Longfang

by Mark Robson

  ‘I know you did, Elian,’ she responded, her voice warm and reassuring. ‘You did the right thing. The wound under Shadow’s wing was the priority. Mine can wait a little longer.’

  ‘But I can feel your pain,’ he said, speaking his thoughts aloud. ‘I know how much it hurts.’

  ‘You can also feel that the pain is bearable,’ she pointed out. ‘I am strong, Elian. Normally I would say that Shadow is the stronger dragon, but as you can see, it is she who is struggling. We must stay focused on getting away from the hunters. If we can reach the Castle of Shadows that’s where they will lose heart.’

  ‘Why there?’ Elian asked.

  There was something Ra was not telling him and he did not like the idea of secrets between them – especially when it came to their quest. He tried to look into her mind to see what she was holding back, but he could sense nothing other than a deep unease.

  ‘The Castle of Shadows is not its only name,’ Aurora said, her voice uncharacteristically bleak. ‘Some call it the Castle of the Dead, others the Dark Keep. But most know it as the Castle of Despair. I would say this final name suits it best. If the hunters follow us in, there is no telling how the castle will treat them. One thing I will guarantee, though – joining or human, they will not enjoy the experience.’

  A cold clamp of dread tightened inside Elian’s stomach. The Castle of Despair – just the name caused a blanket of depression to settle over him. His heart became leaden in his chest and for a moment it felt as if someone had attached weights to his limbs. His entire body was suddenly heavy with weariness.

  A rising pocket of air caught under Aurora’s wings. The sudden bump caused Elian’s stomach to lurch and his hands to clutch the pommel handle with a white-knuckled grip. The jolt startled him and his mood lifted. It was with a certain amount of amazement that he realised how familiar the air rush and the rhythmic motion of riding on Aurora’s back had become in the space of a few short weeks.

  He looked down at the countryside sliding by below him with fresh eyes, and the wonder of it filled him afresh. It was hard to imagine ever being totally at ease when flying in turbulent air, but he had already become so comfortable in smooth conditions that he no longer even thought about how high he was above the ground. How long would it take before turbulence would also become second nature?

  They flew on for about ten more minutes, keeping to the valleys and holding their height. The mountains to either side were lower than those around the area of the Oracle’s cave, but they were still too high to consider climbing over with the dragons in their present state. When Aurora spoke again, she did so with deep concern in her voice.

  ‘We’re going to have to land,’ she told him. ‘Shadow can’t go any further. She’s going to try to land on the top of that ridge ahead.’

  Elian could see instantly where Aurora meant. There was a spur jutting out from the side of one of the mountains. Towards the top there was an area of dense woodland, but the majority of the spur seemed to be grass-covered, with just a few occasional boulders jutting up like broken teeth.

  He looked back at Shadow and then forwards again at the ridge. The night dragon would have to climb at least a hundred spans to land on the top. Would she make it?

  Aurora was flying level with the top of the ridge as she approached. She stopped beating her wings and used her momentum to glide the final few dragonlengths. Elian had learned to trust her judgement and the final tilt of her wings combined with two powerful strokes brought them to a light touchdown.

  No sooner had Aurora landed, than she turned to watch and encourage Shadow. Elian could feel his dragon urging Shadow on, but she was never going to make it to the top of the ridge. Despite her awkward-looking wingbeats, she had gained some of the height she needed. She was flying approximately fifty spans below the top of the ridge, but she seemed intent on landing.

  It was only in the final moments of her approach that Elian realised what Shadow was attempting to do. Aurora broke into a run back across the grassy ridge to keep Shadow in sight as she began to disappear out of view under the nearby horizon. Elian hung on tight, trying to cope with the unusual motion. Normally when Aurora ran with him on her back, she had her wings extended. With her wings folded back her running motion was totally different. It felt unnatural, but he was as anxious as his dragon to watch Shadow touch down.

