by Will Elliott
He wept. ‘They raised us to know only that path. From birth, they taught it to me. How was I to know different, until I walked the path I walked, and learned the truth? How does a child with a wooden sword know better, with smiling adults all about him?’
‘But still you haven’t learned the truth, even in this moment when your life is about to end. Those human masters you obeyed never loved you. Those who respect them the most, who obey them swiftest, are the ones the human masters hate the most.’
‘I fought against the bastards too.’
Her gleaming eyes poured love over him. ‘No. Two kings who mean to play at war need the other side as badly as their own, warrior. You ever followed other men’s will. Because you suffered, you thought your service to them had value. It did not. Not one drop of blood spilled truly mattered to them. Now your torment ends. Now I shall make you free.’
Her jaws descended on him at last. The two parts of his body floated gently to the surface as she pushed herself through the water away from him, swimming as she had dreamed of doing for a long time. Each movement and ripple of water was a joy to her. Dragons knew patience, and knew to savour things; for they now knew times could come unbidden when memories grow more precious than any material treasure. Precious were these collected journeys to take with them into cages, then to stroll through at leisure when stone walls shut them in, crushing and cold.
While Shilen loved and savoured the water, with no more thought for Anfen’s corpse than she had for the other floating bits and pieces, Vous danced gaily on as if he shared the joy of her freedom and wished for her nothing less. She did not see him. The wind carried his flower petals far. A gust took a clutch of them further and higher, as if a grateful spirit had caught a handful of it on its journey away from that place.
‘It got him,’ said Sharfy. He blinked, rubbed his eyes. The two parts of Anfen floated only briefly before they sank under the surface.
Loup recovered from his shock at all he’d recently seen. He crouched down beside Sharfy. ‘Who got what? What got who?’
Sharfy did not answer – he just stared at where Anfen’s body had been.
‘It’s Vous,’ said Eric in amazement, pointing at the grassy field where the Spirit danced in and out of their sight. Flower gardens had sprung up about him. Like Vous, they too faded in and out of sight.
‘Don’t fear that nutty Spirit,’ said Loup. ‘We’ve other troubles. Old Case is going to bring the dragon over. Look! He’s burping flame now to get its attention. All of you sit still, don’t move. No sounds.’
‘Let the ghost out of that charm,’ said Sharfy.
Eric took the amulet from his pocket. It was cool to touch again, but holding it felt like holding a spider he wasn’t sure was dead or not. Uselessly, he shook it. ‘I don’t know how to let him out, Sharfy. I didn’t know it was going to trap him like that.’
‘You didn’t know, neither did Shadow,’ said Loup. He said it as if this were important. ‘Surprised him good, and he didn’t feel it coming.’
‘Too late now,’ said Sharfy. ‘Anfen’s dead. You helped kill him.’ He raised his sword in two hands, surprising Eric and Loup so much they almost allowed him to plunge it into Eric’s chest. Loup got his wits back, grabbed Sharfy’s arm by the bicep. There was a snapping noise. Sharfy dropped the sword, clutching his hand. He threw a punch at Loup, connected, sent him sprawling away.
‘Stop it,’ Eric said in a voice hardly his own. His charm gave a burst of heat. Sharfy not only stopped – he went completely still. Eric understood he’d just cast his first spell, without meaning to or knowing how. The charm quickly cooled again.
Loup rose from the grass, rubbed his cheek. ‘Leave Sharfy be,’ he said. ‘A dragon just killed his friend. My friend too.’ A tear was in his eye. ‘Let Sharfy out of that spell, lad. Amulet was what cast it? Through your voice, aye?’
Eric gawked at the amulet quite helplessly. ‘Free yourself,’ he ventured. Nothing happened. The muscles of Sharfy’s face twitched. ‘Move again. Step forth. Be freed.’ Nothing.
‘Look with your mage eyes, lad. Airs are a little kicked up, but not much. It’s naught too serious, he’s alive. We’ll figure it out. Sharf, if you hear me, hold tight and we’ll fix you. But I got to shut that drake up before he brings the murdering dragon on us.’
