I blinked off the surprise. That certainly was a turn of events, my favourite author actually requesting to meet me when I was expecting another row with my parents. “Of course she can,” I said. “I'll get showered and be there in half an hour.”
PART II
Sukina
“Varion was a boy who could talk to dragons, and he did so not through words, gestures, or expressions, but through a harmonic and beautiful song.”
From ‘The Dragon Boy’ by Sukina Sako
CHAPTER 4
Before I was born, the Five Hamlets — Drani, Forst, Pagla, Boroti, and Girn — were independent in their own rights. Not only that, but they competed for the position of the best wine exporter in all of Tow. Each hamlet supplied the surrounding vineyards. Initially, they’d just consisted of cottages and farmhouses, but the vineyards became lucrative enough, and the scenery was so beautiful that retirees emigrated here from Spezzio, causing the hamlets to expand into villages.
They didn’t start to merge, until I began exporting secicao at fourteen years of age. This had created such a boom to the Five Hamlet’s that the villages spread outwards to combine into one large town.
The town hall was no longer the unadorned assembly hall built of local timber, I remembered from my youth, but a gothic wonder with gargoyle-topped towers. Flags hung from the eaves of the roof, with insignias of each of the original Five Hamlets. Another flag rose up even higher from the central tower, displaying the town’s emblem — two curling vines wrapped around a dragon.
Inside, Sukina Sako was in conversation with Mr Sandorini, the mayor, both seated on upholstered velvet chairs in the waiting room. The author wore a green floral dress and had a strap over her shoulder leading to a canvas haversack on her back. She was petite – much smaller than I’d expected her to be.
Amusingly, the fading paintings of the patrons of the original hamlets had been removed from beneath the high arched windows and replaced with illustrations of scenes from Sukina Sako’s novels. In each of them, I recognised Varion staring down at me with playful eyes. I couldn’t help but smile. Until, that was, my hangover kicked in and part of me wanted to throw up instead.
Mr Sandorini stood up, his cheeks ruddy underneath his fuzzy moustache and his smile full of mirth. His eyes seemed pleading as if telling me to be on my best behaviour and represent the town well. Sukina rose too. She stood back with her hands folded towards her knees while the mayor spoke. “Ah, Miss Wells, I wasn’t sure you’d be able to make it. Our wonderful writer, Sukina Sako has honoured us with our visit, and she has requested you.”
“It’s an honour,” I said, and I nodded to Sukina.
“You know, she has over a million books in print.” He gestured towards the paintings. “I had these commissioned especially for the occasion. I’m sure, she’ll… you know… portray us well.” That last part he gave in a mock whisper, loud enough for Sukina to hear.
“I know,” I said, and I waited patiently, as I started to wonder why there weren’t any paintings here of Sukina herself.
“Right then,” the mayor said. “I’ll leave you two ladies alone.” He exited via the left wing.
Sukina offered me her hand. “Well, you already know I’m Sukina Sako from Orkc. You must be the famous dragon girl.”
“Pontopa Wells, at your service.” I took her hand. She had this wonderful marble-like face, so polished above her high cheekbones that she looked almost like a statue. Although her author bio said she was fifteen years my senior, she looked the same age. She'd painted her lips with a little pink lipstick which complemented her long eyelashes and almond, slightly slanted eyes well. Her hair was jet black and incredibly straight. Indeed, she looked very different from anyone I’d seen in Tow.
“Say, I’ve read virtually all your books,” I said. Although, this was the first time I’d seen what she looked like, as she never displayed her picture in her books.
“That’s good to hear.” While I expected her to have a bouncy alacrity, she didn’t seem to be the smiley type. Even when she looked at me, her eyes seemed kind of dreamy as if thinking of a far-off fictional world. “I guess you have some notion of why I’d visit you here.”
“I don’t. I mean, I kind of regret I didn’t write you a letter. That’s what fans do, right?”
