“I’m sure today will be marvellous,” Sukina said and she gave an elegant curtsey.
“That’s good to hear. I’ll let your suitors lead the way.”
Francoiso and Charth had been standing loyally without saying a word, not even flinching or whispering in the collective unconscious. Their postures were remarkably straight, as if true soldiers. I smiled at Francoiso and let him march forwards and take my hand. At the same time, my heart was beating in anticipation for what lay ahead of me.
We left the king there and the four of us walked two by two through the corridors.
“You know the drill, I’m sure,” Francoiso said.
I nodded. Anyone who read the magazines knew how royal engagements worked. We would travel north on a steam barge until we reached the king’s hunting cabin in the countryside. I would have to kill an animal of significant stature to prove I was a worthy match for the groom. Then, the magazines could wax lyrical about what a brave person the new royal lady is.
If I failed, tradition had it I should be sent back to my hometown. Of course, these things were always rigged so that this never happened.
“Just remember that your hunting rifle won’t actually contain bullets,” Francoiso said. “The king doesn’t one hundred percent trust you yet, so he’s not going to give you loaded weapons.”
“So, who will kill the animal?” I asked.
Francoiso winked. “That is something throughout history that the woman’s never needed to know.”
I’d never quite seen a boat like the king’s Royal Steamship. But then, I’d never been on a riverboat before. With Velos, I didn’t need to travel by boat much. So, the only time I tended to spend on them was on the trader ships, like Candalmo Segora’s, when I popped on board for cups of secicao.
Huge trawlers like those stank of oil and coal. But this ship was different. The chimneys were at the back and a large fan also jutted out just in front of these, to blow any sickening smoke away from the deck.
But here, you wouldn’t want to go outside much, with the lavishly decorated living room within. Chandeliers fit for any palace hung from the ceiling with large faceted diamonds dangling almost as low as the banquet table. The king sat with us, but far enough away together with Alsie that we couldn’t hear what they spoke about. King Cini kept barking angry retorts at Alsie, who snapped back with equal aggressiveness. They certainly seemed like lovers given how much they were always at each other’s throats.
Still, this atmosphere didn’t mar the romance in the air, partly created by the scent of myrrh and frankincense rising from infusers on the tables. I held hands with Francoiso, and we gazed into each other’s eyes. His were a brilliant blue and he kept a smile across his face. As we sat there, we both spoke in the collective unconscious.
“I wish you’d tell me what was going on,” I said to him. “Charth and Sukina are up to something and we’re not in on it. What are they planning Francoiso? And why aren’t you giving me those vials?”
Francoiso’s expression deepened. He always seemed so cocky and jovial, but now the lines on his face soured and he looked more like his brother. “I like you, Pontopa,” he said. “You know that. I want you to stay here in the palace and I’m rampantly attracted to you. But Alsie and I have different views on the Exalmpora. If you take it fast like I did, you’ll become a creature of passion. We can fly together through wild nights, beasts of the sky. But Alsie wants to create a more controlled you… And Charth… He won’t let on what he’s planning to me either. Although I have my suspicions…”
“Maybe he wants to help us rescue the boy. Although, really that boy’s a girl…”
“Oh, but Artua’s a boy,” Francoiso said. “He didn’t used to be, admittedly. But after Exalmpora…”
“You gave him Exalmpora? That’s—” I wanted to say wrong. Unethical, perhaps. But the words caught in my throat. The part of me that wanted Exalmpora so much right now, also thought that there was absolutely nothing wrong with Artua taking it.
“That’s the medicine that Alsie pours down the boy’s throat in the thimble every day. Her job…” Francoiso paused, as if he didn’t believe Alsie should have a job at all. “She’s been given the task of making sure that Artua becomes a dragonman. That is Finesia’s will.”
“But how can a girl become a boy? I don’t understand.”
“It’s the Exalmpora that does it. Darling, I…” He looked up towards where the sun had been. We had now just left the secicao smog and the sun was hiding behind a real, white cloud. “I was once a woman, Pontopa.”
