World's End

by Will Elliott

  The big dragon whipped its head around, suddenly aware of the new presence behind it. There was a flash of light, like lightning but coloured with the orange of fire. A scream rang out unlike any scream Sharfy had heard before. Another flash of light. This time it was longer-lasting, temporarily blinding all who had their eyes open. There was the fast, heavy thump of the huge dragon running; and there was a flurry of whistling shrieks as all the Invia took to the sky at once.

  When the light flash faded out and people’s sight returned, the dragon and the Invia were gone. The ground where it had been was badly ripped and torn. Shreds of gold and brown skin were scattered around. Sharfy collapsed onto his backside and did nothing for a while.

  He could not tell how long later it was that Shadow appeared beside him again, blinking in and out of visibility, talking. ‘I hurt it but I couldn’t kill it,’ he said. ‘It went away … but it fought hard. It hurt me a lot to shadow it.’

  Sharfy supposed that after what Shadow had just done, he owed the ghost the dignity of an answer. ‘You sound sick. You dying?’

  Shadow’s voice was indeed faint. ‘Too much thought came into me, when I shadowed it. I knew too much. Its thought was like … worlds of water and lightning, all running through me, fast. I didn’t understand it. I didn’t have control any more, not till it flew away. Then I came back. I think I must have fought it.’

  ‘Speak sense,’ Sharfy said weakly. But the magnitude of what Shadow had done was slowly occurring to him: Shadow had actually done it. Somehow, he’d actually made the huge beast go away.

  ‘Well done,’ said a familiar voice behind them. In human form, Shilen walked down the incline, smiling at Shadow like a proud parent. Sharfy was too drained to care that she’d come. He didn’t bother reaching for the sword, which had fallen from his hand.

  Shilen said, ‘Fear not. Tzi-Shu will think it was a god who attacked him. Besides, soon you will be in Vyin’s protection and shall need to fear no one. You did very well, Shadow. Are you hurt?’

  ‘Take away the traps,’ said Shadow, his eyes growing as they turned upon Shilen in a way Sharfy found unsettling. For if Shadow could scare away a huge dragon like that, he was a friend worth having; and an enemy Sharfy, for one, didn’t want.

  ‘Soon we shall change the traps, so you may leave whenever you wish to, and go to them only for healing,’ Shilen answered him. ‘Remember, the traps have been designed to replenish you when you are weak. First, you must continue to practise mirroring great powers. It will grow easier and safer for you each time. Do as we ask and we will show you how to break free of the traps whenever you wish to.’

  Shilen gazed at the ruined city, and at the field now vacant of all living people. The group who’d been brought there to be a dragon’s meal had already headed for the road, carrying the wounded with them. A few returned to pick through the city’s rubble.

  ‘This what you wanted?’ Sharfy said to her. ‘Glad with what you see?’

  ‘Dragons are not all the same,’ said Shilen. ‘Tzi-Shu hates humanity and did this for his own pleasure – it does not mean all other dragons would do the same. Not all of us wish harm upon humans. But you need us to protect you from those dragons who do, for you are not capable of stopping them. So be more careful with your words.’

  ‘You didn’t do much protecting today,’ said Sharfy.

  ‘I would have stopped Tzi-Shu, had I the power to stop him. I do not. Those dragons who may have stopped him have not yet descended from the skies. Do not hate the Invia – they must obey, if any of the Eight give them instruction. Shadow, rest now. Recover. There will be another test soon. If you survive it, you will be assigned to Vyin, to be his weapon. You will shadow him if he is attacked by either dragon or Spirit. None of the gods could withstand a battle against two of him, nor could any of the dragons.’

  Shadow lashed at her but again she had come as just an illusory copy of herself. Although he didn’t succeed in hurting her, for some reason she looked surprised and worried. It was as if she’d expected him to be pleased with her words. She said, ‘Think, Shadow. Vyin is a friend of humanity. For the good of your own kind, you must help him.’

  Shadow knew he had no kind. He took Sharfy in his arms and took him away from there, going only half as fast as he might have – he felt weak and sick. Shadowing the huge dragon had made a blank page in his memory. There was just a haze of ache and light, and the pain of having lifted an enormous burden.

