Dragons and Destiny

by Candy Rae

  As the fourth ryz gathered, Hanei watched and counted. Apprehensive young Lind were in the majority and they took their places with many an anxious glance at Hanei. The grizzled and scarred old fighters would join them as soon as Hanei called and would take their own places, each between two of the youngsters, as mentors and guides.

  They would need all the courage they could drum up during the suns ahead. The battle or battles that were coming would be like as never seen before.

  Hanei hadn’t met the three Lai who had arrived at the Gtrathlin’s domta but he knew that they were there, as did every member of his pack. The images of the Lai had been ‘sent’ out far and wide so that everylind on the continent knew that they were not legend. If the Dglai were anything like Haru and the others then his Lindar and every other Lindar, every human battalion and every Ryzck faced tough times.

  He looked at the determined young faces ranged in front of him. These youngsters did not want to go to war, nolind did but it was part of their psyche to defend and to protect.

  Hanei felt so proud of them in that moment he could burst. He raised his muzzle towards the trees to his left and called for the older members of his ryz.

  Out of the trees they came, these the grizzled veterans of Rtath Hanei. Some were limping but not so much as to make fighting impossible, most were white-haired, the dark red and browns of their original colour stripes gone. He nodded to one-eyed Ranlei, once Susa of the Lindar until a fight with a wral and the subsequent loss of his eye had forced him to retire. Hanei was pleased that the old Lind felt able to join them. Ranlei had also taught many of the of the rtath how to fight. As he took his place between two of the very youngest, Hanei saw the two relax.

  They were ready.

  Around the clearing gathered those who would remain in the rtathlians, the very young, the very old, the pregnant females and the mothers with young, all paying their respects to those going to the war and ‘saying’ their farewells.

  One or two of Hanei’s ryz glanced over, looking for mothers, little brothers and little sisters. Some had their mothers with them, those who were members of their mother’s last litter, but many did not and were leaving the rtathlians for the first time.

  Hanei realised they were becoming restless, this forming up was taking too long. He looked over at Sadei, willing him to give the order to start the run east with a flick of his tail that said get on with it. Sadei acknowledged the look.

  No need for words, Sadei raised his muzzle and howled, the howl that said off to the war, to defend our rtathlians and all who we have sworn to protect, with our lives if need be.

  As one, Sadei’s Lindar copied him.

  Some tiny ltsctas hid under their mother’s tummies, covering their small ears with equally small paws.

  Sadei began to move out of the clearing, the first ryz following and Hanei prepared to order the fourth to follow.

  Like others departing for the war, Hanei turned and looked back. Like many, he didn’t think he would see his home again.

  * * * * *

  Niaill

  Niaill shook Master Annert’s hand in farewell.

  “I don’t know if we shall ever meet again,” he said to the old man, “war is coming and I fear many of us will die before all this is over, but it was an honour to meet you sir.”

  “The honour is all mine,” smiled Annert, “and I will do all in my power to find the answers. We will work out how to turn the power-core into the weapon it must become. Trust me. We will do it”

  “I do sir,” said Niaill with a nod as he dropped his hand and stepped back. “The two Lind who are to be your contacts will be here within the bell.”

  “Good,” said Annert. “I have prepared a place for them, in my spare bedroom of all places. Miggi is having a thousand fits !”

  Niaill laughed.

  “What people are going to say about it all is anyone’s guess,” continued the old man. “It can’t be kept a secret for much longer.”

  “No need to worry,” Niaill comforted him, “everyone is going to be too busy to pay much attention to what is going on here. Stewarton will be in too much of a ferment of speculation to wonder why you have gathered together your team. They are here?”

  “In the library,” confirmed Annert.

  “Then go to them,” said Niaill and took his leave.

  Annert entered the library of the Guildhouse and the two men and the woman who sat waiting for him at the long study table looked up.

  Annert took a deep breath.

  “The reason you are here,” he began, “is a serious one. One that will decide whether we all live or we all die …”

  * * * * *

  The Guildmaster

  “We must approach this task in a logical manner,” said Angus, Professor of Mathematics at the University of Stewarton.

  “First we must understand what a ‘power-core’ is,” agreed Jeannie, his top research assistant. “We know what power is, force, energy, strength. We have hydro-electric power.”

  “Is the power-core an electrical object?” asked Journeyman Jhonas, who was a compatriot and year-mate of Tala and the fourth member of Annert’s team.

  “It is energy,” said Annert, “not electrical, an advanced object, technologically superior to what we know and understand. I’ve made some notes which I will read to you.”

  “Begin,” ordered Angus, with the mien of one conferring a great favour.

  Annert hid a smile. “The writings mention that the energy released from the power-core is dangerous, that is why Peter Howard took steps to remove the core out of harms way. He didn’t go into details but here, I’ll read out what Tara Sullivan said about it. It is vague. I don’t think she understood fully what she was writing about, ‘One way of looking at the core is as the means that drove the space-ship. Linked to the engines it was a tool, nothing more, of contained power. The other way to look at it is if it is reversed and the core is made unstable it becomes really dangerous. It could blow up, taking most of the surrounding area with it.’ That’s all.”

