To Fight the Black Wind

Chapter 11

As a Doctor of Psychology, I must be able to determine the difference between an evasion, a false confession, and an admission. As every patient is different, coaxing and guiding them to reveal their great trauma is a delicate act of cajoling and supporting, convincing the patient to let go of what they fear most. Once they do this, they are shattered in a way that they can pick up their own pieces, with expert psychological assistance, until they are whole once more.

Josephine rocked back as if struck. “No. It’s not safe to speak his name.”

Even as she tried to refuse, I knew she would do as I demanded. “This is a safe place.” I glanced at Sati for confirmation. She nodded. “You told me so yourself. It’s only in the transitions that things happen. You have avoided this long enough. Tell me.” I locked eyes with her and refused to let go.

My patient stared at me for a long time before her face changed—a hardness and determination I had not seen before coming to the forefront. “If you insist.” She gathered her thoughts as she refolded her hands in her lap. “My family has always dreamed. We’ve always come to the Dreamlands. Even before the pact with the Black Wind. As soon as we start dreaming, our families mentor us to shape, to create here.”

She unfolded one hand and held it up. Before our eyes, a bird came into being. Josephine set it aloft. The wren fluttered about the room until she gestured to the window. The wood and glass disappeared, allowing the wren to escape. With another gesture, the window reappeared. “All that we have learned has been in an effort to run, hide, and escape from the Black Wind.”

“Why?”

“The pact. My many-times-removed grandfather, Elijah, bargained with the Black Wind. For what, I do not know. The end result is that one of every generation is marked by the Black Wind. What for? Again, I do not know. I am neither engaged to be married nor twenty-one. That is when all of this is explained. I only know as much as I do because of my brother, Leland. He came to me in his dying dream to warn me. He told me about my doom, then he died, leaving me to fend for myself.”

Sati and I exchanged a glance. “Dying dream?” I asked.

Josephine pulled herself from the past. “Leland died almost six years ago in the Great War. As he lay dying on the battlefield, he chose to dream his life away. In that dream, he warned me that the Black Wind would mark me. That I was the only one of this generation left. I would be marked until I had children or I died in the Dreamlands.”

“Then why are you called the ‘Bride of the Black Wind’?”

She gave me a bitter smile. “I met him. First, at one of father’s parties. Then, in my dream that night. A tall Egyptian man with a regal bearing and a piercing gaze. At the party, he was introduced as Rafiq Talhouni, a visiting antiquarian who specialized in books. In my dreams, as he marked me, he revealed his true name…” Josephine shuddered, forcing the name through her unwilling lips. “…Nyarlathotep.”

As Josephine spoke, buttons appeared on her blouse. She raised trembling hands to unbutton them, revealing the smooth skin of her collar bones and breast. “I can hide the mark. But there are always those who can see it.” Swirling gold marks appeared, covering her upper chest. They writhed upon her skin as if alive. Several of the tentacles shifted to reveal a single malevolent eye.

One that looked about with interest.

One that focused on me.

It could see me, see into my soul, measuring me for God knows what. I felt a tickle in the back of my head. It was the same feeling I had when the Eltdown Shards book begged me to let it in. I shivered in the chill of it, every hair on my body standing on end. It was more than I could bear. I turned away, shaking.

It could still see me, searing into my soul. It picked through my fears, examining them like a woman considering fruit; scenting them, feeling them, cracking them open wide. All the while, I could do nothing to stop the invasion into my uglier imaginings and baser thoughts. I wanted to scream, but I couldn’t catch my breath.

“Josephine, that is enough.” Sati’s voice was a smooth whip crack through the tension. “This place is safe, but inviting the likes of the Black Wind in would not be good for anyone.”

Josephine did not respond in words.

The invasion within my mind ceased all at once. It left me stunned and trembling. I reached for my salvation—my work, my patient, my desire to cure Josephine.

I took several shaky breaths and forced my mind to push aside the horror of what had just happened. I faced the problem head on, trying to find an answer to help her. “You are the Bride because you’re marked. You don’t know everything, but according to your brother, you are the chosen one until you have children—who presumably will then become chosen—or die in the Dreamlands.” I raised my head and risked a glance at Josephine. “What does the Black Wind get out of you dying?”

Josephine was properly covered once more with her hands folded in her lap. “I do not know. I believe the book protected me as much as I protected it. I…do not know what to do now. The book anchored me.”

