Dreams and Constellations

By Judy Goodwin

By day, Iona Mendoza is a college student at the University of Arizona, studying psychology and trying to avoid Justin Tabers, an annoying fellow student. By night, however, she is the daughter of a Mayan priest, being forced to marry against her will before the neighboring kingdom attacks her city. As the danger escalates, Iona begins to encounter issues in her real life--or are the dreams more real?

She must figure out the mystery before war comes to her dreams and possibly takes away both her futures.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Diamond Print Press
• Release date: Jun 5, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301008759

Judy Goodwin

Judy Goodwin developed a passion for writing at a young age, creating picture books from the time she could read and write. She continued this passion throughout her schooling, earning her BA degree in Creative Writing from the University of Arizona. Along with the passion for English came a love of all languages, and Ms. Goodwin went on to study other languages as well, including German, French, and Japanese. She spent time as an exchange student in Germany, which helped to develop her love of other cultures. She has published short stories in small press and online magazines including Space and Time, Dreams and Nightmares, and Beyond Centauri. With the advent of eBooks and indie publishing, she decided to move into the brave new world of publishing with the debut of her first novel, Heart of the Witch. Her second novel is anticipated at the end of 2013, entitled Journey to Landaran.

Book preview

Table of Contents

Beginning

Middle

Back Matter

DREAMS AND CONSTELLATIONS

A Novella

Judy Goodwin

© 2013 Judy Goodwin

Diamond Print Press

Smashwords Edition

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In dreams, time has no meaning.

Sunlight sparkled on blue waters, far below where Iona stood on a mossy green cliff. This is a real place, Iona thought, and it didn’t seem strange to have such thoughts. The water was calm, the breeze cool and pleasant. She looked down at the cliffs, where grasses covered dark stone mottled with moss and tiny sprouts. This was not a dream. This felt real.

Behind her, a temple rose high into the heavens, a stone pyramid struggling for dominance of the land. Iona turned and walked to the temple, feeling cool dirt between her toes. She was dressed in a light cotton robe, decorated with parrot feathers at the shoulders.

I’m a priestess, Iona thought, and the idea seemed right. She walked along the terrace of the temple, hands brushing stone carvings: a lady holding a flower with a snake on top of her head. Lady of the moon, Iona thought. A man holding corn—the god of maize. A statue of a jaguar. That one was Death.

Iona heard male voices chanting, the low sound reverberating off the stone walls. She continued to walk, and there was purpose in her step. She was looking for her father. She passed through a square doorway into the darkness inside the temple, stepping past rows of statues with empty eyes staring at her . . .

∞

Iona woke with a start, still smelling the earth, still hearing the shrill sounds of jungle birds. Beside her, the radio clock played Maroon 5’s Moves Like Jagger. It was time to get up for school.

She couldn’t stop thinking about the dream as she went about her usual morning routine, getting ready for classes at the University of Arizona. First, she’d never been to any place that might have ruins like that. About the furthest south Iona had been was Nogales, Mexico, which was desert. Why would she dream of such a place, and in such detail? Her hands had looked dark brown and callused. Her real hands were smooth. It hadn’t felt like a dream; it had felt like a memory.

But memories were unreliable. All senses filtered through the brain--the brain ‘saw’, and what it saw was not necessarily caused by light waves hitting the retina of the eyes. Which meant it could just