Chapter 18 – Darkness V
The air is home for many beast,
But aestri is not one at least.
I
Three entities stood near the opening of the cave, a damp windswept ledge that was bathed in blood red light, and only one resembled a human form, another was at least mammalian.
Jorden was not all that fond of the third. Although he knew that Sheba was a friend, or at least a fellow beast who had been trapped by the dragon, it was difficult to be at ease so near to the lengthy serpent. For the morelian was indeed a huge snake. And huge did not just mean very big, as in the largest serpent of the real world. Her scales shone in a dozen colours, colours that danced in the light of dragon fire, and she was patterned in diamonds. Her eyes were large and bright green, and slitted in the way of the aestri, her fangs long and curved. Sheba was also as thick as a good sized man and perhaps five times as long. Better friend than foe.
But what of the dragon.
Jorden looked aloft, for that was where the real spectacle hovered. Taf and Sheba already had eyes turned toward the heavens awaiting the outcome of a battle that waged there. They waited for there was no easy escape from the cliff-top larder. Taf also knew much that the outsider did not.
Jorden knew only that a dragon flew and fought above them, another beast in mortal combat. He wondered which would be best to win. He wondered what they fought over. Food, perhaps? And that was himself.
One was a dragon, that much was obvious. From tail to fiery mouth it could have been little else. It sported huge white wings the sized of a small aircraft, and four other limbs that wielded abundant blood-stained claws, and its long neck was crowned with a huge hideous head and long toothy jaw. Then there was the mane of flaming orange and the serpent tail and the huge yellow eyes and the blowtorch breath...
It was a dragon or there were no dragons. It was true that unlike the dragons of myth this beast was clad in brown and white fur rather than scales, but it was still a dragon. The legends were wrong.
The other beast was both more recognizable and more hideous at the same time. It was a dragonfly. It wasn't really a dragonfly, of course, it was far to big, but it was some reptilian monster that resembled a dragonfly. It had eyes that might have been weather balloons, and scales, and laced wings, and fleshy jaws. It looked like a cross between a biplane and a helicopter.
They were both dragons. Jorden hoped they killed each other.
They didn't.
There were several daring loops and evasive manoeuvres, but it was clear that the dragonfly was well outmatched. The dragon roasted its wings and clawed its body into ribbons. The remaining carcass plummeting from the sky into the deep gloom below.
It seemed they remained dragon fodder, and Jorden was surprised by the nearby roars and hisses of his fellow meals which seemed to attract the attention of the dragon. And it swooped toward him, the arsenal of its various organic weapons flaring, the dark blood dripping from its claws and fangs. Warm fluid also dripped from beneath Jorden's kilt as he backed away. He was dead. He wished that the young dragon would have eaten him while he slept. He would have cried if he had the time.
The dragon had already skidded to a halt on the cliff-side ledge near the man. And, of course, it spoke perfect English. “Thought you were dragon fodder, I'll bet,” it roared.
Then Taf leapt toward the apparition and raised herself to full height upon her hind legs, her paws and claws outstretched...
But she didn't kill the dragon. She didn't even try.
She hugged it.
Jorden felt extremely faint.
II
The morelian smiled a smile that could not have considered friendly by anything other than a morelian. “Friend of yours, I hope?” she hissed as she slid closer to the man, “and not a wild one. Those of the wild are seldom reliable.”
Jorden was still breathing heavily and doing little else, his heart on heavy duty. He even lost his fear of the snake. Too much else had happened. Then he mumbled a moment before the morelian was able to catch the meaning of his words. “... not mine. A friend of Taf's perhaps. I don't know a hell of a lot of dragons.” He tried to regain a little of his composure.
The dragon snorted, folded her wings, and sat back onto her hind legs. She heard a little more than the morelian. “Not a friend of mine,” it roared. Her voice was softer then; melodic and strangely familiar. “Hear that Taf? I am sorely hurt.” The slitted yellow eyes turned toward the aestri.
Taf shook her head and smiled. “It was only a few days. He can hardly know you as well as I.” The huge dragon reached forth with her paw and touched the shoulder of the bewildered man, blade-like claws cutting the air all too near his throat. He flinched, then froze. “We will have to spend more time together, I can see,” the dragon went on, “and Taf will have to stop her secretive nature. I see that she has at least been forced to show her own true self.” Taf hung her head briefly, then smiled toward her companion.
