"Next time I certainly must listen better to Mary O'Lein", Lisabeth thought as she pushed the cork deep into the bottle's neck. "She digresses in her speech but she knows what she's talking about and that's why I now manage to catch hold of my dream. Anne would never have been able to do it any better". She carefully inspected the sea water in her rum bottle.
"It really is as claer as the Muscovite Crystal", she thought happily. "Mary will be proud of me, that I came so far already. After all, I took her advice seriously and looked carefully in the spray water".
"Mary, I've caught my dream" Lisabeth said when she found Mary O'Lein behind the steering wheel.
"Good morning, Lisabeth", Mary O'Lein answered, looking stolidly at the horizon.
"Oh, I'm sorry. Also a very good morning. I just said that I've caught my dream", Lisabeth tried a second time.
"You'd better take care that nobody awakens, for you have to let your dreams take their own course", Mary O'Lein replied. These words made Lisabeth suddenly feel very humble.
"Just like you", she tried to save the situation. Mary O'Lein gazed at Lisabeth in astonishment and then burst into laughter.
"You never fail to surprise me", she finally said.
"And you start to love me more and more", Lisabeth added.
"That's right", the Stormy's captain said, before Lisabeth turned around and went back to her cabin.
"Where did you catch your dream?" Alexej asked, apparently having overheard Lisabeth's conversation with Mary O'Lein.
"That's none of your business!", Lisabeth answered. "For I wasn't talking to you but to the Captain".
"You can't catch dreams", the First Mate insisted. "They are much too volatile for that. They are like quicksilver and even if you manage to do so, you automatically awake someone. That's inevitable. For it's always someone's dream you're catching. There are no dreams that belong to no-one."
Having heard this, Lisabeth felt ice water pouring down her spine.
"You know what you should do?" she asked. " You shouldn't be so afraid that one day I'll find a way out of all this. After all, what will go wrong after all if I do everything you try to stop me doing?"
This outburst shook Alexej.
"It's all a question of being asleep or being awake", Alexej spoke softly. "Now there's a place for me and also for Mary O'Lein, but if you'll find the way out of your doubts, then you won't need us anymore".
"Then this trip on the Stormy must also be a nightmare for you", Lisabeth said.
"Of course", Alexej admitted. "You know what Mary does to me over and over again?"
"Take care of yourself, without me", Lisabeth added. "I've enough troubles of my own."
"You have to allow dreams to take their own course", Lisabeth repeated later, inspecting her bottle of spray water once more without finding anything particular in it, except for the colours that seemingly wanted to burst out every time a ray of sunshine fell upon it.
"That may be correct but still it will have to happen in the right place and at the right time. For the time being, I don't feel like emptying my bottle without a clear cause." From her berth, through her bull's-eye window, she saw the water spray, from which the colours had disappeared entirely.
"My dream is over", she confessed to herself. "I already know the ins and outs, but Anne and Govert don't and I have to take care that they don't awaken roughly when they find me over there in the Crimea, right in front of a heap of broken pieces of the Muscovite Glassware. Who knows what will turn out bad again then? They have to stay dreaming until I've surmounted my doubts so that my presence at the Stormy has become superfluous!" She said this to herself in a light panic and anxiously looked out to see if any dark clouds were gathering, but nothing indicated any such changes.
"What is hanging over my head?" she wondered. "Anything can happen on board such a ship. Scurvy, a collision, being stranded, but none of this has happened yet. For a short while she was confused but then she knew:
"Then there must be still some time left, if I act rapidly", she said very loudly. She instantly jumped from her bed and went as fast as she could to Mary O'Lein, who had her eyes still firmly fixed on the horizon.
"I don't need any storm!" Mary said in a toneless voice without looking at Lisabeth. She then grabbed her belt bottle of rum and handed it to Lisabeth, still without looking at her.
"You won't have storm!" Lisabeth said, accepting the bottle, opening it and taking some gulps.
Almost in a panic, Lisabeth regained consciousness.
"My anxiety must have made me faint", she explained, seeing the pile of broken pieces of Crystal still in front of her, as if nothing had happened. She swiftly turned around, looking for someone who might have seen her, but felt there had been no-one.
"How fortunate", she said, storing the fragmented Crystal carefully in her soldier's bottle and clicking it tightly into her waistbelt.
"We'll leave for Upper Mongolia right away", she decided when she found Anne-Christine and Govert. "The Glasswork isn't here so it is about time to snatch it from Mary and Alexej".
"At last something is happening", Anne-Christine puffed out. "To just sit and wait is no good for me".
"You'd better beware. Such a journey by train takes almost three weeks", Lisabeth warned. "And all that time we have to sit and wait. Perhaps even longer, as you never know what will happen next".
"Like what?" Gosseling inquired.
"My husband, the Czar", Lisabeth answered. "Perhaps he wants to have me by his side. After all, I'm his lawfully wedded wife, you know."
