I shook my head, then took the helmet off Faso and put it on. He’d added some cushions inside, so it felt snug against my temples and rather warm. I could imagine it getting sweaty after a while. And all I could see was complete darkness.
“It doesn’t work,” I said. And I tapped the top of the helmet, to try to get a reaction from it. I’d never really been a fan of confined spaces and unlit rooms, and this felt like being in both at the same time.
“Ah,” Faso said. “Allow me to…” Something clicked at the side of my helmet. “Yes, that’s it.”
“I see nothing… Wait?” I squinted against a bright light coming from the strip in front of me. “How did you do that?”
“That, you need not know,” Faso said. “I’ll make sure everything’s configured properly before you take it out in the field. Just wait a minute, it will take a little time to adjust. There… Can you see it?”
The world, all of a sudden, gained a myriad of colours, so stunning that my annoyance at Faso for acting without my permission subsided. In my human sight, the Southlands had always looked flat and drab. But I’d never realised Velos could see it in such brilliance. I could now make out the texture to the brick, the patterns in the clouds, even the creases in Faso’s face, all in enhanced detail.
“It’s beautiful,” I said. “I never knew Velos could see this way.” I had seen through his eyes once before, after Colas had shot me in the stomach and I’d transcended the collective unconscious. But I’d been so focused on surviving back then, I hadn’t taken the time to appreciate how beautiful it looked.
“Dragons, lizards, and other related families of reptiles have better colour vision than humans, particularly at night,” Faso said. “Like all animals their visions have limits, which is why I made further modifications.”
I felt another slight tap on the side of the head. Then, my vision gained this fisheye effect, so I could see the whole room around me, with Faso the largest in the centre. It was rather unsettling, really.
“What do you see now?” Faso asked.
“Your big head, all kind of bulbous looking,” I said.
“That’s working then.”
“But what if I need to look at something to protect myself? It’s no good if Velos is focusing on flight, when a Hummingbird approaches me from the other side ready to shock me out of the sky.”
Velos turned his head to focus on me, and it was strange to see my face with my helmet on up close. I looked like one of those old school divers with those brass tanks over their heads, before they invented oxygen tanks and bits. I saw Faso walk up to me and lift my visor. Then, I was looking back at Faso’s smug face, in my own bland vision.
“There’s always a simple solution,” he said.
I slapped his hand away. “I could have done that myself, you know?”
“I’m sure you could, but I wanted to get to the point quickly. After all, I have modifications to make, and we only have until tomorrow before the briefing.”
“You mean you’ve not told me everything?” I raised an eyebrow.
“No, I saved the best part until last. This switch here” – Faso reached out to flick something else on the helmet – “turns on the brainwave augmenter.”
“The what?”
“I’ve run many experiments over the last couple of years, on how to read both human and dragon brainwaves. It’s hard to decipher what they mean, but I can at least amplify the waves that you and the dragon produce. This will make the connection between you and Velos stronger. Because, rumour has it, that it’s been kind of weak lately.”
I scowled at Faso. It really was none of his business. “I don’t feel any different,” I pointed out.
“Ah yes, just one more adjustment.” He reached out, and this time I heard something grind at the side of the helmet.
And suddenly, a missing part of me returned to me. I could feel Velos again. I could hear his emotions inside my mind. I felt a sense of rage. Velos was angry. Not because anyone had done something to him. But because my decision to keep taking cyagora had cut him out of my mind for so long. And I knew all this instinctively without having to think about it. After all, I had had a connection with him for an awful long time.
A wave of emotions surged through my heart, and blood rushed to my hands and feet. But the sensation only lasted for a moment, before the drug muted my hormones once again.
“I have to do this, Velos,” I said in the collective unconscious. He didn’t speak my language, but he would at least understand the sentiment behind it. But the dragon turned his head away from me and lowered it to Winda, letting out a deep croon as she stroked his muzzle beneath the cage there.
I took off my helmet and tried to sigh, but nothing came.
