Against That Shining Darkness: Boxed Set Trilogy Page 12

  Kane froze, though a thorn stabbed his bare thigh, and other parts of his body complained of pain from sharp stones.

  Alaina struggled with similar problems in silence .

  Kane eased his clothes beneath him and raised his head to watch through the bushes. He scolded himself. They shouldn't have stayed so close to the river where they couldn't hear what was approaching. Seth wouldn’t have made the mistake. And—normally—neither would he. But, while Seth was leading them, Kane had settled into the habit of letting the canny youth do all too much of his thinking for him. He kicked himself mentally.

  Ten dark-robed riders trotted along the riverbank only a few feet away from their hiding place. He breathed a prayer of thanks; the ground was rocky, so they had left few tracks.

  He could see the riders by peering through the leaves. They were Tarrian legionnaires, but wore unfamiliar, dark arm-badges. The insignia on the banners, though, were also black; it was of a shinier material. Soon, they galloped out of sight.

  Alaina rolled from underneath a low hanging waterthorn bush and plucked a few thorns from her anatomy before pulling on her clothes. Kane stood and looked around, listening, before following her example.

  They donned their packs, climbed south up the long riverbank, and melted back into the grasslands. At full alert now, they traveled until dusk. Supper was a lucky find of morels growing on the side of a shady bank. Urgency grew in Kane’s mind. He knew Alaina noticed it too. Huddled in the dark without a fire, they agreed they should hurry to the coastal hills.

  As the days passed, the air grew moister and broadleaf trees became more plentiful. At last they came to the northern edge of the Border Forest—the outskirts of Arod's kingdom. Kane looked east. Ibuchan was just an hour's journey from them. He even smelled the ocean on the breeze.

  “We’re close now,” Kane said. “There are two ways possible. The forest path is hilly and twisted, but if we swing to the east, we'll come to a longer coastal road with faster and easier walking.”

  Alaina pursed her lips, a distracted look in her eyes. “I dislike the character of these woods. Something evil has been in them for a long time. The coast.”

  Kane hesitated. He didn’t doubt her perception. If a dragonsmith sensed evil then it was present. But, sometimes the best choice of action could not avoid coming close by evil. However, he had no reason to choose one way over another.

  He nodded, and they set off to the east.

  They made good time, trotting just within the shadow of the forest. An hour later they looked down on the trade road that led south to Ibuchan.

  Kane disliked the feeling he was getting in his stomach. In the distance, the road was black with columns of men and horses marching south. His mind whirled, that meant Arod was in need. But with an entire army, mounted patrols, scouting parties, and perhaps even a sorcerer, or worse, blocking the way, it was unlikely they could get by. It seemed their only choice was to backtrack to the forest.

  Under cover of the trees, he motioned for Alaina to return the way they had come, but Alaina wasn't looking at him. He followed her gaze. Five black dots were approaching from the way they'd come, a scout party on horseback. Alaina stepped under the trees and disappeared into the undergrowth. Kane crept after her, knowing nothing attracted the eye like quick motions.

  The five horsemen rode in a forward scouting formation: three riding in front of the other two by about thirty lengths. If they should ride into an ambush the two in back would have enough warning to escape and get back to report. It didn't always work, but it was standard Tarrian procedure. By that and their gear, Kane recognized them as Tarrian regulars from a light cavalry division.

  The Tarrians reigned up at the road and seemed unsurprised at the sight of the host marching south. They pointed and paused before returning west at a gallop.

  Kane stood from where he crouched; Alaina appeared at his side. “I feel like the meat in a sandwich: blocked on two sides and about to be chewed up,” Kane said.

  A ghost of a smile appeared at Alaina's mouth. “The sea also has roads,” she said, nodding towards the walls of the city that loomed to the east. “Let's take a ship south. We may even arrive ahead of the army we race.”

  Kane nodded, glum. “I find it hard to believe I'm trying so hard to get in front of something like that. And now, I have to go through Ibuchan. Well, nothing else for it then....”

  Chapter 14 (Dragonwing)

  It seemed the world was rising. First foothills rolled up ever higher, like surf then the land became rockier, with patches of snow scattered here and there in greater frequency.

