“Time for Phase Two,” Faso’s voice came from a talkie at my hip. He was somewhere nearby, surveying the scene from an airship. But the clouds were so thick I couldn’t see his position through the murk. “Are you ready?”
I took hold of the talkie and spoke into it. “Ready as can be. You keeping track of the score?”
“Of course,” Faso said. “And I can see Taka is winning hands down. What happened to you, Pontopa?”
“The boy’s good,” I said. In all honesty, if it weren’t for the medication, I would have been a lot sharper, a lot faster on my feet, and a lot quicker to react.
“Okay, so I’m calling them in,” Faso said. And the talkie crackled and then cut out.
This time, Faso would call the spider automatons in in droves. And so, taking them down wasn’t a job for rifles. There was no way that Taka or I, even augmented, could bring down a good dozen of these things with just a few rifle shots before they swamped us.
I waited for a sound, wondering exactly when the automatons would attack. Faso had modified the spider automatons so they could now bury themselves in the soil and jump out and ambush us. For all we knew, they could have been scurrying under our feet right that moment.
“Taka,” I said. “Can you sense anything?”
“Negative, Maam,” he said, with a slight undertone of sarcasm in the word, Maam. He was getting close to that sullen teen point of his life. Yet, his transformation had seemed to accelerate the last few months or so. I just hoped that it was natural, and not Finesia trying to take control of him.
“Just keep an eye out. Always be vigilant, Taka, you don’t know what lies in wait.”
He looked up at me, and I could faintly make out the traces of a smile at the sides of his mask, a tube leading from the glass to a tank on his back. But the tank was empty, as Gerhaun and I wanted him to learn how to fight without secicao. His long-gone mother, Sukina, had trained in much the same way. To work on the foundations first, so the skills were even stronger after augmenting.
“Oh yes, wise master,” Taka said in mock reply. “I’ll heed every word you say.”
“And you can stop that sarcasm immediately. It really is the lowest form of wit.”
Taka put out his hand to still me and then turned his head slightly and cupped his hand to his ear. “There, Auntie. Can you hear it?” He pointed out into the distance. But I could see nothing beyond the thick secicao clouds.
“What?”
“Ha ha, made you look.”
“Taka, this isn’t a joke. You won’t have time to fool around like this in true combat situations. Give this one the respect it deserves.”
“But this isn’t a full combat situation. It’s a stupid training drill. And I’ll know when they’re close.”
“But how—”
Taka cut me off by raising a finger to where his lips would be if his mask wasn’t in the way. “This time… Really… Can you hear it?”
“Didn’t I just say this is no time for jokes?”
Taka ignored me and turned slightly to the right and stretched out his arm and index finger towards the horizon. “Just a few hundred metres away…”
“How could you possibly…”
“The secicao… You can sense it too, right?”
I sighed as I wondered what the dragonheats the boy was talking about. Then I squinted, trying to make out the first sign of the automatons’ forms cutting through the secicao clouds. Soon enough, I noticed them, looking kind of spectral in the murk, scampering forward on eight spindly legs.
“Okay, it’s time,” I said. “Now, which dragonsong are you going to use in this situation, Taka?”
“Oh, there are so many to choose from.”
“So pick the first one that seems relevant and give it a try.”
“Hmm. How about the one where Varion the Great flies up into the sky and breathes fire on the whole automaton horde?”
“That’s not a dragonsong,” I replied. “And Varion never did that in your mother’s books.”
“But wouldn’t it be cool if he did?”
“Taka, you should never wish to become a dragon. Those beasts you saw in East Cadigan Island… They weren’t like dragons or humans. They weren’t even natural, but something else entirely. They aren’t things to admire.”
Taka huffed. “Fine,” he said. “So, I could sing, but I have a better idea.” And he cocked his rifle.
The automatons were getting even closer now, and almost in shooting range. Our Pattersonis could reach further than their stun guns, so Taka might take down one. But as for the rest of them…
“Taka, you couldn’t possibly get them all. We have dragons nearby. Use them.”
