Dragonseers and Airships

by Chris Behrsin

  “Really, it’s nothing… It’s going to be okay.”

  The wind howled across the barren land and whipped against my cheek, numbing it slightly. It brought with it a cold powdered drift of fresh snow. I lifted my scarf to block it off, and Finesia chose that as an apt opportunity to enter my head.

  “I can speak to the boy too, you know?” she said. “There’s nothing you can hide from him.”

  No, I didn’t want this. “Get out of my mind!” I screamed out loud. And Taka jumped back, startled.

  This time, several troops turned to me and put their hands on their rifles. General Sako stepped up from behind and walked up to me. “Dragonseer Wells… What is the meaning of this? You’re scaring the boy and unnerving the troops.”

  “See what I mean about life being one constant struggle?” Finesia said. “Why don’t you just quit now?”

  I pushed her away, then I turned to the general. “Sorry. It won’t happen again.”

  “It better not. Look, I know this is a hard march, and if you need to take a rest at any point, let me know.”

  “I’ll be fine,” I said again, and I could hear the irritation in my own voice.

  “Good.” General Sako nodded and fell back behind the dragons.

  “Auntie,” Taka said. “You told me yourself. Don’t listen to Finesia. She’s talking in my head as well, but I’m not listening to a word she’s saying.”

  “I know,” I said. “I know.”

  And I realised suddenly that I wasn’t looking at a little boy’s face, but the snout of a black dragon. I recoiled in shock and reached out for my rifle. I felt a hand on my shoulder, and I turned around to see Lieutenant Talato’s wide eyes.

  “Maam?” she asked.

  I glanced back at Taka, who was still there. “It’s nothing,” I said. “Let’s continue with the march.”

  We were all silent for the next several minutes. My muscles were sore from never having walked this far. And I appreciated the pain, because it gave me something to focus on separate to my thoughts.

  Ahead of us, the snow lifted off the ground and blew across the horizon in impressive spirals. It danced over the slightly hilly terrain, while sparkles glistened off it from the sunlight. The wind boxed against my right ear and I wished I’d procured some earmuffs.

  “Use my gifts,” Finesia said. “And you’ll never had to worry about pain again. Why fight the weather when you can dance in its shadow?”

  “No,” I said back to her. “I’ll never succumb.”

  “But it’s not a case of succumbing. It’s simply you accept your most natural state. This is what every one of your species ever wanted. To live forever. To profligate and become the most dominant in the whole world. That’s why you have doctors, isn’t it? To defy death.”

  “We have them so we can live another day, but we know that death is always on our doorstep.”

  “Oh, how misguided you are, young acolyte. Soon, you shall realise the truth of your existence.”

  All of a sudden, I saw the air shimmy in the distance. Behind the eddies of snow dancing in the background, something blossomed. A rising explosion, then another next to it, then a third. Next came the booms, like thunder.

  I crouched down, drew the rifle from my back. “Take cover,” I shouted. “Defensive positions!”

  Several of the marines and commandos ducked down on my command and glanced around, looking for something they could hide behind. But Lieutenant Talato and Taka didn’t do anything. Nor did the dragons, for that matter.

  “This is no bloody jest,” General Sako bawled out from behind me. He stood behind me, but I didn’t turn to him as he spoke. Instead, my gaze was locked on waves upon waves of green shimmering Hummingbirds rising into the sky.

  “Can’t you see it? We’re under attack.”

  And I had the sensation of something crawling under my skin. Dragon scales, ready to emerge. Ready to complete my transformation.

  “This is what you want, my acolyte. Accept who you are.”

  “Dragonseer Wells,” Lieutenant Talato said, and she reached to take something out of her pocket.

  General Sako stormed forward, and he turned to me, his face purple. He had a pistol in his hand, though he didn’t point it at me, yet. “What’s the meaning of this? Explain yourself, or I will have to ask my troops to restrain you.”

