Dragonseers and Airships

by Chris Behrsin

  A soft green light began to pulse through the brass tubing in the armour, then it pulsed even more faintly through Velos’ veins. I found my way back into Velos’ mind, for the next job was critical. We had bombs to disable. Even stopping just one of them might stop the eruption and save the island.

  I could see through Velos’ eyes now. The secicao the armour injected didn’t have the same kind of benefit as Sukina’s blend of secicao. Velos didn’t see the world in speckled green and registered heat signatures but through a telescopic sight. He could zoom in on his targets with laser precision and watch them from afar. That would explain how Velos had been so accurate in his movements when augmented.

  I willed Velos to use to search for the panthers with the dynamite on them. We found one, this time with a turquoise hue underneath its green glowing veins. Velos roared to the sky and dived down towards the panther, folding his wings and arms close to his body so he could spear through the rising waves of heat.

  “What are you doing, Velos?” Faso objected from behind him. But Velos wasn’t listening and wouldn’t have understood Faso’s words anyway.

  The panther automaton noticed Velos approaching and turned its head upwards towards the dragon. But instead of creating a glowing white ball in its mouth, I could swear its mechanical lips curled upwards into a grin. I noticed the dynamite on its back then, the lit fuse and the spark travelling incredibly fast towards its target.

  “Velos, it’s going to blow,” Faso screamed.

  The dragon didn’t need to be told twice. He opened his wings and jerked upwards into the air, just as the dynamite exploded. He shot out of the flames, super-fast due to the secicao pulsing through his veins. I could feel both exhilaration and fear in Velos at the same time. Faso screamed out from behind him.

  But Pontopa Wells was fading, and I could feel the tug on my spirit back to her. It was time to become human again. Time to leave the collective unconscious to its own devices.

  I dashed away from Velos and Faso, praying to the Gods Themselves that Velos and Faso would survive this explosion. Like a shooting star in reverse, I passed through the flames from the explosions that engulfed the volcano. Upwards and upwards, I went towards the airship. Over to Pontopa Wells, her face as white as a ghoul, her body on the edge of death.

  Yes, it was time to become me again.

  “So, I see you’ve chosen death,” Colas said. “Very well, we shall all find our own path.”

  But I, Pontopa Wells, couldn’t die yet. I stood up on shaky legs, trying not to expend any energy on screaming as the pain lanced through my stomach. The massive automaton on wheels tipped the flask as I approached it. I put my lips to the glass and I opened my mouth. The metallic liquid mixed with the taste of bile and blood in there.

  “That’s it, girl,” Colas said. “I knew you’d come to your senses. I just hope it’s not too late.” And, through blurry eyes, I saw him rub his hands together.

  Meanwhile, the Exalmpora trickled down my throat and for a moment, the pain left my stomach and my muscles became utterly numb. I would die here, and I knew it. This was the end of the road.

  “Not now, my darling”. Finesia’s voice manifested itself in my head, clearer than ever. “I can’t let my most trusted acolyte just pass on. We have a long road to travel together, and this is just the start.”

  The numbness left me, and the pain of being shot lanced through my stomach and the small of the back. I lifted my head to the sky to scream. But it wasn’t an effeminate scream anymore. This was the roar of another kind of creature. The pain radiated from my stomach to my chest, to my neck and face and limbs and every nerve in my body. I felt my skin tear and stretch and writhe, as someone had just emptied a vat of boiling acid on me. I gnashed out at the sky and roared once again.

  Clarity returned to my vision first, and I looked over at Colas, smiling at me. He said nothing, but his eyes were fixated on my arms. The skin there was twisting around black scales that had begun to grow out of it. I put my hand to my face and felt at the roughness, and then I looked at the leathery complexion on the palm of my hand. Blackened patterns swirled beneath the skin, like living tattoos.

  “This is it, my darling. Your transformation will soon be complete, and then your minions will join you shortly after.”

  “Pontopa…” I heard Sukina’s voice in my head then. “You promised me…”

  Then I remembered Taka for a brief moment. What would happen to him now?

