“You don't have a dragon?”
“Not that I'm truly bonded to,” Sukina said. “I mean there's Gerhaun, of course, and I have a kind of connection with her. But she's a leader and not a partner. It's kind of hard to explain.” The flames of the fire seemed to dance in synchrony with her words, almost as if she commanded them.
“Surely you could just bond with any Grey,” I said.
“It's not like that. Dragons tend to choose you, and I’m guessing that sometime in your early childhood, Velos came looking for you.” She was absolutely right, of course. Velos had turned up on our doorstep when I was seven, and I’d never actually realised until now why exactly he was there.
“Coloured dragons are more intelligent than Greys,” Sukina continued. “They’re special... Through ages past, every dragonseer used to be bonded with one. I remember mine, Charlick, a brilliant emerald green with waxy wings wider than any male dragon I’ve known. But King Cini’s father took Charlick away when I was just a teenager, and now I live this life alone.”
Her eyes were so expressive that the reflection from the flames seemed to dance in them, as if agreeing with her every word. Sukina looked away, took the bread twist that she'd been holding over the fire, blew on it and then took a bite. “Pretty good.”
“I know, right. We used to sit outside and toast these when I was a child. I don't know why we still don’t.”
She shrugged. “People move on, I guess.”
“I guess.” Before my bread twist could burn to a crisp, I took a bite, forgetting to blow and almost burning my tongue. Really, Faso didn't know what he was missing.
“Say,” I said. “Those dragonsongs are amazing. I loved them in the books, but I had no idea they were actually real. Are you as powerful as Varion?”
Sukina laughed. “Varion, no, he's fiction. In the real world, they say, males can't converse with dragons unless they’re a dragon themselves. They just can’t get the songs. You know, it wasn’t humans who composed the dragonsongs, but dragons.”
I gazed at Sukina in awe. “It’s all so fantastic,” I said. “So you can hear their voices in your head and stuff?”
“Oh, no. Humans and dragons speak completely different languages even if we can both connect to the collective unconscious. It's only the dragon queens who know how to bridge the gap between us. The original Ambassadors developed the songs as something dragons would recognise. Given time, we gained the ability to identify their own songs through the collective unconscious. They’ve become our way of communicating now.”
Now she'd started entering that place where she assumed that I knew more than I actually did. “Ambassadors?”
“I’ll leave that one up to Gerhaun to explain.” Sukina looked up at the moon. From besides us came a groan from Faso, who was tossing and turning in his sleep.
“Ah nightmares,” Sukina said. “I guess he's not going to sleep well here.”
“Come to think of it. I tend to get a lot of nightmares on these islands.”
“It's the fumes. Having dragons around helps us to connect to the collective unconscious. But secicao blocks this connection and puts its own constructions in our heads instead. The blight is much more powerful than people realise.”
“What is this collective unconscious, anyway? There's just so much to understand here.”
Sukina smiled. “Why, it’s simply the essence of our collective minds. Humanity and dragonkind interlinked through each and everyone’s conscious and subconscious thoughts. It pulses through the world, particularly when great beings are nearby. Gerhaun has written some books on it, which I'm sure she'll lend you if you like.”
“Thank you,” I said. “I’m certainly eager to know more. And I still have so many questions. Like what exactly is a dragonseer, Sukina, and what does it mean to be one? I mean I’ve read about them in your books… But I have a feeling that there’s so much more to it than that.”
“That’s true,” Sukina said. “Let’s just say for now that us dragonseers are there to protect the fate of both dragon and mankind. As dragonseers, there are certain things that affect us much, much more than normal men. One of them is secicao. Did you notice how much faster you were than Faso at Fraw?”
“I thought that was just my blend.”
“Partly,” Sukina said. “Having the secicao roasted by dragon’s flame certainly helps.”
“But there’s more to it than that?”
