Aurora

by Mark Robson

  ‘It’s all right,’ Haithan assured him, his deep voice almost hypnotically calming. ‘I won’t touch the area around the obvious wound. I just want to make sure there’s nothing else that your friends have missed before I begin working on what we can see.’

  ‘Thanks.’ Elian relaxed slightly, but a certain amount of tension remained in his limbs, shoulders and back until Haithan had finished his investigation.

  ‘Some sort of exploding weapon, I’m told,’ Haithan said, his deep voice thoughtful.

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Have you tried to move since you woke up?

  ‘I tried to sit up a little while ago, but I felt dizzy and was nearly sick,’ Elian admitted, feeling embarrassed by his weakness. ‘Also, my sight is blurred and my eyes hurt whenever I blink. There’s a buzzing ring in my ears that won’t stop, and my body feels as if it’s been side-swiped by a dragon’s tail. Aside from that I feel ready to wrestle a lion.’

  ‘Hmm!’

  ‘What do you think, Haithan?’ Kira asked. ‘Can you help him?’

  ‘Oh, yes,’ he replied. ‘I can help. He’s a very lucky young man.’

  ‘Excuse me if I think differently,’ Elian muttered.

  ‘What I mean is, you’re lucky to be alive,’ Haithan said. ‘The weapon, or at least a part of it, is lodged deep inside your thigh. If it had hit you in the chest, it is unlikely we would be talking. The surfaces of your eyes have been slightly cooked by the heat and flash of light. That damage will likely heal on its own in a few days. The fluid that your eyes produce should work its own miracle there. Your hearing and dizziness is more worrying. There is something I can try that might help stop the disorientation. Which ear is the worst?’

  ‘The right,’ Elian said, a lump forming in his throat. He tried to imagine what his leg looked like with the weapon stuck in it. Why hadn’t Kira taken it out? What could Haithan do?

  ‘All right,’ Haithan said. ‘Relax and move with my hands. Good. Now, I want you to count slowly with me to twenty. We’re going to do it three times with your head in different positions, all right?’

  ‘I’ll do my best.’

  ‘Good. Kira and Neema, I’ll need your help as well,’ Haithan continued. ‘Soon I’d like you to help me roll Elian on to his left side. Be careful not to touch the wound on his leg. I want to avoid putting any pressure on it.’

  ‘Where would you like us to stand?’ Kira asked.

  ‘Please stand to his right. Now, Elian, are you ready to begin?’

  ‘Yes.’

  Haithan moved to stand next to Elian’s head. ‘Here we go then.’

  The healer cupped his hands over Elian’s head and tipped it about forty-five degrees to the right. He began counting. ‘One . . . two . . .’ Elian joined in softly. ‘. . . nineteen . . . twenty.’ The hands tilted Elian’s head through ninety degrees to the left. The counting started again. What good did Haithan think this would do? Elian couldn’t begin to imagine, but he played along. ‘. . . eighteen . . . nineteen . . . twenty.’

  ‘Roll him now,’ Haithan ordered.

  Two pairs of hands gently lifted Elian’s body until he was lying on his left side. Haithan’s hands turned Elian’s head further to the left until he was looking straight down at the bed. ‘One . . . two . . .’

  Elian could not have moved his head even if he had wanted to. The hands that held him were strong and firm. He counted along with the deep voice until they reached twenty again.

  ‘All right. He can sit up now,’ Haithan said.

  Hands began to tip Elian upright. He tensed his stomach ready for the whirling disorientation he had suffered before. To his amazement, there was none. No spinning. No nausea.

  ‘That’s amazing!’ he gasped. ‘What did you do? My head isn’t spinning at all. My balance feels perfectly normal!’

  ‘It’s a trick I learned some years ago,’ Haithan said, his deep voice containing notes of pleasure at his success. ‘I wasn’t sure it would work on your injury, but the fact that it did furthers the proof of my theory. One of the hunters in my village used to suffer vertigo. I tried lots of different things to cure him and in the end it was this simple manipulation of his head that worked. Certain types of dizziness are due to something becoming misaligned inside the ear. Balance is controlled there. By trial and error, I found that this simple manoeuvre of the head can restore that alignment.’