Jorden squinted in the howling wind, the rain beginning to fall yet again, a storm nearing, and he looked again to the yellow eyes and the orange mane. He knew that voice, and after meeting the lioness in that tree he should have known what to expect. “Damn,” he said. “You bitch! You pair of bitches!” And then without further hesitation, he also hugged the dragon, their very unexpected saviour.
As he backed from her, Kaeina glanced toward the approaching thunderstorm. “Now I suggest that we fly from here before we are blown. A ride for you both, and your morelian friend, perhaps.” The burgo actually hoped that the serpent would find her own way, Taf and Jorden would be burden enough in her weakened state.
The morelian indeed declined, Sheba glancing back into the cave. “Thank you greatly, but I have a promise to fulfil. There are juveniles to eat to make this capture worthwhile, and this mountain will not slow the decent of morelian.”
Kaeina nodded and understood. She was also very hungry. “Then we will bid you farewell and glide into the lowlands for rest and food, I'm tired after that dance with your dragon friend.”
Jorden again thought it was an extremely odd world.
Kaeina wondered about the morelian's name.
Taf was simply glad to climb aboard and be perched between the burgo's wings.
III
Jorden Miles was not normally adversely affected by flying, although it was something had only done twice before, but there was some distinct differences between the enclosure of a aircraft's fuselage and the open breezy flight upon the back of a tired dragon on a dark and very stormy night. The man was petrified, Kaeina often complaining that her mane was being pulled out by the roots.
Taf told him that he would distract the burgo while she executed the difficult glide manoeuvres, his hold released only slightly. The panic remained. It was too dark and too wet, the rain stinging their faces, and there was too little preventing Jorden from slipping from the shoulders of the burgo and plummeting to his death.
And it was not a good landing. Kaeina was exhausted.
It was forest, the dragon's wings retracted to avoid the trees, and the soggy ground raced quickly toward them during the last twenty metres to the ground. Taf leapt clear, Jorden was thrown there, and Kaeina struck the ground like a disabled airliner. Fortunately she did not fracture or burst into flame, both of which were a distinct possibly.
She laughed instead, and held to aching ribs. It was not a pretty laugh. Then she coughed and started a healthy fire in the shelter of the trees, the rain eased to a gentle mist in the lowlands. “Ah,” she said as Jorden instinctively threw several branches on to the oily flame, the man still dazed by the flight and just happy to be on the ground and alive. “Suzy gets better with each passing cycle, although she did not mention the morelian. I must tell her that when I return.”
Jorden eventually stopped throwing branches and began to check himself for injury. There were just a few scratches, his greatest loss had been his leather pack. Then he managed to speak. “
I just want to know what the hell you're doing here, and I want to know about all the creatures of this world and all their forms.” When Taf changed he should have realized there was more, but there had been too many other things to worry over.
Taf shrugged as best she could. “You've seen most of them now, except perhaps pockhorn. They are like a horse, only patterned and much taller, but you rarely see pockhorn. I'm not sure about sarisan and kaedith, although it is said that kaedith can change to the form of a bat at will.” Good, Jorden thought, that suited them.
“And dirge just get bigger and hairier,” Kaeina added. “Well, they don't really change at all, but they get fat at the city bars and shave even less.” Jorden assumed that what followed was laughter, but it was difficult to tell with a dragon.
“Then there are the trees I told you of,” Taf said. “The ones who eat the spotted lizards. They are landsdraw.” She shrugged. “There is little else to know.”
Jorden frowned. It all fit nicely. “It really would have been nice to know all of this before!”
Taf just smiled. They all knew that he would not have believed.
IV
The fire roared nicely, even as the rain fell heavier.
“... and so I have been looking for you both for days, with the help of this.” Kaeina displayed the darkish crystal shard which hung around the log sized neck. “But as Suzy foretold, I did not find you until the last possible moment.” It seemed that chance ran the land of dream.
Jorden wondered how many midget goats, and lizard beasts and polythorns and necromants, it had taken for Kaeina to attain the size of her first-form. It seemed a waste, but he could hardly complain. Without her they would have been dragon fodder... or dragonfly fodder.
It was a really twisted place.
