Waking Dream [Tales of the Citadel 23] Read online

  Out of her body and lost in space, Wiyra finds solace and help in the form of a tracker who has his own designs on her physical self.

  Wiyra is an astral investigator. She can leave her body and search any specific point in space that she wishes. She merely has to know its location before she leaves herself. A problem arises when she leaves to examine some mineral deposits and returns to the place her body should be, only to find it missing.

  Her entire home is missing. Her cousins, grandfather and brothers are all gone with no trace. There is only one person she can turn to, and while it makes her grit her astral teeth, she heads to Citadel Reevish.

  Master Tracker Burin is woken from a sound sleep by an astral hand in his head, and while he is startled, delight soon follows. Wiyra has come to him for help and the Citadel does nothing for free. He has her right where he wants her…as soon as he finds her.

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  Waking Dream

  Copyright © 2013 Viola Grace

  ISBN: 978-1-77111-558-2

  Cover art by Martine Jardin

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.

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  Waking Dream

  Tales of the Citadel Twenty-Three

  By

  Viola Grace

  Chapter One

  Wiyra Kwinto settled into her pod. “Do we have the sites that you want me to check out?”

  Her cousin Stennar nodded and grinned. “They are loaded. Feel free to check on them, cuz.”

  “I will. I hate it when you use me to surprise other folks on the mining colony.”

  He chortled and put her drips into her arms and thighs. “You spoil all my fun.”

  “And you like to use me to give people heart attacks. We all have our burdens to bear.” She exhaled and let the gel lining of the pod take her weight. It would keep her hydrated, fed and breathing while her mind went for a walk without her body attached.

  She carefully gave Stennar a thumbs up as she used the keys under her left hand to get her locations. Her mind automatically corrected for drift and propulsion, and the next moment, she was out of her body and standing on a slowly rotating asteroid.

  She did her standard mineral check. Several hours of walking through the rock layers later, she was confident that it was a viable site. She moved onto the next rock and the one after that.

  Six hours out of her body was enough for one day, she returned her astral form to the drifted locale where it should be and ran into a slight problem. The mother-platform was gone. All the surrounding asteroids were in the proper alignment, but the platform where her family and her body were was gone.

  Son-of-a-bitch.

  “Wake up, Master Tracker Burin, I need your help.” She carried on the conversation with her hand inside his skull. It was the only way she could transmit her thoughts into something he would understand.

  It had been hard to force her way into Citadel Reevish. The tower and the Masters’ quarters were fully lined against psychic spillage. Apparently, she qualified, but she was also very determined.

  He opened his blue-green eyes and jolted in surprise. “I have had this dream, but you were in your body at the time.”

  “That is my problem. Someone has stolen my body and my family platform.” She really didn’t want to be here. The last time she had spoken to Burin, he had offered her an amazing amount of money to join Citadel Reevish. She had rudely turned him down and told him where to stuff his offer. Now, she was sitting in his bedroom with her hand inside his skull. Life was unpredictable.

  He chuckled. “You are joking.”

  He sat up and she moved with him, trying to ignore the muscular nudity of his form. “Could you put some clothes on?”

  She had to stay up on her toes, almost pressed against him in her astral form. He couldn’t feel her directly, but she had been told that the experience was rather stimulating as her electrical impulses interacted with the person she touched.

  “Why do you have your hand in my head?”

  “It fools your brain into thinking that I am talking. Otherwise, I have to act it out with hand signals and that is no fun for either of us.” Wiyra scowled, knowing that she was just a vague glow to him, a black and white outline of her own body.

  “What do you want me to do?” He crossed his arms and leaned against his desk.

  “I want you to find me. I will pay you.”

  “There is only one currency that I want. You know what I want from you.” He looked at her eye-line, and she could almost believe that he could see her clearly.

  “Refresh my memory.”

  “I want you to join Citadel Reevish as my partner. With my tracking and your ability to walk through walls, we will make an amazing team.”

  She wanted to smack him with her astral hand. “I can’t say yes. My family has final say on what I can and cannot do.”

  “Your grandfather authorized your employment with the Citadel, and you know it.”

  “He didn’t tell me that.”

  “He is terrified by you, and you know that as well.” Burin laughed. “He authorized me to make you an offer and said if you agreed, you could go. Wiley bugger.”

  It did sound like something her grandfather would say. Vecho Kwinto was an amazing trader and fantastic miner, but when it came to confronting Wiyra, he went to pieces.

  She really hoped that her grandfather was all right.

  “Fine. I will work for the Citadel but on a limited contract to pay for your services. Will that be acceptable?” She swayed a little. It was taking a lot of energy to stay in communication.

  “Are you all right?”