“But why should I waste their efforts when I can do it myself?” He took a shot from his rifle, and the gunfire echoed through the jungle, the sound bouncing off the secicao trunks. One of the spider automatons sputtered and fell as its mechanical life was snuffed out of it.
“Pontopa,” Faso’s voice came from the talkie at my hip, sounding alarmed. “What the dragonheats are you up to? You were meant to call in the dragons…”
“Not my idea… Taka’s.”
Faso paused a moment, then he spoke a little louder. “Taka, they’ll take you down within seconds. You have no chance against a host of automatons with those kinds of tactics. If this were a real army…”
“But it isn’t, and they won’t.” Taka snatched the talkie out of my hand. “Papo, it’s time to show you how cool your son has become while you were busy working on your mechanical dragon. Are you watching?”
“Taka… I’ve spent hours preparing these automatons for this session. If you think I’m going to let such blatant stupidity off so easily, then you’ve got another thing coming.”
The talkie crackled out, and Taka shrugged and threw it on the floor. I made a mental note to have a word with Faso when he came back to Fortress Gerhaun. He didn’t seem to care whether or not Taka won. Nor about Taka learning valuable lessons. He just wanted to prove how good his technology was.
There came a screeching sound from a nearby spider automaton, and it scurried into life. This time, it turned its turret on Taka. So, it seemed that Faso had programmed the automatons to target me after all. Another thing I’d have to have a word with him about. Even if the shots were non-lethal, they still bloody hurt.
“Think you can punish me, Papo, with your stupid machines,” Taka shot the automaton down before it even had a chance to fire. Up there, Faso was controlling the whole battlefield like it was a game of chess. And Taka seemed to be winning.
Two more automatons came forward in an attempt to flank Taka. One shot, that was what Faso was probably thinking, one non-lethal shot in the chest to teach the boy the value of obedience and following orders.
But Taka raised his nose to the air and regarded both automatons from the bottom of his eyes as they swung their turrets around in sync like clockwork cogs. They fired in unison. But before the shots could hit their targets, Taka cartwheeled out of the way with lightning speed and drop-kicked one automaton on its bulbous head. His foot connected with such force that the spider automaton’s legs snapped, and it collapsed under its own weight.
“I thought we agreed that you wouldn’t augment, Taka,” I said. “Where did you get the secicao from?”
“I didn’t take secicao, Auntie Pontopa. It’s just I’m awesome. See how awesome I am? I can take them all out. There’s only twelve of them.”
“Fine,” Faso’s voice came from the talkie, now on the ground. Naturally, he sounded quite annoyed. “If you’re going to practice insolence Taka, then I’ll send the rest of them against you as one. You can see how you’ll handle an entire force.”
And with those words, the rest of the automatons sprang to life. They started sidling around us, while five of them pushed forward with their turrets trained on Taka. The boy watched them with discernment, waiting for the shots to come.
Soon enough, the legs bucked underneath the
bodies of the foremost automatons as they fired. Taka rolled forward underneath the shots and he emerged with the rifle against his chest. He shot one automaton and smacked another with the butt of his gun. He then vaulted over two automatons and did a backflip to dodge another barrage of shots.
He then spun around and let off another shot. Somehow, he’d reloaded when he was in the air. The automatons continued to fire at him, but he seemed to see their shots coming in advance, cartwheeling and pinwheeling and somersaulting and returning fire. I even saw him let off a few shots in mid-air, my mouth agape behind my mask.
Around ten minutes later, there remained one boy, and a whole dozen destroyed automatons. Taka took a moment to admire his annihilated prey and then walked back over to me.
What I really should have done, was to sing a dragonsong to call the dragons in and show him how he should have behaved in this situation, stolen away his thunder, and bruised his false pride.
