by Marc Secchia
If he expected her to rise to his bait, Juzzakarr was to be disappointed yet again.
Tytiana said, “If you want to be rid of me, father, then why not finish the deed right here? I did not meet your expectations at the Ball.”
Juzzakarr stroked his white-blonde beard with a calculating air. “I’m glad you brought that up. Aye, you failed to obey my explicit instructions. That is one reason you will be remaining right here enjoying this fine accommodation. Dealing with all these treacherous and changeable alliances amongst the Dragons does pose a challenge to my plans for the whole of Helyon.”
The slight stress on the word ‘whole’ suddenly brought her father’s position into focus for Tytiana. Juzzakarr had a maddeningly oblique way of communicating sometimes, but if one knew how to look for clues, they would be present – but could as likely be false statements as true. She sensed this was true. In High Master speak, Juzzakarr had just declared his ambition to rule over the whole of Helyon Island with draconic aid! No wonder these pirates were keen to help! There would be a fat slice of profit from the ever-vibrant silk trade in it for them, a whiff of gold almost irresistible to these greedy, ignoble pirates. Her mind whirled. That meant the cabals were jostling scaly elbows to fight their way to the front of the line. Was this what father had been angling for all along? And by interfering – or perhaps by her escaping immolation in the tower – she and Jakani had inadvertently threatened his whole scheme. Perhaps Zihaeri too. Maybe he knew about all the notes and probing. Maybe it was his plot to remove her and blame either the lamko or the Dragons, or both, in one fell stroke? Or to engineer a situation so perilous that the High Masters would be begging him for protection and gratefully install Juzzakarr upon a throne, saviour of Helyon?
Suffering caroli, this scenario smacked of her father through and through! How he would revel in their grovelling like a porker wallowing in its mud pit!
So, that meant Juzzakarr was tying up the loose ends of his plan, and his redhead daughter was one of those irksome details. Should she be surprised? Saddened? She said, “So, Tytiana is to smile sweetly and act as Dragon bait?”
He sneered, “So much of your mother in you, Tytiana. Never content to be merely biddable. Please don’t worry your pretty little head over complexities that you can’t possibly understand. When the Immadian standpoint is eventually understood, much will fall into place. There is a longstanding enmity between the House of Immadia and these cabals. If they choose to move in power, as I believe they must given the intelligence they will by now have received, the cabals will draw together and much will necessarily be shaken out. Immadia will act as my tool. You are another. Leverage, Tytiana.” His fists clenched so tightly, she heard his knuckles crack. “Never underestimate the power of the perfect application of leverage.”
She bowed slightly, then raised her chin. “Stay safe, father.”
You play a dangerous game. Let’s see who the winner shall be.
Might he have killed her mother over a suspected affair with Na’axion? Or might that have formed the basis of a different form of leverage, as he so callously styled it? Everything for Juzzakarr’s personal gain. He would use and discard lives with barely a second thought.
He chose a mocking bow for his response. “Don’t fret, sweet pea. Ten Dragons are stationed inside and around this cavern to protect you from any possible harm. Once this is all settled, Daddy dearest will be back for you.”
Ten Dragons lay in wait for whoever might attempt a rescue.
How she shuddered!
* * * *
As the air vents above the cavern brightened with the onset of dawn, Cyanku arrived with Tytiana’s meal. She showed her the babe, who was starting to do better and even cooed at a tickle beneath the chin. Her intervention had been far from complete, but there was clear evidence of accelerated healing taking place, and if nothing else, the infant’s good cheer spoke volumes. As she accepted the tray, the pale girl tapped her hand purposefully.
Down between them, in the shadows cast by the narrow tunnel mouth and their bodies obscuring it either side, her fingers flickered. Message. The royal purple rises.
Huh? Tytiana’s shock must have been plain, because the girl repeated the signs more slowly, then asked if she had understood.
Yes, she signed the affirmative. No. Royal purple? That could not be any of the Houses of Helyon. Sylakia was crimson. Who … inanely, her mind had chosen this moment to start drawing blanks. Royal? That was not a reference to deep amethyst silk colour, was it? No.
Immadia!
