Longfang

by Mark Robson

  ‘That should do it,’ she told Elian, sounding pleased. ‘The hunters will eventually round most of them up, but the horses will be tired and fretful for some time. If Shadow can fly even a modest distance, the hunters won’t catch up with us again today.’

  Chapter Twenty-one

  The Castle of Despair

  This place felt a world away from the white city of Harkesis, yet only three days had passed since they had eluded the searchers and slipped past Segun and his men. The forbidding grey stone of the sea fortress and its imposing skyline gave notice to those who approached from land or sea: expect no welcome here. Even from the air the gigantic structure looked grim, cold and empty. The enormous gates on the landward side of the castle stood open, but there were no flags flying from the solid square towers. No people walked on the thick, crenellated walls. As Kira and Fang flew over the great structure, she saw the inner courtyards were bare of any signs of life. Where were the people who built these monstrous defences, and who were they so afraid of that they should expend such resources on a castle of this size? A prickle ran up her spine and the skin on her arms rose in a rash of goosebumps.

  The wind was blowing hard from the southwest, whipping the sea into a frothing frenzy of foam-tipped waves. Great streaks of white ran across the grey water in long streamers. Sea birds whirled and dived above the cliffs, their mournful cries rising and falling in tones that ached with loss. Thick cloud scudded overhead, an endless racing ceiling of grey driven across the sky by the blustery wind. Spits and spots of moisture carried on the gusts, but the clouds seemed in too much of a hurry to drop any organised rain. The dim light made the air feel thick with the onset of night, yet it was barely past midday.

  Across the wide estuary to the north, Kira could just make out the shadowy outline of a second large sea fortress.

  ‘Are you sure this is the place, Fang?’ she asked. ‘There’s another castle on the other side of the water.’

  She knew the answer to the question before Fang replied, but she clutched at the grain of hope that she might be wrong. The Castle of Despair, he had named it. She was already beginning to see why.

  ‘This is the castle we seek,’ Fang confirmed, his voice sounding as bleak as the gulls’. ‘We need to land in front of the gates. To try and land within the walls in this wind would prove treacherous.’

  The seaward side of the castle was flush to the sheer cliff, which dropped a hundred spans straight to the rocky beach below. On the landward side, there was a broad area of open land all the way around the castle – a killing ground, stripped of cover and designed to leave any enemy brave enough, or mad enough, to assault the fortress vulnerable to the weapons of those within. A road from the castle gates ran due east across open land and disappeared under the trees of the nearby dense forest. Aside from this large area of open ground, the countryside for miles around was tree-covered, with only the occasional hill crowns emerging like isolated islands in a dark green sea.

  They descended in a skidding arc, the wind carrying them sideways and then slowing their forward speed over the ground as they continued turning until they faced head on into the wind. When they touched down they were barely moving forwards at all and they came to a stop in a few skipping steps. Kira dismounted, leaning into the gusts as she walked the short distance to meet Nolita. Her companion’s blonde hair was streaming across her face.

  ‘It’s a bit wild, isn’t it?’ Kira commented, shaking her head to allow her own hair to catch the wind.

  ‘The wind, or the castle?’ Nolita answered, squinting up at the great grey walls with narrowed eyes.

  ‘Both. What do you think? Should we go in?’

  ‘I’d feel happier if the boys were here,’ the blonde girl admitted. ‘No disrespect for your skills, Kira, but I felt safer when we were travelling as a group of four.’

  ‘You can tell Nolita her wish is granted,’ Fang said suddenly. ‘The others are coming. Look south.’

  Kira looked. Sure enough, two dragons were approaching. They were flying low across the tree-tops. One was clearly the orange-gold colour of a dawn dragon. The other was larger and black, but was flying awkwardly. If it was Shadow, then something was wrong with her. Kira grabbed Nolita’s arm and pointed.

  ‘W . . . What?’ Nolita spluttered. ‘How?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ Kira said, watching Aurora and Shadow turn to make their landing. ‘But I’m glad to see them. If Segun shows up now, we’ll have a fighting chance of standing up to him.’