"Pffff", Anne-Christine said. "Your marriage is just a marriage of reason. That husband of yours will have enough girl-friends. He won't be waiting for you all the time".
"He said that he found me most attractive", Lisabeth replied snappily. "And you're just jealous".
"If you go on like that", Govert interrupted, "we'll certainly never reach Upper Mongolia. What's the Stormy's position at the moment?"
"She doesn't sail that fast"" Lisabeth said. "I've made the mizzen blow out for a second time and I can take care of a storm to keep them occupied for another while. That's as easy for me as snapping my fingers, but I think we'll arrive in time if we leave now without delay."
Within a few hours, the locomotive had been put under pressure and Lisabeth, Anne-Christine and Govert Gosseling were waiting in their carriage for the train to leave.
"Why aren't we moving yet? What are we waiting for?" Lisabeth asked in surprise after a few moments.
"You didn't whistle yet!" Anne-Christine said turning down the window to open it, while looking elsewhere as if uninterested. Lisabeth leaned outside, stuck two fingers into her mouth and delivered the required signal to leave. The train started with a jerk.
"Why can the bloke only start with a jerk?" she wondered while she rubbed her head.
"Because you didn't behead him personally yet", Anne- Christine said.
"Are you planning to behave like this for the next three weeks?" Govert Gosseling asked. "What happened between you too?"
"Oh nothing!" Anne-Christine said. "You and I are stupid only because we stuck to our convinction that the Glasswork perished in the Crystal Castle. But Lisabeth here has made clear to us with great subtlety that all that isn't true. It took only a few moments and the entire Second Czarian Army to prove it."
Lisbeth was shocked by these words.
"But I didn't mean it that way!" she said. "I wanted to know for myself and it happened that this opportunity was offered to me. I grabbed this chance spontaneously with both hands, but not to make you feel uncomfortable nor to show you that you were wrong."
"We aren't Lisabeth, for Govert and I have seen everything in advance. The Glasswork did perish during the bombardment. You won't be able to drive that idea out of my mind, even if you show up with ten horses and a hundred locomotives. That entire Army of yours didn't prove anything. They were simply following a smell with their noses."
Govert listened to this with pleasure.
"In a moment, you'll be the closest of friends again", he said. "It's getting dark and I'll leave you alone". He stood up and walked, holding on to everything within reach, to the second carriage. The two girls heard the little door being closed and locked.
"Indeed we're a little silly" Anne-Christine said. "We had to wait all those weeks. I can't stand waiting".
"I shouldn't have done it", Lisabeth said. "I really don't know if all that digging brought me any nearer."
"Why so?" Anne-Christine asked in surprise. "You must be convinced by now that nothing has been found?"
"It 's more the dream than the Glasswork which matters". Lisabeth answered. "For me, that dream is over but not yet for you two."
"I don't quite understand you", Anne-Christine ventured. "What do you mean by that?"
"Oh, it's all so difficult, Anne", Lisabeth said with a sigh. "I'm so confused by all this and that's why I travel to and from the Stormy and, in the meantime, I have to make it all fit at the end".
"But for you it must be very easy?" Anne-Christine said. "We are heading for Upper Mongolia to grab Mary O'Lein's Glasswork, aren't we?"
"We are", Lisabeth answered in a flat voice. "We certainly are".
"Something is bothering you, Lisabeth", Anne-Christine said. "Now just tell me what it is".
"I don't know, Anne", Lisabeth said. "I've captured a dream and Mary O'Lein and Alexej both tell me that this can't go on for ever. Someone inevitably will awake and I don't want that to happen. You must let dreams follow their own course, for if not, then they will turn into a nightmare. It's that simple. And she knows what she's talking about, for she's a dream herself".
"It rather sounds like a nightmare", Anne-Christine interrupted her.
"Anne, I don't want to go back to the Stormy! You have to try to keep me awake, for I don't want one of you to awake from a dream", Lisabeth said. "I want to remain in control of the dream I captured without new disasters happening."
"But you didn't catch it here, did you?" Anne-Christine asked. "You keep that dream locked up on the Stormy, don't you?"
"Anne, please do understand for a moment! Whatever happens there, happens here too, and the other way around. It's like a second life to me", Lisabeth said in desperation, as usual looking outside to see if a storm was starting. "Oh well, that's different here", she said softly.
"Are you all right, Lisa?" Anne-Christine asked tenderly. "Perhaps you are still a little ill. Sometimes those things return after a while, you know."
"Perhaps they do", Lisabeth said. "But I'm afraid to go to sleep because then you'll start looking for the way out of your dreams. And who knows where you will end up then?"
"I'm not dreaming", Anne-Christine said, very self- assured. "Everything I see is real and I have no intention whatsoever to start looking for the way out of my dream when I feel I'm wide awake. And that's exactly how I feel right now. On the contrary, to me you seem to be the one who isn't quite lucid, Lisabeth, and it wasn't a bad idea to try to put an end to it all by starting this thorough investigation".
