For a moment Sirius thought it was just more candy leaking in from the outside but then he recognised it for what it really was, the dreamweaver.

  He scooped up Kass in his arms and not waiting to see if Cat was following he headed for the door.

  From out of the purple sky, came a giant arm with half a dozen fingers. Far more fingers than it should have had.

  Like a deformed child reaching down into a pond for a fish, it tried to grab him.

  Still holding Kass he dodged out of the way, but the act sent both he and Kass sprawling to the floor. She flew out of his arms and rolled to a stop near the wall.

  When he reached her he was relieved to see that she appeared to be coming to.

  Through pale blue eyes she looked up at him with confusion. “Are you my prince?” she asked.

  He heard Cat snort from nearby and then she was between them, helping Kass to her feet. “Come on princess,” Cat remarked as she tugged Kass toward the exit.

  But down came the fingers again, only this time they looked even less like real fingers and far more like a fake hand made of jelly.

  They wrapped around both Cat and Kass and then up they went toward the big purple blob in the sky.

  Sirius was left down below, nothing he could do but watch as a giant purple blob came right towards him.

  Sirius awoke to something hitting his face.

  “Come on! Wakey wakey!” Another light slap from a hand.

  “Ow.” He dodged out of the way in case there was a third coming and then sat up. He was on a bed in a new room. This room was all made of wood. The bed was a single wire-frame with a hard mattress and green army coloured woolen blankets. Cat was sitting on the edge of the bed with her hand raised as if about to hit him again.

  “You’re not supposed to sleep in the dreamworld,” she told him.

  “I’m awake,” he replied, although technically in reality he knew he wasn’t. “What’s the issue with sleeping in the dreamworld?”

  Cat bit her lip and was quiet for a moment, her brow furrowed. “It’s just not done,” she replied finally.

  Sirius got the impression she didn’t actually know. But he got his answer a moment later from another voice, a redhead, not Kass or Amanda, but a man he had never met before.

  “It’s not bad per se but one who sleeps in the dreamworld is almost more a part of the dreamworld than reality. Sleep here and you’ll find it’s a lot harder to leave. Anyone who spends long enough here at a time will eventually sleep. It’s generally best to delay it as long as possible though. That said, leave it too long and you might find you start going mad.”

  The man was almost as tall as Sirius, with brown eyes and a casual appearance that reminded Sirius a bit of a sailor. The man leaned against the doorway with a Cheshire-like grin on his face.

  “Who are you?” Sirius asked.

  “How long is too long?” Cat asked.

  The man bounced off the doorway. “The name is Grim, and as for the other question, a few days is fine but spend more than a few weeks here and you’ll find you’ll need to sleep.”

  Cat frowned. “Who spends that long in the dreamworld?”

  “Well, some of us professionals do from time to time, especially if we’re going long distances.” He frowned at her. “You’re a dreamwalker. You’ve never spent that long here?”

  She scowled at him.

  He smiled back. “Not much of a dreamwalker then,” he mused. He glanced around the room. “You’re not doing a very good job with this dreamweaver either and given how weak it is...”

  “Weak!...” Cat’s mouth dropped open.

  Sirius spoke before Cat could get too worked up. “There’s another woman out there. It has her.”

  Grim surveyed the room again with a soft smile. “Oh, I think you’ll find it has all of us.” He turned his back to them and faced the doorway. “Let me show you how it’s done.”

  With that, he reached his hand over his shoulder and from nothing but air he drew forth a sword almost three times as long as he was. As it hit the ceiling their surroundings fell apart. The walls and roof of the room turned into colourful bouncy balls that shot out away from them in all directions. The furniture disappeared as did much of their surroundings.

  Sirius found himself sitting on air. It was very disconcerting and he quickly stood up, which didn’t actually help that much.

  Cat crossed her arms. The nothingness that surrounded them didn’t seem to bother her quite so mach, or if it did, she was ignoring it. She simply looked at Grim and his oversized sword, cocked one eyebrow, and remarked, “Compensating for something are you?”

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  Grim shot her a mischievous smile in reply, gave her a wink, and retorted, “Oh, I have much longer swords than this.”

  Sirius frowned. Grim’s comment hardly seemed appropriate given the circumstances and the man didn’t seem in any hurry. Kass was out there and she needed help.

  The comment seemed to win Cat over however. Her posture relaxed and she actually smiled.

  “How do we kill it?” Sirius asked as he carefully made his way over solid unseen ground. Around him the distant air seemed to change in colour, shades of white, pale green, blue and pink, all swirled. It was as if they stood inside a large starless nebula.

  “Well, first we turn it into something with more form. I’m surprised it was even in that jelly like state before. Usually they like to be less fixed, unless one of you has a fear of jelly or something?”

  Cat was back to scowling. “They’re always in that state.”

  “Ah, fear of jelly it is then,” Grim replied. With a sly smile he added, “Did your mother feed you too much as a kid?”

  Cat was quick with a sharp retort and a smirk. “My mother’s dead,” she replied in that obnoxious way she did when she wanted to make everyone around her completely uncomfortable. “Killed by my father. He smashed her skull in with his fist.”

  Sirius scowled and tugged his coat down by pushing his fists into one of its many pockets. Why did she have to say stuff like that to complete strangers? The last thing he wanted to was to talk or even be reminded of his parents but Cat tended to use it like pointy barb to test people with. She’d bring it up every chance she got if she thought it might make someone else squirm.