  The night dragon was trying to land on the steep upslope, a short walk from the ridge top. To land there would be difficult for any dragon, but to try it with a wing injury seemed foolishness of the highest order. For a brief moment Elian thought the huge black dragon had executed the impossible to perfection, but as Shadow swooped upwards to parallel the slope her right wing collapsed with the strain of the manoeuvre. She rolled, crashing into the slope and ploughing to an abrupt stop on her side with her wing folded back awkwardly.

  Pell was thrown clear on impact. He flew, tumbling head over heels through the air and landed on his back, disappearing into the dense heather.

  To Elian it was as if the landing had happened in slow motion.

  ‘Pell!’ he called out, driving out the breath he had been instinctively holding. ‘Pell? Are you all right?’

  There was a pause and then Pell’s head eased up over the tops of the heather.

  ‘I’ve felt better,’ he called back. ‘But I’ll live.’

  Chapter Nineteen

  On the Run

  Kira raced through the market at speed. She was pleased that Nolita was quick to follow her lead. The day dragon rider was fast and fit.

  Running through the streets of Harkesis was not like running through the deep grass of the savannah. In some ways it was easier, for she did not have to pick her feet up high to avoid getting tangled in the long grass. When hunting in Racafi, the sprint for the kill was almost a cross between skipping and bounding along. Here in the streets it was easy to accelerate, weaving through the thinning crowds, and then speed up into a flat-out sprint as they reached the open streets.

  A glance over her shoulder revealed that the man they had seen in the market had abandoned stealth and was in open pursuit. They must have caught him by surprise with their sudden acceleration, as he was a long way behind them. Kira had no intention of letting him catch up.

  ‘We need to get . . . to the other side . . . of the Grand Library,’ she told Nolita, speaking in bursts that matched her breathing pattern. ‘Fang is waiting . . . at the beach.’

  ‘All right,’ Nolita replied.

  Nolita was regulating her breathing well. Kira had not seen the Cemarian girl run before, but if anything, Nolita was running more easily than she was.

  ‘You run well,’ Kira said.

  ‘Thanks,’ Nolita replied. ‘I’ve always liked running.’

  For several minutes they ran at high speed, turning along streets that would take them to the left and around to the far side of the huge library building. By the time they had circled the hilltop to the western side, their skin was glistening with a sweaty sheen. The man was still behind them, but he had not managed to close the gap.

  Kira was not sure what it was that made her look up. It might have been a whisper in the air. It might have been a movement in the corner of her eye. Whatever it was, the sight of the night dragon approaching from the north set her pulse racing even faster.

  ‘Quick!’ she gasped. ‘It looks like . . . our friend back there . . . has called for help.’

  She pointed and Nolita’s eyes widened as she followed the line of Kira’s finger and saw the approaching dragon. Her face paled with fear and her stride lengthened still further as the sight spurred her on to even greater speed. Kira found that she had to accelerate to keep up as Nolita’s burst of fear-driven energy drove them forwards.

  The city was spread out below them like a leprous white scab on the countryside. Beyond the edge of the city the sea sparkled with an intense blue that seemed almost unreal. Kira looked down to where the strand of dazzling white sand awaited. The line where the w
hite buildings stopped and the blue water began seemed little more than a stone’s throw away, yet Kira knew that appearances could be deceptive.

  Leading Nolita around the corner to the right, Kira began to descend the hillside towards the sea. Allowing their downhill momentum to carry them forwards at speed, the girls found that running became both easier and more difficult. Easier because running fast required less effort, but more difficult because keeping the speed under control became a balancing act. Lean forwards too far and the body threatened to overtake the legs. Lean back too far and the momentum was lost, or their feet slipped out from under them.

  The dragon powered closer, racing across the city like a gigantic black angel of death.

  ‘This way!’ Kira gasped, pulling Nolita to the left and into an alleyway. The dragon swept overhead with great whooshing wingbeats, its talons trailing so low that they were almost dragging across the rooftops. No sooner had it passed than it entered a gentle turn to the right that carried it westwards, soaring out over the lower terraces of the city.

