Aurora

by Mark Robson

  Assuming the dragons could not take off from within the walls, however, the gateway would funnel the dragons when they left, allowing the hunters to launch a targeted attack. But as the ground in front of the castle was so devoid of cover, the hunters would be as exposed and as vulnerable as the dragons.

  A bitter wind swirled around Tembo, increasing his tension. He flexed his legs. His muscles were stiffening. They had chased the dragons for more than a hundred leagues over the past week, and his body was not used to being still for any length of time. The men would not want to be out here for long. There was something else, though. He could not shake the nagging feeling that they were missing something.

  Barely an hour ago, a particularly large night dragon and his rider had launched from the treeline less than five hundred paces away from them. Husam had been as unaware of the dragon’s presence as the rest of the hunters. Given their leader’s uncanny instincts and tracking skills, Tembo had been surprised to see Husam caught off guard. It was not the same night dragon they had been tracking. This one was huge and had flown with no hint of any injury.

  The beast was airborne and out of reach before anyone had a chance to react. If the rider had gone for help, Husam and the hunters were as good as dead already. If the entire night dragon enclave turned to tracking them down, then there would be no hiding place on Areth secure enough to guarantee their safety.

  Only the strongest and best of their party had dragonbone weapons now. Most of the bone-tipped spears had been lost during previous encounters. Those without dragonbone weapons were reduced to carrying blades and spears tipped with metal, which would be next to useless if things turned nasty. Husam had outlined a bold plan, but it was fraught with danger. He was counting on the dragons being weakened by their wounds and the effects of the long chase. If Tembo had learned anything from these past two weeks, it was that the dragons they had been hunting were full of surprises. Their riders were young, but they were no fools. Husam’s plan lacked subtlety. The dragons were sure to see through it.

  Tembo shifted uneasily as he crouched, waiting. Apparently satisfied that his men were suitably positioned, Husam turned and strode towards him. Slim and upright, the hunter moved with a bounce in his step.

  ‘Are you alright?’ Husam asked.

  ‘I’m just weary,’ Tembo sighed, hoping his friend would not probe further. He could not look Husam in the eyes. No one looked him in the eyes by choice. There was something about Husam’s mismatched irises that chilled the marrow from one’s bones. Both eyes had been blue, but after the disastrous attack that had resulted in the death of their former leader, Kasau, one had darkened to a colour that was almost purple. The other remained a more normal shade. It was strange, but not as strange as his friend’s change in behaviour.

  ‘Don’t lie to me, Tembo,’ Husam said, his tone dangerous. ‘You’re thinking my strategy is flawed. We’re too exposed. We have limited weaponry. If dragons come from anywhere but through the castle gateway we’ll be totally at their mercy. You’re right to think these things.’

  The admission was a surprise. Tembo looked up at Husam and instantly regretted it. The man’s eyes glittered with anger. His gaze seemed to jab into Tembo’s head.

  ‘Trust me, my friend,’ Husam ordered. ‘We will leave this place triumphant today. I know we will.’

  Tembo had never been argumentative. Despite his misgivings, he nodded and climbed to his feet. He towered over Husam, but his size meant little in this relationship. Husam had always been the leader.

  ‘I have always trusted you, Husam,’ Tembo said slowly, though in his heart he knew that to be a lie, too. ‘But this is as far as I go. If we don’t kill the dragons today, I’m giving up the hunt. This has to end. There’ll be other dragons: dragons without riders; legitimate rogue dragons that need destroying. I’d like to hunt them with you, but I’ll go alone if need be.’

  Pressure began to build inside Tembo’s head. Husam’s stare intensified. Pain flared and Tembo clamped his hands over his temples. He could not close his eyes. He could not even blink. Husam’s eyes filled his mind. He had no idea what Husam was doing, but he was determined to hold firm to his decision.

  The next few moments felt like an eternity, but suddenly Husam broke off his stare. Tembo staggered slightly before regaining his balance.

