The first sound was not a bell but the ache of metal remembering how to ring. It began as a moan somewhere beyond the tents, a long complaint pulled out of rust, and by the time it reached Ashen’s ears it had become almost beautiful. He woke before he understood he was waking. The body…
They called it a palace, but it wasn’t built for kings. It was a ruin in the sky, a colonnade of rib bones holding up a roof of black cloud. The floor shifted like water and rang like glass when he stepped. In the distance, a horizon of teeth rose and fell, the dream-world trying…
When the endless Nightmare finally collapsed, Ashen believed he had won. He had slain the last of the dream gods, torn himself free of a realm that fed on fear, and wished only for one thing: to go home. But the world he returns to is nothing like the one he left behind. Centuries have…
