He does live. It's a trilogy. If you read 'Gathering Blue' and 'Messenger' it shows what's become of him.

I usually hate the kind of endings to stories where you wake up and realize it was all a dream...I think it's sorta cheap, acutally.

But I found myself liking this ending, because it was laced together so nicely, and had me laughing the whole time!

Good job :)