My jaw dropped. This didn’t make any sense. Francoiso’s features were the epitome of masculinity. Across the table, the king looked up at us, but Alsie pulled his face away and whispered something in his ear. She then shot an angry glance at Francoiso, as if he shouldn’t be telling me this. But Francoiso shook his head at her and turned back to me. He closed his eyes, put his hand on his temple as if focusing on something, and then continued to speak.
“Like you, I was once a dragonseer. One of the Famous Four who the king allegedly executed in the gas tower during the dragonheats. But he only ended up killing one of us, although he told the Tow Observer he’d killed all four. Instead, he made us drink Exalmpora. The idea of the king’s scientist at the time, Captain Colas… My father… We were his experiment...” Francoiso shuddered but kept his hand to his temple. His face scrunched up a little as if straining. Across the table, Alsie was holding the king close and kissing him. But she had her eyes open and was watching us out of the corner. It was almost as if she could hear Francoiso and myself talking, or at least parts of the conversation.
“It must have been terrible,” I said. “Or perhaps, wonderful…”
“You’re right. It was fantastic. You can’t help but enjoy Exalmpora. It changes you… And you gain a connection to Finesia.”
“The Empress?”
“Don’t you understand? Finesia and secicao are one and the same. When she drank of the Tree Immortal, she hacked it to pieces and ate every last inch of its bark. Then, her skin became like bark and she shattered into millions of little pieces. Out of those pieces grew the first strands of secicao.”
I laughed. “So, she doesn’t even have physical form?”
“Oh, she has. It just isn’t human… Yet.” Francoiso opened his eyes and I felt a slight jump in the collective unconscious. He took hold of the back of my head and pulled me close to him. “I want you, Pontopa. I can see how the Exalmpora is changing you and I know, unlike me and Charth, that you’ll stay a woman. This is what Finesia wants. We can multiply and create more of us. Start the birth of a new race. Together we can become even more powerful than Alsie. You have more potential than you realise, Pontopa.”
“But how does the cure fit into all this?” I asked. “Charth gave it to me last night, because he said there was no way you’d do so.”
I felt someone listening there again. Alsie, just waiting for Francoiso to let his guard down, so she could keep tabs on him. Dragonheats, I wanted to kill that bitch for invading our privacy.
Francoiso lowered his head and immediately put his hand to his temple. He closed his eyes and I felt a tightening in the collective unconscious again. I looked at Alsie who was staring at us over King Cini’s shoulder. She’d heard what I said, and I could tell she wasn’t happy with Francoiso. I just wonder if she’d heard Francoiso’s part about us overthrowing her as well, or if Francoiso had managed to keep her out at that point.
Though my suitor’s eyes were closed, I could make out lines of guilt across his face. Or, maybe I could feel that guilt in the collective unconscious. “Charth is not as far gone as me, he said. My brother is stronger in the mind. He… can resist the Exalmpora. Although, still, it managed to change him. But out of the three of it, he showed the most restraint. He drank it the slowest.”
“Like Sukina,” I said.
“Yes, he and her are very much alike.”
Now it was me gazing into space.
I raised my hand as the sun once again appeared from behind the clouds. I looked back at Francoiso and felt drawn to his handsome face. My body thrumming with desire from the tips of my fingers to those much deeper places. Francoiso opened his eyes.
“I want you... I want the Exalmpora. I want to become…”
“I know exactly how you feel,” he said and, for the first time since I’d been sober, we kissed. I caught a glimpse of Sukina then, nestled within Charth’s arms. Our eyes met and I saw the alarm registering on her face.
“Resist it, Pontopa,” she said to me in the collective unconscious.
“No,” I said back to her. “I won’t.”
“Pontopa, you don’t want to become this person. You don’t want to lose control.” I’d never heard Sukina sound angry before. “We must take Taka, get out of here, and return to the fortress. Charth has made the plans. We’ll escape tomorrow.”
