Along the rows of sleepers, five chambers had stopped flickering. They glowed steadily now, but the glow had changed. The soft blue-gold of a Dream had darkened, threaded through with black, like light coming up through deep water.
Noah raised his hand!
Five cocoons rose out of the Engine and floated down onto the sand before him. They were long and pale and silken, each one taller than a man, and inside them, something moved. Dark lines ran across their surfaces like veins. The air around them hummed.
Then they split open!
Obsidan and gold poured out of them together, a brilliant black-and-gold light that washed across the Early Veiled Shore and lit the sea from beneath. The sand trembled. Murky dreams rose off the open cocoons like steam off hot stone, grey and slow and heavy, curling around the five figures stepping out of them.
Henry came first.
