Emerge: The Captive: (Book 3)(75)
“When can we meet again?” Quinn asked. “I don’t want to keep you here too long.”
“I will come find you.”
“Thank you.” Quinn leaned back, staring at the sky. “It is peaceful here.” He looked back down at his hands, seeing the bruises from the shackles that held him in the waking world. “If a man found himself in a bad situation in the waking world and retreated here for a break, would it save his mind from the torment? Enough for him to find his strength again?”
“Now you’re thinking like a dreamwalker,” Navid said. “We have all the time in the world to teach you how to navigate this place. That can come later. Find your respite here. That is how the dreamworld is going to save you from Soma. Come here. Rest. Recover. And when your punishment is over, you will return to Livia, not as the defeated boy she expects, but as a man ready to face his demons.”
“She doesn’t let me sleep much. I’m never really here long enough to rest.”
“You are a dreamwalker, Quinn. A strong one. You do not need to sleep to come here.”
“I don’t?” Quinn asked in surprise.
“Let that be our first lesson before I leave you. You will have to work at it, but you simply need to reach a meditative state of mind to come here and stay in your dreamscape as long as you like.”
“I can do that.” Quinn nodded. “They’ll put me in the white room soon. That will be my best chance.”
“I will come find you when I can and we will have our lessons. I must leave now.”
“Thank you, Navid.” Quinn watched as Navid walked down the path. In an instant the dreamwalker was gone.
Quinn stayed in the forest for as long as he could, but with the familiar splash of water mixed with alcohol and acid, he was back in the waking world, his body on fire.
~~~
“You will stay here for as long as it takes to get it through your head, we own you,” Michael sneered as he closed the door to Quinn’s white prison.
With the echo of the slamming door, Quinn smiled. Last time he was sent to the white room, the sameness of it drove him mad. Day in, day out, nothing ever changed. White walls. White tile. White food. Everything bathed in fluorescent white light. But this time it would be his oasis.
It took him several attempts, but Quinn finally managed to enter the dreamworld while his body was awake and in a meditative state. He knew the routine of the white room quite well. Between his pitiful breakfast and dinner, he never saw a soul. That left him with the hours in between to escape to the dreamworld. He spent the majority of his days there now.
Quinn traveled the world, all within the safety of his own dreamscape. He only had to think of a place he’d like to visit and he was there. He explored the most beautiful forests and meadows with the most glorious colors he didn’t even have a name for.
On the nights when his body rested, Quinn spent hours building a fortress of a library just for himself. It quickly became his home in the dreamworld. He reclined on a red leather sofa in the evenings and read his favorite books.
Each day he grew a little stronger than the day before as his mind healed from the stress of his time at Soma. He met with Navid often, but only for brief lessons.
Quinn was confident that when Livia brought him out of the white room, he would be ready to act. Ready to get himself, Santi and the others out of Soma for good.
~~~
CHAPTER
TWENTY-SIX
Sasha: Verumkai
The Chola Valley Temple
“Verumkai is hand-to-hand combat, using the forms and weapons we learned in the earlier phases of kalaripayattu. In addition to the student’s individual gifts.” Jayesh paced in front of Sasha’s unseeing eyes. She listened, but didn’t really hear. She didn’t really care.
I want to go home.
“But there is a level of verumkai that is only taught to those students the mother deems worthy.”
“Let me guess. It totally sucks. And I’m one of the lucky few.” Sasha sighed.
“Pretty much.” Jayesh sat down in front of her at their favorite meditation spot beside one of the natural fountains. He took her hands in his. His warm reassurance was comforting.
“I don’t like seeing you like this, Sasha.”
“I’m just tired. Please, tell me about our final phase of training.”
“It will not be easy for either of us. You are so young….”
“Just tell me, Jay. I can take it. Ankathari was difficult, but I’m strong. I will find a way to get through verumkai as well.”
“In addition to honing your grappling skills, you will be learning the art of marmas manipulation. There are one-hundred-eight marmas, or pressure points, in the human body. Sixty-four of them are lethal. Marmas are used in the arts of healing, meditation and in yoga, as I’m sure you have experienced training with your mother. But they are also used in kalaripayattu. A master of kalari can use marmas to temporarily disable their opponents, or to kill when it becomes necessary.”
“So we’re going to focus on those lethal ones, right?” Sasha asked.
“You will learn and experience each of the one-hundred-eight marmas. Including the lethal ones.”
“So you’re going to kill me at least sixty-four times? Which means I will have to recover sixty-four times. And at the rate I heal, it means we are no closer to leaving this place than when we first arrived.”