Loup ran over to Case, tried grabbing hold of one of his ears. The drake’s head thrashed around, butting him down. ‘One more bruise,’ Loup said from the ground. ‘What’s the difference? But I won’t be dragon food today, you stupid mule. It’ll eat you too, believe me. Hush it now! No more of that fire.’
Shilen’s body turned with slow grace, her face now pointing towards their shore. Briefly it seemed she went still, and then her wings fanned wide. In no hurry, she angled them so the wind took her sailing to the shore.
Loup sighed. ‘So it ends. Why not here? It’s a pretty enough spot. Say your last words, lad. We’ll catch up with Anfen’s spirit on our way out, if we’re quick enough.’
When she was closer, Shilen unexpectedly dived till she was out of sight beneath a rippling spread of bubbles. Loup dashed back to Eric. ‘Hear me, lad? We’re done. Drake’s called her over. I should’ve seen it coming. The birds bring him eggs to eat, he brings dragons people to eat. All that flying; it must’ve been what he was doing all along. Wasn’t ferrying us around for free. He was looking for a dragon to offer us to. Don’t run when it gets here, don’t fight it. Might be that we can talk our way out, but that’s all. The dragon Far Gaze battled didn’t slay him when it might’ve done. They must like some sport.’
‘She won’t eat us, Loup,’ said Eric.
From the water emerged not a dragon but a naked woman. Eric knew her face at once. She slipped her dress over her head, and glanced at a gleam of light where Vous had vanished from sight. The dress clung to her wet body. She crouched by a discarded breastplate for a minute or more before she picked it up and carried it with her. Valour’s hoofbeats were still distant but growing ever louder.
Shilen jogged towards them, wet hair flopping and spraying water in the air. Case ran to meet her, joyful as a hound. She held up a hand in warning and he went no closer. ‘Well met, man-lord,’ said Shilen. She looked at Sharfy, still frozen.
‘Leave him be,’ said Loup.
‘He is your business,’ she said.
‘Aye, lass, he is. You leave him alone. Which of the great beasts are you?’
‘Beasts? That is a matter of perspective,’ she said gently. ‘Do you mean, which of the Eight am I? None. The sky has not yet weakened far enough for them to come. It shall do. Fear not. My name is one you’ve never heard. Call me Shilen. Few know me. You are privileged.’ She turned back to Eric. ‘Manlord, I gave you a task.’
‘To take back the castle?’ said Eric. ‘We did it.’
‘How did you two slay the mage there?’
‘I summoned Hauf.’
She smiled. ‘You did that while inside the castle? Tell me what happened.’
Eric nodded. ‘Ahh. Now I understand why you didn’t send any Invia to help us. That was what you wanted all along, wasn’t it? For me to call Hauf, while we were in the castle. To see what would happen. That’s why you sent us to do it alone.’
‘Our deeds have many purposes, man-lord. A throne should not be freely given. To fight for it ensures you know its value. You earned the throne, be proud upon it.’
‘You used us.’
‘Summoning Hauf within the castle was a great risk. You slew the most cunning human wizard of these times, using a tool we gave you. You may have used any other tool you liked. This is the freedom you asked for. What happened when Hauf came? Tell me. You have been given much, with little asked of you.’
Eric laughed. ‘Where are my manners? The castle shook, that’s what happened. Now tell me why you killed Anfen.’
‘It shook? Tell me more of that.’
‘No more to tell. Use your imagination.’
She carefully
set the breastplate down and squeezed water from handfuls of her hair. ‘To answer you, I slew Anfen because he asked, in fact he begged, to be slain. And not because I hurt him. I wished to swim with him, that was all. Death was all he spoke of. He was slain quickly, with mercy. He knew no pain. That is the truth. Your children, I hear, slowly pull the wings off insects. Such things are not to our taste.’
‘Nice of you to do a man’s bidding,’ said Loup, wiping a tear from his eye.
‘I regret to have pained you,’ she said, inclining her head. ‘One must care for those dear to him.’ To Eric, ‘Taking the castle is not the only task I gave you. I have heard that Inferno may soon awaken. He will swallow the cities with his fire. Have you no wish to stop this?’
‘I’m human. You’re a dragon. Who is better placed between the two of us to stop him?’
