“One of the Famous Four,” Wiggea replied. “Indira.”
My heart jumped in my chest as soon as he mentioned the Famous Four. These were the four dragonseers who had apparently been executed in the gas tower by King Cini II. But I later learned that three of those dragonseers survived, being later fed Exalmpora by Captain Colas until they became a different kind of creature. One that could turn into dragons and also tended to hear the voice of a mad goddess inside their heads. Alsie was one of them. Charth and Francoiso were the other two, transformed from woman to man due to Exalmpora. Just like Taka had been.
But Indira wasn’t among those three. “She was the one who died?”
“Yes, the only one who actually was executed in Cini II’s gas tower. But she had a daughter. Before Indira was captured by the king’s forces, in Spezzio, she managed to sneak Hastina inside a merchant ship heading to Oahastin. I met the young lady later in the city, and we fell in love. Then when I heard about the Battle of Ginlast where Sukina’s mother died, I vouched to protect her once the king came looking for her… But I failed…”
I put my hand on his shoulder. Wiggea was someone I never thought I’d see with a tear in his eye. “You can’t blame yourself,” I said.
Wiggea shook her head. “I took her to the mountains. I knew of a cave up there where no one would even think of looking. And we hid there while the king and his troops scoured the city. I’d left a note with the pastor of the church to forge her death records. That way, the king would turn around and never think to look for her again.
“Of course, he’d leave guards behind, and so instead of returning home we became nomads, roving the land on foot. This was a life Hastina, my wife by then, was okay with. So long as we both lived…
“The king never found her. But once we’d travelled far enough, the desert did. One night, I went out to hunt for food and she was taken by coyotes.” He gazed out into the distance. “Even in times of war, it’s nature that takes us in the end.”
Wiggea was shaking by this point and I could kind of see why he didn’t talk about this much. But then, at the same time, the lieutenant had given me the chance to learn about the fate of two more of this world’s dragonseers. I’d always secretly wondered if there were any of us, other than myself and Taka, left.
“What did you do then?” I asked, as I sensed Wiggea had more he wanted to share.
“Oh, I did what any young fool would do. I whittled my life away in secicao and beer houses. Earning what I could on gambling and taking any menial job that would come my way. But then Sukina came looking for me and told me the truth about secicao and Fortress Gerhaun and what it was doing to the world. After what had happened to Hastina, this time I realized I couldn’t let nature win.”
I shook my head. “What secicao is doing. It’s not nature. The blight is one of the most unnatural things on this earth.” And Finesia also had some connection to it, although I hadn’t quite figured out who exactly she was yet and what part she had to play in this all.
“Yes, I’ve learned that now,” Wiggea said. “And I’ve grown inside since. I’m doing good now, and I’m fighting for what I feel Hastina would have fought for if she’d only had the chance. What her mother once fought for and what Dragonseer Sako fought for. What every single person on this planet should be fighting for. I found my purpose in life, and I know that you’ve also found yours.”
I smiled. “I have. Thanks to Sukina.”
Wiggea’s gaze drifted off into the distance. “She did a lot for us,” he said. “And I’m sure you will do too in the future, Maam.”
“I hope so,” I said. Although, I still had no clue how I’d live up to the legacy she’d left behind.
“Just give it time,” Wiggea said. And he looked at me with an expression I could only call admiration. He held the gaze for a moment, and then he seemed to remember himself and broke it off again.
“Look, Maam, I think we’re being signalled.” He pointed over to where the Saye Explorer had now steered into view. A man, probably officer Candiorno, was on deck there waving an orange and white chequered flag, signalling all high-ranking officials to adjourn there immediately. At the same time, a barrage of cannon fire boomed from one side of the ship to get our attention, sending up an explosion of water from the sea.
“I guess we better be getting back to work then.” I said.
Wiggea accompanied me below deck, where I sang to Velos to lead him over to the elevator and onto the carrier’s elevator platform. I knew this would be the quickest way to get Velos outside, rather than finding someone to open the hatch on the ceiling.