  I blinked, and then I noticed on the horizon nothing was there. Only the silent drift of snow, resplendent and innocent. I put my hands to my temples, and the skin there felt rather dry.

  “I’m sorry,” I said. “I thought I saw something…”

  General Sako’s moustache twitched, then he holstered his pistol in his belt. “Lieutenant Talato, make sure you keep a close eye on her and alert me if there’s any danger.”

  “I intend to, sir,” she said. And she surveyed me, worry evident in her eyes.

  Finesia was no longer in my head, but my heart was pounding heavily in my chest, and my own worries surged within me.

  I couldn’t do this. There was no way I could keep control. Finesia had a greater dominion over me now. And what if she could also speak to me using my own voice? What if the thoughts I were thinking right now weren’t my own? How then could I trust anything at all?

  I took a deep breath and centred myself, just as both Sukina and Gerhaun had trained me to do. And, although it wasn’t easy, for the rest of the day, I didn’t let myself think anything at all.

  14

  I kept myself calm for the rest of the march. Because I’d blocked off any thoughts that tried to surface in my mind, Finesia had no chance of entering it. We encountered no opposition, and so I only needed to put one foot in front of the other and focus on my breathing. The troops kept eyeing me warily, as well as Faso. Though my behaviour had made no one want to talk to me, allowing me to enjoy a period of respite.

  Soon enough, the sun sank below the horizon and we entered from day into night. Though it was still pretty early – only early evening – we decided it best to make camp. At this point we were only a few hours’ march away from the factory.

  We’d seen movement in the distance, thus we knew where we were heading. It turned out that our objective wasn’t General Sako’s shoe factory, but a remote location in the countryside – a craggy rock face a good fifty or so miles from Ginlast city and outside of the watch of Ginlast’s surrounding villages.

  We approached from the north, with the Ginfro river swishing gently in the distance. Lieutenant Candiorno had gone over to the river with a couple of commandos to catch some fish for breakfast. The rest of the soldiers worked, setting up the tents under the flickering light of oil-lanterns attached to stakes driven into the ground. Soon they had the roll mats and sleeping bags laid out, and with the low orange light revealing the interiors through the open flaps, the tents looked much cosier than I’d expected.

  To keep warm, I’d already acquired and crawled into my sleeping bag. I’d perched myself upright on a low log as I watched the men work. They had now started setting up a large and tall communal tent in the centre of the camp.

  It was early, and I wanted to sit awhile and enjoy the silence of the night, the occasional call of a fox in the distance, and the fresh, cold air. This was the first time in a couple of years I’d been able to leave the Southlands. When you lived in a place for that long, you forgot how good fresh air tasted, despite the slight flavour of camphor coming off the lanterns.

  Talato sat next to me – one perk of being my dragonelite, was that she didn’t have to muck in on the work, as she needed to stay close to me at all times.

  “I hope you don’t mind, Maam,” she said to me once she’d sat herself down. “But General Sako suggested I should sleep in the same tent as you tonight.”

  Usually, as one of Gerhaun’s most senior military, I’d have my own tent. But despite that, I’d already agreed with General Sako and Admiral Sandao that I’d share the tent with Taka to guard over him – and secretly for him to be able to watch ov
er me. But the circumstances, it seemed, had changed this decision.

  “I understand entirely,” I said. “And it’s probably a good idea.”

  “Very good, Maam,” Lieutenant Talato said. “Those drugs you gave me. I almost thought I should drop a tablet down your throat. You looked as if you were going to lose control.”

  I nodded. “I thought so too. Though, this is probably just an effect of me coming off the cyagora. I need to learn to control Finesia inside my own mind.”

  “Does she really talk to you, Maam? I mean, the reason I don’t believe in the Gods Themselves and stuff is I like to believe…” She blushed and tugged on her collar. “I like to believe that we’re agents of our own free will.”

  “So did Charth,” I said, and I gazed off into the darkness, wondering if any wildlife was watching us from the void.