  The two dragons swept around in a tight turn and landed nearby. For once, the fear that Nolita normally displayed in the presence of dragons was replaced by a look of relief and genuine delight. Kira was not sure whether to be pleased by Nolita’s lack of apparent fear, or hurt that her companion did not find her company sufficient.

  The boys slid to the ground next to their dragons and the girls ran to meet them.

  ‘How did you . . .’ Kira and Elian began simultaneously.

  Kira, Elian and Nolita laughed. Pell’s face remained serious. Elian ignored him.

  ‘Ladies first,’ he said, giving a little bow. He then gave each of the girls a brief hug. ‘It’s good to see you – Kira . . . Nolita. Come over here. Let’s use Ra as a shield from the wind. I don’t want to have to shout.’

  Pell came with them as they moved behind Aurora, but he stood to one side, his face expressionless.

  ‘Well, after you abandoned us to Segun and his men . . .’ Kira started. Elian raised his hand and opened his mouth to protest, but her quick wink made him realise she was teasing. ‘It took us a while to throw him off our tracks. Fang suggested we might find the answer to the riddle in the Grand Library of Harkesis, but apparently Segun came to the same conclusion. I’m not sure who reached Harkesis first, but that doesn’t really matter now. A scholar called Kalen was helping us with our search. We think Segun had him murdered. Once we realised the night dragons were in the city, we ran for it. Kalen told us about the castle with his dying breath. I’m surprised we haven’t seen Segun yet. He could turn up at any moment.’

  ‘He’s already here,’ Pell said, his voice flat. ‘He’s hiding in the trees over there with Widewing.’

  ‘What!’ Kira exclaimed, looking to where Pell was pointing. ‘Fang? Is he right? Is Widewing in the trees?’

  There was a pause and she could feel her dragon reaching out with his mind.

  ‘Ah! Yes, she is there with Segun,’ he replied, sounding apologetic. ‘She is keeping well hidden. I don’t sense any others with her, though.’

  ‘It must be a trap!’ Kira said aloud, her body tense and her mind racing through options. ‘How many men has he got with him? We should get out of here! Now!’

  ‘Don’t panic, Kira,’ Elian said calmly. ‘I don’t think he’ll bother us at the moment. We’re four. He’s alone – for the moment at least. He sent his men into the castle a couple of hours ago and we’ve seen nothing of them since. Ra can’t sense them any more. She says they won’t return. In fact she’s been saying a lot of gloomy things like that ever since she realised we were coming here. She seems genuinely scared of this place.’

  ‘Yes, Fang and Firestorm are the same,’ Kira said. ‘The castle doesn’t have a good reputation amongst the dragons. But how did you get here? How did you solve the riddle?’

  ‘We didn’t,’ Elian said, giving her a broad grin and pointing over his shoulder with his thumb towards Pell. ‘Pell forced the Oracle to tell us where to come.’

  ‘He did!’ Kira was amazed. ‘How?’

  ‘He threatened to smash the second orb if the Oracle didn’t tell us.’

  Nolita gasped. ‘But you wouldn’t have done it, would you?’ she asked quickly.

  ‘Yes. Actually, I would,’ Pell replied, still without emotion. ‘And I nearly did. I’m beginning to wonder if the Oracle is the force for good everyone says it is. Think about it. These orbs it needs – one sucked blood from Nolita, the second was formed from a dragon’s heart.
The first drew predators with its aura and the next killed indiscriminately every time night fell. They’re hardly wholesome attributes. Why does the Oracle need these things? To regenerate, it says. To regenerate into what? Will it be the same creature when this regeneration is complete? Something about this quest feels wrong to me. What gives the Oracle the right to demand these sacrifices?’

  ‘The second orb killed?’ Nolita said, her face paling. ‘Who did it kill?’

  Pell did not answer. His eyes challenged the girls to answer his question first.

  Elian broke the awkward silence.

  ‘Look,’ he said. ‘We’re here to get the dusk orb, and we should do it now. Segun isn’t our only worry. We’ve spent the last four days fighting a running battle against dragonhunters.’

  ‘More hunters!’ Kira exclaimed.

