Dragonseers and Airships

by Chris Behrsin

  “And is your dragon automaton ready yet?” General Sako asked Faso. “And also, what about Velos, he didn’t seem in too great condition when I last saw him?”

  “Velos is recovering fast,” Faso said. “The armour really helps heal him. And I’m almost there with the automaton. I also recovered the helmet in a lot better shape than I thought it would be in. Anyway, you can journey ahead while Pontopa, Winda, and I finish up here.”

  “Very well. So, we march now. Is everyone ready?”

  From around me came the calls of, “Yes, sir.”

  “Then commence this operation.”

  General Sako took hold of a flag and waved it in the air as he marched ahead of everyone. Admiral Sandao also took hold of a flag and did the same. The rest of the troops quickly got in formation, arranged by Candiorno and the other officers, and followed the two leaders.

  Some of them carried sleds behind them, with various resources. There was one large sled in particular, covered by canvas, and I wondered what was underneath.

  Meanwhile, I sang out a dragonsong to call the Greys into the air to escort the march. If the troops met resistance, then the dragons could provide maximum support. The Greys launched into the air, snow crumbling underneath them. They circled the company as they marched forward.

  I watched them for a moment until they became small enough to become part of the scenery. As they went, I remembered the dream I’d had, and the carnage that I’d wrought, and I prayed that I wouldn’t end up eviscerating Gerhaun’s troops as well.

  Faso already had the dragon automaton laid out in front of him and was working hard on repairing it. It looked different in the snow, and the white reflections on the metal gave it an almost angelic quality. Faso was making a racket using a welding torch on a plate that had lost a rivet and had sprung out of place.

  Meanwhile, Winda worked at the automaton’s head – earplugs in, as she tightened some screws. She had this ferocious scowl on her face, which didn’t suit her too well. I guessed that Faso hadn’t yet apologised to her for his behaviour before.

  Velos stood tall next to Faso, with his helmet lying beside him on the floor and his head craned over the inventor, as if supervising his work. When I looked up at his scaly face, I could see curiosity in his eyes. And I felt it too.

  Finally, I was at one with Velos’ emotions again. Yet, with the sacrifices I’d had to make to get there, I still couldn’t help but question if it was worth it. I walked up to Velos, and he turned his head to me and lowered it. I wrapped my arm over his muzzle and stroked him on the cheek. He let off a soft crooning sound.

  Faso turned to me and cut off the noise from his torch.

  “Almost there,” he said. “Then we can put the helmet back on Velos, and we’ll fly in.”

  “We can’t just augment?” I asked. “Must we really use that ugly helmet?”

  “Yes, we must.” Faso stood up and put his hands on his hips. “That’s how we’re going to see the heat signatures inside the factory, remember. We might save some marines’ lives if we spot an automaton moving towards them. And the signatures might even help us find Taka in there.” He shook his head, and he shuddered. “Dragonheats, I want to know he’s safe.”

  All this time, I’d been thinking of my guilt and how bad I felt about losing Taka, I hadn’t even considered Faso’s emotions in the equation. “Yeah, me too,” I said.

  Faso lifted his head and gazed off at the horizon. “I just can’t stop feeling how I’ve failed him as a father. I should have been there for him. And now, I could have lost him forever.”

  I turned to Winda to see if she could hear any of this. But she seemed absorbed in her work, and the earplugs were working well. Shame, though, because Faso was displaying a rare impression of humanity.

  It was definitely behaviour to be encouraged. So, I walked up to him and put my hand on his shoulder. “You know, you can’t blame yourself. Cini wanted Taka back, and he took him. But we’ll get him back, you have to believe that.”

  Faso looked up at me. The bottom of his eyes were wet. They must have really stung in this cold, but he didn’t wipe the moisture away. “And what if we don’t? I never thought, until Sukina, that I’d have a son. And then I finally had someone to pass my legacy on to. And now he’s gone.”

