by Linda McNabb
Guyan seemed to listen to him this time, and turned to look critically at Zaine. Her eyes narrowed as she didn’t seem to see what she hoped for, and she shook her head in disbelief. Zaine felt his cheeks colour with embarrassment. He had never claimed to be anything special, but he did not like the way they were judging him.
“You have another Circle of Dreams,” Trianna said, turning the subject away from her son as it clearly bothered her. She walked a dozen paces away, examining the runes carefully, and then walked back. “Is there a crown to go with it?”
Zaine wondered how his mother could still be fixed on the idea of being the first to get a new crown when there was so much more going on. Trianna walked up to the edge of the circle but kept a step away from the rune markings. She stared at the scene beyond and seemed confused that it did not look like the one back at Willow Castle.
“It is a starlink – I came here with the storm dragons through this circle. There was only ever one crown,” Guyan explained, not seeming to understand what Trianna meant. “It wasn’t meant to get so tied up to the other circle.”
“The storm dragons became trapped in the circle at Willow Castle when I did not create it properly,” Aldren said with a sad voice. “It caused them to hate all runeweavers and they would only allow the royal who wore the crown to ever leave the circle. They were bound to the crown through a lifelong oath of service.”
“The song of the dragons was trapped within the crown and it would sing only when worn by the royal who took it from the circle,” Guyan added.
“Over the years it became the way of deciding the new king or queen,” Davyn said quietly. “Nobody knew why the circle was there and nobody ever tried to find out. The storm dragons turned over a hundred weavers into runebooks before Zaine destroyed the circle. I was one of them.”
“So there isn’t a crown that will sing?” Trianna asked, obviously missing the entire point.
“The crown did not sing,” Zaine pointed out a little stiffly. “The dragons did.”
“So we need to bind them to another crown then?” Trianna said, earning herself a glare from everyone present.
“They offer their lifetime of service.” Guyan was fighting to control her temper. “They should not be forced to do anything.”
A far-off rumble of thunder brought an odd feeling to the pit of Zaine’s stomach. The storm dragons had seen through his trick and they were heading this way.
“Now that we understand the nature of the problem, I think Davyn and I can come up with a way to fix it. First, we need to trap the dragons again,” Trianna said, looking thoughtful and tapping her fingers on her red robe. The golden designs glowed at her touch and she walked away from everyone, deep in thought.
Davyn stayed and seemed unconvinced by her claims of a solution.
“We need to get Aldren up to the castle,” Guyan said, glancing up at the sky nervously. “I don’t think the storm dragons will destroy it, as they helped to build it.”
Zaine wasn’t reassured by her reluctance to see the storm dragons return. If she couldn’t control them, then what chance did any of the rest of them have? Soon they would all be a collection of books lying in the grass.
Zaine and Davyn helped Aldren to his feet. Slowly they started up the stairs to the castle, with Maata and Guyan leading the way, leaving Trianna pacing alongside the Circle of Dreams.
“How is Jelena?” Aldren asked a little breathlessly as they paused at the ornately carved doors. Now that he looked closely, Zaine could see the storm dragons carved into the top part of the door. They didn’t look evil or threatening, though, more as if they hovered to protect all that lay below.
“The same,” Guyan replied as she pushed open the doors. “I am still no closer to finding a way to break the time-loop.”
They helped Aldren onto some cushions, and Zaine went out onto the balcony to look down and see what his mother was up to. She was still pacing the edge of the circle and muttering to herself.
“You’ll need to look at this,” Guyan said, coming up behind him and handing him the huge golden runebook. “The storm dragons will be here soon, and I do not think your mother will be the one to get them to listen to reason.”
Zaine swallowed a lump in his throat as he took the book and sat cross-legged on the smooth wooden boards. He flicked through the pages, having absolutely no idea what he was supposed to be looking for.
“Guyan, do you have any idea what I could use?” Zaine asked. He could sense that the girl had stayed beside him.
“No,” she replied, a little too quickly for Zaine’s liking. “Nobody has ever tried to control a storm dragon, or to stop them from doing whatever they wanted.”
“Let’s hope I’m the first then,” Zaine muttered. Maata came out to join them and looked over his shoulder at the runebook.
“What did your life-reading say?” Guyan asked suddenly, and came to sit right in front of him. As she stared at him intensely, Zaine was surprised to find that her eyes were a soft blue that reminded him of the sky on a warm summer’s day.
“That I would not age past my twelfth year,” Zaine answered, not feeling at all comfortable talking about the life-reading which had ruled his life so far. “And that I would destroy a world with one finger. I guess it’s not a very good life that the old woman predicted.”
“Also that the fate of the royal family would be in your hands,” Maata added. “And you saved my life in the circle, so I for one am grateful that you were around. You freed the masters from their books as well.”
Zaine took the small silver book from his pocket and handed it to Guyan. She took it with a reverence that surprised Zaine. It was as if he had just given her something of immense value to hold and she was afraid of damaging it.
She opened it carefully and spent a few minutes reading through the few words it contained.