  ‘We think they’re the same crowd as before.’ Elian scowled as memories crowded his mind. ‘Ra and Shadow have both taken injuries, but Shadow’s are the most limiting. Her wing is badly hurt. They’ll be close again by now. According to Ra, their leader is possessed.’

  ‘Possessed? How?’

  ‘An evil spirit creature has taken control of his body. She calls him a “joining”. It seems joinings have a particular hatred of dragonkind, so they’re not going to give up the chase. We’re here. We came for the orb. Let’s go get it, or do you want to abandon the quest after what Pell has said?’

  Nolita looked unhappy and unsure. Kira was more decisive.

  ‘No,’ she said. ‘Let’s get on with it. We’ve come this far. Let’s get the orb . . . unless Aurora needs healing?’ She glanced at Nolita for confirmation and then guiltily at Pell. It seemed unfair that Fire could heal all but his night dragon, but she could not change the facts. Nolita nodded agreement.

  ‘Thanks, but Ra is fine,’ Elian said gratefully. ‘Her wounds are not troubling her at the moment.’

  ‘In that case we should get the orb now before Segun gets reinforcements. I’ve got some questions that I’d like to ask both Pell and the Oracle, but they can wait. How many night dragons entered the castle?’

  ‘Two,’ Elian answered.

  ‘We outnumber them. Good. I guess Fang and I should lead, as it’s the dusk orb we’re after this time.’

  She looked across at Pell, expecting a challenge. His expression did not change and he said nothing. Kira did not quite know what to make of his silence, but it was Elian who spoke again.

  ‘Why not have Fang and Firestorm lead the way?’ he suggested. ‘If we follow them on foot, Shadow and Aurora can bring up the rear. I’d feel a lot safer if I had friendly dragons all around me. Although the gates are big enough for us to ride our dragons inside, there’s no telling where the orb is. If there’s danger, the dragons will be able to move far more freely if they don’t have us on their backs.’

  Kira nodded and the dragons agreed.

  It was further than it looked to the great grey gates of the Castle of Shadows. The wind whipped around them, howling over the battlements and moaning through the thin archers’ windows with a keening so powerful that the riders could feel it in their chests. Kira stuck her fingers in her ears in an effort to block out the sound, but nothing seemed to dull its bite.

  As they got closer, so the walls towered higher. The structure was truly gargantuan, its sheer scale making even the dragons seem small and insignificant. They reached the enormous arched gateway. Kira looked up and around. When she had been at the Grand Library in Harkesis it had been hard to imagine a doorway bigger than the main entrance there. That seemed laughable in the face of this gateway. This was a gateway for giants.

  ‘Or worse,’ Fang added.

  ‘Worse?’ she asked. ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘There is something here, Kira,’ Fang said slowly. ‘The castle may look deserted, but do not be fooled. We are not alone.’

  ‘You’re probably sensing the night dragons,’ she suggested.

  ‘No, it’s definitely not the night dragons,’ Fang replied. ‘I have tried to sense ahead for them and I feel nothing even remotely like the mental tones of a night dragon. What I feel is more transient. Something is leaking fleeting traces of thought – nothing identifiable, but there is a sense of watchfulness about the castle. Something is waiting.’

  The wind strengthened as they walked through the great archway. It funnelled through the gap in the walls, as if trying to push them back. Kira’s sharp eyes could just make out the lines of a huge portcullis hidden in a dark recess above them. She stepped more swiftly as they passed underneath it, her mind picturing it dropping with a great rumble. As they reached the inner end of the tunnel, the wind died away to little more than a swirling breeze. The noise of the wind in the battlements was still audible, but distant.

  The inner keep stood squat and dense, dominating the central area of the castle. It had been built towards the southern side of centre, leaving a large open area at the northern end of the castle. Firestorm and Fang headed for the open area, keeping as much open space around them as possible. They were hunting for the orb, but Kira felt very much like prey here.

  Several old trees, twisted, broken and long dead, stood within the walls. They seemed sad reminders of the life that had once lived within the castle. In their day, they must have been great pillars of colour and life, but their broken remains now only served to enhance the feeling of death and loss.

