by Mark Robson
Beyond time’s bright arrow, life-saving breath,
Love’s life-force giving, slays final death.
Orbs must be given, four all in all.
Orbs to renew me, stilling death’s call.
Delve ’neath the surface, life’s transport hides,
Healing, restoring – bright river tides.
Enter the sun’s steps; shed no more tears.
Attain ye the orb; vanquish the fears.
Release the dark orb – death brings me life.
Take brave ones’ counsel, ’ware ye the knife.
Exercise caution, stay pure and heed,
Yield unto justice: truth will succeed.
Ever protected, the dusk orb lies
Behind the cover, yet no disguise.
Afterlife image, unreal yet real,
Lives in the shadows, waits to reveal.
Life after death from death before life,
Enter the new age, through deadly strife.
Greatest of orbs is – dragon’s device.
Gifted for ever: life’s sacrifice.
‘Does any of it make sense?’ Elian asked, intrigued by Jack’s reaction to the Oracle’s riddling words. ‘Given that we’ve now discovered the meanings of the verses that relate to the first two orbs, I expected to decipher the last two more easily, but they remain a mystery.’
‘Sense? No,’ Jack answered, shaking his head. ‘But there’s something about the poem . . . something that tells me I can answer the riddles. Perhaps I am linked to your quest after all. It’s like looking at a crossword. Some days you can look at the cryptic clues and the answers jump out at you. Other days it doesn’t matter how hard you look, the answers won’t come, yet they are no more difficult. I’m having one of those frustrating days when the answers won’t come, but I know they will. I know they will.’
Elian had no idea what a crossword was, but he got the sense of what Jack was saying. It was as he had suspected from the beginning. This man held the key to their quest. He could solve the final riddles. Even if he did not do it overnight, he could do it eventually.
With the answers to the riddles, the quest would become far easier. Once they knew where to look, it would be about tackling the challenges that waited at each orb’s location. What test awaited him? he wondered. Just thinking about the question sent a shiver down his spine. Both Nolita and Pell had faced terrible trials to obtain their orbs. What would getting his orb involve?
The griffin, Karrok, had told them to seek the place where the shadows dwell, which was no doubt the location of the dusk orb. The verse relating to the dawn orb, however, gave virtually no clue to its whereabouts. Any help from Jack would be most welcome.
‘That’s great, Jack,’ Elian said enthusiastically. ‘Can I ask you a favour?’
‘Go ahead,’ he replied warily.
‘Promise me you won’t get yourself killed before you find the answers.’
Jack laughed. ‘I’ll do my best,’ he said. ‘The worst thing about this war is that it’s so damned dangerous! People will insist on shooting at me every day. I suppose it is only fair, given that I shoot at them, but it’s dashed antisocial, if you ask me.’
The night passed quickly, although none of them slept. Elian was alternately worried about Pell and fascinated by Jack’s stories of the war. Jack, in turn, was eager to hear about Areth and its inhabitants. He was particularly interested in everything Elian told him about the dragons, the Oracle, the orbs and the griffins – those things he described as fantastical creatures. His eyes went wide when Elian told him the griffins had originated in his world, but had been taken to Areth by a dawn dragon centuries earlier.
As dawn approached, Elian felt a wave of fatigue crash over him. He desperately needed sleep, but it was far too late for that now. Pell had said next to nothing all night. His eyes were vacant. Dark rings under them added to his haunted expression. And his dragon looked little better.
‘The sooner we get Pell to the Oracle, the better, Ra.’
‘I agree,’ she replied. ‘Both Pell and Shadow are close to the edge of insanity. I would not have thought a night dragon could be affected by death in such a way. The dark orb must be a heavy burden. We have to get them to the Oracle with all haste.’
Elian gave Jack a quick wave goodbye as he settled into the saddle. The pilot raised a hand in acknowledgement, watching them from the edge of the woods as they prepared to leave. He appeared sad. The sky was brightening quickly in the east and birdsong swelled in the trees. The distant rumble of war was relentless, but it seemed nothing could daunt the birds from singing in the dawn with passion.