  ‘It seems the rumours about you are justified,’ Kira said. ‘You can work miracles.’

  Haithan laughed. His laughter was as rich and rolling as his speech. ‘Miracles! Some call my work miraculous. Others accuse me of magic. I don’t really care what people say. It brings me pleasure to help others.’

  The ringing in Elian’s ears had not abated, but he could follow what was being said. The voices were distant, though he knew the people speaking were right next to him.

  ‘Can you do anything to stop the ringing in my ears?’ he asked. ‘I can’t hear anything in my right ear and there is a sharp pain there unlike the more general pain I’m feeling elsewhere.’

  ‘I can prepare some drops for your ears,’ Haithan replied. ‘There is a plant that grows in the rainforests nearby with properties that should help. The solution doesn’t keep long, but it isn’t difficult to make. I suspect you’ve damaged the membrane inside your right ear. It should heal in time and you will regain a measure of your hearing. A day dragon’s healing breath might restore it, but I don’t know for sure and we don’t have one to hand.’

  ‘There wasn’t a lot of certainty in any of that,’ Elian muttered.

  ‘No,’ Haithan agreed. ‘People do not all heal in the same way, I’ve observed. Why do two people with the same symptoms react differently when given identical treatment? It is a mystery that has eluded me so far. I can only help you by using methods that have worked for the majority of people. If you have the will to get better, then this often tips the balance.’

  ‘I thought everyone who was ill wanted to get better,’ Kira said, clearly unimpressed by Haithan’s explanation.

  ‘It’s surprising, I know,’ he said solemnly. ‘But I’ve seen some people make a full recovery from horrific injuries who I thought would not survive a day, and watched others, who were really not very ill, fade away and die for no reason. The desire to live appears to be the most powerful healer of all.’

  ‘What can you do for his leg?’ Kira asked.

  ‘That is a tricky question,’ Haithan replied.

  Elian watched the blurry figure bend over to look more closely at his right thigh. He winced in anticipation of pain, but Haithan did not touch him. Instead he studied the wound for some time before straightening.

  ‘I think there is only one answer,’ he said, his voice slow and thoughtful. ‘I’m going to have to cut out the remains of the weapon. If I leave it inside, the wound could turn bad and cause the flesh to rot. I’ve seen a far lesser wound flood a man’s body with poison and kill him. I can make a solution that will temporarily take all feeling from the area while I take the thing out, and another to clean the wound before I close it back up again. It should not take long.’

  ‘What about Aurora?’ Elian asked.

  ‘What about her?’

  ‘Can she not try to heal me?’

  ‘Do dawn dragons breathe the healing fire?’ Haithan asked. ‘I did not realise.’

  ‘No, they don’t breathe it,’ Elian explained. ‘But they have it within them. Aurora healed Shadow, our friend’s night dragon recently.’

  ‘Is this true?’ said another voice. ‘How did she do that?’

  The voice was female, but not Kira. It had to be Neema, Elian decided.

  ‘I was not there when she did it, but the results of her healing were spectacular,’ Elian said excitedly.

  ‘I would heal you if I could,’ Aurora said. ‘But I have no energy. I could ask Shimmer if he would be willing to try, though. I can explain what he has to do.’

  ‘Even if this sort of healing is possible, I
still think I should remove the weapon first,’ Haithan suggested. ‘You do not want to live out your life with that thing inside your leg. There’s no telling what long term damage it might do.’

  A cold clamp of fear squeezed inside Elian’s chest. He did not want Haithan to cut his leg, but he knew in his heart that it was the right thing to do.

  ‘Haithan is a good man,’ Aurora said. ‘His thoughts are positive and focused on your well-being.’

  Elian took a deep breath.

  ‘My dragon tells me to trust you,’ he said. ‘If my dragon believes you worthy of trust, who am I to argue? I won’t lie – I’m not happy about the thought of you slicing my leg further, but I trust Aurora. Do what you have to do.’

  Chapter Nine

  If Only . . .