  As they progressed across the open courtyard towards the seaward wall of the fortress, Kira began to sense the watchfulness that Fang had mentioned. Her hunter’s sense was prickling. She could feel eyes following her. Her own eyes were constantly on the move, and her ears strained to hear even the slightest of sounds that might give a clue to where the watcher, or watchers were hiding. There was nothing. Only the noise of the wind and the gulls.

  They rounded the corner of the inner keep and the two lead dragons stopped.

  ‘What’s wrong, Fang?’ Kira asked immediately. ‘Why have you stopped?’

  ‘Don’t move, Kira! Stand absolutely still. The other dragons are instructing their riders,’ Fang said, his voice urgent. ‘Whatever happens in the next few minutes, you must not move. If you do, you will die.’

  Chapter Twenty-two

  Demons and Traps

  Kira froze, barely able to breathe. The sense of fear leaking through the bond shocked her. What had her dragon seen that could cause him such fear?

  A movement caught the corner of her eye and she was tempted to ease her head around to the right to see what was there.

  ‘Don’t move!’ Fang ordered again, reading her intention. His fear for her was so strong this time that any thoughts of looking around were shredded. ‘Not even slightly.’

  The movement in her peripheral vision teased, whatever was there was coming closer.

  ‘What is it?’ she asked. ‘What’s there?’

  ‘They don’t have a name,’ Fang said. ‘“Shadow demons” is the closest I can come to describing them. I should have recognised them when we entered, but for some reason they escaped my notice until I saw the remains of the two night dragons.’

  ‘Remains?’ Kira tried to swallow the lump that formed in her throat. Her mouth suddenly felt dry and swallowing was not easy. She was not upset to learn that the night dragons were dead, but night dragons were not easy prey. It had taken a lot of griffins to kill Knifetail and that struggle had been noisy. Whatever had killed these two dragons had done it silently and so fast that the dragons had not had a chance to warn their leader, who was hiding not far away.

  An itch began to tickle at Kira’s nose. The wind was blowing loose hair across her face. She clamped her teeth together and tried to ignore it.

  Another movement. This time she could just make out a shape.

  The trees! she thought. It’s the trees!

  ‘There are no trees here,’ Fang told her. ‘The things you took to be trees are deadly creatures from another world. I did not see them as trees, but as piles of old stone. T
hey have an uncanny camouflage skill not dissimilar to my own. I doubt the night dragons even saw them coming. My eyes see more than most.’

  ‘So how do we get past them?’

  A warm wave of positive emotion flooded through the bond in response to her question.

  ‘I’m glad you did not ask about retreating,’ he said. ‘The best thing we can do with these creatures is to stand our ground and let them get used to our scent. If we remain still until they have dismissed us as a threat, we should be able to move slowly forwards and into the keep. The doors are open.’

  The nearest tree creature was coming closer. Kira noticed a slight haze surrounding it. The blurring was subtle, but now that she knew the shadow demon was not displaying its true form she began to see where its camouflage was distorting reality. What was it like underneath the disguise? No sooner had the question raised itself in her mind than she realised she did not want to know the answer. She had the horrible feeling that if she were to see the creature’s true form it would haunt her sleep for the rest of her life.

  Kira could feel the shadow demons all around them now, yet they made no noise. It was as if they were gliding on cushions of air. Although their movements were smooth and without menace, Kira felt this was yet another part of their deception. A slight whimper from Nolita proved her correct. In the blink of an eye the creatures closed in. Their speed was terrible. Kira had never seen anything move so fast, except perhaps the strange spitting weapons of the other world where Elian and Aurora had taken them.

  The tensing of her muscles was instinctive. Kira could not help it. She felt Nolita tense up beside her as well. The creatures loomed over them, not touching, but uncomfortably close and circling round and around.

  Don’t try to run, Nolita, she prayed. Please don’t move.

  Despite the cool wind, she felt a trickle of sweat run down her temple. Another tracked down her back underneath her shirt. The air bristled with fear. The dragons were projecting it in sharp spikes that stabbed through the bonds and the riders were frozen, muscles locked rigid with breathless terror.