“He’s attacking us,” I said.
“I thought he was on our side?”
I clenched my teeth. “Not now,” I said, and I looked down once again at the ocean.
“You’re not going under, are you?”
“Dragonheats, no. We’ll hold off as long as we can.” I decided not to tell him that I could probably get out of this by turning into a dragon myself.
I watched Charth come in for another pass and the voice of Finesia nagged in my head and told me that I had to fight him. But regardless, I wasn’t going to draw on her powers. She wouldn’t have dominion over me.
“I see you’re not going to listen, wench.” Alsie said in the collective unconscious, sounding very slightly irritated. “Charth, return.”
And the dragonman obediently returned to Alsie’s side.
“You see, Acolyte,” Alsie continued. “Finesia has decided to punish him for his long period of disobedience and relinquish control of his soul to me for a while. This is what will happen to you as well if you resist your destiny for too long.”
I gritted my teeth. “I will not succumb to the voice of Finesia. And I won’t let Taka do so either.”
I heard a chuckle from Alsie in the collective conscious then, almost as if it came from the bottom of her being. “Oh, we’ll see about that soon enough.”
“Good shall prevail. Secicao shall not be allowed to rule this earth.”
“That’s what you think. But Colas has already prepared the ground for the secicao that the tribesmen have planted across the island.” Alsie gestured towards East Cadigan Island and the ever-blooming clouds that enshrouded it. “The sulphur of the earth will acidify the soil, creating the perfect conditions for secicao to grow. Colas has been working this island for Finesia for years and his efforts shall soon pay off in spades. Well, there’s absolutely no point risking a dragonman when I have an entire air fleet at my disposal. Let’s see how you survive the next wave.”
Alsie and Charth darted towards the line of airships and then she levelled so that she was flying perpendicularly to them. Hatches opened up on the side of the airships, and a colossal swarm of green secicao-powered Hummingbirds formed out of them. Alsie Fioreletta let out a huge roar and, as one, the Hummingbirds shot towards us.
Those things were so fast and light that Velos wouldn’t be able to shake them off using aerobatics. And as they approached closer, I noticed something else about them. They had a faint red glow underneath the greenness. Just like Colas’ panther automatons.
Flaming wellies. Colas hadn’t just been working for Alsie, but he’d developed new technology for Cini. This had all been a ruse.
“Faso, fire up the guns,” and I looked over my shoulder to see him turning the tap on the armour, while Ratter hung off the other side of Velos fiddling with a control panel on the other flank. Another modification, no doubt he’d failed to tell me about.
“There’s very little secicao left,” Faso complained. “So I hope you have a decent plan this time.”
The armour was now hot under my feet, and I felt the Gatling cannons buck into overdrive. But, no matter how much they shot at the approaching automatons, the bullets never seemed able to hit their target.
“Dragonheats,” Faso said. “What is this technology?”
“I don’t know. It looks the same stuff that Colas used in the panthers.”
“Impossible. How could Cini possibly have stolen their old man’s inventions?”
But I didn’t have time to explain my conspiracy theory as the Hummingbirds had now closed in. It was as if they wanted to toy with us. They’d spiral around us in a swarm, hovering nearby no matter where Velos flew. The Gatling cannons kept shooting out bullets, but none of them ever seemed to connect. Every so often, one Hummingbird would come close to us and send a jolt into Velos’ unarmoured belly, causing him to enter a short stall.
“Turn the guns off,” I shouted back at Faso, “You’re just wasting ammo.”
“I can’t. Not without stopping the flow of secicao.” A design flaw, I was sure.
“Auntie Pontopa,” Taka shouted. “Finesia tells me I can use the scream.”
“And you can too, Acolyte,” her voice came in my head. “Claim your power and show us all what you can do.”
I shook my head. “Don’t listen to her,” I said to Taka in the collective unconscious, pushing Finesia’s voice away. “Close her out of your mind.”
“Do we have a choice?” Taka asked.
“We’ll think of something. But we have to do it the right way.”