  “It doesn’t matter now, my dear,” Finesia’s voice came in my head. “I’ve been working on the boy for a long time. Taka is part of this, he’ll join our new race of immortals, and we’ll rule together as one.”

  I felt my strength returning and I felt more alive than I’d ever been. This wasn’t the first time I’d started to transform like this. It had also happened back in the palace, just after I’d married Francoiso. I’d launched myself on Sukina then and almost strangled the life out of her. I’d wanted the power and she’d wanted to take it away from me.

  “Pontopa, stop,” Sukina’s voice was there in my head. But no, it wasn’t Sukina, this was the collective unconscious reaching out to me. But it couldn’t quite find purchase inside my mind. Not while I had the spirit of Finesia thrumming through every vein and artery in my body.

  “This is how it feels to have power,” Finesia’s voice was sweet and enticing,” and you can have everything you’ve ever wanted.”

  I looked down at my arms and willed the scales to return to underneath the skin. I didn’t need to become a dragon just yet. There’d be time for that later. Other scales had also grown on my body, my face, legs and breasts, and I also sent them back to from where they had grown. I walked over to the brass railing so I could examine my reflection, warped by the curve of the metal.

  Yes, I was the same old Pontopa Wells, I still had her natural beauty. But now I had something else, an air of confidence and grace that could rival Alsie. Soon I could fight her. I could use the new powers which I could feel thrumming through me to take the wench down.

  “Pontopa, this isn’t you,” Sukina said in the collective unconscious again. But I didn’t want to listen to her anymore. I was sick of people telling me what to do. I’d been free before this had all started. Until Sukina Sako came to the Five Hamlets, told me I was a dragonseer and needed to join Gerhaun Forsi’s cause, and thus snatched my free will away.

  I took a deep breath and then raised my hands to my temples. Then, I pushed out with the will of my mind and let out a scream in the collective unconscious. That would shut Sukina’s voice up for a while.

  “Auntie Pontopa, that hurt…” Taka said after a moment.

  “Taka,” I said. “I’ll be down for you soon.”

  “You’ve become a dragonwoman… Auntie Pontopa, is this right?”

  I nodded and smiled. “It is.” I felt sure of that fact at that moment.

  “Auntie, can you hear the lady’s voice in your head too? She calls herself an Empress and she scares me. She’s always been there, Auntie.”

  “She’s nothing to be scared of, Taka. Empress Finesia is our friend.”

  “If you say so, Auntie…” He didn’t sound entirely convinced.

  But I had nothing more to say to Taka, so I cut off the channel.

  Then, I turned to Colas. He’d served Finesia now, but he no longer needed to be a part of this. “You deserve to die,” I said.

  Colas smirked. “Yes, I do. Then, I can join you, as Finesia has planned.”

  Then there came a roar from the sky and the deck rocked even more, and not from the wind. I heard a scuffle from behind me and turned to see a black dragon landing on the deck.

  “Charth?” I said.

  “Pontopa,” he said. “You’re a dragonwoman. What did my father do to you?”

  “Oh, let’s have this conversation out here for the benefit of us all. I’m sure your father would want to hear it too,” I said, and I turned to Colas.

  Colas was regarding the d
ragonman with wide eyes. “Charth, why don’t you turn to human form so I can see you. I haven’t seen you in years.”

  But Charth seemed even more different than he had done before. There was something wild about him now. Brooding. Intense. Passionate. And, somehow, I liked it.

  “My father doesn’t even deserve to hear my voice,” Charth said in the collective unconscious. And he let out a huge roar to communicate the same to his father. He lifted himself up and shot towards the old man, grabbing him in his claws. He carried Colas off into the sky. The old man seemed to have accepted his fate, and he simply relaxed into the enormous black dragon’s grasp. No struggling. No fighting for his life.

  “We will all be reborn,” he shouted out. “Oh Charth, you can’t do anything to stop it now.”

  But Charth didn’t seem to care. The dragonman dropped Colas into the volcano, and the old man fell like a ragdoll. He plopped into the lava just like Wiggea had, letting out a faint plume of smoke.