Shilen laughed. ‘Who is better placed to avoid his shambling steps, once he is awoken? I tell you this, man-lord, in trust that you reveal it to none but your mate, Aziel. A dragon was sent before I came, to prevent Inferno’s waking. He has chosen not to, seeking instead a life of play. He gambles on the great ones not gaining freedom, and he has made a terrible decision. Trust him not.’
‘Dyan?’ said Eric.
‘You know him? That is well. Do not speak to him of this! He feels that by some late token gestures, he may regain favour; that his crime will be forgotten. But he is doomed. Inferno is a minor concern of ours, to have sent one so wicked and neglectful as Dyan to deal with it.’
‘So minor that you’d break the law of your Parent?’ said Loup.
When Shilen gazed at him her eyes seemed briefly like her dragon eyes, yellow and slitted for just an instant. Her words were to Eric. ‘You made clear your wish for freedom, man-lord. Do you now wish for us to manage your business? Shall we handle the burning god? We can do. But such a service brings costs you may not like.’
‘I never wanted to be a king of anything. Do what you want.’
Shilen stepped towards him. ‘Take care, man-lord. You speak now for your people. Your words matter. I give advice as parent to hatchling. Heed me! Something dangerous stirs in the Ash Sea. It may be they cannot awaken him. Men have not yet learned it is unwise to play with things beyond their measure. This business occurs in your realm, is done by your subjects. It is your business more than mine.’
‘She’s lying,’ said Loup wearily. He still wiped tears from his cheeks, one of which was bruised from Sharfy’s punch. ‘No way would the great beasts let old Inferno wake up, if they could stop it. Not old Inferno. No one wants him wakened. Man nor dragon nor Spirit.’
‘I answer you only if the man-lord asks,’ said Shilen. ‘I am his link between humanity and dragonkind. Direct your questions through him.’
Eric held aloft the amulet. ‘What happened to Shadow?’
‘Ah, you have him,’ she said. ‘Good! Be careful, he is dangerous. Even dragons cannot sense him, when he comes near. Your charm is a shadowtrap. Other shadowtraps have been made. They are few, and distributed with great care. They won’t hold him long. Nothing can.’
‘How do I free him?’
‘Don’t!’ Again, just for an instant her eyes flashed yellow and were slitted. ‘As much as may be, he must be controlled. He has a purpose. Do not ask me! I do not know it. I will speak one final warning to you, man-lord. Another man-lord rises in the south. It is deemed he will be your foe.’
Eric laughed. ‘Deemed by whom?’
‘Of that I speak no more.’ The thudding sounds had grown steadily louder. All turned their eyes south-east. ‘Whose hoofbeats are they? Someone comes.’ She reached a hand to Sharfy, touched his face. His body flopped down. He went on all fours, coughing. ‘Who comes here?’ she said.
‘Valour,’ he said, then looked up at who spoke. Recognising Shilen he lunged for his sword. With a flick of her fingers his sword skittered away from him.
‘You’d better run,’ said Loup. ‘Gods don’t like dragons.’
Indeed when he turned back to her she had already gone. The breastplate was the reason Shilen had drawn Anfen to swim at this lake, for she had perceived something of the power within it, and did not dare take it from him while he lived. He had freely chosen to discard it in the grass; he had asked to be slain. That made things much safer; no natural laws of the Parent had been broken. Loup was relieved, though Shilen’s masters among the Eight would now extract the artefact’s strange power, and undoubtedly shape that power into a key to unlock a way into the other realm, the adjacent realm which Anfen had called the quiet. The dragons had little knowledge of that place, which their Parent in its wisdom had hidden from them.
*
Terrible light gleamed from the slit of Valour’s helm as his steed thundered into view and came to a halt by the lake’s edge. He dismounted, the ground shivering where his boots fell upon it. His anger darkened the sky. ‘Where is my witness?’ his voice boomed.
Eric found the words pulled from him: ‘Dead now, Valour. Slain by a dragon.’
‘What of the protection I gave him? What of the armour and sword? With those, nothing beneath the skies could do him harm.’
‘Stolen by the same dragon that killed him,’ said Eric and Sharfy together, neither of them in control of their speech.
‘Where then is his body?’ said Valour.
‘It sank in the water.’
Valour drew his sword. ‘You have failed and defied me, all of you here. You will join him. Step into the water, where you will sink in death beside him.’
