The Quest for the Guardians (The Dream Keeper Saga Book 4) E-Book

Kathryn Butler

• Herausgeber: Crossway
• Kategorie: Für Kinder und Jugendliche
• Serie: The Dream Keeper Saga
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

In Book 4 of the Dream Keeper Saga, Lily Embarks on a Global Quest to Save the World from Its Nightmares Lily is excited to reunite with her family after her latest quest in the Somnium Realm, but when she reaches home, she discovers that evil nightmares have invaded the waking world. With the help of her parents, magical friends, and a team of displaced guardians of the Realm, she races to rescue the earth from destruction. Traveling by time machine to the Great Wall of China, Tanzania, and the mountains of Peru, they work together to save the world from fear. As their efforts falter, and the threat looms ever darker, Lily pleads for Pax to reach into the waking world to help . . . but can he? Book 4 of the Dream Keeper Saga is a fast-paced adventure that helps kids and their families discuss biblical themes of sin, salvation, and trust in God. - Ideal for Middle-Grade Readers and Families: Includes kids' favorite fantasy and adventure elements with imaginative new characters and settings they'll love - Christian Themes: This exciting story invites readers into deep conversations about the gospel and theological issues  - Book 4 in the Popular Dream Keeper Saga by Kathryn Butler  

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“Faith, purpose, friendship, and hope. These themes and more draw young readers into a world where dreams come to life. Butler brings creative imagination and spiritual depth together in a way that keeps children engaged and curious. The larger-than-life storyline of The Dream Keeper Saga is worth daydreaming about at your desk and discussing with your family around the table.”

Gloria Furman, author, Labor with Hope and A Tale of Two Kings

“Where have all the good books gone? The ones that celebrate the beauty of light, instead of romanticizing the darkness? The ones where words are strung together so beautifully that grown-ups and children alike are captivated by the story as it unfolds? The ones where heroes do what’s right and villains are put in their place? Far too few books like these take up space on my children’s bookshelves, but as a mom, I refuse to believe that all the great children’s literature was written in days gone by. That’s why I adore The Dream Keeper Saga, written by the tremendously talented Kathryn Butler. My sons have devoured these books and learned important lessons as they read. These new classics remind us all that there are still great stories worth telling.”

Erin Davis, author; podcaster; mom of four

“Kathryn Butler’s writing effortlessly draws readers into an imaginative, action-packed world of fantasy that is marked with clear allegorical themes of the truest story ever told. You will laugh and cry with the characters, all while being beautifully pointed to the gospel.”

Korrie Johnson, children’s book reviewer; Founder, Good Book Mom

“I want to know Pax. With each book, he becomes more compelling, and with him, the whole saga. Some series begin with their best tale, then try to muster up sequels. The Dream Keeper Saga gets better with each book. Kathryn Butler wins our trust with her characters, engaging turns, and deeply Christian themes. I’m excited to add the Dream Keeper Saga to our family canon.”

David Mathis, Senior Teacher and Executive Editor, desiringGod.org; Pastor, Cities Church, Saint Paul, Minnesota; author, Habits of Grace

“Two of my favorite things about the Dream Keeper Saga are the character Pax and the almost Mad-Libs-esque imaginative flow, appropriate (even necessary) to a world redeemed from humanity’s collective dreams.”

James D. Witmer, author, A Year in the Big Old Garden; Beside the Pond; and The Strange New Dog

The Quest for the Guardians

The Quest for the Guardians

Kathryn Butler

The Quest for the Guardians

© 2024 by Kathryn Butler

Published by Crossway1300 Crescent StreetWheaton, Illinois 60187

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided for by USA copyright law. Crossway® is a registered trademark in the United States of America.

Published in association with the literary agency of Wolgemuth & Associates

Cover design: Studio Muti

Interior illustrations by Jordan Eskovitz

First printing 2024

Printed in the United States of America

Trade paperback ISBN: 978-1-4335-8782-5 ePub ISBN: 978-1-4335-8784-9 PDF ISBN: 978-1-4335-8783-2

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Butler, Kathryn, 1980– author.

Title: The quest for the guardians / Kathryn Butler.

Description: Wheaton : Crossway, 2024. | Series: The dream keeper saga ; 4 | Audience: Ages 9–12. | Summary: Returning from her quest in the Somnium Realm, Lily returns home only to discover evil nightmares have invaded the waking world, so she sets off on a worldwide quest to find other dream keepers and save the world.

Identifiers: LCCN 2023026812 (print) | LCCN 2023026813 (ebook) | ISBN 9781433587825 (trade paperback) | ISBN 9781433587832 (pdf) | ISBN 9781433587849 (epub)

Subjects: CYAC: Fantasy. | Quests (Expeditions)—Fiction. | Time travel—Fiction. | Dreams—Fiction. | Magic—Fiction. | LCGFT: Fantasy fiction. | Novels.

Classification: LCC PZ7.1.B8935 Qu 2024 (print) | LCC PZ7.1.B8935 (ebook) | DDC [Fic]—dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2023026812

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2023026813

Crossway is a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

2024-02-12 03:00:27 PM

To Jack and Christie.

If you go down to the depths, he is with you.

If you ascend to heaven, he is there.

Contents

  Map

1  Home

2  Lost in Time

3  Lost in the Suburbs

4  The Goblin in Aisle Three

5  An Intruder in the Fortress

6  The Wolf

7  The Dragon in the Kitchen

8  Into the Unknown

9  The Voice in the Dark

10  The Climb

11  The Hydra

12  The Shack

13  Sprock

14  The First Guardian

15  The Flaming Pearl

16  El Cuco

17  The City in the Clouds

18  The Second Guardian

19  The Village of the Golden Ring

20  The Forbidden City

21  The Third Guardian

22  The Ghostly Dragon

23  Fire in the Air

24  Lost on the Steppe

25  Firelight

26  Betrayal

27  The Worm

28  The Fourth Guardian

29  The Raging Sea

30  The Sojourner

31  The Meadow of Honey

32  The Final Flight

33  Battle in the Sand

34  Into the Breach

Chapter 1

Home

The light of the soothstone faded, and Lily wrapped her sweater around herself against the chill of twilight. She stood among trees she knew by heart, their every branch and knot markers of the stories she’d spun in the woods when she was little, long before she knew anything about soothstones and dwarf dragons, shrouds and caves teeming with lights. As leaves crunched beneath her feet and crickets graced the evening with their song, Lily wondered if all she had just endured, and all the beauty she had just left, were only a fantasy. Had the caverns, the Veil, and the Painted Woodland sprung from her own daydreams? Were Enlacia’s gleaming walls only the product of her imagination?