  The girls reached the end of the alley and turned right, as if to head down the hill again, but no sooner had they turned than Kira grabbed Nolita’s arm and skidded to a stop. She held a finger to Nolita’s lips, working hard to control her own breathing and keep it as silent as possible.

  The man was approaching fast. They could hear his footsteps coming closer and closer. Kira timed her strike perfectly. Just as he reached the end of the alley she stepped out, bending her right leg and pivoting on her left so that she drove the point of her right knee directly into the stomach of their pursuer. He folded over as if made of paper, all wind driven from his lungs. Before he had a chance to fall, Kira clenched her right fist above her right shoulder and drove her elbow up into the man’s face in a rising strike that caught him right between the eyes.

  Nolita’s eyes were wide with shock, her fear of the dragon momentarily forgotten as Kira attacked. The elbow strike was most effective. The rider collapsed to the floor and remained there, unmoving.

  ‘Where did you learn that?’ Nolita asked. ‘Is it a hunting trick?’

  ‘Not exactly,’ Kira said, grabbing her companion by the hand and starting off down the hill again. The pace this time was slower: more of a jog than a run. ‘It was frowned upon by my tribe . . . if a woman got into a fight. One of my fellow hunters . . . did teach me . . . a few basics, though. Get in close. Use the hard points of the body: knees, elbows and heels. We girls might not have the power . . . or muscle bulk of the men . . . but we can still be . . . effective fighters.’

  The night dragon had not yet completed its lazy turn, but it suddenly let out a deafening screech that sent people all over the city running for cover. The anger in the dragon’s cry was unmistakable.

  ‘Uh oh!’ Kira muttered, dragging Nolita into another side alley and into the shadows. ‘I think perhaps I . . . might have been a bit rash. Hurt the rider – anger the dragon.’

  They stood still. Waiting. Kira grabbed both of Nolita’s arms and looked her in the eyes. The night dragon’s cry had filled the girl with paralysing fear. Kira could feel her shaking. Damn it, she thought. I’m doing this all wrong.

  ‘Don’t be frightened,’ she panted, giving Nolita an encouraging smile. ‘We’ll get out of this. Trust me . . . Fang is waiting. It’s not far now . . . We’ll be out of here in no time. Come on . . . Keep the night dragon out of sight . . . If we can’t see it – it can’t see us.’

  It was not quite true, of course, but Kira did not want to complicate her statement with exceptions. The dragon swept overhead again and the two girls pressed themselves flat against the wall of the alley. The light dimmed momentarily as the shadow of its great wings passed over them. Then it was gone. The dragon cried out again, but this time its voice appeared to be keening. There was a note of anxiety in its cry that under different circumstances might have pulled at Kira’s heartstrings.

  ‘Go! Go!’ she urged, pushing Nolita along the alley. ‘We need to use every moment of cover we can.’

  A second dragon’s voice cried out. The tone of this one was totally different from that of the first. Kira sprinted past Nolita and into a shadowy doorway, waving Nolita in to join her. Another night dragon! The net was closing in fast. If any more night dragons took to the sky, the girls would not be able to wiggle a little finger without one of the dragons seeing it.

  ‘Fang?’ she called silently. ‘It’s getting difficult to move up here. Is there any chance you can divert the attention of the night dragons?’

  ‘I can get their attention easily enough, Kira,’ he replied. ‘But once I have it, I’m unlikely to be able to help you again for a while. The light is too bright for my camouflage to fool them once I’m on the move. If they give chase it’s likely to take me some time to lose them. There is no cloud and nowhere to hide.’

  ‘All right, that’s not a good idea,’ Kira said. ‘Any suggestions?’

  ‘Confusion is your best weapon,’ Fang replied. ‘Night dragons have amazing perception at night, but during the day it is possible to fool them.’

  ‘How?’

  ‘Use your hunter’s instinct, Kira. You’re used to being in their position. Apply what you know in reverse.’

  Although it was nice to feel Fang’s confidence in her abilities, Kira would have preferred a direct suggestion. Confusion? How could she confuse them? Her thoughts flashed back to past hunting trips. What had she found most confusing? As she had become more experienced at stalking it had become rare for her to lose track of her prey, but in the early days there had been many times when a hunt had taken turns she did not expect. The second dragon passed overhead, wheeling out over the lower tiers of the city.

