Dragons and Destiny

by Candy Rae

  “More records,” Inalei told him.

  “One about a Guildhouse,” answered Niaill. “It’s a bit confusing, almost as if she was frightened to write about it and she never says exactly what was hidden. Hold on a minute and I’ll find it, it is in volume two if I don’t disremember.” Niaill picked up the second volume and began to leaf through the crackling pages. “Here it is. Do you want me to read it to you?”

  “If you would.”

  ‘…and following the death-bed instructions of Jim Cranston and of those with far greater knowledge that me, Kolyei and I journeyed to Stewarton where we talked to the son of Arthur Knott who did do much for us all when we first arrived on the planet and of who, more later. We told him of Jim Cranston’s concerns and he agreed to do as Jim Cranston asked. He admitted to me that he couldn’t understand much of what the technical print-outs contained anyway (perhaps one day humankind will relearn what we once knew). We three hid the box containing the print-outs underneath the foundations of the Guildhouse, in the Hall about a lindlength from the fireplace. It will be safe there. The building is a sturdy one as befits the Technicians Guild and built of stone unlike others...’

  “Is that the sort of thing you mean?” He yawned.

  Inalei looked excited. “That is it precisely. Now you must rest and forget this for a while. I must report to the Susalai once more.”

  “Fine by me,” said Niaill. “I’m shattered. I might take a look at the little book before I drop off though, it’s not written by Tara, the writing is quite different but you never know, it might be important.”

  The fourth volume was more than half the size of the other three. The paper was the same type as volume one and the cover was of a shiny material that Niaill couldn’t identify.

  The penmanship was small and niggly as if the author had been in a hurry. Every entry had a date, the first one, ‘24:iv:2392’.

  Must be the dating system our ancestors used, surmised Niaill.

  The first pages were filled with a resume of what had brought his ship, the Electra, to the planet.

  The next pages itemised the author’s worries. This was old history to Niaill. As a cadet he had learned about how the convicts had freed themselves from the Electra and gone after the crew and families who had tried to flee.

  ‘25:iv:2392 : Camilla will take them to a place where I hope that they will be safe. My wife and children go with her. I worry incessantly about them. I wish I could have stayed with them.

  We cannot kill twenty thousand men, alas for my conscience and those of the crew. I could not have lived with myself if we had done so what must be must be though I fear for all our lives.’

  Then came some three pages concerning his wife and children.

  ‘27:iv:2392 : Johannes Pederson, Chief Engineer, I and two others must deal with the other threat to our existence. The power-core. In their hands it could become a dangerous weapon. We must hide it in a place where it can never be found. We are taking it into the desert. Even if we do not survive the trip, even if the convicts do hunt down my family and the others, at least who do survive will be free from the threat of total destruction. This is the best I can hope for.’

  There was a gap of some days. The next entry contained an account of his farewells to his wife, Anne and his children, Jessica, Cherry and Joseph. The following entries were day to day accounts of their trials in the desert, how the truck kept breaking down and the contrariness of an item known as the driller.

  Niaill kept skimming the close written pages, trying to pick out any clues of where they were heading. That they were aiming for a specific spot was clear, the gridref mentioned earlier. Peter Howard didn’t say how far they were travelling each day. Niaill ground his teeth in frustration as he read on.

  ‘29:v:2392 : Well, the blasted thing is buried, the driller ditched and we are on our way back. I hope the truck holds out. Johannes will activate the locator in the morning.’

  There was another time gap in the journal.

  ‘27:vi:2392 : To see Jessica again after all that has happened to us. What bliss. But my fears have been justified. The fate of Anne, Cherry and Joseph I do not know, but alive I hope they still are. Thank the stars for Gerry Russell and Martine who at least managed to get these few out. I will be forever in their debt.

  We leave for the north tomorrow, over the islands, to safety, though I hope that one day I will be able to come back to find Anne and the little ones again.’

  Niaill turned the page to find out what happened next but it was blank. Flicking through the empty pages he found only one thing; in Peter Howards’s script there was the gridref again at the top left hand corner of the penultimate page.

  He never did see them again. What a shame after all that he went through.

  Niaill shut the book and sat back, idly fingering the covers. He frowned.

  The back cover was thicker than the front.

  He looked closer, the lining had been unstuck and stuck back down.

  With difficulty Niaill managed to un-stick it and peeked inside. There was something there and he thought it was a piece of paper. With due care he wheedled it out, it was a single piece of thin paper, folded into four. He unfolded it with trembling fingers. The words were written in Tara Sullivan’s script. It was a poem.

  ‘Golden flyers, kind and true,

  Old and wise with eyes so blue.

  Hidden from sight, guarded by the sinetad rtath,

  Sending away, those that take that path.

  They are true friends of Kolyei and I,

  Where we go ere our time comes to die.

  Deep in wisdom, loyal, lovers of life,

  Striving forever to keep us from strife.

  Never forgotten if only in tales,

  Under the trees in those great western dales.’

  Niaill pondered the enigma of the poem. It was very similar in tone to the one she left on the mound near Vada - the one he had read as a boy. She did like to talk in riddles. What does it mean? Who is she talking about, the Susalai? But no, she is talking in plurals, not a single Lind. The Avuzdel?

