Azrael's Twins

by V. J. Mortimer

  From behind Grady a deep throaty laugh burst out. ‘He likes you, Grady!’ chuckled Bel. ‘I haven’t seen a reaction like that since – well let’s just say it’s been a very long time.’

  The children breathed easier when they realised they were not about to be eaten or toasted and were able to take in their surroundings. The dragon was tethered to a stately coach by a thin harness and slim couplings which barely looked strong enough to control such an animal. The harness shimmered in such a way that it appeared to be almost transparent. The coach was a deep lacquered emerald colour with four doors, dark tinted windows which made it impossible to see anyone inside, and graceful curves which spoke of speed. Niamh immediately thought “Fairytale” when she saw it but then shook her head when she remembered this was no bedtime story.

  Sitting at the front of the coach was another of the graceful folk like Ella and Lucia, though obviously male and more solidly built. He also looked more alert and cautious even behind the smile he gave the children. Four more of the elf folk stood around the coach. Each one had the same look as the driver, kindly but alert. Their eyes seemed to dart around the building scanning the darker spaces.

  ‘Hop on board,’ said Bel, ushering them towards the coach.

  Suddenly there was a sound of inrushing air and a pop as the dogs suddenly burst out of thin air. Each had a squirrel sitting on its back chittering away and making what sounded suspiciously like Ride Em Cowboy! noises. The dogs saw the family and bolted straight for them, smothering them with happy yaps and sickly slobber.

  Fin and Cu were so intent on showing the family how happy they were that they completely failed to notice the dragon bending down to sniff them. As warm breath from the huge nostrils on the dragon ruffled their fur the dogs turned, saw the beast and yelped with horror, bolting for the corners of the warehouse with the squirrels still chirruping away on their backs, riding the terrified creatures as if they were bucking bulls at a rodeo. Niamh and Grady charged after the dogs, calling them back while the adults roared with laughter at the display. After a few moments the dogs came back – dragged by their collars with tails between legs and skulking behind the children as if trying to hide their big hairy frames from the dragon’s view.

  ‘I guess the dogs didn’t like their first view of a dragon then, Niamh,’ said her father. ‘Don’t worry – dragons don’t eat dogs. There’s not a lot you can burn inside a dog so the dragons don’t normally have a canine-rich diet.’

  ‘What do they eat then?’ asked Grady.

  ‘Coal is their first choice, Grady, but these are magical creatures also, so they don’t need a lot of real food. Mostly they just absorb the magic around them as their source of energy, soaking it up from the ground and out of the air – all sorts of places. For some reason though they do have a weakness for chocolate – maybe it’s just a sweet tooth. Or sweet fang, anyway,’ said Merritt, staring up at the certain death formed by the dragon’s rampart of teeth. ‘Come on. Now we have the dogs back we can really get moving. Everyone into the coach!’

  The inside of the coach was all plush leather and carpet with lots of space for everyone. There were three rows of seats, all facing forward, and with enough space between them for even the tallest of them to stretch to their fullest and not touch the seat in front. But, despite the huge amount of space, Niamh and Grady still managed to argue about who sat where. Their parents never ceased to be amazed at how they could extract an argument from the simplest situation. Put them in a bare room with no windows or walls or toys and within moments there would be an argument as to who had the best corner in which to sit.

  Once they were settled an elf guard hopped in beside them. He took, from a pouch on his belt, a small white cylinder which caught everyone’s eye. With a quick flick of his wrist a rod extended itself so that in no time at all the small cylinder looked like an object Niamh and Grady had only seen in books and movies. It was clearly a wand, though unlike any other wand they had seen. The shiny white surface looked oiled and seemed to glisten in the light. The guard gave the wand a flick around the cabin and the middle and front rows turned to face the back. The children still had a window seat each but now faced their parents. As the guard gave another small flick of the wand a little light flickered from the end and a tiny blue face popped into view just above the tip. ‘Ready,’ said the guard, before flicking the wand closed. It quickly retracted into itself before he popped it back into the pouch on his waist.

