The Heart Thief

by Richard A Swingle

  Yes, girl, we are bonded at last. Speranza trampled her mind with the words. Ilaria didn’t know how to respond.

  Where are you? Ilaria. Are you close?

  She wanted to reply but she wasn’t sure how. It was impossible to know where he was when he spoke to her mind and every word was exhausting. It was like when the dragon had saved her from the sea, but this sensation was far stronger.

  ‘I’m here,’ she shouted as dust poured into her mouth and she coughed.

  I can barely hear you, but I think you are close.

  Ilaria winced before she tried to speak again. This time she wouldn’t use her voice.

  I can’t open my mouth, it’s covered in dirt.

  Don’t worry, I will find you, the dragon replied, sensing her fatigue.

  Ilaria felt the ground shake and fresh rubble fell from the ceiling, covering her legs.

  Wait! Stop! The whole cave feels like it is going to collapse.

  There was no response but all movement ceased. Ilaria decided to feel her way around the space. She stretched out her arms as best she could and brushed them across the floor and walls. There were large boulders piled up beside her but beneath one of the bigger rocks was a small gap that she might just be able to crawl through. She took a chance and kicked at the boulder on her shin with her free leg, dislodging it. She waited for the world to collapse around her. It didn’t.

  Ilaria tried to push herself through the gap like a small animal rustling through a smeuse in a hedge but part of her shirt got caught on a sharp corner. She tore the cloth away and threw the small piece of shirt to the side before continuing her efforts.

  Each movement was tiny and excruciating as she grazed her knees on the loose gravel. She took a moment to rest daunted by the hopelessness of the task.

  Ilaria lay there and relaxed her whole body. She wanted to sleep. But it was then that a strong arm reached out and grabbed her, pulling her towards the small opening.

  A deep voice spoke. ‘Hold still.’ It was Diego. He was alive. She felt him wipe her face with a piece of clothing that felt and smelt like it was soaked with saliva.

  ‘That’s gross,’ Ilaria said as she opened her eyes and looked up at his worried face. ‘My leg is numb.’

  Diego helped her clamber to her feet and she felt uneasy. There was a stream of red down her shin where a rock had broken the skin. Diego took a piece of cloth and wrapped up the wound.

  ‘Can you walk?’ he asked.

  ‘Yes, I think so. Thank you.’

  ‘Di niente. Let’s go.’

  They headed out of a passage that had remained open despite the fallen rocks. The rest of the chamber was completely buried. There’s no way anyone could have survived that, Ilaria thought.

  ‘Where is Alice?’

  A relived response came. ‘She is okay, the cells were unaffected by the cave-in. Everyone is waiting.’

  Diego led Ilaria out of the heart thieves’ den and after a long journey through a myriad of passages they came upon a dozen or more people who were gathered at the edge of an underground cliff.

  The opening was like the inside of a cathedral. The earthy ceiling was curved, towering above them. There was a slight crack at the very top, as thin as a knife edge, and just a slither of light beamed through. It was enough to illuminate the whole cavernous space.

  The group of people hammered and chipped away at several locked cases. It was fruitless labour. The cases were made of solid steel and old oak that would take days to break through. Diego shook his head, frustrated.

  ‘The thieves locked the dragon hearts and pendants in this case, and we’re trying to get them out.’ He picked up an old pick axe, observing its worth. Useless, he thought.

  ‘Have you asked Speranza? He could open them easily.’ Ilaria realised that she was the only one who could talk to the dragon when he wasn’t present so she closed her eyes and held the pendant tight and focused her mind. She was incredibly tired but this was important.

  I’m free. We’re in a large chamber. You must come quickly and open these boxes so we can give the dragons back their hearts.

  A moment of silence.

  Then.

  I’m on my way.

  Then, in the next moment, a panicked woman came running towards Ilaria. She wrapped her arms around her. Ilaria hadn’t had time to see who it was but she knew it was Alice who embraced her.

  Alice spoke first. ‘I’m so glad you are alive. Did they hurt you?’