  It was as he drifted off to sleep that another thought occurred to him.

  The Lai. She is talking about the Lai… but they are a legend … a fable …

  Niaill was asleep.

  * * * * *

  The Ammokko

  Space is silent.

  There was no one to hear as the bay slid open, five round objects dropped out and headed towards their destination planet.

  One dropped into the Great Eastern Sea close to the Island of Hallam.

  The second landed in the woodlands on the south-western fringe of the smaller of the northern continents.

  The third landed in the mountain ranges to the north of Vadath.

  The final two landed in the southern hemisphere, the penultimate to the far west of the southern continent, far into the desert.

  Number five landed right in the middle of the lands inhabited by the Larg.

  * * * * *

  Niaill

  Excitement was at fever pitch. The legendry Lai were not legends at all but flesh and blood creatures.

  True, they had wings and could fly but he had been assured by Inalei of the Avuzdel that they ate, slept and talked much as the Lind did.

  The prestigious storyteller of pack Sindya was beside himself with excitement, almost going so far as to disgrace himself in front of his rtathen by relieving himself like an untrained ltscta. The rest of the members of the rtath were in not much better state and the younglings, picking up on the excitement from the adults were pretty nigh impossible to keep in order.

  Inalei, standing beside Niaill and Taraya laughed, telling the worried parents that the Lai had young of their own and were accustomed to such antics.

  The Lind (and Niaill) were standing round the edges of the domta clearing leaving the central area for their honoured visitors. A meal had been prepared, the Lai were meat-eaters and the choicest haunches of kura and zaro
va had been readied after the Lind had been warned that the Lai would no doubt be hungry after their long flight.

  Sindya, Elda of the rtath that bore her name rehearsed for the umpteenth time the words of welcome that it would be her honour and duty to utter.

  Niaill and Taraya stood silent.

  Only a few were aware of the reason why the Lai had chosen this moment to emerge.

  In volume three of the records Niaill had come across some smudged notes. Tara had mentioned what she called a probe that had been sent to the planet before the Argyll had landed.

  ‘The probe was sent out and the reply was favourable.’

  Niaill had deduced from this that these Nahoko were somewhat similar to this probe but apart from the fact that they probably came from somewhere in space he was little the wiser. So much knowledge and technology had been lost in the intervening centuries. Some humans even questioned the fact that their species had originated on another planet at all. Niaill knew this was wrong but rather thought it might be difficult to persuade some to the contrary, especially those from the more isolated and religious communities.

  Despite the excitement there was an undercurrent of foreboding permeating the domta. Niaill was conscious of it.

  : Let us enjoy this meeting at least : he suggested to Taraya.

  : It is not every day that we are visited by creatures straight out of our legends : Taraya agreed.

  : I almost don’t believe it is happening :

  : Do you want me to bite you so that you can be sure? Go on, only a little nibble :

  As one, the Lind looked up into the clear sky. The Ltsctas stopped gambolling around.

  : They come : announced an excited Taraya.

  Indeed, they were approaching, three flying creatures in a ‘vee’ formation. They were making directly for the domta. The formation was growing bigger. They could see giant wings and tails.

  : I didn’t think they would be so big :

  : Big and beautiful : marvelled Taraya.

  The waiting Lind lay down on the forest floor, a deep obeisance befitting the arrival of such wondrous creatures. The air was thick with the downdraft of six huge wings as the vee manoeuvred itself for landing.

  Landed, they unfurled their wings and stood gazing around with great whirling eyes.

  : Great Andei’s pawprints, dragons, they are DRAGONS : Niaill was awestruck.

  The Lai were of burnished gold flecked with copper.

  The one in the lead was of darker hue than the other two, in some areas his hide glistened so darkly as to be almost black although his wing membranes shone in the fading sunlight.

  They were smaller than Niaill had expected. The fairy stories he had read about dragons brought with the original settlers told of huge beasts with a gigantic wingspan, fierce and strong with flaming breath. Niaill remembered that these dragons usually ate virgins for supper.

  The Lai’s torsos were perhaps one and a half times the size of a plough horse, their wings wide, with rippling muscles nearest their bodies and thinner at the ends.

  Their back legs were thick and strong, front legs small and at the ends they had what could be described as hands with four fingers. In place of the thumb they sported a wicked looking talon.

  The heads were paler than the rest of their bodies with orange circles round their blue eyes and they had muzzles the same colour. The eyes had flecks of silver in them and the pupils were black.

  The Lai were not like the dragon stories.

  Sindya rose from her prone position to her paws and stepped forward to face the lead Lai, the one with an air of authority about him the other two lacked.

  “Dedta domta,” she intoned in a formal voice. “Dedta rtath Sindya.”

  “Thank you,” the Lai replied with care. “We are pleased to be with you after so long. My name is Haru. Those with me are named Chizu and Malaku.”

  Sindya seemed unable to say any more and lapsed into silence. Niaill was convinced that everylind was holding his or her breath, in fact he was sure that some would die of asphyxiation.

  Haru gazed round, blinking.

