The Heart Thief

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by Richard A Swingle


  Her skin was a purple shade of blue and she quickly raced to her wardrobe, shivering and numb, throwing on as many layers of clothes as possible.

  She ran outside the front door and nearly slipped on a sheet of ice but Alice managed to catch her. The whole vineyard looked like a winter wonderland but with none of the joyfulness. Icicles were hanging from the branches and even the mist in the air looked frozen.

  Nespola darted past Ilaria and into the house, searching for warmth, but there was none.

  ‘What happened?’ Ilaria asked.

  ‘É veramente grave. Ila. I think we’re in big trouble,’ Alice responded. ‘We’d better get moving. We’ll have to trek through the countryside. Do you have boots?’

  ‘No, I only brought these little shoes.’

  ‘Don’t worry, I should have some old ones that will fit you.’

  After Ilaria had tripled up her socks to fit into the boots she went to join Diego who was trying to start his truck. The engine was whining but it wouldn’t start.

  ‘Dammit. It’s useless, we’ll have to walk,’ he said, before giving the rear of the motor the sole of his boot.

  ‘The entrance is miles away,’ Alice said. ‘It’ll take half the day.’

  ‘We’d better not lose any more time then. I dread to think what is waiting for us down there.’

  Ilaria followed Diego and Alice as they grabbed their supplies and walked up the pathway out of the farm, treading carefully so as not to fall on the icy ground.

  ‘Has this happened before? The freezing weather in the heart of summer?’ Ilaria asked, hoping that the answer was yes.

  ‘Only once, but not in any of our lifetimes. Maybe before the first dragon was tamed.’

  ‘The first dragon. That was Speranza, wasn’t it?’

  Alice thought for a moment. ‘Yes, exactly. He must have really gone out of control to move your ancestor to track him down and tame him. None of us really know how it happened the first time.’

  Ilaria looked down, ashamed. Her first day as a dragon tamer after her grandad had died and she had lost the pendant.

  ‘I wish I’d never been expected to take this responsibility. It won’t do anyone any good.’

  Ilaria couldn’t get her head around it. Alice and Diego looked at each other and then, trying to reassure Ilaria, suggested that they press on, that the rest of the order would know what to do.

  The three companions marched on across the white sheeted countryside. As they passed other villas they saw smoke billowing from the chimneys, the inhabitants desperately trying to create some warmth but with wood supplies that would not last long.

  After a few hours, they finally arrived at a small church that sat atop a hill. It was surrounded by acres of land and jutted out from a cliff edge.

  ‘This is it,’ Diego said. ‘The entrance to the main tunnel. It’s too small for the dragons so only humans can use this entrance, but it is the quickest way.’

  Diego took a large key and turned it in the lock of the entrance gate and pushed open the large stone door, the metal hinges creaking and groaning. He grabbed a couple of wooden torches from the wall inside. There was a fire burning in a plinth basin in the centre of the room, filled with a kind of slow burning oil and Alice took one of the torches and dunked it into the bowl, lighting her torch and then the other that Diego held.

  They continued to the back of the room where there was a small stone staircase that spiralled down into the ground. It seemed to go on forever as they made their way deeper and deeper underground.

  Eventually the three came to a tight passageway. They slipped through it sideways as it was too narrow to walk through normally and Ilaria winced as the damp oily rocks rubbed against her. She tried her best to ignore the slime that had attached itself to her arms and once they were through the enclosed path that opened out into a large cavern, she vigorously wiped it off.

  ‘I don’t understand,’ Diego said, concerned. ‘They should be here. This is the first meeting point in case of an emergency.’

  Diego ran through the cave, so large in scale that the light from the bright flickering torch he held dwindled into the darkness. Ilaria was scared. Alice took her hand and they walked together through the opening. There were old wooden tables and stools littered around the cave and on the walls were metal brackets where lit torches burned to illuminate the chamber.

