“No,” Aracia replied. “I don’t think she’s quite ready. From what you’ve told me, I’d say that your Dreamer might be the first. The story of the world sort of sets things up for the other Dreamers. Did she really see it right from the beginning in her dream?”

“It came very close to what really happened,” Zelana replied. “Eleria has some problems with words once in a while. Her playmates were young dolphins when she was a baby, and she speaks dolphin much better than she speaks our language. It’s probably my fault. I was too busy with poetry and music to train her.” She shrugged. “We all make mistakes, I guess. Anyway, I’m fairly sure that Eleria still thinks in dolphin, and dolphin baby talk isn’t too precise. She did her best, though. What’s your child’s name?”

“Lillabeth,” Aracia replied fondly, “and she’s the most beautiful creature in all the world.”

“They seem to do that to us, don’t they?” Zelana said.

“Do what?”

“Distort our perceptions, dear sister,” Zelana replied. “I’d imagine that Dahlaine and Veltan feel the same way about their Dreamers. I know that I have exactly the same feelings about Eleria. It’s probably very simple. We love them because they are ours.”

“Could you be a bit more specific about this dream your Eleria had?” Aracia asked.

“Let’s wait for Dahlaine and Veltan. There were some very complex things happening when Eleria began to dream, and I think Dahlaine’s the best qualified to interpret them.”

“That’s assuming that he ever gets here,” Aracia added.

It was probably late afternoon outside when a pair of shattering thunderclaps shook the air for miles around. “That is so childish,” Aracia noted. “Do they really have to do that?”

“They’re still little boys, dear,” Zelana replied, “and showing off is part of their nature. Riding a lightning bolt is a sure way to get everybody’s immediate attention.”

“But they look so silly after they do that—glowing and with their hair standing on end the way it does.”

“I think lightning does that,” Zelana said. “It is a very fast way to travel, but I think I’ll stick to riding the wind. It’s almost as fast, and it doesn’t make nearly so much noise.”

A few moments later their brothers emerged from the twisting passageway that led down from the surface.

“What kept you?” Zelana asked mildly.

“I had a little trouble locating our baby brother,” Dahlaine replied sourly.

“He can be such a grouch sometimes,” the tall, fair-haired Veltan noted.

“I wouldn’t be nearly so bad-tempered if you’d stop trying to hide from me,” Dahlaine said. “Did you tell our sister about Eleria’s dream, Zelana?”

“Not in any great detail, no,” Zelana replied. “A number of her servants were there, and I didn’t think they needed to know the full extent of what was happening just yet.”

“Tell us all, then, my fishy sister,” Veltan said, grinning at her outrageously.

“Of course, moon-boy,” Zelana replied tartly. “A few days ago, Eleria was out playing with her dolphin friends, and they introduced her to a very old cow whale. The whale told Eleria that there was something nearby that she might want to see. Eleria went with her to a nearby island, and the whale showed her a huge oyster. The oyster obediently opened its shell, and Eleria saw a very large pink pearl. The whale told Eleria that she was supposed to take the pearl. Eleria did that and then brought the pearl home. She was very tired, and she fell asleep almost immediately. The pearl rose up into the air just above her, and it started to glow. Then it told me to keep my nose out of what was happening. It hung in the air over Eleria all night long, and when Eleria woke up, she told me about the dream she’d had. It was a nice little dream that more or less covered everything that’s happened since the world was first formed right up to the present.”

“You’re just making this up, Zelana,” Veltan scoffed.

“No, baby brother, I’m not. The pearl—and quite probably that whale as well—aren’t what they seem to be.”

“Our sister believes that Mother Sea’s starting to tamper with things,” Dahlaine said then, “and I think she might be right.”

“Now we come to the interesting part, big brother,” Zelana said brightly. “Just exactly who and what are these children you so generously gave us a few years ago?”

“The Dreamers, of course, Zelana,” Dahlaine replied just a bit too quickly.

“And?” she pressed.

“And what?”

“What else are they, Dahlaine? You’re so obvious most of the time that the rest of us can see right through you.”

“You didn’t!” Veltan exclaimed, his eyes almost popping out as he stared at Dahlaine.

“I don’t quite . . .” Aracia began. Then her eyes bulged out as well. “Dahlaine!” she gasped.

“Well,” he floundered, “it was kind of an emergency, wasn’t it?” he asked plaintively.

“Are you insane?” Veltan demanded. “They can’t be present during our cycle. As soon as they realize who they are, they’ll usurp our Domains!”

“I was careful to blot out their previous memories before I woke them,” Dahlaine replied. “And I modified them slightly to make them more closely resemble newborn man-creatures. They sleep and breathe and eat food instead of light. Their minds are still very infantile, and they have no idea of who—or what—they really are, so their presence during our cycle won’t tear the Land of Dhrall apart. They’re really nothing more than children, and our cycle will come to a close before they’re fully mature and realize just who they really are.”

“You’ve put the whole world at risk with this idiocy!” Aracia flared.

“Calm yourself, Aracia,” Zelana said. “Now that I’ve had time to push my horror away, I think I’m beginning to see what Dahlaine had in mind. If the hideous thing in the Wasteland is on the verge of moving against us, we’ll need all the help we can get, and the others have as much to lose as we do. Besides, we’ve never really gotten to know them, have we? They’re really very sweet. I didn’t really care for the idea of being supplanted before, but now that I’ve gotten to know Eleria, I love her. That was sort of what you had in mind when you came up with this scheme, wasn’t it, Dahlaine? If we know them and love them, we can trust them. Isn’t that the short and the long of this grand plan of yours?”