  “What does she mean by reversed?” asked Jeannie.

  “That has to be determined,” said Annert, “but I believe it is our start point.”

  “We’ll have to read our way through the print-outs to find out,” said Jhonas.

  “Indeed, there the answers are, along with much other information. We must read them from start to finish, find the pages relating to the power-core and work out how to reverse what it is that has to be reversed.”

  “How long do we have?” asked Professor Angus.

  “Not long, but long enough if we bend all our minds and intellect to the problem, perhaps two months at the outside,” answered Annert with a half smile at his old friend.

  “Better get started then,” growled Angus. “Jeannie and I will start on the print-outs and try and locate the section relating to the core. I suggest you two begin on the guild technical specifications, the oldest you have. You still keep your earliest stuff, do you not?”

  “Of course I do,” said a bristling Annert as he rose to go find them.

  * * * * *

  Julia

  Weaponsmaster Jilmis and his Lind Alshya walked with resolute and measured step towards the stone building that housed the offices and main sleeping quarters of the Commanders and Training Officers of the Vada.

  Jilmis quite understood the necessity of this meeting, it was not to assume however that he approved of it. Like many a Weaponsmaster before him he had an ingrained horror of placing part-trained vadeln-pairs in the forefront of a battle. He was thinking about brigands and pirates. The pirate raids had stopped and he had heard that some of the privateers were helping the north prepare for what was to come. He did not know what had caused this turnaround, perhaps he would learn at the meeting.

  : Pirates believe what the Lai say : telepathed Alshya.

  Jilmis started, he hadn’t realised she had been listening into his thoughts, not that he was surprised.

&nbs
p; : Really?:

  : Something has frightened them :

  : It would have to be something pretty bad to frighten such men :

  : The privateer Susa has been talking to Susa Julia since dawn, he has only just left to get some sleep :

  : Where? :

  :He has gone back to his ship in the bay :

  : Tell those on guard at the wharf to keep their eyes peeled :

  Susa Julia and her Lind Alyei would be waiting for him and Alshya. Jilmis thought he knew why. Julia knew that Jilmis would not be happy with what she was formally about to ask of him and had decided that the matter must be discussed in private.

  Jilmis was in no doubt that the situation was dire. The Vada was going to war for the first time in generations. The numbers needed would mean the readmission to the Vada of older vadeln-pairs who were still capable of fighting and admitting the best and oldest of the cadet pairs. The Lindars were increasing their fighting numbers, bringing back older Lind and were committing those who were under fourteen summers old. This had distressed Alshya when she heard that the fighting age was being reduced from fourteen to twelve summers. Mothers with ltsctas over a certain age were going to war too, their ltsctas to be looked after by those unfit to fight. It was conscription on a scale unheard of among the Lind.

  Could, should, the Vada do any less?

  This was not a skirmish, this time it was the Larg nation in its entirety they would be fighting and the Larg were allied to a technologically superior enemy.

  The Larg alone would outnumber all the armies of the northern continent and even if the regiments of Murdoch decided to ally with their northern neighbours, they would still outnumber them.

  What if the Largan allies with Murdoch?

  : They will not : Alshya seemed very sure of herself : the Larg think all humans are enemies now as well as Lind :

  : The Lai think the Dglai are using them and I agree. Don’t the Larg realise that if we are destroyed the Dglai will enslave them as well? :

  : They don’t want to believe so don’t believe. They have long waited for the chance to destroy us and that colours their perception of the Dglai :

  : You are right, as usual but now I’ve got to interview Julia :

  “There’s someone I want you to meet,” said Julia after they had discussed who should be included amongst the Vada going to the war.

  The man who entered the office was tall and broad and with a start of surprise, Jilmis thought he recognised him.

  “We have met before you and I,” he said with a curt nod.

  Rand, Captain of the privateer ship Armageddon, looked at the Vada Weaponsmaster with growing recognition.

  “Sent you back to sea with a tail between your legs,” Jilmis continued.

  Rand chuckled, “I believe I do remember. I lost a few good men that day. It was a long time ago, during my first year as a captain.”

  “During the so-called privateer wars was it not?”

  Rand nodded. “I am not a slaver,” he declared, “we hate them as much as you do.”

  “I like a divided enemy,” said Jilmis with satisfaction, “but good men Captain? Well, perhaps we have a difference of opinion there but I believe we are allies now, at least until this current crisis is over.”

  Rand nodded in acknowledgement although Jilmis remained tight-lipped. Fighters he had trained had died fighting this man and others like him.

  “Captain Rand has come to offer help,” said Julia, “and he has warned the Duke of the Western Isles about the imminent arrival of the Dglai.”

  “I sent a fast boat but he laughed in my man’s face. He doesn’t believe in intruders from outer space, nor does he believe in the Lai.”

  “And you do?”

  Rand laughed. “I’ve met them man, well, almost.”

  “The Lai?” asked a disbelieving Jilmis. “You’ve met the Lai?”

  “No, these Dglai creatures. Blew one of my best galleys out of the water, only two of the men survived the experience. Course I believe in them.”

  “How did they destroy your galley?”