‘How long until you can make a gateway?’ Elian asked.
‘A couple of minutes,’ Aurora replied.
‘Let’s go then,’ Elian ordered.
Aurora surged into a run and the thrill of launching into the sky warmed Elian’s stomach as he leaned forwards, gripping the pommel of the saddle with all his strength. The great whoosh of Ra’s first wingbeat was echoed by Shadow’s just behind them. Seconds later they were airborne and climbing. They flew westwards, away from the woods, before turning back east towards the rising sun.
Elian felt Ra’s inner power wax as the sun’s first rays burst forth from the horizon like a fiery diamond. Shadow raced past them as the swirling grey of the gateway formed in the sky ahead. A last glance down at the ground and Elian could just make out the woods where they had spent the night. The tiny figure he knew to be Jack was now standing in the open field to watch them go. It felt good finally to have met the man he had seen on so many of his previous visits to this world. Would Jack solve the Oracle’s riddles? Elian hoped so, but further thought on the matter would have to wait. The immediacy of the yawning mouth of the vortex demanded his attention. Bracing against the horrible twisting sensation he knew was coming, he shut his eyes tight and counted slowly until he felt the gateway swallow him.
The transit through the gateway into Areth left him as disoriented as always. The sky overhead was a dark blue, lightening ahead towards the horizon. Elian judged it to be less than an hour to sunrise here in the mountains of central Orupee. They were much closer to the Oracle’s cave this time – barely a minute’s flying time to the ledge in front of the mouth.
The wind was light and the little bit of cloud in the sky was high above the mountaintops. The approach and landing were by far the easiest that Elian had experienced here so far. He felt strangely wary as he dismounted, with a nagging feeling that something bad was bound to happen to compensate for the ease of their arrival.
‘Hold up, Pell!’ he called after his companion. ‘Wait for me!’
The older boy had dismounted and was disappearing into the cave, saddlebag slung over his shoulder, striding ahead with an air of grim purpose. Elian ran, closing down the gap until he dropped into a walk alongside Pell. He looked around nervously. The guardians stepped out of their alcoves, but retreated again immediately when they recognised the two boys approaching.
‘Are you all right?’ Elian asked Pell in a low voice once they had moved out of the guardians’ earshot.
‘No,’ Pell replied bluntly. ‘I doubt I’m ever going to be all right again. My shoulder burns with the pain of Shadow’s wound, I’ve been exiled from my enclave and the dark orb has used me to help kill dozens of defenceless men and animals. The Oracle has a lot to answer for, Elian. I intend to see it pay.’
‘Pay? How do you intend to make the Oracle pay, Pell?’
A cold chill ran up Elian’s spine. Was this what he had sensed when they landed? He looked across at Pell. The older boy appeared more determined than Elian had ever seen him before.
‘You’ll see soon enough,’ Pell stated.
‘Don’t do anything foolish, Pell,’ Elian pleaded. ‘Let’s just get rid of the orb and get out of here. The girls need our help. Segun may well have captured them. Kira and Nolita came for you when you were in trouble. Aren’t you going to return that favour?’
‘Segun won’t waste time capturing them,’ Pell replied, his voice flat and emotionless. ‘If he has caught up with them, they are dead already. Segun is set on seeing the quest fail. We stand in his way. There are no boundaries he will not cross to achieve his goal. But every way you look at this, it all comes back to one thing – the Oracle. This entire mess is the Oracle’s fault. It’s time it stopped.’
‘Stopped? How? You can’t stop this, Pell.’
‘Just you watch me!’
‘Ra?’
‘I heard,’ she replied. ‘Shadow can’t get through to him. She tells me this is what has been distressing her so much. He is shielding his intention from her. She says his mind is a maelstrom of emotion. His surface thought patterns appear chaotic, but there is an underlying purpose that she cannot quite see through to. Stay close to him, Elian. Try to stop him from doing anything he might regret.’
‘I’ll do my best,’ he promised.
No sooner had he said the words than he began to question exactly what he could do. Pell was bigger and stronger than Elian. He was also stubborn and unlikely to listen to reason. All Elian could do for now was to watch and hope.