“The only time I drink secicao is when I need to take the oil. It’s partly to set an example and protect the environment, but I’ve found myself much more powerful through training my body to be the best it can be in the absence of secicao. Once you do so, you’ll find that you’re capable of much, much more than you’ve ever imagined, especially when you augment. Although such discussion is a little hefty for late nights and you look exhausted.”
I looked again at Faso, and despite the way he tossed and turned, I envied the sand he lay upon — even if it wasn't as soft as my own bed. “What about you?” I asked. “Maybe we should at least wake Faso. It's about time he did a shift.”
Sukina had an expression of calm on her face as the light from the fire sent shadows dancing across her skin. “Don't worry,” she said. “I like to have some thinking time and I need less sleep than I used to. I'll be fine.”
I didn't want to leave her there, but my eyelids were getting heavy. I took a position by a rock on the other side of the fireplace, put on my jacket and then I was quickly fast asleep.
I didn't see the sun until late, as usual. It wasn't that I’d slept in late. But once you got far enough south down The Southern Approach, you wouldn't see the sun until about eleven o'clock in the morning. It took some time, you see, for it to rise above the low lying brown secicao clouds to the east — the first sign of the blight that plagued the Southlands.
I opened my eyes to see Faso standing next to me, his delicate inventor hands clasped around three steel cups of water. Behind me, Sukina had lain herself down on a patch of earth just by the campfire and was fast asleep. Faso offered me a cup. I took it and eyed it suspiciously.
“It's water,” Faso said. “Ratter got it from the sea.”
“Why in all the dragonheats would I want to drink salt water?”
Faso laughed. “I'd give you nothing of the sort. This, my dear, has been processed in Ratter's distillation chamber. One of the many modifications you saw me working on the other day.”
I didn’t like the idea of drinking anything that had been processed by an automaton, although, to be honest, I was pretty thirsty. I’d stocked up on a few bottles of water on the Saye Explorer but, exhausted after the commotion at Fraw, I’d gulped them down pretty quickly.
“Drink,” Faso said. “I wasn't going to offer — Ratter's resources are precious — but I saw you needed it and it pays to be a gentleman, right?”
“Right,” I said, thinking this rather uncharacteristic of Faso. Perhaps he had a soft side after all. I raised the cup to my lips. A metallic tang settled on my tongue. There was a slight rustle behind me. Sukina had just started to stir.
“She didn't hit the sack until I was awake,” Faso said. “She looked absolutely exhausted. You could have woken me, you know. Ratter would have kept guard.”
I frowned. “Kept guard while you slept through everything, more like. And what would have happened if Ratter malfunctioned again?”
Maybe it would have been better to wake Faso up, or at least insisted I covered the shift. Sukina had hardly slept at all for the last three days. She hadn’t seemed tired but, looking at her now, I could see how exhausted she actually was.
Sukina stirred again, opened one eye and then pushed down on her elbow to prop herself up. Faso smiled at her and walked over to give her a cup of automaton processed water. She took the cup, sniffed it, tasted it with her little finger, and then gulped it down in one.
“Thank you,” she said.
“You're welcome.” Faso turned to look at Ratter. “Right, now
we're all awake, I guess we should make some breakfast. That nice fellow Hars, you know the chef on Sandao's ship, gave me some eggs and bacon. I thought I'd save it until our last day. Lucky you ladies have me around to take care of you, right?”
I sneered at Faso. “Lucky you have two ladies around to put you in your place.” Although, to be honest, I did appreciate the eggs and bacon. Maybe, again, the softer side of Faso had latched on to that this was my favourite meal. And it smelled great. For the last few days, we'd been surviving on a steady diet of Mamo's breadsticks and the occasional apple.
Faso smiled and walked back over to Ratter. He opened a hatch on the automaton’s back, pulled out a small brass box from beneath its vertebrae and then he hooked this up to some wires. The device had a complex array of tiny pins on each of its six faces, connected by a complex spiderweb arrangement of miniscule grooves. Faso took an eyepiece out of his breast pocket and started to shift the pins around with a needle. After a minute or so of concentration, he put the device back in Ratter’s hatch, closed it, stood up and brushed the dirt off his suit.
