by J H G Foss
Rocky approached the other crawler and said, ‘Oi! What are you doing? You can’t come here, you know, this is my hall.’
The other crawler turned clumsily, tripping over its feet and tasted the air. Rocky hopped from side to side nervously, he didn’t like the look of this guy. The intruder was bigger than Rocky for a start and looked older too.
‘Oi, mate! I said, you can’t come here. This is my hall, with all my stuff in it.’
The other crawler gulped, then coughed. It cleared its throat and finally said, ‘oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t realise. My apologies, I am absolutely fascinated by the carvings on the walls here. Your hall is incredible.’
The other crawler spoke awkwardly, like a hatchling.
‘Oh, thank you,’ replied Rocky feeling suddenly rather proud of his hall. He remembered the main point at hand though and said, ‘you can’t have any of the food here. This is my hall.’
‘I see, well I won’t be long,’ said the other crawler. ‘It’s incredible. Everything me and Ghene thought about this place is completely wrong. Well, not everything. These people are humans, for sure, but with slanted eyes and round faces... I just realised, we are speaking what sounds like Draconic.’
‘We speak the language of the chasm crawlers. You are strange. This is my hall, remember that,’ said Rocky tasting the air nervously. ‘You smell wrong. You taste wrong. You scare me. You talk strangely.’
‘Don’t worry my friend, I mean you no harm. You are right though, I am not like you. I am here to look at the carvings only. I don’t wish to intrude, but I simply must take it all in. You’ve no idea what this means to me, to see a whole other civilisation of man. Advanced too, judging by the stone work.’
Rocky was unsure what to do. When another male intruded on his territory they were never as polite as this. They usually came looking for a fight or to steal food.
‘What is your name?’ he asked. ‘Where are you from?’
The other crawler had resumed looking at the carvings in the walls, side stepping awkwardly, slowly around the hall.
‘Ah, my name is Roztov. I’m a druid. I’m from a land called Styke, far from here. Do you have a name?’
‘I’m Rocky!’ declared Rocky. ‘I’m eight years old. I live here. Where is Styke? What’s that? Is it far? Are there crawlers there? No one has told me about that before.’
‘Oh, across the sea. Very far away. Tell me, what do you know of these frescos?’
‘What is the sea? Is that...’
Rocky circled Roztov like an excited dog.
‘Across the chasm you mean?’ Then in a whisper, ‘across... on the other side...?’
Roztov turned to look at Rocky and thumped his tail on the ground, which was the chasm crawler friendship signal. ‘Across the chasm and far beyond that,’ said the druid. ‘Do you know anything of these creatures? Men and elephants?’
‘Not really,’ admitted Rocky. ‘The cloth-wearers built this place. They were clever with their hands and were friends with the other animals. That’s what my mother told me. She’s dead.’
‘Oh, I’m sorry to hear that. Your mother was right though. I must say, this is very convenient, being able to talk Draconic. I wish I’d met someone like you before. I suppose the people at Moletown might have found it odd talking to a lizard, but I could have communicated with them.’
‘You are strange. You talk strange.’
‘I suppose I am yes. I’ll tell you a secret. I’m actually a man like those carvings. I’m using magic to borrow the form of a chasm crawler.’
‘Ha-ha, right.’
Roztov thumped his tail again then said, ‘I suppose it doesn’t matter. You seem like a nice kid anyway. Thank you very much for letting me see your hall.’
‘You are leaving?’
‘Well, I have friends waiting for me. I should really be getting back.’
‘Oh, bye-bye then.’
‘Take care, Rocky.’
Roztov padded out the hall, taking the archway that led up and outside. Rocky watched as the other crawler left the hall, heading up to surface. Rocky tasted the air then cautiously followed.
Once outside Roztov padded out onto Main Street and walked up to the edge. He was about to turn back into a sparrowhawk when something occurred to him. He scuttled over to the cage that held the sleeping dragon and looked up at it, the stone ground cold to his sensitive feet. His lizard vision wasn’t great and he was confused by the sensory information coming from his tongue, but even so he could hear the deep gentle breathing of the slumbering creature.
