Empty dreams

My son looks just as I remember him. But he’s made from steel, a metal giant, too big for this or any world. I fly into his shadow and he eclipses everything. His dragon wings wipe out the sky. He’s motionless, but his skin squirms. Soon I saw why: every scale is an ironghyll, writhing against its neighbour even while the hive-mind maintains the body whole.

‘It looks like a statue,’ says Kathy, breaking me out of my reverie. ‘A statue of a giant dragon. Is it him, Mona? It can’t be him, surely.’

‘It was him,’ I say as we swoop beneath his upstretched tail. ‘But he’s gone.’

The ironghylls must have heard me, because the statue suddenly breaks apart. Each scale swims on its own course through the coppery air, chaos transforming my son’s shell to moving dust. Inside the shell is nothing at all.

‘It delivers your dreams,’ Kathy says. She tightens her grip on my neck, leans round to speak directly into my face. ‘That’s what the tunnel of all ends does. It makes your dreams come true!’

‘What are you talking about?’ I say. ‘He’s gone. The very thing I came all this way to find is gone.’

‘Exactly. Think about it, Mona. When I asked you what you dreamed of, you said it was finding your son. And that’s what the tunnel’s enabled you to do … and it’s still doing it! You’re still finding him, Mona, even after you’ve found him.’

‘I don’t like the way this conversation is going.’

‘It’s the same for your son,’ she goes on. ‘You said it yourself – Fleogan was always running away. Well, I’ve got news for you – he still is!’

Now that they’ve released the image of their former prisoner, the ironghylls are swarming again. They rise up, a steel tsunami, ready to bring us down.

‘I think we should continue this discussion elsewhere,’ I say.

As I veer away from the onrushing ironghylls, I think about dreams. I try to remember what Kathy said she dreams of. But I can’t remember. I try harder – it seems important – but it’s too late: the ironghylls are already upon us. Their teeth are barbed and strong. I fling myself sideways. Kathy slips from my back. Her hands are slick with sweat. She falls into the metal tide, screaming. The ironghylls tear the flesh from her bones. And my human companion, after all we’ve been through together, is gone.