‘There may still be another. Be silent.’ Angus ordered. ‘We stay here for the night.’
Lynella awoke with first light, hearing the others already moving about. They fell silent when she approached. She looked at each in turn. There were nine of them, including Maria. She knew Angus and was especially pleased that her old friend James from the Eastern Kingdom was with them. From his uniform she, had seen that he was now a soldier.
Except for Maria, the rest were basically strangers, although she knew some of them by sight as soldiers who worked with Angus. The two youngest of these looked extremely nervous. They were looking at her. They had followed her. Now they expected her to lead. Trying to clear her head she said, ‘I know you all gave your word last night to help me free him, but we had all had a lot to drink so…’ she paused trying to think how to say it without causing offence. ‘There will be no loss of honour if any of you decide to go back. You won't have been missed yet. It must be chaos back there with all of the clearing up.’
There was silence, so she went on, ‘You must understand that you have honoured me by your willingness to come, but some of you may have families to support and we may be gone a long time. We may even be banished for life. These troubles are mine and there is no need for you to get involved.’
One of the young soldiers was quick to reply, ‘No that's just the point. Didn't you feel the mood at the party? Everybody there wanted to welcome the strangers from the ship and the changes they would bring. Our communities are dying out; this may be our only hope. It's only the Abbot who wants things to stay the same, but you seem to be the only person who is prepared to stand up to him.’
‘I don't feel as if I can stand up to anybody right now, but I suppose you may be right. I don't remember ever deciding to do it, but I seem to have been swept along.’
The discussion broke up into groups and a few minutes later, a girl came over to Lynella and said that she, and two of the men, wished to return. They decided that the best way was for the others to move on for an hour or two so that they were well away, in case the three were seen returning to the castle. With an unspoken consensus, they decided to leave any further discussions about their long-term plans until the groups were separated.
They climbed fast, into the forest. Soon, they had a commanding view across the valley below to the Southern mountains. Suddenly, Maria shouted out and pointed down. Riders were coming across the fields, heading straight for the copse. Most of them were wearing monks’ cloaks.
‘How do they know where to go?’ asked Maria
‘Look!’ said one of the soldiers. Running through the long grass ahead of the riders was a pack of dogs, vast creatures, the size of small ponies, loping through the tall grass, tails outstretched, racing ahead of the horses.
Three figures ran out from the copse. They could make out the girl now. Blonde hair streaming behind, hands waving. The riders stopped, conferring, the dogs hesitating, turning. Then riders moved forward, distant shouts carried on the breeze. The dogs were running again, forwards, urged on. The three had no time to turn.
Lynella watched the slaughter with stunned horror. Soon the dogs were gathered up to be put back on the scent. But they had lost interest. Crimson bloodstains covered their massive jaws. They milled around, sated, their work done.
Angus broke the silence. ‘Our best chance is to move up into the thicker forest where they won't be able to ride the horses. Then they can only move as fast as we can.’
Lynella looked up at the hills rising into the distance. ‘Have you got any idea what's up there?’
‘Afraid not. I don't think anybody has been this way for years. The track is in the valley down there. There shouldn't be anything too bad. Let's move.’
They climbed fast, moving further south and higher into the hills, driven on by the fear of the dogs. It soon became clear that she was by far the weakest member of the group. Her sheltered life in the castle had left her soft and unfit. Nobody was in good shape. They had been on the move for most of the previous night and were hungry, thirsty and exhausted. Nevertheless, they found the energy to help her up and to climb further into the forest.
This far from the source, there was no sign of terran plants. All the vegetation was native to the planet. It was not, however, the thick lush ferns from the lowlands. Here, there were tall trees with straight smooth trunks. There was no possibility of climbing them. They had a hard flat surface which reflected the sunlight in the few places where it penetrated the canopy above. Between the trees, the ground was covered with smaller versions of the same plant. Standing about twice the height of a man, their leathery foliage with vicious spikes on it was densely packed around the full length of their thin trunks.
‘Keep going.’ Angus told them. ‘Find some branches, use them as clubs to clear a pathway but make sure you fill it in behind us to stop the dogs and horses.’
Finally, they came to a stream and stopped to drink and wash the cuts that now covered their arms and legs. They were swelling up and the skin around them was turning red. Angus said the poison would wear off, but nobody was going to be able to go much further.
‘Try going up the stream. It may throw off the dogs.’ He didn’t sound convinced.
‘Why not try going down it a bit. They won't be expecting that,’ Maria suggested.
They heard the dogs barking in the distance and ran down the stream towards the valley. After a short distance it flowed into a deep-sided ravine, and suddenly they saw a bridge across it in front of them. It was a massive structure, built with long sections of thick tree trunks which had been laid across the width of the gully. The bridge was incomplete and, when they stopped, they could hear logs being worked on the road above.
‘God knows who's building this. Nobody lives anywhere near,’ Angus mumbled.
‘I doubt they'll kill us but when they work out which way we went, the dogs will, so let's risk it,’ Lynella replied.
