Drogoya: Book 3 Circles of Light series, page 24
‘It was Neri who was working with you, was it not? Is he all right?’ Thryssa asked.
The woman healer straightened her back with a groan. ‘He is drained but will be himself after a good rest, as will we.’
‘How did you destroy it?’ Thryssa looked suddenly alarmed. ‘It is destroyed I trust?’
Lori smiled. ‘Some of us had heard rumours of these things from the Void making an unwelcome appearance on this world and had talked of ways of defeating them.’ She shrugged. ‘We unmade its mind. But the three of us were fully stretched. Six would have dealt with it quicker and suffered less than we. None of us will be able to call any power for several days.’
Kwanzi rubbed a hand wearily over his face. ‘All three bodies must be burnt to ashes at once.’
‘Why?’ Pachela asked in surprise. ‘They are dead, they are of no danger now. Are they?’
Lori started to turn away, moving like an ancient crone. ‘Their bodies could be reanimated for a while. They must offer no haven for any other such creatures.’
Pachela put her hands over her mouth, grey silvered eyes round with shock. Thryssa put her arm across the young woman’s shoulders and moved them both towards the door.
‘Take these bodies to the roof, burn them, and stay with them until the winds take the ashes,’ she ordered the guard leader.
Another guard hurried in as she was speaking. He saluted.
‘Speaker Lashek and Speaker Orsim have been brought in High Speaker.’
Thryssa’s arm tightened about Pachela at the words.
‘They seemed to have some sort of fit so their escort told us, about a league from here. They are not conscious but have been taken to infirmary three.’
Kwanzi and Lori had turned back to hear the guard’s words. Kwanzi met his wife’s stare.
‘Lashek wears a pendant,’ Thryssa murmured. ‘I will go at once.’
Somehow, Kwanzi and Lori summoned a reserve of strength and followed Thryssa and Pachela down three floors to the infirmaries where the Speakers had been taken. Senior healers were already working over the two men when Thryssa arrived. Gripping her pendant in her left hand, she reached between two healers for Lashek’s hand. She lifted it and placed it over his pendant, pressing the limp fingers around the oval shape. A healer moved aside, raising his brows at the High Speaker in mute question.
‘Can you find any damage, any reason for this collapse?’ Thryssa kept her voice low.
The healer shook his head. ‘There is evidence of great shock – the sort we would expect to see following a major injury and serious loss of blood. But there is no sign of any physical injury.’
Another healer murmured something and the one who had spoken to Thryssa turned back to their patient. Thryssa moved to Orsim and heard the same conclusions. She studied Orsim’s face, relaxed and unguarded as she had rarely seen it. Slowly, she raised the silver chain over her head and held the jade backed egg in her hand. She put it gently in the curve of Orsim’s neck then stood back, aware of the healers’ curious stares.
‘Let that not be moved from where I have placed it,’ she commanded them and moved once more to Lashek’s bed.
The healer who had spoken to her previously bent towards her.
‘The shocked reaction to his sensory web is dissipating quite quickly High Speaker. Quicker than I would have thought possible.’
Thryssa drew a stool to Lashek’s bedside and sat watching him. Colour had returned to his pallid face and suddenly his lips twitched into a wide smile, although his eyes remained closed. Thryssa had no idea how long she sat, healers coming and going around her. She was aware only of Lashek. His eyelids fluttered, and opened. He looked straight into the High Speaker’s hazel eyes, the smile still creasing his plump face and the scent of mint suffused the infirmary.
Chapter Twenty-One
Tika decided that it might seem more polite if she made her way to the Elder’s cave rather than expecting him to fly to the beach. She knew from Farn that the young sea Dragons such as Storm, supplied fish for the Elders, who spent most of their days basking on the ledges. Tika had not met the third Elder. She had seen a massive body lying outside a cave near to Salt’s but its colouring was so like the weather streaked rocks, that she saw only a blurred shape with no definitive form to it.