Her jaw dropped. Urgently, the girl tapped, Silence! Touch my sister, please?
Tytiana reached for the babe, having to quell both the quivering of her hands and the blade-like fires that shot out of them as she thought upon the need to protect herself if a battle developed between all these different powers. Pirate cabals, mercenaries, Helyon, now royal Immadia was here! Or at least, was already on the move. Her father had been twisting the truth! Why else would they come, if not … work over the infant, Tytiana. Keep calm. Focus on what she could do here, as unwilling bait in a pit, to protect herself as well as these slaves. She must stay.
A promise was a promise.
When Cyanku had departed, her thoughts returned to her hands. Once, she had condescended to think Jakani must make more of himself to ever be with her. To some degree that was true. They would both have to learn and adapt to bridge the divide between culture and station. But she needed to learn to make more of herself, too. Jakani had started to teach her a few fighting moves. She stiffened her fingers. Amorphous fire spurted from them all the way to the stone floor, then coalesced and grew whiter as she brought all of her concentration to bear upon the task.
Hotter. Stronger. Sharper. Be blades. Be … more!
She would not be content with being mere bait. She would be the trap.
* * * *
Princess Shalanya sat up with a horrified shriek. “Where – I’m on a – a Dragonship …”
Strength will rise, Jakani said quickly.
“Ah, must be a beautiful morning out there,” the Princess said, dimpling. “My my my, a handsome boy in my cabin. What a way to wake up.”
Jakani bit the inside of his lip. “Welcome to Gemalka, Princess.”
“Gemalka? Why, I haven’t been here before. How did we come –” her eyes bulged. One hand fluttered to her throat as she wheezed asthmatically, “Oh no! I can’t breathe – no – what have you done …”
Strength will rise.
He said, “The lakes are reputed to be radiant at this hour, Princess, truly a sight to behold. Would you like to come outside to take in the view? We are flying at a low altitude. Perhaps your Dragoness would like to go fishing? Flicker assures me that Immadia has a longstanding contract for trout taken from the lakes.”
The Princess looked pallid but preternaturally calm. She primped her white hair and drew her blankets up to her breast. “Aye. That sounds like a …” The pink eyes blinked in confusion. Clearly some calculations were taking place in her mind, but she had not yet been able to draw firm conclusions. “How did I –”
“You slept peacefully during the voyage,” he said truthfully.
“Oh, that’s nice. How strange. I could have sworn I agreed to stay in Immadia.”
With his developing senses, Jakani realised he could see, hear and even smell the waves of panic as they washed over her. He spoke a third time, and the Princess appeared to calm down. Good. His trickery was working, thus far. This could have gone very badly indeed.
He said, “You are as kind as you are brave, o Princess of Immadia. Given my need, you graciously agreed to direct the resources of royal Immadia to Tytiana’s aid, even stating that you would attempt this voyage so as to broaden your horizons. You have been working very hard on maintaining a calm and dignified mental state, and Flicker has been helping you with magic he learned from the Star Dragoness herself. You are making excellent progress, he informs me.”
Shala
nya peered very strangely at him indeed, then leaned forward to deposit a peck on his cheek. “Your gifts are wasted on that Tytiana, Shapeshifter Jakani. Give me a moment. I will dress and join you shortly in the navigation cabin.”
Flicker met him beside the helm. Excellent work, Jakani.
He met the dragonet’s upraised paw with a firm slap. Aye. Feeling good! She seems to be taking it well.
More than.
Jakani glowed at the praise. Aye, he was getting better at doing good, wasn’t he? Tytiana wasn’t the only one with healing capabilities! He felt even better when the diminutive Princess joined them forward. She was able to gaze out over the lakes with ease, without even the slightest discomfort, she declared. They walked out to the railing forward of the navigation cabin to enjoy the fresh breeze causing the famous trout lakes to shimmer all around them. Truly, the morn was glorious. Nary a cloud in the white-azure sky, reflected by the turquoise lake waters.