  Ilaria felt the faintest of touches flutter against her. It was not a physical touch, but one in her mind, yet it still sent tendrils of shivers through her body.

  ‘He’s in trouble,’ Ilaria blurted out. ‘It’s Speranza, he is weak and afraid. He’s very afraid.’

  Suddenly a whooshing sound echoed through the cave and was followed by a dull thud as Diego dropped to the ground. His torch rolled across the stony floor and revealed the features of a lanky creature, hunched over, holding a large club in its hand. Ilaria met its gaze and froze before Alice had time to scream. Ilaria tried to turn and run but before she could she felt a damp cloth forcefully press against her face; the smell of something strange seeped through it and into her mouth and nose. It was sweet and intoxicating. It overwhelmed her senses and suddenly, like a candle extinguished in a storm, it was dark and she was dreaming.

  14

  A hummingbird is one of the smallest birds. During flight, its heart beats twelve hundred times each minute and even during rest it still beats two hundred and fifty times per minute.

  In ancient times, the Aztecs would wear charms in the form of a hummingbird as it was said to give the bearer great energy and talents in warfare. It was even believed that a fallen soldier would return to the world in their next life as a hummingbird.

  The intensity of their flapping wings is like the distant vibration of a pneumatic drill. The hummingbird had been Ilaria’s grandfather’s favourite animal. He had told her of his travels to the Americas during his youth where he had first seen and heard the creature that he was awestruck by.

  Ilaria felt herself floating through passageways, weightlessly. Her heart was racing and she wondered if she had died and been reborn as a hummingbird that was mid-flight. She wondered then if her grandfather had also come back as a hummingbird. He had told her once how they were very antisocial creatures and rarely spent time together unless grudgingly to share in feeding. She didn’t care; if they were both hummingbirds now she would find him and they would stay together.

  But surely a bird that weighed only a couple of grams wouldn’t have felt the same heavy aches of the back and neck that Ilaria was suffering. Her pulse had barely slowed but it was no longer a soft gentle feeling inside her. It was a ferocious pounding that had awoken her from a daze. She felt like she was going to die and yet a strange wave of energy took hold of her, but as she tried to stand her body could hardly carry her weight. To be so fatigued and awake at the same time scared her to the very core.

  As her eyes adjusted to the darkness she saw that she was being held captive inside a small cell built into a cave wall. There was an iron gate that separated her from a corridor that disappeared out of view.

  A shrieking sound reverberated through the tunnels and carried into the corner where Ilaria had planted herself. It was a horrifying sound. All she had was a handful of straw that she bunched together to try and create a soft base to sit on. The vision of the creature that had sprung out of the shadows and knocked Diego unconscious plagued her mind. She hoped he and Alice were alright. The creature had looked almost the same as the one she had seen in her dream when she had taken back Speranza’s heart. But something had been different about the face, almost as though it had been decorated purposefully.

  A rattling sound came from the bars that kept her prisoner. Ilaria dare not look up as the metallic clang of keys unlocking the cell rang out.

  ‘Come with me, girl,’ said the muffled and abysmal voice.

  ‘Are you going to kill me?’

  ‘That depends.’

  Hardly the response she had hoped for, but she
clung dearly to any chance of survival. ‘Diego and Alice, are they alive?’

  The creature groaned. ‘For now. Come quickly.’

  Ilaria feared greatly for them. If obeying this monster was her only means to help keep them alive, then for now she would follow every command.

  She was led down a winding passage, trundling slowly behind the creature. She could hear its heavy breathing as it groaned and wheezed with every breath. It was not long before she was ushered into an opening and Ilaria was startled to find herself inside what looked like a study that formed part of an ancient library. Thick wicked candles were strewn about the place and scrolls were stacked from floor to ceiling, sealed by wax crests. Ilaria recognised the crest on one of the scrolls immediately; it was a hummingbird.

  Sitting in front of her was another one of the strange creatures, and she knew then that she had been kidnapped by the heart thieves.