‘Hey you, dragon!’ he called up. ‘Hey, dragon!’
He heard movement, and then the dragon’s head reared up with a snort. It angled it’s snout down to fix him with one of its yellow eyes.
‘Little lizard,’ rumbled the dragon, replying in Draconic, ‘Why are you here?’
‘Just testing a theory. So, locked up in a cage, eh?’
‘Apparently so. Chasm crawlers are not usually so observant.’
The dragon shifted its weight and the cage swung a little.
‘So what’s going on?’ asked Roztov.
‘What do you mean what’s going on, you little dung-dropping? What’s it to you?’
‘I mean. Are you from Stovologard? Are you a prisoner of war? I mean, all that.’
‘What does a pipsqueak like you know about Stovologard? Wait, are you a shape-shifter? Are you a dragon from the Spire? In that case get me out of here!’
The dragon snarled and the cage lurched.
‘I could probably get you out, be a sport and tell me what’s going on first though.’
‘If you are from the Spire you would know that already. Who are you?’
‘Does it matter, if I’m the only way you can get you out of that cage?’
‘I suppose not,’ sighed the dragon. ‘What do you want to know?’
‘How about how you ended up in the cage to start with?’
‘My name is Lorkuvan, I’m a diplomat. Myself and my colleagues were here at the invitation of Rah-Ur , but that arse-wing Blavius broke his word and took us prisoner. We were here to broker a de-escalation agreement.’
‘Oh right, the war,’ said Roztov. ‘Can you give me an overview of dragons on this island and the war?’
‘Very well.’
They conversed for a while and Roztov learned a great deal, filling in much of the blank areas of the knowledge he had already picked up from Vine Street, Moletown and Mordran. The island of Tanud had three main dragon factions, the northern dragons centred around Stovologard, the Spire dragons and the Chasm dragons. Dragon society was pretty brutal and all three factions were in a near permanent state of war with the other two. Recently though the Spire dragons had receded from the political stage as the war escalated between Stovologard and the Chasm.
‘We have the occasional prisoner or dissident arrive from the Chasm,’ continued Lorkuvan. ‘So we knew about Blavius’s rise to power, the great pustule. You’ve seen him? What a fat bloated fool he is. He uses the northern dragons as a handy enemy to unite the Chasm dragons against. He means to invade the north. The current state of affairs is bad enough without the bloodshed a full blown invasion would cause. I was meant to be here to try and prevent it; you can see how that went. Blavius is the last son of Buru the Golden, in case you didn’t know that. He led the dragons of the Chasm for a thousand years before he flew east and was never seen again. His son, Blavius the Vomit-stain, trades on his father’s legacy, but has none of his virtues. That mane of his isn’t real you know. He had it made for him to look more like his father.’
‘I thought at first the big red one was Blavius,’ admitted Roztov.
‘That is Rah-Ur,’ said Lorkuvan. ‘He was Buru’s general, but he holds no title these days. He is well respected amongst the other chasm dragons and is respected in Stovologard too, as much as you can respect an enemy anyway.’
‘He seems to keep company with a green one and a brown one, who are th
ey?’
‘Shumakkak the Green. The Huntress. She is a devil, always leading raids to the north. She kills and eats our thralls. Then you have Barkback the Terran. He is the chief of the rockskin dragons, a small faction allied to the chasm and a friend of Rah-Ur. Together with Tefnut the Lioness they form a sort of council. They are at odds with Blavius who has no idea of organisation, only his own notions of glory. The bloated ember-licker is a coward though and flees from battle.’
‘He seems to be well served by two others I saw, a long thing one and another with huge teeth.’
‘Gugaloris and Ukadak. They are head councillors and lawmakers. Enablers of Blavius. Without their backing he would be nothing.’
Lorkuvan talked some more, she seemed to hold nothing back but eventually she said, ‘you must release me. It will soon be dawn and if I don’t escape now then Shumakkak will hunt me down before I can reach my own lands.’
