“Hah, you’re not possibly saying you’re smarter than me, are you?”
“Well, I’m certainly wiser in choosing my battles.” I guess in all honesty I was bored as well. Without a novel in here to keep my company, there wasn't much to do. “Say, we've been forced into this situation together and there's so little I know about you. What's your story, Faso?”
Faso shuffled back around on the bed, turned to face me and placed his feet on the floor. Then he opened his legs and puffed out his chest. “If I didn't know better, the young lady's getting interested. What exactly, Miss Wells, do you want to know?”
Well, in all honesty, I might have been flirting a little at the time, but I didn't mean anything by it. Despite his flaws, Faso did have a certain charm to him. In certain situations, anyway. I mean, there must have been something about him for a lady like Sukina to be attracted to him all those years ago.
“You know, I've never been to Slaro,” I said. “What's it like and what were you doing there? When you met Sukina, I mean. What brought you together in the first place?”
Faso sighed and then turned to look out of the window again. From that position, he spoke without looking back at me. “We met in Slaro. Sukina had come over from Orkc, an administrator looking for work on King Cini III's staff, five years after his father had died and the end of the infamous dragonheats. They say Cini III was mellow at first. Rumour had it around the palace that he didn't really approve of his father's bigotry and wanted to liberalise Tow a little, open it up. Let immigrants in. Sukina came from a country much colder than our own. Said that she wanted adventure, to see new places to write about. But those days, she struggled a lot, couldn't get two sentences together sometimes without having a breakdown. She was lacking subject matter to fuel her voice.”
“But how did you get started in the palace?”
Surprise registered on Faso's face. “How did I get started? Why, I was headhunted, of course. I've been building automatons since I was seven, you know. In my parent's hovel on the Sanito-Cini river of all places. My parents were pretty much on their deathbeds while I made all kinds of machines to go scavenging from old war automaton parts I found lying around the street. Father had these old books that he said his uncle passed on, handed down from an engineer friend he fought with during the dragonheats. I read them with fascination, and I was immediately hooked.
“Once they saw my automatons running around the streets, a woman named Alsie Fioreletta — who I’m sure you’ve heard about in the magazines — came looking for me, said that King Cini wanted me to work for him. I was sixteen at the time. It was good work, paid the medical bills for my parents. Though a couple of years of working there they both passed away from different cancers within a six-month gap.”
“Must have been hard,” I said.
“At the time, it was. But fortunately for me, that's when Sukina entered the scene. I had wanted to give up then, throw it all away. But Sukina came looking beautiful as always, drowned my tears in her shoulder and told me to carry on, build my legacy. We needed to work hard, help fund Cini's war effort. I had to advance technology, help the world become better. By that time the airships had started bringing secicao by the ton to the city and really, I was fascinated how it worked. If that stuff could just power machines…”
Faso's eyes had become narrower. From outside, a warm breeze had started to pick up that came through the window and blew back strands of his hair. He touched his hand to his sleeve then lowered his head. “They better not do anything to Ratter…”
I shook my head — It seemed like Faso couldn't stop thinking about those damn automatons. But I wasn't going to let the conversation get side-tracked. “I can kind of see how you never really liked Cini.”
“It's not a matter of like or dislike,” Faso said. “I never really trusted the man. I distilled the secicao in secret, learned how to refine the oil from the beans, sap, and root. But I never told him what I was doing. I kept developing automatons for the king, but this research was always private, and Sukina was doing research too. Only, while I knew I was doing good, she convinced herself that anything to do with secicao was destroying the world. Wellies, she must have been the only person in Slaro who abstained from taking it. Even her father liked to keep some in his snuffbox for his pipe, and still does by the look of it.”
“Ah, so that's when you met him,” I said. “And I thought you and Sukina lived alone.”
“We did for four good years. Only the man lost his job in the country of Orkc. He’d worked in some factory producing shoes up there. But the place had to close down as his home was getting colder and so it cost too much to keep the factory up.”