  Still in the chill current of the Windstream, they hadn't dipped; the ground was coming up to meet the sky. Windsinger trumpeted, and Seth gripped the strap and leaned into the dragon’s warm glow.

  Windsinger's secondary wings folded with a snap. He pulled in his primary wings until they were mere vanes for aiming, like the fletching of an arrow. Seth's stomach lurched as they tipped. The air whipped past them; his face stung from the force of it. But, he couldn't look away from the ground approaching in a staggering rush, even though his eyes swam with tears. The dragon’s wings opened slightly, still swept back, and his stoop flattened out.

  The land below unrolled like a scroll. Paragraphs of trees flashed by, punctuated with hills, brooks and valleys. They were making for a mountain range that seemed to grow slowly at first then rise with increasing speed as they closed with it. Windsinger banked to the right and slid between a group of narrow peaks jutting up like teeth.

  They sped twisting and winding through a maze of crags. Seth found himself too busy holding on to the harness to worry about the rock walls flashing past. Surely the dragon knew his own abilities: the rocks were his problem. Seth's problem was to stay in his seat. He focused on that so intensely he almost didn't see the opening in the wall when they turned toward the side of a mountain.

  To him it looked impossibly small for the dragon's body, even without wings. As Seth tried to burrow into Windsinger's back—they shot through the hole. The drake folded his wings at the critical instant, then snapped them out again to catch the air with an explosive CRACK that echoed in the cave abruptly around them.

  They settled lightly to the floor of a huge cavern. Seth used the eye muscle flex that Jyrmak had taught him to force his pupils to open wide. Light filtered through diagonal slabs of quartz that formed large panes in the walls of the cliffs and illuminated the area. The air was dry and warm. Obviously, water had not carved out this place. All the surrounding rock was igneous with large crystals formed during an eon long molten state deep below the surface.

  The facets glittered on the walls, and the inhabitants glittered too. Young dragons were playing tag, or hide and seek, or both at once. They spiraled in a dizzying dance, sometimes slicing through the air to rebound from the walls only to land behind a rock and come to an invisible halt. Their flashing scales blended with the shining stones and mixed with the power of illusion that came to dragons as naturally as breathing.

  Some of the older dragons dozed. Some sat conversing with each other, sounding like muted horns and woodwinds warming up for a performance.

  Windsinger crouched and offered Seth his front leg to hold as he dismounted—a bit stiffly. Seth faced Windsinger. “What next?” he said.

  Windsinger paused. Perhaps dragonspeech sounded odd coming from a man's throat, and it was taking him a moment to interpret.

  “The Elder will return tonight. You will meet him.”

  “What is the Elder's use-name in this age, Windsinger?” Seth asked. A dragon's common name changed from time to time to acknowledge physical, mental or spiritual growth. Jyrmak had told him the common names, and some of the secret names, of the council members, but things might have changed.

  Windsinger blinked and made an odd, stifled, huffing noise. “We always address the Elder of the council as 'Elder',” he replied. Then he turned and hurried off down a corridor. As he turned a corner, Seth heard
the huffing noise again. Seth shook his head, not sure what it signified; his knowledge of dragon culture evidently had gaps in it.

  He looked around at the cavern again and found himself surrounded by about a dozen attentive young dragons. It was hard to tell exactly with the illusions flickering around them. They were of various hues and sizes, the smallest about the size of a pony.

  As a newcomer, it was his place to speak first. Seth gave them the traditional dragon greeting, using his arm and a short bow to imitate a dragon's dipping of the chin.

  One youngster with orange-reddish scales took a step forward, thrust his snout toward Seth and sniffed. “It's a man,” he announced.

  “Of course it's a man, Emberglow, don't be so thick,” said another—a smaller, blue drake who flickered away from his illusion as a rock with azure crystals.

  “Yes, Man, excuse Emberglow's silliness. He is not too awake to his memories as yet,” said an emerald colored female.

  “Not at all,” replied Seth, trying to be gracious.

  The blue drake flickered into view again. “May we offer you food and drink, Man?”