They were barely a hundred feet above the lake, which stretched ahead of them for over a mile, and the edge of the terrace lake at this level was a quarter-mile behind the Dragonship. Thick greenery grew almost all around the lake shore. To their left, two further levels of lower, smaller terrace lakes could be seen. Jakani understood that the enterprising Islanders had connected all of the many lakes and fisheries by a system of tunnels, spillways and large manual pumps which could operate without destroying the valuable trout harvest.
Perhaps since the breezes were blowing favourably in so many aspects, he should try flying himself? Even a botched landing in water could not be too terrible.
Just then, with a tinkling laugh, the girl grabbed him by the shirt and tipped them both over the side! Come fly with me, Jakani!
She transformed with great skill and timing, catching them mere feet above the surface. Delicately stippled pink wings whisked them at speed across the waters almost to the looming terrace lake walls, fifty feet tall directly ahead, and then Shalanya shot into the sky with a wild, skirling laugh of triumph. I CAN FLY! O sweet Fra’anior, thou my soul’s song, I CAN FLY!
Jakani began to laugh, too. Her response was just so wild and liberating, the laughter bubbling crazily from her chest as she looped and flitted about in increasingly crazed aerial twists and barrel-twirls and somersaults, and then the tenor of her laughter changed and she began to thunder in a frenzy of fear and bewilderment. What? How …
Strength will rise, o Shalanya, he called.
The Dragoness began to laugh again, but then she switched to the crazed sound even more quickly than before. Her paw gripped Jakani powerfully. How is this possible? I … I sense inimical wards in my mind!
Strength will rise!
Aloud, he cried, “Fly with the dawn, o Princess of Immadia! Revel with the wind beneath your wings.”
If only she could see and taste and feel how wonderful this freedom was, Jakani knew she would be free of her phobia forever. The Dragoness began to gambol about the skies for a few seconds before the pattern repeated again, her discovering the wards and then suddenly there was peril and she flung him high and far, with a roar and a thunder that completely drowned out his attempt to reset her mental state. Now the Albino Shapeshifter swooped for him with baleful crimson swirls igniting her eyes, and he had to abandon his attempted dive.
No, transform!
Onyx-Gold plunged deep into the lake.
Pleased to discover that his Dragon form swam very respectably indeed, Jakani instinctively darted away from a quintet of talons that attempted to swipe his head off his shoulders. He surfaced rapidly, roaring, Strength will rise!
No, it will not, she riposted. What did you plant in my mind, you vile backstabber? After I placed my trust in you – how dare you?
Just a little something to quell your agoraphobia!
YOU MEDDLED IN MY PSYCHE?
Jakani back-winged, keeping clear of the suddenly perilous Princess. Are you afraid? Is not the beauty of the open skies yours to relish? Stalling as his wings tangled, he blurted out, What’s a ward?
BACKSTABBER! CRETIN!
Strength will rise!
She blinked, gazed about with patent wonder, and then rounded upon him again. Release me this instant, or I shall k – huh? I SHALL K – UNH! GRAARRRGGHH!!
You can’t kill me.
Watch me try!
As the furious Dragoness pursued him across the lake with rapid fluttering movements of her pretty but not very efficient butterfly wings, Jakani corkscrewed ineptly away. He managed to dodge a couple of swipes before Shalanya grabbed one of his wings, put her paw to his throat, and singularly failed to do any damage to him at all. She could not bring herself to clench her talons, nor to sink her fangs into his neck. Twisting out of her grip with a subtle Nikuko manoeuvre, Jakani swirled past the Dragonship with the huffing pink monster in hot pursuit, bellowing about perfidious betrayers and sneaky Eastern mind-bending tricks. Although he could no longer calm her, the all-important main effect remained stable. The skies were hers; only, Shalanya was begging Fra’anior to dispatch lightning to smite him from the face of the Island-World. She looked more than prepared to do the same.
“Flicker! Flicker! What do I do?” he yelled in passing. To his intense annoyance, the soldiers manning the flotilla of Dragonships looked decidedly unconcerned by his troubles.
“This is good training, boy,” called the dragonet.
Jakani dodged a swingeing punch. “What?”
“Training! Fly, you draggle-tailed fool! Fly … like a Dragon!”