Then she scratched her arm, glanced down at her hands, and rubbed grains of sand from the Desert of the Forgotten between her fingers. She stood in the cool of the woods, her woods, far removed from any hint of dreams run amok, and yet the Somnium Realm still clung to her. To eliminate all doubt, Lily’s favorite star kestrel landed on her shoulder and nipped her ear.

“Better stay out of sight, Rigel,” Lily whispered. Rigel scattered silver dust onto the forest floor as he flew into a nearby tree, and Lily patted her cardigan pocket, where Flint snuggled down into hiding.

Mattie sidled up beside her. “Where do we go? Do you know this place?”

Lily brushed the sand from her fingers. “Definitely. This is home for me. My dad built that tree house over there.”

“Oh, wow. I always dreamed about a tree house. My dad said he wanted to build me one, but we only had the maple tree in the park. We pretended it was ours, but, you know, it wasn’t really.”

“I bet he’ll build one with you now.”

“Do you really think so?”

“I’m sure he’d like nothing better.”

Mattie’s eyes sparkled, and Lily couldn’t help but smile at her enthusiasm. Although they’d known each other for only a short time, Mattie’s bravery and wit had already saved Lily’s life more than once. Lily found she stumbled upon such great friendships readily in the Realm, even as she struggled to find them in the waking world.

As they wove through the trees, Lily wondered with a twinge of anxiety about the scene awaiting her at home. Cedric had called her back to the Realm to tackle the Blight just weeks before the end of the school year, with summer only flirting with the land and sky. Now, although a cool breeze drifted through the woods, the smell of a charcoal grill and the rattle of a nearby lawn sprinkler told Lily that summer had tightened its grip. How long had she been gone? She remembered the note she’d hurriedly scribbled to her parents, promising that she’d return, and she wondered if Barth had delivered it. How much did they know? How much would she have to explain, and would they understand?

A boy in the front yard of a neighbor’s house threw a tennis ball at a mutt dog, then froze and gawked at Lily and Mattie. Lily suddenly realized that the lavender weave of Isla’s tunic and sweater were smeared with grime from her adventures in mysterious caves. She offered the boy a timid wave; in response, he dashed into the house and screamed for his mother.

“You don’t have the friendliest of neighbors,” Mattie remarked.

“No, not really. Although I guess I can’t blame him. We do look like a mess.”

“It’s not our fault. I’d like to see him try to stay clean while fighting against Magnus and his dwellers!”

They turned the corner, and Lily spied her mailbox. Its door hung slack, and the surrounding grass was unkempt, sure signs that something had distracted her parents from the usual business of keeping the house. I hope they’re not upset, she thought. She bit her lip as she walked up the steps. She tripped on the stoop, and then cringed as the rusty hinges of the screen door squeaked. When she entered the house, she grimaced at her grimy face in the mirror and then loitered in the doorway.

“Dan? Is that you?”

Mom. Lily opened her mouth to respond, but words failed her. What can I even say? “Mom, I’m home!”?

“Dan, are you okay? Dinner will be ready in—”

Lily’s mother stepped into the corridor. She held a wooden spoon—the same one Lily had grabbed to defend herself against Cedric when he ransacked the kitchen—and wore an apron dotted with tomato sauce over her scrubs. In one moment, she stared at Lily in wide-eyed disbelief. In the next, the spoon clattered to the floor, and she swept Lily into her arms.

“Lily! My sweet girl, you’re okay! You’ve come back! I didn’t know—we were so worried—”

Lily squeezed her eyes shut. “I’m okay, Mom,” she whispered. “Everything’s all right. Better than all right.”

Her mother pulled away and gripped both of Lily’s shoulders, squeezing them to convince herself that her daughter was real. Then she cupped Lily’s face with both of her palms, caressed her cheeks, and finally gathered her into another hug and whispered a prayer of thanks. She stroked Lily’s hair, as she’d done so many nights while reading her stories before bed.

Lily’s dad appeared, and he, too, cried out and then joined in the embrace. They held each other for a long moment, most of their words only fragments. In the warmth of their arms, Lily’s worries washed away.

“Lily, are you all right? You’re sure you’re all right?” her dad finally said, pulling away and studying her.

“I’m fine, Dad. I’m fine.”

“What happened to you? What did you go through?”

“It’s a long story—a really long story—but I promise you, I’m okay.”

“We’ve been so worried.”

“I know. I’m sorry I worried you.”

Dad wrapped her in another embrace, and over Lily’s shoulder he noticed Mattie still standing in the doorway. “Hi,” Mattie said with a bashful smile.

Mom turned at the greeting, wiped her eyes, and reached out a hand. “I’m so sorry! You were so quiet, we didn’t even realize you were there. I’m Andrea. Are you a friend of Lily’s?”

“Yep. I’m Mattie.”

At the mention of the name, Dad loosened his arms from around Lily. “Barth’s daughter? Mattie, as in Barth’s daughter?”

Mattie beamed. “Yes! How did you know? Have you seen him?”

“He was here a couple of weeks ago.”

“That’s great! Oh, Lily, it’s just like Pax said! He said we’d find him! This is wonderful!”

An expression Lily couldn’t pinpoint flitted over her father’s face as he looked from Lily to Mattie, and back again. “Where did you come from?” he asked Mattie.

Mattie bobbed up and down on her toes in her excitement. “Lily and I met in the Realm, and she brought me back. Do you know where I can find my dad?”