“Remarkable, isn’t it?” Faso said, but his expression seemed to question why I wasn’t impressed.
“I guess.”
“I’m sure as you experiment with that amplified connection, you’ll find extremely practical uses for it.”
“I’ll try,” I said. And I walked out of the stables. Papo turned to me to watch me go, but I didn’t meet his gaze. Before I left, I remembered the briefcase I’d placed by the doorway. I indicated it with an open palm.
“By the way, Faso. You might want to check the contents of the briefcase. Taka gave it to me, and there’s more material in here for your testing, once you get around to it.”
“What’s in it?”
“You’ll find out later. I can see you’re busy.”
“Very well,” Faso said, and he turned his attention back to Velos.
My muscles felt weak and my eyes suddenly heavy. So, I decided it was time to leave the room and get some rest. As I walked back through the musty corridors, the only thing I could focus on was the memory of Velos’ sense of anger and how I’d not been able to connect to anything lately. I’d spent the last two years devoid of passion, and for what?
Doctor Forsolano might have been right when he’d told me to come off the drugs, but I couldn’t imagine being able to cut down to one every few days. I was a bit of an all-or-nothing person, and I’d either take the cyagora or not take it at all.
I opened the door to my bedroom, collapsed on the bed. And just before I slept, I realised that I had to come off the cyagora. Though the thought of it filled me with terror, I absolutely had no other choice.
Part III
Wiggea
“I was brought into this world to serve and serve is what I did.”
Rastano Wiggea
8
I was woken by a heavy banging on the door the next morning. Through my blurry vision, I could see that dawn had broken long ago.
The banging came from the door again.
“What is it?” I asked.
“I’m sorry, Maam,” Gereve Talato replied. “It was hard to wake you and I don’t have the key. The briefing, it’s already under way, and General Sako sent me to get you.”
“Dragonheats,” I said. “Hold on a moment, Lieutenant. I’ll be right there.”
I took a swig from the glass of water by my bedside table. I’d placed the cyagora right next to it. But I stopped myself from reaching out and taking a tablet, after having resolved to come off the drug the previous night.
I’d slept in my leather jerkin and denim trousers, and so didn’t need to change. In the mirror, my hair looked dishevelled and my eyes slightly rheumy from sleeping too long. I gave my hair a quick brush to try to get some tangles out, but I didn’t manage to do it for long, before Gereve called again.
“Dragonseer Wells, General Sako says it’s essential for you to be there.”
“Okay, okay, I’m coming.”
I put my hairbrush down on the dresser and rushed out the door.
“Blunders and dragonheats, Dragonseer Wells,” General Sako said as I entered Gerhaun’s treasure chamber. “So, you’ve finally graced us with your presence. What took you so long?”
Gerhaun was now awake and towered high above us. The grea
t golden dragon would stand even taller if her body and tail weren’t curled around the huge golden egg that she protected dearly. Her massive droopy eyelids made her look just as tired as I felt.
Velos lay at the base of her, wearing both his helmet and his armour, and curled around the other side of the egg. It was amazing how small he was compared to Gerhaun, Velos being three times the size of a man – rather a large dragon compared to the Greys – and Gerhaun Forsi being several times the height of him. Behind Gerhaun lay piles upon piles of coins from different time periods, massive gemstones, and other treasures.
The room had been prepared for a briefing. Ratter had his teeth clasped around the projection device jutting out of its mouth, sitting on a tall table at the back. In front of him, spanned rows upon rows of wooden chairs, with soft cushions. On them sat men and women in olive-coloured uniforms, with yellow chevrons and stars on their shoulders. Meetings in Gerhaun’s Treasure Chamber were for officers and higher ranks alone. Larger briefings took place in the courtyard.
General Sako stood at the front by the canvas screen that stretched out across a wooden frame, supported by a pole leading down into a barrel. A beam of light found its way from the projector in Ratter’s mouth through the heavy dust, the motes twinkling as they floated through the air. Ratter projected onto the screen an image of an landscape covered in snow. In the background, a factory puffed out grey smoke from three broad towers.
