Wine of the Dreamers by John D. MacDonald Read Free Book Online Page B

whichever world you desire, then disrobe and take the metal plate between your teeth and bite down on it firmly. The dream will come quickly. In your dream you will have a new body and new, odd, pointless skills. I cannot instruct you how to acquire change and mobility in the worlds of dreams. That is something you must learn by doing. Everyone learns quickly, but the actual procedure does not lend itself to words. You will dream for ten hours at a time and at the end of that time the machine will awaken you. Then it is best to wait for a new day before dreaming again.”
    Raul could not resist the chance to say, “When the lights are bright in the walls and floors, we call it day, and when they are dim, we call it night. Is there any particular reason for that?”
    Jord Orlan’s hand slid quickly down from Raul’s naked shoulder. “You talk insanely. Why do we have heads? Why are we called men? Day is day and night is night.”
    “I had a childhood dream where we lived on the outside of a great globe and there was nothing over us but space. The other globe, which we called the sun, circledus, giving light and heat. Day was when it was overhead. Night was when it was on the opposite side of the globe.”
    Orlan gave him a queer look. “Indeed?” he said politely. “And men lived on all sides of this globe?” Raul nodded. Orlan said triumphantly, “The absurdity is apparent! Those on the underside would fall off!” His voice became husky. “I wish to warn you, my son. If you persist in absurdities and in heresies, you will be taken to a secret place that only I know of. It has been used in times past. There is a door and beyond it is an empty coldness. You will be thrust out of the world. Is that quite clear?”
    Sobered, Raul nodded.
    “And now you must dream of each world in turn. And at the end of three dreams you will return to me and you will be told the Law.”
    Jord Orlan walked away. Raul stood by the case, trembling. He lifted the glass door, slid quickly in and lay on his back on the softness.
    He unwound the band of fabric and thrust it from him. The soft throb of power surrounded him, tingling against his naked limbs. He set the knob at figure 1, which Orlan had not known as a figure, as a mathematical symbol.
    The metal plate was cool to his touch. He stretched his lips and put it between his teeth. Putting his head back he shut his teeth firmly against the metal … and fell down into the dream as though he fell from the great red sun to the brown dusty plains near the ragged mountains.
    He fell remote and detached in the blackness, limbless, faceless.…
    All motion stopped. This then, was the precious dream? Absolute nothingness, absolute blankness, with only the sense of existence. He waited and slowly there came to him an awareness of dimension and direction. He hung motionless, and then detected, at what felt like a great distance, another entity. He felt it was a sense that was not sight or touch or hearing. He could only think of it as an awareness. And with the power of his mind he thrust out toward it. The awareness heightened. He thrustagain and again and it was a sudden merging. The thing he merged with fought him. He could feel it twist and try to turn away. He held it without hands, pulled it toward him without arms. He pulled it in and merged it with himself and pushed it back and down and away from him so that it was shrunken into a far small corner.
    And Raul Kinson found himself walking on a dusty road. His arm hurt. He looked down at it and he was shocked to see the stringy leanness of the arm, the harsh metal enclosing the withered wrist, the dried blood where the metal had cut him. He was dressed in soft rags and he smelled the stink of his body. He limped on a bruised foot. The metal band on his wrist was in turn connected to a chain affixed to a long heavy pole. He was one of many men fastened to one side of the pole, with an equal number attached to the other side. Ahead of