And they’re flittering and flying on the other side of the mysterious veil.

I sprint to the border of the Nightmare. The Draftsman in me tells me it’s no use. A dreamscape has its boundaries, and no one can change them except through programming in the Real World. But if there’s anything I’ve learned about this place, it’s that it defies all the rules I originally understood about dreamscapes.

If the cardinals were able to get through, that means there’s a way. Heidi entered Tenebra through this transparent wall. Maybe all the kids did. They must be able to go through it too.

I press a hand against the wall, but it’s as firm as glass. I knock the hilt of the kris dagger against it to see if it shatters. It wavers a bit, now acting like a thick plastic. One of the children hunkers down in the wheat a few yards or so from me. It’s Heidi. I give her a smile, and she relaxes a little bit.

“Come put your hand on this,” I whisper. “Can you push through it?”

She lifts her palm and presses it against the barrier. Nothing changes. It remains firm and impassable. She looks back at me, as if to check that she did it right. I nod.

“Thanks, Heidi.” She manages a smile.

My heart thunders.

The cries and shouts increase. Arrows have joined the spears coming from above. No lightning bolt yet. No one fights back. Stranna and Erik stare limply at the onslaught. It riles me, not because of their inaction, but because I understand their inaction. What can we do?

“Kids!” I holler. “Get over here!”

Surprisingly, they jump up and run my way. Trusting me. Trusting that I have some sort of answer. An arrow strikes a boy in the calf. He screams and tumbles to the ground, but Erik swoops him up. The tirones circle the border of the wheat field now, dropping lower and lower. They’ll dismount any moment.

Luc keeps his distance and watches.

“Everyone, push on this wall at the same time,” I instruct, desperation building in my chest.

Arrows ping off the translucent barrier. Any moment now I expect one in my back or in the back of a child. “Get in front of us adults!”

The children scramble to pile in front of me, Stranna, and Erik. They don’t all fit, but I feel a little better about being a shield.

“Push as hard as you can!”

They all diligently press their palms, shoulders, and bodies against the barriers and push, straining. Stranna exclaims as an arrow skims her ear, leaving a streak of blood. But she stays at the wall. Not questioning me.

She thinks I know something. I don’t correct her. Let her hope.

Tirones drop to the ground from their nightbeast mounts and run for the wheat field. A nightbeast snaps the ankle of one tiro midair and drags him to the ground for a meal.

Those who make it into the field waste no time. They sprint toward us.

“Cain!” Stranna shouts. “Whatever you’re doing, do it!”

Nothing. I’m doing nothing. I feel a sudden burn behind my eyes as the finality of the realization hits me. We’re going to be cut down. All of us. All these children.

All because I brought us here with no escape.

Stranna must read the despair on my face because her own expression turns grim, and she nods. “It’s okay.”

She turns toward the tirones. Beside her, Erik does the same.

The kids keep pushing on the barrier, and I let them. Best to keep them distracted before their deaths. I pound the barrier with my fist to a hollow echo. I slam my kris dagger against it, and the dagger shatters, falling to the earth in pieces of smoke that disappear.

Even my weapon doesn’t work for another purpose in this place.

Here I thought we were coming to a place of safety. Reprieve. But it’s a trap—everything in this Nightmare is.

A tiro nears me and lifts his gladius. Weaponless, I grab Stranna’s magical sword from the air with one hand and throw it up to block the tiro’s blow.

“No, Cain! It’s not for that!” Stranna manages to cry as she wrestles with another tiro since she has no other weapon.

The words are barely out of her mouth when my hand starts to burn. The hilt turns to fire. I move to release it, but it doesn’t fall from my grasp. It stays, holding my fingers to it. Burning them.

I yell.

The tiro in front of me startles and backs away, turning his focus on the kids who still push on the wall. He lunges after the nearest one. Heidi.

I shove myself at him, and shoulder him into the grass. Then I lift Stranna’s sword, but instead of stabbing the tiro, I strike at the wall.

The burning blade cuts through the barrier like a razor through plastic wrap. A burst of light comes through, clinging to the outline of the split curtain flapping before us. The sword falls from my scalded hand, taking pieces of flesh with it.

The children need no urging. They bolt through the flapping curtain into the dim shadow world. Those who trip are helped by older kids.

Stranna and Erik haul me up and toss me through. Then they’re through too.

As though knowing the mission was accomplished, the barrier seals itself back up, leaving Luc and his tirones dumbfounded on the other side.

Leaving us trapped on this side.

For once, I don’t mind being caged.

“We’re back in the gray soup!” a kid chirps, plopping himself on a rock.

It looks that way. Rubble and rocks, broken concrete, and everything gray and colorless. No form, no reason to the place. It’s like the junkyard where Tenebra’s Draftsman threw all the waste and excess. The only difference is that this place is cold, like the beginning whispers of winter. Not cold enough to freeze, but enough to warrant jackets.

The coliseum and surrounding areas were always the same temperature, something neutral and tolerable. Why is it different here?

I thought in passing through the barrier we’d wake up. Another rule broken.

“Who’s injured?” Stranna asks, completely tuning out the shouts and bangs from the tirones on the other side of the barrier. Perhaps she concluded as well as I did that they can’t get through. Not without one of the magical Adelphoi blades.

A few children amble her way for her to inspect their injuries. At least they’re all walking.

I look back at the scene—it’s like staring through a rippling waterfall on pause. Not quite as clear, but I see Luc gesturing from atop his stingray, and the tirones retreat. He’s not going to give up.

“It’s only a matter of time before they’re back,” Erik mutters to me. “With a plan, this time.”

“He won’t be able to get in,” Stranna says with little conviction.