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February 1998—March 1998
Ariana had plenty of things to worry about, but there was some good news—she was making some wonderful new friends, and some old friends astonishingly appeared on the scene. Not only was she becoming good friends with Captain Calandryll—his friends all called him Calan, but at this point Ariana still called him "Captain"—but she also made friends with Flint Fireforge. Flint was a dwarf and a longtime friend and comrade-in-arms of Calan's. With a gruff manner but a heart of gold, he was the sort Ariana could make friends with easily. Another friend was someone she had actually met some time back but hadn't seen since then—the kender Tasslehoff, sort of a friend of Calan's and Flint's, though he seemed to spend more time annoying the two than anything else.
Here is a good place to go into Calan's background. Originally from the eastern country of Saerlia, he was once best friends with Ramiel, who was in love with Calan's sister Suela. The past is shrouded in mystery, but apparently something happened to Ramiel, and he changed, becoming...well, evil. Calan saw Suela die at Ramiel's hands, and that was the last he saw of Ramiel for many years. At about this time, after Calan was well-established as Smat's captain of the guard, he heard reports that Ramiel was amassing an army and planning to attack RavensDale. This was all very disturbing to Calan as he planned his strategy to defend RavensDale. But he hid it well, always showing others a warm smile and laughing on the outside, while his inner thoughts remained hidden. Still, he would always listen to others, even if he would not confide his own worries to them, and he was a wonderful friend from the first.
And the old friends? Well, one night Ariana was spending a quiet evening in the inn, when Robert casually strolled in. Apparently the young man had been doing some studying, trying to analyze what had happened to them during their visit to the Dreamworld, and also hoping he could discover a way to find Ariana again. To his surprise, he found a magic spell in an old book, and when he tried it out, it actually worked. It landed him in the countryside maybe an hour's walk from the city walls of RavensDale. He made his way there and asked around, and soon someone who had met Ariana directed him to Rivendell inn. Ariana and Robert were very glad to see each other. Robert was very interested in Rivendell and had a look around, but he soon asked to demonstrate the magic spell for Ariana, since he found it so intriguing. She agreed, but the spell backfired, and somehow they found themselves watching a bright ball of pink light appear in midair and vanish again, dropping an astonished Jessie into the lap of one of the inn's patrons.
Jessie was in full pixie costume, having been in the middle of the closing night performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream. She apologized to the patron she had landed on and then immediately launched herself at Ariana and hugged her half to death. Meanwhile, an embarrassed Robert quietly slipped out of the inn. He has only been seen a few times since, apparently having gone off to explore this fantastic new world. Jessie, however, stayed and made friends with Ariana's companions, and she has since become quite well-liked among the patrons of Rivendell.
Ariana had another surprise as well. She was talking with Calan one night, and she mentioned how worried she was that she couldn't protect the Dreamworld from the Lord of Nightmares. Calan said he promised to help her, and she said that she felt she could trust his word, even though she hadn't known him very long. At these words he fell silent, and when she asked what was wrong, he said that nothing was and then politely took his leave for the night, seeming disturbed by some inner thought. Ariana didn't press for answers, not wanting to intrude on his privacy. The next night, however—the same night, in fact, that Jessie first came to Rivendell—Calan entered the inn as usual, but he seemed very nervous about something. After a while he told Ariana he needed to talk with her about something important. They sat by the window, and she gave him her full attention as he told her what was on his mind.
During the years that Calan had traveled after leaving Saerlia, many things had happened to him. He'd seen and experienced a great deal. But one thing he'd experienced, he'd never told anyone before...ever since he was seventeen, he'd had dreams every single night, about Ariana. She had always looked the way she did when Calan met her for the first time, an eighteen-year-old Guardian of the Dreamworld. But for those fifteen years of dreams, Calan never knew who the girl was, her name, or how to find her. He felt he had to protect her, but that was all he knew. This was the reason he had been surprised the first time he met Ariana, and it was also why he'd seemed disturbed when she said she hadn't known him long—because while she hadn't, he'd known her for fifteen years, at least in a way. And there was more, something which startled Ariana more than all the rest. During those fifteen years of dreams, somewhere along the way, Calan had fallen in love with Ariana.
