Children of Swan: The Land of Taron, Vol 2: (A Space Fantasy Adventure)

by Coral Walker

  The Doctor had been killed, and from the whispers he knew she had been granted her first wish. There were still plenty of Wonas to grant her the other two. Then the Dome of the Oracle would open its doors to her, to take her in and prepare her. She will be the one — the one who can walk on the Lake and collect the Pearl of Targar from its heart.

  The Pearl of Targar — the miracle of miracles.

  He shook as the image of the pearl grew large in his mind and cupped his hand as if he was holding it. Slowly, he lifted it to his lips and tasted it. Icy cold perhaps, it would send chills to every part of his body, and then the expectation, the thrill of expectation — a prolonged life with healing powers.

  If she swallowed it, he flinched at the thought, power would grow inside her, making her a leader, just as Tyanna used to be — the commander of all targars.

  No. He couldn’t allow that to happen! He clenched his hands into fists and held them in front of his chest. He let the nails sank into the flesh of the palms, feeling the squeezing of the fingers and the pain in his palms.

  The pearl! The miracle!

  The pearl alone could do the miracle if he could only make her fetch it for him. He knew where she was. Those Wona peoples were still hesitating. He would hasten them along and get them moving.

  He turned round sharply. A distance away a slender shadow stood quietly.

  “Cici,” he called, his heart growing suddenly warm and tender. He walked towards her, extending his arms.

  5

  Targar

  Brianna woke with chills in her spine. She shivered and searched for Teilo.

  Still rousing from the night’s sleep, the wood was silent, except for a few chirps from birds up in the treetops.

  The first thought in her mind was that he had gone. Why should he stay with her, an outlander and a burden to anyone? But then she caught a glimpse of his ruddy brown hair at the top of the cliff.

  There was a sudden prolonged whistling from where Teilo was that sounded like the cry of a large bird. Leaning forward, he was blowing with his hands cupped over his mouth. The cry vibrated as his fingers fluttered.

  She set off to climb the cliff. The daylight made such a difference, and in a short time she was already halfway.

  An unexpected flapping sound behind startled her. Hastily she tightened her grip and kept still for a while to wait for the winged creature to pass.

  In the corner of her eye, she caught the shadow of a large bird, swooping past her and soaring up to the sky above.

  “Brianna.”

  Teilo’s voice seemed to be coming from the giant body of the bird. She laughed at the thought, distrusting her ears. Teilo was up on the cliff top, she assured herself, peeking up and wondering where he was now.

  She saw the bird again — from a distance it looked like a swan. It glided and turned, heading back towards her.

  She heard the voice again — “Brianna … jump onto the targar.”

  There was no doubt now. It was Teilo — she could see him sitting on the bird’s back and waving to her. For a while, she clung to the rocks, her head whirling at the surreal fact of him riding on a bird and the bizarreness of asking her to jump onto it when it flew at such a high speed. Didn’t he see the jagged rocks below? She had tried so hard not to smash onto them yesterday. Did he think she would take the chance?

  Ignoring the approaching beast, she resumed her climbing.

  The large bird swooped past her, soaring up before turning back to her. She heard Teilo again shouting to her. Ignoring him, she sped up her ascent.

  All of a sudden, a stone flew over her and hit the cliff wall above. Immediately, a fist-sized stone tumbled down and headed straight towards her.

  In a hurry to react, her right hand slipped just as the stone was about to hit it. As the stone hurtled past, her whole body swung abruptly to her left. Her left hand — not her strong one — gave way, and instantly she was falling.

  She felt the shadow of the bird coming towards her at lightning speed, and the next instant her fall was interrupted.

  For a long while after, she screamed and screamed, staring at the world spinning below.

  +++

  “You’ll feel better if you just sit up,” Teilo shouted over the roaring wind.

  How? Rigid with fear, she couldn’t even move her arms, which were awkwardly stuck underneath her torso.

  “See, I’m putting a belt around your waist. The belt is attached to me. I won’t let you fall,” he shouted again.

