The Dragon Caller

by Pauline M. Ross

  She nodded. “From my mother.”

  “But you’re no abomination. You have the best of both in you, I’d say.”

  “That’s a kind thing to say.”

  He laughed. “Kind? It’s not often anyone says that of me. I’m not one for compliments or flowery words, never have been. Too honest for my own good, sometimes. More than once I’d have been spared a whole heap of grief if I’d been able to manage a tiny little lie, if only I’d—” He stopped, memories ripping at his guts all over again. If only! Such heart-rending words. He took a deep breath. “Truly, Elestra, anyone would tell you the same. You’re a very beautiful woman.”

  “Oh,” she breathed, her eyes wide. Such astonishing eyes. She looked up at him, then down at her feet again. “Garrett…”

  “What is it?” he said gently. “You can talk freely to me, you know that.”

  Her face lifted again, lit by those sparkling eyes. “Yes! You’re my friend, aren’t you? I mean… look, I’m sorry I tried to get you into my bed, and I’m sorry I got all huffy about it, but I thought… I thought you liked me and it would have… I’m sorry.”

  “Ido like you,” he said, struggling to breathe all of a sudden. “But—”

  “But not in that way?”

  He licked his lips. How much to say? But he couldn’t lie to her. “Very much in that way. Any man would, he couldn’t help himself. But this journey is difficult enough without complications like that. Although I can still be a friend to you.”

  She nodded, thoughtful, and he held his breath. Would she accept it, or would she try her luck again? And which did he want most? He couldn’t decide.

  “That’s… sensible,” she said, and the disappointment that speared through him answered his own question. Then she smiled, as abruptly as the sun emerging from behind a cloud. Gods, how he loved that radiant smile! Impossible not to smile back with equal warmth, as his foolish heart flip-flopped about with the pointless optimism of a man of fifty in the presence of a beautiful young woman. How stupid to be falling in love again at his age.

  “Will you cuddle me?” she said abruptly. “As a friend… no obligation or… or anything you don’t want. Just hold me, as you did on the ship? I felt so safe like that.”

  For answer, he scooped her into his arms and found a fallen log to sit on. “There… comfortable?” And tried to remember that he was only a friend, nothing more. Just a friend…

  “Yes. You know, Garrett, for all you say you’re not kind, you’ve always been kind to me. You’ve treated me as an equal, and took me on even though I wasn’t qualified, and even now you know I’m a half-breed, you’re not repelled by that.”

  “Why should I be?”

  “Everyone else is! The Tre’annatha have been trying to get rid of me ever since I was born.They think I’m an abomination, even if you don’t.”

  “Unusual, certainly,” he said. “I’ve never heard of a half-Tre’annatha before.”

  “Well, it’s not supposed to happen. No inter-breeding. They have this very rigid breeding program, and wild births just aren’t allowed. It was bad enough that my mother married a non-Tre’annatha, but having a child was definitely not meant to happen. She was expected to hand me over at birth, but my father refused. Then she disappeared and—”

  “Disappeared? You mean she left?”

  “Not voluntarily, that much is certain. They tried for years to get her sent back to theSraeh – the homeland – but time after time she refused and the Lower Assembly at High Rock wouldn’t force her. Then one day, when I was about twelve, she vanished without a word. Well, she would never have done that, so we knew she’d been taken. I suppose she’s dead now,” she added in lower tones. “That’s what they do to those who disobey.”

  “But they never managed to take you, so that’s something.”

  “They got me sterilised, so I—”

  “What!”

  “Oh, yes. I had to take some poison stuff. I can never have children. I didn’t mind that, if they’d just leave me alone. Which they agreed to, and I thought that would be the end of it, but…”

  She was silent for such a long time that Garrett wondered if she might be dropping off to sleep. But then she sighed heavily. “They’re sodevious, the Tre’annatha. When they first came to High Rock, about thirty years ago, they made it sound like such a wonderful arrangement. They brought books and education and lessons in all manner of innocuous subjects, like geography and the weather and how to prevent corn beetles from damaging your crops, and all of it free. Who can refuse that? The Assembly couldn’t.”