They descended along the zigzagging ramp into the heart of the Oracle’s great cavern. The light in the chamber was dim, but they had no problems seeing where they were going. Torches burned in brackets on the walls of the cavern, giving off an orange glow that forced the shadows to retreat. Elian looked at the great stalactites and stalagmites with their twisted icicle-like shapes. Was it his imagination, or had some of them changed position since he was last here? He dismissed the idea instantly as ludicrous. There was no way a cave formed from solid rock could change shape in a matter of days.
As they approached it, the circular opening in the chamber floor gaped black and lifeless. The low wall that encircled the great hole seemed like the rim of a huge sunken cup, filled to the brim with the very substance of night. The darkness inside was so dense it looked solid.
A distant whisper breathed through the air as Elian and Pell approached the heart of the chamber. The Oracle was coming. Elian’s muscles tightened with nervousness. He looked around to check that Aurora was close. She was right behind him, with Shadow moving alongside her. Twisting tendrils of mist began to rise from the dark well. They twirled and danced, teasing the boys’ eyes with hints of recognisable shapes before morphing and evolving into something different and equally tantalising.
The suddenness of the Oracle’s arrival was as breathtaking as ever. One moment the smoke-like pillar of mist was insubstantial and formless, the next it glared at them with the burning eyes of a great dragon’s head.
‘I sense ye return triumphant, Master Pell.’ The Oracle’s voice echoed around the chamber with a resonance that made the very air seem alive. Somehow it also rang within their minds, leaving Elian unsure if it had really spoken or not. ‘Thou hast the Orb of Death. Yet all is not well. I feel it in your mind.’
‘You’re damned right all is not well!’ Pell shouted, his face dark with rage. ‘You expected me to return here bearing my dragon’s heart wrapped in crystal. I was imprisoned, exiled and tested to the limits to win my own dragon’s death without my knowing it. Even then it didn’t end. You knew full well that this monstrosity of a globe would kill at every sunset. The Creator only knows how many it would have killed if Elian and Aurora had not taken us through that hellish other world and brought us here quickly. What sort of sick and twisted creature are you to make such an evil creation?’
Elian watched with his heart beating fast as Pell reached into his saddlebag and drew out a ball of cloth. With delicate care, Shadow’s rider peeled back the layers until the dark orb sat in a cradle of cloth atop his cupped hand.
‘Ahhh!’ the Oracle sighed on seeing the orb. The light in the room brightened slightly. ‘Come. Toss the orb into my well. Be rid of it, Pell. To bear it for too long will send a man insane. You have done well to bring it so far still retaining your senses.’
Was that a note of avarice in the Oracle’s voice? Why was it ignoring Pell’s questions? Where on previous encounters he had felt awestruck by the spirit creature’s presence, suddenly Elian felt uncertainty and a twinge of fear. Pell had made valid points. Why should the Oracle’s rebirth require others to die? Was it really the wholesome creature the dragons believed it to be? Had it been deceiving and manipulating them across generations of dragons? Elian poured his thoughts through the bond to Aurora. She made no response, but he could feel her doubts growing, too.
‘No,’ Pell said, raising the orb high above his head. ‘I’m not giving you the orb. It ends here and now. Unless you give me the answers I want, I’ll smash it.’
Elian instinctively drew in a deep breath and held it. His eyes flicked back and forth between the Oracle and the orb as he waited for the spirit creature to respond to the challenge. He expected the Oracle to be angered by Pell’s belligerence, but once again he was surprised. It sighed, a long whispering sigh that conveyed disappointment and deep hurt. The burning eyes dimmed and for long moments it was silent.
‘The orbs are not my creation,’ it admitted slowly, sounding old and tired. ‘The truth is I do not fully understand them. The plinths were made by an ancient race, long dead now. The secrets of the orbs and how they were formed, died with them. I make no excuses for the orbs, or what they do. I like their properties no more than you do. If I were not the last of my kind, I would gladly move on to the next realm without invoking their power. But if I die now, Areth will be plunged into anarchy – and I have worked too hard for too long to let that happen. I refuse to leave Areth to the mercy of the night dragon enclave. The day dragons, for all their bravery, cannot hope to contain the night dragons’ lust for power. Whilst I remain, dragonkind is bound to my purpose. I must survive, Pell. Segun and the others must be held in check. The fate of all Areth depends on it.’