Dad studied her for a moment and opened his mouth to speak, but then decided against it. As Lily wondered what thoughts troubled him, he clapped his hands and adopted a lighter demeanor. “You know what?” he said, rubbing his palms together. “We have a lot to catch up on. Why don’t you girls go get cleaned up, and we can talk about everything over dinner?”

“Good idea,” Lily’s mom added. “Mattie, please make yourself at home. Lily, why don’t you give her some fresh clothes? I need to get back to the sauce before it bubbles over.” She planted a kiss on Lily’s cheek, then hustled back to the kitchen.

Dad lingered for a moment before wrapping Lily in one more hug. “I’m so glad you’re home, Scout,” he said. A glint of pain shone in his eyes, but it quickly vanished as he followed after Mom.

Lily ran her hands along the walls in the main hallway and pressed her fingers into a familiar crescent-shaped divot in the plaster, the product of a collision when she once tried to roller-skate on the carpet. She spotted Gran in her favorite chair in the living room, asleep with a photo album on her lap, and she motioned for Mattie to go on ahead while she slipped into the room. She padded silently toward Gran, placed a hand on the back of her chair, and smiled at the pictures of her grandparents, decades younger, waving at the camera during one of their many expeditions traveling the world. In each photo Lily’s grandfather wrapped a sturdy arm around Gran, who leaned into him as if he were a mighty sycamore shielding her from a storm. A lock of hair—her signature—dangled in front of her eyes in each picture. Lily’s mother now tacked that lock back with a bobby pin; Lily had a sudden urge to loosen the pin, fan out the strands, and recapture a glimpse of the woman in the photographs.

Gran’s eyelids fluttered open. She blinked at Lily for a moment, and then her eyes moistened and a wide smile brightened her face. She reached out a single finger to stroke Lily’s cheek. “Lily!” she said.

“Hi, Gran. I’m home.” Lily clasped her hand. When Lily’s dad first disappeared, Gran’s understanding and language seemed to vanish with him. The sporadic memory lapses the family had noticed over the years worsened precipitously, and Gran could no longer even remember Lily’s name. The change was so unsettling that Lily’s heart had leapt when she first heard Gran talking like herself in the Wilderness, only to discover, with horror, that it was really a shroud impersonating her. The sound of Lily’s own name on Gran’s lips now sounded like music. Lily felt like she was reclaiming something she’d lost.

Gran’s eyes wandered again to the pictures, and when she glimpsed Mount Rainier towering above a field of wildflowers, she gasped. “Look at that,” she said, tracing the silhouette of the mountain. Gran couldn’t remember her trip to Rainier, or the fact that she’d taken the picture herself, but her capacity to wonder still burned. As Lily kissed her cheek and turned away, she heard Gran’s soft voice singing “All Creatures of Our God and King,” and Lily couldn’t help but smile. I’m home, she thought.

And yet . . .

The hallways were so familiar, the sounds and scents like sinking into a warm embrace. But deep within, in a part of herself that seemed as vital as a long-buried root, Lily already missed the Realm. She missed the magic that Pax imbued into his land.

An idea bloomed in Lily’s mind. What if she could convince her family to come back to the Realm with her someday? She’d learned so much since the first time Cedric catapulted her into the Wilderness. She had gifts, and under Pax’s mentorship she’d learned to use them for good. Couldn’t her parents be a part of that story, too? Couldn’t the people she loved most and the place where she most belonged come together?

They gathered around the dinner table as the night deepened and the cricket song intensified. When Dad asked Lily to tell them about what she’d endured, her heart felt light. Any hurt she’d caused them, she thought, would surely wash away when they’d heard about all the wonders. She prattled on about everything she’d experienced, the joys as well as the fears: the Blight, her apprenticeship with Barth, Muzzytown and Ash Canyon, the Sea of Oblivion, and Pax giving his life for the Realm and rising again. The words flew from her mouth like a gushing stream. As she talked, she hoped her parents would lean forward, their forks paused half-wound with pasta, and ask questions as they’d always done about topics much less important—grades and classes and summer camp.

Instead, as her story unfolded, worry lines creased her mother’s face and her father stared at his hands. Finally, Lily’s monologue petered out, and she studied her parents with unease. “What is it?” she asked.

Mom drew a breath. “Honestly, Lily, I’ll be glad if I never hear another word about that dreamworld again.”

Lily felt like a deflated balloon. “I’m so sorry I hurt you by leaving, Mom, but if you could see the Realm, I think you’d understand. It’s such a wonderful place. It’s a magical place.”

“And deadly,” Dad said. “I’ll never forgive myself for the pain I put you and Mom through when I was captured. And then, to have you caught up in the keeper business, too—” He clenched his jaw and stabbed at his food with his fork.

“Dad, didn’t you hear anything I just told you?”

“I did. And I’ll never forgive myself for putting you through it. The Somnium Realm is no place for a kid.”

Lily chewed a mouthful of meatball and tried to sort her words. “It’s not all awful. Don’t you remember? You used to love the place. I know you did—just think of all your stories! If you only saw what Pax did—”

“Lily, it’s true that I used to love the Realm, but the stakes are too high. You have a home and a family, and you’re just a kid. There are plenty of adults in this world to go into the Realm and be heroes.”

“I wasn’t trying to be a hero; I was just trying to follow what Pax asked me to do. You should have seen what he did, Dad! He died for the Realm and made everything whole and beautiful again. And then he came back to life! And when I showed others what he’d done, it changed them. Entire kingdoms of people—the Icelein and the Forgotten—it was like they became new creatures. It was like Pax’s words transformed them or something. This light came down my arm and shot out of the soothstone, and—”

“Enough! You should never have gone back!”

“But, Dad—”

“You should never have gone back, Lily! There’s no excuse!”

The sternness in his voice silenced her. She pushed the food around on her plate and wished she could bring back the laughter and joyful tears from just half an hour before.

As she shrank into herself, Dad softened a touch. “Lily Bean, I think about what could have happened to you, and it terrifies me,” he said. “When Barth brought me your letter, I thought I’d lost you forever.”

