Welcome back to the third day of our book club read-along for OwlCrate's November book, Dreams Lie Beneath by Rebecca Ross!
Just a reminder that this will be a SPOILER discussion for Chapters 14-19 of Dreams Lie Beneath, so make sure you read are finished this section before continuing.
Discussion questions are listed below, and anyone who participates in the comments will be entered to win a free OwlCrate box! Don't forget, you can also post about the readalong on Instagram with the hashtag #OCDreamsLieBeneath for another chance to win!
The story continues...
Chapter 14:
Clementine returns home to shock and horror on her parents’ faces. Her father orders her to her room while he processes what she has done. Later that night he comes to speak with her, using a charm to protect them from being overheard. She tells him that she plans to get Phelan to offer her a room in his house where she can start draining his resources, and so she can try to discover why they wanted Hereswith. Her father agrees, if only she reports back anything she finds out about the countess.
Chapter 15:
It is the first day of her partnership with Phelan and they are in the library at his house as she needs to be familiar with the nightmares in his book before the new moon. When Phelan leaves to make some deliveries, Clementine searches for anything that may be damning but comes up empty. Returning to the book she reads a nightmare from someone named Knox Birch in the fortress in the clouds. In his nightmare he slays shadows standing in his way to the empty chair of the duke, but it is revealed that the shadows belonged to his wife and two daughters.
That night Clementine joins Phelan and his friends Olivette and Nura at a pub. They are the wardens of a neighbouring territory to Phelan’s and they meet up before the new moon every month. They make Clementine promise to tell them if Phelan ever decides to go madcap - their term for a magician who attempts to break into the fortress in the clouds and break the curse that leads to the nightmares on the new moon.
Chapter 16:
Phelan asks if Clementine could record a nightmare for the Duke of Bardyllis as he has duties to perform for his mother. Clementine agrees, acting as if this is her first time doing so. As she records the duke’s nightmare she senses that the dream is fake - that he’s making it up. When she goes to leave he asks her to report any information she may find out about Phelan to her in exchange for rewards, like he was playing a game with her. She thinks the duke may also sense her lies.
Chapter 17:
After dinner that night Deacon begs Clementine to stay to play a game of Seven Wraiths and she reluctantly agrees. Each Wraith card represents one of the seven wraiths from the mountain duchy that planned the duke’s assassination. When Clementine draws the card of the wraith called the lost one she realizes it is Mazarine. This also brings her to conclude that is Mazarine is a wraith, she cannot die, and nor can she dream, and her father must have known a wraith was living among them all along.
After playing several rounds Mrs. Stirling implored Clementine to stay the night in the room Phelan had prepared for her. He still wasn’t back from the council meeting. Clementine agrees to stay and after Mrs. Stirling gets Clementine settled she and Deacon leave for the evening. Casting a spell on the gate so that she is alerted when Phelan returns, Clementine decides to look through Phelan’s room. In his desk she finds a stack of notes and letters, one from the duke, and one in Phelan’s own handwriting that simply has her and her father’s name written on it. It is then the spell she cast alerts her to Phelan’s arrival and she quickly retreats to her room.
Chapter 18:
The next morning breakfast is interrupted by the unexpected arrival of Lennox. Phelan and Lennox retreat to the library to talk and Clementine silently eavesdrops. Lennox reveals that the whole purpose of taking over Hereswith was to find the dreamless sleeper - Mazarine - but there are 19 residents of the town who have never had a dream recorded. He thinks her father was protecting Mazarine and Lennox needs to find her by November. Lennox has another problem - he has lost Clementine and her father when their mother wanted them to be tracked. Phelan agrees to search for the family in the city. Before he leaves Lennox mentions that “he” was recently in a Hereswith nightmare.
Chapter 19:
Clementine returns home for her first Monday night off to have dinner with her family. She gives them the news that the brothers are hunting for them and when she asks her father why he is protecting Mazarine he reveals he was ordered to, but he won’t reveal who made the order. They also seem guarded when she mentions the date of November 17th, but deny knowing if it has any significance.
Back at Phelan’s house he reveals to Clementine that he is searching for her, and that he has a way to summon her. Back in Hereswith after she dropped her drawings he found one in a bush that had blown away. He pulls it out of a book and Clem urges him to summon her - she feels the magic pull at her to reveal herself, but she resists. There is more she must know.
Questions:
- Why do you think the brothers are looking for Mazarine?
- What do you think the significance of November 17th is?
- If her father never broke any rules, why do you think there are 19 people in Hereswith that have never had a dream recorded?
- Who do you think ordered Clementine's father to protect Mazarine?
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