‘Very well, just one more question then. The manhunters, they come from Stovologard? How do they cross the chasm?’
‘Yes, when the northern dragons are young they like to hunt our escaped thralls. They don’t cross the chasm here. That would be suicide, they cross further east. The land around the Spire is nominally the Spire dragons to hunt, but they never use it. The manhunters cross that land as quickly as they can, sometimes the Spire dragons will react, but mostly they will not.’
‘Oh, I see. They don’t just cross over here at night while the Chasm dragons are all asleep?’
‘Perhaps a fool-hardy one might, but I have never heard of it. Shumakkak has a tremendous sense of smell, she is the islands greatest sky-tracker. She would take great pleasure in hunting down and killing anyone foolish enough to cross the chasm. Also, this is where the battle lines are drawn, north of here is heavily patrolled. It is safer for the manhunters to cross to the east, the lands of the Spire dragons, and hope they don’t wake them from whatever magical slumber they are in. Once they are south of the Chasm they are safe enough, the Chasm dragon’s attention is focused north.’
‘Why do they do it though, if it’s so dangerous?’
‘For sport. And because it is our tradition. No more talk, get me out of here!’
The dragon clawed at the thick metal bars in frustration and the cage swung around. Roztov had already made up his mind to free the dragon, druids could not abide to see something held captive, but he was apprehensive.
‘Yes, yes. You won’t eat me, right?’
‘I won’t. I don’t know what you are anyway and I have a delicate stomach.’
‘You promise?’
‘I promise. Come on.’
The dragon was getting nervous now, anxious to be gone. Roztov turned into a sparrowhawk and fluttered into the cage. He then turned into his normal form. He smiled nervously at the dragon who spoke, but now that he was no longer a chasm crawler he could not understand its speech. Its meaning was clear though – get on with it.
The bars of the cage were made of iron and each was the width of a ship’s mast. He gripped one of them and began to channel his druidic magic into it. The bar tarnished then began to rust. The rust crumbled and bit by bit the bar disintegrated into nothing. Roztov carefully stepped over the dragon’s tail and did the same to another bar. Once that bar had also crumbled into a heap of rust he stepped aside and let the dragon pass.
Lorkuvan clambered out of the cage and flopped out onto the ledge. She stood, then turned and with her head level with Roztov said something in Draconic which he didn’t understand.
He turned into a crawler and said, ‘Can you repeat that?’
‘I said thank you. Whatever you are.’
‘My name is Roztov, a druid.’
‘Then thank you, Roztov. Shumakkak will most likely come north after me, but cover your tracks just in case.’
‘I will. We druids can cover our tracks well. Good luck.’
The dragon turned, swept out its wings and swooped down into the chasm. She then caught an updraught, spiralled high into the dawn sky then turned north, her wings wide. Roztov watched until the dragon was lost in the star-filled sky then turned into a sparrowhawk and flew south.
Rocky, who had been watching from the tunnel entrance gathered his thoughts and seeing that it would nearly be dawn scampered back down to his hall and the crack in the wall he lived in. No one was going to believe this story when he told it that was for sure. He’d tell Pebble though, she’d believe him. Pebble was nice.
Chapter 9
Broddor’s Battle
It was still gloomy twilight when Roztov returned to the camp. Meggelaine sat bolt upright from where she was sleeping by the fire. Ghene was half awake, leaned against the side of the rock the camp sheltered behind.
‘Roztov!’ she squealed. ‘Where the bloody hell have you been? We expected you hours ago.’
‘Yes, but I popped in at the Chasm on the way back,’ said Roztov. ‘Ghene, it’s incredible! We were way off with everything. The architecture is something totally...’
‘Popped in at the Chasm?’ interrupted Meggelaine shrilly.
‘Just... Well, yes, but you won’t believe all the things I saw inside, the fresco, the archi...’
‘You went inside!?’
‘Yes, Meg, I...’
‘You! Come here. Bend down!’