“I’m sorry, Dad,” she said, barely whispering. She searched her mind for the right thing to say, something tender and true, but as usual her words fell flat. Flint rolled over in the front pocket of her pajama top; she wondered if he would have better success in persuading them.

“Excuse me, Mr. McKinley?” Mattie asked. “When did my dad come to see you?”

Dad suddenly looked embarrassed. “Oh, forgive me, Mattie. We’ve been yammering on all this time, and you’ve been waiting so patiently. He came about two weeks ago. Apparently, he’d been staying with a friend of yours, Lily?”

“Keisha Reynolds?”

“Right. Her family let him stay with them for a few weeks and helped him research what’s happened since he left. He was able to connect with your mother.”

Mattie grinned. “Mom? Oh, that’s great! Is she okay? Where is she?”

“She’s been through a lot over the years, but she’s okay. She’s still living in San Francisco.”

“And—where are we again?”

“Massachusetts.”

Her shoulders sagged. “Not exactly around the corner. Still, I’m so glad she’s all right. When can I see them? Is that where my dad went, to San Francisco to see her?”

“He hasn’t gone to San Francisco yet.” He paused, weighing his words. “He’s looking for you.”

“Looking for me? Where?”

“Mattie, do you realize exactly how long you’ve been gone?”

Mattie’s smile faded. “Ages, I guess.”

“It’s been twenty years.”

A long pause ensued, during which a cloud seemed to descend over Mattie. As Lily saw the light in Mattie’s eyes dull, she felt a pang of pity. Lily had been gone only a few weeks, and her world had upended; how could poor Mattie cope after being gone for twenty years?

“You haven’t aged at all,” Dad said. “It was the Realm, wasn’t it? You were in the Realm the whole time?”

Mattie nodded.

“What exactly happened?” Dad asked.

As she fiddled with the strands of her ponytail, she looked wispy and frail, as if a strong breeze might break her. “I followed my dad. I didn’t mean to, but he left the house with my sketchbook, and so I ran to grab it from him. Then—”

“You transported with him, didn’t you? Barth suspected as much, but he didn’t understand why he didn’t come across you during all those years when you were both in the Realm. How did he not know you were there?”

“I was trapped. Underground.”

“Where, exactly?”

Mattie stared into her lap and shredded her napkin.

“She was trapped in the lairs of the Forgotten, Dad,” Lily said.

The words took him aback, and sympathy glistened in his eyes as he shook his head. “I’m so sorry, Mattie. How awful for you.”

“I’d rather not talk about it, please. I’m just glad to be out of there, and I can’t wait to finally see him again. Where did he go, after he came to see you?”

Lily’s mom shot Dad an uncomfortable glance. “He took the news that you’d vanished pretty hard,” Dad said, returning Mom’s look. “He blames himself, both for your disappearance and for leaving your mom alone for twenty years. He promised your mother that he’d find you.”

“But find me where? Not back in the Realm, I hope?”

“No, not back in the Realm. He couldn’t go back there without a soothstone.”

“Then what did he do? Where did he go?”

“You have to understand, Mattie, that he felt desperate. He was so determined to find you.”

“Mr. McKinley, please, just tell me! Where is my dad? What did he do?”

He drew a breath. “He’s trying to go back in time to stop you from entering the Realm.”

Chapter 2

Lost in Time

They all stared at Dad. Only the squeak of Gran whittling away at a meatball with her fork and the occasional peep of a tree frog outside cut through the silence.

“Okay, I missed something,” Lily finally said. “What do you mean, ‘He’s trying to go back in time?’”

“Mattie and Barth disappeared on the same day,” Dad said. “Barth assumed—correctly—that Mattie somehow followed him into the Realm. His plan is to go back to that day twenty years ago and stop her from transporting. I know it’s crazy, and he knows it too, but he’s desperate. I couldn’t convince him to drop the idea.”

Cedric’s words returned to Lily: Time in the Realm is more fluid . . .

“You mean time travel is possible, Dad? That’s amazing! I guess it makes sense, doesn’t it? You can go to any time in dreams—backward and forward, fast and slow. Why wouldn’t you be able to do that in the Realm, too?”

“But that’s the catch. It’s possible in the Realm, but Barth doesn’t have a soothstone to get back there. Plus, it’s so dangerous that even in the Realm it’s strictly forbidden.”

“So, what is he trying to do?”

“To time travel here, in the waking world.”

Lily raised her eyebrows. “Is that possible?”

“Probably not, but Barth’s gone to see the one person who might know for sure. His name is Alfred Sprock, and he’s a former dream guardian.”

Lily squinted as she tried to recall Cedric’s explanation about the dream guardians. The soothstones chose the dream keepers, he’d said . . . twelve were stewards, meant to care for the Realm, and twelve were . . .

“He was a guardian in the Underlands, you mean? In the Catacombs where the shrouds were all locked up?”

“Indeed, he was. Like the other guardians, his job was to capture the shrouds—those are the nightmares I told you about, Andrea—and lock them away in the Catacombs. He was great at it, too, until the Council banished him from the Realm.”

“They banished him?” Mom said.

“Yes. He’s one of the only keepers who’s ever been banished, I’m afraid.” He leaned back in his chair and studied Lily. “How much do you know about Castle Iridyll?” he asked her. “Did anyone ever tell you about the treasury?”

“The treasury? I don’t think so. I’ve been up to several of the spires, but I never saw a treasury.”

“You wouldn’t have seen it; it’s hidden and strictly guarded. But I thought maybe Toggybiffle or that dragon might have mentioned it.”

Lily shook her head. “No one ever said anything about it. Why?”

“Every so often, dangerous relics and inventions appear in the Realm. For safekeeping, the Council houses them in the treasury deep below Castle Iridyll, within a cave inside Bald Peak. The enchanted sword King Arthur drew from the anvil lies there, as does the Japanese millstone that turned the seas salty. Aladdin’s lamp from Arabian lore is there, too.”

Lily’s heart quickened. “Aladdin’s lamp? You mean, the one with the genie inside?”