“No, Sukina. I must pursue my own destiny”. And for the first time in my life, I cut off the channel to her, blocking her out of my thoughts.
The funnel sounded on the steamship and our boat turned into port. We passed nests of Gatling guns mounted on sandbags on both sides of the river, and the rapids settled a little as the river widened out. A fishing cabin with pier stood between the guns, smoke rising up out of its chimney – real smoke, nothing to do with secicao.
An older man emerged from the hut, six rifles strapped onto his back. These weren’t the modern repeater Pattersonis but had a much wider barrel and an antiquated look.
“Those are Gladionos,” Francoiso said in my eye. “They’re the finest, most accurate, and also most expensive rifles in the land. They can shoot without faltering from two hundred yards and pack so much of a punch they’ll bring down a bear in one shot.”
“Kill it?” I asked.
“Depends where you hit the bear,” Francoiso said with a cheeky smile. “But you don’t need worry about that anyway darling.” Because my rifle wasn’t loaded… Right. Although, in all honesty, I hoped we didn’t encounter any bears.
The old man gave us a rifle each and I noticed that mine and Sukina’s were a little smaller than those given to the two Lamford Brothers, Alsie and the king. I took hold of it and appreciated its weightiness, it certainly felt like a weapon of power.
Papo had taken me out shooting a few times through the forest back home. I hadn’t killed anything, though, hadn’t even dared to pull the trigger to be honest. And all Papo had brought back from those expeditions was a rabbit and a couple of ducks.
I wondered then how Velos was doing back at the palace. Not strangely, under the influence of Exalmpora, I hadn’t thought of him much. If the Exalmpora was indeed turning me part dragon myself, my connection to Velos would probably die a little. But then I started to feel guilty. Velos could be dead by now, for all I knew.
“He’s fine,” Francoiso said, again in the collective unconscious.
I shook my head. “What will happen to him if I become a dragonman?”
“That’s for you to decide.” And the shock realisation came on me that I may become so cruel that I’d kill Velos myself.
No, I wouldn’t, surely? But then these Lamford brothers had killed three Greys back in the Southlands, seemingly without remorse.
“This is no time to think about that,” Francoiso said. “We must focus on the animal you to intend to kill this moment, not the great hulking beast we’ve left behind in the castle.”
“Velos is no beast,” I replied.
“As I said, now is not the time.” He sounded a little angry. Then his telepathic voice calmed a little. “Look, we’ll talk about this later, okay?”
“Okay,” I said.
Cini was watching the visual exchanges that took place between me and Francoiso, as well as those between Sukina and Charth I knew nothing of. “Dragonseers and dragonmen. Often, I don’t know what’s going on inside your heads.” He looked at Alsie. “But I’m not sure I want to know, either. Come, this hunt must begin.”
He and Alsie walked into the forest hand in hand, their rifles slung across their backs. Francoiso took my hand. “Come on, darling. It’s time.”
He led me into the thick of the forest. The air out here was cool, with little sunlight poking between the trees: a freshness that reminded me of home. The air smelt of pines and silver birches and the ground had a soft, spongy feel to it. It was hard to believe we were so close to the smog and lifelessness in Slaro where nothing could grow. Hard to believe, in fact, that anything could survive out here.
I kept my rifle close to my chest, and occasionally raised it to aim at passing rabbit or stoat, even though I knew I couldn’t shoot them with an unloaded gun.
“We’re going to have to find a much larger beast than that if you want to marry me,” Francoiso said on one occasion. And he continued to lead us into the forest.
Soon enough the air cooled even more and from between the trees came the sound of a running stream.
“As I remember, there’s a glade near here,” Francoiso said. “Usually, water’s our best bet.” He kept light on his feet, his purple velvet boots almost making no sound against the floor. And still he moved fast.
We found the clearing perhaps a minute later, me finding it difficult to keep up with Francoiso’s longer strides. He kept ahead a little and soon raised his hand to still me. “It’s a beauty,” he said in the collective unconscious while he turned and placed a finger to his lips.