  “I have been out of my body for eight hours. It took me two to find you, and I am a little tired with no body to rest in.” The concentration required to speak to him was giving her an astral headache.

  “Rest in me while I get the documents drawn up.” Burin smiled invitingly. “I have a segmented mind, so there should be room enough for you to get your point across without killing yourself.”

  She had ridden in bodies before, but this was the first time she had been invited in. “It is an invasion of your privacy.”

  “Yes, but if we don’t keep your astral form safe until we find your body, I won’t have a partner. Come in.”

  He opened his arms, and she hesitated again. “Promise me one thing.”

  “Name it.”

  “Put some pants on.” She stepped into him and turned to face the world through his eyes, her astral form sighing in relief at the comfort of a living body to recharge in.

  She heard him laughing as he got dressed in a bodysuit and robe. He ran his hand through his hair as he worked the com unit, and when an equally scruffy figure answered, he gave the woman a list
of the caveats needed for the contract.

  “When do you want this, Master Tracker?”

  “As soon as you can get it ready, Legal Master. The candidate in question is currently residing inside me in astral form. Until I get that contract, I can’t help her find her body.”

  The legal expert blinked, rubbed his eyes and nodded. “You will have it within the hour.”

  Burin got to his feet. “Close your eyes, Wiyra. There are some things I can’t put off even for you.”

  She turned her senses inward as he used the lav, took a solar shower and brushed his hair and the sharp points of his teeth. The second set of canines was an installed feature. Burin’s Wyoran-Azon physiology allowed for mating teeth, but the double canines that Burin favoured were not common. They were designed as a defense-and-attack mechanism.

  Having a ringside seat to his grooming was peculiar. Being in a body did not allow her control over it. If she weren’t so depleted, she would have waited outside and then stepped into him once he emerged, but right now, she couldn’t be picky.

  “No, you can’t be picky. It is so strange how I can hear your thoughts as if you were standing next to me.” Burin shook his head, and he swiftly tied his long deep blue hair into a tail that hung down his back. His skin was a charcoaled blue and only a few shades lighter than his hair. He was designed to be incognito with the exception of his blue-green eyes.

  You don’t need to shave?

  “No. I don’t grow facial hair. The surface of my skin has an even velvety coating that doesn’t require much maintenance.” He shrugged into another bodysuit and the robes that he wore when on official Citadel business.

  The com unit chirped, and Burin quickly brought up the file. “Can you read it through my eyes?”

  I can. What is it?

  “Your contract. Read it and use the stylus to sign it. Can you take over my hand?”

  Not in my current state. I might be able to give you a locked-in code that will be unmistakably mine. Will that work?

  “Like what?”

  Open an audio file.

  He flicked his com and enlarged the contract. “Read it first.”

  She read it and it held the caveat she asked for, that she would be free to leave after she paid off his efforts to retrieve her body.

  I, Wiyra Elyena Kwinto, speaking through Master Tracker Burin, am the mistress of the Waking Dream, fourth child of Kevia and Weinrel Kwinto, granddaughter of Vecho Kwinto and the inadvertent haunt of the Echiken bachelor party. I hereby agree to the contract stipulated at this date and time, contingent upon retrieving my body.

  Burin laughed and repeated it all word for word. When he was done, he sealed the file, attached it to the contract and ordered a shuttle to be prepared for immediate departure.

  “Well, Wiyra, where were your people last seen?”

  Jelikni quadrant. The asteroid field of Pars.

  “Then, that is where we will start. Stay inside me as long as you like. I am rather enjoying the sensation.” Burin headed out of his quarters and down for a meal.

  Inside him, Wiyra could only think one thing. Pervert.

  He chuckled all the way through his breakfast.

  Chapter Two

  Wiyra stuck her hand into his skull again. “Here, it was right here. Even with drift, it should have remained in sight.”

  Burin nodded and brought the sensors of the sleek tracker shuttle online. “Be quiet for a moment, Wiyra. There is something strange here.”

  His pretty eyes went white as he looked out and saw trails that no computer could spot in the tumble of the asteroid field. This talent was what made him a Master Tracker. Nothing escaped his notice, and he could find a sliver in a pile of shattered debris. It was the reason that he had been her first thought when she needed help.

  Well, there was also the matter of his gorgeous eyes and his determined flirtation. He found her attractive, and he made no secret of it. He wanted her as a partner, but more than that, he simply wanted her. That was a very heady thing for a woman who was always surrounded by a very protective family group.

  “I have the trail. Something grabbed the platform and physically hauled it away. The track is still strong.” He blinked and his pretty eyes returned.

  “Can you find it?”

