The Sleeping Beauty - Book 1 - Chapter 34
The city of K’dech sat at the mouth of the Willick mountain range and was the last stop on the Queen’s Road before travelers reached Oz.
Fairy tales are real.
Rose Briar is a diabetic college student without insurance. She’s been scraping by through a combination of maxing out credit cards and relying upon the kindness of strangers.
Unfortunately, she’s spent every dollar at her disposal. There’s no money left to buy her life-saving insulin.
Without her medication, Rose falls into a diabetic coma. She tumbles into a deep slumber and wakes up in a fantastical place called the Dream Realm, where fairy tales and legends of old are still very much alive.
She has one chance to wake up.
She must trek across the world, visit the most powerful object in the land, the Obsidian Spindle, and entreat with the fates; the only beings powerful enough to send her soul back to Earth.
But evil forces don’t want her to leave. They will stop at nothing to capture her and make sure she never goes home again.
Now, with the help of her half-gorgon girlfriend and a mysterious red rider, Rose must race across the land fighting dragons, monsters, and the forces of the Wicked Witch, Nimue, in order to reach the Obsidian Spindle before her body dies on Earth and she’s trapped in the Dream Realm forever.
Will she be able to wake up? Can she survive? Find out by reading The Sleeping Beauty today. If you love mythology, fairy tales, and dark fantasy, then you’ll love the first book in The Obsidian Spindle Saga.
Paid subscribers can access the entire archive of this series from the beginning, along with other series and every article I’ve ever written. If you aren’t a paid subscriber, you can access the archive for free with a 7-day trial.
The city of K’dech sat at the mouth of the Willick mountain range and was the last stop on the Queen’s Road before travelers reached Oz. The city was ancient a thousand years before and had changed hands so many times it boasted a combination of ancient Mayan, Chinese, and Greek architecture.
Back when dreamers still came to Urgu, K’dech was often the first major city they came to on their trek to Oz, and everybody trekked to Oz at some point. An old Muslim man once told me about travelling toward Mecca and the call deep in his bones, all his life, to journey there. He hoped one day he would get to complete his pilgrimage, but died in his sleep, and ended up in Urgu. However, he said that the call of the Emerald City was just as great.
I felt no great calling to enter Oz when I first walked there from the Sandlands so many centuries ago. I came for the same reason as everyone else, to visit the Obsidian Spindle and seek the council of the Fates, but it was not some religious experience. It was a practical one.
Only the Fates could send me back to Earth, and all three of them had to be convinced if they were granting a request. Clotho spun the thread of a person’s life, Lachesis measured it, and then Atropos cut the thread when somebody died and placed it on the tapestry of life. They were the only beings in the universe who could let you escape the Dream Realm. Even the gods were beholden to their will…
…but there was a limit to even the Fate’s power.
They could not raise the dead, which was why I had to remain in Urgu after I visited them. Once you were dead on Earth, you could not return to the realm of the living.
Any other type of request was left to their discretion, and in the past hundred years since the disappearance of Hypnos, they had seen no travelers. Thus, K’dech was nearly abandoned. Hardly any of the shops survived, except for the Happy Dragon Inn. Some say it was enchanted to prevent hardship by Hypnos himself, because even in the depths of winter, the Happy Dragon was packed to the gills, as if people transported in and out of the Happy Dragon without visiting the rest of the town. Of course, that kind of magic was impossible for anyone but the Wicked Witch.
“Can I ask you a question?” Rose said as I pushed open the heavy, wooden door to the inn. “Do you have to sleep?”
“That is a silly question, and one that will likely get you discovered as a new traveler here. If any here find out who you are, the entire tavern will turn on us.”
“Why?”
“Because many of them work as mercenaries or bounty hunters, and your capture will bring a pretty penny from the queen.”
“Wonderful.”
“They are not good people, but they are not bad, either. They are just trying to get by, however they can.”
“Evening, Red!” A broad, thickly mustached orc called from behind the bar.
“Sam’il,” I said, shaking his clawed hand. “How are you, my friend?”
“Busy, as always. Should I get you your usual?”
I nodded. “Two, please. And a quiet place to put my feet up if you wouldn’t mind.”
Sam’il’s sharp, green fingers pointed to the corner, where three men were drinking beers on bearskin stools. “I’ll get those guys to move.”