“Now I really should return to Saljid,” Kaeina went on. “Every village I have seen has been badly damaged by the shaking lands, and I've been worried about the warehouses...” She sighed. “But I fear to leave you both out amongst this. This is no place for even aestri and burgo.” It had been their home once, long ago, so long ago it drifted into legend, yet now it seemed an alien and hostile world.
To Jorden it was somewhat worse than alien and hostile, and he was strangely comforted by the presence of the huge, fire breathing dragon. That was it, he was mad. Not only was he quite comfortable within metres of a beast of his own legend that had terrified those of the western world for centuries, he was actually terrified of losing her. With Kaeina near they did not need to fear even the greater lizard beast. Perhaps now only the gigantic mexin would pose a threat.
“Perhaps you should go,” Taf said easily. “You could fly to Saljid in a few days.” Jorden hopes sank. “But I would like you to come back,” The aestri looked out into the shade beyond the firelight. “I'm getting frightened of the Darkness. Before the dragon I thought that we were as safe as one could hope, but now...” She sighed. “I'm not ready to leave this life, not yet.”
Kaeina nodded. “You are young and could well have a great service to perform in the distant future. Suzy has told me of such, and I would not doubt her now.” The burgo licked her lips with a forked whip of a tongue. “And you are a friend I do not wish to lose as yet.”
The pseudo-dragon paused to think, the weight of the two considered. “If I rest and eat well, then perhaps...” She thought more, distances considered. “Perhaps I could fly you to the castle of Hura Ghiana. It would not be easy, not in weather such as this, and it would take several days, even though the dragon has brought you much of the way.”
Taf smiled. “Even if you could carry Jorden some of the way while I run, it would help.”
“Then it is settled,” Kaeina soothed. “First I will see you safely to Hura, then I shall return home.” She stretched, her tail flattening several saplings and shrubs with a crash. “And now I feel in need of a snack before retiring.” With that she rose on all fours and lumbered off in search of a clearing.
Taf watched her leave. She was also quite hungry, as Jorden was sure to be, but they would be safer aside the fire while Kaeina was away. And the burgo would be sure to return with a few extra morsels that were left over from her own snack of several launcer.
Jorden also watched her leave. He then laid against his Taf-pillow and baked in the warmth of the substantial fire. After what they had been through her current form was somehow less worrying. “You are sure that you've told me everything?” he asked. “No more surprises.”
The aestri sighed. “None that I know, Jorden, although it is difficult to tell what might surprise someone of Beyond. What seems normal to me...”
“You're being evasive,” Jorden interrupted. “That's for kaedith, not aestri. Aestri are just talkative.” Bats, he thought, that was so perfect. If he just knew what Orani was when she wasn't the middle-aged female captain of the Katerina. The sarisan seemed quite normal, no slitted eyes or claw-like nails, they could quite easily have been ordinary women...
V
It was two days and several hundred thousand footfall later when Jorden again found himself in such a position. Taf was warm beneath his head and Kaeina was out hunting. Kaeina was always out hunting.
The burgo was always hungry. She worked hard to carry her passengers in the foul weather that tore the darkened skies, and it was always cold and always wet. It was not comfortable for Taf and Jorden either, perched upon the back of a dragon as she sped through the soggy cloud, the rain stinging and the wind chilling to the bone, but they had simply to hold on. It was Kaeina who worked and Kaeina who had to think and judge the wind and take the risks. At least the work kept her warm, and she did not fear falling as Jorden continually did. He was getting more accustomed to the flying at least, and it beat walking. There were also far fewer creatures at the altitude the burgo flew.
Now Taf and Jorden were alone near a large fire that was fighting a steady rain. The fires had all been large since the coming of the burgo.
And then there were three.
Jorden was startled by the appearance of a man. It was an appearance in its truest form. The man was not there, and then he was. It was startling only momentarily, then it seemed oddly mundane, and Jorden frowned slightly. Taf blinked.
It was Kelvin Connor, the insane inhabitant of a very odd oasis.
He was currently dressed in clothing other than that he had worn upon the verandah of his home, a vest of brass scales and a kilt of brass plates. There was also a sword at his hip and a helmet and fine red cloth issuing from beneath his armour. “Greetings, peasants,” he said cheerfully, badly imitating an English Lord. “Somewhat out of my element, what?”
Jorden looked in disbelief to the man who had vanished from his very grasp. “Nothing is odd in this world . You should know that.”