  It sounded promising, but she tilted her head to take a peek at him and caught sight of the belt around his waist and a lumpy pouch hanging from it. The shape of the pouch immediately betrayed its contents — stones.

  It must have been one of them that had hit the cliff and caused her fall. The thought annoyed her. “Do whatever you want,” she said.

  In a moment, Teilo’s hands were around her waist.

  Below, hills crested with dark, unearthly shaped rocks rolled like waves in a rough sea.

  “Where are we going?” Brianna managed to free her arms and scrabbled to an upright position, her back touching Teilo’s chest. She felt his hand around her waist to secure her, but then it hesitated and withdrew its grip.

  “No, hold me, hold me tight!” she demanded, shaking, overwhelmed by the fear that had doubled with her newly adopted position.

  Sitting right in the front, on top of a large bird, thousands of feet above the ground, was simply a disaster waiting to happen!

  “Shall we go down?” Amid the howling wind, she could clearly hear the chattering sound from her clenched teeth — she sounded like a ticking bomb.

  A ticking bomb was indeed an apt description, she would agree later on. When, a moment later, something unexpectedly touched her shoulder, her nerves, that had been on the edge, cracked. She screamed in fright and perhaps kicked. It upset the bird, which careened abruptly to one side as if it wanted to be rid of its troublesome load.

  “I … I … am … putting a cape on you,” stuttered Teilo.

  The cape that he wrapped around her shoulders was padded and made of rough linen. It didn’t bring any immediate warmth but fended off the piercing wind.

  She was still shaking, but with more control.

  The pouch, the cape — where did he get them?

  Seeming to know what she was thinking, he spoke suddenly, “I went back to Tarragon and fetched them.”

  “How?”

  Surprised already by the unexpected response to her unspoken question, she was even more astounded to hear that he had made a return trip to fetch these items. Although she hadn’t had a chance to take a proper look at him, she had the impression that he had changed into a clean and simple garment with proper leggings and shoes. She thought of the night lit by the blue lights and his ghastly wound, amazed at his recovery.

  “Yuna took me back to my place. I fetched my stuff, and we came straight back,” he said in a matter-of-fact tone.

  “How’s your wound?”

  “It’s much better now,” he muttered quietly.

  “Who’s Yuna?”

  “Yuna, she is the targar you’re sitting on,” he laughed.

  “So she is a targar. She must be flying fast.” Astonished, she started stroking it.

  “Don’t stroke her. She might get confused,” said Teilo.

  “How can I let her know I would like to thank her?”

  “Just put your hand on her neck, with your palm against her scales, and say it in your mind.”

  It sounded like a fairy tale, but the fact of sitting on a flying bird made all fairy books seem like tedious textbooks.

  Still shivering a little, she stretched out one hand, pressed its palm gently onto the rough scales of the targar and murmured her thanks.

  “I did it.” She felt a sense of connection.

  “No, you didn’t,” said Teilo.

  He must have sensed the frustration from her hunched shoulders and added apologetically, “I shouldn’t have
said that. What I should have said is that you didn’t say it in your mind clearly enough.”

  “Hah,” she retorted, “that was the best I could do.” Of course she couldn’t stop thinking about the height, the chance of falling and all that. But she decided to give it another go and tried very hard, closing her eyes temporarily to get the message clear.

  “How about this time?” she asked hopefully.

  “She’ll answer you herself.”

  Soon after he had spoken, Yuna lifted her long, curving neck gracefully and honked — once and then twice.

  “What did she say?”

  “Tyanna, Tyanna.”

  “What does it mean?” Brianna remembered the doctor. It was precisely the word he had said to her while pressing his finger on her forehead.

  “Tyanna means hope,” Teilo murmured.

  “Hope for what.”

  “Aunt Malalea will tell you.”

  “Who’s Aunt Malalea?”

  “She is a Wona, one of the fairy people.”

