‘I can’t, you might get hurt if it explodes.’ One look from her told him that he must. He poured energy into the sphere and the scene below was floodlit.
Seconds later, Maria screamed Lynella’s name. The scream seemed to hang in the air, even the fight below went silent and then the sphere exploded.
Maria knew that Paul had been unable to look down while lighting the sphere. ‘She was down there.’ She said, ignoring the pain from the scalding glass.
‘We must go out.’ Paul shouted.
‘No.’ she replied, much quieter now. ‘We cannot go out. You know that she broke the sphere, you didn’t.’
‘Was she hurt?’
‘She was hurt. The old ones were holding her back with their claws. They are as sharp as swords and they had cut through her night clothes and we could see the blood. But I could see that she was not feeling her pain, she was feeling the pain of one of the young dragons that was fighting. If we went out they would kill us, and they might kill her.’
They watched helplessly as the dim shapes charged again. Only one was moving quickly now. Then came a final agonizing sound as the other stirred for the last time. The forest fell silent.
Finally, daylight came, and they saw that the dragons had gone. The body of a young male lay on the ground. It had terrible injuries across its back and legs and had been killed by a single final slash that had torn it throat out with such power that it had almost severed its head.
Adam inspected it carefully. ‘It had been very badly injured in its battle with its rival.’ He said. ‘But the rival did not kill it. This final blow was from another, a strong adult.’
‘The loser was killed quickly to prevent a slow death.’ Maria said. ‘That would be what the dragons would do.’ They searched for Lynella, but Paul knew that if they found her it would be because she had been killed and left behind. All morning they went back and forth around the tower and into the undergrowth in a wide circle around it, but they did not find her. It was easy to see from the tracks that the dragons had departed along the road towards the mountain.
Soon after mid-day they drifted despondently back into the tower to eat.
‘We must make a decision.’ Paul said. ‘I suggest we give up searching here, they obviously took her with them. I can’t see any point in wasting two days going back to the city to get more people, we need to go after them.’
‘When do we go?’ James asked. ‘There should be another tower a day’s walk from here. I don’t want to spend too many nights in the open with the dragons and we won’t reach it before dark. But I don’t want to wait until morning. If only we had more ammunition it would be worth going back for more men.’ But they already had more than a fair share of the city’s limited supplies of bullets that might have to last them for months or even years.
‘We mustn’t kill the dragons unless we have to.’ Maria insisted. ‘They haven’t killed Lynella, I am sure of it. She can talk to them. They could have killed us on the road yesterday, but they didn’t.’
‘There seem to be two ways to deal with them.’ Paul said. ‘The mages used their jewels which meant that they could not talk to them, but they could protect themselves from them, or at least the older ones. Christian had no jewel and he talked to them. It could be that there simply were no jewels in Christian’s village, but I don’t think that was it. I think it was a choice, and Lynella seems to have made that choice as well.’
‘What about you?’ Maria asked.
‘I’m not good enough at using my power to be able to talk to them.’ Paul replied. ‘Remember I only just started at it. That’s one of the reasons they were so confused yesterday. Besides which.’ He continued. ‘Somebody has got to carry on using a jewel to open the city gate when we get back. It can’t be opened without one. That’s why Christian’s people never got in. We don’t want to be standing in the jungle waving our arms to try to get somebody to come around in a boat to pick us up from a beach.’
‘Couldn’t you carry it with you and just use it when you needed it?’ Angus asked.
‘I don’t think a mage could.’ Maria replied. ‘A mage’s contact with a jewel is too deep. If it was replaced with contact of another sort it might not be possible to find it again.’
While they were talking, Adam had stood up and was collecting his pack. He said nothing but made it clear that he was going on whether the others came or not.
‘Stay close together.’ Angus said as he collected up his sword. ‘If they come towards us we’ll try not to annoy them. We’ll back off if necessary and find a way round.’
Moving on, they had no trouble getting through the forest. The dragons had all gone straight along the road towards the mountain, tearing out the undergrowth as they went. This made progress faster and they soon reached the crest of the next hill; but this only revealed another valley full of featureless forest with the road cutting through it. They stopped to look but couldn’t see or hear any dragons. Another stone bridge took them across the stream at the bottom and, by late afternoon they were well up the far side. Darkness came quickly, and they had to stop to make camp before reaching the summit.
‘There’s no point in carrying on up because we won’t see anything anyway’. Angus found a place where there was a reasonable gap between the trees slightly back from the road and started to prepare a camp for the night.
Adam, as always, scouted around and within a minute he was back and asking them all to keep quiet. In the silence, they heard a twig break down in the valley, and then another. Then they heard a startled bird take flight from the bush not far from them. They slowly moved together and gathered up the packs that they had put down. Another branch snapped, and they heard the distinct noise of a heavy footfall as it broke through. Gradually they became aware of the smell of rotting flesh and knew that there were dragons behind them. They ran back to the road and on up the hill. Paul looked quickly over his shoulder and saw the silhouette of a giant adult in starlight on the road behind them. It was not hurrying but it was steadily following them.