  ‘Very well, Tembo,’ Husam said. ‘But you need not fear. It will end today. We have been through a lot together, you and I. It would be a shame if we had to part company now.’

  Tembo rubbed at his temples with his fingertips. Kasau had played a similar mind trick when the hunting party had first latched on to the trail of the dawn dragon. Husam’s attempt to persuade him by force of mind had been less subtle than that of Kasau, but it had felt very similar. Husam was not the man Tembo had taken up with in Racafi. He had known it in his heart from the moment his friend’s eye had changed colour, but he had so wanted to believe the change in Husam was temporary that he had convinced himself to persevere as if nothing was wrong.

  ‘Husam!’

  The hissed whisper from one of the nearby hunters was urgent.

  ‘Husam. The watchman!’

  Tembo followed the man’s gesticulations and realised the watchman poised by the side of the gate was signalling to them. The dragons were on the move. This was it.

  Husam waved a rapid sequence of silent instructions to the men. Tembo watched as the men reacted to the signals. Their response was impressive. The watchman withdrew from the gateway. Everyone was poised within moments, weapons at the ready. He could feel his heart pounding with anticipation and he began counting the beats to help keep a sense of calm. One hundred . . . one hundred and fifty. Where were the dragons? Had the watchman been mistaken?

  Two hundred. A movement to Tembo’s right drew his attention. It was Husam. He was creeping towards the watchman’s position at the side of the great arched entrance to the fortress. Tembo’s breath caught in his throat. What did Husam think he was doing? If the dragons were coming, he would be virtually under their feet as they emerged. Without a miracle, he would suffer the same fate as Kasau. To attempt to fight a dragon at close quarters was to invite death.

  Husam passed the watchman and moved silently along the wall until he was right next to the gateway. Twisting, he took a quick peep into the castle and then instantly flattened himself back against the wall. He remained still for a moment and then he turned and took another look. This time he moved more slowly, easing into position and staring in through the gateway.

  The signal to gather was a further surprise. What was Husam up to now? What had he seen? Tembo ran forwards as lightly as he could. The others in position nearby ran with him. Seven men gathered next to the wall on the other side of the gateway.

  ‘Get ready,’ Husam warned. ‘We’re going in.’

  ‘I thought you said . . .’

  ‘I know what I said,’ Husam snapped softly through gritted teeth. ‘But this is too good an opportunity to miss. The dawn dragon is asleep in the courtyard. There’s no sign of the riders. The night dragon is somewhere in the keep.’

  Tembo shook his head. ‘It feels like a trap to me,’ he said slowly. ‘Why else would the dawn dragon expose herself like this?’

  Husam’s eyes narrowed, but his expression was more thoughtful than angry.

  ‘You might be right, Tembo,’ he replied, his focus going distant. ‘But I’m certain that if we act swiftly there will be no other dragons close enough to come to her aid before we make the kill. The injured night dragon will not bother us. There are some strange echoes inside the castle. I sense the dusk dragon and day dragon have rejoined the two we have been following. They are somewhere within the walls, but they are not close enough to cause us a problem. The dawn dragon is alone in the courtyard.’

  Tembo knew better than to ask how Husam knew all this. He suspected the truth was better left unknown. The other men looked confident. Despite the long journey and the repeated failures to bring this hunt t
o a close, they appeared eager to follow their leader into the fortress without any apparent concern for what fate awaited them. Tembo did not know how Husam had won this unswerving loyalty from them, but it was another of those stones he felt were best left unturned.

  ‘Come on, men,’ Husam urged softly, his gaze never leaving Tembo. ‘Let’s go before the other dragons complicate matters.’

  Signalling the men on the other side of the castle entrance to follow, Husam slipped around the corner and began creeping through the gateway. Tembo rolled his shoulders a couple of times to loosen them, hefted his spear in his right hand and joined the end of the line. If the others were mad enough to go in there, the least he could do was watch their backs for them.