  “Wiggea.” I remembered what had happened to him and a tinge of sorrow rose up within me. “How could I forget him?”

  But that brief feeling of sadness was soon settled by Finesia’s soothing voice resonating through my mind.

  “Oh, there’s no need for sorrow now, my beloved immortal. Together we will rule this world and you shall not have to feel any kind of remorse or anger ever again.”

  Charth landed back on the deck and then he roared out to me. A plume of black dust rose around him. Soon, this subsided, and Charth appeared fully clothed in his human form. “Pontopa,” he said and approached me fast. He took me by the collar of my jerkin. “Snap out of it.”

  “No,” I said. “This is Finesia’s will.”

  Charth didn’t hesitate to react. He pulled back his hand and then slapped me across the face, stinging at the cheek. At first, I felt angry and wanted to turn to a dragon and tear out his throat.

  But then my connection to the goddess snapped, and I remembered myself. I shook my head, and though Finesia was screaming out at me, I pushed her to the back of my mind.

  Charth examined his hand as if the slap had hurt him more than it had hurt me. “I’m sorry. I really don’t like to hit women. But Gerhaun had to do the same for me at one point.”

  I looked into Charth’s grey, beautiful eyes then. Despite the plainness of his attire, he was handsome, just like his brother. And one of the most heroic men I’d ever known.

  And yet he was livelier now. His voice less dour, as if he was on the edge of a transformation. But regardless, he’d saved me from stepping over the edge. He’d reminded me of what we were fighting.

  “No,” Finesia’s voice came in my head. “You can’t leave me. You’ve completed the transformation and I’ll always be there.”

  “Not if I learn to ignore you.”

  “You can’t just keep me out of your head.”

  “Yes, but I can choose not to listen.” And I remembered Sukina’s lessons about distancing my thoughts. How I’d managed to forget about the spider automaton crawling over me in the darkened room, how I’d transcended from fear to absolute calm.

  “You won’t win,” Finesia said inside my head. “And Charth is already close to losing himself to me… You’re one of the same you and him. You will bow to the will of Finesia eventually.”

  “We’ll find a way to defeat you,” I said. “Inside my mind or not, you are still my enemy.”

  And even though Finesia nattered at the back of my mind, I pushed her away and closed the door… at least for a while.

  I took a deep breath.

  “Charth… You’re back?” I heard Taka say in the collective unconscious. “Are you here to stay?”

  A sliver of regret graced the dragonman’s face. “I can’t stay forever, I’m afraid, Taka.”

  “Has the horrible old man gone? He said nasty things about me and he took my blood and then he made me drink this disgusting liquid. He said that I’d live forever, but I’m not sure I want to live forever.”

  I shook my head and looked down where the old man had plopped into the lava pit. He seemed to think that he’d return as a new creature, but I saw no sign of it. Hopefully, he was dead and gone for good. “He won’t bother us again… And Taka, I’m so sorry I forgot your birthday. I didn’t intend to be mean to you.”

  “It’s okay…” Taka said. “But, Auntie Pontopa, that voice in my head, it won’t go away.”

  I shook my head. “Where are you?”

  “I don’t know, Auntie. The big man put me in a room down here and locked the door. He said it was a punishment for talking too much. I tried screaming, but I don’t think anyone can hear me. I don’t feel right Auntie, and I don’t want to listen to the voice.”

  “I’m coming down to get you, Taka,” I said. And I looked around for the panther automaton, half expecting it to leap at me as soon as I took one step. But instead, it stayed in the corner by the deck, seemingly unwilling to move. It looked at me like a housecat would, squinted, and then turned its head away from me and yawned. Without Colas here, it seemed to have lost its fighting spirit, or maybe it had found its own type of free will.

  “Pontopa, there’s something you should know,” Charth said. “I wanted to come straight here to finally get my revenge on my father, but I saw boats and airships on the horizon, so I went to investigate. Alsie has this place surrounded. The only escape is inland through Cadigan.”

  “Then we’ll go that way.”

  “She gave me a message as well, and she told me she wouldn’t tear me to pieces if you delivered it. Cini has a fleet stationed at Oahastin, just south of where your fleet is, cutting off any retreat. He was lying in wait all this time and knew you were coming.”