But really, I’d been so completely mesmerised with the way he moved, that I’d forgotten myself. His movements reminded me of his mother. If I could cry, I’m sure it would have brought a tear to my eye. He’d been more remarkable than Sukina had been, and that was saying something. And he’d done all this without augmenting. It was impossible.
Taka dusted off his hands. “See, Auntie. Who needs dragons in a situation like this? If there were a thousand of them, then perhaps I would have sung a song. But these things aren’t war automatons, but stupid little toys.”
I shook my head. “Taka, you’re missing the point here. This was meant to be an exercise in dragonsongs, not in showing off your martial arts abilities.” Perhaps I should have given him at least a little praise, but I didn’t want his cockiness to become a habit.
“Then you’ll have to select a more suitable challenge, Maam,” and he gave that mock salute again.
2
Taka didn’t say much on the journey back to Fortress Gerhaun. And, as soon as we landed on the golden coloured mosaic of Gerhaun, the dragon queen, he stormed out of the courtyard.
Instead of chasing after him, I thought I’d let him stew for a while. I didn’t want to encourage him to seek attention when it wasn’t due.
I didn’t see Gerhaun immediately, nor did she acknowledge me in the collective unconscious when I arrived. She might have even been having a nap, which she’d been doing a lot recently. A couple of hours here and there during the day at random times, instead of sleeping for weeks on end. There was an advantage to this, though. This way, I didn’t have to wait ages to wait for her to wake up so I could ask her a question.
But at the same time, her unusual sleeping patterns were making everyone around here anxious, especially the dragons. Longer periods of sleep meant a healthier dragon queen. And shorter ones indicated she might be approaching the end of her long life.
She’d laid the egg of a young dragon queen recently, so fortunately she now had a successor. But it hadn’t hatched yet, and without a dragon queen alive, there would be nothing to keep the secicao out of Fortress Gerhaun. Her presence, as a powerful source of the collective unconscious, pushed the clouds away. But when she died, we’d have between around twenty-four and forty-eight hours before the noxious yellow clouds closed in, suffocating any human life in the fortress. Meaning we’d have to vacate fast.
Unfortunately, her frequent calls to rally the other seven dragon queens remained unanswered, and so we didn’t know if any of them would grant us refuge.
I had other errands to run, so I pushed my worries aside. My supply of cyagora was almost out, and if I wanted to keep Finesia out of my head, I’d need more.
I walked out of the courtyard, through the musty corridors with tapestries of dragons hanging off hooks nailed into the brick walls. After I turned a few corners, I rapped my knuckles on a heavy oak door.
“Come in,” a voice answered after the second knock.
Inside, Doctor Forsolano sat at a desk at one corner of the room. His clinic was spacious, with two patient beds on the right-hand side of it. One of these was a standard adjustable examining bed. The other was a hard-stone table large enough to hold a dragon queen.
A massive canopy spanned over a hole in the ceiling, retractable for those times a dragon needed to enter for treatment. Since moving to the Southlands, Doctor Forsolano had extended his range of expertise as an excellent doctor, to also act as a veterinary surgeon for dragons. You can probably imagine there weren’t many of those in the world.
“Ah, Pontopa,” he said, and he examined me over the top of his horn-rimmed glasses. He was around five years older than my father, so had wrinkles in a few places, but he still looked pretty healthy. “What can I do for you today?”
“I’m almost out of cyagora,” I said. “And I hoped you had access to some more.”
He smiled. “Straight to the point, I see. But I didn’t realise you were due for a refill? How many have you been taking daily?”
“Enough to keep the voice out of my head.”
He frowned and looked down at his notes. “I think… Didn’t we say one every three days?”
“Okay, I admit, I took them every day. But I’m a dragonseer and Finesia’s voice is strong inside me. If I let her have control, there’s a lot more at stake than just my own mind...”
“I see, I see,” he said as if not quite believing me. He was a scientist, after all. He opened his desk drawer and rummaged around inside. “We’ll need to ration them, unfortunately. The next shipment of cyagora hasn’t come in yet, and you can imagine how, in these trying times, supplies are dwindling. There were only two places in the world that cyagora grew and one of them was East Cadigan Island.”
