Survivors: Book 4 Circles of Light series, page 12
Tika noticed his use of the word by which Kirat had referred to Kertiss, and as had Khosa when she spoke of Namolos. ‘Do you trade or have any dealings with the desert people?’
Zeminth shook his head firmly. ‘They are fierce warriors who seek blood. Zenidor at first thought your party was perhaps a small raiding force. They come occasionally, steal animals, children, women, kill the men and try to burn our buildings. We have not been attacked for perhaps ten cycles but my cousin’s village to the east, three days walk away, was destroyed only a few seasons past.’
‘We have told you that we must reach one of the western islands. Should we be especially wary in Harbour City or will we find any such as you, who revere the Elder Races?’
A gnarled hand covered Tika’s. ‘Do not let the Elder Ones be seen in Harbour City. There are many who would try to harm them, for many different reasons. But there are still temples to the Elder Races within the City: poorly attended and falling into decay I have heard. Wandering traders sometimes reach even to our small northern villages and they are welcome indeed for their news of the great world beyond our fields. The traders know that many of us still follow the Way of the Elders and so they tell us of our dwindling numbers of friends within the City.’
He fumbled inside the neck of his shirt and drew out a leather thong. It was threaded through an oblong of copper and Tika leaned closer to see the markings etched on one surface. A Dragon’s face stared from the centre of the copper but the two wings flaring to each side were feathered wings.
‘If you see a building with markings like this, or anyone who wears such a token, you may be safe. Be cautious, but they might be true followers and able to help you. Tell them Zeminth of the north sends you to them.’
Tika could not hide her doubts. ‘Is anyone likely to know Zeminth when you say you have never visited the City?’
‘I was fortunate, sacred one. My father was a man who could both read and write. He taught me and my sister. Traders learnt to bring paper and books to him. I studied his books and collected more of my own. In my youthful arrogance I dared to write to a man whose book I found most puzzling and I gave the paper to a trader. A full cycle passed before that trader returned – with a paper from the man in Harbour City and a whole bundle of books!’ Zeminth shook his head at the memory.
‘I had my work in the fields but at night I worked over those books. The man – Nornay Vos Keptun – was a great scholar in the City and he sent me copies of many of the texts on the Elder Races over the cycles. I keep them in great safety – as you might guess. Most in this place can read and write – my father and then I and my sister taught them. I have two young ones who will take care of my papers when I pass from this life.
‘Nornay Vos Keptun asked me to visit him in every paper he sent. Part of me wishes I had gone to him, but I was too afraid of the City. He told me he had given my name to the temples of the Elder Races so that they would welcome me should I visit.’ Zeminth shrugged. ‘I still receive messages from Nornay’s son – Hariko Vos Nornay. Thus I would guess my name is still known in the temples.’
‘If we pass this way again Zeminth, we should be greatly honoured to see those texts. Would you allow us to read them?’
‘Of course. You are sacred ones. What is mine is yours,’ said the old man simply.
Tika kissed his cheek. ‘I hope to return to keep you to that promise,’ she said. ‘But I don’t know what lies ahead. There are great troubles loose in the world which somehow I and my friends must help defeat. I beg you guard your people well.’ She paused. ‘We have come from a City in the very heart of the desert. Most of the people were ordinary farming folk, but there is a rottenness at the heart of that place. We insisted we leave and demanded guides to bring us to these lands. The three guides who led us tried to kill some of my friends. Two of the guides died, one escaped. I fear others may try to follow our trail so please Zeminth, keep a good watch for your northernmost fields.’
Zeminth nodded. ‘Thank you, sacred one. We have places to hide where we can survive for many days. Raiders rarely stay more than a day.’
A woman came from the largest house to invite everyone in for food and Tika offered an arm to Zeminth. They found Gan sitting at one of the tables with Olam and Pallin, in close conversation with Vanim and several other village men. Khosa sat upright on Gan’s knees, turquoise eyes surveying each speaker in turn. Tika settled Zeminth on a bench and he caught her hand as she straightened.