  ‘Come on, Nolita,’ she said, an idea forming. ‘We need to keep moving. Follow me.’

  For the next ten minutes they ran, twisting and turning through side streets and alleyways. Kira doubled back on herself frequently, but always looked aimed to progress downhill towards the coast. She stuck to narrow streets and alleys to limit the dragons’ ability to see them, and also to prevent them from trying to sweep down and snatch them into the air.

  ‘We’re nearly at the coast, Kira,’ Nolita panted. ‘And we haven’t lost them. Widewing’s up there as well. They’ll be guiding the riders to us.’

  ‘Not far now,’ Kira said. ‘Don’t lose heart, Nolita. I know what I’m doing.’ Silently she added: I hope. Nolita was terrified as it was. There was no point making it worse for her.

  They reached the end of the narrow street. A strong odour of fish filled the air. Ahead was an open square. On three sides of the square were houses, but the fourth was open, bordered only by the street that ran along the shoreline at the top of the beach. Around the square was an open-air fish market.

  Table after table was piled high with every sea fish imaginable, shaded from the sun by bright striped canopies mounted on poles. Lots of people were wandering along the lines of stalls. Merchants with their rich clothes and feathered caps mingled with the poor. Fishermen, brown-skinned from long exposure to the elements walked alongside scribes and would-be scholars. Sellers in their wide-brimmed straw hats and blood-spattered aprons touted their wares with loud voices. The smell of the fish was intense, but almost pleasant in comparison to the foul stench of the rest of the city. Kira stopped, catching Nolita and pulling her into a doorway before she ran out into the open.

  ‘Listen!’ she said urgently. ‘This is what we’re going to do . . .’

  Picking her moment, Nolita sprinted across the short distance to the nearest stall, slowing to a normal walk as she joined the streams of people who were mingling around the open market. Kira waited a few moments and then walked slowly out from the narrow street and into the open, scanning the sky above for the dragons. They had climbed. Two were circling directly above, whilst the third was still circling some distance away near to where she had tackled the rider who had followed them.

  She moved past the line of stalls
and into the centre of the square. At least one of the dragons was watching her. She could feel its gaze. As she moved out further into the open, so the other dragons turned their focus on her as well. Kira did not flinch. She continued to walk calmly into the open until she was standing in the middle of the square, clear of all the main activity of the market. There were a few people criss-crossing the centre of the square, but most were around the long lines of tables at the edges.

  One dragon turned and descended westwards out over the sea in a wide looping turn. Kira tracked it with her eyes, taking an occasional glance back up at the dragon still circling directly overhead. They were clever. The one above was watching to see she did not make a run for it while the second positioned to come in and grab her.

  In her mind, Kira kept repeating the same words over and over. She knew dragons could pick up surface thoughts, so she fed them what they wanted to hear. ‘I’m done with running. I’m done with running. I’m done . . .’

  Turning to face the approaching dragon, she watched as it dropped lower and lower over the water until it was racing in off the sea towards her. The people around her seemed oblivious to it. She imagined that the dragons had attracted attention when they first appeared in the sky over the city, but now people had become comfortable with their presence. The approaching dragon loomed large as it swept in across the beach. Its talons were extended forwards, ready to pluck her from the square.

  For a moment, Kira thought she would have to scream, but just as she opened her mouth, sporadic yells and screams from around the square triggered the wave of panic she had anticipated.

  ‘DRAGON ATTACK!’

  Sudden realisation dawned. People all across the square scattered, fleeing for cover. Kira joined them, delaying her run until the last possible instant in order to draw the dragon in as close to the market as she dared. She darted left initially, racing under a green-and-white striped canopy and emerging on the far side wearing one of the wide-brimmed stallholder hats. Nolita had jammed it onto her head as she passed, joining her as they both zipped up one of the nearby streets, carried along by the wave of people.