  Inside the traps he would be healed, however hard it was to finally break free again. The dragon woman could not reach him inside the traps with her lies. Shadow felt the pull of Siel’s trap – though he did not know who wore it – and went towards it. There she was, sitting about on a flat stone place, talking with Eric.

  Shadow set Sharfy gently down. Not expecting to be moved, let alone so far and so quickly, Sharfy was dizzy and sick, with little idea of what had just happened. Siel didn’t have time to see Shadow before he’d dived into the prison she wore about her neck.

  45

  THINGS HAVE CHANGED

  They gave Sharfy what time he needed to recover before asking him how he’d apparently materialised out of thin air. ‘How’d I get here?’ he said between dizzy heaves. He looked around in disbelief. ‘I was at Athlent.’

  ‘Shadow must have brought you,’ said Siel. The charm about her neck had grown hot when it had sucked Shadow inside itself. Now and then it vibrated as if something small was fluttering around inside it.

  Recovering his wits, Sharfy got up and grabbed Eric by the collar of his shirt. ‘Get all the people to the castle. Now! Everyone. They’ll be safe, at the castle. Dragons can’t go there. Now!’

  ‘Easy, slow down. What happened?’

  ‘Dragons are eating people.’ Sharfy noticed Dyan for the first time. He spat, drew his sword. ‘Admit it,’ he yelled. ‘Tell them. Dragons are eating people. Invia don’t look the same any more. They’re helping. She knows about it too.’

  ‘Who does?’

  ‘Dragon woman. Dragon, hides in a woman’s body. Killed Anfen. Her. She knows all about it.’ Sharfy looked for all the world like he was going to lunge at Dyan with his sword. The dragon leaped gracefully into the air and flew till he was well out of reach and out of their sight.

  Eric put a hand on Sharfy’s shoulder. ‘Dyan’s our servant. Siel’s, I should say. Siel killed Kiown and stole a charm, and Dyan has to obey whoever owns it. He’s not a threat to us, but you’d better not attack him.’

  ‘Killed Kiown? Good.’ Sharfy did a double take. ‘Siel – alive? Shadow said he killed you.’

  ‘He tried to.’

  ‘Where’s Shadow now? They’re using him, the dragons. They think he’s their weapon. I heard her say it. Using him to fight the gods.’

  They calmed him down enough to hear his story. Anger burned in Sharfy’s eyes and his hands shook now and then as he spoke. Eric remembered Sharfy’s embellished tales and he didn’t think this was one of them.

  ‘There are old tales of Invia carrying away lost children,’ said Siel when he was finished. ‘But they are only tales.’

  Sharfy spat. ‘I saw that huge thing chew and swallow them. Two at a time. Invia helped out: put em in its mouth. You’re lord now? Do something.’

  Eric said, ‘What can I do? Tell me and I’ll do it.’

  ‘You’re lord,’ Sharfy said, grabbing him by the collar again. ‘You decide. That’s what lords do.’

  At that moment the ground shook and a great splitting noise echoed all around them. They were knocked off their feet. The ensuing boom was like an entire city falling from the sky. A wave rippled through the ground, opening a split in the smooth rock platform, the crack almost perfectly straight. A second boom followed, then a third, the last one fainter and further away. ‘That’s more skystone falling,’ said Sharfy. ‘They’re coming, more of em. Hear it?’

  ‘What do you think, Sharfy, did I hear it?’

  ‘Joke all you want. Know what it me
ans? More dragons just got free. Big ones. You’re lord now? Get people to the castle. Dragons can’t go there. Everyone! Right now.’

  ‘Sure, well let me just snap my fucking fingers …’ Eric snapped his fingers, and for a second or two thought the dragon-made charm had indeed given him powers of a kind he’d not imagined; for in that same instant four haiyens appeared in their midst. One of them spoke to Siel: ‘Be prepared. She is coming.’

  This was the first time Sharfy had seen haiyens and, given his mood, the timing was not good. He raised his blade to strike the one nearest. A blink later and his blade skidded across the stone. He threw himself at them instead and wound up sliding feetfirst after his sword. There was no indication of how the haiyens had done this – it did not appear they had even looked at him.

  One among them spoke to Siel, its voice a rustling breath. ‘Be prepared. All things approach their end now, with great haste. In moments, Shilen will be here. It is time to see if you can apply our lesson. If you can, it means other humans can, and there is hope for our peoples to live here, together. It is as we told you. Love her. Hold no fear, no anger, no matter what the dragon does or says.’