I raised an eyebrow. “The other?”
“The Saye Archipelago. But the king’s been blockading that shipment route recently. There’s a lot of valuable medicine that comes from those islands and King Cini knows this all too well.”
“I can find a way to get Velos over there, so I can forage for what you need.”
“Can’t you employ someone else to do it? Like Mr Gordoni? I’m sure your time here is much more valuable.”
I smiled, imagining the conversation I might have with Faso about this.
“I think Faso would see a task like this as far below his station.” Although, I thought, if I could convince him that it aided science, maybe he’d be a little more receptive to the idea. Perhaps I could tell him how a new branch of medicine had been discovered over there, maybe I could convince him to lead an expedition.
“Very well,” Doctor Forsolano said. “But I wouldn’t be doing my duty if I didn’t say that I didn’t approve of you taking these at the rate you’re taking them. There are other effects, such as on your fertility. I really wish there was another way, Pontopa.”
“Believe me, if there was I’d take it. But Finesia is a risk to all of us. Someone needs to make sure Taka stays on the right track to becoming a dragonseer.”
Admittedly, with the way he was behaving lately, I was concerned that Finesia might have taken control of his mind. But to force a boy to take such huge tablets would be verging on cruel.
Doctor Forsolano shook the jar for a moment and then he handed it over to me.
“You have thirty tablets, and remember, these are my very last. I’ll ask my staff to keep an eye out for merchant traders who are stocking them. But if supplies run out, make sure you wean yourself off them slowly. Don’t even go a day without the drug, for now, do you hear? Otherwise, that voice inside your head will be amplified tenfold.”
I nodded and took hold of the jar while a wave of dread arose in the pit of my stomach. The drugs weren’t pleasant. Each tablet was the size of a small thumb and, if I didn’t take it down in one, its effectiveness would be greatly reduced.
They helped stop thoughts running wild inside the head. This kept Finesia away, the mad empress of legend who wanted to control my mind and convert me to her cause. And listening to her voice could have severe effects.
B
ut the drugs also numbed my connection to the collective unconscious. This meant I couldn’t connect to dragons, I couldn’t communicate with Taka telepathically, and even Gerhaun’s voice came kind of faint inside my head.
“How can I wean myself off them,” I asked Doctor Forsolano, “if I can’t even go a day without them? Didn’t you expect me to take one tablet every three days?”
“That was before I knew you were taking one every day. Now, you’ll need to increase the time in between doses by an hour at a time, waking yourself up in the middle of the night if you have to. This stuff is not to be trifled with, Pontopa.”
I nodded. “Okay, I understand.”
Part of me wasn’t listening. I could go a day without the drug, surely, If I had to. But I wasn’t planning to anytime soon. Doctors always erred on the side of caution to protect their careers. And I was a dragonseer, not an old woman who needed molly-coddling.
“Thanks,” I said. “I’ll stick to the same dose for now. By the way, I need to talk to you about Taka. Has he been in for any check-ups lately? He’s been acting rather strangely recently.”
The doctor tilted his head to the side. “In what way?”
“He has these awesome abilities, but I have no idea where he’s getting them from. Could you possibly keep an eye on him? Check out for signs of secicao addiction?”
That was the thing people rarely mentioned about secicao. You could get addicted to it. The hot cups of the beverage widely distributed in secicao houses around the world weren’t so dangerous. But secicao was when it was in its most concentrated form as oil.
This was why King Cini only allowed access of secicao oil to his military. Otherwise, he’d risk a nation going riot after the stuff.
Also, if the citizens of the Northern Continent consumed the stuff in such concentrated quantities, the secicao in their urine would leach into the soil, acidifying it and creating conditions perfect for secicao and no other life to grow. This was already happening with the massive consumption of secicao by the cup. But everyone drinking the oil would accelerate the process even more.
Dragonseers and Airships Page 59