“Appreciated.”
By the time Sam’il gave me my two flagons, a barback had moved the drunken men along and we took their spot by the fire. I reached into my bag and pulled out a handful of glowing pink orbs. I started to count them, thought better of it, and handed all of them to Sam’il.
“Thank you, my friend, for your discretion.”
Sam’il looked down at the orbs in his hand. “That buys a lot of discretion.”
“Please remember that, should push come to shove,” I said. Sam’il nodded and walked away.
I passed one of the flagons over to Rose. “Drink up.”
She held up her hands. “I’m sorry. I’m not a beer kind of person.”
“It’s not beer.”
“Then, what is it?”
I smiled. “It’s whatever you want it to be.”
She didn’t believe me, and that was okay. She drank it anyway. “Oh my god. It tastes like lavender tea. How did you know I loved lavender tea?”
“It’s a trick of your mind.” I look a sip of my bitterroot beer then leaned in closer to Rose. “I didn’t answer your question earlier, but I will now. You do not have to eat, drink, or sleep here, but your mind believes you do, and so it behooves you to indulge it. The less you act like a human, including partaking of the needs of humanity, the more painful it will become for you. However, I once stayed in the heights of the Lithdari mountains for six months without food, drink, or shelter, and I am still here. If your mind is sharp and your will strong, you can withstand nearly anything.”
“Except death,” Rose said, taking another sip.
I looked down at the flagon of beer in my hands. “There is tale that with the right mental strength, one can even prevent death itself. However, I have never met the man who could deny Thanatos when he comes to reap.”
“Thanatos?”
“The god of Death, at least for my people. I believe the reason we evaporate here when we die is because Thanatos cannot come to bring us home, and without him, our souls just fade away.”
“That is dark,” Rose said, her eyes wide.
“I’m sorry.”
“No,” she replied with a smile. “I like dark. Have you met my girlfriend?”
I took another sip of my ale. “I can see why the gorgon likes you.”
She chuckled. “That makes one of us. I just try to remember how lucky I am to have her.”
Rose looked toward the door, as if hoping it would open and her beau would be on the other side. I turned to look, too, and for a moment, I got caught in her hope. I wanted the same for her.
The door did open, but unfortunately, it was not good news. Instead of Chelle, the green armor of the Nimue’s guards stepped over the threshold. There were two of them, and likely more outside.
I spoke without moving. “Put your drink down carefully and stand up. Don’t act suspicious.”
“Bandits and ruffians,” the fair-haired guard shouted from the door, “we are not looking for trouble. If we get what we want, we’ll be on our way.”
An ugly old gnome with only one good eye shouted into the bottom of his beer. “Piss off!”
The guard smirked, stomped oved to the gnome, and sliced him in half with one flick of the wrist. The gnome vanished into the ether, and the rest of the tavern stood and drew their weapons.
“I’m sure you think you’re good with those weapons. I promise you I am better. I will slay you all where you stand without a second thought. Or you could give us what we want, and we will be on our way.”
I pulled Rose down to the ground and inched her toward the bar. Sam’il hid a trap door near the bar for these kinds of escapes, and I hoped that he’d left it open. I paid him quite a bit of dreams to cover for me.
“What do you want?” Sam’il snarled from the other side of the bar. With his hidden hand, he beckoned me forward.
“Finally, a man of reason. Thank you, good sir. I look for one among you who was headed this way. She would be traveling with The Red Rider. I assume you know of whom I speak?”
“I do,” he said as I lifted the trap door and slid Rose inside. “She was here but left some time ago. I don’t remember where she went.”
“I do!” one of the drunks we forced to move spat out from the other side of the bar. “She was right over there not five minutes ago.”
By the time he pointed, I was through the trap door and had it latched tight behind me. I don’t know how we would meet Chelle now, but I couldn’t keep Rose at the Happy Dragon. We had to make it to Ozma. That was the only place the dreamer would be safe.
Fairy tales are real.
Find out by reading The Sleeping Beauty today. If you love mythology, fairy tales, and dark fantasy, then you’ll love the first book in The Obsidian Spindle Saga.
Paid subscribers can access the entire archive of this series from the beginning, along with other series and every article I’ve ever written. If you aren’t a paid subscriber, you can access the archive for free with a 7-day trial.