  Siel nodded and closed her eyes. The haiyens began to fade, their bodies little more than smoke being blown by the wind. As quickly as they’d come, they vanished.

  ‘Do you remember now?’ Eric asked Siel. ‘They came last night too. We spoke with them. You told me it was just a dream, but it wasn’t.’ She didn’t seem to hear him – her eyes remained closed. ‘Siel, snap out of it and answer me. Did I hear them properly? Did they just say Shilen was coming here? If so, why?’

  She didn’t answer, but he saw for himself the white dragon flying towards them, almost invisible against the sky’s whiteness and its grey cloud. Her wings seemed to move slowly, but they carried her fast. She wheeled above their platform twice, surveying to see that they were alone, then she descended on the far part of it hidden by the incline, over by where they’d looked down upon the city.

  Shilen was in human form by the time she strode up the path to them, the wind throwing her hair around. Case had perked up the moment Shilen came near them. Now he bounded down the path, clumsy with joy. Shilen said one harsh guttural word; Case halted and took to the sky, flying languidly away. ‘Greetings, man-lord,’ she said to Eric.

  ‘What right do you have to order my drake away?’ he said.

  She ignored this and gazed around the platform with suspicion. ‘Dyan has been here, and he is still close. Why?’

  ‘Ask Dyan, not me.’

  ‘Dyan is not your servant. Where is the man you name Kiown?’

  ‘Do you know Kiown, Shilen? But that’s a stupid question. You couldn’t possibly know him, because that would mean you had been double dealing with us the whole time. Maybe setting up a fake rivalry so you could use one of us against the other, when it suited you. Keep the humans busy fighting each other, paying no thought to what the dragons might do when they get free.’

  ‘That arrangement won’t be needed now. Things have changed.’ Still Shilen’s eyes roamed the platform, lingering on Sharfy, who’d not risen since the haiyens sent him sliding over the ground. She called to him, ‘You. Where is Shadow?’

  ‘Leave Sharfy alone and speak with me,’ said Eric. ‘Shadow is trapped.’ He took a tight grip on the charm in his pocket. ‘There’s no more need to call me “man-lord”. You can find another person to play my role, if you like. It was never real in the first place. But I’m finished pretending to be any kind of lord.’

  ‘That no longer matters. Is it your charm in which Shadow is trapped? Or is Kiown hiding here too?’ Siel still hadn’t moved, nor opened her eyes from what looked like peaceful meditation. Shilen’s eyes swept past Siel as if she didn’t see her at all.

  Eric said, ‘Are the dragons eating people, like Sharfy says?’

  Shilen scoffed. ‘Of course not. The Eight have power to create their own foods and pleasures. Why would they stoop to eating human beings?’

  ‘Then why is it the Invia are carrying people away?’

  ‘I have not seen nor heard of this.’

  ‘Why do the Invia look so different now, Shilen?’

  ‘Effort is needed, to disguise them in a way pleasing to human eyes. There is no longer a need for disguise. They have always been as you now see them, beneath a thin illusory veil. You did not fear them before. There’s no need to fear them now.’

  ‘Things have changed all right. It’s true, isn’t it, Shilen? All along the dragons meant to come down and kill us.’

  She laughed. ‘How important you like to think yourselves, as though dragons have no grander purpose than killing you. Yes, some humans shall die, but only those who are in the way.’

  ‘And if you decide we are all in the way?’

  ‘Some are Favoured. They will be perfectly safe. That promise shall be kept. Three among the Eight insist it shall be kept. I told you to choose Favoured ones with care. Did you? Or did you treat it as a game?’

  Eric felt sick. He crouched down, dizzy. Another great noise rolled over the ground from far away: another great piece of skystone falling. Eric looked to Siel, who still had her eyes closed. Shilen followed his gaze and confirmed his suspicions. ‘What do you keep looking at, man-lord?’

  ‘You don’t see her, do you?’

  ‘There is no one there to see. Answer me. Why was Dyan here?’

  At the edge of his vision he saw that Sharfy had quietly got back to his feet and taken his sword again. It occurred to Eric to signal stop, stay put, but he knew it would be pointless. Now Sharfy ran at Shilen – tried to, rather. It was more of a fast hobble. He got close enough to strike when, with one quick movement, she plucked the sword from his hand, snapped it across her knee then threw him to the ground, not troubling even to look at him. She said to Eric, ‘Hand your charm to me for a moment, so that I can be sure Shadow is trapped inside it.’