We both mounted via the armour, Wiggea at the back and myself at the front, and then I pulled up on Velos’ steering fin to get him to take off. At first, he roared out a protestation. I could feel the stiffness in his muscles from being knocked around the previous day and wellies, truth be told, I was pretty sore myself.
“We’re doing this for Taka, remember,” I said to him. “We can’t rest forever.” I let out a harmonious dragonsong to give Velos a little extra courage to carry on.
He roared again, but this roar was quieter with a flavour of appreciation. He then beat his wings and lifted us off into the air.
General Sako, Admiral Sandao, Faso, Asinal Winda and many of the officers already had set up on the quarterdeck as we flew towards them. They were seated around a large oval metal conference table. The sun glinted off this, causing me to shield my eyes when bringing Velos in to land.
Faso stood up from his wooden director’s chair as soon as we came in and walked over to examine the soft tanks on either side of the dragon armour. He didn’t even give us time to dismount before he started screaming up at us, his face red.
“It’s completely depleted of secicao. What in the dragonheats did you do to lose all the fuel?”
That caused rage to flare inside my chest. Trust Faso to be immediately moaning about the technology. No, ‘how are you? I heard you had quite a rough ride.’
“The secicao helped us survive the storm,” I replied, and I’m sure I ever so slightly had raised the volume of my voice. “If it weren’t for Wiggea’s quick thinking, Velos probably wouldn’t have had the strength to land.”
“The armour can’t have possibly used it all up in such a short space of time. Even in a superstorm.” Faso cast a scowl at Wiggea. “Did you leave the spigot open overnight?” Ratter stood on Faso’s shoulder glaring at Wiggea, and I could swear that his eyes flared red light whenever Faso raised his voice.
“I’m sorry, Mr Gordoni,” Wiggea said and tugged at his collar. “I didn’t think…”
“So you should be, lieutenant. You’ve depleted valuable reserves. I only brought one more tankful with me, resources being limited. Now, that will have to last us the entire trip.”
Now, I wasn’t going to let Faso stand there and lay into Wiggea like that. Particularly after the lieutenant had helped saved mine and the dragon’s life. “It’s not as if you gave him clear instructions. You can’t hold other people responsible for your own shortcomings.”
Faso raised his head to the sky and scoffed. “I hadn’t expected anyone to want to use the armour but myself. What the dragonheats did you need to use the secicao for, anyway? The carrier was only leagues away when you set off.”
I put my hands on my hips. “Faso, have you ever tried to land a dragon on a carrier during a superstorm?”
“No, I’ve always left the piloting to you. So I can do useful things like navigate and operate the armour from the backseat. I have to do these things myself as other people tend to mess them up.” He glanced over at Asinal Winda sitting at the table, as if she too was guilty of something.
“Well you’re never going to get a chance in your lifetime to fly Velos,” I said. “Now, you should apologise to Lieutenant Wiggea here. As usual, your behaviour is unnecessarily rude.”
Wiggea put his hands up in front of him. “Dragonseer Wells, it’s okay.” He turned to Faso. “I’m sorry
Mr Gordoni, I’ll be more careful next time.”
Faso didn’t even offer him a glance. “See,” he said to me instead. “I’m glad one of us knows his place here. Now, if you excuse me, I have to work on refuelling Velos.” And he stormed off and disappeared into the quarterdeck cabin.
I turned to Wiggea. “Lieutenant, why didn’t you stand up for yourself.”
To which he let off a handsome smile. “I always think it’s better to pick your battles. Some people just aren’t worth fighting.”
I shrugged. “I guess you’re right,” I said. “Though, somehow that man always gets under my skin.”
“Only because you let him. And it looks like he feeds off that. He’d probably be much calmer if everyone just ignored him.”
“And then he’d throw his weight around and start to get his own way.”
“Not if people refused to cooperate. Passive resistance is quite a powerful thing.”
General Sako had just stood up from his seat and walked over to us. While we were talking, Lieutenant Candiorno had laid out a map of Cadigan and East Cadigan Island on the table.