It was as they took their first few involuntary steps that Vous’s laughter burbled and fell about the fields like rain, dispelling Valour’s darkness. Valour mounted his steed and rode it to where Vous danced and sang through gardens he’d made there which were only half revealed. Quick and graceful he danced around the slashes of Valour’s sword, did not seem to care that Valour’s steed kicked and trampled fountains and flowers. Vous blew kisses in the air which burst into exploding sparks of gold. He turned Valour’s parries and thrusts, and his steed’s kicking legs, all into an unwitting dance. Ever came his laughter, more joyful as Valour’s rage grew and grew, his battle cries becoming deafening. Off into the distance Vous led him until they were gone from sight and Valour’s screams were no more than faint distant thunder.
Loup stared, mouth open, long after the two gods had gone, so gobsmacked he didn’t see Eric climb aboard the drake again without him. Case took to the sky, leaving the others behind.
26
BY GORB’S OLD VILLAGE
With Far Gaze captive, the mayor and his men arrived at the village where Gorb had dwelled. It was abandoned, with many of its homes smashed, parts of walls and roofs lying about like broken eggshells. Tormentor tracks here and there punched the ground. The broken body of one lay piled by the well.
The men paused to roast a goat they’d found tied in a yard. Tauk kept flexing with wonder his newly healed arm.
‘Where did the Spirit go to?’ said Vade, examining the blessed armour he’d been given. It was between white and silver. Where firelight fell on it there sparkled patches of ruby light.
‘He went to fight the dragon he’d named his foe,’ said Fithlim.
‘Nay! Not the one who flew over us: he went to fight one of the greats.’
‘You believe the mighty beasts are free now?’
‘Nay. I believe our patron rode to the very skies. He wished us to follow him, but we could not.’
‘Nay! He wished us to remain here and guard World’s End from other perils. A fight more to our degree. If we do this duty well, he will return for us, take us with him to help him slay the sky dragons.’
‘Greetings!’ called another voice, causing all three men to draw their blades and stand. Blain hobbled towards their fire with the help of his walking stick. Kiown followed him.
Quickly the mayor moved the haiyen’s body away from the fire to where long grass concealed it. Blain raised his left arm, forearm to his forehead:
No weapon here, we wish to speak. Vade and Fithlim kept their blades out nonetheless, pointed to the ground. ‘Hail,’ they said.
‘Hail and be seated,’ said Tauk. ‘Share the fire. But you both look fed enough and not in need of our meat.’
‘Your tied-up companion looks hungry,’ Blain grunted, nodding at Far Gaze. He lowered himself slowly to the ground.
‘Never mind him, old man. He is a criminal by my city’s rule.’
‘If the city no longer exists, does the rule?’ said Far Gaze.
‘Shut up! I’ll have that tongue of yours cut out.’
‘I know this “criminal”,’ said Blain.
‘Is that so?’ Tauk eyed Kiown. ‘A fighting man, I see. Your grandson? You little resemble each other.’
‘Well, that’s high praise!’ Blain laughed so hard he nearly fell in the fire. ‘No! No relation to this filth.’ He shuddered in disgust, made perfectly sincere gagging and choking noises. The men looked at each other uneasily. All the while Kiown examined his amulet as if he were the only one here, dangling it by its chain like a pendulum. ‘Well, let’s get this over with,’ said Blain. He cast off the tattered cloak he wore. His robe’s colours bled out into the night. Tauk’s two men rushed to their feet. Tauk held out a hand to calm them. He said, ‘That is a Strategist robe?’
‘It is. Rather, it used to be, for I have fled the castle. I am Blain.’
‘So, you know a Strategist, wolf? We learn more of you yet.’
‘Come now, Mayor: he and I weren’t friends,’ said Blain, laughing. ‘Don’t worry about that! I tried to befriend him, but we battled. In the tower yonder, as it happens.’
‘You said nothing of him being a Strategist when he approached us?’ Fithlim yelled at Far Gaze.
‘I forgot,’ he replied.
‘Easy, Fithlim,’ said Tauk. ‘For our part we forgot to feed him. He owes us no loyalty. Leave him be.’ He tossed Far Gaze a shank of meat.