  Seth hesitated. Dragons were truly omnivorous, and—though starving—he might not be able to stomach what these young dragons would consider food. Dragons could eat any meat or plant, even wood and soft rocks, and get some nourishment from it.

  “There is a clean pool of water nearby, with lots of fish. You do eat fish, don't you?” asked the emerald female.

  “Most kinds,” admitted Seth. He doubted any poisonous freshwater varieties lived this far north.

  “Follow then,” called the emerald female. The whole swarm of them turned and excitedly galloped off across the chamber and down a corridor.

  Seth followed as best he could—staying with the romping, flickering, glistening crowd—through an opening in the wall that spilled out into a bright valley. Amid tumbles of giant boulders, a brook ran down the center of the valley and fed into a small lake.

  Larger dragons sunned themselves on rocks nearby. With lazy tolerance, they watched the opening exploded with dragonlings who raced pell-mell, bounding and flapping to the water but diving in so smoothly they left hardly a ripple.

  Within moments, a five-pound trout flew from the water and flopped frantically down an incline into a puddle. Then came another, and another, until five trout, each big enough to feed two men, gaped—stranded in the rock-bottomed puddle.

  The young dragons emerged from the lake and shook water from their scales.

  “We forgot to ask. How many more would you like, Man? We seem to recall men do not eat the same quantities dragons do,” said the small, golden drake.

  “Um, well, I can only eat one, I'm afraid. Would some of you join me?”

  “Only one,” said the drake in amazement. “No wonder men stay so small.”

  Seth snagged the smallest of the trout, and Emberglow, the orange-reddish drake, turned and paraded to a sunning spot by the lake. The man had selected his catch. Seth fileted the fish, rinsed it in the brook and ate it uncooked. It tasted wonderful. The golden drake offered to dispose of the skin, bones and head for him and finished them with obvious delight.

  The other trout disappeared down the throats of the dragons who caught them. Seth sat on one of the nearby rocks and watched as the young dragons amused themselves by winging high above the lake then dropping like sparkling meteors into the water.