  She shifted in his arms, grabbing a handful of his shirt and pulling herself closer to him. He closed his eyes, resting his head on her hair – so soft, so fine that the temptation to run his hands through it was almost irresistible.

  When she’d settled herself, she went on, “But gradually over the years, the children they taught and the farmers they helped ended up on the Assembly, and the next thing, there was this brilliant idea to set up a group of Tre’annatha, purely as advisers, you understand, and now they’re the Upper Assembly and our own people are the Lower Assembly and no one can sneeze without Tre’annatha approval. But at least they did what they said, they left me alone, with no more attempts to get me sent to theSraeh for ‘treatment’ – that was what they called it, but they meant to kill me, everyone knew that. I would never have been allowed to live.”

  “Gods!” Garrett said. He wasn’t surprised, for he’d seen for himself how the Tre’annatha weaselled their way into a place, and how ruthless they could be, but it was shocking that Elestra had come so close to that ruthlessness. “But if they’d known about your ability with wind…”

  She chuckled. “They’d have been torn, certainly. Their desire for magical power is so great that, yes, they might even have kept me alive to make use of me. But I made sure they never knew of it. My mother taught me that. She taught me all their ways, their tricks, the evil in their black hearts. I learnt early to keep out of their way, and no one knew of my wind-blowing. So I lived, but they made sure I never got a job, never trained for anything, never married anyone in the town. When my father was finally pressured into marrying again, my step-mother discovered that I was a hindrance to her ambitions to rule the Lower Assembly, so she had me married off at fifteen as the third wife of a Thar-brianese prince.”

  Garrett made an exclamation of horror, and she laughed. “Oh, don’t go feeling sorry for me. I was happy to go, happy to escape from the watchful eyes and disapproving looks for a while, and the Thar-brianese aren’t savages. My husband treated me kindly, in his way. But after ten years, when I could choose my freedom if I wished, I had my wind-blowing fully at my control and I knew the law – I could seek employment as a sail-master, even without training. Not all sail-masters have magic, you know, so anyone can offer their services, even as a natural – untrained, that is, although I was more of a natural at it than anyone suspected.” She gave her throaty laugh again. “Not that it helped! No one would employ me, the Tre’annatha made sure of that.”

  “Couldn’t you have gone to Drakk’alona?”

  “No, different rules, you have to be certified and a native, so it had to be High Rock. But I was patient, and it annoyed my step-mother so much to have me home again that it almost compensated for my lost opportunities. I put my idle time to good use, too, reading everything I could lay my hands on. But you cannot imagine—”

  “Hush!” he said in an urgent whisper. “I heard something.”

  She skipped out of his arms as lightly as a bird, producing a serious dagger from some recess of her wrap, as he reached for his sword and silently unsheathed it. They stood motionless, listening. What had he heard? Not the horses, dozing nearby. Not Ruell, still fast asleep. Something else, further away, but not the heavy rumble of wagons on the road, taking advantage of the moonlight. There it was again – a jingling. Harness. Horses, or a carriage, perhaps. No, it must be horses, or there would be the rumble of wheels,
too.

  He stepped carefully across to where Ruell lay sleeping, and gently shook him awake, motioning him to silence. He was on his feet in moments, reaching for his own sword.

  Garrett’s eyes swept quickly over the camp. The horses were out of sight, and the fire had burned low, although there was still a thin column of smoke rising in the still night air. He could only hope it was invisible from the road. With gestures, he directed the others to crouch behind a thick line of bushes. If they were lucky these late travellers taking advantage of brightmoon would hurry on past to the inn, and notice nothing amiss.

  And so it seemed. The jingling, and then the audible sound of hooves, drew nearer and nearer, passed by and grew faint. And then they stopped.

  Garrett held his breath.

  The sounds grew louder again, and stopped once more.