  General Sako and Taka sat on a log a few yards away from Gereve and I. The older man stayed close to the boy, warily looking up at me every so often. And Taka looked completely bored, without even a book to read. But every time he shifted even an inch, General Sako would place his hand on Taka’s knee as if to keep him in place.

  Meanwhile, the troops had almost finished setting up the central communal tent – where we could soon sit to get some extra warmth. I watched them scurry around, producing long metal poles from the rucksacks and slotting them together to form a scaffolding.

  Suddenly, there came a commotion from behind me, and one marine leapt to his feet, drew his rifle, and pointed it into the distance.

  “What is it, Private?” General Sako said, leaping off his perch.

  “There’s a man coming in our direction. Halt right there!”

  But the man didn’t stop, and soon enough I saw him in the light. He had a gaunt face, a bald head dotted with blood clots, an emaciated body, and was wrapped in rags that didn’t quite look like they’d protect him from the cold. I could see how pale his skin was, and it had a very light green glow to it – a sign of secicao addiction.

  “What should I do, sir?” the marine asked.

  “Fire a warning shot,” General Sako said.

  And the soldier shifted his rifle slightly and let off a bullet into the night. Only then did the visitor seem to realise he was in danger. He stopped, looked at the man, and raised his hands as he tottered from side to side.

  “I come in peace,” he shouted, though his words sounded slurred. “I mean you no harm…”

  “State your intention, man,” General Sako said. “Why did you come here?”

  “I came from the factory…” he said. “Please… I needed it.”

  “You needed what?”

  “I needed to escape. They don’t let us out, I tell you. But I got out.”

  I shrugged the sleeping bag off my shoulders, stepped out of it, and walked over to the man. No one moved to stop me, although Lieutenant Talato tagged along closely on my tail.

  “What did they do to you?” I asked. “And how could you come from a factory that is run by automatons?”

  That’s what the article that Papo had shown me last week had said. The factory didn’t need a single person on site.

  “That’s what they say? But” – his eyes glazed over – “the bunnies, they watch over us. And beware of the Gods Themselves, because they have deserted us and left bears and wolves in their place. The squirrels and the rabbits, they talk to me in the night. They climb trees and they fly in the sky. And the shades will descend from above, and the sky will turn dark. Then it shall start.”

  “He’s stark raving mad,” General Sako said. And the old general glared at me, as if suggesting I might be the same.

  “He shouldn’t be here,” Finesia said in my mind. “You must destroy him.”

  And I felt an urge to reach for one of the knives in my boots, but I restrained myself. Beneath the man’s rags, I could see how much he was shivering. After all, he was barely wearing any clothes.

  “He needs medical attention,” I said.

  General Sako nodded and turned to the communal tent. It now had the canvas over it and emitted a soft warm glow from the fire burning inside and the oil lamps hanging from the supporting poles.

  “Set up a bed. And make sure he’s kept warm. Bostok, you’re the medic here.” General Sako turned to one of his own commandos – a man with a thin moustache and pockmarked chin. “Congratulations you have your first patient.”

  “Affirmative, sir.” The medic saluted.

  A marine stepped forward and then restrained the gaunt man with an arm-lock behind his back. He jostled the man towards the communal tent. Bostok recovered a medical kit from the backpack in his tent, and then followed after the marine.

  General Sako looked at me, turned to Lieutenant Talato, and then cast his gaze back at me again. “Dragonseer Wells. I must ask, are you now in charge of your mental faculties?”

  I lowered my head, feeling a little ashamed about what had happened before. I could try telling him I’d never really lost it, but that would cause the general and the troops to lose confidence in me even more.

  “I am,” I said.

  “Good. You need to keep yourself in check. We can’t afford to have any incidents out here.”

  I nodded. “Don’t worry, I have given Lieutenant Talato express orders about what to do in such extreme circumstances.”

  General Sako twitched his moustache. “Very well. Candiorno, look after Taka a while, will you?”