“Too well,” he said, and rattled closer. “But it is true that I am no longer of this land, and I have come merely to offer my thanks for freeing me from that prison. A brief visit for I have battles to fight and dragons to slay...”
It was around this point in time that Kaeina dropped in from the heavens and thumped heavily to the ground, a launcer hind bouncing toward the brass knight. Kelvin swore and tried to draw his sword. It jammed in the scabbard and he cursed even louder and more explicitly.
Kaeina stared at the tiny man who struggled with his sword. “Friend of yours?” she asked quietly.
Kelvin gave up and looked to Jorden. “Sort of,” Jorden said. “He's off to fight dragons in some other world. I think he might be looking for a little practice.”
The dragon nodded absently, puffing a small flame in the direction of Kelvin Connor...
And Jorden Miles woke from a very silly dream.
At least he thought it was a dream.
Kaeina and Taf were near, as was the midget goat, and Kelvin Conner was not. They simply chatted quietly as aestri and burgo were known to do.
Jorden was left to wonder if Kelvin really was out there somewhere in a much better l
ife.
VI
The storms of Darkness became quite violent as the days passed, and Kaeina began to wonder if she would ever be able to carry her two friends to the still distant castle of Hura Ghiana.
At least on this day they flew in relative calm, the storms below them, the rarefied air of the upper atmosphere whistling in the ears of the burgo. Taf hugged low upon the back of her long time friend, partly to keep warm and partly to reduce air resistance. Jorden crouched behind and froze silently. This was the place to fly, he knew. Although it wasn't much brighter, it was a hell of a lot smoother at fifteen thousand feet than it was at five. But it was cold, damn cold, and breathing wasn't easy. He was wrapped in his cloak and a green launcer hide and holding firm to the warm fur of the burgo. It helped only a little.
For Kaeina the flight was magnificent. It was cool, a breeze that could sooth the most weary wing or muscle, and the air was clean and fresh as it rushed within her nostrils.
Taf simply shivered, and held close.
Then came the decent into the turbulence below, the dark storms and the wind and rain. Then they skimmed across open moor. It was a gentle landing, Taf leaping clear and rubbing her paws. It took some time to thaw the near frozen Jorden Miles. He wasn't frozen, not quite, yet he felt that he was. Jorden was actually quite surprised that he did not received severe frostbite to his fingers and ears. That would have been difficult considering that the items had spent much of the journey tucked beneath the hind of the aestri.
His feet were another matter, and they did not look, or feel so well.
There was not a lot to use as firewood upon the moor, and the wind was brisk and the rain heavy. Warmth came in the form of communal sleeping, the burgo curled about her two smaller friends when she was not out in search of food. The night, or day, passed slowly. It was difficult to tell one from the other in the depth of Darkness.
Beneath the wing of the burgo they rested, or spoke if they were awake, the head of Kaeina curled to rest upon the flank of Taf. And the aestri would tell a tale from memory, or a piece of verse...
Seas of blue and seas of green,
Many seas have I surely seen.
For I am aestri of the sea
And so few others would know as me.
For though the men have sailed, 'tis true,
They know not truth as I tell you.
They know not the way of dragons sea,
Not the way that I tell thee.
For the serpents of the oceans green
Are little known and seldom seen
By others than those that live or die
By ocean food 'neath whitest sky.
And I tell you now, for I do know
Where dragons play and dragons go
To bear their young and mate for life;
To rear their children and take their wife.
I have seen, as few can claim,
A place that only I can name.
The ocean trench where Dragons dwell,
Beneath the ever rolling swell.
Taf fell suddenly quiet.
It was not her best piece of verse, yet there was something about it that brought a chill to Jorden Miles. Or perhaps it was just the cold.
“There are few men who know of the hole in the ocean,” Kaeina said softly, her teeth meshing nearby. “There are some of the lowly who tell of a world of sea dragons, a real world, perhaps. You would be wise to keep such to yourself, Jorden Miles.”
Taf sniffed. “Not a real world. I think a shard more likely. I would dearly love to visit such a world of ocean. They say that it is quite near to our own...” Taf had no idea who they were, however.
Jorden had little intention of telling anyone, enough people thought he was quite mad already. He thought to change the subject. “How was Midnight when you last saw her,” he said for want of a better subject. “I don't suppose she is happy that Taf came with me into this?”