The party spent the hottest part of each day within the lower caves, dozing or chatting, until the heat abated enough for them to venture forth to the ruins of the ancient city of Segra. A short while after their midday meal was finished today therefore, Tika announced that she was visiting the Elder Salt. She shook her head when Gan would have escorted her.
‘He has asked to speak with me Gan. I presume he means alone.’
Gan settled back against a small boulder.
‘I will wait for you here then, should the others have gone off to dig in the sand some more.’
Ren looked up from a sketch he was making on a large piece of paper and scowled.
‘It is serious research, not just digging about in the sand.’
Gan nodded and closed his eyes. Sket caught Tika’s eye questioningly. She grinned.
‘You can wait here with Gan if you wish – just think of all that water you would have to look at from so high up.’
Sket grinned back and continued cleaning and checking his weapons. Tika walked round to the beach side of the cliffs and began to climb towards the cave in which she, Gan, Navan and Riff slept. She studied the cliff face and picked a route upwards to Salt’s cave. Halfway to her goal, the path became far more tricky and took all her concentration. When she hauled herself onto the ledge she sat for a moment, legs dangling, and sucked her sore fingertips. It was going to be even more unpleasant climbing down, she realised, and sincerely hoped that Salt would allow Farn to land here and carry her back to the beach.
She heard a dry rustling to her left and got to her feet, moving cautiously toward the cave. The bright sunlight and the glittering dazzle off the water made the cave seem even darker as she peered within. From the darkness the slightly paler face of Salt loomed towards her.
‘Welcome child. I will lie outside then you may choose heat or shade in which to sit while we talk.’
Tika pressed herself against the rock as the huge body emerged from the cave to recline along the ledge. As she sat against the cave’s entrance, head in shadow and legs out on the ledge, she realised how dark her skin had become. Her trousers were rolled to the knees and her legs and bare feet looked a tawny brown against the rock.
‘You find your chosen caves suitable?’ Salt asked politely.
‘Oh yes, perfectly,’ Tika answered. ‘Brin will be back in a day or two we hope,’ she added, wondering if Salt really wanted to discuss such details.
Salt rumbled quietly and extended a wing over the side of the ledge to better soak up the heat. His long grey face turned to regard the small figure beside him.
‘Storm tells me there has been much searching for a particular plant?’
Tika noticed that his pale faceted eyes had dark green specks in them as she considered her answer.
‘It is a herb, called mint. It is used in many ways, some of them in healings.’
‘Hmm. We know of certain such plants, but we have to seek far to the north for such. We use plants that grow in the sea more often.’
‘Those long ribbon things you mean?’ Tika asked in surprise.
‘Not those generally, but Ice can tell you more of such thing than I.’
Salt regarded her steadily.
‘Why do you need this mint plant – none of you are sick I think?’
Tika paused to think. ‘It has a strong smell. Some of us believe we have smelled it, but look though we may, we cannot discover it.’
Silence fell. Salt swung his head to gaze out over the endless waters.
‘Do you hear the singing?’
Tika stared at Salt’s profile. ‘No one has mentioned to me that they have heard any singing.’
‘Hmm.’ The Elder turned his gaze back to Tika. ‘You carry something special with you.’
Tika’s hand went automatically to the pendant under her shirt.
‘It calls to me,’ Salt’s voice whispered in her mind. ‘Might I see it?’
Tika pulled the gold chain free of her shirt and let the pendant swing freely below her hand. The red gold backing winked and shimmered in the bright sun and the amber front seemed to drink in the light. Salt’s eyes whirred rapidly and he lowered his face close to the pendant.
‘Listen child.’
Tika frowned then gasped as Salt opened his mind to her. Countless voices mingled in Salt’s mind, their singing rising and falling in joyful cadence. Very slowly, Tika slipped the pendant under her shirt again but held it away from her skin when she realised how hot it had become. The singing faded and ceased. Salt sighed, a great gusting sigh.
‘That is what I hear. Only myself and Mist hear them. It began on the day that you arrived at this shore.’