  “You mean a real fairy?” She arched her eyebrow, feeling it hard to take him seriously; yet she decided to go with it. He sounded genuine enough, and, whatever the case, she didn’t want to upset him at a height like this.

  “What can she do?”

  He considered for a while as if he wasn’t sure what to answer.

  Was there a lot to say, or was he simply taking his time to make up a reply?

  She waited. Her fear of the height grew much less. Yuna’s responsive honks had reassured her — the creature she was riding on could read her mind. Once fear was no longer a problem, she found herself starting to enjoy the ride.

  “It’s hard to say,” remarked Teilo eventually.

  “I knew it.” She rolled her eyes.

  “She guided us and gave us hope when we were not sure what to do. Especially after Tyanna had gone.”

  “I can tell you what to do if only you ask,” said Brianna light-heartedly.

  He said nothing.

  “Tell me about your place,” she asked, breaking the silence.

  “Which place?”

  “The one you visited to fetch the things.”

  “That one. It is not far from the cliff. In the largest tree in Tarragon Wood, there is a hollow inside the trunk that fits me just right. If I get any bigger, I might have to find a bigger tree. That will be hard.”

  “You live inside a tree?” she gasped.

  “Sometimes, when I am hunting. Other times I stay there just because I like it. It is Yuna’s favourite tree if she isn’t staying at the Lake.”

  “You have many places?”

  “Not too many. Rioneans always keep a tent for me wherever they go, and I used to have a place by the Lake.”

  “Used to.”

  “Yes, it used to be my main place before Tyanna left.”

  “Tyanna?” Brianna repeated, bemused by how frequently the name was mentioned.

  “Yes, Tyanna.”

  “But you said Tyanna was hope.”

  “Tyanna is also a name.”

  “I know. I saw her on Professor Nandalff’s island.”

  The body behind her shuddered.

  “Did you?” he said in a hoarse whisper.

  “Yes,” she answered, and was intrigued by his sudden shudders. She thought about the woman. How frail and pallid she had looked inside that oval box.

  “What happened to her?”

  For a while, he said nothing. But then he took a deep and long breath and spoke in a low tone, “They tortured and poisoned her, and left her to die in Death Canyon.”

  “Why?”

  “They decided she must be punished for the disappearance of the Prince and the Princess.” He paused and then his voice quivered. “Is she … alright?”

  “She … looked … very ill,” she hesitated, “… but the Professor is taking good care of her.”

  For a while, she listened to Teilo’s uneven breathing.

  “Why do they call me Tyanna?”

  “They?”

  “Yuna and the doctor. The doctor pointed to my forehead and said Tyanna before he died.”

  “Did he?” he sounded thoughtful, “Then he must think you are the one who will replace Tyanna.”

  Replace Tyanna? She frowned — it didn’t make sense. Perhaps he had mistaken her for someone else. She wanted to ask more, but her next question was interrupted. Behind her, he was shouting, “Hold on tight, we’re landing.”

  Yuna was swooping down at a gentle angle.

  “What do I do?” she raised her voice. The panic was coming back.

  “Jump when I say so.”

  “But the belt, we’re tied together.”

  “We’ve never been tied together — I only pretended.”

  “What?” The sudden disclosure shook her faith, and she jerked to one side and instantly started sliding down.

  She screamed.

  Teilo grasped hold of her at once and pulled her back. “Hang on there. We’re landing now.”

  A large hill of thick grass was below them, and Yuna was gliding parallel to its gentle slope.

  “Jump!” cried Teilo.

  He shoved her unexpectedly before his voice tailed off and tumbled her off Yuna’s back. The next second, she was rolling down the grassy hill.

  When she untangled herself from the heap she ended up in, Teilo, who had jumped off after her, was already standing on his feet, waiting.

  He gave a sharp whistle. The bird circled above them before soaring up and disappearing into the sky.

  “Couldn’t you just let her land before we got off?” The indignity of being pushed to the ground wasn’t easy to dismiss.

  “She is a targar, not a four-legged beast.”