A dark slitted pupil in a yellow field that Jorden could barely see rolled toward Taf. The burgo grunted. It was Taf who spoke, feline ears flicking toward the dragon's mouth. “Why didn't you tell me that Midnight was my mother. I always knew it wasn't Pandora, but I would never have guessed Midnight.”
A mountain of flesh heaved as Kaeina shrugged. “It was up to her to tell you, and the time for that was long past. She loved you just the same.”
“I know that. She has always been kind.” Taf gurgled a sigh. “I just wondered...”
Kaeina looked toward Jorden, then back to the aestri. “Do you know of Lamplight?” Taf nodded. “Lamplight was Midnight's first daughter.”
Taf understood and there was no more said. Coven matters were best left to those concerned...
VII
In time the sky brightened marginally and the three were blessed with a sight that raised their spirits to new heights. That was after Jorden realized the significance of the wall bordering the moor some distance to the north.
Kaeina was more pleased than any. “The Planer Line,” she pointed a finger-blade. “It can not be much more than a hundred thousand footfall now, perhaps less.”
It was Taf who noticed the puzzled stare of the man as he stood and walked on the thick turf. It was perhaps a ten metre high wall that vanished into both the east and the west, a very long stone wall that was lined with often broken stone arches and stepped to actually make it quite easy to climb. It was not an architectural wonder that was created overnight.
“That is the Planer Wall,” the aestri told him as she stood to all fours and padded nearer.
“A wall that stretches for a hundred and fifty thousand footfall east and west of the castle,” Kaeina went on, speaking from where she still lay. “If we follow this then we cannot miss the castle.” She gazed to the swirling sky, it was said that the winds of Darkness always revolve about the castle of Hura Ghiana.
“Planer wall,” Jorden mumbled. “It sounds familiar. Tsarin said something about the Planer Line.”
Taf sniffed and rubbed her nose against her foreleg. “Built in time of legend. It is the line of transition into other shards, other worlds like this. There are many thousands, they say.”
“More,” Kaeina put in. “And this is the gateway. I have seen only one, a world of flowers and blue skies and gentle rains, but nothing to eat except fruit. A kaedith paradise.” She appeared quite thoughtful, an odd expression for several tons of dragon. “It was inhabited by naked pink men about so high.” She held a claw about a metre from the turf. “They were intelligent, but not overly so, and therefore not edible by any but the most depraved entity. I had a friend who lived there, a first-form burgo. She ate the little men; said they were too stupid to be considered intelligent.” Kaeina shrugged. “I disagreed and left her to her life. I dread to think what her next one will be like...”
The burgo blinked and looked east. “But now we have a castle to find, and hopefully this is the last flight I will have to make with a man and an overweight aestri. I will seem as light as a wing-hair after this.”
Taf and Jorden climbed aboard flight burgo one into hell, or should that have been nowhere?
It looked a lot more like hell.
Lightning split the dark sky, and Kaeina was forced to ride with the wind until they were very high amongst the cloud strata. They could not rise above the peaks of the storm, not this storm, but the high winds did not buffet the wings of the dragon in the way of the turbulent air that whistled amongst the hills and valleys.
It was cold again, icy cold, and it was wet, and the air seemed to buzz with static charge. Jorden tried to ignore it. It was still dark and wet and...
Kaeina wasn't particularly impressed herself. It was not good weather for flying, not even for the strongest of burgo. If she were alone perhaps, and could manoeuvre as necessary, then it would be quite another matter. Now she was restricted. If she banked too steeply she could lose the man, and Taf's claws would sink into her flesh as she held for dear life
. She banked gently and lost altitude, hoping for a glimpse of the wall, but it was still too far below. She kept descending. She knew she would have to land soon and let Taf and Jorden finish their journey to the castle on foot. But landing was not going to be easy.
When the wall was at last seen somewhat later in the flight, it was much closer, very very close. Kaeina's claws scraped the tops of the arches, the burgo sighting the wall only a few heartbeats before contact. She flapped. She was tired. With a flick of her tail her wings pitched up and the wall was cleared. Then she stalled. Kaeina trimmed frantically, lift dropping to nothing, her airspeed almost nil in a sudden tail-wind.
She flapped painfully to ease the impact.
The moor was thankfully quite soft.
Long Days in Paradise - The First Book of the Shards of Heaven Page 19