Tika realised that she was trembling and also that Salt was aware of her agitation. The Elder’s eyes darkened, fixing on Tika.
‘You have heard this before.’ It was a statement not a question.
Green silvered eyes sparkled with unshed tears.
‘When my Farn was near death, I think I heard something like that, but not so clearly, nor so close.’
Salt’s mind tone softened. ‘Go now and speak with Mist.’ He glanced a little higher along the cliff face to an empty ledge. ‘She awaits you now child.’
Tika scrambled up the short distance to the ledge that Salt had indicated. She stood at the cave’s mouth and called in the mind speech:
‘Elder Mist? Elder Salt told me that you wished to see me?’
Tika was unable to hide her shock when the sea Dragon came into the sunlight. One side of her face was still the long beautiful Dragon face that Tika had come to expect. The other was twisted by a burning of some kind. The left eye socket was empty, puckered grey hide grown across it. There were no scales on the left side of her face and, as Mist came fully onto the ledge, Tika saw great patches on her neck and shoulder were also bare of scales. Tika could not restrain her tears: Mist’s left wing was half gone, clearly this Dragon could no longer fly. The single eye rested on her, pale greens and blues iridescent in the prisms.
‘I appreciate your feelings child, but I am long used to my disfigurements.’
‘Yes, but to be unable to fly!’ Tika blurted before she could stop herself.
Mist laughed softly. ‘I can manage to reach the shore on occasions. More often, I go to the cliff top, from whence I can get back here quite easily. I will admit that it is a struggle up from the beach.’
Tika could not believe that this huge creature of the skies could speak of her loss of flight so lightly. But Mist again answered Tika’s thought.
‘It was long ago child. I am accustomed now to my restrictions.’
Tika brushed her sleeve across her wet face. ‘Forgive me Mist. Your bravery makes anything I have heard of or experienced fade to nothing.’ She drew a shaky breath. ‘You wished to speak to me?’
‘Yes indeed.’ The Dragon settled herself more comfortably along the ledge. ‘It will not surprise you to know that I listened to your stories through Cloud’s mind? All of this Flight allow me to see and hear things through their minds since I am isolated here.’
Tika nodded in understanding.
‘The hatchling you are bonded to – his mind is fragile. No, no.’ Mist lowered her head to touch her undamaged right cheek to Tika’s. ‘I do not say his mind is weak – fragile is what I truly meant. I am surprised that his mother has let him travel so far from her though.’
Tika was quick to Kija’s defence. ‘She went to visit an Elder – not too distant from us. Then she heard tell that her clan sister had been dreadfully injured a long way to the north. She flew to offer her help, not knowing that we would come across the barren lands to the coast. Brin is boastful sometimes, but he cares for Farn and would let no harm come to him. And I have some medicines which help if he becomes too upset.'
Mist listened carefully until Tika fell silent.
‘Know that I can help him child. And as he is the one who carries you, and you have been Chosen to carry what you do, every Dragon of my Flight will defend and protect you should such need arise.’
Tika’s jaw dropped in astonishment. Mist’s words rang with simple truth and Tika believed them. But she had felt the independent wildness within the sea Dragons and had not thought that they would bother overmuch with the fate of two legged strangers. Again Tika revealed her oval pendant.
‘Is it because of this? Is it so important? Mim and I do not even know what they really are.’
Mist’s eye was glued to the gently revolving pendant and Tika stared at it too.
‘Inside, there is - ’
‘I know what is inside,’ Mist interrupted her. ‘And I marvel that I have survived long enough to see such a thing.’
‘Are they so very important?’
Mist shifted her weight to lean against the cliff side. ‘Oh yes. We have stories that tell of their hiding long ages gone. Before the two legs built their strange cliffs here. And I knew when they were taken from hiding half a cycle past.’ She tilted her head to see Tika clearly. ‘More have been freed of late. There is one which is the most precious and that one too is in the world again.’
Tika had no idea what Mist was talking about. She knew the strangers from Drogoya had brought a pendant with them – she must ask Ren more of that.