“Well, the genie escaped a long time ago, lucky for him. Merlin was worried about the lamp trapping someone else inside, so he locked it away. For good reason, if you ask me. Whatever goes into the treasury, stays in the treasury. Even beans from Jack’s beanstalk are there, although I’d be surprised if they’re not eaten away with mold by now. After the destruction that giant caused, locking them away was the safest thing. The impact when he fell caused a crater so big that it destroyed the Elysian Fields. All the warriors ran away, and the sea flooded in to form the Bogs.”

Lily’s mind crackled. “That’s all real? The sword in the stone, Aladdin’s lamp, Jack’s beanstalk . . . those things are real?”

“In the Realm they are, and they’d be a real threat if they ever fell into the wrong hands. So, they’re stored in the treasury for safekeeping. Guards stand vigil at the entrance to the treasury day and night. No one is allowed in or out without Merlin’s permission. Which is why Sprock’s actions were so shocking.”

“What exactly did he do, Dad?”

“Do you remember reading The Time Machine by H. G. Wells?”

Lily shuddered at the memory of the book. She’d taken it with her on a camping trip, and with every chapter she seemed to hear more strange sounds lumbering through the woods. “Last summer, yeah,” she said. “The Morlocks scared me to death.”

“Well, the Morlocks never made it into the Realm, but the time machine did. And Sprock tried to steal it.”

“Whoa. Does the machine actually work?” She remembered the time machine in Wells’s book as a hodgepodge assembly of brass railings and assorted stone levers—all components that seemed exotic to a gentleman from the 1800s, but hokey compared to the starships and flashy inventions in modern science fiction.

“In the Realm it does,” Dad said. “It works so well, in fact, that Alfred Sprock, probably the most highly respected guardian of his time, risked everything to try to steal it.”

“He tried to steal it,” Mom said. “You mean he didn’t succeed?”

“He almost succeeded. He knocked out the guards, broke into the treasury, and initiated the time travel sequence. But Rupert—he’s the Interpreter in the Realm, sort of an overseer of the keepers—caught him before he could launch.”

Lily looked up at the mention of Sir Toggybiffle’s name. She remembered the quirky little man’s teetering gait, his scraggly beard that dragged on the floor behind him, and his habit of wadding chewing gum in his ear. “Rupert? Do you mean Professor Toggybiffle?”

“Sure do.” He noticed her dumbfounded look and laughed. “You’re surprised?”

“I guess I just didn’t expect him to rush in and save the day. It doesn’t really seem like him.”

“He’s not as bumbling as he seems. Yes, most make fun of him, and he can be ornery, but he’s Master Interpreter for a reason. He’s a genius when it comes to dream-made machinery. He figured out how to deactivate the time machine, and he still holds the key to its operation—it was a quartz bar, I think. He has it somewhere in that dusty old office of his.”

“Excuse me, Mr. McKinley? This is all interesting, but why would my dad want to find this man Sprock?” Mattie asked.

“Rumor has it that Alfred Sprock’s interest in time travel has turned into an obsession. After his banishment, he retreated into the Appalachian Mountains—not too far from us, apparently—determined to rebuild the time machine and go back and fix whatever compelled him to steal it in the first place. Your dad has gone to see him because he hopes that after all these years, Sprock has figured out how to make the machine work and can teach him how to go back and rescue you.”

“But I’m back. I’m here! Even if he could go back in time, wouldn’t that cause problems?”

“You’re right. If your dad goes back in time, it could change the timeline. I tried to convince him to give up the idea, but he loves you, Mattie, and he blames himself for your disappearance. He was so determined to find you that I couldn’t dissuade him.”

Silence spread over the room as they sank into their own thoughts. A clock in the living room, a family heirloom Dad had inherited from his grandparents, ticked out the seconds as they stared at their plates and contemplated the situation.

“This Sprock guy,” Mom finally said, “do you think he actually knows how to go back in time?”

“I have no idea. He’s a recluse. Merlin banished him decades ago—in our time, that is. In the Realm it’s been much longer. Rumor has it he settled in Vermont. I’ve periodically tried to look him up, but in all these years the only word of him that I could find was a local news report after he’d gotten into a fight with someone at a hardware store. The reporter described him as ‘disheveled.’”

“Doesn’t sound like a very courteous reporter,” Mom said with a frown.

“Well, to be fair, Sprock wasn’t very courteous himself. He threw a wrench at the store manager.” Dad shook his head. “The most tragic part is that Alfred Sprock was the best guardian the Realm had ever seen. Which is saying a lot.”

The reverence in Dad’s voice piqued Lily’s curiosity. The guardians had all fallen to Eymah’s terror before she set foot in the Wilderness. Although she witnessed panic among the Council members who discussed their disappearance, she’d never had the privilege of meeting any guardians herself. “Dad, what were the guardians like?” she asked, intrigued.

“They were the best of us, Lily. They were the most highly esteemed of the keepers. They could hunt down shrouds that had escaped the eyes of our best sentries, and corral even the most vicious ones away in the Catacombs when no bars would hold them. And among the guardians, Alfred Sprock was exemplary. He was banished before I became a steward, so I never saw him in action, but I’ve heard the stories. Robin told me about a time when he single-handedly defended Castle Iridyll against a mob of shrouds bent on taking the tenth spire. Not even King Arthur’s knights could drive them back, but Sprock did, charging up Bald Peak, shouting as he ran. The Realm had never seen anything like it then, and hasn’t seen the likes of it since. There’s a reason the Council named him Chief Guardian.”

“If he was so wonderful, why would he try to steal the time machine?”

Dad gazed out the window as a firefly glinted past. “A thousand or so years ago—in Realm time, that is—Pax first assembled the guild of guardians, and they kept Eymah’s power in check. Shrouds still prowled around, of course, but with most locked away in the Catacombs under the guardians’ watch, they couldn’t join forces. The Realm enjoyed a long time of peace. Sprock led the guardians during that golden age, and with Pax still fresh in people’s minds, it was as if a shadow had lifted from the Realm.” Dad furrowed his brow. “But then Eymah rose again. We don’t know exactly when, or how, but he laid siege to the Catacombs, stripped control from the guardians, and terrorized the land. It was a devastating fall, after so many years of flourishing. I don’t know for sure, but I suspect Sprock tried to go back in time to stop Eymah from rising.”

