She spoke as if I should understand what she meant by the word anchor. I didn’t understand. I glanced at Sati again. She shook her head. I wasn’t sure if she indicated she didn’t know or she couldn’t tell me. “I believe, now that the book is back with its rightful guardian, we need to journey home. The asylum is not safe for one such as you. Not with Dr. Mintz’s interest.”
Josephine frowned. “But, I should be well now. No more bleeding nightmares. I can finally go home.”
I nodded. “Yes. I can visit you at your home to continue our talks. I suspect it will be needed. No one is cured in one session. Mental trauma will not disappear simply because we have removed the source of the physical trauma.”
The heiress bowed her head. “What do I do now? I no longer guard the book. I need a purpose.”
“That is something we can talk about in the real world.”
Josephine’s scowl marred her genteel face. “This world is as real as the next.”
I made a calming gesture. “I misspoke. I apologize. I’m still learning. I meant we could speak about it outside the Dreamlands.” I felt the need to return home as if it were a physical thing calling to me. The Dreamlands were too real, too alien, too dangerous.
“This is home to me.”
“It is a home from time to time.” Sati stood, ending what could have become an argument, with the motion. “Time is no longer on our side. The Black Wind is now interested in this place. I will not have it. I cannot fight him off. You both must leave. Now. The question is where will you go?”
She gestured to the front of the room where two doors stood. “The one on the right will lead you back to the Enchanted Forest. The other…” Sati closed her eyes and stretched forth a hand toward the door on the left. “The other is a path to the north…to the Plateau of Leng.” She shook her head. “I don’t know why that path appeared. It’s both within the Dreamlands and outside it…in another space, another time.”
Josephine stood and walked to the sinister door. “The Plateau of Leng. My family knows nothing of it. This could be my new path, my new duty. Investigate the Plateau of Leng.” She smiled at me. “Just think of it, Doctor, we could discover something new. Something no one else knows of.”
I stood, slow and reluctant. This was what I had wanted Josephine to do—take responsibility for her actions—but not here. Not in this world. Not in this way.
She said “we.” She wanted me to go with her. Expected me to go, even. I needed to deny her without punishing her for taking the initiative. I could not journey to a place known as the Plateau of Leng. I was barely holding on as it was.
“Such a thing could be exactly what you’re meant to do, but I cannot go with you.” I continued to speak even as her face fell. “I have other patients to attend to. Also, a job that requires my attention.” I was too aware of the pain I caused her. I wanted to take it back. I could not. This was needed—for both of us. I walked over to the right door and examined it.
“But, I need you, Doctor. I can’t…cannot…do it alone.” Her voice was soft and pleading. It broke my heart.
I touched the warm wood, letting my fingers dance over the carving of the large tree. I didn’t know if it was supposed to be the tree in the glade or not, but in my mind’s eye it was. “You can, Josephine. You’ve spent your whole life visiting the Dreamlands on your own. You don’t need me.” I glanced at her. “I believe in you. You can take on this task, this journey, alone.”
I didn’t want her to. More than anything, I needed her to take my hand and to come with me. I wanted to be back in my familiar world—no matter how changed I was. The scales had fallen from my eyes. I would never be the same again. This had consequences I couldn’t anticipate or consider right now.
I watched Josephine’s profile as she faced the door she wanted to choose. “Or, perhaps you can begin your new task another day. After you’ve prepared for it. Come back with me.” I offered her my hand.
She was afraid of being alone. She never was in her real life—I couldn’t think of the Dreamlands as real. Not yet. Her face flickered with emotion: fear, longing, stubbornness, need. She turned to her door, touched the stone, and withdrew her hand with a start. “It is cold. Freezing.” She rubbed her hands together.
I needed to make a decisive choice. I looked over my shoulder to say farewell to Sati Das. I wasn’t surprised to see that she and her Red House were already gone. As was the valley. Once more, we stood on a rocky plain. There were things moving in the distance—moving toward us at inhuman speeds.
“Whichever path you choose, we must go now. I am returning to the Enchanted Wood to go home. Go to the Plateau of Leng or come with me. It’s your choice, but you must make that choice now.” I didn’t wait for her response. To hesitate meant death. I threw a hand to her as I grabbed the doorknob and turned it. “Please!” The door swung open, revealing the Enchanted Wood. As I stepped through, Josephine grasped my hand and held on for all she was worth.
I didn’t have time to be relieved. The rocky landscape fell away, leaving us deep within the verdant forest that even I recognized. Behind us, the bandits with their horns and hooves jeered their hunting cries, coming ever closer.
Chapter 12
No doctor of the mind succeeds one hundred percent of the time. We all fail to help our patients. Some are just too far gone. Some are unwilling to leave their delusions behind. Sometimes, it is the doctor who cannot figure out the path needed to cure our patients of their maladies. It was there, in the Enchanted Wood, where I failed Josephine.
I still do not know what I could have done differently to save her.
Relieved more than I ever thought I would be, Josephine and I ran hand-in-hand, dodging branches and leaping over roots. The Enchanted Wood didn’t seem as welcoming as it had before, but it didn’t appear malevolent. Not yet. I focused on finding Foolishness. I had no idea where he was or what he could do against our pursuers—who seemed like both half a dozen and a horde of thousands.
Josephine pulled her hand from mine and I allowed it to happen. We could run better and faster side by side. “They’re gaining.”
They were. The minions of the Black Wind were only a few trees behind us. I had no weapon. My father’s gun was lost to the chasm. Then I realized that I had no problems speaking or breathing. Had we been back on Earth, I would have been a broken wreck. “I know. Can’t you do something? You’ve trained for this. Create weapons.”
An explosion of sound erupted behind us and a metal spear stabbed itself deep into the tree next to Josephine. We hid behind another tree to look at the weapon. A long line of chain yanked it out of the wood. Josephine’s face went neutral. Only the press of her lips into a white line showed her fear and determination. She raised both hands to the trees above her. Their fruit—large, green, bulbous things—pressed themselves to her. She flung these at our pursuers.
They flew unerringly as if birds on the wing and the sound they made upon impact, wet and sizzling, made me wince. Still, we both smiled as the bandits screamed their pain.
“That should make them a bit more hesitant.” Josephine threw several more of the dangerous fruit then shook her hands as if they were hot.
“Yes.” I gestured for us to go. We took off running. “We need to find Foolishness.”
“In the Glade of the Haunted Moon Tree. It’s where he’s meant to be.” Josephine leapt off of one protruding tree root up to a high branch. “Come, the branch roads will be faster.” Without thinking about what I was doing, I mimicked Josephine’s leap. The jump took my breath away. She steadied me as I landed. “We also have a better chance of finding a cat in the branches than on the ground where the zoog will attack him.”