I tried entering Velos into a loop the loop, in an attempt to confuse the Hummingbirds. Faso screamed out as I did so – he hated these aerobatics. And still, the swarm stuck like bees after stolen honey. We just couldn’t shake them.
“What are you going to do, Acolyte?” Alsie asked. “If you don’t call for Finesia’s help, we’ll bring you down. It would be a shame to lose your dragon and the scientist so early, don’t you think?”
“But you’ll also kill the boy. I thought you wanted him alive.”
“Oh, I won’t let that happen,” Alsie said. “Well, I can see that I’m not going to convince you this way, it’s time to take you down.”
She let out another roar, and the Hummingbirds swirling around us began to narrow their radius. The Gatling guns seemed to be running out of ammo now. And the swarm was moving so close and fast that I couldn’t make out what was happening beyond them.
Sparks lashed out at us, stinging Velos and I felt his muscles weaken. I started to sing him a dragonsong to help him keep his strength, in the hope that a little dragonseer magic would at least get us through this. And he held his courage each time a stab of pain speared through his chest or his wings. But I knew this wouldn’t last forever.
Then, I remembered all of a sudden. Sandao’s fleet should be nearby with two hundred and fifty dragons at my disposal. Surely they could tip the tides of battle. But I listened out for them in the collective unconscious, and I could detect no sign of them. Instead, I felt only emptiness, as if hundreds of souls had simply been snuffed out. King Cini’s fleet from Oahastin had already taken their lives perhaps. Or maybe my transformation had killed my connection to them. I tried singing out a dragonsong to call them into battle. But I got no reply from them.
But instead, I got a response from something else. A presence that felt more like electrical static pulling my soul towards it. It came from the direction of the volcano. I reached out to it. And as I did, I pulled it forward as magnets pull metal.
“Hoooooiiiieeee,” came the first voice on the collective unconscious. “Dragonseer finally found a way.” This was the voice of the tribesman manifesting itself in my mind. How was it possible?
“Maam, we’re here to do your bidding,” came another. “Us and all you’ve summoned.” The voice of Lieutenant Wiggea on the collective unconscious. No, it couldn’t be. I felt a stab of fear in my chest. I hadn’t even had time to grieve Wiggea, and here he was emerging from the dead. This had to be my imagination.
“Yes, Dragonseer, you did it.” Colas’ voice came next. “You’ve summoned your own army from the ashes, and you’ve created a new race of immortals. Upon this land, a superior civilisation shall rise.”
Then came a scream on the collective unconscious, and this time it didn’t come from one source, but from fifty or so dragonmen. I clutched my hands to my ears, once again, writhing in the pain. And then, all of a sudden, the Hummingbirds flew off in all directions as if they’d been launched out of random slingshots. Velos bundled through them, knocking some of them into the sea.
Finally, I could turn over my shoulder to see the black dragons. Dozens of them. They weren’t quite as magnificent as Alsie or Charth. They were rather spindly, in fact, and around the same size as a grey. But still, I could sense their raw power, and also the same kind of immortality that Alsie, Charth, and now myself shared.
“Remarkable,” Alsie said. “So the old man did it. And
there he is in the crowd.”
But none of them spoke back. They simply turned themselves towards the line of airships and speared towards them. They flew in a tight formation. The airships responded by firing with the heavy-duty cannons they had equipped at the front of their hull. But these weren’t enough to even injure the dragons. These creatures were now invulnerable with their only weakness at their throat. The men on the airships would have to be terribly good shots to take them down.
Soon enough, I could see the little men running around on deck like ants. The king’s redguards, with their rifles poised. They fired a volley. But still, the black dragons went forward unscathed.
“We are immortal,” Colas said. “And these men are buffoons not to flee.”
“We shall take them, Maam,” Wiggea said next.
“Hooooiiiieeee…” This was a collective call of multiple tribesmen from the jungle, now in dragon form. A war cry, perhaps.