  ‘It’s no good, Pell,’ Shadow announced. ‘Firestorm is struggling. He’s done amazingly well to fly this fast for so long, but he tells me he can’t keep up this pace any more. We’re going to have to do something to throw Darkhorn and the other night dragons off our tail.’

  Pell instinctively looked across at the blue dragon labouring along beside them. Judging by the position of the sun, they had been flying for over three hours. He could feel how tired Shadow was from flying at this speed for so long, so it was hard to imagine what it had cost the relatively small day dragon.

  ‘Do you have any suggestions?’ he asked.

  ‘We could turn and fight, leaving Firestorm to go on ahead.’ Shadow was trying to sound upbeat about the idea, but Pell knew her well enough to pick up on the subtle inflections in her mental tone. It was an option, but there was little chance of success.

  ‘Can’t Fire turn with us and help fight?’ he asked. ‘Three against two would give us better odds.’

  ‘Fire is so tired his wingbeats are almost involuntary reflexes now,’ she replied. ‘He’s worried he won’t be able to manoeuvre well, and he doesn’t think he will be able to raise much of a flame.’

  Pell let his focus slip past Firestorm to settle on the range of mountains beyond. Shadow had incrementally edged their direction around until they were easing ever closer to the great line of peaks. A glance over his shoulder showed Pell that the three black dots had closed very slightly since he last looked.

  ‘They’re closing,’ he noted. ‘We need to act soon if we’re going to lose them. What about going into the mountains?’

  ‘I don’t know this part of the mountain range very well,’ Shadow admitted. ‘But your thinking is sound. Our chances of getting away will improve if we can get amongst the peaks. I am going to lead Nolita and Fire into the next pass. Trying to outrun Segun’s men in the open air has not worked. We will have more chance of losing them in the valleys. If we do have to fight, we would do well to limit our opponents’ room to manoeuvre. Also, if I fly cleverly, we might be able to draw all of them after us, giving Firestorm and Nolita a chance to get away.’

  Pell sensed Shadow communicating her intention to Firestorm, though he did not hear the words. They needed a valley between peaks that was deep enough that they could enter it without needing to climb. He could feel Shadow’s fatigue and, although he felt sure she could manage a reasonable climb rate, he doubted that Firestorm would find the energy to climb at more than the shallowest of gradients.

  There was a promising valley ahead. The opening was after the next peak but one. Shadow turned left, cutting in at an angle that took them very close to the mountainside. At the same time, she dropped down and behind Firestorm, allowing the day dragon to lead the way at his best pace.

  Pell saw the chasing dragons react. They turned instantly to cut the slight corner. It appeared they were closing more quickly now, though Pell knew this to be an optical illusion. The closer they came, the faster their approach would seem. He had seen this before. He knew that as they closed the final few hundred paces, they would blossom quickly from their current toy-like, harmless appearance, transforming into an enormous and fearsome reality. It would not be long now.

  A burning rush began to build deep inside Pell’s gut. The familiar heat of adrenalin sharpened his senses and set his mind racing. There had to be something they could use to gain an edge. Anything that gave them an element of surprise might make all the difference, but Pell’s only thought was that Shadow was the strongest dragon he had ever seen, with the possible exception of Widewing. Even though they were gaining, Pell could not imagine the three chasing dragons were any less tired than Shadow. In a straight power confrontation, one-on-one, Pell felt confident that Shadow could best any of the other dragons. But how could they twist the situation to give Shadow a chance against all three?

  The green mountainside to their left reared ever closer and the sensation of speed began to build as they edged towards the slope. Texture and detail began to leap out at him as Fire and Shadow hugged the steep contours. Splodges of grey stone suddenly resolved into three dimensions as rocks appeared to grow out from the slope. Flashes of red and yellow flowers, invisible at height, streaked past as every nook and crevice became visible.

  Pell loved the feeling of speed as he flew close to the ground. He was racing around the mountainside faster than anyone could ever traverse it on foot, or even on horseback. Riding a horse at a full gallop was exhilarating, but nothing could compare with skimming across the land on a dragon’s back.