“But why would that get him banished?” Lily asked. “Wouldn’t that have been a good thing, to stop Eymah from rising again?”

“Time travel is dangerous, even if it’s for a good purpose. It’s foolish to think we can control every detail and aftereffect. In tampering with the timeline, Sprock broke the laws of the Realm and violated his code of conduct as a dream guardian.”

“Dan,” Mom said, after listening to the conversation with her brow wrinkled, “of all the people at this table, I know the least about all of this, but poor Mattie is stuck here, fatherless, after decades trapped in some awful cave. You have to go after Barth. You have to stop him from time traveling and take Mattie to him.”

Dad nodded. “I agree, although it’s not as simple as you’d think, Andrea. Guardians serve the Realm for life, and if they’re ever forced to rejoin the waking world, they often find themselves to be misfits. They have to rebuild a life in a different time, after their homes and families have long since gone, and most find they can’t adjust. Few interact with the world, and Sprock seems to be no exception. With your friend Keisha’s help, Barth was able to come up with only a set of coordinates in the mountains, rather than an address. Sprock has done his best to disappear, and I don’t think he’ll be happy about anyone finding him.”

“But you do have the coordinates now, Mr. McKinley?” Mattie asked, leaning eagerly across the table. “We could still try?”

Mom reached to give Mattie’s forearm a reassuring squeeze. “Absolutely, we can try. Vermont is only a few hours from here. We can do this, right, Dan?”

He studied them both for a moment, and then nodded. “Yes. I don’t know how successful we’ll be, but yes, we can try. I have tomorrow off, and I can start first thing.”

“Thank you! Oh, thank you so much!” Tears misted Mattie’s eyes, and Mom rose from her seat to wrap her in a hug.

“I’m not sure about your coming along, Mattie,” Dad said. “Maybe it would be better if I go on my own and bring back your dad when I find him. I don’t know what Sprock is like, and as far as I can tell there’s no road to his place. We’ll need to bushwhack up a mountain to find him.”

“Mr. McKinley, please, I have to go! I’ve been away from my dad for decades, and I’m not risking the chance of losing him again. Please, I need to come with you!”

His mouth curved into a half-smile. “You have your dad’s determined spirit, you know.”

Mattie beamed.

“All right, I give in. We’ll leave in the morning.”

“What time?” Lily asked.

“First thing. But not you, Lily. You sleep in and get some rest.”

Lily blinked at him. “But I’m coming, too.”

“No, you’re not. One kid is already too many to put at risk. You need to stay here and help your mom and Gran.”

“But Dad—!”

“You stay here, Lily, where you’ll be safe.” He turned to Mattie. “Can you be ready by seven?”

“I’ll be ready by six. Five, even! Thank you again, Mr. McKinley!”

Eventually the food grew cold, and Lily tried not to sulk as conversation turned to more menial things. Once they’d washed the dishes and stacked them away, she drifted through the old routines of her childhood and tried to focus on the blessing of her family. However, as she brushed her teeth and stared at herself in the mirror—her dark hair still a tad flyaway even though banana-free and her brows perpetually pinched in the middle—she felt displaced, as if she were dreaming. At any moment, she thought, she would awaken to find herself staring at the stars through a lead-glass window in Castle Iridyll, or even gazing up at The Starry Night emblazoned over the Painted Woodland. She splashed her face with water, half expecting to find herself beneath those swirling stars when she opened her eyes, but instead only her own dull reflection greeted her.

As she rubbed her eyes and trudged to her bedroom, Lily again noticed Gran in her chair. Lily stepped into the room softly, trying not to awaken her in case she’d dozed off while watching another cherished I Love Lucy episode. Instead, she found Gran wide awake, furiously scrawling with a pen on something in her lap. Lily put a hand on Gran’s shoulder. “Gran, are you okay?”

Gran jumped and cried out, and the pen somersaulted across the room and landed in a potted peace lily. She seized Lily’s arms and stared at her with wide, frightened eyes.

“Gran, it’s just me,” Lily said in alarm, touching Gran’s face. “It’s just Lily.”

“Lily! Dear girl.” A glimmer of understanding shone in Gran’s eyes.

Lily stroked her cheek with her thumb. “Yes, Gran, it’s okay. It’s only me. It’s only Lily.”

Gran pressed her lips together, grasped Lily’s hand, and placed it on the pad in her lap. Then she tapped the paper, pointing to a drawing that she’d sketched. Lily leaned forward to examine it. Gran had drawn a pattern of triangles within ovals over and over, until they cluttered the entire surface of the sheet.

“That’s pretty, Gran,” Lily said, unsure of what else to say.

Gran huffed in frustration and rapped the paper with her finger. “Moy Mell!” she said in an urgent, raspy voice.

“Moy Mell? What’s that?” Lily frowned in concentration. She’d heard Gran sing hymns in Irish before, and this sounded like a phrase from one, but the meaning escaped her. She searched the page for a clue. “The triangles? What are they?”

“Lily, can I talk to you, please?” Dad leaned against the living room doorframe, his expression solemn.

“Sure, Dad.” Lily studied Gran’s face one more time, and wished she was smart enough to discern the dear lady’s meaning. She leaned forward and kissed her cheek. “I’m sorry, Gran. We’ll figure it out tomorrow, okay?” She patted Gran’s arm, then followed her dad down the hallway. As she left, a glance over her shoulder revealed Gran again stooped over the paper, tracing the same pattern over and over with a pencil from the table beside her. Just before Lily stepped into her room, she heard the tip of the pencil break.

Dad closed the door and, before Lily could ask what was wrong, he extended his hand. “You need to give it to me, Lily.”

“Give you what?”

“The soothstone. I know you still have it.”