  Yes, they had, but not the way Alice thought. ‘No they didn’t hurt me,’ Ilaria lied. ‘Alice, my mother was there in the chamber, along with the other heart thieves. They are people, just like us.’ Her voice was pleading, as if preparing Alice to find forgiveness.

  ‘That’s not possible, your mother died years ago in the plane crash.’ Alice shook her head. ‘I’m sorry, but I don’t know who that was that you saw.’

  ‘No, I’m telling you, it was her. I know it was.’

  Diego moved closer to Ilaria to try and talk some sense into her. ‘Ilaria, I know you are in shock, but I’m afraid Alice is right. You’re still recovering from the poison that they gave you.’

  ‘I’m not in shock,’ Ilaria argued. ‘You’ve seen them now, they are people.’

  ‘Yes, I know. It was quite a surprise to us too, but I am afraid your mother is not amongst them.’

  ‘We have to find her!’ Ilaria was screaming now. ‘She could still be alive under the rocks.’

  Diego slumped his head, not knowing how to win this argument. He didn’t have to.

  Seconds later Speranza flew up from the bottom of the cliff edge and perched next to the gathering of people who moved back to give him space.

  The dragon lifted his front claws and crushed the cases like they were wicker baskets. A dozen shiny green objects poured out of the remains and the people began to gather them. Suddenly the earth began to shake as a chorus of dragons flew up the cliff edge to perch on the ridge. Each had come to claim their second heart. They appeared to be gasping, as though fatigued.

  But they were magnificent. Ilaria had thought she would be used to the idea of dragons by now but nothing could have prepared her for the impact of seeing a dozen of them standing side by side. They roared in unison as they retook their hearts and together they flew back down to the bottom of the cliff and vanished. Only Speranza remained behind.

  With a flash of amber light the temperature of the cliff top rose and fire burst up from the cavernous opening like a winter wave breaking against a rocky beach. The gathering moved back to keep away from the searing flames and cheered once they were at a safe distance as the inferno danced before them.

  I’m sorry I didn’t listen to you before, I endangered so many people. But now the broken bonds can be rekindled.

  The voice in Ilaria’s head sounded proud. But something dawned on her then and she ran to Speranza who lowered his head to her and she placed her hand on his snout.

  ‘No, they mustn’t be,’ she said. ‘Tell them they are free now.’

  There was a commotion amongst the gathered crowd. One of the dragon protectors came forward to speak. ‘Young girl, we must be re-bonded with the dragons. It is our only chance to protect the world.’

  Ilaria turned to face the gathering and responded with a calm voice. ‘It’s funny. Whenever a human says they want to save the world, they mean they want to save mankind. The world would be better off without mankind.’ Ilaria turned back to Speranza. ‘We’ve been using you for so long. It’s not right. We have ruined this world and you have lost your freedom because of how selfish people are.’ She thought of the scroll from the library. ‘You remember him, I know you do. Argentum Spés, my ancestor. He forced you not to breathe your fire anymore, and many of your kind died. Then he used you to destroy the farms of other people. Those people are the ones you all call the heart thieves.’

  For the first time in hundreds of years Speranza was silenced. His giant scaly-lidded blue eyes looked sad, like a dis
tant memory had come back to him and it caused him pain.

  Argentum.

  Yes.

  I remember him.

  Of course you do, he was the first. And I will be the last.

  And with that, Ilaria took her own pendant, and all the others that had been stolen from the case and she threw them into the abyss beyond the cave’s edge. She felt the breeze rush through her again and then it was gone, she had severed her connection with Speranza. She knew it had worked because when the dragon looked at her she knew he spoke to her mind but she heard not a whisper.

  ‘Ilaria!’ Alice shouted. ‘What have you done?’

  Ilaria walked up to Alice sympathetically and wrapped her arms around her waist. Alice embraced her. ‘Oh, child, what have you done?’