  Grace was the first one to ask the question floating on the tips of all their tongues. ‘What on earth was that?’

  ‘It’s called an iWand,’ said the guard. ‘It’s a wand but it also has many other uses. You can to talk to anyone who is on the WWW network with it.’

  ‘WWW?’ said Grace.

  ‘Wand Wide Web,’ explained the guard. ‘It’s how we connect up all the wands in the world to share information. You can also use it to figure out exactly where you are so you don’t get lost, it can give you directions, even tell you what good restaurants are in the area. You can buy new spells without having to work them out for yourself, even if you don’t normally have strong control of the elements you would otherwise need to have to cast the spell.’

  Merritt looked impressed and was about to ask for a closer look but the guard swung himself out the door.

  ‘Enjoy your ride,’ he said with a smile before shutting the door and jumping up beside the driver.

  There was a sudden lurch of the coach as they set off, causing Niamh to let out a squeal. She peered out of the window and saw movement in the corners of the warehouse. Two glowing eyes reflected the grimy warehouse light back at her. ‘Look at that,’ she said pointing. ‘There’s something there, in the corners.’

  ‘And over here,’ said Grady, as another set of the eyes appeared from the gloom on his side of the carriage. The doors of the warehouse opened and light flooded the space. It drove the shadows away revealing two black dragons, much smaller than the beast pulling their carriage. The dragons were deeply black – the children had never seen anything so black before. It wasn’t just that no light reflected off them, but that light was almost sucked into them making them hard to focus on and, as they had already proved, practically impossible to see in the dark. Two riders sat astride the dragons wearing helmets and clothes of a similar black colour. Visors covered their eyes and their hands were gloved. Riding boots stretched up to their knees and a belt covered with various pouches and bulges was cinched around their waists. They looked forbidding and unearthly. One kept his eyes firmly on the carriage while the other urged his mount slowly forward to the open doors.

  ‘Don’t worry,’ said Merritt as they rolled out of the warehouse. ‘It’s just our escort.’ The yard outside was absolutely familiar but somehow completely different. They still moved over cobbles but instead of a wrought iron fence there was now a high wooden palisade, and wooden casks replaced forty gallon steel drums. The gate swung open not onto an asphalt road but a continuation of the warehouse yard cobbles which formed the road running alongside the river. A jetty almost, but not quite identical to the one they had left behind only minutes before, poked out into the stream which here looked much more clear and inviting.

  The dragon picked up speed as it turned smoothly into the road. The cobbles looked rough and uneven but the carriage seemed to ride over them without a bump. The children saw the road was much wider than at home and when the dragon unfurled its wings they suddenly understood why. What at first had seemed like stubby things – incapable of supporting a beast as big as the dragon – now began to expand with a series of mechanical-like movements. It was as if the wings were a Chinese puzzle, packed impossibly tight and now releasing with spring-loaded pressure. The dragon let out a short blast of flame from its nostrils and with a series of huge leathery flaps the carriage and dragon rose into the sky accelerating faster than either of the children could believe. They were joined seconds later by the smaller black dragons – one ahead and one behind �
� while moments later another four flying figures drew alongside them – elf guards dressed in a similar fashion to the dragon riders, but on broomsticks instead of beasts.

  ‘That’s the rest of our escort,’ said Merritt. ‘Broomsticks are much faster to react if we have any unexpected company.’

  The children were focused on the broomstick riders when the final member of their escort came into view. Belimawr appeared, rolling over onto his back and then again onto his front – obviously relishing being home in a sky where he would not cause alarm if seen. He was now as big as they had ever seen him, and a tail of flame stretched out behind him as he flew.

