by Kit Downes
The following morning, Paradim packed a bag and ran away from home. He hitched a ride on a trading caravan and headed out into the Great Desert. For the next year, he searched for the meaning of his dream. He trekked through the peaks of Tabaras and the mountains of the Heaven Steppe. He explored the jungles of Gothopar and Quakajak. He sailed along the coast of Endsali and through the islands of the Emerald Archipelago, before finally arriving on the icy plains of Frostbite.
The northernmost kingdom was made of snowfields, glaciers and mountains of stone and ice. Paradim was not expecting to find much there, but after trudging for three days across the snowy plains, he found a lake, which was fed by warm water from an underground volcano and never froze.
It was later named Stork Lake. The first thing Paradim saw as he climbed over the last snow drift was a huge cloud of storks, taking off from the lake’s water and flapping into the air. Paradim thought it was strange to find so many storks there. There were no plants or trees around the lake and the waters were so warm that there were not many fish. So why did so many storks come there?
Paradim spent three months living by the lake. At night, he shivered in his tent inside two sleeping bags. During the day he competed with the storks to catch fish and shellfish, and searched around the lake for an answer. On the last day of the third month, when Paradim was cold, hungry and more than ready to give up and go home, he found the mouth of a cave, leading deep into the ice that lay under the snow.
It was just large enough for him to crawl down. The tunnel ran through the snow and ice and into the frozen soil of Frostbite below it. Paradim could not see his hand in front of his face in the darkness and the tunnel was so long that crawling through it took hours. Finally, it widened and Paradim found by touch that it had ended in a small round chamber. In the middle, his hands found a nest made of dried weeds, which must have been carried up from the bottom of the lake. Inside it lay the smooth, round shape of a giant frozen egg.
It was big enough that Paradim had to carry it in both his arms. With just enough room to turn around in the chamber, he crawled back to the surface. He placed the egg in a crevice in the rocks and sat down to watch as the sun melted the frost from its shell.
For the next three days, Paradim focused all his attention on the egg. During the day, he carried it around the lake, keeping it in the warmest patches of sunlight he could find. At night, he wrapped it in his spare socks and built a large fire to keep it warm. Finally, on the morning of the third day, Paradim was woken by the sound of the egg cracking. He watched in amazement as a huge, fluffy stork chick emerged, blinking in the sunlight. Paradim immediately tried to feed it and it pecked his fingers. But still, he went down on his knees and – with the chick watching curiously – prayed his thanks to the Celestial Stork.
Paradim spent a year at the lake, raising the chick himself. He named her Celeste, in gratitude to the Celestial Stork for sending her to him. She had hatched as large as a normal adult stork and Paradim hunted for hours to keep her well fed. To his surprise, the other storks at the lake helped him, bringing Celeste the biggest and tastiest fish from the lake’s depths. Celeste grew very quickly. By the time she was three months old, Paradim stopped using his tent and started sleeping under one of her wings, which was more comfortable and much warmer. By six months, Celeste had grown as large as a Heaven Steppe dragon. Her wingspan stretched ten metres and her beak was as long as a spear. Paradim had to climb up her legs, which were as thick as trees, to get onto her back and together, with help from the other storks, they learnt how to fly.
After a year, Paradim packed his rucksack and said goodbye to the storks at the lake and he and Celeste flew south towards Shirazar. It had taken him a full year to travel overland to the lake, but Celeste made the trip in six days. They arrived in Shirazar just as the contestants were arriving for that year’s Champions’ Race.
Paradim’s arrival caused quite a stir. After going straight home to see his parents – who were both delighted and furious to see him – Paradim flew to the Royal Palace, where Empress Haju’s father, recently crowned as Emperor, was holding lunch for the newly arrived Champions.
The Emperor almost choked on a camel kebab when he saw the giant stork landing in his gardens and scaring his prized butterflies. He was even more surprised when a strange, long-haired teenager jumped down from its back and ran over to introduce himself as his old friend, Paradim Nocturne. Paradim apologized for the interruption, explained where he had found Celeste, how he had learnt to fly on her and asked to represent Shirazar in the Champions’ Race.