“Where I come from, we call this a star-chart. They can often have many more meanings than just the obvious ones,” Guyan said, looking very interested in Zaine’s reading. “They tend to be much deeper than you can ever imagine. It was a similar star-chart that had me banished here.”
“Really?” Zaine felt a lot better that he wasn’t the only one with a less-than-appealing reading.
“I’ll show you.” Guyan handed back the silver book, then got up and hurried off into the castle. She came back a minute later with a small silver book, about the size of her hand, and offered it to Zaine. “Here, you can read it if you want.”
Zaine took the book, feeling like a snoop for reading someone else’s life but curious to know why the girl had been banished from her own world. Now he understood why she had looked so surprised when he had given his book to her. Her book glittered as if made from silver stars, and it hurt Zaine’s eyes as he tried to read the words on the cover.
GUYAN, DAUGHTER OF QUEEN MYA AND KING REKO
“You’re a princess,” Zaine said, realising how silly that sounded as soon as he’d said it. She had a golden crown and lived in a castle, even if it was made of wood – of course she was a princess.
Guyan simply nodded and waited patiently for him to open the book. Zaine lifted the cover and saw a line drawing of Guyan, just as she was now – even with all the rune markings on her skin. His own life-reading had a picture also, and he flicked over to the next page.
Again it held similar information. How big her feet would be at the age of two, the colour of her hair, and that she was allergic to cats. Unlike his own reading, this one was written in clear, neat handwriting that was easy to read. The third page was more interesting, though, and he read it out softly so that Maata would also hear.
Let Guyan ascend the throne and time will cease.
Stars will fall and Guyan will hold their fate in her hands.
With her the royal line will end,
Guyan and a Starweaver will breach the boundaries of time,
Destroying them forever and sealing the fate of all weavers.
Zaine sat on the w
ooden balcony, feeling numbed by the book’s similarity to his own life-reading even if the reading itself was different. She came from another world entirely and had been alive for a very long time. How could their life-readings be so similar?
“My mother hid the star-chart from everyone. My uncle found it just before I turned thirteen and I was banished here,” Guyan said quietly, taking the book out of Zaine’s hands. “They saw me as a threat to their world, so they sent me where I was never likely to meet a starweaver.”
“It doesn’t really say you are a threat,” Zaine said, trying to read positive things into what he had read, but not really succeeding.
“Neither did yours,” Maata pointed out. “But that didn’t stop your own mother banishing you into the Circle of Dreams.”
“Your mother sent you away?” Guyan asked, looking very surprised.
Zaine nodded, not really wanting to talk about it. He slipped back into the memory of his mother casting the deciding vote to send him away, and the memory hurt as much as it had at the time. Voices from far down below the balcony nagged at his brain, and finally he looked up to see the others leaning over the rail and looking down.
“More of your friends have arrived,” Guyan told him.
He got up and walked quickly to the rail. Far below, talking to Trianna, were Calard and Tercel.
“They’re not my friends,” Zaine said, not managing to hide his dislike of the new arrivals. Trianna was filling them in on what was happening, and her voice drifted up to Zaine and the others.
“… We need to work together on this, even if we serve different contenders. If we fight the storm together, we have a chance of controlling it.”
Calard didn’t seem terribly convinced as he looked nervously up at the sky. He saw the others all looking down on him and scowled when he saw Zaine.
“He doesn’t like you?” Guyan was surprised that one weaver would dislike another.
“He bought me for a jar of silver,” Zaine said a little distantly. An odd noise at the edge of his hearing was distracting him. He looked up to see the sky had suddenly turned a sullen grey. “I think we have more pressing problems right now, though. The storm dragons are almost here.”
CHAPTER NINE - TAMING THE STORM
“We should get them all up in the castle,” Guyan said with a frown at the speed at which the sky was darkening. “It is the safest place to be.”
Zaine wasn’t sure he agreed with that. He didn’t think being up a tree during a lightning storm would be safe at all. Still, this wasn’t any normal storm and Guyan was the one who knew the storm dragons the best. He followed Guyan down the stairs to talk to the newest arrivals, and a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach made him want to start running when he reached the ground. He wanted to run from the storm dragons and keep running forever.
He recalled the last time the dragons had caught up with him, and he doubted they would like him for the trick he had played on them.
“You need to come up to Guyan’s home to shelter from the storm,” Zaine told them.
“I do not need to shelter from it. I will be harnessing it,” Trianna said with a shake of her head. “Calard will help me if Davyn won’t.”
“As will I,” Tercel added, a little indignant at being left out. Trianna did not even acknowledge his offer.
“We don’t want your help, though, Zaine,” Calard snarled. “This mess is all your fault in the first place. You would just make it worse.”
Zaine shook his head slightly in disbelief – it was only a few days since he had freed Calard from the runebook in which the storm dragons had trapped him.
“I think we should try to bind them to the crown again,” Trianna declared. She had to speak loudly to be heard, as the wind had begun to howl around the valley, whipping the leaves up around them and beating the long grass at their ankles. “Child, give me the crown!”
Guyan simply stared, not replying, but her eyes narrowed a little. It was the closest Zaine had seen her come to anger so far, and he knew how she felt. His mother seemed to bring out the worst in people without any effort at all.