  As clear as a bell, a voice said, “In here. They went this way.”

  And then came the unmistakable sounds of horses entering the forest and drawing nearer with every step.

  They had been found.

  24: A Camp In The Woods (Garrett)

  Garrett waited until they neared the clearing. Huddled behind the bushes with the others, he couldn’t see much, but he could hear them. They were quite easy about it, not bothering to choose a quiet way through the undergrowth. It wasn’t the way to sneak up on anyone, not with harness unmuffled and the horses stomping through leaf litter and snapping twigs under their hooves. And their riders were talking, and not even lowering their voices, although Garrett didn’t understand the strange sing-song language they used.

  Elestra did, though. “Tre’annatha!” she hissed.

  That made sense. Who else would be looking for them? Garrett cursed himself for leaving their trail off the road so easy to see. With all the rain, the ground was soft in places, and the horses must have left prints, as well as Elestra’s boots. And yet, these people had gone straight past the trail by the stream, then stopped some distance down the road, and turned back as if realising they’d missed the point of entry to the forest. Which was odd. And they couldn’t have been betrayed by anyone from the inn, for they’d come from the other direction. He tried looking through their eyes, but he couldn’t see any of their faces.

  But the time for worrying about all that was past. The riders were almost at the clearing and at any moment would discover their camp.

  “Stay here,” he mouthed at the others. They nodded.

  Then, with one deep breath to steady his nerves, he leapt from behind the bushes, brandishing his sword.

  “Halt!” he yelled. “Who disturbs our sleep?”

  There were five of them, four Tre’annatha riding and another man on foot, and Garrett recognised them at once. Three of the Tre’annatha were the ones who had boarded theSundancer, supposedly to check the number of passengers. The fourth Tre’annatha was a familiar face.

  “Famri,” he said in resignation. “What mischief are you up to now?”

  She raised a supercilious eyebrow, not in the least afraid of his sword. “Just as rude as ever, I see. Some things do not change.” She turned to her companions. “Well?”

  The fifth person Garrett recognised from the boat again, the skinny man who’d sniffed the air. He was sniffing now, his head bobbing this way and that.

  “He’s here,” he said excitedly to Famri. “Very close.”

  “Actually, we could work that out for ourselves,” she said. “Who else would the barbarian be defending?” She sneered at Garrett, who grinned back amiably.

  “Barbarian? It takes one to know one, I suppose. What are you doing wandering around the forest in the middle of the night?”

  “I shall ask the questions,” she said coldly.

  “Ask all you like. You won’t necessarily get any answers.”

  Famri laughed, a brittle sound that was perhaps meant to sound menacing. Garrett wasn’t easily intimidated, even by other trained swordsmen, and this group bore no visible weapons. Tre’annatha were famous for being non-violent, and although Famri had obviously rowed against that particular stream when she’d had Ruell knocked unconscious and kept him locked away for hours, that was uncharacteristic. Besides, they were on their guard against her now, and they couldn’t be taken by surprise. So Garrett wasn’t in the least concerned. Getting them to go away might be problematic, but there was no way they would be able to take Ruell, if that was what they were after. What were they after? He wished they’d get on with it, and make their demands clear.

  Famri dismounted, handing her reins to one of the others and walking towards Garrett, quite unconcerned by his sword. “Find the boy,” she said to the tracker.

  The man sniffed again, and took a step forward.

  “Hold it right there,” Garrett said, moving sideways to place himself in front of the man, the point of his sword a handspan from his throat. “The next step is liable to be your last.”

  “It’s fine.” Ruell’s voice held no trace of nervousness as he came to stand beside Garrett. “Let them say their piece, and then we’ll see them off.”

  Ruell still held his sword in his hands, but it dangled loosely to the ground, not much use in a fight. Not that this was likely to be much of a fight, with two swords against unarmed men, but even so, it rubbed Garrett the wrong way to see Ruell so casual about it. Over-confidence was fatal, in his experience, and you could never tell what secret ability an opponent might be able to call on. He’d seen swords tied in knots once, and there were those who could summon fire from their fingertips. It always paid to be on your guard.