‘Go steady.’ Adam shouted. They aren’t attacking.’ They slowed slightly.
In the darkness, they tripped over the broken branches, falling onto the rough ground before scrambling back to their feet to continue. Each time they looked back the dragons seemed closer and they ignored Adam’s advice and rushed on as fast as they could go.
‘We can’t go on forever.’ Angus shouted. We’ve got to stop and face them. Paul started to turn, ready to use his jewel and try to focus on the vague shape in the darkness behind them.
Adam almost ran into him. ‘Keep going.’ He shouted. ‘We’re almost at the top.’ He pushed him forward leaving him little choice but to carry on running.
Suddenly they emerged at the top of the hill. Angus was at the front and shouted out in surprise. The others joined him. They were looking down on the lights of a town. There were streets of houses with lights in the windows just a short distance away. Clear of the trees there was light from a moon, and they saw that almost directly in front of them there were fields full of crops.
They heard a noise behind them. The dragons had not stopped. The road was smooth now, and they ran headlong towards the town.
‘We can’t lead these things into the town – there’s no wall round it.’ Angus said.
‘They must have been here before. Keep going.’ Paul shouted back.
The road gently curved as it sloped down towards the long street through the town. Looking back, they saw that the dragons behind them seemed to be holding their distance. The surface was clear, and firm and they found themselves gaining confidence as they walked along it. They were discussing what the inn would be like when they noticed what looked like a large black lump in the middle of the road just beyond the last house.
As they moved closer the lump began to move and slowly stood up to reveal itself as a large dragon.
‘It’s on guard duty.’ Angus said. ‘I’m not surprised they don’t need a wal
l if they can persuade the dragons to be guards.’
‘Is it going to stop us?’ Maria asked, but nobody knew the answer. Angus’s hand moved to the hilt of his sword.
They walked steadily towards the dragon as if showing confidence would persuade it to let them past. Nobody managed any conversation. Adam was as expressionless as always. James seemed to be marching with a measured stride with his gun held low but ready. Paul was staring intently at the ground just in front of his feet as he shuffled along.
Don’t distract him.’ Maria said urgently. ‘He’s trying to keep them out. If they get in and start talking to him he won’t be able to use his jewel any more. We’ve already lost one full mage. Just think of it, she gave up the power to cross the universe just to live like the people in this mean little town.’
‘But if he lets them talk to him he could stop them attacking us.’
‘Of course they won’t attack us.’ Maria stopped as if shocked by the bluntness of her own reply. When Angus showed no reaction, she continued. ‘They saw the globe above the tower. They know that one of us can use power, but they don’t know which one. They want that person and, until they find out who it is, we’re all safe.’
They were now just yards from the dragon in front of them. The ones behind were closing up. They grouped together around Paul. He held his own jewel in one of his clenched fists and Lynella’s in the other. If he was found with them it might mean death. He didn’t know.
A group of people emerged from the town. They were heavily armed with swords and spears. They charged up the road. The dragon stepped aside. A big man pushed through to the front. He held his sword in front of him, menacing them with it as he spoke.
‘When we received the message from Christian we sent more people to the source. That was all that you asked for. Why have you come here? What do you want with us now?’ He stopped talking and for a moment Paul thought that the man was staring directly at him. Then he felt the warm breath on the back of his neck. He turned. There was a dragon just feet away behind him. ‘We would also like to know.’ The man went on. ‘Why one of you is shutting out the dragons from his mind. If you don’t talk to them, you can’t expect them to be friendly.’
‘Perhaps some of them are mages with jewels.’ An old man shouted from within the group. ‘Remember that we first came here to get away from the mages. We should kill them before they start killing us and our dragons.’
‘We have no mages with us.’ Maria said, staring straight back at him.
‘Where are you going?’ the big man asked.
‘We are trying to find a girl who went off with the dragons. We don’t know why she went. We think that they may have taken her to the mountain.’
‘Why were you here in the first place?’
‘We fled from the source. We were pursued and took a ship. This was the first land we came to.’
Hearing this, he slowly lowered his sword and invited them to come into the town for food and rest and told them that he would explain where the dragons had gone with Lynella.
The town was a little better than Paul had anticipated but had none of the grand buildings of the kingdoms. It seemed to have a solid and quite substantial town hall but even this looked very functional. There was a small church with a tower and a conspicuous Christian cross on it. The inn, when they came to it, looked comfortable, and when they went in they were shown to a table next to a good fire. The room was full of customers when they arrived, but the fat man quickly cleared them away leaving the small group to have their meal on their own. They could hear talking in another room, but they said little themselves. After some minutes of this silence, punctuated only by their thanks to the servers who brought them food and drink, the man came in. Maria grinned briefly to Paul as he confirmed his suspicion that their host had been listening at the door.