Lily’s heart sank. “Dad, please—”

“I know you went back for what you thought were good reasons, but it’s far too dangerous. We can’t risk the soothstone tempting you there again.”

“But, Dad, I had to go back! Everything was dying from the Blight, and afterward entire kingdoms needed to be rebuilt. I’m not just a steward, I’m also an artisan. I couldn’t just stand by and let everything be destroyed.”

“You were wrong. We were both wrong. I never should have gone to the Realm in the first place, and neither should you have.”

“How can you say that? You were a dream steward!”

“I’m also a husband and a father.”

“But you were called to be a dream keeper for a reason. You had to go! I’ve been called for a reason, too.”

He stretched his hand further toward her. “Lily, I know this is hard, and it’s not what you want, but as your father it’s my duty to protect you. I need you to hand it over.”

Her fingers instinctively tightened around the stone in her pocket. It felt like a part of her, her lifeline in danger and a palpable reminder of her gifts and hopes. It was a reminder of Pax that she could see and hold.

“It’s not just about what I want,” she finally said, her voice cracking. “It’s what I’m supposed to do. Pax said—”

“Please give it to me.”

Tears welled in her eyes. “What will you do with it?”

“Don’t worry, I won’t destroy it. I’m just going to keep it somewhere safe.”

“You used to love the Realm, Dad. All the stories, the drawings, and the song about the Cave of Lights. Don’t you miss any of that?”

“No fantasy world is worth the life of your child.” His jaw quivered slightly. “We almost lost you so many times. And if you’d seen what I saw, locked up in the Catacombs—when I think that you could have been there, too, suffering the same torture—”

“But I didn’t, Dad! I’m right here! I’m okay! Pax was helping me the whole time. If only you could’ve seen—”

A knock interrupted them, and Dad blinked away his tears. “I can’t take it from you, and no one else can use it properly unless you bequeath it, which I won’t ask you to do. But you need to give it to me. I can’t risk your going back.”

Lily stared at him, unsure of what to do. The stone seemed to throb in her hand.

“Please, Lily. I’m asking you as your father. Please, listen to me.”

Lily drew a breath. It’s Dad, she thought. Dad, whose shirt she’d worn for weeks when she thought she’d lost him. Who’d enchanted her with fairy tales and songs, taught her to fish, and carried the whole family on his shoulders through every quake and storm.

Lily withdrew the stone from her pocket. She longed to gaze at the swirl of smoke locked in its center and to run her finger along the broken and burnt edge that marked what she’d faced and overcome. Instead, she closed her eyes, stretched out her hand, and felt the stone slip from her fingers.

Her dad instantly pocketed the fragment. “Thank you. Trust me, this is for the best.” He leaned forward and gathered her into a hug. “I’m so glad you’re home, Scout.” Then with a kiss on her head and a last tousle of her hair, he smiled and said goodnight.

Mattie, still brimming with excitement about finding her father, slid through the door as Lily’s dad exited. The moment she saw Lily’s reddened eyes, her face fell. “What’s wrong? Are you okay?”

“Not really.” Lily wiped her face and pushed her hair behind her ears. The emptiness in her pocket felt like a hole burning through the fabric. “My dad took the soothstone.”

Mattie studied her, then nodded. “I’m sorry, Lily. That has to be hard for you. If your dad recommended it, though, it was probably the right thing. He only wants what’s best for you.”

Lily nodded but avoided Mattie’s eyes to keep from crying. She glanced at the toys on a shelf mounted to the wall, the stuffed animals standing at attention like a fuzzy battalion. Her gaze settled on the empty spot that Poky the Penguin once occupied, carpeted with a layer of dust ever since Aristotle Otter swiped him years ago. Lily remembered her doting, furry friend and the adoration in his shiny black eyes when he’d saved her in the lairs of the Forgotten. Would she ever see him again?

“Your mom said I could sleep on your floor.” Mattie held up a pillow and a sleeping bag. “Is that okay?”

“Sure. I mean, of course it’s okay! Yes!”

Mattie ran her fingers over the trinkets on Lily’s desk. She paused on a porcelain figurine of a swan adorned with a silver crown. “This is so pretty,” she said, picking up the statuette.

“Oh, that? It was Gran’s.”

“It’s so cute. It reminds me of my mom, actually. She’s always loved swans. There was this pair of them at Stow Lake, in the park back home, that would ignore everyone except her. Every time we walked by the lake, they’d swim to the edge to greet her. I mean, she did give them sourdough crumbs when no one was looking, so that might have had something to do with it, but I always liked to think she had superpowers.”

As Mattie smiled at the memory, Lily considered what her once adventuresome grandmother would advise. “Keep it,” she said, closing Mattie’s fingers around the figurine.

Mattie looked startled. “Oh no, Lily! It was your grandmother’s. I couldn’t take it.”

“It’s yours now. I think she’d want you to have it.”

“You and your family are amazing. Thank you so much!”

Lily smiled and then gathered throw pillows from her bed to offer Mattie extra cushioning on the floor. She dragged a blanket from her closet and, as she leaned over to spread the blanket onto the floor, a sudden burst of orange light shot from her front pocket. Mattie jumped back in surprise as a ball of flame rolled across the carpet like tumbleweed and then scrambled up Lily’s nightstand.

Lily laughed out loud, then covered her mouth to avoid disturbing her parents. “Flint!” she whispered. “I’d totally forgotten about you.”

Flint placed his hands on his hips in mock offense, then lit the Christmas-cookie jar candle on Lily’s nightstand. As the scent of gingerbread permeated the room, a delicious idea gripped Lily. She sneaked down the hallway to the kitchen, pulled a bag of marshmallows and a box of graham crackers from a cabinet, and then rummaged in her closet for half a chocolate bunny she’d neglected last Easter. The girls sat cross-legged on the floor and stifled giggles as Flint roasted marshmallows for them one-by-one. Their hours laughing and swapping stories late into the night were the first Lily had ever shared with a friend at home.