"But it didn't bear any fruit, though", Lisabeth said disappointedly. "It even got worse, for now I know that we are living in a dream here. Not a real dream being dreamt but something similar and it's even the Stormy, where things are much clearer than here, although it isn't very simple over there either, you know. The Stormy can exist only if doubt remains, and that's something they are well aware of. Alexej is in constant fear that one day I'll find the way out of all my doubts, that I'll learn how to handle the situation, for then there will be no place left for him."
"And Mary O'Lein?" Anne-Christine wondered.
"She gives me good advice. She is only interested in the cause of the whole confusion. Her only purpose is to bring the Glasswork back to its land of origin. I wonder if she cares about herself at all. She drinks unashamedly and she doesn't worry about one risk more or less."
"But why don't you let her handle the job then? Then we'll be free from our duty and can return to Weezebeecke right now", Anne-Christine proposed.
"How could I possibly do that?" Lisabeth explained. "I'd be haunted by doubts for the rest of my life, whether or not everything turned out right eventually with the Glasswork. This will make me travel between here and the Stormy for ever."
"I find it rather cumbersome, Lisa", Anne-Christine said, sighing deeply. "I've almost forgotten what's true and what isn't. Who's actually awake and who's asleep?"
"I think it's all in a dream: me, you, Govert, Mary O'Lein, Alexej, the Glasswork. It just depends on the point of view you're looking from. I look from two sides now and I've noticed some differences. On the Stormy, too, it is a dream, but for instance there you can say that you caught your dream and so forth. There's nobody there who is surprised by such a statement. Mary O'Lein even gives you advice how to handle it".
"Well, then she's capable of something I am not capable of", Anne-Christine answered, looking diffidently at Lisabeth.
"You don't have to", Lisabeth soothed. "For I greatly prefer you to think that everything is all right. Until everything is all right, indeed. I don't want to wake you up so that you'll see how much damage I've done. You'll never fogive me!"
"I can't understand you, Lisabeth. I don't know what you're talking about. The Crystal Castle is in shatters, but that was your own Castle. I don't blame you for that, and neither would Govert."
"Oh but Anne, there's so much more that I've destoyed!" "The Time Projector? The Glasswork?" Anne-Christine suggested carefully.
Lisabeth didn't give her a clear answer. "You two were making yourself so interesting with those light images and all that Time Travelling stuff. I couldn't follow you and I didn't believe it either."
"I know that", Anne-Christine answered. "And you made your point very clear".
"You and Govert did what you could to keep alive a dream you both believed in but I wanted to be much too logical", Lisabeth confessed. "Perhaps you never saw any amazing images in the Crystal but saw that you never could Travel in Time. I haven't any proof of this, or to the contrary, and things should have stayed like that. But I couldn't stand the doubt. I searched desperately for an answer, for which I had to pay dearly."
"Why dearly?" Anne-Christine asked. "What do you mean, once again?"
"That I can only escape from it by following the same route you took. Going through everything you already went through. Just not knowing what happens to you and whether everything is real or not. I just have the feeling that everything is even worse with me than it was with you. I hardly know how to handle it, Anne. I'm walking right on the edge of the cliff and I really hope that everything will turn out fine. For you, too."
"Can't I give you a little help?" Anne-Christine asked. "After all, you helped me to steal the Glassware".
"Perhaps you can", Lisabeth said. "I want you to stay with me all night long, Anne. That will help me".
"All right, then", Anne-Christine said good-humouredly. "But then we'll play some games, some naughty games, because I really feel like that. We haven't played naughty games for quite some time".
"That's true", Lisabeth said. "That's awfully true!" she thought, while feeling if her soldier's bottle was still attached to her belt.
Anne started undressing immediately. After a short while, both girls' clothes were lying on a chair next to the bed and, after a buoyant night, Anne-Christine and Lisabeth both fell asleep.
Lisabeth walked on deck in the late evening sun, hoping to find her way out of the problems which she just had revealed to Anne-Christine.
"I've fallen asleep there, with a bottle containing the Muscovite Glassware hanging on a chair where anyone can snatch it", she thought sorrowfully. "Tomorrow I have to find a better place for it. If Anne starts nosing around, then perhaps I'll awake in time, for she lies close to me, but Govert sleeps in another carriage. What will happen if he gets up to find a drink and sees my soldier's-bottle hanging there? Then inevitably his dream will be over as well!"
A sudden cry "man overboard!" made her break away from her spiralling thoughts. Confusion reigned on the foredeck. Several sailors were reaching out over the bulwark, splashing ropes into the water, while spray water rained down on them. They seemingly were trying to haul a man from the water. Lisabeth started to run in their direction.
"Whoops-a-daisy!" they shouted four times, before Lisabeth saw it was Govert Gosseling who was being hoisted aboard, soaking wet in a rainbow of salt-water drips.