‘That cat – is she a sacred one?’
‘Do you know Zeminth, I’m really not sure. But she is most definitely not just what she appears to be.’
Tika and her friends left early next morning amid exchanges of good wishes from both sides. Zenidor walked with them for most of the morning, still following the course of the river. They crested a low rise and Zenidor halted.
‘This is where I must leave you.’
He pointed ahead and went over the details, yet again, of their route for the next three days until they would reach the next village. He clasped hands with each of them and the Dragons and gijan landed beside him to bid him proper farewell.
‘May the stars guide your paths,’ he said, stepping back from them all.
‘And may the stars guard your heart,’ Tika replied in the ancient formal words of the Dragon Kindred.
Chapter Ten
The company made their way south. Villages became more frequent and increased in size. The Dragons and gijan stayed higher in the sky for longer each day, only risking landing with the humans if they were camping between villages and the night’s darkness concealed them. From one hilltop they saw ahead of them a dark line of trees stretching to the southern horizon. They trod a well worn track way now and carts and wagons passed them regularly in both directions.
Once amid the forest, it was too dangerous for the Dragons to land and for four days and nights they communicated only by mind speech. Sket became concerned for Tika after the first day and night, staying close to her throughout the next day. It took the others a little longer to see how badly the physical separation from her soul bond was affecting her.
When Ren mind spoke Seela, she reported that they were finding it harder all the time to distract Farn. They’d had to stop him from plummeting down to his beloved Tika, regardless of his immediate danger from the closely packed trees. Tika became almost totally silent. Her eyes fixed on the rutted track, in constant mind touch with Farn. Since she’d seen him climb from his egg she had slept curled against his side, ridden daily on his back. Only when he hunted, or played with Storm, were they bodily apart. Gan remembered a conversation with Tika in the Domain of Asat.
Tika had spoken of her terror of being apart from Farn if he should choose a wandering life like Brin. He also recalled Kija’s words, trying to explain the pain soul bonds endured should they be parted too soon or without the willing agreement of both. Tika knew Farn was nearby although out of sight. But being in this dark oppressive forest without the reassurance of Farn’s heart beat beneath her cheek when she slept left a gaping ache inside her.
Sket held her as she dozed and wept through the third night. Just before sunrise Leaf fluttered down beside them. She demanded she be given a white cloak and the gijan walked the day through, holding tight to Tika’s hand. By then, they all knew they could not go on much longer with Tika’s mind slipping into a permanent cry for Farn. Seela told them there was a bare hilltop poking above the surrounding forest some three leagues to the east of the track way they followed. Without discussion Olam struck out in that direction.
At first the going was fairly clear but after the first league brambles and thorns hindered their path. Riff worked alongside Olam, hacking a narrow way through the undergrowth. The one advantage was that they encountered no other travellers crazy enough to try to pass through the tangled bushes. Among the trees dusk darkened their way early but Tika’s head suddenly jerked up. Leaf trilled a call which was answered from above.
Branches swayed and rustled as Piper and Willow worked their way down a gigantic oak. All except Tika noted the ease with which the gijan hopped from perch to perch, their wings adjusting to their every movement. Leaf had discarded her cloak as soon as they were safely hidden from the wider trail. Now she curved one wing around Tika, leaning close.
‘We are nearly to the hill Seela spoke of. Farn is there already.’
The ground rose sharply and as they cleared the trees at last, they found themselves having to grab at pieces of rock to pull themselves upwards. Gan and Sket, on Tika’s heels, were nearly knocked backwards when Farn crashed down the slope. They steadied themselves against Maressa and Pallin who were immediately behind. Above them, they saw Seela, Brin and Storm peering anxiously down. Tika clung to Farn, his silver blue wings wrapped around her. Willow and Leaf flew on to join the three Dragons but Piper stood between the soul bonded pair and their companions. Her wings suddenly flared fully out and her expression dared anyone to encroach upon Farn and Tika’s reunion. Gan reached a hand to Maressa and tugged her the last of the way to the hilltop.
