Impossible Dreamers

Chapter 46 (mektwi-dak): Overlapping dreams?

Liana wanted to sleep, but she kept thinking about Herago having to break up rocks. Why did people have to do that? She tried to imagine him working with a team of boys doing the back-breaking work. It must have been horrible. She shuddered at the thought, and shuddered again as she remembered where the rocks had come from.

Then she thought about all the buildings that the Bartyronians had put up in Seren-ila. They were mad about building things. Before they came things had, of course, been built in Seren-ila, but only when they were needed. Sometimes buildings were destroyed by bad weather – Liana remembered some terrible storms when she was very little, which had blown down some habitations – sometimes they just wore out, and bits needed replacing, and of course, there were sometimes more people living in the valley than before, and they all needed a habitation, though it seemed like the number of people in Seren-ila stayed more or less the same over a long time. So in Seren-ila, occasionally, buildings had to be put up. Buildings in Seren-ila were mostly made from things that grew – trees and grasses and other sorts of plants. The earth itself was also used – dug up, mixed with water and spread over the buildings to bake in the sun and give strength. There was also a sort of paste that was made from the ash from Greblara. This was mixed with colourful plant pigments, and was used to coat the buildings, making them warm and beautiful. Building in this way produced elegant, useful places to live and work. Places you could enjoy, and where you could enjoy other people.

But the Bartyronian attitude to building was different. Things were made from stones cut into blocks, piled high and stuck together – Liana didn't know how they did this, but it enabled them to make very tall buildings, with floors piled one on top of the other. Buildings that made the people looking at them feel small and insignificant, and the people working at any level feel less important than the people working above them.

The stones came from Greblara and its sister mountains, of course. Greblara, Ciblara, Mentinara and Anglara. The Grabble mountains. But mostly Greblara, as that was the mountain between Seren-ila and Bartyronis. The mountains were being torn up, like a picture on a piece of paper.

Liana thought about all of this. It stopped her sleeping for a long time. And then, when she did fall asleep, her dreams were just a jumble of images. She saw buildings floating in the air, and a mountain – not Greblara – turning itself upside down. This was not a control dream. She didn't know she was dreaming, and when she woke in the morning she felt anxious and tired.

The following night it was the same. Her dream was full of piles of rocks. They rolled down a hill and into a river. On the river she saw Silmoa in a boat, using her shocking stick to push herself along. Every time the stick touched the bank it lit up, and the whole river made a buzzing sound. Silmoa looked at Liana, and then Liana woke up, sweating. She was more tired than when she had laid down.

By now Liana was beginning to wonder if she really had met Herago in her dream. Or even if she had, perhaps the possibility of it happening again was gone. Perhaps she would never have another control dream. Perhaps Seren-ila would never return, not even in her dreams.

The next night, Liana closed her eyes and her mind repeated Seren numbers again: Twil, twilfti, twillo, twillorio, twillorinio. The numbers calmed her down, but still, she couldn't sleep.

Then, in her head, she spoke words about Seren-ila. She spoke the names of people she knew. Then the names of plants and animals, which were things the Bartyronians had no names for – or if they did, they hadn't bothered to teach them to the Grabblers. In between these words, Liana spoke the name of Seren-ila. So in her head a sort of chant was playing:

'Seren-ila,

Trentaya,

Seren-ila,

Herago,