“Sounds familiar,” I said.
“Yes, well he came to live with us. Really demanding that I should do an equal amount of work around the house as Sukina, and he didn’t seem to respect that I’d already developed automatons to do my half. Dragonheats it was difficult to get any of my independent research in. To top it off, Sukina didn't have a job. She'd resigned because she said she couldn't work for the king as she didn't want to support his war effort anymore. And she seemed so distant all the time, almost as if there was someone else…”
He paused and stared into space. “Sukina thought the king,” he said after a moment, “only wanted to get more and more secicao from the Southlands. She claimed that this would destroy the Northern Continent. She'd got hold of one of Gerhaun Forsi's books from the black market and kept reading passages of it to me. It was absolute balderdash, all of it. But Sukina's father would back her up as well, adamant that I should resign. It proved a nightmare living with him, I tell you.”
Now, I'd read Dragons and Ecology just several nights ago and it seemed convincing enough to me. In many ways I wanted to lift the arguments right out of the text and throw them back at Faso. But then I'd seemed to open a vein with him, and I preferred this candid side of him than his usual sheer arrogance. In all honesty, this more sensitive side of him, when he wasn’t belittling others and assuming he knew what everyone wants, was quite charming. So, I simply nodded along and let him carry on.
“That,” Faso continued. “Was when Captain Colas appeared out of the blue.”
“Captain Colas?”
“Some old man, younger in spirit than he looked. A bald shrivelled excuse of a creature hunched over a cane, with a wrinkled forehead and glasses thick enough to seal a bomb. He called himself a scientist, although he didn't stay around long enough for me to talk any science with. But he was rich, I can say that much, came to Slaro West airfield in an airship lined in every nook and cranny with gold and other riches. Even the balloon lining had shiny silver thread running through every inch of it.”
Faso took a deep breath and scratched underneath his flared-out sleeve. His knees were bouncing up and down rapidly, one after the other.
“What happened?” I asked.
“What happened?” Faso rose, clutched a fist. “What happened? Colas stole Sukina from me, that's what. Sukina had published three books by then, through independent publishers. Colas had picked them up in a bookstore and said he was impressed. He told Sukina that he could tell from her prose she had read Gerhaun Forsi, who he consequently knew. He wanted her to go and work for Gerhaun. And he said Sukina was a dragonseer, whatever that meant. Then there was this strange exchange between them where they stared at each other for a long, long time. I tried to ask Sukina what they were doing, but she told me not to interrupt. It took a couple of days of visits, each with Colas and Sukina just sitting there staring at each other. I got so irate about it that Sukina eventually wouldn't let me in the room. Then Sukina told me that she had to go south. She'd learnt more about her heritage, she said, and now had finally discovered her destiny. She wanted me to come along for the ride…”
“And you didn't want to?”
“Wellies, no. I had no intention of living in a land of disgusting secicao resin and brown intoxicating clouds. Not until I decided to harvest the stuff for myself anyway
to make sure I got the best sample. Besides, I was on the crux of discovering something, I'd almost perfected the secret to secicao fuel, and I wasn't going to upend everything and throw it all away by moving my workshop.”
I laughed. “Sounds like you perfected that moving trick.”
“All thanks to my soon-to-be-patented secicao fuel,” Faso said. “Marvellous, stuff you have to admit. All that, invented in my own genius brain.” He pointed to his forehead.
Ah well, Faso's ego had finally returned. I sighed and turned my head to gaze back out of the window. But Faso countered by loudly clearing his throat.
“So,” he said. “Now you know my deepest darkest secrets. Maybe, I could take you out on a date when we return to the Five Hamlets.”
I raised an eyebrow at him. “You've just explained how you'd never exactly been girlfriend material, and now you're trying to get me out on a date.” The memory nagged at the back of my mind of having to punch Faso for what he did to Velos.