They ran up the bank. There was a clear, wide road, the trees cut and gone, the undergrowth freshly cleared. Then they looked across the bridge and saw its builder. It was standing in front of a pile of logs. As they watched, it picked one up, lifting with the strength of ten men. It needed no saws and chisels. It cut the log in its enormous mouth. Massive sharp teeth tore through the solid wood. The head and body were covered with huge metallic scales.
They looked on in stunned disbelief. They had never seen any before but they all knew what it was. All of the castles were full of pictures and tapestries of them. It stood on four massive legs and was using two more to hold the trunk that it was working. Suddenly, it looked up and saw them and was obviously as frightened as they were. Its roar was so loud that the earth seemed to shake. Moments later, several more appeared, advancing across the bridge. The smell hit them, blood, not rotten and putrid but fresh, raw, metallic. They turned to flee, but saw that the road ended after a few yards.
They started moving back. Angus shouted, ‘Look into their eyes, Lynella. You have the powers of a mage.’
Now she remembered. Stories told to every child on their mother's knee, the story of the Blue Dragons, how in ancient times they terrorised the colony, but the great mages had killed them by just looking them in the eye.
Lynella looked up. Yellow eyes glowed on the top of long thin heads. Great leathery upper and lower eyelids blinked continuously. Then she saw it. Around the eyes, the metal which covered their scales was formed into a continuous ring.
She focused on the leading dragon. It looked back at her for an instant and then let out a piercing screech and fell back, one eye now black and ruined.
Two groups stopped and looked at each other. The dragons had reached the end of the bridge but were going no further. The humans had their backs to a wall of thick forest. They heard barking. The dogs ran up the edge of the ravine, following their scent, right into the middle of the group of dragons. One jumped up, grabbing a scaled leg in its huge bloody jaw. The dragon tore its throat out.
14
She knew she had to run. Run away from the soldiers, the dogs and the dragons. But she was exhausted, in that instant her energy had been drained. She kept running. But the outline of the trees was fading. She was being carried, trying to hold on as her limp body seemed to be slipping from a man’s arms – Angus’s arms.
‘I won’t let you fall. We’ll stop soon.’
They stopped. Listened to the sounds of the forest. No pursuit. They ran again. Steadier this time. The light was fading. They stopped running, moving around preparing as best they could to spend a second night in the open. Laying her on a bed of dry leaves.
She looked at the group who had come with her. Angus seemed happy enough. She thought he would have gone along with any adventure to take him away from the routine and regulations of life in the keep with his father.
James was looking a lot less comfortable. His uniform was already dirty and torn and he looked as exhausted as she was. He had changed a lot in the four years since the festival and had grown a small beard. He looked down at her, ‘What will your family think?’
‘They won't care,’ she replied. ‘What about yours?’
‘With a bit of luck, they'll assume I've gone with the Abbot.’
‘What about your officer in the army?’
‘I am the officer,’ he smiled, ‘and my commander is back at the Eastern Castle.’
They gathered wood for a fire. One of the men she didn't recognise had caught some rabbits and was quietly preparing them for cooking. As she watched, she saw that not a movement was wasted as he used his long scarred fingers and small hunting knife to skin and clean the meat.
‘Where are you from?’ she asked. ‘I am honoured that you are risking your life for me. Why have you come with me?’
‘My name is Adam,’ he replied, ‘and when I tell you where I have come from, you will see why I have come.’
Adam spoke while he cooked the meat. He came from a fishing village on the coast far to the north of the monastery. He had lived a quiet life until the time when he had sailed back towards the coast and seen crowds of people on the quayside in the harbour. They were standing in groups all along the old stone jetty. They were tall and wore brown tunics with hoods to protect them from the freezing wind. He had never seen so many people before; he had heard stories of crowds in the great kingdoms away to the south but had never been there. He was worried at first, but they looked peaceful and, as he came closer, he saw that they all wore crucifixes on chains that hung down the front of their tunics. He saw that they were like the itinerant preacher who passed through the village in spring, taking time to explain passages from the Scripture before moving on. Now he was joyful and hurried to moor his boat and fetch his wife and child to see these messengers of God.
Adam interrupted his story to take some of the meat which now looked well cooked. The others joined him.
‘Lucky it's rabbit,’ Maria said cheerfully ‘The Princess can't eat most of the animals around here’
‘It was not luck,’ he replied without emotion.’ I leave nothing to luck’
They ate the rest of the meal in silence. When they finished, he continued with his story.
The people of the village had all stood in silence on the open ground in front of the cottages. There were too many of them to fit into the little chapel at the top of the cliff, so the leader of the visitors stood on the upturned hull of a boat which had been pulled up for repair. He started with some prayers. They were simple prayers that they all knew. His accent was strong, but they could follow it and, ignoring the cold wind, they knelt on the coarse grass and shingle and prayed with him. After the prayers, they sang a hymn. The sound of so many people singing together inspired Adam. It seemed to fill the whole bay with the power and glory of God. Then the man began to preach. He explained that he was the Abbot of a great monastery near the kingdoms. He spoke about the history they knew of the Age of the Mages and the compact that came after. He explained that during that time the original Gospel from earth had become weak and confused. This was why the monastery had been founded and, in the few generations since its foundation, they had rediscovered the true meaning of that gospel.