“Well, take a seat, Dragonseer,” General Sako said. “You’re already late, and we haven’t got time to stand around and gawk.”
Despite him being a general, I ranked the same as General Sako. Only Gerhaun ranked above me in this place, so I often found it hard to keep quiet when General Sako treated me as inferior. But I’d hear no end of it if I argued back in front of his troops, and the result wouldn’t be pretty.
Faso sat at the back, as he liked to. He claimed this was to keep an eye on Ratter, but I suspected it was more to stay as far away from General Sako as possible. He and the general rarely saw eye to eye, and it wasn’t uncommon for these briefings to turn into a shouting match between both men. Faso had an empty space next to him where Winda would usually be. Right now, she wasn’t anywhere to be seen.
“Very well, General,” I said. “And I apologise sincerely about my lateness. Come on, Lieutenant, let’s take a seat.” I walked to the front, my head feeling fuzzy as it always had after waking since starting my course of cyagora. Lieutenant Talato followed loyally behind me and sat right next to me.
We took the foremost corner, closest to Gerhaun. Talato on my right, and on my other side sat the well-mannered Admiral Sandao, lithe and short, with a neat grey beard and bald head.
I folded one leg over the other and waited for General Sako to speak. He glanced down at his pocket-watch, grumbled something to himself, then turned to the screen.
“This isn’t Travast’s automaton factory, which we don’t yet have any reconnaissance on, but the old shoe factory I used to run in Ginlast, in my home country of Orkc. This was after the dragonheats, and before Sukina and I fled the Northern Continent, so she could become a dragonseer.”
The dragonheats were the wars orchestrated by King Cini II, the father of the current king, Cini III. He exterminated most dragons in all continents except the Southlands. This eliminated every coloured dragon except Velos on the Northern Continent, and most coloured dragons in the world at large. Hence, Velos was incredibly valuable to the dragon queens, as only coloured dragons were fertile. The egg that Gerhaun protected was the only egg containing a dragon queen laid in the last fifty years. This made it incredibly valuable, particularly as Gerhaun was so close to passing on.
“Of course,” General Sako continued. “Travast’s factory is probably more sophisticated than this. But we suspect he has converted my old factory, situated a good ten kilometres out of town, as it was the largest in the area. It’s now winter in Ginlast and the country gets extremely cold this time of year. Everyone will have to pack to stay warm, and we’ve added an extra blend to the standard draft of military secicao to protect against extreme cold.
“Unfortunately, we don’t know exactly what we’re going to come up against. But we’re expecting Mammoths, war automatons, Rocs and everything we’ve seen before. There’s no evidence to suggest the king has any unknown technology in his arsenal.”
“Well, that’s just wonderful,” Faso shouted out, standing up at the back. “General Sako, the thin legs of war automatons won’t work well on snowy terrain. And if the extreme cold gets to the power cores of standard issue automatons, they won’t function at all.”
General Sako coughed against the back of his hand and his face turned slightly red. “Did I give you permission to speak out, Gordoni boy?”
“I just thought I’d point out to your men here that your information might be slightly wrong. Dearie me, you’ve had an afternoon and an evening to get everything together, and this is the best you can come up with.”
“Well, as I was about to say, I’m sure the king’s inventor might make slight modifications to the automatons based on the conditions. But I doubt he’ll build anything new for the occasion.”
“I would if I were him.”
“Blunders and dragonheats! Sit down Gordoni boy. You’re circumventing everything I say. Both my troops and Sandao’s marines have been trained to operate in a broad range of conditions.”
“As you say, oh superior one,” Faso said, and he gave a lazy salute before sitting down again.
General Sako scowled at Faso, but did nothing else to reprimand him. I guess all of us had realised there was no point chastising the inventor. He’d carry on behaving in his own self-righteous way, regardless.