  The ruddy-faced lieutenant saluted sharply and walked up to the boy who didn’t look too happy.

  “Can’t I come into the tent too?” Taka asked.

  “Not until we’ve assessed the danger of the situation,” General Sako said. And decided, I knew he was implying, if we’d need to interrogate the prisoner using extreme measures.

  Taka huffed, some steam arising from his mouth into the air. “Fine, I’ll just stand out here in the cold.”

  I shrugged and gave Taka a sympathetic smile. “We’ll get this out of the way quickly,” I promised him in the collective unconscious. “Meanwhile, keep Velos company.”

  Taka nodded, then turned to Candiorno. “Come on, Lieutenant,” he said. “We’re going to pay the dragons a visit.”

  Surprise registered on Candiorno’s face, obviously not expecting to receive an order from the boy. But he shrank under General Sako’s glare and hastily followed Taka around the side of the tent.

  I’d never appreciated warmth so much in my life. The fire had just lit up in full, and as soon as I entered the tent, it already made the place feel like a sauna, as it melted the snow off the ground.

  “Hot and cold… why do you need them?” Finesia said in my mind. “To an immortal, they serve no purpose. You’ll never have to worry about freezing in the snow or burning your hand in the fire.”

  I let the voice run wild in my head, not doing anything about it. Then, I walked up to the man lying on the bed. His eyes had distinctive purple bags under them, now half-closed, evidently about to drift off. But still he turned to me as I approached.

  “The bears… the wolves. Automatons come to murder us in the night, and if we don’t comply. The man. He’s not a man, but one of the Gods Themselves. The lady, she’s in my head, and calls herself… No, no, the automatons. They will murder me. I must say no more…”

  “This man doesn’t belong here,” Finesia continued. “It’s your duty to put him out of his misery.”

  Meanwhile, General Sako reached out and felt the man’s forehead with the back of his hand. He was sweating buckets underneath the blanket, but then that wasn’t surprising with the amount of heat roaring out from the central fire.

  “It burns, yet it’s so cold,” the man said. “The claw of an automaton and the hand of an empress. Silence, no. My thoughts are my own, but they are not my own. What can the wolves and the bears tell me that the Gods Themselves can’t?”

  General Sako turned to Bostok who was sitting at a small table at the head of the bed, transferring some blood from a s
yringe into a petri dish. “Can you give him something to calm him down?”

  The medic shook his head. “Unfortunately, Doctor Forsolano told me we were out of our supply of suppressive drugs when I asked for a restock.”

  Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Talato wanted to say something. But I glared daggers at her to stop her from doing so. To reveal we had the cyagora might also mean – after my brief ‘incident’ – General Sako would demand I was put on it without realising the consequences.

  “I’m a slave,” the man continued. “A slave to the automatons. A slave to humanity. A slave to those that live outside the void. Bring the whole place down and melt the automatons into liquid metal. But I can’t… She won’t let me. She’s not ready yet. She watches me every step of the way…”

  I’d had just about enough of all this. We didn’t know how much time we had, and it was possible this man could have sent a trail of automatons in his wake. I stepped forward and took hold of the man’s chin. He didn’t seem to resist and looked at me with glazed over eyes.

  “That’s it, my acolyte. You’re learning fast.” Dragonheats, I couldn’t get her out of my head.

  “Tell me what this is about?” I said. “What are these automatons, and who is it that’s watching you?”

  The man’s pupils dilated as he looked at me, and he paused at a moment, before coughing slightly. I turned my head away from him and removed my hand from his chin.

  “The void,” he said. “The demons, they’ll come for you, lady. She’ll come, and you will become like her. In the land where the demons roam. You mustn’t trust her. She wants to destroy everything.”

  And, suddenly, I wasn’t looking into a man’s eyes, but two white stones set into a pitch dark form that seemed to suck in the surrounding light. The darkness swirled, and out of it grew obsidian-coloured tendrils towards everyone present in the room.

  They would lash out and sap our life force. They would kill without remorse.