“Where’s that buffoon think he’s going?” General Sako said. And he indicated towards the quarterdeck door that was still swinging on its hinges.
“He said he wanted to go and refuel the armour.”
“Well, that can bloody well wait,” General Sako said. “Blunders and dragonheats, that man sometimes. Candiorno! Go down and tell Faso Gordoni that I’ve ordered him to return immediately.”
Candiorno saluted. “With pleasure, General,” he said, and he followed Faso into the quarterdeck cabin.
General Sako turned to me. “Dragonseer Wells, I’ve already heard about the trouble you had with the storm. It damaged the radio equipment on the Saye Explorer, unfortunately. So we’ve had to communicate by semaphore. But we managed to garner enough information to learn you had quite a rough landing.”
I nodded. “The storm came around so fast.”
Admiral Sandao had now walked over to join us. He nodded as he heard what I’d just said. “Superstorms are becoming an increasing problem for ships travelling to and from Cadigan. Fortress Gerhaun and its navy get their coal from there, and we’ve had a lot of, let’s say, disrupted shipments.”
“Disrupted?” I asked.
“Or, I have to admit, in the most part totally destroyed. Gerhaun thinks these superstorms are due to rise of secicao. She claims that because the blight is causing the land in the Northern Continent to become increasingly barren, there’s less shelter to block gathering winds. But, anyway, you might have heard that the storm also gifted us with powerful after-currents that have sped us on our way towards Paradise Reef. We should be there must sooner than expected.”
“Yes quite,” General Sako glanced at his peer.
“I’m sorry, Miss Wells,” Admiral Sandao said. “I wanted to get the information over to you sooner, but we got somewhat distracted.” He looked down at the lower deck, where Faso walked out of a new door accompanied by Candiorno. The inventor’s face was almost deep purple in colour. He must have rushed through the ship in quite a sulk, as he’d managed to walk half of it in virtually no time at all.
“I’m sure there was no rush,” I said to Sandao. “So, when exactly will we arrive?”
“In five or so hours,” Sandao said. “We just wanted to call a briefing and make sure everyone’s well prepared.”
“We don’t even know where to find Colas,” I pointed out.
“Yes,” Sandao said. “Well, we have some extra data on that. We’ll discuss this as soon as Faso gets here.”
Faso walked right up to our conversation. He looked as if Candiorno hadn’t been particularly respectful to him, his nostrils flared out, which admittedly caused me some satisfaction to see. Candiorno should have been the one angry having to rush after him so fast. But I guess the officer would have had to learn to deal with short-tempered people much earlier in his career.
“This better be important, General Sako,” Faso said. “Because I’ve already seen you pin Captain Colas’ location and I need to refuel the armour as quickly as possible.”
“Can’t you ask Winda to do it?” She was sitting at the table, talking to one of the officers sitting beside her, both of them drinking their cups of Saye Archipelago tea.
“I’ve not trained Winda in this task yet. And I don’t want anyone to make any stupid mistakes like leaving the tap open. No, no, it’s better if I handle this one myself.”
“You’ll have time to do that after the briefing, Gordoni,” General Sako said. “But for now it’s crucial that we make sure yours, Wiggea and Pontopa’s operations will be aligned with those of our forces.”
“What’s there to discuss,” Faso said. “We go in, get Taka back, and your forces sit tight here until we come back again.”
General Sako walked up to Faso and put a finger to his chest. While many years ago Faso would have cowered at this, now he just looked down at it in disdain.
“Look, Gordoni boy. I don’t like the way you’ve been talking to your superiors lately. If you’re not careful, when we get back to Fortress Gerhaun, I’ll have you court-martialled for insubordination. We’ll see how you like sleeping on hard wooden planks and eating gruel for a week.”
“I seem to remember, General…” Faso said, putting an extra sarcastic undertone on the final word, “that I’m a civilian and hence you don’t have authority over me. And given I’ll be travelling with Pontopa, surely it should be the dragonseer giving orders, if anyone.”