  Ilaria began to cry. If it was guilt she felt, she didn’t care. She sniffed and buried her head into Alice’s jacket like the lost girl that she suddenly felt she was. All eyes were on her as Speranza flapped his gargantuan wings and disappeared. Shock and despair filled the air around them like a sea mist settling on a quiet beach. Ilaria was the one who spoke.

  ‘No more lies.’

  18

  Snowflakes and ash flecks interspersed, drifting towards the hilltops where a cloaked gathering stood waiting. Their blankets and scarves billowed in the wind as the frost gripped them like prison shackles. They were captives of the cold that enveloped them, a bitter cold, biting, severe and fatal.

  Ilaria wondered what they were waiting for. There was a certain acceptance that all the pathways that had been open to them were now closed. Yet despite that, Ilaria could not get her mother out of her mind. It seemed so foolish to be worried whether she were still alive under those rocks. She couldn’t help but be angry that no one else believed she had seen her mother, considering they were all probably going to be dead before the next sun rose if the temperature continued to drop so rapidly. The damage had been done, even if the dragons had remained bonded and held back their fiery breath; too much ash had now formed in the sky, surely?

  The group remained huddled together in a tight formation, occasionally taking it in turns to move towards the centre, which was the warmest place to stand. Alice and Diego remained close to Ilaria for fear of her safety amongst the throng.

  Diego pointed to a small crater that sat in a valley beside the abandoned church they had entered previously. ‘You see that lower patch of snow over there?’

  Ilaria nodded.

  ‘That is where they will leave from.’

  ‘How long does it take…’ Ilaria had to pause for a moment, as the end of the question that had been on her mind for so long suddenly seemed so hard to say out loud, ‘for a person to freeze?’

  Alice shook her head and sighed. ‘We’re rafting down rapids blind now.’

  A blow to the heart. Ilaria felt it worse than the cold. Alice hadn’t forgiven her for severing the connection with Speranza. But she sensed a certain selfishness in the tone of Alice’s voice. Maybe that was the same desire to live that had caused Argentum to become so selfish, or the heart thieves to want to steal the dragons’ hearts. But it hadn’t been that desire to live that had caused her mother to remain dead to her all these years. That was a sacrifice she had made, for something she believed in that was bigger than herself.

  ‘If what you say about your mother is true—that she became a heart thief—we could have worked together. Our goal was the same, and now both heart thief and tamer alike have failed.’ Alice felt a small tear roll down her cheek before it froze. ‘We were all too blind and greedy to work together. In the end it was nothing more than a battle between rich and poor.’

  Ilaria took Alice by the hand, trying in her own way to give her comfort. ‘I know you blame me for what is happening. I’m sorry. I guess I am a heart thief too.’

  ‘No,’ said Diego. She sensed pride in the words he spoke next. ‘Ilaria, you are something else entirely. Neither heart thief nor a tamer. You are the heart giver. The first of her kind. You did what no one before you could have even conceived of. Not driven by greed or a selfish need to live. You set them free, whatever that might mean.’

  Ilaria felt a shiver go down her spine and she couldn’t tell if it was because of what Diego had said or because of the dozen dragons that suddenly burst through the snow-topped soil beside the old church, soaring upwards into the air. They twirled and dived as though they were swimming and the sky was their ocean. It was the first time they had truly been free for a thousand years.

  They flew off into the distance towards the western coast. Back to the island where Argentum had first travelled to bond with Speranza.

  Alice couldn’t help but draw a smile. ‘Where do you think they will go?’

  Ilaria knew the answer to that. ‘They are going home.’

  Some time had passed since the flight of the dragons. The old tamers felt alone and despair began to weigh in on them.

  ‘Well, at least we die together. Like a family,’ said one of them.

  Another replied. ‘We are family, in a way we always have been.’

  ‘Do you think they will remember us? Many years from now, when human beings are a distant memory and dragons are rulers of the earth?’

  It was said with some disdain. Ilaria didn’t blame the man but she thought how only human beings felt the need to conquer and rule. The dragons probably didn’t even want to be rulers; surely they only wanted to live. She thought about rebuking him but decided against it. Why poke a hole in a sinking ship?