  “Dragonheats,” I said. “We haven’t got much time.” I kind of hoped that I could turn to a dragonwoman and use my powers to turn the battle in our favour.

  “That’s it, my acolyte. Use the powers I’ve granted you and bring yourself ever closer to your destiny.” Something about those words caused me to latch on to them, despite having successfully kept Finesia’s recent babble away. Much as I wanted to, I knew that if I turned into a dragon, I’d shift even further to Finesia’s side. That’s what she wanted me to do.

  Was this why Gerhaun refused to let Charth back in? Because he’d turned into a dragon so much and called on Finesia’s other powers. When I thought about it, it made a lot of sense.

  “I won’t do your bidding,” I said to Finesia, and I shut her voice into a corner of my mind.

  Charth was staring into my eyes as if he could look through them and see what was going on inside my head. “You must push her away,” he said out loud this time. “I can’t hold on much longer, but I think you’re stronger Dragonseer Wells. Hold on for as long as you can.”

  “If only there were a way to reverse the process. If only you could become human again.”

  Charth looked out into the distance, as the volcano roared beneath us. “I’ve wished the same many times.” And below us, came a massive crunching sound. I looked down to see dust rising from the volcano and earth sliding down the inner surface into the pit. The volcano hadn’t erupted yet, but the gondola rocked even more as the rising heat created increasing waves of turbulence.

  “We should go down and get Taka,” I said, and I hurried towards the staircase, looking over my shoulder to ensure the panther automaton stayed in place. It no longer had that green light flowing through it now, nor did it have that purple sheen to it. In fact, its skin was black, like a normal panther. It had now fulfilled its purpose, I guessed and needed power no more.

  I waltzed down the staircase and found myself in a corridor with several cabins on either side. Red light filled the space from the lava pit below. Most of the doors I passed were open, some with bunk beds in them and various mechanical bits and bobs such as radio equipment and piles of automaton parts. But one indeed was closed. It didn’t even have a lock, just a metal bar over a latch. I lifted this and opened the door to see Ta
ka over the other side, his eyes wide and reddened, as if he’d been crying. As soon as he saw me, he ran into my arms.

  “Oh, Auntie Pontopa. You came. I was so scared. I thought I’d never see daylight again after Yarand shut me up for the last time.”

  I shook my head. “Do you still hear the voice inside your head?”

  “Finesia’s gone for now. She went away for a while when I left Cini’s palace as well. But she comes back sometimes, Auntie. And she scares me.”

  I nodded. “She scares me too, dear. But we have to learn to ignore her.”

  “I’m trying Auntie. And I’m sorry I listened to her. I shouldn’t have left Fortress Gerhaun. Finesia told me it would make me happy again, but she was wrong.” He broke off the hug and took hold of my hand.

  I went upstairs to see Velos hovering in the air just to the side of the deck. Faso sat on the backseat. The inventor had a pistol pointed at Charth. He must have had a spare one stashed in the backseat, maybe in a secret compartment that he hadn’t told me about.

  “Charth,” he said. “I warn you, take one step closer, and I will shoot.”

  Charth had his hands up in the air. But I doubted Faso was a sure enough shot to take the dragonman down.

  “Faso,” I said. “Put the gun down. Charth means us no harm. And say hello to your son here.”

  Faso looked over at us. I snorted. He had been so focused on taking down his long-time rival that he hadn’t even noticed us come up on deck. “Taka… A belated happy birthday, I guess.”

  “Thank you, Papo. Can we play dragons and automatons when we get home?”

  “We certainly can. But, Pontopa, if I’m not going to shoot the dragonman, then we need to get out of here. Did you see the landslide?”

  I nodded. “It made a bit of a racket.”

  “Just a bit… Look, Colas set off some bombs in the volcano and I can tell from the way it’s behaving, it’s going to blow.”

  “But we’re in the air,” I said. “And this airship isn’t showing any sign of sinking. Alsie has us surrounded and we need to take some time to work out our escape route. Why don’t you come on deck?”