“Oh, it’s of no consequence,” she said with a dismissive wave. “I came actually to learn more about your work and hopefully visit your dragon, for research purposes. It’s the last remaining coloured dragon the North Continent, you know?”
“I do. Although I’ve never quite believed it.”
“Please don’t misunderstand me. There are other dragons of colour — in Cadigan and the Saye Archipelago. But not here and all thanks to Cini II’s war effort. There are none either in the Southlands, but that’s for different reasons.”
“Why exactly is that?”
“Well, for a dragon to gain colour, it has to live away from the secicao clouds for quite a while. No one really knows why. But Greys aren’t fertile coloured dragons are and — since there’s less and less of them — they’ve become intensely important to the dragon queens.”
My eyes widened in surprise. “Dragon queens?”
“Why of course. All dragons need a queen. This world has eight. Haven’t you read about them in my books?”
“Never… There’s boy dragons and there’s girl dragons, but none of them are queens.”
“Yes, I remember,” Sukina’s eyebrows turned downwards. She turned to one of the paintings on the wall, just above the right-wing staircase. “Cini censored them all out. Didn't want you Towese knowing that there's actually a civilisation in the Southlands.”
“What? Why would he do that?”
Sukina shook her head. “I guess it's easier if it's just the king against the dragons…”
I was lost for words what to say. Eventually, I found the silence so awkward that I thought I’d better cut through it.
“Say, you came to see Velos, right? How about we go over to my place now? My parents are always honoured when a celebrity comes to visit.” Although I wasn’t sure I wanted to see them right that moment, particularly Papo.
Sukina smiled and half bowed. “It would be an honour.”
“Then let’s go. If you want, I have some of those censored books at home.”
We left the town hall and followed the path through the Five Hamlet’s narrow alleyways towards the vineyard. En route, the smell of freshly baked bread and melons lying out in the sun made me slightly peckish.
Sukina and I talked a little of our childhoods: how I’d been brought up by two parents and a dragon and about her nomadic ways travelling through the icy north when she was a child. Her mother died young and so, eventually, she and her father had decided to settle in Slaro. But they packed up their bags and left in a hurry several years later. Sukina didn’t say why.
Once we hit the cliff-edge, I looked north towards the workshop. There must have been an expression of scorn on my face.
“There’s something over there which troubles you,” Sukina said.
“Oh, it’s nothing. I mean, there’s this inventor that’s just set up there. I’ve been ordered to work for him, and you’ll never believe what a swine he is. You’ll soon see what he did to Velos.”
“Ah, that must be Faso. I’ve heard he’s moved here.”
“You know him?” I felt a sudden fear that Sukina might somehow be chummy with that buffoon.
“I was in a relationship with him for five years. Fortunately, it didn’t last. Faso is…” She stared up at the circling seagulls. “It doesn’t matter.”
I made a mental note to question her about it later. I didn’t know how anyone could fall for such a swine for even a day, let alone five years. But for now, I thought it best to leave that stone unturned.
✽✽✽
I wasn’t quite ready to see my parents again yet. Fortunately, they were in the farmhouse when I arrived, oblivious to their celebrity guest.
Sukina didn’t seem too bothered about their absence. Instead, she was eyeing Velos up and down as we approached. Velos’ armour glinted in the sunlight.
Sukina’s lips tightened. “What is that thing on him?”
I shuddered, remembering Faso’s atrocities the previous day. “That is what my father calls Faso’s genius.”
“Faso invented this… suit?”
“He did…” I said through clenched teeth. Much as I was angry with Papo, I didn’t name him as an accomplice to this act. Deep inside, I guess, I didn’t want Sukina to see him as an antagonist as well. “And Faso installed it on Velos after I blatantly had told him not to.”
Sukina furrowed her eyebrows and her lips curled downwards. “I might have known he’d still be up to his antics.” She walked up to Velos and began to run her hands along the armour.