Instead, General Sako clapped his hands, and the slide changed. The general turned back towards the screen. “Our planned route,” he said.
The next image showed a map of the world, with a dotted line leading from the north mouth of the Balmano river, at the northern edge of the Southlands. The line crossed the Costondi sea, which separated the Northern Continent and the Southlands. A long archipelago of islands, known as the Southern Barrier, led around the southernmost perimeter of the Northern Continent. This marked the edge of King Cini III’s empire and allowed the king’s forces to inspect merchant ships transporting goods between the Northern Continent and other lands. The route would take us towards a huge and sparsely populated island known as East Island, avoiding the Southern Barrier by approaching Ginlast from the northeastern-most point of the world.
“We’ve already talked to our good trader friend, Candalmo Segora who can supply us icebreakers at Port Szutzko on East Island” General Sako continued. “We can use these to break through the ice and approach the island where King Cini and Travast Indorm will least expect us.”
This caused a murmur from the crowd, and I admittedly was surprised too.
“That will take ages, for dragonheats sake,” Faso expressed, standing up once again.
“And what do you expect us to do, Faso Gordoni?” General Sako replied. “Have our entire fleet and dragons annihilated at one of the Southern Barrier forts. Ever since East Cadigan Island, King Cini has been fortifying these places right, left and centre.”
“Can’t we send in a covert force?” I offered.
“Once upon a time, that used to work. But the king has increased security at the Southern Barrier and his arrest policy has become ruthless. Trust me, Admiral Sandao and I have talked at substantial lengths about this, and the planned course seems the best option.”
“Besides,” Admiral Sandao stood up from his seat. The meekly mannered man stepped up next to General Sako. “I hope you don’t mind me butting in like this, General Sako?”
“Not at all, Admiral Sandao, go ahead.”
“Thank you. I’ve talked in person to Candalmo Segora, who I had the honour of being introduced to by Dragonseer Wells’ parents. Icebreakers, he tells me, have come a long way in the last five years. Their sharp-edged
prows are lined with copper coils, heated using a furnace that cuts through the ice at a decent speed. It might take us a few days to reach Ginlast from East Island, but that’s better, admittedly, than being dead at the Southern Barrier.”
I nodded, happy that they’d thought this one through. A passive observer might wonder why the dragons couldn’t melt the ice. But, although their flames were good for brief spurts in battle, they wouldn’t be able to sustain enough energy to melt entire icecaps – even if we took a good thousand of them.
“We don’t have a choice,” General Sako said, nodding to Admiral Sandao. “This seems the best bad option in our scenario.”
“I agree,” Gerhaun offered from high above us. “Sometimes, you need to sacrifice a little time to make the risks less costly. Please carry on, General Sako, I know you and Admiral Sandao have put a lot of time into assessing every possibility.”
“Thank you, Gerhaun,” General Sandao nodded, and then Admiral Sandao returned to his seat. But it wasn’t long before General Sako twitched his moustache in irritation and cast his gaze towards the back of the room. “Winda, what the dragonheats are you doing arriving at such a late hour?”
Everyone turned their heads towards Asinal Winda, who had just entered through the double doors at the back of the room. She blushed and gave General Sako a curt bow. “I’m sorry, General,” she said. “I had tests to do, under Faso’s orders.”
“So, what did you discover?” General Sako asked.
“If you don’t mind,” Winda said, and she walked towards Ratter, took out a small glass ball with the slides inside and replaced it with another one. “I think this might affect everyone here, because we might one day come up against soldiers augmented with this.” An image of the vial of the drug came off the screen, with the words, much more potent than secicao, written at the top in large letters.
“We tested this on rabbits,” Winda continued. “And discovered exactly how addictive this stuff is. Travast added a special compound known as tehativin to it, which is used in some of the most powerful narcotics to keep them coming back for more. That, added to secicao, and what looks like the blood of a dragon queen.”
Dragonseers and Airships Page 65