  No sooner had Tembo rounded the corner into the tunnel-like entrance of the sea fortress than he could see the bright golden orange of the dawn dragon ahead. She was asleep, curled tight with her eyes shut. Her scales gleamed with the promise of wealth. Tembo was not immune to their effect, but for every step he took looking forwards, he spent two checking behind him for any sign of the trap he sensed closing in.

  The hunters passed under the portcullis and onwards until they reached the far end of the tunnel. Stopping short of the open courtyard inside the fortress walls, the men bunched together against the walls on either side of the gateway.

  Tembo watched as Husam scanned the area ahead and around. Even from the back of the short line, Tembo had a fairly good view of the courtyard. The only movements he could see were several faint swirls of dust devils where the strong wind was whipping over the battlements and twirling loose debris in tight little columns of air. Husam was right. There was no sign of the other dragons, or their riders.

  Husam signalled again and the hunters began to spread swiftly in a wide arc, running lightly on silent feet. Those at the furthest ends of the lines were just reaching their positions when disaster struck. Tembo saw movement out of the corner of his eye and he froze.

  One of the dust devils raced across the courtyard so fast that it was little more than a blur of swirling debris. To Tembo’s horror the twister moved with purpose – straight towards the man at the end of the line. There was no time to call a warning, nor did the man cry out as the dust devil struck. The man vaporised as Tembo watched, disintegrating into a fine mist of red. His weapon toppled to the ground with a clatter. There was nothing else left to show that he had ever existed. Terror locked Tembo’s muscles. He could not move.

  More dust devils began to move, gliding swiftly across the stone paving of the courtyard. Panic struck the hunters. They turned and ran back towards the castle gateway, but the twisters were too fast. One after another, the men disintegrated as they were caught by the twirling nightmares.

  Husam was nearby. He was also standing motionless. The two of them were nearest to the exit and the only ones not attempting to escape. Tembo tried to open his mouth, but his jaw would not respond. He wanted to cry out and urge Husam to run, but he found he could not do anything.

  Tembo’s eyes were drawn to another of the dust devils. It was coming straight towards him and approaching fast. Tembo closed his eyes and waited for it to strike. His body tensed tighter, bracing for the impact. But it did not come.

  His breathing sounded loud in his ears and his body tingled all over. He could feel a presence in front of him. It began moving. Circling around him. Nothing physically touched him, but Tembo felt that even with his eyes tight shut he could ‘see’ where the thing was at all times. Another joined it. Then another. He could feel them all around him. Why did they not kill him? He did not dare open his eyes to find out.

  They circled for some time before they began to move away. Still Tembo kept his eyelids firmly clamped shut. It was a gurgling sound that finally tempted him into opening them. Unable to move or speak, he was shocked to see Husam apparently suspended in mid-air. He was upright with his feet about waist height off the ground and he was shaking like a fish, freshly dragged from the water. Several of the dust devils surrounded him. They looked like swirling air, but were really living creatures. As Tembo concentrated, the hint of an outline teased the corners of his vision. The shape that formed was so horrible and improbable that his mind instantly rejected it.

  What were these things doing to Husam? Why had they not killed him and Husam in the same way they had killed the other hunters? It made no sense.

  A sound began to issue from Husam’s lips – a high-pitched whine that resonated in Tembo’s ears and set his jaw aching. It was hard to credit that a human voice could produce such a sound. Suddenly it dropped to a more normal register and became more recognisable as a scream of agony. Throwing his head back, Husam hurled his voice at the sky. Tembo watched. Horrified. Enthralled.

  As Husam’s chest emptied of air and his voice trembled to silence, a cloud of dirty grey smoke coiled from his open mouth. It hung in the air for a moment like a personal thunderhead, then a sudden gust of wind, stronger than any Tembo had felt through the day, reached down with invisible fingers and whipped the miniature cloud away. Husam’s body instantly sagged. His arms went limp at his sides and his head lolled forwards until his chin came to rest on his chest.

