrieking and raging around her and the water boiling behind her, she took hold of Brad’s outstretched arm and battled to reach Lee and Ella.
—Circle the tree! Circle the tree!—Ella was mouthing orders that none of the others could hear. The lake was now a boiling cauldron, releasing great geysers of water and steam thirty feet into the air. Huge waves radiated from the centre, buffeted by the wind and crashing on the banks of the lake, hissing and sizzling as they fell on frozen earth. Lee guessed what Ella was trying to do. He threaded his way around the tree trunk, inching into the full force of the hurricane, pulling the chain of the others after him. Circling the tree, he was able to link arms with Honora, but the force of the wind pressed him flat against the blackened trunk like a pin on a magnet. On the other side, Ella linked arms with Brad.
The earth at their feet was scooped up in giant handfuls and flung around their heads and into the lake. The wind was digging them out. The ruined oak creaked and groaned and leaned. The angry wind clawed like a live thing at the ground, throwing up earth and exposing its roots. It seemed that even the tree might be dug out and dragged into the lake. The four clung grimly to each other’s arms, faces pressed against the charred trunk. Ella thought that if only they were able to hold on they might have a chance.
But the hurricane shrieked and howled like a thing enraged, and Ella slipped and fell as the earth was dug out from under her feet. The wind ripped up clods of earth and loose soil, tossing it in the air and lashing it at their faces. The others held her up as she found new footing on the exposed roots. Then the roots themselves curled and bent in the wind as if twisted by a giant fist. They began to snap, were torn off and bulleted into the lake. The tree groaned and leaned with the wind. It was being dug out of the earth.
Then Lee felt Honora stiffen, and saw her mechanically turn her head towards the boiling lake. Her features reset themselves in that familiar gaze. Her face was ivory. He felt her loosen her grip, as if she wanted to be taken by the wind, as if her resistance was exhausted. He knew that she was going into the lake.
—No Honora! No!—The wind lifted the words from his lips.
Ella saw what was happening.—Stop her!—
—I can see her in the water! She wants me! I’m going to her!— Honora slipped Lee’s arm. He lunged to pull her back, but she fell away easily.
—Hold her! Keep her there!—Ella called out to Brad, knowing that somewhere in the storm he too was holding Honora. Then she felt Lee stumble towards her and a sudden absence of pressure at her other hand.