  ‘Sit,’ said the heart thief from behind the desk. This one sounded oddly articulate and its voice was less broken. It was almost comforting. Ilaria sat down. ‘I suppose you want to know what is going on, girl?’

  ‘Stop calling me girl, my name is Ilaria.’ She was getting frustrated now. But she knew she must remain calm.

  ‘Yes I know. Ilaria, the last descendent of the Hope dynasty, the youngest to ever be bonded with a dragon. Except you aren’t bonded are you. Because you lost the heart fragment before you even realised you needed it.’

  The heart thief placed the pendant on the table in front of them right there and then. Ilaria flushed, wanting to scream how and why? But no words would form in her dry mouth.

  ‘Where are my manners? Some water?’ The heart thief poured a glass and used its elongated fingers to push it across the table towards her. ‘Did they tell you everything? Our misguided friends? All the lies, about how you must help keep watch over the dragons and prevent the world from falling into a state that would destroy all life.’

  ‘No, I still don’t know anything. Every time someone is going to explain something to me they either die or get clubbed over the head by some cowardly creature, hiding in the shadows.’

  ‘Oh, I see. Well that is unfortunate, but lucky for me I suppose that I get to be the first to tell you who you really are. It’s funny sometimes how life works. You plan something for many years and still a revelation that you couldn’t possibly have dreamed of will present itself. At least your education will begin with the truth for the first time in our family’s history.’

  Ilaria felt her heart skip a beat. She didn’t like the use of the words our friends or our family. Was it some trick to scare her? Suddenly she panicked. Had everything she’d heard been a lie? She was an orphan after all. Everything she knew she had learnt from her grandfather. She knew he hadn’t been completely forthcoming but he would never have lied to her to that degree, would he?

  Had all the memories she thought were real just been stories she had been told that infiltrated her mind in the form of recollections? Had she ever truly known anything about herself. No, her grandfather had loved her dearly. That much she knew was true. As the thoughts buzzed around her head, the heart thief began to remove something that was attached to its face; it was as though tree roots that were growing out of its neck were being prised away. It was disgusting but Ilaria couldn’t look away. It spoke again. ‘One thing you were wrong about already, Ilaria. The heart thieves as you call us are not creatures or monsters.’

  As it finished pulling away the tangled roots and moss and what seemed at first like flesh but was actually densely packed leaves, a human face was revealed. The face of a middle-aged woman. She pulled off her fingers next, these turned out to be damp twigs that concealed her human hands.

  The look she gave Ilaria was one of sorrow and pity and confusion. The kind of confusion that only love can bestow.

  Ilaria could only bring herself to say one word.

  ‘Mother.’

  15

  The net was heavy and thick. It had been doused in a sticky substance that smelt like honey. They had never used something like this before. The attack had been planned carefully and for a very long time. The entire retinue of dragon tamers poisoned in one foul swoop. Speranza thought that even for the heart thieves this was a demonic blow to strike. Were they all dead now? There was no way to know, for the plan had worked and once the tamers were out of the way, it had been easy to sneak up on the dragons and cast the nets upon them to steal their magic hearts. Not just one or two. But all of them.

  Speranza could hear the faint and tired panting of his friends stuck in other tunnels. He called out to them and all they could do was respond faintly so at least he knew they were still alive.

  Speranza tried to wriggle to loosen the net but it clung on tight. It was like a straitjacket designed solely for a dragon. He rolled to the side in an attempt to slacken the underside, which was not connected. It was like a fly flapping its wings whilst caught in a web.

  Ilaria, girl, do you hear me? There was no response. One minute he couldn’t shake the girl from his mind but now Ilaria would not hear a single thought. He had barely spoken a word to her and ignored her pleading to find calmness. Now that power had been taken from him he cried out with regret, wishing to sense just a whisper of her. He needed help.