  So slowly that Tembo failed to notice it at first, Husam began to descend. His feet contacted the flagstones but the creatures did not drop him. They continued to lower him slowly – first his legs and then his body folding gently, until he rested, a crumpled heap on the ground.

  Time had ceased to have any meaning. Tembo could not tell if he had been standing still for a minute or an hour. The swirling vortices moved away steadily until they reached their original locations around the castle courtyard. Still Tembo stayed motionless. Not until the creatures had remained still for some time did he begin to consider moving.

  Heart hammering, he forced first one foot forwards, then the other. Step by step, he eased across the short distance to where Husam was curled. None of the creatures showed any sign of movement, so he reached down slowly, worked his huge hands under Husam’s slender torso and lifted his friend into his arms.

  Husam was not heavy, but Tembo’s arms were shaking by the time he entered the shadow beneath the huge arched castle entrance. Once clear of the courtyard he accelerated quickly, first lengthening his strides and then breaking into a run. He reached the open ground in front of the castle and turned immediately left. The mournful cries of the gulls wheeling in the air high above the battlements echoed his emotions as he placed his friend on the cold ground.

  ‘Husam!’ he said urgently, patting his friend’s cheek. ‘Husam, wake up! We need to get out of here.’

  ‘Wh . . . what?’

  ‘Husam! Are you all right? Talk to me.’

  ‘I’m fine,’ he muttered, his eyelids fluttering as they opened. ‘What happened? Where the hell are we?’

  ‘You’re in northern Orupee,’ a voice said from behind Tembo. ‘And you’ve been hunting the wrong dragons.’

  Chapter Three

  Pardoned

  Elian stood over the unconscious leader of the dragonhunters and his huge companion, with his sword held ready. The man’s eyes looked around nervously as he weighed up the situation. His square face with its sausage of a nose and big ears that stuck out almost at right angles from the side of his head made him appear simple, but Elian could see the intelligence in his eyes. If Elian had been alone, the hunter would probably have tried to overpower him and make a run for it. But Elian was not alone. Kira and Nolita were right behind him. The girls were armed with knives, and the way they held them left the hunters in no doubt that the weapons were not for show. Pell and the dragons were now emerging from the castle as well. There was no chance of escape. The distance to the nearby forest was too great.

  The hunter on the ground gave a groan. ‘Northern Orupee?’ he asked in a querulous voice. ‘How did we get to northern Orupee?’

  The big man looked down at his fellow hunter and gasped with surprise. ‘Your eyes!’ he exclaimed excitedly. ‘Your
eyes are the same colour, Husam!’

  Husam looked even more confused. ‘Of course they are, Tembo. My eyes have always been blue. You’re confusing me with Kasau . . . but Kasau is dead. At least I think he is. Everything is so hazy. What are we doing here?’

  ‘You’re yourself again, aren’t you?’ Tembo persisted, unable to contain his excitement. ‘You led us here, but that wasn’t the real you. You acted like Kasau – all mysterious and weird. And you knew things – when and where the dragons would appear. The rest of the men followed as if under a spell. I followed because I knew the man beneath the strangeness – the man I’m looking at now. It’s great to have you back.’

  Husam looked at Tembo as if he were mad.

  ‘Is he right?’ Elian asked Aurora. ‘Is this man no longer a Joining?’

  ‘I no longer sense anything unusual about his mind,’ Aurora confirmed. ‘This is the man who led the hunters, but it appears the shadow demons forced the creature inside him to leave.’

  ‘Why would they do that?’

  ‘Demons hate every living creature, Elian,’ she explained. ‘But most especially other demonic forms. Dragons have encountered many demons over the centuries, but what we have learned of them makes for uncomfortable knowledge. It seems likely that the shadow demons expelled the joining creature from this man’s body to prove their superiority over it. They could not kill it in this world. It is my understanding that for one demon to kill another, both would have to cross the barrier into their world before the fatal blow could be struck. Crossing the boundary between worlds is torture for all demons. Weakening the Joining by reducing it to a bodiless spirit was the most damage they could deal it without an excruciating sacrifice.’