“I know… I’m honestly not sure I could have put up with him for so long.”
I wanted to take that back as soon as the words tumbled out of my mouth. I’d had enough of a fall out with my parents that I didn’t also want to offend my favourite author. But she just looked at me, blinked and then answered as if I had a perfect right to ask about her relationship, even if we’d just met. “People are evidently misguided when they’re young. But how did you two get acquainted? You said that you have to work with him?”
“A contract from Cini. The king says he wants to improve the output of secicao from this town to aid his war effort. So he has this idiotic idea that if Faso and I combine our processes, we’ll be able to create the finest secicao oil in the world.”
Sukina raised a hand to her chin. “I see. Actually, I did want to talk to you about that.”
But before she could say anything else, she looked up towards Mamo turning the corner of the cottage and skipping towards us.
“Why Pontopa, I thought I saw a guest,” she said and offered Sukina her hand.
“Sukina Sako.” She accepted the handshake.
“The author? Wow, I’d never have thought…”
“It’s good to know that you are acquainted with my work,” Sukina said. “Many don’t find time to read nowadays.”
“It’s always such a pleasure. I’m Versalina, by the way. Say, Pontopa, why don’t you put some secicao on for our guest. I’ll tell my husband you’re here. He’ll be so eager to meet you, I’m sure.”
“I’d be honoured,” Sukina said. “But just tea would do fine.”
“Whatever you need,” Mamo said. “I’ll be right back.” She walked with a skip in her step towards the door.
“Come on,” I said to Sukina. “I’ll show you the cottage.” I led her inside.
I’d been in such a rush to meet Sukina that I’d not had time to tidy up that morning. I’d left my nightie strewn across the sofa and there was a mess in the sink. So, I apologised to her, threw my nightie into the bedroom and put the kettle on the stove.
“You needn’t worry,” she said. “I don’t mind a place looking lived in. It’s hardly as if I have the personal luxury of a maid myself.”
Now that surprised me. I’d always thought that a maid would be a given for a successful author like Sukina, probably living in a mansion and whatnot. It seemed rude to ask questions about it though. “You know,” I said instead, “quite often my parents look after things here, while I tend to Velos. But we had a bit of a row…”
“It must be hard having parents so close all the time.”
“Tell me about it.”
Papo’s voice came from outside and Sukina turned to the door. Papo entered the room. He flashed a toothy smile and held out his hand to Sukina. “Two celebrities in two days,” he said. “It’s my lucky week.” And this was the man who'd just called my Sukina Sako novels stupid the previous day.
Sukina greeted him and I ushered everyone into the living room while Mamo took over making the tea. Sukina sat down on the seat nearest the window and placed her haversack down on the side table.
In all honesty, most of the conversation that followed involved Papo asking questions as if interviewing for a magazine. I could imagine him mentally taking notes, planning what he’d put in his letter to the editor of the Tow Observer. Maybe he’d even try to write a short article for them.
Still, Sukina didn’t seem annoyed. She answered the questions politely, her hands folded neatly across her lap. Soon Mamo came over with the cups of tea and she asked more personal stuff, in other words the kind of diplomatic small talk that mothers often give to their child’s friends. Eventually, it all came to a standstill. Mamo excused the both of them and dragged Papo out the door. Sukina and I watched them go.
“I can see there’s tension there,” Sukina said once they were well out of sight.
“How do you mean?”
“Between you and your parents, and particularly your father. He wasn’t involved in Faso’s install-the-armour escapade, by any chance?”
Never before had I met someone who could be so perceptive — even more so than my mother. “How can you tell?”
“Piecing things together. I figured that Faso wouldn’t have been able to get that thing on Velos alone.”
She finished her tea and placed her cup down on the table. I quaffed mine, put both cups on the tray and refilled them from the teapot. Sukina thanked me, picked up her cup and took another sip.