I decided it better not to reply to them. To even acknowledge their existence would be to heed Finesia’s presence. And I could still hear her nattering at the back of my head, telling me to command them into battle. But I tried my best not to put importance to her words and to keep my cool.
The dragons soon were upon the airships. Out of their mouths spouted flames of unnatural green, setting the gondolas alight as the dragons raised their claws and slashed through the balloon linings that kept the airships afloat. And then the balloons sank, and I could see the horizon once again.
“Take control,” Finesia said in my mind. “Tell my minions what you want them to do next.”
But I kept pushing her away.
“Well, well, well,” Alsie’s voice came in my head. “I see Finesia’s still trying to grant you power, and you won’t accept it. So I shall have to go in and claim the power myself.” She let out a huge roar and turned towards the volcano. Charth followed in her wake. They headed right into the volcanic ash cloud disappeared beneath it.
Meanwhile, I looked back in astonishment at the airships now strewn out across the churning water, balloons being thrown up upon the massive waves, and the gondolas getting even more torn apart by the power of the sea.
A whole aerial fleet destroyed by around what must have been fifty dragons. If the Greys had that kind of power, then Cini wouldn’t even dare venture into the Southlands with his harvesting operations.
“No,” I reminded myself. “I can’t think like that. This power comes with a considerable cost.”
“Oh,” Alsie’s voice came faintly over the collective unconscious. “One more thing. You probably better use the dragons to exact vengeance over Cini’s fleet. Your own measly flotilla has been reduced to floating shrapnel. I’d hurry south if I were you.”
And it pained me to realise that she was probably right.
I listened out for more signs of Alsie in the collective unconscious, but she remained silent after that. So, I turned back to Faso and Taka. “We need to go south. Our fleet is in trouble.”
“What?” Faso’s jaw dropped. “How do you know?”
But I didn’t answer. Instead, I pulled up on Velos’ steering fin. He let out a massive roar as if wanting at least to have a little rest. But, in all honesty, we had nowhere to land.
“Come on, Velos,” I said. “This is almost over, and your cousins are in danger.” I sang out a song to chide him a little.
He let out an even louder roar, and then he lowered his head a little and rocked it in shame. He then flapped his wings and started to head south.
The dragonmen and dragonwomen followed in our wake. There would be no shaking them now, I realised. But I refused to reach out and command them. And, if they turned against us, I’d find a way to take them down one by one.
Even if Wiggea was in there.
Wiggea. I wanted to reach out and tell him I was happy he was still alive. But I couldn’t think of him like that. He was a servant of Finesia – a zombie risen from the dead. And the man responsible, Colas was amongst his ranks.
I shuddered and refused to think about Wiggea anymore.
And so we continued on into the distance as the volcano billowed out ash behind us and on the western horizon, the sun began to set. Who knew how many more men would rise from the dead and become dragons.
I didn’t want to even entertain the thought.
Part VIII
Pontopa
“I would not surrender my will, no matter how hard Finesia tried to take it from me.”
Pontopa Wells
22
Paradise Reef had completely changed colour since we’d last flown over it and had now lost the vibrance for which it was famous. Instead, the water below looked grey, with waves still churning out of it as the eruptions from the island roared into the sky. The sea also had a faint ghoul-like phosphorescence that ran across it in oily streaks. It had clearly now been tainted by the secicao blight. It was only a matter of time until secicao took over the massive East Cadigan Island and perhaps even spread into the larger Cadigan mainland – the largest landmass in the world.
This would be something I’d have to report to Gerhaun and she’d be furious. Mind, it had a strategic advantage in the fact that we could create another fortress with dragons, perhaps even send a dragon queen or two over there.