He started to explain what would be happening to Lynella. The young dragon who was to learn to communicate with her would have already been selected. This dragon would remain with her throughout her life and would not defend itself with metal on its scales until she died. The bond between person and dragon would dominate the lives of both. The process of learning to communicate with a dragon and developing the bond apparently took some time and, having been through the process himself, the man spoke of it with awe. He explained that she would come to the town when she was ready, and he offered to let them stay until she came. Alternatively, he suggested, she would be quite safe travelling to meet them back at the city with her dragon to defend her.
‘It would be quite safe for her if you moved on as soon as you want to.’ He explained, seeming more enthusiastic about this idea than having them stay in the town. ‘But the other one of you who has some power will want to stay.’ He waited for a response to this comment but when none came he asked hopefully. ‘Which one of you is it that has the power. The dragons were sure that they could sense it and a person always knows when that happens.’
‘We are not all from this planet.’ Maria replied. ‘You know that there is a ship from earth at the source. Some of us are from the ship. If a person comes from earth they may not respond to the dragons in the same way.’
The man looked up at them in stunned disbelief. They were all wearing similar simple clothes. The remains of Paul’s ship uniform had been abandoned long before and his attempts to remain clean shaven had failed. There was nothing to tell them apart. Maria took advantage of his hesitation to explain that they had had a long journey and suggest that they should continue the discussion in the morning.
In the privacy of an upstairs room in the inn they still spoke in whispers for fear of being overheard.
‘That was a clever way to stop his questions just then.’ Angus said to Maria. ‘But all he needs to do now is to ask which of us is from earth.’
‘What does he actually want?’ James asked.
‘He wants to know if any of us are mages.’ Angus replied. ‘And when he’s killed them he wants to get the rest of us out of the way, well away from his town and the mountain.’
19
In the morning, the pretence of hospitality was gone. They were taken the town hall with an escort of armed men and dragons. It soon became clear that their captors had compared notes and realised that one of them had to be a mage if they were planning to open the gates to get back into the city. The first direct question was the one they expected, and they replied that all of them except Maria and Adam were from earth. After some discussion, all the others were led out one at a time for a group of dragons to see which ones responded to attempts to communicate. When Paul’s turn came, he found himself facing the dragons remembering what Maria had told him. ‘You can keep them out.’ she had said ‘their communication with any person but the one they are bonded to is weak – just keep your mind blank’. He could not do this, so he stood in the town square facing the dragons rehearsing everything he knew about the design of the fusion reactors on a spaceship. He had practiced it for much of the night and worked his way steadily through it. At first the dragons seemed to be watching him closely but slowly, one by one, he lost the audience for his silent lecture.
When they had all been tested, and nothing had been found, Angus started his prepared speech. He tried to convince them that Lynella had been injured and that they must go to the mountain. He explained that none of them had any power at all and that Lynella had lit the globe above the tower. He was still talking when the fat man interrupted.
‘Enough.’ He said. ‘You have made it clear that you want to go to the mountain. That is absolutely forbidden. If we let you go, you will surely try to go there to take your friend away. Tell me.’ He continued. ‘Why did you come here in the first place? Where are you going? Why not stay in the old city of the mages?’
The old man who had shouted out the night before spoke in a more measured way this time. ‘The dragons are not all there is under the mountain.’ he said as the room fell silent. ‘There are the ancient machines that the mages left the
re, locked up and probably still working. Why else would these people have come in this direction? You can see the mountain from the city, they knew they were going there. Why don’t we search their packs?’
The crowd surged forward. James and Adam had their guns ready. They fired two shots each, aiming low. Two men fell to the ground, blood pouring from wounds in their legs. The crowd turned to run in panic. The route to the doorway was now open. Angus ran through first and the others followed. Outside they met the dragons charging towards the door. They stood back, and Paul went forward. He drove power into his jewel and on to the leading ones. The gem flashed and the metal masks glowed red. The beasts reared up and turned to run. The younger animals, without metal on their scales, were caught in the headlong flight.
Angus lead the way down the deserted streets. Looking around, they thought that they saw movement behind some of the partly closed shutters but, as they had hoped, nobody had time to set an ambush for them with cross-bows.
Beyond the narrow streets, the land was clear and flat. The open fields felt far safer than the forest and seemed to extend ahead of them all the way to the base of the mountain. Soon they saw the unmistakable profile of a tower in the distance offering them safe refuge for the night. Soon after this the attack came.
The townsfolk had horses. They also seemed to have practiced moving in formation with the dragons. They came up at enormous speed straight up the road from the town. Almost fifty horsemen with swords held high with the same number of dragons with them.
‘I can’t do anything.’ Paul shouted as he lay in the grass and looked at them through the telescopic sight on his rifle. ‘All young ones, no metal at all.’
‘Any bows or cross-bows’ Adam asked.
Paul looked at the group thundering towards them. ‘I see bows. We’ve got to stop them out of range’
‘Not yet.’ Angus shouted. ‘They’re only short bows and every bullet must hit. The dragons are in front, go for dragons.’
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