  : He is a dragon : insisted Niaill.

  : So you say : replied Taraya : but I say he is a Lai :

  It was Inalei who broke the silent deadlock. He had met the Lai before. He bowed, first to Haru then to Chizu and Maluku.

  “We would be pleased if you would eat with us if you do not wish to hunt.”

  “That would be best,” Haru answered, “we do not wish to, how do you say it, advertise our presence? This is why we come when it is getting dark and have taken a route so as not to fly over the rtathlians of your brothers and sisters. We will be honoured to eat with you.”

  “If you would follow me?” asked Inalei.

  “We have gathered good things to eat,” said Sindya, recovering her voice. “We have readied a place for you to sleep also, in the lian as Inalei requested.”

  “Good,” said Haru, “lead the way young Lind,” and he began to follow Sindya, the other two following.

  “Young Lind?” murmured a surprised Niaill, “Sindya’s almost pure white, quite possibly the oldest Lind I have ever met.”

  “Perhaps age is relative,” Taraya replied.

  Niaill wondered again if Lindish was the mother tongue of the Lai and naturally, Taraya ‘heard’ what he was thinking.

  : Tradition say Lai taught Lind to talk : she reminded him.

  : I’d forgotten that :

  : If they taught us : she continued : is logical that their language is similar? :

  : There is such a thing as lingual shift, I remember one of my teachers talking about it :

  : That is not the issue here, Inalei told us that they have never left us. I think my Niaill that you will find that their Lindish is as good as yours :

  : The Larg? :

  : That will be where the lingual shift will come in. The Larg were separated from us when the waters between north and south rose high for a long time. Their language has ‘shifted’ more than ours but not as much as we cannot understand each other at need :

  * * * * *

  Haru had indicated that he needed to talk with some of the Lind (and Niaill).

  He gathered round him and the other two Sindya, Inalei, Vanlya, the Eldas, Niaill and Taraya.

  “A long time ago we Lai lived on a planet very like this one except that there were five main continents, not three. On each continent lived what you might call a rtath; in the north lived the blue skins, the Rai, in the west, the black skins, the Brai, in the south the red skins, the Sbnei, in the east the golden skins, our ancestors, the Lai. In the centre lived the green skins, the Dglai.

  The day came when our planet began to die and plans were laid for some of us to leave to seek out another where we could all settle.

  Five space-ships were built, one for each rtath and the day came when the space-ships left our planet and began to search.

  The search was not an easy one and as the years passed some of us grew great with disillusionment and fear that we would never find a planet.

  First the Rai left us, thinking it would be better if we were to split up; to enable us to search a wider area. The Brai, the Sbnei, the Dglai and we Lai remained together, for a time.

  The Sbnei were the second of us to leave, having come round to the Rai’s way of thinking. They stayed in contact for a while, as had the Rai but the distances were great and eventually they too lost touch.

  The Brai, the Dglai and we Lai continued and then we did find a planet suitable for colonisation. There was water, land and a viable eco system, perfect for us but there was a problem. It was already inhabited and a few of these inhabitants had a burgeoning sentience. The Dglai wanted to land, to wipe out those on the planet, to lay our claim to the planet. We Lai and the Brai said no. There was an argument and the Dglai left us, saying that they would seek elsewhere. The Brai and we Lai discussed what had happened and decided that the Dglai were not to be trusted not to return when we were gone. We
agreed that one of us should remain and guard the planet while the other should go on. The Brai remained and we Lai continued on our quest.”

  “That was Earth, where we came from,” decided Niaill with a flash of inspiration.

  “Possible but there is no way to be sure, Niaill of Vadath.”

  “Our mythology tells of great fire-breathing dragons,” insisted Niaill, “you visited the planet didn’t you, then left? There were no geological traces but why else would there be stories and from all round the globe? And you talk about a sentient species, what if that was our earliest ancestors?”

  “It is possible,” Haru admitted. “We Lai travelled far, from star to star for many years and investigated many different planets. We were beginning to think we were fated to travel so forever then we arrived here. Like you we found water and land and creatures, small four legged creatures of various types. None were obviously sentient.”

  “How did you know what planets to look at?” asked Niaill.

  “We sent out the Botons.”

  “But that’s what Vanlya called that long pole we found,” exclaimed Niaill.

  “Yes. The Boton is designed to look for suitable planets, ones with viable atmospheres and other programmed parameters.”

  “Is that what me and Taraya found then, your Boton?” Niaill marvelled, “and still working after all this time.”

  “Unfortunately the one that you found is not ours. It has long since disintegrated.”

  Niaill nodded, it had been thousands of years since then. “So whose is it?”

  “It must be from one of the other four ships but we do not understand why or how one could have survived for so long.”

  “Repaired, rebuilt?” hazarded Niaill.

  “Perhaps, but we believe one of the other four ships must still be travelling through the stars.”

  “Searching for a planet?”

  “May I continue?”

  “Yes, yes, of course, sorry,” said Niaill.

  “Once we decided to land and make a new life here, there was no way we could get in touch with the other four ships to tell them. We could not return to our home planet as there was not enough power left to make the journey.”