  Grim didn’t seem put off by it at all. Smile still on, he faced Cat and took a few steps toward her where he could get a better look. His gaze swept her from foot to head and back again. Then he looked her right in the eyes and replied. “You’re an interesting woman. You ever want dreamwalking lessons you should hit me up.”

  His pure confidence seemed to soften Cat because she was looking at him as if they were in their own little world and not a battlefield.

  “Perhaps we should get on with it?” Sirius growled.

  Grim nodded. With an almost serious expression, except for the playful glint in his eye, he spun to face the giant mandibles of an extremely large green caterpillar.

  He scratched his chin. “Hmm, I guess that’ll do. Was hoping for something a little less squishy.” Leaning forwards, he took off running toward it at an angle that made it look like he were running up the air itself.

  The caterpillar reared up to meet him.

  Grim jumped over its head, spinning around as he did, and pointed the sword down toward its skull.

  The caterpillar dodged out of the way with un-caterpillar-like speed.

  Grim went sailing past then somersaulting upward again, changing direction with no regard for gravity or physics of any kind.

  As the pair danced, Sirius turned to Cat. “How do we find Kass?”

  Cat didn’t answer. She was too busy watching Grim and the caterpillar.

  “Cat!”

  “Huh?”

  “How do we find Kass?”

  Cat considered it. She looked back at the rolling, spinning caterpillar again.

  Grim had managed to cut off one of its front legs but it seemed to be growing them back already. It didn’t look like it was going to work at killing the thing, but Sirius figured as long as it was distracted they at least had a chance of finding Kass and getting her out.

  “I think...” Cat started, “that she might be inside it.”

  Sirius groaned. “What if he hits her with his sword?”

  Grim manged to strike another blow against the caterpillar skin. So far he hadn’t been hit himself but once again the caterpillar manged to heal.

  Cat nodded “What weapon do you want?”

  “What?”

  From the air she crafted a sword, much like how Grim had, only slower and not quite as large as his. She handed it to Sirius.

  He took it. It wasn’t a very good sword. It was off balance and the wrong weight but that was the least of Sirius’s concerns. As he watched Grim running along the caterpillar’s back, leaping over its neck and taking another shot at stabbing the head, he remarked, “I don't think this is going to work.”

  Grim came skidding along the ‘ground’ a moment later, stopping almost right at their feet.

  Meanwhile, Cat had summoned a long whip. She ignored Grim and struck the whip out to the side in a test attack. She gave a satisfied smile at the cracking sound it made.

  Grim pulled himself to his feet, brushed himself off and then looked at them standing there holding weapons. “You planning on helping or what?” he asked jovially, as if he hadn’t just been flung half across the sky.

  Cat gestured at the caterpillar. “I think we need a better target.”

  Grim grinned. “Well I was trying to make a dragon.” He held out his hand to her. “Help me out?”

  “You want a dragon?” Cat asked incredulously.

  Grim nodded. “One of the long neck ones. Easy to chop the head off in one go then.”

  “I don’t understand,” Sirius said.

  Grim looked at him and with perfect patience explained. “We need to make it think it’s dead. What works for us works for it. Strike a killing blow convincing enough.”

  Sirius shook his head. Sure, dying in the dreamworld could kill but it didn’t always. Wounds were rarely worse on the outside than on the inside, and that creature lived here. This was its domain. It was possible for a dreamwalker to take a bullet in here and imagine the wound healing. That thing undoubtedly had far more control or skill than any dreamwalker. But Grim seemed confident, maybe too confident. It didn’t matter. They just needed long enough to find Kass. As it was, Sirius wasn’t even sure how to move about in this environment.

  “I’m not even sure how to walk on this,” Sirius told him.

  Grim’s gaze swept him much like it had Cat earlier. Surprise registered in his face. He frowned. “Well, you looked like you were doing fine. I forget you non-dreamwalkers aren’t used to variable realities though.” With a wave of his hand, suddenly they were standing on firm ground again. Well, firm enough, technically it was more like soft mud.

  The caterpillar appeared to be ignoring them. Instead of attacking, it was now munching down on a gathering of pine trees.

  “Why isn’t it coming for us?” Sirius asked.

  “It’s afraid of us and it’s injured,” Grim replied. He turned to Cat and held out his hand again. “You ever done channeling?”

  Sirius studied the caterpillar. It didn’t look injured but then what did he know. He eyed its side. If Kass was in there, all he had to do was cut his way in.

  “Channeling?” Cat frowned at Grim.

  “Ah, don’t worry about. I’ll guide you through it. Trust me, I’ll be gentle.” Grim gave her a reassuring smile and a wink.

  Sirius rolled his eyes. The man no longer reminded him of a sailor. Well, some of his comments did. But the confidence and cockiness and the smoothness with which he spoke. The all-too-good posture that was hard to hide, and the way he moved with that sword. Sirius had no doubt that this was anything but an aristocrat. It made sense too. Amanda had probably called in Coal for help.

  Cat took Grim’s hand without question.

  Sirius didn’t trust the man’s assurances for any kind of safety but it wasn’t like they had other choices.

  He focused on the caterpillar. Whatever Grim was about to do, Sirius would use it as a distraction. Then he would go right for the belly of the beast.