“Well, it's not as if you seem the type who wants to be a girlfriend, either.”
“And what's that supposed to mean?”
“I just think that—” A tap-tapping sound of stilettos interrupted him, coming from the corridor outside the cell. Faso turned towards the corridor. “I guess Sukina's finally come to let us free,” he said.
I listened to Sukina's approaching footsteps and then her voice manifested itself crisp and clear in my head. Frustrating, isn't he?
I looked around, trying to identify the source of the voice. I imagined Sukina must have been hiding in a corner somewhere. The sounds of the footsteps eased off. Come on, Pontopa, when are you going to accept that we can speak this way.
Accept? No, this had to be something else, something to do with the secicao fumes perhaps — maybe some had managed to seep inside this clearing after all and they were sending me mad. Although Varion and other characters had managed to speak this way in Sukina's books, this was real life, not fiction.
If you could speak to me like this Sukina, I said in my own mind, then why didn't you do so before we got to Fortress Gerhaun?
Good question, the voice replied. It's simple really. Although we can share emotions without it, we need a strong source of the collective unconscious to be able to communicate like this, and there's no stronger source than a dragon queen.
Faso was looking at me strangely. He must have seen me turning my head every which way, trying to identify the source of the voice.
Look, if you are the real Sukina, I said in my mind, could you please address me in both the collective unconscious and then the real world? I need to know I'm not going mad.
Certainly, imaginary Sukina said. I'll let you know my purpose of coming here now, though. Gerhaun has awoken and wants to see you in person. The footsteps resumed down the corridor.
My vision must have blurred out a little at that point, because the next thing I remember focusing on was Faso waving at me as if trying to snap me out of a trance.
“Welcome back to the land of the living,” he said.
“Sorry, I just zoned out a moment.”
“Strange…” Faso said and he turned towards the cell door. “Sukina would do that sometimes too…”
A guard, with a bulldog face and much meaner looking than the three who escorted us down here, stood beside her at the door, glaring at nothing in particular. General Sako had apparently sent him down here just in case Faso had any smart ideas of trying to escape.
Sukina had appeared there, her face clear as ever as if she'd just been to the bathroom to polish it. In her hand, she held a set of keys. She looked at me.
“You already know why I came. Come on, best not to say much right now.”
“You mean that was really you?” I asked.
She smiled. “Pontopa, let's stop playing these games.”
“Okay,” I said — what else could I say, really. I stood up and walked towards the door as Sukina unlocked it.
“As for you,” Sukina turned to Faso and jingled the keys, looking rather pleased with herself. “Our chief engineer Asinal Winda wants a little word with you about your inventions.”
“Oh, so you finally made your father see sense.”
Sukina nodded. “Gerhaun thinks it’s a good idea for you to start getting your hands dirty in the labs. And yeah, Butan needed a little talking around, but he got there eventually.
“Fantastic,” Faso lifted himself off his bed and brushed off his suit. “Finally, I can at least get back to some science.”
We walked out the cell and Sukina locked the door behind us. She turned to the guard. “Please walk Mr Gordoni to the labs.”
“What?” Faso said. “I need a guarded escort now? I thought you said I was free.”
“Do you know the way?” Sukina asked.
Faso looked at the guard, who had a smile on his face. “I guess not,” he said. And then Sukina beckoned me away.
CHAPTER 14
Iwas absolutely fascinated by the corridors, which seemed to get grander and grander as we progressed towards Gerhaun's abode. Sukina told me how these corridors spanned around the outer perimeter of the castle. Posted at every yard or so, on the left-hand side, were tall and narrow gothic windows, looking out onto the dusty ground and the roiling wall of brown clouds beyond. No windows looked out from the other side of the corridor. Instead, the walls there had tapestries of dragons of different colours painted upon them, depicting them in battle against hosts of huge, towering automatons. Each of these were lit by flaming torches in sconces, playing shadows that almost made the pictures come to life.