At first, the Emperor was reluctant to agree. Like all Shirazans, he had dreamed of competing in the race himself. But he was worried that if he agreed it would alter Shirazar’s neutral status as the host of the Champions’ Race. Then to his surprise, the other contestants came to his rescue and asked that Paradim and Celeste be allowed to compete. They were all Champions, but none of them had ever matched wings with a giant stork before. All of them were keen to see if their means of flight could beat Celeste. The Emperor agreed, but on one condition. Paradim could fly in the race, but as he had never competed before, he would not be given the title of Champion of Shirazar. He would only get that if he won.
Paradim and Celeste had five days to prepare. They trained hard for the first three days and then rested for the last two. Shirazar’s magicians and natural historians came to examine Celeste and were amazed by her. From what Paradim told them, they could only conclude that she must be the last of an extinct species of ancient stork and her egg must have been preserved by the underground ice in Frostbite, probably for centuries. Amongst the people of Shirazar, excitement was at a fever pitch. Could she win the Champions’ Race?
On the morning of the race, Paradim was nervous, sensing that his whole kingdom’s hopes were riding on his shoulders. While he was getting ready in his bedroom, he absent-mindedly noticed that his red hair had grown very long while he had been at the lake and now hung halfway down his back. Remembering how during the trip back to Shirazar he had constantly had to brush it out of his eyes, Paradim tied it back in a ponytail and then went to get Celeste.
An hour later, they were on the starting line. As Paradim tried to hide his trembling from the other contestants, who were all much more experienced, he heard thousands of Shirazans chanting his name. But then, Paradim caught a glimpse of his reflection in one of the bronze shields mounted on the vimana of the Gothopar team. He was sitting on the back of a giant stork and the desert wind was lifting his long red ponytail behind him. In the seconds before the race started, Paradim realized he had turned into the man in his almost-forgotten dream. His nervousness disappeared. The race began and he and Celeste launched over the starting line towards their destiny. Half an hour later, they crossed the finishing line in first place. They had kept on winning ever since.
“He is racing again?” said Zal. “Oh, great! We’re finished!”
“Sorry to be the bearer of bad news,” said Miles.
“Wasn’t he retiring last time?” said Zara. “He’s won nineteen times already.”
“He wants to make it twenty before he retires,” said Miles. “You know what Dad’s like, Zal. He’s a bit superstitious. He thinks it would be bad luck to retire on an odd number.”
“We’re finished!” said Zal, again. “We’ll never get to race the Rainbow Carpet again! He’ll beat us, and then we won’t have a chance to defend the title next year! We haven’t even got to the starting line, and we’ve already—”
“Zal, get a grip!” said Arna. “The race hasn’t started yet. It most certainly hasn’t finished.”
“Quite right,” said Augur. “Paradim may be a formidable opponent, but he’s never faced a rainbow carpet before. None of the Champions have.”
“Are these them?” said Miles. He went over to the block of rainbow carpets and walked around it. Fluffy sniffed at them and mewed with interest. “Which one is it?”
“None of them,” said Zar
a. “Those are just the ones we brought to sell. This is it.”
She went to the corner of the room, where another rolled-up carpet was standing on its end against the wall. Everyone stopped and watched as Zara lowered it to the floor and unrolled it.
The Rainbow Carpet – the first one she and Zal had woven and enchanted together – unfurled across the floor. The seven colours glowed in the light coming through the windows. Magic sparkled among the threads like diamonds. White doves, water dragons and the crown of an ancient emperor decorated its corners and edges. Zara touched it with her hand, feeling her magic flow down her arm and mix with the magic in the carpet. The carpet rose up off the floor and floated, perfectly still and even, shining like a rectangle cut from a rainbow.
“Wow!” said Miles, gazing at it with wide eyes.
“Can Celeste do that?” said Zal. “Seriously. Can she?”
Rip hopped onto the carpet and gave a sharp bark. Fluffy sniffed at it cautiously, and then sprang up beside him.