  A breeze fluttered across the hilltop and they all felt it in their bones. There was a tawny light in the sky that cast a glow on the whiteness of the countryside surrounding them. Very little daylight remained and the night would bring a ruthless kind of cold that none of them would survive. If the ash they choked on didn’t take them first.

  ‘Shouldn’t we get to shelter?’ said one of the more fearful of the group.

  No one could see what good that would do; there was no escaping what was approaching them. ‘Each of us is free to do as they wish, but I’m staying here,’ Diego said.

  From a great distance a dot appeared in the sky. It was coming from the direction that the dragons had flown towards. Ilaria broke from the group and walked across the hilltop to get a better look. The dot became a larger shape like a bat, flapping its wings slowly and powerfully. A roar came from the approaching bird-like creature, but it was no bird. Ilaria heard Speranza in the cry that echoed across the valley. She wondered if he had come to say goodbye.

  The earth shook as he landed in front of Ilaria and he wrapped his wings around her and breathed a warm, gentle breath into the enclosure he had created. It was a wonderful feeling.

  ‘Why have you come back?’ she asked.

  Speranza blinked affectionately with his eyelids. ‘I remembered that day, when Argentum came to me. I remember now, thinking how he’d taste delicious and how insignificant a creature he was. His race to me meant nothing, merely a snack to satisfy a moment of greed. I realise now that he was just the same as I was. But he was not insignificant, despite his intentions; hundreds of years would pass and then there would be you. Maybe mankind has run its course, maybe this is a new beginning. But you have altered the path of my kind, Ilaria. Your very existence provides a strong case for your kind to live. As you have allowed us to.’

  Ilaria was confused. Surely Speranza knew that it was not possible for them to survive this cold. ‘There is no hope for us, but it is comforting to know you care.’

  ‘Hope is exactly what there is, Ilaria. Hope is standing right in front of me. You must promise me, never to change. Humans have lived upon the earth for tens of thousands of years. We have been here for far longer than that. It shouldn’t be a choice between one or the other. We can learn to contain our wildness. I don’t know if it can happen overnight, but we can try. But people must learn to control their greed or we will all suffer. Humans can be kind and thoughtful—you have proven this much to me—and with your
help they will find a way to undo the damage they are causing to the planet. My dearest child, we have work to do.’

  Speranza lifted his wings and stood up high and without saying another word he soared up into the air.

  ‘I don’t understand, what is he doing?’ asked Alice.

  Ilaria felt optimistic but also afraid and guilty. ‘He’s going to save us.’ She knew then that she had a lifelong bond with the dragon, not one of manipulation or trickery. But one of genuine trust and appreciation for each other’s existence, a chance to live in harmony.

  She knew what she was compelled to do, find a way to improve the earth. That meant changing the desires of her own kind. It was not a one-person job, that much was certain.

  Ilaria had never wanted her mother more than in this moment. She thought of her family; her grandfather who had raised her and a grandma she could barely remember. Her father who had loved her mother fiercely. Alice and Diego who had become as close as family to her, and her mother who had taught her the most valuable lesson of sacrifice.

  Ilaria smiled and found strength as a warmth tickled her face. The frozen mist in the air began to disperse and a thin layer of snow across the hilltops began to turn to water. The sky lit up with a series of fierce flames rolling above the clouds and it began to rain. Glimmering in the fading light of the sun, the drops trickled down Ilaria’s face and as she opened her arms and looked up to the sky, she saw Speranza casting an inferno across the horizon, vaporizing the ash cloud until the blinding light of the solar rays warmed them. A moment later, the entire retinue of dragons were flying above them. Burning off the ash clouds for miles around them, there was no hiding them now. They had brought back the summer and as a final ball of fire rippled across a Tuscan peak, Ilaria gazed at its beauty and searched for her friend, Speranza, who flapped his wings and then he was gone.