“Beyond that wall is where the dragons live,” Sukina said. “We try to keep man and dragon separate from each other, mainly. Dragons and humans coexist, but we each also need our personal privacy. Although, it's different if you're a dragonseer…”
“I guess we have the freedom to roam,” I said. “What about the other men and women? Do you restrict access?”
Sukina smiled. “Something like that,” she said. “Although my father doesn't always respect that.”
“He seems quite a character.”
“Yes… Somehow, as dragonseers, you seem to attract characters. I've often wondered if it's something to do with the dragon's blood within us.”
“Dragon's blood? You mean…”
“I believe Gerhaun wants you to discover the answer to that one yourself. Come on, this way.”
We'd reached the end of the corridor now which had widened out a little to make way for two double doors, perhaps five times our height, towering up into what looked like one side of a chimney. There were no windows here, but flickering torches suffused the alcove with yellow light. Sukina selected a large iron key from her ring and unlocked the doors.
I wondered how Sukina could possibly get the things to open, but she didn't even need to push on them. For, as if affected by some magical force, the doors opened on their own accord.
The room revealed on the other side was of mahogany and stone. Displays of gold cascaded down its walls, like statues of waterfalls. In the centre, stood a heap of precious treasures: golden crowns beset with precious stones, coins of bronze, silver and gold in all kinds of sizes, diamonds as large as a fist, intricate glass roses with emeralds or rubies at their tip, golden swords that looked so fragile they couldn't possibly have been made for fighting, and so many other curiosities I couldn't possibly name them all.
The room felt warmer than the corridors, which was surprising because it was so vast. But it needed to be this way to house the dragon queen.
Gerhaun Forsi was three times the size of Velos and certainly the largest dragon I'd ever seen. She wasn't grey like the others around the encampment. Nor was she blue like Velos, or any other scaly colours that I would have expected a dragon to be, but gold. The finish of her skin wasn't reptilian, but rather a shiny, polished gold, just like the treasures which surrounded her.
Gerhaun Forsi, Sukina stated, not vocally but in the collective uncons
cious. This is Pontopa Wells, a dragonseer I believe.
The great creature craned its smooth polished neck, then leaned forward and cocked its head a little. She balanced herself gracefully on two massive golden hind-feet, with claws as long as sabres, with her fore-legs raised high above me. She examined me a while, and I must have stood just gazing at her in wonderment, no thoughts running through my mind, just a sheer sense of marvel at what I saw.
I can feel you, she said eventually. Pontopa Wells, yes, I can feel you. Sukina is right, you are a dragonseer.
I was lost for words, still awestruck by this massive creature before me that exuded nothing but greatness.
You can speak, if you like, Gerhaun said. You must learn not to be affected by first appearances. A dragonseer must be brave but not fearless. The fear will always be there, my dear.
Even after her prompting, it took me a while to work out what to say. I guess I've accepted I'm not mad by now, I said eventually in my own mind, which hence meant I was speaking in the collective unconscious.
Far from it. Pontopa Wells, dragonseer, descendant of Candida. You have a lot to learn.
I do, I said. My thoughts began to spin off in a thousand directions and I tried to blink away the confusion that had begun to flood into my mind. Gerhaun's face was so large that I could only focus on one of her great green eyes. I looked at it with all my resolve, unsure of what to say next.
You may ask questions, Gerhaun said. For you have many, and if you leave them unasked, they will never go away. You wish to ask about the Ambassadors, yes?
I shook my head. I still hadn't quite got over this whole telepathy thing, and Gerhaun seemed much more adept at it than Sukina. Yes, I want to learn about the Ambassadors, I said. Who exactly were they?
Indeed, you know the myths. You've recounted them many times before.
Again, she paused as if waiting for me to say something, but I really didn't know what to say. Particularly given she didn't seem to answer my questions. Sukina had implied that Gerhaun would answer all my questions, but now her answers seemed somewhat evasive.
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