  Time passes much faster for a dragon without its second heart. Partly due to shortened life expectancy. It was all about relativity. Like when a human experiences time as a child the world moves slowly, but when it reaches old age each day passes by as though it were just a fleeting moment. So when a dragon knows its life is to be cut short, those years remaining feel like no time at all.

  Speranza felt his anger rising again. Though it was a rage laced with fatigue. He felt the pinprick in his side where a sword was still lodged from the attack. He rolled over as much as he could, trying to dislodge it, but realised that something or someone was lying underneath him. Speranza shuffled backwards as much as the net would allow and saw the crushed creature lying face down on the ground. His memory was hazy but he hadn’t remembered killing it.

  He shuffled and felt a pain in his side and it occurred to him that his second heart might not have been taken, perhaps it was only dislodged.

  Speranza roared out a cry that was heard for miles through the caves, using all the energy he had, hoping that someone would hear him and come to his aid.

  Time passed more slowly now, waiting and waiting. But no one came. Speranza tried breathing a hot flame across the net that snagged against his snout, but the oily, sticky substance that it was doused in seemed to be protecting the layers of rope beneath. Speranza knew he could easily burn through it with the heat of his most severe flames but in his weakened state it was impossible to burn so fiercely. He felt tired again. All he wanted to do was sleep.

  Hours went by and it was hard to tell if it was now night or day. He rubbed his head against the side of the cave trying to get comfortable. He was resigned to his fate. Maybe this was how it would end for him. So why not try to get comfortable as he was left to waste away in this tunnel.

  It was then, at the moment of his resignation, that he heard footsteps approaching. There was a familiar smell and one that he welcomed, for it was the smell of an ally. Diego approached the dragon carefully. ‘I’m here to help,’ he said as he placed his hand on Speranza’s scaly head as the dragon breathed a deep sigh of relief.

  ‘They’ve taken her. They took both of them. Ilaria, Alice. I’ve no idea what they will do. I know they don’t mean as much to you as they do to me. But please, I need you to help us.’

  Speranza rolled his eyes to the side where the heart thief still lay.

  ‘It’s dead,’ said the dragon.

  ‘Not it, he. Look closer,’ Diego said as he bent down to check the creature, seeing that its face appeared to be cracked. He prised away the roots and beneath it found a human’s face. ‘It’s human. I don’t understand.’

  Speranza cast his mind back. He cursed his memory. The memor
y of a dragon. ‘They have been concealing their identity for hundreds of years. Think now, have you ever seen a heart thief caught? Killed or defeated?’

  ‘No, we only ever chased them away.’ Diego struggled to digest any of this but it didn’t change his anger. ‘I don’t care who they are, they’ve taken Alice. Ilaria will be in danger too if she is with them.’

  ‘Remove the sword from my side. I think my second heart may still be there somewhere.’

  Diego moved down to where the sword protruded and pulled it out sharply by the hilt. Speranza didn’t flinch too heavily, though it was agony for him. Diego stuck his hand inside the dragon and grasped for the magic heart. He pushed it deeper inside to the small bony cage where it belonged.

  Speranza roared. ‘Now run, you know what comes next.’

  Diego did know and he hadn’t waited around for instructions as he staggered away as far as he could. Speranza’s roars flooded the tunnels. The temperature in the caves grew and Diego felt a searing heat against his back so he didn’t stop and he didn’t look back.

  16

  There was a drawn-out silence as the revelation sank in. Ilaria had always believed she would meet her mother in her next life or even perhaps one day be startled by the gaze of a street cat that would last just a moment, but would be enough to believe that she was there looking out for her. But it was not supposed to be like this. It was not the result of her hopes or dreams, but of a nightmare. She felt horrified, awkward and confused.

  Giulia stood up to move about the room, looking up at all the writings that were stored away on shelves. Occasionally she offered a look back towards her daughter as if she was about to speak, but she never found the words. It was as though the reality of the situation had dawned upon her and she was now as lost as Ilaria.

 

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