I chuckled to myself. If Faso thought I’d go easier on him than the general, then he had another thing coming. “Then I order you to show some respect for all the military forces on this boat. And if you show anymore insolence, I’ll make Gerhaun punish you herself.”
“Hah,” Faso said. “She wouldn’t do anything to harm her most valuable scientist.”
“Just try her,” I said. “You saw what she did to the pirate captain, Faso. Gerhaun’s not all smiles and roses, you know.”
Faso swallowed hard and then looked over at the table. “Fine. If it’s so important to you all, I’ll listen to your stupid briefing. But after that, I’m straight back to refuelling.”
“Very well,” Admiral Sandao said. “Then let’s get things underway, shall we?”
We walked over to the table and sat down. This time, Faso chose to sit on one side of me. Wiggea sat on the other. General Sako and Admiral Sandao sat at the heads of the table. A large iron pole on a magnet was placed on the map at the centre of the table, a miniature red flag waving in the breeze over it. All the maps I’d seen in the past of East Cadigan Island had lacked features, instead showing it as a massive sprawl of green land. But this map showed rivers and lakes and mountains and paths that had been cut through by tribesmen and explorers. There were even two ports on the island.
“What are those?” I asked Faso, putting my finger over one of the ports. I figured he knew as he’d already claimed himself an authority on the island.
“What?”
“The ports?”
“Oh, military outposts abandoned a long time ago by King Cini II. Apparently, he didn’t see it as profitable to keep troops here. Although rumours say he had to leave because the jungle ended up swallowing his bases whole.”
“It was dangerous?”
“More difficult to manage, I think. Although historical records from ages past say a great beast used to live there. Something magical, the tribesmen thought. Perhaps these superstitions rubbed off onto the soldiers a bit as well. There are records during the king’s occupation of a creature with glowing red eyes that stalked the night. Complete baloney, I’m sure.”
But after living with a dragon most of my life, I wasn’t the kind to dismiss such things as baloney. “What kind of beast did they say it was?” I asked.
“Some kind of cat, perhaps. With the tail of a reptile. But when I visited a decade or so ago, I saw no sign of any strange, mythical creatures
.”
A harrumph came from the end of the table. General Sako now stood there leaning over the map. After the cough, he took a deep breath and his voice boomed out loud enough to silence everyone. “If you’ve please finished nattering… Thank you.”
I glanced at Wiggea who smiled. He’d probably at to serve under General Sako for a period too, and I guessed he was pretty used to this kind of behaviour.
“Now, if you please,” General Sako continued, “we recovered another of Colas’ crow automatons during the storm. It had somehow navigated over to the Saye Explorer and carried a note in its claws. Lieutenant Candiorno, do you have it?”
Faso Gordoni perked up his ears at this. I guessed Ratter hadn’t been the one to discover the note this time.
“Yes sir.” Officer Candiorno stood up and saluted.
General Sako waited for a moment and the rest of the table remained silent, eyes affixed on Candiorno.
“Blunders and dragonheats, Candiorno. Can’t you think for yourself sometimes? Read the note, dammit.”
“Affirmative sir,” and he took the note out of his pocket and began to study it, tracing a finger across the text.
“I mean out loud, Candiorno. Come on, you’re not a moron.”
“Yes sir,” Candiorno said. Then he cleared his throat and read what the note said.
“To Admiral Sandao, General Sako, Dragonseer Wells, and all the loyal servants of Fortress Gerhaun.
“This storm was my little gift to you. To show you what happens when the powers of magic and science meet.”
At that Faso let out a huge laugh from the base of his belly, causing me to almost jump out of my seat and cutting off Candiorno mid-speech.
“Have you got something to say Gordoni?” General Sako asked.
“Hah. Just that I’d never thought I’d hear such nonsense from Colas. No one on this earth can create a storm, much like they can’t cause a volcano to erupt, or a meteorite to hit us from outer space.”
General Sako twitched his moustache. “Of course. Now, in future, leave your opinions until after my officers have finished speaking. Please carry on, Candiorno.”
Dragonseers and Airships Page 40