She spoke as if I should understand what she meant by the word anchor. I didn’t understand. I glanced at Sati again. She shook her head. I wasn’t sure if she indicated she didn’t know or she couldn’t tell me. “I believe, now that the book is back with its rightful guardian, we need to journey home. The asylum is not safe for one such as you. Not with Dr. Mintz’s interest.”

Josephine frowned. “But, I should be well now. No more bleeding nightmares. I can finally go home.”

I nodded. “Yes. I can visit you at your home to continue our talks. I suspect it will be needed. No one is cured in one session. Mental trauma will not disappear simply because we have removed the source of the physical trauma.”

The heiress bowed her head. “What do I do now? I no longer guard the book. I need a purpose.”

“That is something we can talk about in the real world.”

Josephine’s scowl marred her genteel face. “This world is as real as the next.”

I made a calming gesture. “I misspoke. I apologize. I’m still learning. I meant we could speak about it outside the Dreamlands.” I felt the need to return home as if it were a physical thing calling to me. The Dreamlands were too real, too alien, too dangerous.

“This is home to me.”

“It is a home from time to time.” Sati stood, ending what could have become an argument, with the motion. “Time is no longer on our side. The Black Wind is now interested in this place. I will not have it. I cannot fight him off. You both must leave. Now. The question is where will you go?”

She gestured to the front of the room where two doors stood. “The one on the right will lead you back to the Enchanted Forest. The other…” Sati closed her eyes and stretched forth a hand toward the door on the left. “The other is a path to the north…to the Plateau of Leng.” She shook her head. “I don’t know why that path appeared. It’s both within the Dreamlands and outside it…in another space, another time.”

Josephine stood and walked to the sinister door. “The Plateau of Leng. My family knows nothing of it. This could be my new path, my new duty. Investigate the Plateau of Leng.” She smiled at me. “Just think of it, Doctor, we could discover something new. Something no one else knows of.”

I stood, slow and reluctant. This was what I had wanted Josephine to do—take responsibility for her actions—but not here. Not in this world. Not in this way.

She said “we.” She wanted me to go with her. Expected me to go, even. I needed to deny her without punishing her for taking the initiative. I could not journey to a place known as the Plateau of Leng. I was barely holding on as it was.

“Such a thing could be exactly what you’re meant to do, but I cannot go with you.” I continued to speak even as her face fell. “I have other patients to attend to. Also, a job that requires my attention.” I was too aware of the pain I caused her. I wanted to take it back. I could not. This was needed—for both of us. I walked over to the right door and examined it.

“But, I need you, Doctor. I can’t…cannot…do it alone.” Her voice was soft and pleading. It broke my heart.

I touched the warm wood, letting my fingers dance over the carving of the large tree. I didn’t know if it was supposed to be the tree in the glade or not, but in my mind’s eye it was. “You can, Josephine. You’ve spent your whole life visiting the Dreamlands on your own. You don’t need me.” I glanced at her. “I believe in you. You can take on this task, this journey, alone.”

I didn’t want her to. More than anything, I needed her to take my hand and to come with me. I wanted to be back in my familiar world—no matter how changed I was. The scales had fallen from my eyes. I would never be the same again. This had consequences I couldn’t anticipate or consider right now.

I watched Josephine’s profile as she faced the door she wanted to choose. “Or, perhaps you can begin your new task another day. After you’ve prepared for it. Come back with me.” I offered her my hand.

She was afraid of being alone. She never was in her real life—I couldn’t think of the Dreamlands as real. Not yet. Her face flickered with emotion: fear, longing, stubbornness, need. She turned to her door, touched the stone, and withdrew her hand with a start. “It is cold. Freezing.” She rubbed her hands together.

I needed to make a decisive choice. I looked over my shoulder to say farewell to Sati Das. I wasn’t surprised to see that she and her Red House were already gone. As was the valley. Once more, we stood on a rocky plain. There were things moving in the distance—moving toward us at inhuman speeds.

“Whichever path you choose, we must go now. I am returning to the Enchanted Wood to go home. Go to the Plateau of Leng or come with me. It’s your choice, but you must make that choice now.” I didn’t wait for her response. To hesitate meant death. I threw a hand to her as I grabbed the doorknob and turned it. “Please!” The door swung open, revealing the Enchanted Wood. As I stepped through, Josephine grasped my hand and held on for all she was worth.

I didn’t have time to be relieved. The rocky landscape fell away, leaving us deep within the verdant forest that even I recognized. Behind us, the bandits with their horns and hooves jeered their hunting cries, coming ever closer.