“Ah,” he said. “That's about right.” He gave Ratter a light toe-kick in the flank.
The automaton scurried over to the supply chest on the back of Velos' armour. Before I could even blink, it dived in and emerged with several pieces of firewood, bound together with twine. Ratter carried the wood over to the firepit and threw it on. The automaton then opened its mouth and out hissed a green flame, much the same colour as the one Velos had breathed at Fraw. The fire jumped to life.
Of course, there was a tinderbox right by the firepit, meaning there was no need for such an ostentatious display from Faso. But I’m sure he just wanted to show off.
Faso took a pan, placed the eggs and bacon in it, mixed them together and held the pan over the fire. It was soon ready and, short of plates, we passed the food around by hand and munched away.
After we had finished eating, we let the fire die down and then Sukina beat it out with her foot.
“I guess we should get ready to leave,” Faso said.
Sukina lowered her cup from her lips. “Just a minute, I'll call in some escorts.”
“Escorts?” I asked.
“Greys, just in case we have any company from automatons in the Southlands. You never know how far Cini’s forces might be ahead of us. Hummingbirds can carry information across the land pretty fast.”
Faso put his hands on his hips. “You've got to be kidding. You think I'm going to let any of those dragons within a yard of me, you've got another thing coming.”
“But you're okay getting close to Velos,” Sukina pointed out.
“Velos doesn't bloody-well shoot down the king's airships and rip his harvesting automatons to shreds. We've gone far enough with the whole terrorism thing. I'm not going to let you drag me further into this.”
Sukina turned to me. “He really can be tiring, can’t he?”
I nodded, biting my lip.
Sukina turned back to Faso. “Look,” she said. “I appreciate your concern here Faso, but it's protocol for Greys to escort all visitors into Fortress Gerhaun. It helps us keep the location a secret.”
“Secret? It's between two massive rivers, on one of the most obvious tactical locations you can think of. How can King Cini not know about that?”
“You think Cini's men want to go exploring through secicao and the gas? They keep to the fringes, Faso. They don’t go anywhere near the rivers.”
“It doesn't matter,” Faso said. “I augmented Velos to be safe and I don't want to go anywhere near those disgraceful beasts. Pontopa, you tell her.”
Once again, Faso was starting to get on my nerves. “Look, Faso,” I said, “I see two options. Either you do as Sukina says, or we leave you on the island and your only way home will be to swim.”
He glared at me a moment then looked out to sea and puffed out his cheeks like a blowfish. “Girls will always stick together, won’t they? Never listening to reason. Always doing what they think is best. You're really making me not want this job, Sukina.”
“Then I'll gladly send you on the next transport home. I'm sure King Cini would gladly accept you as his royal scientist again.”
A look of disdain came upon Faso's face and he walked over to the beach to sulk. Sukina watched him go for a moment then raised her head to the wind and began to cant that familiar, unmelodic song. I had a chance to observe her this time, and I could swear that the air shimmered around the notes that emerged from her mouth.
After around a minute she stopped singing and turned away. “They'll be here soon,” she said. “Maybe fifteen minutes. Did you hear them?”
I shook my head. I'd only heard Sukina’s voice and the susurrations of the wind.
“Dragons have very acute hearing,” Sukina said. “And you'll be able to read the signals eventually. If you want to learn, of course. I don't want to force you into anything.”
“I know,” I said.
In the distance, I thought I could hear a faint tune. A call from hundreds of miles away of another kind of creature. I heard Velos shift behind me and then I turned to see him cock his head to the wind and listen to the voices from afar.
I felt the urge to reach out to Velos then. So, I decided to sing him a song. Part of me wanted to communicate with him, excited to know that I had a means to do so as a dragonseer. At the time, I didn’t know what I sang the song for. I just really wanted to tell Velos how much I appreciated him being there, coming with us on the journey.