Eventually, they shut off their flashlights, and Lily drifted to sleep with cracker crumbs dotting her quilt. She dreamed for the first time in ages, but the next morning the images were too hazy for her to grasp, like mist slipping through her fingers. She couldn’t remember the characters that blossomed in her mind, their adventures, or their meaning.

Nor could she recall the pair of familiar, menacing red eyes that glared from within her closet while she slept.

Chapter 3

Lost in the Suburbs

Lily awoke to sunlight streaming through her window and a wad of marshmallow stuck to her cheek. She blinked, rubbed her eyes, and then stifled a laugh at the sight of Flint curled at her feet like a tiny cat, a coil of smoke shifting back and forth as he snored. When Lily sat up and stretched, however, her smile vanished. The blankets she’d loaned Mattie the night before lay folded in a neat stack on her desk, and the sleeping bag had been rolled up and carefully tucked into a corner. Mattie was gone.

Lily bolted out of bed, and Flint squeaked as she inadvertently flung her blanket and tossed him to the floor. She rushed from her room and down the hallway toward the scents of pancakes and maple bacon. When she burst into the kitchen, she found her mother washing dishes. A single plate sat untouched on Lily’s place at the table.

“Hey there, sleepyhead!” her mom said, smiling at her over her shoulder. “I fixed you that plate a while ago. Let me know if it’s cold, and I can heat it up for you.”

“Thanks. Where are Mattie and Dad?”

Mom leaned into the work of scrubbing the bacon pan. “They left about an hour ago. They hated to leave before you were up, but it was getting late, and they didn’t want to wake you. Mattie asked me to tell you thanks for the s’mores.” She smiled in amusement. “Were you girls raiding the cupboards last night?”

Lily leaned her forehead against the wall and felt utterly defeated. How could she have overslept? The same old issue that left her chasing after the school bus on so many mornings now kept her from saying goodbye to one of her only friends. Who knew when she might see Mattie again? Or if she’d ever see her again? Lily knocked her fist against the doorframe in frustration.

“Hey now, don’t beat up our house, please.” Mom wiped off her hands with a towel and placed her palms on Lily’s shoulders. “Honey, are you okay?”

Lily softened at her touch and forced a smile. “Sorry, Mom, I’m just mad at myself for oversleeping and missing them.”

“I’m sorry, Lily Bean,” Mom said, wrapping her arms around her. “We’re so relieved to have you home that we haven’t paid enough attention to the toll all of this has had on you. I can’t imagine how hard it’s been.”

Lily squeezed her eyes shut. She focused on the scent of her mother’s honeysuckle perfume and leaned into the familiar comfort that had chased away bad dreams in the dark for so many years. Her mother had always assured her that nightmares weren’t real, and that there was no such thing as a monster in the closet.

Except, that’s not true. Nightmares are real, and monsters in the closet do exist. She knew this truth, had seen it, touched it. But she had also seen the light chase the darkness away, like a match strike dispersing the shadows.

Mom pulled away and brushed Lily’s hair from her face. “I’m sorry we didn’t wake you, and I’m sorry Dad had to take your stone. It had to happen, Lily—that place is far too dangerous to risk your going back—but I can understand how losing it would upset you. You remind me so much of myself sometimes, do you know that?”

“Really?” Lily said, genuinely surprised.

“Sure. I was an adventurer at heart, too. You may have been too little to remember, but did you ever hear Great-Grandma Lucia call me soñadora?”

Lily’s great-grandmother had visited from Puerto Rico only a few times, the last when Lily was three. Aside from an effervescent laugh, Lily’s recollection of her was hazy. “I don’t think so,” Lily said.

“It means ‘starry-eyed.’ For years, all I wanted to do was to leave home and move to the big city. When I finally made it to New York, I thought I was on the verge of so many new adventures. The place felt so exciting, so alive! I would go to the top of the Empire State Building at sunset, watch the colors play over the Hudson River, and gaze down at all the lights and the people, all of them so busy, all of them living their own lives. It felt grand and mysterious, like I was floating on top of the world.”

Lily smiled. She knew her mother as the woman who carried their family through the day, who worked tirelessly to help others and then came home to bandage Lily’s skinned knees, check her homework, and fill the house with baking scents. Lily had never contemplated who she was before she was Mom. Then again, she hadn’t considered the same about Dad, either, and he spent his spare time shepherding dreams.

“You know what, Lily?” Mom continued. “Over time, those trips to the top of the skyscraper lost their luster. I would look out over those streets and realize that no one in that cluttered, noisy city cared about me. No one there loved me.” She squeezed Lily’s shoulder. “Adventures can’t replace the gift of home, honey. They don’t even come close.”

Lily shifted uncomfortably. “I don’t know, Mom. There’s this wonderful place in the Realm that reminds me of you. You would love it. It would feel like home to you, I think.”

Her mother tilted her head, and an amused smile graced her face. “Really?”

“It’s called the Painted Woodland, and it’s like walking right inside the most famous paintings in our world. The Starry Night is up in the sky. I recognized it from the book you gave me.”

Mom’s jaw slackened. “Is that even possible?”

“In the Realm it is.”

A faraway look came over her mother, as if the thought had drawn her back to a moment in her own childhood, before brokenness and pain and illness became her daily work. A moment when the sunset above a skyline still harbored magic. “I wish I could see it,” she whispered.

“You would love it, Mom. It’s amazing.”

Mom paused, deep in thought. “I can understand why such a place would matter so much to you,” she finally said.

“It’s wonderful. I’m glad to be home, but I hate the idea of never going back.”

Mom regarded her thoughtfully. “Well, why don’t you eat breakfast, and then you can tell me all about it in the car. We have to drop Gran off at her day program in about an hour, and then I’m working at the hospital fundraising table at the Raspberry Festival. Are you up for distributing pamphlets with your most winning smile?”

Lily wasn’t up for that at all, but in the face of her mother’s positivity she couldn’t help but smile back. “Sure. I can do that, Mom.”

“Great.” Mom squeezed Lily’s chin, then planted a kiss on her cheek. “Eat up! We’ll need to get going soon.”