‘You can rest here tonight,’ Leaf announced. ‘Tomorrow Tika will come with us until you are through this forest.’
A brisk wind whistled over the exposed hilltop and Riff searched out the most sheltered spot where they might light a small fire and spend the night. Seela told them Tika and Farn were already asleep, both exhausted by the stress of being parted, albeit for only four days.
‘We will fly on tomorrow and wait for you beyond this forest,’ she told the company. ‘I think it will be quicker for you to go back along the path you made today to rejoin the wider way.’
Her eyes whirred, pale and dark mauve mingled in the prisms. ‘I should have prevented Tika walking with you. These last two days I feared Farn’s mind would crumble in spite of Gremara’s healing.’
Olam was leaning against the Dragon’s flank and he patted the purple scales. ‘We should all of us have realised,’ he consoled. ‘But it is as well we found out how badly they’d be affected here, rather than inside a great City.’
Navan agreed. ‘Those last two villages we passed were much different from the first ones.’
Gan nodded. ‘The people acted oddly towards us I thought.’
Maressa poked at the fire with a twig. ‘Suspicious,’ she said. ‘Very wary of strangers which is odd. Zeminth’s, and the first few villages after his, welcomed us calmly and generously. Yet I would have expected them to be far more cautious living so isolated and subject to raids from the desert as they told us.’
Khosa climbed onto Gan’s knee and began to wash herself, watching Brin. Brin had been very quiet ever since they’d left Zeminth’s village. Now his great head swung to face Ren and Maressa.
‘I have been searching my memories which, we are taught, trace our ancestral lines back to the first of the Kindred. But I find nothing of Dragons either in the desert or beyond it. There are memories of sea Dragons, and of snow Dragons, yet nothing of any others. Nor can I recall anything of the gijan.’
Willow, lying along Brin’s back, stretched a wing lazily. ‘We remember your race,’ he said. ‘My memories tell me we often Gathered together in the Time Before, on the great plains of your homeland.’
‘And my memories tell only of the mountains far to the north.’ Brin’s mind tone was worried. ‘Seela, do you remember? Is my mind damaged?’ His eyes whirred in sudden alarm. ‘Could that affliction be affecting me?’
‘No, no,’ Seela soothed. ‘My memories contain nothing of southern Dragons or gijan either, although I have yet to ponder the term “Elder Races”. I’m sure I’ve heard that before.’
The Xantip Palace high above Harbour City bore a great resemblance to a disturbed anthill. White-faced messengers pelted along corridors, hesitating at certain doors before mustering the courage to ask admittance to deliver their news. When the doors reopened to permit the exit of now green-faced messengers, loud alarmed voices echoed into the corridors. Eventually the disturbance penetrated to the personal quarters of the Grand Harbour Master Chevra himself.
One of his guards reluctantly tapped on an inner door and kept his eyes glued to the priceless Tooman carpet underfoot as the door opened.
‘What do you want?’
The guard noted large, rather grubby bare feet then resumed his study of the carpet.
‘The Councillors beg you attend them Grand Master.’
‘They what? Gods and goddesses, what’s wrong with them now?’
The guard tried not to hear the giggles from within the Grand Master’s chamber.
‘Well man, have we declared war on someone?’
The giggles were difficult to ignore but the guard was well practised at appearing partially deaf as well as wholly dense. ‘Two ships have been taken Grand Master, of the four traders returning from Meorlah. The two which escaped sought shelter at Kessal from whence came the news.’ The guard refrained from fidgeting in the ensuing silence.
‘I will be there shortly.’
The door slammed shut, the guard expelled a sigh of relief and trudged back to his post.
A surprisingly short time later guards swung open the great doors of the Debating Chamber and saluted as Grand Harbour Master Chevra strode into the room. Only two of those Councillors present bothered to get to their feet. The others merely glanced up then resumed arguing over a map spread before them on the table. Lessna and Tavri bowed to the Grand Master who acknowledged their courtesy with a nod. He stood at the head of the table, his hand on the back of his intricately carved throne, and scowled at the still seated Councillors.