  6

  Malalea

  Malalea had skin creased like the bark of an old tree, but carried herself like a woman in the bloom of her youth.

  “Aunt Malalea.” Teilo threw himself into Malalea’s outstretched arms, and she held him tight.

  “I brought her here, just as you told me to,” he said. Brianna frowned at how he phrased it, as if she were nothing but an object.

  The glance Malalea cast at her was cold, and so was her voice. “Come in.”

  She frowned more.

  The old woman’s unmistakable coldness was off-putting. The cosy cottage with two smooth white boulders at its doorstep, however, radiated the homely air that she desired. What was there to fear?

  Malalea pointed to a wooden stool in the middle of the room and gestured for her to sit down, which she did.

  Teilo rubbed his hands awkwardly like a pupil waiting for his work to be examined.

  “Took your blouse off,” said the old woman.

  “What?” Her eyes grew round, and she was about to protest but her gaze met Malalea’s gleaming green eyes, deep as a well, yet firm as a wall.

  She swallowed her words and started to fiddle with the buttons of her blouse. Teilo was standing in a rear corner of the room. “I ... I’ll go inside,” he stuttered, blushing, and shuffled into the room behind a beaded curtain.

  With an air of I-don’t-care-whatever, she took off her blouse and immediately felt Malalea’s sharp scrutiny as it fell on her. Scanning and examining her, it chilled her profoundly. She shivered.

  “Are you cold?”

  Biting her lip, she kept her silence. The targar ride that had taken her here, its fears and thrills, was now like a remote dream. This was it — Teilo had delivered her to this wizened woman who claimed to be a fairy.

  “What are you looking for?” she asked coldly.

  “Things I don’t know.”

  “You are a fairy, aren’t you? A fairy is supposed to know things.”

  “Not everything, young lady — nobody does. I’m fortunate enough to know something. When I know something and am sure of it, I’m never afraid to say so or advise folks who are in pursuit of the truth that is in my possession.”

  “A fairy must know things that an ordinary pers
on couldn’t possibly know,” Brianna insisted.

  “Neither is there a clear boundary between what you know and what you don’t know, nor a solid border between a person and a fairy.”

  “What do you see in me?”

  “A strange girl, an alien. Or Ertharan, to be precise.”

  The word ‘alien’ grated on her ears. “Earth is the planet I come from.”

  “Why? Why did you come?”

  “To look for Bo and our parents. Ms Upright, who is an Ozzi, took Bo — our little brother — from us. We chased after her and jumped into the wormhole that took us here.”

  “We?”

  “Me and Jack,” Brianna said dully and swallowed hard as the image of Jack fettered in the arena flashed back into her mind.

  She remembered the locket hanging round her neck, which she had taken behind Ms Upright’s back when they were packing for the social centre. She took it and flicked it open. Inside was the photo of her family.

  “You take it everywhere.” Malalea’s voice softened a little.

  Brianna thought of the time that her parents had given the lockets to them for Christmas, one for each of them. It was old-fashioned and uncool. None of them had ever bothered to wear them.

  In an agile movement, the old woman stooped closer, and gazed at it. Her head nodded but then wavered as if something in the picture gave rise to conflicting and troubled thoughts.

  “They are my parents,” Brianna pointed with her fingertip, “Marcus Goodman and Zelda Goodman. Someone told me that they’re a prince and princess in this land.”

  “They are indeed, but not from the same kingdom,” Malalea muttered, narrowing her eyes. “They seem to be happy with each other.”

  “Of course they are. Why shouldn’t they be?”

  “It’s rare in the land of Taron to see a Baran and Rionean happy together.”

  “Have you ever met them?”

  “I saw them in the big fight.”

  She paused and her gaze lingered on Brianna’s face. Brianna waited.

  “It was an annual fighting event,” she finally began, “where warriors must fight until they are completely exhausted. For that particular year, your father and your mother were the lead warriors for their kingdoms.”

  “Was it a good fight?”