  As they tipped into the turn around the mountainside and into the valley beyond, it felt as if Shadow’s wing might catch on the ground at any moment. Looking ahead at Firestorm’s relative height gave a better clue as to their real clearance. Even given Shadow’s greater wingspan, they were maintaining a healthy margin of safety. At this speed the ground felt closer than it really was.

  Another glance over his shoulder revealed the nearest pursuing night dragon had closed to little more than twenty dragon lengths. The other two were quite some distance further back, but there was not enough distance between the front-runner and the other two dragons to isolate it. The other two would catch up quickly if they were to turn and fight.

  He looked ahead. The valley had steep sides, but its base was relatively broad. A seed of an idea began to germinate, but it would not work here. He needed somewhere tighter.

  ‘Start looking for a narrow canyon, Shadow,’ he told her. ‘I’ve just thought of something we can do to make life very difficult for the dragons behind us.’

  ‘You’re going to have to hang on really tight, Nolita,’ Fire warned, the strain of the chase evident in his voice. ‘The night dragons are stronger than I am. I’ve given it my best, but I can’t stay ahead of them any more. They are catching up fast. Things are likely to get rough.’

  The familiar black wall of fear began to rear inside Nolita’s mind as she absorbed her dragon’s words. Even though they had been chased for hours, this flight had felt no more frightening than any other – until now. Fire had been flying faster than normal, but Nolita had not seen their pursuers in the past three hours, and their threat had seemed distant and insubstantial. Suddenly she felt tiny and vulnerable. What could she do if the dragons began to fight? They were so big and she was so inconsequential.

  She could feel Fire’s fatigue in every fibre of her body. He had thrown all his energy into running from the night dragons. Now he was exhausted. What could he hope to do against three bigger, stronger dragons? Shadow would be a powerful ally, but even she could not hope to tackle three at once.

  ‘What can I do to help?’ she asked, feeling more comfortable with speaking the words aloud.

  ‘Unhook your feet from the stirrups,’ Fire told her. ‘Pull the stirrups up onto the saddle and loop your hands through them. Stay low to my back. Twist the stirrup straps around your wrists so that even if you slip, you will not fall. I need to concentrate on keeping the night dragons at bay and I might have to make sudden changes of direction to keep them guessing. I don’t want to have to warn you of each turn. It will slow us down and make us more vulnerable.’

  ‘I’ll do my best,’ she
promised.

  ‘I know you will,’ Fire assured her. ‘And I’ll do mine. Between us we’ll be fine.’

  The words were brave, but she could feel no conviction in them. The more she got to know Firestorm, the more human some of his actions were. He was putting a brave face on a bad situation, just as her mother used to do.

  She slipped her right foot from its stirrup first. Having done so, she could not see how she was going to reach the leather strap that attached it to the saddle. It meant stretching quite a way down Fire’s side and she was not sure she could bring herself to lean that far.

  ‘If you don’t do it now while I’m in steady flight, you won’t be able to do it at all,’ Fire told her, following her thought processes. ‘You can do it. Hold onto the pommel with your left hand and reach down with your right. It will be fine. Trust me.’

  To Nolita’s surprise she found that she did trust Firestorm. She did not like looking down when they were flying. Her head tended to spin and she felt sick when she thought about how high they were. To reach the strap, she had to lean a long way down and she knew that closing her eyes would be a foolish thing to do.

  Forcing herself to lean away from her relatively stable seated position, she gritted her teeth, gripped the pommel with her left hand and tried to reach down. Keeping her eyes focused on her goal, she inched her hand further and further down Fire’s side. On her first attempt her fingertips almost reached the strap – almost, but not quite. After several seconds of creeping her fingertips down Fire’s side, she hauled herself back upright in the saddle and took several deep, slow breaths to calm her pounding heart.

  Nolita had no desire to try again, but she knew there was no choice. She had to do it. Twisting her body a bit to the right, she gripped the pommel even tighter this time and, flattening her chest against Fire’s body, she stretched down. Her change of position was just enough. Hooking her middle finger under the strap, she drew the stirrup up until she could grip the metal footrest. As soon as she was upright again, she put her hand through the loop and twisted the leather around her wrist a couple of times.