  “They were in this great metal flying thing, one minute the crew saw it and a flashing light, the next they were in the water and the galley a smouldering wreck which sank pretty much immediately. The flying ship flew away. Didn’t see us thank the gods, otherwise I’d not be here talking to you.”

  * * * * *

  Elliot, Tala, Danal, Niaill and Robain

  In the end it was decided that it would be just as quick for Elliot, Robain and James to go to Vada with the others and take ship from there.

  As Danal had explained when Philip demurred, it was an eight day lind-run to Vada compared to a four day lind-run to Port Lutterell but this had to be balanced against the comparative sailing times from Port Lutterell and the shorter crossing over Middle Sea from Port Vada to Port Duchesne. After weighing up the pros and cons, Philip, with Robain and Elliot’s agreement, had acquiesced to the change of plan.

  Accordingly, it was a large party that made arrangements for the run south-west to Vada. Those new to lindback riding were soon to discover a whole mass of muscles they didn’t know they had but they wouldn’t have given up the experience for worlds.

  Elliot would always look back at these days as being, despite the dire reason for the journey, some of the happiest few days of his life.

  The journey began when they all congregated at the Vada Supply Station situated in the small woodland park at the very edge of the Stewarton suburbs. Everyone carried a knapsack on their back, filled with a change of clothes, toiletries and whatever personal possessions (the lighter the better) they felt they could not do without. James, Elliot, Philip and Derek had packed various souvenirs from their northern sojourn, Robain carried his summer Garda uniform, Tala had packed her technical notebook and slide-rule and Danal had slipped in the copies of the maps of Peter Howard and some notes he had made about the possible location of the power-core.

  Danal, Niaill and their Lind were waiting for the other six and gathered to one side were the six Lind destined to be their mounts, Inalei amongst them.

  It was Danal who made the introductions. “Inalei you know,” he began, “the two standing next to him are Denei and Jilsei. Like Inalei, they are members of the Avuzdel.”

  Elliot and the others took in the fact that the two, like Inalei and Danal’s Asya were brown, sandy coloured and large heavy-set specimens of their species. The other three were lighter in build, with longer legs and had the stripy coat more usual amongst the Lind. One, like Taraya but smaller, had a blue-green stripe pattern and the two last sported stripes of a dull red.

  All eight Lind were wearing the leather saddle-harness used by the Vada.

  “These are Radya, Balei and Sernei,” said Danal, pointing to each in turn. “They have volunteered to carry you Elliot, Robain and James to Vada. Radya is Vada, her vadeln is in the infirmary here, broke his leg in a fall a couple of tendays ago and Radya wishes to do what she can. She will return for Alun.”

  “Balei and Sernei?” queried Elliot bowing to the three who returned his bow, eyes gleaming.

  “On loan from Lindar Dusnnei. They also wish to help.”

  Radya stepped forward and walked to Elliot, stopping in front of him, so close that he felt her breath on his cheek. “You are the smallest,” she informed him, “as I am so you will come with me.”

  Elliot felt excitement build up within him as he stared at the blue-green striped female. Her eyes were green, large and sparkling. Her whiskered muzzle and her ears were more blue than green. “Thank you My Lady,” he stuttered.

  “Radya will do well enough,” she replied.

  “Are you sure Vadeln Alun does not mind?”

  Her ears flicked forward and back. “He is in bed and cannot move,” she answered, “and I will remain beside him with my mind. In fact,” she added in a low voice which only Elliot could hear, “I am glad to be of service. Alun is not the most pleasant companion when he is recovering f
rom a hurt. I also speak your language which Asya said would help. Balei and Sernei speak only Lindish.”

  “Now,” interrupted Danal, “Balei and Sernei will take Robain and James as far as Vada. Jilsei and Denei will carry Philip and Derek and have volunteered to come with us to find the power-core.”

  “And I,” announced Inalei, looking at Tala, “have the honour to be your partner for the duration of our task.”

  “Food and water are attached to the harnesses,” Niaill informed them, pointing to the bags. “Travel fare for the most part, we’re hoping we’ll not need to stop to hunt.”

  “We’ll stop to replenish at the Supply Stations along the way,” agreed Danal. “They know we’re coming. Now, let’s get you all mounted and strapped on.”

  “Strapped on?” queried a mystified James. “How so?”

  “Riding the Lind is not like riding a horse,” explained Niaill with a grin. “Our friends are much faster for one thing, their gait is also different, Lind either walk or they run. If we don’t strap you on you’ll fall off and we don’t have the time to stop and pick you up.”

  “Or tend to your broken bones,” added Danal.

  “That is what happened to Alun,” admitted Radya. “I turned most sudden and he fell off. I told him to buckle the straps but he knew better and did not listen.”

  “Quite so,” said Niaill, “now, Radya is going to stand beside Elliot so that he can mount. The rest of you gather round, watch what I do and inwardly digest. You’ll be doing it for yourselves within the bell.”

  Elliot clambered aboard Radya, not very elegantly but he managed it, privately thanking the gods that she was not much taller than the riding horses he was used to. Radya stood like a rock. As he clamped his thighs round her sides he realised that her barrel was narrower than a horse and that the saddle was also different, thinner and oddly shaped.