  The children stared as the land unfolded beneath them. A wide braided estuary gave birth to two rivers flowing in opposite directions across the plain below. Along the banks of one sat the buildings and haze of a large city. To their left rose a wall of hills stretching away in an arc towards the horizon. In the far distance across the haze of the plains they could see a mighty chain of mountains with snow on the top of the tallest. Niamh gasped, realising this was the same view she saw when climbing the hills near her home at Avalon’s End. The family would often take to the hills for day treks around the ramparts of the extinct volcano which formed the signature landscape for their homeland. The children knew the rivers as the Lee and the Carraway, but here, they would later find out, they were the Epsilon and the Omicron.

  ‘This looks just like home,’ she said, turning to her mother with a look of wonder on her face.

  ‘It should do, sweetie,’ replied Grace. ‘This land is just a sliver of space away from where you’ve grown up.You would know all the bends in the river and the valleys that run off the hill tops. It’s as close to home as you possibly can be without being there. There isn’t the thickness of a sheet of paper between this world and Avalon’s End. But it’s a world away.’

  ‘And it’s always been there?’ said Grady.

  ‘Yes,’ said Grace. ‘Less than a breath away. But untouchable. Always,’ she said wistfully, turning back to the window.

  Niamh knew without looking that behind her would be the sweep of coastline marking Perseus Bay with its rolling breakers and seemingly infinite horizon. Before she could think to look back the coach and dragon banked gracefully to the left again and started heading towards the hilltops. It was clear their target was the castle they could now see perched on the top of the highest section of the surrounding hills.

  ‘It’s called Dragon Lair,’ said Merritt, pointing. ‘It’s the traditional home of the king or queen. And our family. Your family ... Many years ago the place where the castle now sits was the nesting place of dragons and other beasts. There are tunnels bored into the cliffs and tops of the mountains where the creatures made their nests and eyries.’

  As they flew closer the children saw the castle was much bigger than they had thought and like nothing they had ever seen. It had been cleverly laid out between the crests of the hilltops and took advantage of the natural protections offered by the volcanic rim. The stone of the castle glistened red and gold in the sunlight. It seemed to be composed of nothing but masses of tall towers that spiralled to impossibly fine tips. A central mass of the tallest towers and spires reached high above the hilltops. Several long wings ran off this cluster in a star pattern but even these were dominated by the tapering towers that leaned inwards at a crazy angle and defined the front and corners of the wings. Every single tower appeared gnarled and rough as if crudely formed from a mass of rock by the clumsy hands of a giant mason. But as the children drew closer they saw the spiralling patterns were windows cut finely and deeply into the rock and every portion of the towers not given over to windows was carved with images of dragons and other ancient beasts. At intervals along the windows sat alcoves set with statues of heroes and creatures engaged in storybook poses. No space was too small or insignificant to avoid being decorated by the feverish creators of the monument. The long wings that joined the towers were given over to tall porticoed windows many metres tall from the ground to the top of their high pointed arches at their peak. The windows drew the eye on and up to finely tapering minaret towers which in turn reached towards their majestic taller siblings. Ugly gargoyles decorated the corners and spaces where water would flow from the roof. They seemed to be silent sentinels keeping watch on the grounds. The sight was utterly breathtaking.

  The carriage flew lower and lower towards a waiting knot of people outside the main entrance of the castle. The dragon executed one last long lazy turn and lined up the carriage with a paved road which ran parallel to the walls and in front of the main doors. The ground seemed to loom up at the coach and small figures at the far end of the road scattered as the dragon zeroed in on its landing strip. With nothing more than a slight bump the coach touched the ground and the walls of the castle flashed past the windows.

