Suddenly, Jack stood on his haunches, his ears swiveled high and around, intently listening for something. His large brown eyes bulged in fear. His breath was quick and shallow.

  Hormiz was alarmed—anything invoking fear in a creature fearsome as Jack must be dreadful, indeed.

  Jack instantly dashed at blinding speed, a copper-brown blur, his massive antlers snapping branches like twigs. He was gone only an instant, and he returned with a loud bang and a force that pushed Hormiz off his feet.

  “Something terrible has happened,” Jack said gravely.

  Hormiz picked himself up with a vengeance. “What?”

  “Queen Titia was killed, and Ezekiel was captured by Church Brothers.”

  It was Hormiz’s turn to panic. “What do we do? Where are they?!”

  “Stop,” Jack ordered. “Take a breath. Ye can help, but ye have to do as I tell ye. If ye don’t follow my exact instructions, ye will kill us all. Do ye understand?”

  Hormiz wanted to protest, but secretly, he was relieved to be taking orders. The chain of command was a safe and familiar shackle. Hormiz nodded.

  “Good. Ye see that bird circling above? Look at it closely. Ye need to turn into a bird.”

  Hormiz looked incredulously at Jack. Then he grunted and tried his best. The damn bird was far away, and he’d never shifted into a bird before, so Hormiz tried his best.

  ‘His best’ looked like a giant, sinister bat, but time was of the essence, so Jack said, “Sure, just don’t let them get a good look at ye. Listen close now. Before ye can rescue Zeke, the first thing ye must do is eliminate the familiars. If even one of them get a good look at yer magic, Adam will kill everyone on this island to get to ye. Take out the grey bird familiar first, then return to me. Do nothing else. Understand?”

  Hormiz nodded. “I understand.”

  Jack sighed with doubt, but he had already thrown in his lot. “Fly high and fly fast. Attack with the sun behind you. They won’t see you coming that way. Ye’ll find them near the river, up that way. Go!”

  Hormiz launched into the air and flapped his wings, struggling as the strong winds blew him off course. Lilith’s City had few wind tunnels, but nothing like the winds on Eden. He struggled as he flew higher, but he managed well enough.

  There! Movement along the river shore. Hormiz positioned himself between his target and the sun, as Jack ordered. Then he tucked his wings and dove. As he shot down, the trees seemed to rush toward him, he heard Zeke screaming in pain, and he caught a glimpse of silver feathers; he had no time to think; he followed orders.

  Hormiz screamed in fury as sharp talons sank into the grey familiar, swooping high and away with it. Hormiz saw Zeke. They were hurting him! Hormiz screeched and ripped the familiar to sheds in the air.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  Jack was waiting anxiously on his haunches when Hormiz returned. “What happened?” he asked.

  “I did as you said. Exactly. They’re hurting him! They’re hurting him and I left him there because you told me to!”

  “Well done, my boy!” Jack binkied. “Next, ye’ll rescue Ezekiel. Listen and I’ll tell ye how.”

  That night, Hormiz shifted into a dark fox, snuck among the shadows, and gnawed off Zeke’s bindings with razor-sharp teeth.

  “Get to safety,” he whispered.

  “What are you gonna do?” Zeke sounded worried.

  “I’m following Jack’s orders. Now you follow mine. Get. To safety.”

  Zeke’s lips pouted. But he doorwaed away.

  Hormiz turned his attention to the Church Brothers. Jack said their familiars needed to be eliminated, and Hormiz should impersonate one of the Brothers. Most were asleep in their tents. One was on the river bank, staring out at the burning wasteland. Jack would want Hormiz to kill and impersonate that one, alone and unattended.

  But Hormiz wanted the old man with the worm familiar. The one who hurt Zeke. Hormiz sniffed around camp. When he found the old man, Hormiz set the man’s tent ablaze. No one could have survived it. But inexplicably, the old man stumbled out unharmed.

  Hormiz didn’t mean to kill the other two. The fire spread. One of them ran off to drown; the other ran in the darkness and impaled himself on a tree branch. Hormiz quickly killed the dog familiar and disposed of the bodies in the river.

  Then he returned to impersonate the Church Brother.

  It was all going according to plan. Mostly. Jack’s plan only included one dead Church Brother, but plans change.

  The idea was to get close enough to hijack all their dreams, then trick them into believing they’d finished early.

  Part of the forest would be sacrificed to Jack’s plan. Hormiz was told to stand and watch them carry out their evil deed. But that night as the Church Brothers slept, Hormiz was meditating on their dreams, and Lilith appeared.

  Long ago, Hormiz partitioned off his dreaming space, but he was outside in the wild dreamscape, searching for and collecting the Church Brothers’ dreams. And Lilith knew the dreaming wilds better than anyone alive.

  “At ease,” Lilith ordered.

  On command, Hormiz relaxed his guard. Instantly, they went back up. He was enraged at himself. He still reacted like a good little soldier. Still!

  “Ah!” he screamed. “You don’t get to give me orders anymore!”

  Lilith made herself enormous. She towered over Hormiz and said, “I am your queen! I made you what you are!”

  Hormiz erupted with radiant blue flames and shot into the air. He became a colossal inferno. “You made nothing! You stole my life! You took me from my family!”

  “I am your family!” Lilith cried. “I love you! How could you leave me?! Steal from me?!” Lilith shrank and shook herself. “But it’s okay. I forgive you. We can move forward, you and me.” She tried to sound seductive, but he saw through her.

  “Never. You’re like a black hole. You’ll take, and take, and take, and you’ll never stop taking, and you’ll never give. So I will never help you again. I choose Zeke. We’re gonna start a life together. And you will never be part of it.”

  Any pretense of sweetness vanished from Lilith’s hard, angry face.

  “You choose him? You really think he’ll stay with you? You!? He doesn’t love you! He’ll-”

  Hormiz opened his eyes. He resolved not to wander the wild dreamscape again. Let Lilith have her empty kingdom. He crept over to the sleeping Church Brothers, putting his hands on two foreheads. He would deal with the old man later.

  Once Hormiz grabbed hold of the Church Brother’s dreams, he ‘woke’ them to his personal dreamspace. From there, he determined their perception of reality. Tomorrow, they would wake and return to their superiors, believing they finished the burn.