“What is it?” I said back mentally. But I didn’t need his reply because I saw the creature’s two yellow eyes on the other side of the lake, its long neck lowered into the stream, its antlers creating ripples across the water. A white stag, twice as large as any deer I’d seen in my life. “We’re going to kill that?”
“Oh, yes,” Francoiso said. “And we shall have a fine feast the night before our wedding.”
“But it’s beautiful, majestic…. Magical.”
“Come on. You know magic’s only a myth.”
“Which is why you can turn into a dragon…”
“Because my body allows it. And soon, my darling, yours will too.”
I smiled at the thought. Tonight, I would drink more Exalmpora and we’d feast on white venison and then soon I’d have all the powers Francoiso had. I raised the rifle and sighted the white stag down it.
“That’s the spirit,” Francoiso said. He also raised his rifle. “Once you pull the trigger, we are technically betrothed.”
Though I had no bullet, I felt the power surge through me. I had the power to take the life of one of this land’s most beautiful and rarest creatures, something so majestic and powerful. Was this how it felt to command armies? To know that your orders would result in thousands of innocent deaths.
No, this wasn’t me. The Exalmpora… I wanted the Exalmpora. But it had control of me. It had me addicted. Sukina was right, I had to fight this.
“Don’t think about it too much, darling,” Francoiso said. “You’re much, much more dashing when you’re displaying your wild side.”
I bit my lip and sighted down the rifle. The stag raised its head to us, as if aware of the danger. I had only one moment and then it would flee. I pulled the trigger.
My gun bucked and knocked me backwards. Something burrowed itself into the neighbouring tree. The gun had been loaded after all…
The stag turned to run, but Francoiso already had it in his sights. The bang echoed through the forest. The stag stopped still a moment. Then its legs buckled, and it fell to the floor.
“I’m sorry, darling,” Francoiso said. My ears were ringing but I could still hear him in the collective unconscious. “You’re going to have to shoot better than that if we’re going to last.” He winked. “But we shall count that as your kill for the magazines.”
“Thank you,” I said, staring at the fallen body, my hands shaking. Now, the whole world will think this was my crime. My triumph. The Exalmpora was turning me into a monster.
But as soon as such d
espair rose in my mind, a desire quenched it. Exalmpora, I wanted Exalmpora… I would kill for it. I would feast on one of the greatest beasts known to man. I would become stronger. I would become a dragon.
“Francoiso,” this was Alsie talking now in the collective conscious. “You know she’s not ready for this yet.”
“Why, Alsie,” Francoiso said. “So, you finally decide to break in on our moment of triumph. And why did you have to include Pontopa in this communication?”
“Because she has to know what you’re doing to her. Dragonseer Wells, if you drink the Exalmpora too fast, you will become a creature governed by emotions. You want her to be a beast like you, Francoiso, but another beast is no good to Finesia.”
I licked my lips. “That’s exactly what I want,” I said. “To become wild and free.”
“That, you shall not get. Francoiso, you already tested my patience when you decided to kidnap Artua and try to deliver her to Dragonseer Sako, taking the fact she was visiting Tow as an opportunity. Yes, Dragonseer Wells, it’s important that you know this, because you should know how dangerous it is cross me.”
I struggled to answer back, but while Alsie was speaking here, it was impossible to put word to thought.
“Subsequently,” Alsie continued. “I dragged the two Lamford brothers, as they call themselves, back to the palace and told them I’d kill them with my own claws if they ever tried anything like that again. And to keep the king happy, I executed two innocent ‘perpetrators’, linking their crimes to Fortress Gerhaun in the process. All in a couple of hours work.
“Now, Francoiso, Dragonseer Wells also knows what I’m capable of and she has much to fear. So, you will give her the cure after the wedding tomorrow and she will drink it every morning after Cini has given her Exalmpora, until she’s ready.”
“No,” I said. I didn’t need Francoiso to speak for me now. “I’ll refuse to drink it.”
Dragonseers and Airships Page 23