Roztov sat down by the fire and fended her off with his left hand. ‘I’m not falling for that again. Anyway, I saw prayer halls and what looked like baths. I saw the most fantastical carvings, a chamber I think that was for a king or some kind of ruler anyway, it was so heart-breaking to see the damage the dragons had done though, bloody philistines. All trampled, like a man carelessly crushing a bird’s nest underfoot. In the corridors too small for the dragons though, much of it remains intact, and I did find a larger chamber that was almost completely undamaged, with statues of people in pairs and with statues of elephants. The guy I talked to called the people that did the carvings the “cloth-wearers” and that they were friends with animals, whatever he meant by that.’
‘Incredible,’ said Ghene. ‘The statues of people where clothed then. In what fashion?’
Roztov was about to say something, but was cut short by Meggelaine screaming.
‘Shut up you pair of idiots!’ she yelled. ‘It doesn’t matter! We’ve got bigger problems than working out whether... whether these fools wore kilts or breeches! Can we cross the chasm safely, that was what you were sent to find out, remember?’
‘Well, about that. The dragon they had put in the cage, I talked to her. In exchange for me freeing her she told me a lot of stuff about the place. She says the only safe place to cross is the eastern forest near the Spire.’
‘Oh Etruna!’ groaned Meggelaine. ‘You are going to be the death of me Roztov. You’re worse than that idiot, Broddor. You want to be eaten by a dragon, is that it?’
‘No,’ said Roztov trying to pull her in for a hug. ‘I admit it sounds foolish, but I did it carefully. The dragon never made any threats against me.’
‘Did it carefully? Get your hands off me,’ growled Meggelaine. ‘Look at you. You act like it’s as easy as a walk in the woods, but look, your hands are shaking.’
Roztov looked down at his hands and saw that they were indeed shaking quite violently.
‘Yes, yes. I think my body must be reacting to the danger now. I’m terrified, are you happy?’
Meggelaine folded her arms and looked at him.
‘Don’t worry sweetie,’ said Roztov. ‘Please just put the kettle on. I’ll be fine after a nice cup of tea.’
Meggelaine looked at him for a few more moments, then finally relented and put the kettle over the fire.
‘You’ve got to take care. Not just avoiding being a dragon’s breakfast, but your well-being. You’re no use to anyone if you turn yourself into a head case.’
‘It’s probably easier if you don’t draw attention to it sweetie. Just let me bury it all in bravado for now, we can deal with my mental health later.’<
br />
‘Bravado, that’s exactly what it is. You have to remember you are just a man. Underneath all the magic and druid power there is a human animal. All that animal instinct to flee from something so big and terrifying - is all still in you.’
‘Yes, you are right,’ admitted Roztov. ‘Well, although it’s maybe not all dragon-fear. To have discovered so much in one day. A whole other civilisation, it’s overwhelming. It goes some way to explain why the people that live here look the way they do. They are likely the last remnants of a human kingdom, rather like the elves being the last of the Dynar.’
‘I would dearly like to have a look inside,’ said Ghene who was still not fully convinced that it was humans that had built the Chasm halls.
‘Don’t you dare,’ said Meggelaine. ‘There has definitely been more than enough foolishness in regards to that chasm. My nerves are shot. I can't take it any longer, I'm a wreck. You all just have to stop.’
There was a pause in the conversation while Meggelaine prepared a cup of tea for Roztov and handed it to him. She then went on to prepare two more.
‘I don’t wish to sound mean here,’ began Roztov. ‘But honestly, you two are a right pair of nitwits. What did you expect when we set off from Tullis? When the plan is "just sail west and see where we end up"? Well, this is where we ended up. Right here, in this bloody mess.’
‘I know, I know,’ replied Meggelaine, close to tears. ‘Don’t have a go at me Roz. I can’t help it, how long has it been now? Two weeks? I’ve been living off my nerves. Fear has never left me once. And most of the crew died. I’m going to have that on my conscious for the rest of my life.’
‘Hey hey,’ said Roztov as he managed to grab her and pull her in for a hug. ‘Like I said, we can deal with all that later. Look at it this way though, no one lied to them about where we were going or how dangerous it would be.’