“We should draw them away from the trees,” Davyn said, walking away from them and out into open space. Zaine did not follow. He was looking back over towards the cliff. The sky was almost black and the darkness spread towards them like a huge ink stain.
“What will you try first?” Guyan asked as she took Zaine’s arm and pulled him out towards his father. Zaine let himself be dragged out into the open as his mind went blank. He had no idea what he was going to do. All of a sudden he couldn’t remember even the simplest of runes. Without his purple cloak he didn’t even feel like a runeweaver – he was a fraud and everyone was going to suffer because of it.
He stared at the sky and thought he could even make out the shape of an angry dragon diving towards him at great speed. It would all be over in a matter of seconds. He was going to spend eternity as a book of runes.
“Zaine,” Davyn was shaking his son’s arm to get his attention, “focus. This is not the time to have doubts.”
Zaine felt a sting on his cheek, and he jumped back a step as he realised that Maata had followed them and had slapped him.
“Are you just going to give up?” she said sharply and glared at him. “That’s fine, just let the storm destroy the entire world. I bet you couldn’t stop the storm dragons anyway. After all, you’re just a simple farm boy who shouldn’t have even seen a runebook and was bought for a jar of silver. It’s a shame we don’t have someone who can actually do what we need!”
Zaine felt the anger rise in him as Maata drew in a breath and prepared to launch into another verbal attack.
“I am not just a farm boy! I have destroyed a world and I’ve freed masters from books that nobody else had ever been able to do. If anyone can stop the storm dragons, it will be me!” The wind was blowing so strongly now that he had trouble standing upright as he yelled. He was about to continue when he realised she was grinning at him.
“That’s better,” she said with an apologetic, lopsided smile. “Anger is much more useful than fear.”
Zaine felt some of the anger slip away as he realised what she had been doing. No doubt her teacher had done a similar thing to her when she had been in training for the contest for the crown. Now that the anger was subsiding, he could think clearly and several possible ways to overcome the dragons came instantly to mind.
“Thanks, Maata,” he said, turning to face the oncoming storm with more confidence. His mind ran through the runes he could use, but one by one he discarded them. Each of them involved trapping the storm dragons and forcing them to obedience, and he knew in his heart that such a spell would not work. He felt his confidence faltering slightly as the storm came directly overhead.
The storm dragons did not descend, though; they remained high above them, seeming to swirl around in uncertainty.
“They are reluctant to destroy what they knew as their home for a long time,” Guyan said, craning her neck up to look at the storm. “Perhaps they can be reasoned with if they calm down enough?”
Zaine didn’t think that that was likely, but he didn’t comment. Slowly the storm began to descend, and a wispy black cloud, in the perfect form of a dragon’s head, suddenly dived down from the mass of blackness and wound its way among them.
It circled Guyan several times, seeming both angry and happy, if the alternate screeching and crooning was anything to go by. Her long blonde hair was flung up in the wild wind that the storm dragon caused, but she did not attempt to step out of the wind. She reached out a hand to touch it, and the black form briefly caressed her hand before swirling up and out of reach.
The storm dragon moved past Maata and Davyn, seemingly uninterested in the princess or the weaver. When it came to Zaine, it stopped suddenly, stilling the wind to an eerie silence. The smoky cloud-like head stared at the young weaver and then opened its mouth and howled. The resulting wind blew Zaine off his feet, and he lay on his back, wa
tching the storm dragon racing back up to the black clouds above.
“I don’t know why they’re so angry at me,” Zaine muttered as he got up and brushed dirt from his elbows. “I was the one who freed them from the Circle of Dreams.”
“And you attempted to bind them to the crown again – without their permission,” Davyn reminded his son.
“So I’m guessing that binding them to anything, or demanding their obedience, would have the same effect,” Zaine said to nobody in particular. A lightning bolt struck the ground a few feet away from them and they all jumped in surprise. A second one flashed down from the sky, and Zaine had just enough time to grab Guyan and drag her backwards before it struck the ground where she had been standing.
“Now would be a good time to try something,” Guyan said a little nervously. “They’re angry.”
Zaine hesitated again. He wasn’t frozen with fear this time, though. He was just unsure how to solve this situation without angering the storm dragons even more.
When lightning struck close to Zaine, he realised that standing still to think things through was not a good idea. He began to back away and so did the others. The storm continued to follow them, and they turned and began to run.
“Where are we running to?” Maata asked as she scanned the area. “I don’t see anywhere that would be safe from them.”
“I have no idea,” Zaine replied. He was too busy trying to think of a way to stop the dragons to concentrate on where he was running – and he ran straight into the invisible barrier to Guyan’s homeland.
The force of the contact threw him backwards and he lay for a second, right on the runes, next to one of the tall grey stones. Instinct told him it was time to move, and to move quickly. He rolled away from the runes and dived around the other side of the stone. Lightning seemed to follow him and it struck the stone, narrowly missing him.
His heart was beating so fast that each beat seemed to blend into the next. Sweat broke out on his forehead. The next lightning bolt was sure to get him. He knew he should get up, but he felt rooted to the ground.