“Perhaps you should go out for some practice,” said Augur, as Arna pushed the window-doors open all the way.
“Yes,” said Zara.
“Let’s,” said Zal. “Come on, Miles.”
“Really?” said Miles. “It’s OK for me to—”
“Come on,” said Zara, sitting down in the pilot’s position. Rip sat beside her, wagging his tail. Zal sat down on the tail end of the carpet, with Miles in the middle holding Fluffy. Zara pressed both her hands on the soft pile of the carpet, feeling the connection with the magic once again. She pushed, half with her hands and half with her magic and the carpet turned around elegantly to face the open window-doors.
“Hold tight,” said Zal.
“Please,” said Miles. “I’ve been taking rides on Celeste since I was… WHOOOOOOAAA!”
The carpet leapt forwards like an arrow from a bow. They shot through the window-doors and out into the golden sunlight. Zara leant backwards, pulling the front of the carpet up as they zoomed down the garden, sending the butterflies spinning out of their way, and rose up over the apple orchard, their slipstream ripping leaves off the trees. The ground fell away beneath them as they climbed high up over the streets of the city. Fluffy mewed and Rip barked as they levelled out and flew forwards at full speed above the rooftops and gardens, weaving between golden domes and tall spires.
“HOLY STORK!” shouted Miles, over the wind, which was blowing his curly hair almost straight.
“What do you think?” Zal shouted, smiling. Up ahead he could see Shirazar, stretching away to the edge of the plateau. The vast blue sky and the golden sands of the desert, where they would be racing in five days time, lay beyond.
“What do I…? Holy Stork!” gasped Miles. “I think the race is going to be exciting this year!”
Three
Night had fallen and Shirazar lay sleeping beneath a deep black sky, lightly dusted with stars. A crescent moon looked down on the closed shops and empty streets. In front of the Shirazar Museum, a lone guard was patrolling beside the garden wall. White-winged moon butterflies fluttered like ghosts across the lawns. Fireflies glowed among the blades of grass. Apart from the clank of the guard’s armour, everything was silent.
A dart, made from a needle of bone fletched with crimson parrot feathers, flew through a crack in the wall with a whispering hiss and struck the guard in the neck. The guard opened his mouth to shout out, but the Sleeping Snake venom worked too quickly. His spear fell from his hand and the guard crumpled onto the grass and was soon snoring.
Two slim hands gripped the top of the wall. A second later, Sari peeped over the top, a bamboo blowpipe held between her teeth. She looked quickly in both directions. There were no more guards in sight. Perfect.
Sari pulled herself up and rolled over the top of the wall, landing as lightly as a cat on the other side. She had switched her green tunic and trousers for a black outfit and she wore a black handkerchief tied over the lower half of her face. Around her waist was a belt laden with small pouches, containing all the tools she needed for tonight’s job.
On the other side of the wall, claws scraped against the stone. Three orange tails flashed in the moonlight as Sheertooth, Cloudclaw and Jeweltail jumped over the wall and landed beside Sari with soft thumps. Sari placed her hands on her tigers’ flanks, feeling their hearts beating beneath their warm fur. They were hiding it well. But underneath, they were just as excited as she was.
Between them and the museum was a long flowerbed, blocking their way to the lawn. It was filled with red, yellow and orange flowers. Sari stopped and stared at them. She frowned. There was something strange about them. Even in the moonlight, their colours were bright and garish. Beneath them, stems and vines covered with thorns coiled across the soil like snakes. Jeweltail sniffed at the edge of the flowerbed and growled. Sari nodded, reached into one of her belt pouches and drew out a small handful of dried meat pieces. She stood up and threw them over the flowerbed, flicking her wrist so they spread out through the air. Instantly, several of the flowers snapped shut, snatching the pieces of meat out of the air. The closed blossoms writhed and rippled with a soft chewing sound. When they opened again, there was no trace of the meat left inside them. Sari snorted. As if that was really going to stop anyone. And even if it did, there was nothing – and no one – that could stop her.
