From that
moment on the four boys are watched by two men. One
is a big fellow from the realm of dreams named Pratt, the other a green-skinned sorcerer
from the land of nightmares named Ba. Two
shadowy curses, shaped like a scarecrow and a hound, also begin hunting the boys whenever
one of the four dreams or daydreams.
Colin,
unfortunately, has become more disposed to daydreaming since his father’s murder by a
robber with a knife on the boy’s 11th birthday. The day after the nightmare Colin is daydreaming
about a battle fought on a down between goblins and men wearing medieval armor when one of
the goblins spots Colin and tries to kill him. The
goblin drops its knife when the daydream abruptly ends, and, when Colin picks up the
weapon, his mind is assaulted by visions: the
dragon and crystal city, a foul palace on a ghastly island, Ba, the assassination of a man
in royal grab, and, worst, his father’s murder.
Elsewhere,
that same day, Reggie has a tiny water-serpent materialize in a school drinking fountain
and drench him when it bursts. At GTMO, Ollie
finds himself using magic to steal a quarter and then a GameBoy from a bully he catches
picking on Timmy. Also at GTMO, Ba invades the
dreams of a 15-year-old Camp Delta prisoner, Tavish Lamond. Ba
knows Tavish is from the Isle of Skye, transported to the present from 934 AD and mistakenly
incarcerated after vowing to avenge his family’s massacre by Vikings. “Agree to become my dark apprentice,” Ba
offers, “and I’ll give you the power and skill to keep your vow.”
Ollie’s
crimes are discovered. His father, Phil,
suggests Ollie keep away from the good-natured Timmy, but Timmy uncharacteristically
curses and shoves Phil then runs off. The two
best friends have always been able to locate one another whenever either wanted, and Ollie
soon finds Timmy feeding seagulls at Windmill Beach. They notice a
ring-shaped cloud up in the sky with the crystal city inside, and, as other children
around them play, Timmy and Ollie vanish.
Reggie, dry
but furious his jet-set parents are skipping another of his baseball tournaments, this
time to visit Australia, is in the batter box when he sees the crystal city framed
inside a 3-0 fastball. A second later, he
vanishes.
Colin is
walking home with his pet, a gray cat named Shadow, unaware that Ba is only a few meters
behind them. Coming to a stoplight, Colin
spies the crystal city in its concave glass, then hears, “Good evenin’, Laird
Colin.” The orange-haired girl is
grinning beside him, and then she, Colin, and Shadow vanish before Ba can stop them.
While Tavish
must survive a test inside the belly of a dragon to gain the power to become Ba’s
apprentice, the boys find themselves on Ives Horizon, a down on the plane of imaginings
where the battle Colin “saw” actually took place.
The orange-haired girl, Jennifer, lives here in a cottage named Culver House
with her father, Pratt, who is one of four senators who rule Duncan, the crystal city
and capital of the realm of dreams.
Jennifer
presents Colin with a scabbard for the goblin’s knife, and Pratt tells him that the
knife is Colin’s talisman. “Each of
you boys has a talisman, a magical guard against evil and proof of your heritage as
descendants of the plane of imaginings.” Pratt
tells the boys how a war between Algol and Duncan nearly destroyed both cities. “It ended when the cities’ rulers agreed
to exchange firstborns, but soon after Baron Bjelke’s pregnant queen vanished, never
to be seen again. The baron blamed Duncan. He retaliated, dispatching curses to destroy the
senators’ babes the night each child was born; but the baron recalled them when the
mothers from Duncan made a noble sacrifice, sending their unborn children—you
children—to barren women on earth in the realm of reality. Peace reigned, and will reign so long as none of
you steps foot in Duncan again. But there
are those in Algol who crave nothing more than to start the war again and hopefully
destroy Duncan. To that end they
will try to enrage Duncan into war by killing you, or, failing that, return you to Duncan.”
When Timmy
absently begins daydreaming on Ives Horizon, the two curses hunting the boys finally
attack. Pratt holds the curses off so the
children can escape, but they end up in the Maze of M’ind, the most sinister keep on
the borderland of Algol. There, Timmy will
have to find the mettle to save Ollie from Tavish, while Colin will need to conquer his
fear of the awful images his new knife assaults him with to save Reggie and Jennifer from
nightmarish monsters.
If
the children survive the Maze of M’ind, it will only mean they have survived their
first adventure. There will be many more, both on earth and the plane of imaginings. Their stories have only begun!