Ariana was already good friends with Calan, but she'd only known him for a short time. In fact, she still referred to him as "Captain" more often than not. Besides, she still wasn't sure of her feelings toward Andrew. Still rather stunned, she told Calan that she didn't feel the same, and she was sorry. He understood; in fact, what Ariana didn't know was that Calan thought she was seriously in love with Andrew, when she actually didn't know what she felt toward him. Calan hadn't really expected Ariana to answer differently. In any case, he decided he'd better go, now that he'd said what had to be said. Sadly he left the inn as Ariana watched helplessly, wishing she could have kept from hurting him.
But the night wasn't over. Jessie and Flint had allowed her privacy while she talked with Calan, but after he left they rejoined her. Jessie especially wanted to make up for lost time with her best friend, who she hadn't seen for two and a half years. For the time being, Ariana said nothing of her conversation with Calan, only attempted to enjoy her friends' company. That didn't last long, however. Prince Bane, who had previously promised to have his revenge on Ariana, came to the inn to make good on that promise. Ariana, startled, was prepared to face him, but then another entered the inn and turned the situation on its head—Ramiel, the general who was preparing the attack on RavensDale.
When Ramiel and Bane started arguing, Ariana and Jessie ducked behind the bar, thinking with some exasperation that no good could come of this. Flint in turn put his guard up, waiting next to the bar to see what would happen. All three were, however, astonished to learn that Bane and Ramiel were actually working together. In fact, as Bane was the Lord of Nightmares' First General, leading the attack on the Dreamworld, Ramiel was the Second General in charge of the attack on RavensDale. The Lord of Nightmares was not attempting to conquer one world, but two. This didn't mean his generals got along, however; in fact, the argument escalated quickly. Just before blows were exchanged, Andrew stepped into the inn and called a halt to the fight. The two generals immediately recognized him as the Lord of Nightmares, and a discussion followed while Ariana, Jessie, and Flint watched and listened in stunned silence.
Apparently the Lord of Nightmares encouraged competition between his underlings, and moreover, he was angry with Bane for failing to defeat Ariana in the challenge he had set before her. Tensions rose rapidly, and when the conversation ended, and the fight resumed. Something about the Lord of Nightmares changed, and he came over to speak with Ariana—at which point she discovered that, for the moment, it was Andrew speaking to her, with his own voice. He insisted that he loved Ariana—though she wondered if he really did, but she didn't voice her doubts—and tried to get her to believe that the real Andrew was still there, despite the Lord of Nightmares' hold on him.
There wasn't time for more. The fight was growing more violent, and the two generals were starting to use their respective magical abilities—darkfire for Bane, darkthunder for Ramiel. Andrew—or the Lord of Nightmares, no one was sure which at this point—stepped into the fray, and things got very confused. The inn was getting quite a beating, with whole pieces being ripped out of the bartop (Smat wasn't going to be too happy about that, they were sure). The other three only knew that they simply did not want to be involved.
Things were very confused, but in the end, three things happened. During the fight, Bane died, struck down by darkthunder. Andrew, or the Lord of Nightmares, disappeared into the night. And Ramiel, before leaving the inn, seemed to grow in power, darkfire crackling about him. Later Ariana and her friends were to learn that Bane had died at Ramiel's hand, but with the Lord of Nightmares' help, as punishment for his failure. Ramiel was now the First General, leading the attacks on both worlds, and he now held the power of darkfire as well. That night was the last time Andrew was seen, as far as Ariana knows, and she believes that the Lord of Nightmares killed him. But none of the powers of evil stayed for long that night, and for some reason they showed little interest in Ariana for the time being. Perhaps they were biding their time. In any case, things weren't over yet, and Ariana knew already they would only get worse before the end. It was time to prepare for war, a battle for at least two worlds.
The Dreamworld Saga ©2001 by Amy Unfred