“Look, about that contract,” she said. “I didn’t just come to see Velos. I came to warn you about the dangers. And now I see I’ll have to remind Faso about them, once again. Let me tell you now that secicao is endangering the world.”
I looked at her, astonished. “You knew about our edict from the king, before you came here?”
“I knew that the king wanted to improve his refinement process. I didn’t know Faso was involved.”
“So why would we need to stop it? I mean, I don’t want to work with Faso, but this is an order…”
“I know it won’t be easy. But allow me to spend some time to show you a few things.” She walked up to my bookshelf and began to thumb through my books. “Do you have anything here by Gerhaun Forsi?”
“Say who?”
“Gerhaun Forsi. She’s an anthropologist who lives out in the Southlands and studies the relationship between dragons and secicao. There’s a book by her called Dragons and Ecology.” She walked back to her seat and started to ruffle through her haversack on the side table. “Here, I have a copy of it. Gerhaun explains why secicao is a blight upon this world and cannot be trusted. The more we refine secicao, the more we endanger the planet. The only thing that Cini’s plans to automate your refinement process will serve is the entire annihilation of this continent. Oh, and the Greys are actually on our side.”
“But then why would the king declare all-out war on them?”
Sukina looked at me knowingly. “Let me just say, that the dragons are attacking the harvesters because they don’t want to allow the secicao to spread north. When that stuff is flushed down toilets in human excrement, it’s released into the soil which, in turn, becomes more acidic. This makes the soil so toxic to other plants, that only secicao can grow in it. Then one secicao seed carried on the wind over the sea is all it takes, and the stuff spreads like a blight.”
“You mean to say it will kill us?”
“It could be as soon as thirty years.”
Outside, a sparrow landed on the window and began to tap on the ledge to pick at some ants. In the sky, an osprey wheeled overhead. The sun had begun to paint a red line just underneath the clouds. “All this life destroyed…” I said. “The fruits of mine and Velos’ labour amounting to such destruction. Surely, it can’t be true…”
Sukina looked at her watch. “I’m sorry to deliver it to you like this. But everyone who supports Cini’s war effort needs to know the stakes. Ultimately, I’m sure the king has been told, and this is why he censors books. I guess it’s no surprise you’ve never heard of Gerhaun Forsi.”
“I guess,” I said.
“Anyway, I have to also meet wi
th Faso, and it sounds like the way he’s treated you I have a bone to pick with him too.” She deposited the book on the coffee table. “You’ll read this won’t you? Just don't let Cini let on that you've got it here.” She turned towards the door.
“Wait!” I said. “I’m coming with you. I want to see Faso squirm and two of us is better than one.”
“I guess you’re right,” Sukina said and, for the first time, I saw a slight grin. Despite the bomb she’d just dropped on me, it seemed I was beginning to make a new friend.
Sukina glanced once more at the bookshelf then she grabbed her haversack and we both headed outside.
CHAPTER 5
Sukina didn’t seem as moved by the sight of Faso’s workshop as I’d been. In fact, I could swear she scowled when the doorbell automaton floated over to her. This time, it had been modified to include a lens that jutted out from its face. Sukina looked at the device, thrust her face right up to the lens and whacked the red button just beneath that with the side of her fist. “Faso, it’s me you buffoon,” she said to the machine. “Come right down here this instant. I have a bone to pick with you.”
The machine clicked, whirred a little, then flew back towards one of the high slit windows of Faso’s workshop, where it disappeared from view. Sukina turned to me. “You’ve got to be direct with Faso. He doesn’t notice when you’re angry unless you show it explicitly.”
I nodded, smiled. I’d hardly been skirting around corners with Faso. But then, I had a feeling he would respect Sukina as more of a woman not be messed with than he did me, simply on the account that he’d known her longer.
“How long has it been since you last saw him?” I asked.
“Oh, I don’t think since I left Tow all that time ago. Must have been around nine years.”
Dragonseer (Secicao Blight Book 1) Page 4