This was all welcome news to Adam. He was keen to learn this new meaning. He knew that the village was so old that it had been built soon after the landing, long before the compact, and had not been affected by the wars. He could not quite see how the gospel they had always known could have become confused by events that passed them by, but he was sure that this would become clear soon. With so many followers, this must be a very wise man.
The Abbot spoke at length about the depth of the new understanding they had discovered. Behind him, the grey cottages with their tiny windows were huddled around the single street which wound up the hill. Compared to their dull mediocrity, this glowing message with its promise of celebration and happiness offered a release from an existence which, when looked at in these terms, had little to offer. Adam reached out for his wife's hand and held it, his strong fingers wrapped around hers, sharing the vision of this bright future. But now the Abbot was moving on.
The new learning was so important that it must be taken to all people. Even to Jerusalem. When he said this, the crowd stood motionless. What did he mean? Jerusalem was on earth. The word ‘Crusade’ came into his speech with all of the images of daring and adventure that went with it. Finally, his full plan became clear. He was going to build a ship and, in some way that was not very clear, he was going to fly it back to earth as a missionary. He had not come to this village to enlighten the people. He had come to enlist them to build sailing ships which he needed to carry ore from his mines.
After that, there had been no safety. The man of God was wrong, however impossible this was. Quite apart from the practical difficulty of how they would survive this additional burden when life was already hard, Adam knew that what was to be done was simply wrong. Day followed day and slowly conflict emerged. First there were secret meetings; difficult with a man billeted in every cottage. Then there were questions, arguments, and finally protest met with awful retribution.
He had no more to say. They could see that, for a man of normally few words, his telling had been a considerable effort.
‘Does anybody know what's ahead of us?’ Lynella broke the silence.
‘The canyon,’ Adam replied. ‘It cannot be crossed.’
‘It's a massive deep river canyon,’ Angus explained. ‘It is some way ahead and runs so far to either side that we can't go around it. We'll have to find a way to cross it’
‘We can't.’ Adam insisted. ‘We should turn back. We have work to do on this side.’
‘We must cross it,’ Angus said. ‘If we don't, the Abbot and some of his monks will use their auras to get past the dragons and catch up with us. He'll kill us and take Lynella.’
They sat in silence, unable to contradict him.
‘The dragons must have crossed it,’ James said suddenly.
‘And if they can, we can,’ Maria added.
The following day, they moved on, keeping in the forest a short distance to one side of the road. In the early afternoon, they came to the canyon. They had little warning; the land simply disappeared into a sheer drop. Angus was the first to reach it and he signalled to the others to join him. The bottom was so far below them that almost no light reached it and few details could be seen.
‘It’s in the old books’. Lynella said. ‘The dragons cross it, but the people never do. The land beyond is unknown.’
‘But how do the dragons cross?’ Angus asked.
Suddenly Maria spotted something reflecting the sunlight away to their left towards the road. They all turned to look and, as
they watched, the sunlight flashed from a point at their own level but near the centre of the canyon. They moved slowly along the cliff edge towards it, and soon began to see a fine metallic line, extending out from the point where the road ended. Then they came to the old structures.
In an area in front of them, arranged in a precise pattern to either side of the road, hundreds of massive stones had been set into the ground. Each one had a blue metallic wire, as thick as a man's finger, fixed around it. They moved forward, and finally saw that the wires all led off towards the canyon, where they were twisted together to form a cable, which swayed gently in the wind as it stretched out into the distance to the far side.
‘We can't cross it,’ Adam said. ‘We should have turned back. What good can we do on the far side?’ They could not even see the end of the cable very easily because it had sunk through the road into the ground and now came out of the cliff, fully six feet below the level at which they were standing.
‘The dragons obviously came this way,’ Angus said, looking at deep scratch marks in the flagstones of the road's surface, over an area extending well back from the edge, ‘And we shouldn't have to wait long to see one cross.’
Concealed among the stones, they watched and waited. Finally, a dragon appeared, walking along the road. For such an enormous beast it’s movement seemed light and delicate but as it moved past them an overpowering smell of rotten meat enveloped them. Stopping short of the bridge, it started scratching at the stones it was standing on. Slowly, the purpose of this ritual became apparent. Its razor-sharp claws had extended. From resembling daggers, they had become long curved swords with deeply serrated cutting edges. Using these for purchase, it moved easily down onto the cable, gripping it securely using all six legs and moving out across the canyon.
As soon as the dragon was gone Angus found a short length of the wire in a crevice in one of the anchor stones. It appeared to be a loose end which had been cut off when the structure was built. ‘What exactly is it that you can do with bits of metal. Can you make things?’
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