Cloudclaw purred at the challenge. He backed up to the wall, took a running jump and sailed over the flowerbed. Several flowers snapped shut beneath him as he landed safely on the far side. He looked around and growled with triumph. Sheertooth and Jeweltail rolled their eyes but followed him across. Sari, who could not jump that far, dashed along to an apple tree that grew beside the wall and swarmed up its trunk and into its branches. She had been taught to climb by monkeys and even in the dark her hands and feet found branches and footholds easily. She stretched for the longest branch which reached the furthest over the flowerbed, crawled along it and hung beneath it like a sloth, swung herself back and forwards twice and let go. She did a double-forwards-somersault through the air, her black ponytail flying behind her, and landed safely on the edge of the flowerbed. Two blossoms snapped shut behind her heels. The tigers growled. Sari rubbed their heads, and together they ran silently across the lawn towards the museum. The white-winged moon butterflies fluttered out of their way and fireflies were crushed beneath their shoes and paws.
The locks on the ground floor windows had been replaced with better ones since she was last here two weeks ago. The new ones were triple-levered and quadruple-sprung, sensitive enough to resist any lock pick. Assuming that was, that the lock pick was made of metal. Sari reached into her belt pouch and pulled out a long white swan feather. She slipped it into the lock and twirled it gently back and forth, until the lock clicked open. Sari slid the window up and for the second time, they entered the museum.
The corridor was long and empty. Even Sari’s breathing seemed to echo off the tall white walls as she slipped over the windowsill and lowered her feet to the polished floor. Sheertooth followed behind her and then froze. His ears twitched. He put his head down low and raised his hackles. Sari listened and heard it too, paws thundering softly against the floor and tails swishing in the dark. The sound grew closer as Jeweltail and Cloudclaw climbed in through the window, until five jet-black guard dogs ran around the corner ahead of them, teeth bared and tongues lolling, their eyes burning for their prey. They took one look at the tigers and stopped in their tracks. Their eyes went wide and they turned and ran straight back the way they had come, yelping with terror. They fled straight into the nearest exhibit room and hid whimpering under the biggest display table. Sari smiled. Obviously, the dogs remembered them from their last visit. She led the way towards the stairs.
They saw no other dogs or guards as they hurried up to the third floor. The enormous museum was dedicated to the entire history of Shirazar and the Great Desert. The rooms and exhibition halls contained statues, pots, paintings, weapons, ancient means of fli
ght, suits of armour, dinosaur skeletons, gold and silver jewellery, diamonds and other treasures. Many of the exhibits were worth small fortunes, but Sari ignored them. She was a professional and she only stole what she was being paid – and paid well – to steal.
They rounded a corner near room four hundred and seven and stopped dead in the face of a dazzling gold light. The tigers growled and blinked. Sari threw up a hand to shield her eyes. She squinted through her fingers. Very clever. The otherwise empty corridor was protected by a casting lantern. The glass and bronze lamp hung from the ceiling ahead of them and the magic flame inside it filled the corridor with golden light. If a casting lantern cast a shadow, the small bronze bell that was hanging beneath it would immediately begin to ring, summoning every guard in the wing. But a shadow was just a place where there was no light.
Sari felt in her belt pouches and drew out her sun crystal. Forged by tremendous heat in the depths of space long ago, it was a large, diamond-shaped stone, with edges so sharp that they almost cut her palm. It had fallen to earth fused inside a meteorite and she had bought it for thirty gold pieces from a disreputable amulet trader at a smugglers’ market in the Deep Desert and, so far, it had been worth every coin. Sari closed her eyes and held the crystal behind her back. She rubbed it against her sleeve and a tiny speck of light started to glow within it. As she continued to rub it, the speck grew, becoming brighter and brighter. The tigers shut their eyes. The light became an intense golden blaze, equal to the light of the sun, illuminating the dark corridor behind them as bright as the desert at midday. Sari walked forward into the casting lantern’s light. The lantern cast her shadow and the light of the sun crystal instantly filled it up again. The bell trembled, but did not start ringing. Sari and the tigers walked straight under the lantern, and out of its reach, and through the door of room four hundred and seven.
