The Dreamwalkers of Larreta
by
The gripping conclusion to The Dreamwalkers of Larreta trilogy.
Leo has found the source of the deadly time rifts threatening Larreta. His new life with Jesse is unfolding when a rift pierces Larreta and seizes him. Leo finds himself on the dark planet Kālong.
No one has ever left Kālong, but Leo must return to Jesse. He sets out to find Kālong’s ruler and teams up with Ballan, a Horse That Once Flew, to escape the dying world.
On Larreta, Jesse grieves for Leo. Refusing to believe his lover is dead, he begins the Call of Grief. Joined by other dreamwalkers, Jesse’s Call reaches across time and space for Leo, but the cost is high and his energy wanes.
On Kālong, Leo learns the truth that has kept him from Jesse for so long. When the mysterious being who causes the time rifts informs Leo that Jesse is calling him, Leo returns the Call, although the effort may end his life.
Searching for each other, the dreamwalkers of Larreta find themselves
Genres:
Pairings: F-F, M-M
Heat Level: 3
Romantic Content: 4
Ending: Click here to reveal
Protagonist 1 Age: 18-25
Protagonist 2 Age: 26-35
Tropes: Hero and the Great Quest
Setting: Larreta, Kalong
Languages Available: English
Ballan whinnied and pawed the ground. Leo turned and placed one hand on Ballan’s neck. The sky was blazing orange and black. “Tell your people to stand steady,” he said to the horse.
Nara shimmered silver. “Leo, we must go.”
“Not yet. We have time.”
“Perhaps not,” Nara said.
Leo faced her. “What do you mean?”
“We must return to Jesse. He called for you longer than any dreamwalker has ever called. First the Call of Grief and then the zama. In all that time, he did not speak or drink or rest. Now, his life force ebbs.”
Leo sensed fear in Nara. Her lights had paled. “He’s in danger?”
“He may be.”
“She is right.” Ananta lowered her head to his level. “When the Mentors arrived on Kālong, I ceased to breathe on the passageway. It collapsed, as you did. When you ceased your call, your consort could not maintain his focus. Now nothing connects our worlds.”
READ MORELeo clenched his teeth. “I am sick and tired of being played. Tell me the truth, snake, and tell me now. Are the dreamwalkers you stole from Larreta still here? Other than the ones in the city?”
Ananta swung her head over his, causing a breeze to form. “They are underground, nearby. I secreted them away so you would not be distracted.”
Leo swallowed. “You must release them now.”
“I will release them if Nara does as I ask.”
“What do you ask?”
“I have a desire only she can fulfill. If she complies, I will recreate the portal. Your beloved lives, dreamwalker, but he grows weak. I feel him through the connection I placed in his field when you found me with your time passage.”
Nara’s lights flashed. “That connection remains. Will you use it to harm him?”
“You were wise not to tamper with it, Mentor,” Ananta said. “The dreamwalker on Larreta has served his purpose, but if you fulfill my desire, I need not harm him or you. If you fulfill my desire, I will use my connection with him to focus the direction of your return passage.”
“Will you allow all of us to go?”
“All who wish to leave may do so.”
Ballan stamped his forefoot. Meno hugged his brother.
Leo stepped closer to the snake. “Bring me the dreamwalkers you have secreted. Those from the city are too frightened to leave. If they survive, we’ll come back for them. After I see that my friends are alive and well, you tell Nara what you want.”
Nara shimmered blue. “Leo, do you know what you’re doing?”
Ananta lowered her head to the grass. “You push your luck, human.”
At this range, if she loosed her forked tongue, it would skewer him as effectively as would her fangs. Leo swallowed. “Your world was lost. You’ve manipulated us into the position you wanted, but if we don’t go back, no one will ever know. You will stay lost. The ruler will decimate your world again and your efforts will be for nothing.”
Ananta’s yellow eyes never wavered from Leo. “You are braver than I thought.” She turned and slithered along the ground toward the highest hill that bounded the meadow.
COLLAPSEPeaceseeker on Amazon wrote:The third volume of Carol March's fantasy, spiritual journey trilogy is a satisfying conclusion to a remarkable exploration. Using world creation and a Tolkien-like hero's journey into human potential--through the pain of denial and the joy of redemption--March tells a story that has moments of shining insight into what it means to be a human being. If you feel it is too late to read John Milton's Paradise Lost, this is a good alternative. And Kalong has a nice alternative ending to the Biblical story of Paradise, Eden, Original Sin and of Satan being lost forever to the world of light. The serpent here is not above making a snack of casual strangers, but he has bid his time for eons in order to complete both his personal destiny and to thereby reconnect worlds that have been lost to one another. In a way, this trilogy provides a valuable antidote to the polarization that is gathering its force right now on Planet Earth..
“What a piece of work is man: how noble in reason, how infinite in faculty, in form and moving how express and admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god” (Hamlet II ii). And yet, how ‘bestial’, ‘tyrannical’ and ‘fiendish’ can the behaviour of this ‘paragon of animals’ be under certain conditions?
In human consciousness, ‘good’ and ‘evil’ have always engaged in an apparently eternal struggle for supremacy. Hebrew mythology has it that ‘God’ cast out ‘Satan’ from ‘Paradise’ and threw him into ‘Hell’. Satan, however, travelled between his world of despair and hopelessness and God’s ideal world, the Earth, where he took the form of a serpent and tempted Eve to eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge ...“If so many unbelievable things hadn’t already happened, I’d say it was fantastic. But it’s just another piece of the puzzle.” In this series, Ms March has expertly created a kind of science-fiction, fantasy scenario to explore some fundamental ‘realities’ of human existence. “The darkness holds what the light refuses to see.” At the beginning of Chapter 1, the Being creating the time rifts on Larreta and other worlds of light reveals that dreamwalker Leo is to play a key part in its plan for the salvation of its world of darkness and despair. It is, of course, no accident that the Being has the shape of a huge serpent, and that its pain and isolation has been caused by the rending of its world from ‘heavenly’ Larreta aeons ago by a supremely powerful creature who chooses the shape of an old man in white.
Kālong vibrated at a lower frequency than its sister, Larreta. Cutting off all access to it removed the danger that Larreta would not be as perfect as ‘the old man’ wanted it to be. Larreta flourished, while Kālong lost all hope and its inhabitants drowned in despair. “Abandon hope, all ye who enter here.” In taking inhabitants from the worlds of light, the immensely powerful serpent has been waiting all this time for the power of love to bring its world back to the light. Only Leo and his ‘Ah-min’ partner, Jesse, can create the ‘truan’ needed to heal the rifts ...
Hence the story unfolds, and the ‘mentors’ of different ‘connected’ worlds become aware of the terrible wrong done to Kālong. ‘Hell’, reason suggests, is a mistake that needs to be rectified. But how? I was fascinated to follow Leo in his pilgrim’s progress through this series, and in this book through Kālong. I won’t tell you what happens to him, and what he learns about “the unforgivable sin”, as you need to read the series; but I can tell you that the limitless power of love does eventually achieve what even angels believed could never have been done.
There is some comic relief. “Have you come to kill us?” “What? No, of course not!” Meno nodded. “That is good news.” There are profound questions along the way: “But what good is freedom if we help no one but ourselves?” “Larreta exists for beings to discover their wholeness.” Human endeavour can work miracles, but the process takes many lifetimes.
“The Dreamwalkers of Larreta” is an exceptional series, and I recommend it highly. Be sure to start at the beginning and read all of it. Pay particular attention to the glossary of terms at the beginning of each volume. It will help you along the way.