Dragonheats, I was thinking like Finesia and Alsie. This secicao wasn’t right for the world, and we couldn’t exploit it. But no doubt, King Cini would also take advantage of the extra resource and set up a special harvesting operation on East Cadigan Island. The Northern Continent’s overuse of secicao was the sole reason that dragons sabotaged the king’s secicao harvesting operations in the Southlands. In the north, people drank it like tea to help them get through the hard industrial working day. But secicao leached into the soil through urine, constantly acidifying it until it got to the point that no other plants could grow. Soon enough, as Gerhaun had explained in her book Dragons and Ecology, the conditions would be perfect for the secicao blight to spread into the Northern Continent, choking up all life there. Only the dragonmen and dragonwomen would remain.
Now, Colas – the man responsible for the fall of East Cadigan island – was behind us in a new form. I could recognise him out of the fifty or so dragons he flew with, even though the light was getting low. He lagged behind the rest of the flock a little and canted ever so slightly to one side. Wellies, I wanted to turn to a dragonwoman and rip the life out of his throat.
But, fortunately, I still had a cool head on my shoulders. I didn’t want to use any of Finesia’s abilities, nor did I want to put Velos’ life in danger.
It was then that I realised, throughout this entire trip I hadn’t had a chance to reconnect with Taka. Granted, he had been kidnapped and so out of reach for most of it. But even since rescuing him, I’d hardly said a word to him. Expected, I guess when you’re in the heat of a battle against a mad goddess, her sociopathic minion, swarms of overpowered Hummingbirds, and a fleet of the king’s best airships as far as the eye could see. Still, here was my chance to make amends.
“Taka,” I said in the collective unconscious, and I turned around to him to check that he was still awake. He sat there, his eyes glued firmly ahead, staring into the distance with tears welling at the bottom of his eyes. Behind him, Faso had his head craned over his shoulder, watching the dragons with intent. Best, I thought not to include the inventor in the conversation, although I did hope that he’d reach out and also express his apologies to his birth son sometime soon.
“I’m here,” Taka said, and his gaze met mine. “Alsie, is she gone now?”
I nodded. “For now. Can you still hear Finesia?”
Her voice was still nattering in my head, telling me to reach out to my minions who’d remain loyal to me until the end of time. But I kept that voice as distant as possible.
“Yes…” Taka said. “What happened to Charth back there? One moment, I was talking to him. He was telling me never to trust Finesia. He kept telling me to never let her i
n. Then he just disappeared in my head.”
“Charth,” I asked. “What did he want?”
“He always talked to me, Auntie. He kept telling me to keep the voice of that woman away, to never listen to her. And I wanted to leave Fortress Gerhaun because the voice told me to run away. I didn’t listen to Charth when he told me it wasn’t safe. I’m sorry, Auntie. I know what I did was wrong.”
And then my heart dropped in my chest. Because all of a sudden, I realised why Charth had been hanging around Fortress Gerhaun all that time. Gerhaun had told me at one point that the dragonman had sworn to protect Taka. And none of us – even Gerhaun and Sukina – had realised what from.
Charth had stayed at the palace despite being banished because he’d wanted help keep Finesia out of Taka’s head. To stop her pushing him over to the wrong side. And then later he kept vigil over Fortress Gerhaun, as Taka’s guardian. Always keeping his promise to Sukina. Always communicating with Taka in the collective unconscious, making sure he stayed sane and kept his head around him. All this until Charth could hold on no longer. And he’d used his abilities to protect us all, despite knowing the costs.
“Taka,” I said. “Why did you run away?” I just wanted to make sure.
“Finesia told me it was a good idea. Charth was the only one who listened to me. And you and Papo never seemed to care about my birthday. But Finesia did…”
“I’m sorry, Taka,” I said. “I shouldn’t have forgotten.” And I’d have to be extra vigilant now. Finesia had been in Taka’s head for a long time. I had underestimated the effects that the Exalmpora had had on the boy. Now, the empress wouldn’t go away – from his mind or my own.
“I’m sorry too, Auntie Pontopa,” Taka said. “But now, you’re a dragonwoman. You can do what Charth does, right?”
“No,” I said. “I have to be careful. Finesia is dangerous, you have to understand that Taka. She’s our enemy, and though she’s in our minds, we can’t let her control us.”
Dragonseers and Airships Page 55