  Eric saw clearly then that Shilen had not come here to talk at all … and that the charm’s protection was the only reason she hadn’t killed him where he stood. She’d do it, he knew, the instant he parted from it, for Shadow was her interest now, not this business of establishing faux human kingdoms with phoney lords. In fact she would probably kill him soon regardless, whether or not he handed the charm over to make the task easy for her. Would Hauf help him, if it meant Hauf must attack another dragon?

  Eric turned from Shilen, held the charm in his cupped palms and whispered, ‘Hauf, I need you. Come quickly.’

  He had not really expected anything to happen, but at once the stone floor began to shake. A thin, flat section of stone near to him folded upon itself like a sheet of paper, bunched up as if kneaded by invisible hands which lengthened it into the shape of a torso. Wings formed on its top side and slid into their place. A jaw distended with jagged stone shards for teeth down its length.

  It took only a few seconds before Hauf had appeared in full, this time his skin the same light grey as the platform’s stone. He crouched now by Eric’s side, growling at Shilen with a voice of grinding rock.

  Shilen’s mouth hung open, aghast. ‘You may not fight me,’ she said; it was unclear whether she was addressing Eric or Hauf. There was a flash of light about her. When it faded, Shilen had resumed her true form. Her wings spread and she jumped, but Hauf leaped and struck her like a wrecking ball, knocking her off the rocky platform’s edge. With a thud the two dragons slammed into the road below.

  Eric ran to the platform’s edge. Down below, Hauf had Shilen pinned with one of her wings gripped tight in his jaws. He wrenched back his head with the noise of meat being split from bone. One wing was partly ripped free. Shilen’s scream was like a sadly sung note. It seemed her cry also cast a spell, for blinding light erupted around the two dragons. A gust of wind pushed Eric back from where he stood watching. He didn’t see it but he heard the noise of Hauf being thrown at the cliff face with enough force to embed him in it. Webs cracked in the stone around him.r />
  Shilen attempted flight but one of her wings was now useless. She ran instead through the high pass.

  With much effort Hauf finally wrenched himself free from the cliff face, causing a small avalanche to tumble around him. He turned his head up to Eric. ‘The threat is gone,’ he growled. ‘You may summon me once more. Then I am free.’

  ‘Wait, we need to speak,’ Eric called down, but Hauf collapsed to a pile of smooth round stones. The stones in turn quickly crumbled to dust.

  Eric ran to check Sharfy’s injuries, for Sharfy hadn’t got up since Shilen had thrown him to the ground. He was bruised, scraped and pissed off but had suffered no worse.

  ‘She couldn’t see me,’ said Siel, finally opening her eyes again. She laughed. ‘It works! Eric, you have to listen to the haiyens. We can all be safe from the dragons, all of us. They cast no spells on me, just now. There was no magic to it at all. And she couldn’t see me.’

  ‘Will Dyan be able to see you when he gets back?’

  ‘If I allow him to see me, yes.’

  ‘How does it work, if there’s no magic to it?’ Sharfy demanded.

  ‘To escape the dragons’ awareness I raise my consciousness higher than normal. It is like climbing steps to a higher room they aren’t even aware of. If I want them to see me again it is easy enough to climb back down. Eric, yes I remember now. Last night, the haiyens told me Shilen would come. It had slipped my mind – perhaps they intended it to. They told me she would come, that she’d seek the one who had killed Kiown. She knows full well that Kiown is dead. She may also be seeking to gather the shadowtrap charms.’ She held aloft the amulet Kiown had possessed. ‘The dragons don’t yet know that Mountain altered the way this one works.’

  ‘How did the haiyens know Shilen would come here? Can they see into the future?’

  She shrugged. ‘A short way perhaps; I really don’t know. There’s not much they’re willing to share with us yet. If you’d seen how Tauk and the others behaved, you’d understand. There’s nothing the haiyens could have done or said to make Tauk trust them. Now they’re learning that a lot of men are just like that. They’re going to speak with you and Aziel about the dragons and what we can do. Help them if you can. Convincing other people is going to be harder than fighting the dragons could ever be.’