  I stepped back and placed both my hands on my hips. “Is that what Taka means to you, Faso? An opportunity to pass on your genius?”

  Faso recoiled. “I—”

  “For wellies’ sake, Faso. You just don’t get it, do you? He’s your son, and you’ve got to accept that his interests and your interests might not align. My father and I are such different people, and yet we share something above the relationship. That’s what it’s about. Not moulding him into the person you want him to be but helping him to survive the world and build a life for himself. That’s what you’re here for, Faso.”

  Faso opened his mouth as if to say something, but instead his bottom lip trembled, and he closed his mouth again as if to protect his lungs from the frigid air. He held my stare, and for a moment I thought he was going to do a typical Faso and argue back, and we’d have one of our spats. Instead, he broke off his stare and his gaze trailed off into the distance.

  “I guess you’re right,” he said after a moment. “I haven’t been the greatest father to him, have I?”

  I shrugged. Sometimes, when Faso showed his soft side, I just couldn’t help feeling sorry for him. “There’s time to change all that. We’ll get him back and you’ll work out how to be a better parent.”

  “I hope so,” Faso said. “Well, I guess I should get back to work.” And he wiped his eyes with the back of his mitten and then turned back to the automaton.

  “You know,” I said. “You can start making up for other things today. You’ve got to treat the people you care about well, otherwise they’ll just push you away.”

  Faso looked over to Winda. “I guess I do,” he said.

  Winda raised her head and looked at Faso, who returned an apologetic smile. He stood up, walked over to her, and crouched down to talk to her.

  I thought I should give them a little privacy, so I moved back towards Velos and tousled his scaly head. Then, without thinking, I sang him a song in the collective unconscious. It was my way of saying sorry to him, because I’d neglected him too. I’d cast my own needs above the responsibility I had to keep a connection with him, and with all the dragons for that matter. That was my role as a dragonseer. And just as Taka relied on Faso to be a father, that’s what everyone relied on me for.

  Yes, I had done terrible things. And I wanted to blame Finesia, and secicao, and the whole world for being so cruel. I wanted to be a victim, to say it had happened to me, and I had no control.

  But that’s when I realised if I adopted that philosophy, I might as well give up now.

  I had to believe I had control of my mind. And I had to believe I could overcome Finesia, without cyagora.

  “You really think you have control?” she said to me.

  “Gerhaun and Sukina have taught me how,” I replied. “I’ve prepared for this, and I know how to keep my mind whole.”

  “Fool! You really think mere mortals can defeat a god.”

  “You are no god,” I reminded her. “The Gods Themselves left us, and you tried to take their place. But you are just as flawed as the rest of us.”

  My mind went silent for a moment. I took that time to listen to the rhythm of my heart, and my breath resonating with Velos’.

  For the first time in a long time, I felt completely in control.

  25

  I sailed Velos through the sky, the wind whipping at my hair, with Lieutenant Talato on the back seat. Faso had refuelled the armour with secicao, and so we could move fast. My helmet dangled at one side of my body, and I’d secured my hip flask to the other side. Faso flew besides us, wearing his helmet. Winda sat behind him, her hands gripping the bars of the turret in front of her.

  “Testing,” Faso said over the sp
eaker system.

  “It works,” I replied.

  “Good. We need to make sure we coordinate everything well. And why the dragonheats don’t you have your helmet on, Pontopa?”

  “I prefer to see things with my own eyes. That strange heat-sensing vision messes with my secicao blend’s capabilities. Surely, it’s better for me to have the augmented reaction speed in my blend of secicao oil, rather than the helmet’s thermal-sensing capabilities.”

  “And if we need to see inside the factory? What if I miss something?”

  I sighed. “We’ve not even caught up with our own troops, Faso.”

  “No, but we’re almost there now. I can see much more through the helmet than you can through your eyes, even augmented.”

  “Then, until we’re truly in danger, I want to relish the wind rushing against my face and be able to see things as they truly are.”