  “Me, find your body? Oh, Wiyra, I can find you across the universe.” He followed the trail made fourteen hours earlier.

  The trail should have been obscured by the tumbling masses of mineral that filled the area. If they had been using a digital scan, the trail would have been lost, but with Burin’s eyes, his shuttle moved swift and sure through space, following the path that would lead to her body.

  “How far do you think they are?” She needed to nest in him again, but she was putting it off. It was far too intimate.

  “We will catch them in four hours. Hauling a mining platform slows them down considerably.”

  She shivered and finally had to ask. “May I come inside again?”

  “Of course. Anytime you need to.” He turned to face her, and she faced away from him, backing into his body. He shuddered a little. “You are not as depleted as you were the first time.”

  I am sorry. I didn’t want to get too weak again. I have never been away from myself for this long before.

  “Don’t worry, Wiyra. I will get you back in your curves, and then, you are going to have to start paying me back for my heroic efforts on your behalf.” He chuckled.

  She didn’t know what to say to that. Her body had more than the average breast and hip for a space-born woman, his notice of it was one of the things that kept her from dealing with him as she would an indifferent man. Everything she said, he turned into something flirtatious, and it was hard for her to deal with him on that level, no one on her platform would dare to try something as crass as flirting with the Waking Dream.

  “No comment?”

  I am thinking. I want to be back in my body, but I have no idea what has been done to it in my absence.

  “I am guessing that your family hid you. They were very protective when I came calling with my offer.”

  Your offer would have had direct financial impact on the family. They react with their wallets first. She tried not to think of how many times that her life had been shoved back because the family needed one more mineral hit to afford an increase in equipment or send one of her brothers or sister off on a trip to a far-off station.

  “What was that? I felt something grey in your normally cheerful demeanour.” He pulled them out of the asteroid field, and the ship increased speed.

  I was just remembering some of the less stellar moments of my family life.

  “Don’t worry about it. The past is past. You can choose to shape your future somewhat, but the clay is given to you. Even it has a pre-set structure.” He chuckled. “My great-grandmother was a seer who liked to embroider.”

  A seer? My great-grandmother was a seer. She named my family for the next seven generations. She wanted to make her mark.

  “Wiyra is certainly an original name.”

  Actually, I was named after her. Do you think that it’s weird that you are talking out loud when I talk to you?

  He laughed. “I have done far more peculiar things in this shuttle.”

  Her curiosity reared its head, but she kept quiet.

  How far behind them are we?

  “Currently, their trail is six hours old. The up side is that we can move a lot faster than they can. We should be able to see them in under two hours. Will you be okay that long?”

  With you to keep me cohesive, I should be fine. This isn’t the first time I have been stuck with my body missing, but it is the only time that the entire platform has gone with it.

  “What happened the first time?”

  Are you just asking to keep me calm?

  “Perhaps, but I am also curious. Tell me.”

  She took a silent breath and braced herself for the memories. I don’t know about your species, but none of mi
ne are born with knowledge of how to use their talents. The powers come upon us and sweep through us as if the ancient gods decided to turn us on for their own purposes. That is what happened to me.

  She could feel him listening intently with all his senses.

  We were docked with another platform and trading was going on on the main floors. I was bored. There were no other girls my age on the other platform, so I went exploring. I made it into the engine compartment when I had my first waking dream.

  I came out of my body with a jolt as if I had touched some electrical equipment. I saw my body on the ground, and I thought I was dead. The engineer who saw me thought I was dead. He lifted my body and ran to our platform. I hid and followed behind him, more a wraith than the astral creature I am today.

  My family mourned me. They put my body on a bier and celebrated my life. I didn’t know what was going on, but I started feeling weak.

  My family’s platform separated, and they went on their way. I didn’t have the wit to follow them before they uncoupled. I was fading fast.

  The elder of the visitor’s platform could see me, but

  she thought I was a restless spirit. She was coming toward me to start communication when one of her sons walked into me. In my weak state, I stuck to him and I was able to whisper to him.

  Since I didn’t know what had happened, I couldn’t really explain it, and I was eleven at the time. I wasn’t nearly as articulate as I am now. By the time I made myself clear, my family was hours away. The visitor’s platform was mining, so there was no choice for me.

  When I felt stronger, I stepped out of the young man’s body and thought of my own fingers and toes. I snapped into my own body and pounded against the interior of the burial pod moments before my grandfather launched me into a star. I remember screaming, kicking and then finally breathing the stale air of the platform.

  My family rejoiced, and then, they got the call that told them my soul had been trapped on the other station. I was forced to train my talent day in and day out until I could manage to leave and return without effort. Once I had gained control, I went to work, but there were safety measures put into place.