  Two of the group stationed themselves on either side of him and curled up to bask in the sun, but Seth could see they were remaining watchful. They had taken responsibility for him. He was, after all, their “man”. He leaned back. The sun was deliciously warm.

  ~~~~~~~~~~{}~~~~~~~~~~

  Seth awoke in the dark. The air had chilled, but he was still warm. His guards, the emerald female and the golden drake, had edged closer to him, and the heat from their bodies kept him warm. Even though dragons had scales, they weren't cold-blooded. They weren't even warm-blooded. Their body temperature was so high they seemed like sun-baked rocks. Seth had found it very cozy riding to Dragonsmere upon Windsinger.

  He heard soft clicking sounds signaling two, no three, young dragons were hurrying toward them from the passageway. “Gemglow! Nugget! the Elder has returned, and the man is to meet with the Council.” The messengers were excited, even agitated, by their own news.

  “Is it time already?” asked Seth. “I must've slept for hours.”

  The emerald female, Gemglow, looked at him in wonder. “You knew the Council would talk with you, and you went to sleep?”

  “He is obviously a very important man,” said Nugget.

  The three messengers sat back on their hind legs and looked impressed. Seth was picking out how dragons showed their emotions.

  “Well,” Seth said, “I was exhausted.”

  “He's just saying that,” said Nugget. “I'm sure he's very important.”

  Gemglow clicked her claws on the stone. “Never mind now, we've got to get him ready.”

  “What do you do to get a man ready? Polish his scales?” said the smallest of the three messengers. The messengers drummed their wings on their sides and made odd huffing noises they seemed almost unable to control.

  “This is no time for your dumb jokes, Garnet. You clearly remember nothing about council decorum yet,” snapped Gemglow.

  “I do so,” protested Garnet. But Gemglow fixed him with a wilting glare and he shut his mouth in mid-protest.

  “Now,” said Gemglow, “you must remember, Man, when you come before the Council, you should not speak first. Sometimes they will sit in silence for a long time, mayhap to see how patient you can be. No one knows for sure, but don't speak first. If you do, they might not reply, and then where would you be?”

  Seth nodded.

  “Also,” Nugget butted in. “Never speak to anyone other than the Elder unless one of the Council addresses you. That would be most discourteous.”

  “Oh yes, yes, most discourteous,” agreed the others.

  Gemglow nodded agreement and gave her final advice with accustomed authority. “And whenever possible, try to phrase what you say as a question. It will come off much better that way.”

  “Thank you very much for the advice,” said Seth, who appreciated the tips. “But hadn't I better be going?”

  “Yes, you should,” they all agreed. “Hurry along then.”

  “Will someone show me the way?” Seth prompted.

  Silence.

  “I'll take you,” said Garnet.

  “And don't forget to announce him,” said Gemglow.

  “Of course,” snorted Garnet. “You needn't tell me what to do. I don't see you in a rush to go before the Council. Do you think I'd offer if I thought I might mess up?”

  “No one doubts your nerve, Garnet,” said Nugget.

  The small reddish-brown drake dipped his chin to Seth and said, “This way, Man,” He turned and trudged toward the corridor.

  Seth followed. They wound through several corridors that soon became large enough for three of the biggest dragons Seth had seen to walk side by side. With every step, Garnet moved with more reluctance.

  At this point Seth was feeling nervous too. Though Garnet was small for a dragon, he was still bigger than the largest war-horses in Arod's stables. Seth imagined even a dozen armed warriors would hate to come up against him when he was angry. It was hard to imagine such a formidable creature frightened of just appearing in front of this Council.

  They rounded a corner—into a chamber whose ceiling soared off in the distance, out of sight behind hundreds of tall supporting pillars—and almost collided with Windsinger. Seth shivered from the shock of dragonsruck that accompanied the huge drake.

  “The Council has directed me to bring you to them, man of the coastlands,” said Windsinger. “Thank you for your help, Garnet.”

  The young dragon perked up. “Oh, no problem at all, none at all. Good fortune in the council room, man.” He trotted off jauntily, relieved to have an honorable ou
t.

  Windsinger turned, winding a way through the pillars. Seth hurried after him. At the end of the chamber, they came to a huge, arched opening where Windsinger stopped.

  “What is it?” asked Seth.

  “This is the council chamber,” said Windsinger.

  “Do we wait here?” asked Seth.

  “No, it's just... I get a little nervous. Let's go.” Windsinger took a deep breath and stepped through the door.

  With a deep breath of his own, Seth followed.

  It took Seth's eyes a moment to adjust to the darkness, but this room was as large as the one they had just left. The echo of their footsteps told that much, but the illuminating slabs of quartz were missing.

  Windsinger spoke, clear and firm. “The one called has come.” Then he turned and hurried out.

  As Seth's eyes continued to adjust, he saw luminous orbs in the dark. Two pairs hugged the ground. Three pairs were about twenty feet above the floor. One pair moved from side to side, and the seventh—and largest—pair was only a few feet away at eye level.

  They were—of course—the eyes of the Council.

  Seth waited for his vision to adjust. The forms of huge dragons coalesced behind the eyes. Seth knew them, their names and features passed down to him from Jyrmak.

  Jian the Golden, a thousand leagues of glistening coils—how many were illusion none could say.

  Shadowdragon, mysterious and dark—master of a thousand arts.

  Ealoi the Singer, his crystal scales chimed when he moved.

  Orm Firedrake, whose eyes blazed like windblown coals.

  Corona Sea Mistress, smelling of ocean spray, her green eyes were stormy and calm at once and mirrored all the ocean's moods.

  Tor Windkeeper, the ruler of the sky roads; faint copies of his brilliant eyes gazed from the mightiest eagles, and his sight extended far past the realm of things visible to humans.

  Seth stood before the Elder, the Guardian of Wisdom. He was not so large as Firedrake nor as glittering as the Golden, but his eyes were wise and deep and old, old, old. Seth didn’t know the Elder’s truename. No one living did. For a moment, Seth sensed another presence in the room, as though another dragon loomed in the shadows behind the Elder. But, his eyes—adjusting to the dark—saw nothing when he looked again.