  Soon enough, we caught up with the rest of the company. I watched them trundle along from my high vantage point, as the Greys wheeled above them. Admiral Sandao, General Sako, and the other marines were on the ground, carting the heavy weaponry and crates of explosives on their sleds. There was also that huge sled with the long object laid out covered by a thick canvas. I still hadn’t worked out what it could be.

  The factory was only a few hours away on foot, but it would take Faso and I only around fifteen minutes to get there once we flew ahead. Particularly with the secicao pulsing through the armour, which generated a refreshing warmth at my feet. That, together with the sunlight, abated the wind chill factor somewhat.

  As we passed over the marching army, the dragons let out a cry to welcome me, and Velos joined in their roar, sending a tremor up my spine. I clutched at my ears to keep the noise out, and then I reacted instinctively by singing a harsh staccato dragonsong to berate them.

  “Dragonheats, can’t you keep them under control?” Faso said from the talkie.

  “They’re wild animals, for wellies’ sake,” I replied. “They’re going to make a noise sometimes.”

  Velos whimpered underfoot, and I changed the notes in my song to calm him.

  “Come on,” I told him. “We’ll be there soon.”

  And it wasn’t long until we left the company behind and started speeding towards the factory.

  “Pontopa, put the helmet on now,” Faso said, once again over the speaker system. Dragonheats, he could be annoying sometimes.

  “I thought I said—”

  “No time, Pontopa. It looks like we’ve met resistance.”

  I sighed, unhooked the helmet from my hip, and placed it over my head. I didn’t notice anything different from normal, so I flicked the switch to turn on heat-signature mode, and I found the dial to adjust the zoom.

  At first, they were tiny specks on the horizon. But it wasn’t long before I saw them to be those massive Ogre automatons, the red heat signature against the glacial blue of the rock face showing they were active and dangerous.

  The wind whistled in my ears as I watched the automatons scan the sky. Whether they were looking for us or Alsie Fioreletta’s black dragons, I had no idea. As we drew closer still, I made out the shapes of a Mammoth automaton hiding near the log pile, and another that had been previously concealed from view behind the rock face. Several Rocs also patrolled around the edges of the rock, their sharp pointed beaks spearing into the sky.

  “We should go back and warn the troops,” I said.

  “I’ve already spoken to General Sako over my communications system, and he thinks we should take a closer look. We’ve not yet got a full scan on the perimeter.”

  I swallowed cold air. I didn’t want to go closer. Not so much because I feared the automatons, but because I knew what was coming next.

  And soon enough I saw them. The dead slaves were lit up in my display as cold blue corpses on the ground. Yet they still had a trace of heat coursing through them, as if the secicao still lived there. My stomach lurched, and I wanted to vomit, but I held it in.

  “You did well, Acolyte.” Finesia said in my mind. “And I will reward you in due course.”

  But, no. I wasn’t meant to be listening to her. I was stronger than this. I had to fight her in my mind. Whatever the consequences, I had to accept them. And I had to keep myself sane.

  “What the dragonheats is that?” Faso asked.

  “What?”

  “Coming from the bodies. They’re emanating some kind of warm gas.”

  I hadn’t noticed it at first, because it was so faint. But when I looked for it, I could see the gas ever so slightly pink in my helmet’s vision. It drifted out of every single body and then diffused into the air. There was a warmth to it that drew the eye towards it. And so, I stared mesmerised at the way the patterns danced in the air.

  I lifted my visor, so I could at least see the colour. And, as I’d expected, it was green, just like the bodies that had lost their red pigment and had that same sickly colour pulsing beneath their skin.

  That drug that Travast had given them, had had secicao in for sure. And now, it was trying to dominate the land. To find its roots in the ground. But then that’s what secicao did. It crept its way into its consumers’ digestive systems and then leached back out into the soil through urine. Eventually – according to Gerhaun Forsi’s book, Dragons and Ecology – it would make the soil so acidic, that no plant other than secicao could grow there.