  Famri smirked. “Well, well. Just the person we had hoped to see. How pleasant to meet you again, Ruell.”

  “You’d better tell us straight away what you want,” Ruell said. “I was having such an enjoyable dream, and I’d like to get back to it, if you don’t mind.”

  That brought forth another harsh laugh. “You would like to dream, would you? It can be arranged. All you have to do is to come with us.”

  “I can dream perfectly well here. If you have nothing else to say—”

  “Youwill come with us.” Her eyes narrowed. “We are taking you into the Program at once, and it will be better if you do not make a fuss about it, you and your barbarian guard.”

  “You have no authority over me,” Ruell said, lifting his chin, his voice ringing in the evening air. “You cannot compel me, and I do not agree to it.”

  Much as Garrett disapproved of Ruell’s relaxed stance, he couldn’t help but be impressed by this new, self-assured behaviour. Where had it come from, this confidence? He’d been so quiet for days, worryingly so, yet here he was dealing in imperious manner with this insolent woman. It was deeply satisfying.

  Famri’s face settled into less rigid lines. “Ruell,” she said softly, “we want only to help you reach your full potential. We can teach you about dragons, and how to call them to you and command them.”

  “If you knew how to do that, you wouldn’t need me, would you? You just want to keep me as some sort of slave, to do your bidding and use my dragons to give you power, but that will never happen. Never!”

  “Why so hostile? We are not your enemies, and we would never mistreat you. That is not our way.”

  “You mistreated me at Sand Eagle Bay, didn’t you? Hit me over the head and kept me unconscious for hours, for some reason—”

  “That was necessary, unfortunately. We had to mark you, for how else could we track you when we needed you? But now the ruling has been made that we are to find you and bring you into the Program by any means necessary, so—”

  “Ruling? Whose ruling?”

  “Our most honoured and esteemed leaders. If you are indeed a dragon caller, Ruell, then you are too important to the future of our people to be allowed to wander freely where you will, or to follow your own course. You must be brought under our control at once. That is why we are here and we will not be denied. Your little barbarian will not stop us, you may be sure, and neither will you.”

 
; To Garrett’s astonishment, Ruell actually laughed. “Let’s see you try, then,achi seyalath.”

  The Tre’annatha all howled with rage, while the tracker looked as bewildered as Garrett felt. Where had Ruell learnt Tre’annatha words, and with a convincing accent, too? From Elestra? But that seemed unlikely.

  Famri yelled something in her own language, and abruptly they were assaulted by whirling storms of wind, gales that tore at Garrett’s hair, pressed his clothes flat against his body and threatened to tear the sword from his hands. Wind-blowers! He’d completely forgotten that. He was losing his touch, and underestimating the enemy.

  He ducked down close to the ground, but dared not take a hand off his sword to protect his head from the twigs and stones and whole branches in the air. None of it actually hit him, though, as the glass ball protected him from harm. He was vaguely aware that some of the debris was hitting the Tre’annatha, and guessed that Elestra had joined the fray, but he already knew that she couldn’t stand against three wind-blowers at once. He cursed, but he was helpless in the face of the onslaught.

  And then the air was full of wings and claws and high-pitched screeches. And flames! Entire branches burst into raging fire in mid-air, and the clearing rang with Tre’annatha screams. The gales vanished as suddenly as they’d started, and when Garrett dared to look up, the sky above him was full of dragons wheeling and swooping. All the horses panicked, reared and snorted, and then raced away through the trees, branches snapping around them. One Tre’annatha fell from his horse, and lay motionless. Famri fled towards the road on foot, shrieking in terror. And in the midst of the chaos, Ruell stood tall and unbowed, a commanding figure wholly in control of the dragons.His dragons.

  The tracker was untouched. He crouched on the ground, arms wrapped round his head, yowling like a cat, but none of the dragons had so much as scratched him.