‘Is someone going to bother to explain?’ he barked.
Argument quietened. A short plump woman with grey hair pulled into a tight knot at the back of her head, leaned back in her chair and smiled at the Grand Master. She looked more like a shopkeeper – a pastry cook even – than a Mage Councillor.
‘From the description of the ships which attacked ours, it would seem they were Wendlan.’
The Grand Master sat down frowning. ‘We’ve had treaties with Wendla since my father-in-law’s time Vorna. They don’t bother us, we don’t bother them. Why would they suddenly attack our trading ships?’
The youngest looking Councillor answered him. ‘We have noted for some time that students at the Higher Academy have been reporting odd dreams of a revolutionary nature. We alerted everyone naturally, but it seems to be increasing among the lesser trained.’
‘And that means precisely what Bajal?’ The Grand Master was testy.
‘At first we thought it may be a curious Wendlan mage student trying to reach someone similar here but now we suspect it is more sinister.’
As Chevra still looked confused, Lessna’s characteristic kindness – a major flaw in the opinion of her peers, led her to explain more concisely.
‘There was a new leader came to power in Wendla quite recently we heard. He appears to have ideas of expanding his realm.’
‘In this direction,’ Chevra finished for her as light dawned. He drummed short stubby fingers on the table. ‘Where is our army at present?’
There was a brief silence then Bajal cleared his throat. ‘Army sir? Navy might be more use really, in the circumstance don’t you think?’
‘Well of course I know that!’ Chevra glared. ‘But I think the army should be strategically positioned rather than wandering around various borders all over the country.’
‘There has been rather an increase in reported incursions in the north of late sir, from the desert.’
The Grand Harbour Master stared around the table at each of his Councillors. He folded his arms.
‘You’re supposed to counsel me. So counsel.’
One Councillor sighed. ‘Sir, we have a fleet of fast small ships, as you well know – not warships of the type described to us in this attack. We’ve had no reason to for so long after all. A few pirates now and then – that’s all we’ve had to protect against. And fast ships are best for that. I believe there are a few warships still moored beyond Harbour limits, but their condition must be parlous by now, if indeed they haven’t sunk.’
‘Are you saying, Fental, that MY warships have been left to rot?’
Fental nodded.
‘Perhaps someone could go and check on their condition,’ Chevra continued frostily. ‘You say the surviving traders are at Kessal.’
‘Here.’ Tavri pushed the map up the table. The large island of Wendla was only just visible on the eastern edge of the map. To the south of Harbour City many islands clustered, trailing into a sparser region. Then the large expanse of empty sea and at last the outermost coast of Wendla. The island of Kessal under Tavri’s fingertip was within the closely grouped islands.
Chevra frowned. ‘Was there any warning given?’
Lessna shook her head. ‘The traders had taken copper out, to the Delmans and to Meorlah, returning with cargoes of spices.’
Chevra began to pace. ‘And none of you, expert mages all, can find out what these Wendlan mind meddlers are up to.’
‘Sir we have concentrated on other disciplines, like recovering the arts lost in the Wars of the Elders,’ Sheoma began.
Chevra spun on his heel. ‘How many thousands of years ago did those Wars occur? And you’ve discovered precious little from what I hear.’ He scowled round the table. ‘I want General Koolis here tomorrow morning. I want a report on the state of my warships. And then I suggest you lot start finding out how to get into a Wendlan mage’s mind. Fast.’ He marched to the door. ‘Tomorrow. Early. With some answers.’
‘Ignorant pumpkin,’ muttered Taseen.
The company discovered Tika and Farn were gone in the morning, along with the other Dragons, but Leaf was perching on a jutting rock. She held Tika’s boots and the white cloak was across her knees.
‘We decided I would take Tika’s place,’ she announced calmly. It wasn’t clear who the “we” implied. ‘Seela was concerned that nine of you have walked from the north and word may have been sent ahead that nine strangers travel to the City. Willow thinks that two sacred white cloaks in your company would definitely be noticed so – I will become Tika.’