  When that happened, secicao would take the opportunity to spread across the world.

  I felt something then. Another presence. Not human. A flash of black darting above the rock face. I’d seen him in my dreams, and I didn’t know the difference between what had been a dream and what had been reality. Now he was here. “Wiggea,” I said out loud, without realising.

  “Wiggea?” Faso replied. “You’ve got to be kidding me! He’s here?”

  “It doesn’t matter,” I said. “We should retreat. We need to meet up with the rest of the company so we can take this place full force.”

  “No,” Faso said. “We still need to get closer. If they’re going to set that place alight, I need to know if Taka’s in there. You should be able to sense him, right?”

  I sighed. But I guess Faso was right. “Not from this distance. But if I get close enough. Yeah, I’ll know if he’s in there. But the automatons…”

  “There’s an opening in the centre, there. We just need to fly close to the rock face, let’s just do one pass, and then get out. I’ll look out for a sign of Taka’s heat signatures behind the rock. Just make sure you focus as much as you need.”

  “Who put you in charge?” I asked, a slight element of mirth in my voice.

  “I’m just doing what needs to be done, Pontopa. Sometimes, you need to focus on the objective above your own ego.”

  Huh, that was grand coming from him. “Okay, I said, let’s go in.”

  “Your helmet, Pontopa…”

  But instead I took hold of my hip flask and unscrewed the cap. I needed my reactions more than I needed to see what was inside the factory, which Faso said he could do himself. “Best to pool our resources.”

  I took a swig of secicao, and the world ghosted into speckled green. I felt clarity of mind return to me. Everything was now moving incredibly slowly.

  I hadn’t augmented for a while, and I’d forgotten how good it felt.

  “Yes,” Finesia said. “This is my world.”

  “No, you will not take control.”

  “But I already have, dear. I already have.”

  I pushed her away from my mind. Meanwhile, I raised a hand forward to signal us towards the rock face. There was an Ogre automaton on the left, another on the right. Both were a few hundred metres away, and my heart skipped a beat when I saw them turn their massive bodies towards us in sync. But this was just part of their programmed routine, and they soon turned back away without noticing us.

  I pushed down on Velos’ steering fin, to get him closer to the rock face, and then I veered him sharply to the right. I reached
out in the collective unconscious.

  “Taka,” I said. We slid so close to the rock that I could feel the cold emanating off it. “Taka, I’m here. Auntie Pontopa is back, Taka.”

  But there was nothing. Not even a sign of him trying to push away the collective unconscious.

  “Oh, he’ll come back soon enough,” Finesia said in my mind, “once he bends to my will. You will see.”

  “Shut up!” I said in the collective unconscious, and I felt something building inside me. It was a power that had been used on me by Alsie before, and I wanted to unleash it. The scream could disable dragons and stun any secicao powered automatons on the field.

  “That’s it, my acolyte. Use your powers, claim your gifts.”

  But instead, I balled my fists by my side, so tight that my nails seared pain into my palms. I centred myself and let the anxiety and the frustration leave my body, before Finesia took control.

  “He’s not here,” I said over the speaker system. “Taka is nowhere to be found.”

  “Then we should return,” Faso said. “General Sako, the place is clear.”

  There was a pause and a little static on the line, before General Sako’s voice bawled out of the speaker system. “Then that’s it. We shall set the explosives. Come back and we’ll charge in together and take this place down.”

  “But what about Taka?” I asked. “Every minute we lose here, he’s getting further away. I should go after him alone.”

  “Blunders and dragonheats, Pontopa. You will do no such thing. We need to take this one step at a time.”

  And I realised, much as I hated it, that he was right. Taka was on the airship, and the sooner we got rid of this factory the better. Then I would take the dragons, finish off the king, and finally get vengeance for everything he and his father had ever done. I could finally liberate Tow.