The Sandman and the War of Dreams by William Joyce Read Free Book Online Page A

thus!”
    Emily Jane had never backed down from a fight. But she understood the madness of rage. Her rage at this man had driven her to the brink of despair. But she had pulled back. Could he? He had not seen her since she was a little girl. If she werefree from her star, would he recognize her? Would his hate die as hers had? In an instant her instincts told her a grim truth.
    “We must run, Captain Sandy,” she said. “I can feel it. If he finds me, we both shall die.”
    Go then , I agreed. As fast as you ever have .
    Away we flew. But Pitch’s harpoon men were too skilled and quick. Before we could get out of range, a dozen of their weapons slammed into us, their chains linking us to Pitch’s galleon. Emily Jane frantically tried to burn them away, but as one disintegrated, three more ensnared us. Our speed no longer mattered, for now we pulled the galleon with us. The pirates winched the chains and inched their malevolent ship closer and closer.
    I had fought the Dream Pirates time and again and had never been defeated, but never before hadthey been led by Pitch. I’d never encountered such fury. But Emily Jane swerved and breached with a power that even Pitch’s galleon could not contain. With one great last buck, she snapped free of the chains and we tumbled away.

    We spun and spiraled at speeds beyondendurance. I remember seeing a small green and blue planet just ahead of us. I could barely stay conscious. I knew we would crash. I could hear the wishes of children coming from the planet, so I pulled at my controls. We must crash over water so as not to harm any child. I could no longer feel or sense Emily Jane. As we plummeted toward a vast ocean, I did hear one thing: a single wish above all the others. It was bright and clear. “I wish you well” was all it said, and as I fell unconscious, certain that my star and I were doomed, I thought of that wish and nothing else.

    Fig. 1. The star falls.
    We skipped across the ocean’s surface like a giant stone, then came to a spray of water, and all went black for me.

    Fig. 2. The star hits the ocean.
    I did not wake for many, many years. When I did, I found that my star was shattered, pulverized into a sandy island. I was awakened by that same voice that had comforted me all those years ago, the voice that had wished me well. It turned out to be your Man in the Moon.

    Fig. 3. The smoke clears.
    And so it is I come to you, with the Moon’s instructions. I will helpyou save your friend, Katherine, and fight Pitch. But to do so, I must finally see the girl who lived in my star, Emily Jane, daughter of Lord Pitch and the one you call Mother Nature.

    Fig. 4. The star is now the Island of the Sleepy Sands.

C HAPTER S IXTEEN

    Oh, What a Mysterious Morning!
    A ND AS S ANDY REACHED the end of his story, everyone awoke from the dream. They blinked their eyes and roused, surprised to find that it was morning. Those who had fallen asleep while floating in the air around Big Root awoke in their usual beds and under the covers. North was in his customary Cossack bed shirt and sleeping cap. His trusty elfin men were on the floor in a row at the foot of his bed. They snorted awake like a litter of young piglets. Bunnymund was all comfy in his egg-shaped bed, which he always traveled with,his head propped up by half a dozen egg-shaped pillows. He was wearing satin pajamas with matching ear warmers that had small egg-shaped pom-poms dangling from the tips. Bunnymund lifted the egg-shaped patches that covered his eyes and gave his ears a wake-up shake.
    Ombric was, of course, roosting in his huge globe, surrounded by his owls. They woke in unison, as always, though Ombric did not hoot as he usually did. Toothiana found herself perched in a marvelous twig structure that hung like a bell from one of the limbs that formed the top of Big Root’s canopy. It was the perch she had back in Punjam Hy Loo. How has it arrived in Santoff Claussen? she wondered.
    The children were in the