Chapter Thirteen
The Grand Library
‘The place where the shadows dwell,’ Kalen repeated thoughtfully. ‘That sounds familiar. Something tells me I’ve heard the phrase before . . . but where?’
‘There’s a rhyme that relates to it,’ Kira said. ‘It was all we were given in order to complete this part of our quest. It goes like this:
‘Ever protected, the dusk orb lies
Behind the cover, yet no disguise.
Afterlife image, unreal yet real,
Lives in the shadows, waits to reveal.
‘Does that help?’
Kalen’s forehead scrunched into deep furrows. Kira and Nolita waited, barely able to breathe. Then the old man shook his head slowly and Kira could taste the bitterness of disappointment.
‘No,’ he said. ‘That doesn’t help at all. I thought for a moment that it might be the name of a painting. There are several artists whose works focus on shadow and light. It may be that I’m thinking of a picture I’ve seen entitled “Place of Shadows”, or something similar. The rhyme gives a different edge to the meaning, though. Of course, it’s possible that I’m thinking along the right track. A painting is an image. It could be a picture of an imagined afterlife that has been hung somewhere in the shadows. That’s probably wishful thinking, though. Hmm. Where could we learn more about a place where shadows dwell?’
‘I thought that “afterlife image” might refer to a ghost,’ Nolita offered. ‘Or something that looks like a ghost.’
Kalen looked at her through narrowed eyes and crossed his arms.
‘You look far too sensible a girl to believe in such things,’ he said. ‘People like to write stories about such nonsense to scare and thrill. What little study time I wasted on so-called ghostly apparitions has convinced me they are nothing but superstitious nonsense. No, it’s the clause “unreal, yet real” that gives us the best clue. It could be that it refers to someone who pretends to be a ghost.’
‘But the Oracle is a spirit creature,’ Kira protested.
‘The Oracle? I’ve heard that dragons talk of
an Oracle. I thought it was one of their own kind – an ancient dragon that gives out quests to riders. A sort of high leader.’
‘No,’ Nolita answered, her voice firm and confident. ‘We’ve encountered it twice now. It’s difficult to describe the Oracle. It’s alive, yet it appears insubstantial – almost as if it’s made of smoke. It lives in a cave in the mountains of Central Orupee and is highly revered by the dragons. It sent us on this quest. The Oracle is inspiring, scary and very real.’
‘Really?’ Kalen said, his eyebrows rising. He did not look convinced. ‘I’ve seen illusions created from smoke. They can be most convincing. But I hesitate to doubt the word of a dragonrider, so I will not rule anything out. Come. Let’s go and look in the general reference section and see where our research takes us.’
The old scholar set out towards the interlocking maze of immense bookcases ahead of them. He weaved through the towering corridors of books with supreme confidence. Kira was glad of his guidance. To her untutored eye all the bookcases looked the same. It seemed worse than navigating a jungle.
Looking up at the soaring dome above them, Kira realised they were approaching the very centre of the enormous circular chamber. Distracted by the amazing decoration on the huge dome roof high above, she did not notice when Kalen stopped, and she accidentally bumped into him. Nolita was also caught by surprise, but managed to sidestep the scholar at the last moment.
‘Sorry!’ Kira apologised, taking a step backwards.
‘Think nothing of it,’ he mumbled, already studying the books on the shelf at chest height. He ran his right index finger across the books, his head to one side as he studied the words and symbols. He ducked down and did the same on the shelf below until his finger came to rest on a thick black leather-bound volume with silvery writing across the spine. ‘Ah! Here we are,’ he said, tipping the top of the book forwards before grasping it more firmly and drawing it out from between its neighbours. ‘Let’s take a look in here. Come. There’s a study area just around the corner.’