He shot by again, beneath the Dragonship this time in an attempt to throw off the very determined beauty. “She’s trying to kill me!”
“You said she can’t!”
“I’m a Dragoness! I’ll find a way!” roared Shalanya.
“Flicker!”
“Use your noodle, you piebald moron!” floated back to him on the breeze.
Suffering spiders – or dragonets, for that matter –Flicker was no help at all! Dodging Shalanya’s vexed paw-slap, he dived again. This time she anticipated the manoeuvre, cutting far closer in her pursuit. She was frighteningly determined. He, however, was equally determined to behave like a Dragon and fight his own battles for a change – besides, what harm could she actually do to him?
“Think you can evade certain death?” thundered the Princess.
“You can’t kill me!”
He flitted away across the lake, thinking that somehow Flicker was right – he was too terrified to be terrified about actually flying, or something illogically logical like that. His brain was doing the right things instinctively because he had no time to think about the mechanics.
Any second now, the Princess might snap his implanted controls, and then …
“How’s about a nice friendly drowning? Your stupid ward didn’t specify what sorts of killing weren’t allowed, did it?” Shalanya panted. Heavens, could a Dragoness be unfit? Maybe. He guessed a ward must be the magical result of what he had imbedded in her mind. “Given a few minutes I’ll work this thing out and then – keep still, would you? Imbecile! I want to try slitting your belly!”
“Can’t do that either.” He twirled a paw cheekily. “Isn’t flying wonderful?”
“Flying fruitcake! Stop that, or I’ll – I’ll whatever – you!”
Completing a somersault over her head, Jakani unleashed a scornful blast of laughter. “What? You’ll hose me down with pink sparkles? I tremble at your wrath.”
Sucking in his scrawny belly, he dodged yet another hapless swipe by the Princess, who was beyond provoked now. Puffing like a misfiring Dragonship, she chased him up to the northern end of the lake, having to endure a few crass insults thrown over his shoulder comparing her flying prowess to that of a weary trout, while Jakani grew in strength and confidence. He could do this! He was flying! Actually flying reasonably effectively, without tying himself into complete knots. Unfamiliar storms of emotion boiled inside of him; his hearts were a thundering chorus, driving this complex physiol
ogical marvel called Dragon flight, with a song of overwhelming, intoxicating liberation. What joy! What freedom!
“Can’t catch me, slow-slug,” he taunted.
“I will!”
He chortled again. “Faster, Princess. Almost had me that time.”
“Stop laughing at me!”
“You’re just so cute, you’re – whoa!” No! A terrace wall!
Kerump!
His attempted jink succumbed to the laws of gravity. Winded and wheezing, bruised again in his already sensitive chest and suitably chastened, Jakani tumbled back toward the rippling waters. Shalanya shrieked in rage, spewing her mesmeric pink sparkles across his path as he slapped down in a huge explosion of spray, crying, I’d banish you back to Immadia if I could!
The Island-World shivered all around him. Jakani felt himself shrink, and then the lake vanished.
* * * *
SPLOT!!
The fledgling Shapeshifter Dragon landed with all the grace of a flying trout in a great crash of spray and yet another bruise applied to his tender sternum. Remind him never to use that insult again.
Remind him to look where he was going when he was flying!
Arrrggh, he moaned. Hurts …
Ha. What was this? Flagstones under his paws? Sheeting white water off his sinuous body, Jakani broached the surface of this new, surprisingly shallow lake, and stared about in stupefaction. Together with an untold tonnage of water and a dozen or more understandably confused rainbow trout, he had landed … impossible! He glanced about himself a third time just to be sure. Aye. Slap bang in the middle of the courtyard of Immadia Castle. Unmistakably. Water was thundering down the stairs into the underground basement, flooding Flicker’s buffing room. He snapped up a wandering trout absently. Yum. Three feet long, it disappeared down his long, long gullet with aplomb and a ticklish wriggle as it entered his stomach.
How …
The Onyx-Gold Dragon stiffened. Hold those Dragons!
Result of the century! He pumped a paw with a mighty roar of delight. By complete and utter fluke, he had just helped Princess Shalanya discover the true nature of her pink-sparkle power! Aye!