  The dragon started to backbeat his wings while snorting a blast of superheated air from the huge turbine-like nostrils at the end of his nose to slow their momentum. In seconds they had dropped to the speed of a canter and then a slow trot. With military precision they drew slowly up to the gates of the castle and came to a halt. The coach was immediately surrounded by what were obviously castle staff dressed in green and gold uniforms with white gloves. The door of the coach swung open and the family hopped out. The dogs bolted out the door but were leapt on almost immediately by the chittering and squeaking squirrels. The animals turned to look at their jockeys and clearly happy to see them started immediately leaping at each other. Beedlelow was thrown up into the air and would have landed roughly if Phillibeet had not already been bucked by Fin. As it was, he let out a grunt as he broke Beedlelow’s fall. The squirrels ended up in an unceremonious pile of squabbling rodents on the roadside causing the small assembled crowd to burst into laughter. After a moment or two they shot off after the dogs who had decided every leg they could find needed a good sniffing to figure out who was friend or foe. From the viciously wagging happy tails it was clear any enemies in the crowd must be well hidden.

  A sudden squawk and flash of golden flame heralded the arrival of Belimawr. In this light his feathers showed their central cores of deep ruby red. His talons made a rough scratching rasp as they bit into the surface of the roadside.

  One of the tall elf folk stepped forward; ‘Welcome back, Merritt. We didn’t expect to see your face in these parts again.’ Niamh thought the elf spoke very rudely but then realised her father was grinning broadly. ‘Murdock. My old friend. How good to see you again. Are any of my family here? I thought there might be one or two somewhere?’

  As if in answer there was a sudden flash of light and puff of smoke and a theatrical ‘Tadaah!’ causing Niamh and Grady to jump and squeal. ‘Better get used to more of that round here, kids,’ said the figure, bending down to them. ‘Now, how about a hug for your Uncle Garrett!’ Squatting down, the stranger threw his arms wide waiting for the children to rush forward. Grady and Niamh were still hidden behind their parents but peered around them as if to say, ‘Hug? Not likely!’ After a moment or two of trying to show them a winning smile Garrett stood up and said, ‘Not yet? Well okay. I can wait.’ Then turning to Merritt, he strode forward and the brothers embraced.

  ‘Couldn’t help yourself, could you,’ said Merritt, smiling.

  ‘Why be normal, brother! Hasn’t done us any harm up till now, has it? Great to see you back.’ Turning to Grace he picked her up and gave her a big bear hug, lifting her off the ground. Grace squealed as Garrett did so but winked at Niamh over Garrett’s shoulder. ‘Watch this,’ she mouthed to the children. Closing her eyes she made a complicated gesture with one of her free hands. Garrett suddenly found himself being lifted off the ground – still holding onto Grace. ‘Put me down,’ he yelled – obviously surprised at the sudden turning of the tables. Laughing out loud Grace obliged and slowly lowered him to the ground.

  ‘Didn’t think you’d be up for that one yet, dearest Grace,’ he said with a rueful look on his face. ‘Cau
ght me quite off guard. I thought it might have taken you longer to click back into things round here.’

  ‘Well yes, it surprised me too,’ said Grace. ‘But it’s wonderful to be able to feel that magic again. It’s been a while since I could do even something that simple.’

  ‘Oh come on, Gracie,’ said Garrett. ‘Levitation is never the easiest thing to do but it’s always been your specialty. Well, that and the plant growing thing. Never understood that one myself, but there you are. Anyway, come on. Everyone’s waiting. I’m just the advance guard. We didn’t want to make too big a thing of your arrival. As far as anyone else knows you’re just another of the council arriving. Mum and Dad are inside. Oh, and before I forget – I guess you’ll be wanting these back.’ From a pocket inside his jacket he took out two long wands – each as different from each other as an ash tree is from an oak.

  ‘My wand!’ exclaimed Grace, taking it from Garrett with a gentle reverence. The wood was almost white and tapered to a fine point. The handle was delicately carved and rested easily in her palm. ‘I never thought I’d feel this in my hand again.’ Merritt’s wand had a beautiful slender golden shaft with a sinuous grain along its length that appeared to ripple and move, lending the wand the illusion of life. The look on both their faces spoke volumes.

  ‘I know,’ said Garrett. ‘But you can thank me later. Others are waiting.’ With a glance at the children he squatted down and said with a grin, ‘Ready to meet Nana and Grandpa? Or should I say “Their Majesties”?’