‘One of our company comes from the land on the far side of this world – you will have heard his story? The leader of the people who fled from here, she told of something called the Void. We think it was creatures from that place who attacked us when we arrived here.’
‘And attacked some of my Flight a few days before.’ Mist’s eye flashed with sudden anger.
‘If you know of these pendants, do you know aught of these other things?’ Tika pressed on.
Seboth’s scouts had informed him of Hargon’s arrival at the way station close to Far. He was told at mid morning of Hargon’s approach to the town itself – with a minimum escort. Seboth quickly ordered two squads, already positioned in the thinly wooded hills near the way station to be watchful for the prearranged signal. Then the Lord of Far went down to the main courtyard to be ready to receive his visitors.
Lady Lallia waited above stairs beside a screened grill set high in the wall of the reception hall to which Seboth would invite Lord Hargon. Lallia heard the hooves ring on the stones of the yard and kept watch on the door below her. Armsmen in the green uniforms of Far entered and stood to either side of the doorway. Then Seboth walked into sight, Hargon at his side. Behind, but only by half a pace, slouched the newly appointed Armschief of Return, Trib, of whom Lallia had heard much and none of it pleasant.
Three paces behind him, walked officers Tarin and Fryss, and Lallia knew instantly how unhappy they were with the present state of affairs. Their expressions were blank, notice in itself of their confusion. They halted and stood smartly to attention, stark contrast to Armschief Trib’s casual stance and crumpled dark grey uniform.
Meran stood by the inner door, overseeing servants who offered refreshments to the visitors. When dishes had been set for the men to help themselves and jugs of ale and water stood ready by a line of goblets, the servants disappeared with Meran.
‘No females flocking about you Seboth?’ Hargon’s voice was cold and harsh. ‘How can you bear to be parted from them – I thought they were always permitted to attend you in your household?’
Seboth poured himself some water and sat down.
‘My wife is unwell at present.’
‘Unwell?’ Hargon barked a laugh, although it sent chills down Lallia’s back. ‘How opportune!’
Seboth studied the Lord of Return coolly. ‘She is breeding again, so I command her to guard her health at such times.’
Hargon flinched and turned away at this subtle stab at his now childless state. Armschief Trib was already pouring a second goblet of ale for himself, Lallia saw, although the two officers had not moved.
‘I come to persuade you from your foolhardy ways Seboth. All aspects of life in Sapphrea have become too lax in this generation, and you exemplify this laxness even in the way you allow such ridiculous freedoms to your females.’
To Lallia’s practised eye, Seboth’s mild expression had become somewhat strained and she clenched her fists, willing him not to lose his temper.
‘There are no more Gangers to war with now Hargon. Our lands are secure. Some tolerance is but small reward for the hardships our people endured but a few cycles back.’
‘Tolerance.’ Hargon spat the word out. ‘You have allowed the old blood to revive and strengthen among you – I could smell it from the moment I reached your town border. I tell you, you will cull it from your people, or I will.’
Seboth placed his goblet deliberately and carefully on the table and got to this feet. He stood easily, his hands loosely hooked on his belt.
‘I give the commands in Far, Hargon, and never will I command that any man, woman or child be killed because they “might” have old blood in their veins. And you are no longer welcome here. You and your men will leave now, unharmed. But the instant that you clear my boundaries, we are foes.’
Hargon’s hand slammed onto his sword hilt as he glared across the room at Seboth. Lallia saw her husband’s face lose colour, his eye widen in surprise before cold determination clenched his jaw while he stared back at the Lord of Return. Hargon glanced at his Armschief, who was peering into the depths of the ale jug with an air of dejection, then at his two unmoving officers.
‘You have let your armsmen grow soft, Seboth. My men will treat them as playthings ere they kill them. Come.’
Hargon strode to the door, Trib staggering in his wake. Seboth gestured to his own men to follow Hargon and then eyed the officers still standing before him. They dropped to their knees, unbuckling sword belts and laying the weapons on the floor in front of them. The veteran Tarin looked up at Seboth.