But then I learned something about him too, because I could feel what he felt, just as I was sure he knew what I was feeling too. He was about to meet others of his kind, and he was apprehensive to say the least. The only interactions he’d had with dragons since I’d known him had been with the Greys we occasionally saw in flight in the Southlands. And admittedly, he hadn’t had a chance to interact much with them. I tousled Velos’ head when he lowered it towards me, and he let out an appreciative groan.
CHAPTER 11
After about fifteen minutes, the Greys arrived. They came in from the east, breaking through the brown clouds. Their formation was looser than it had been at Fraw. But there were less of them, so they had more freedom to flitter about, darting and diving over and under each other like swallows. I was glad of their arrival, for the sun was high in the sky and it was starting to get searing hot. It would be cooler under the secicao clouds and I now had my bit-and-clip breathing device ready to enter the thick polluted air.
Seven Greys arrived in total, but only one of them came in to land while the rest circled above. “It's a precautionary measure,” Sukina explained. “They’re keeping watch for approaching airships and automatons. If anything happens, they’ll defend the Grey on the ground, giving him space to get us out quickly and lead the retreat.”
As the Grey closed in, the wind from his wings whipped against us. Behind us, Velos stood up on his haunches and bared his teeth at the Grey. Then, he let out one of his ear-piercing roars and I raised my hands to cover my ears. Sukina immediately spun around to face Velos and let out a sharp song. Her tune was much more grating than the delicate harmonies from before. Velos whelped like a scolded dog and then turned away from Sukina.
“They're his brothers,” Sukina said to me. “He'll have to learn.”
I nodded. “I'll try and teach him...”
Faso had retreated to the beach. He was now squatted down beside the sea, staring out at the horizon. He seemed to be keeping as far away as possible from the Grey until it had landed. Then, he walked over a little but still kept out of neck’s reach. He looked at the dragon with contempt.
“I guess you'll want to ride on one of those things,” he said to Sukina.
“I understand that it will be safer on Velos,” Sukina said. “Isn't that how the armour was designed?”
“It is. I just thought—”
“And I just thought that we should do what’s safest for everybody. Isn't that right, Pontopa?” It
seemed that Sukina was still in a bad mood with Faso, from their argument before.
I shrugged. Really, I thought I'd rather make this journey without automatons, which included Velos' armour. Of course, I’d rather ride Velos than an unfamiliar Grey. But still, I missed the feeling of Velos’s scales underneath my bare legs. The armour just didn’t feel quite the same.
“Very well,” Faso said. “Then I guess before we reach another impasse, we should get on.” He walked over to Velos and climbed up the ladder on the armour’s flank. Faso took position at the back.
Sukina, on the other hand, launched herself off from a crouch then sprinted towards Velos' tail. Velos, as if reading her intentions, straightened his back and then let out a soft, affirmative roar. With an agility that I'd never seen from anyone before, Sukina scrambled up, using each of the fins as a makeshift ladder. I smiled, and considered trying the same (although I doubt I would have done it with so much agility), but Sukina already had to climb over Faso to get to her seat. I didn't really want to have to climb over the both of them.
I took hold of my bit-and-clip device and secured my oxygen tank on my back. I hung the rest of the apparatus over my shoulder at the front. Then, I took the safe route up and took my place at Velos' steering fin. A quick pull on this launched us into the air.
✽✽✽
It was another good half an hour before my breathing started to become heavy, from the thickening secicao fumes. Soon enough, Sukina and Faso put on their gas masks and I clipped my clip onto my nose and clenched down with my teeth on the bit. Then, I put on my goggles and pressed them against my skin to secure them in place.
The temperature suddenly dropped when we got through the clouds and the air became scathingly dry. As always, I kept my breathing shallow, sucking in only small bursts of oxygen from the tank. The clouds rubbed against my skin, causing a kind of itching sensation. It always made my skin feel like dried wood as if it was going to crack. These effects weren’t permanent, and I was kind of used to the sensation now. But I always carried a bottle of moisturiser with me, to reduce the damage to my skin.
Dragonseer (Secicao Blight Book 1) Page 9