Airwoman

by Zara Quentin

  The next panel wasn’t familiar to Jade. She saw Premyan people—women—leaving their fellows to prostrate themselves in front of the nest of Eigots. They appeared to be caring for and worshipping the Eigots, raising an enormous and glorious Temple to house them.

  Another carving showed some of the Eigots hatching into Dragon-Gods, growing until they heard the call and left the Temple to curl themselves into sleep and dream. She saw carved depictions of the other Dragon-Gods. Jade could name them from memory — first came Corinth, then Gilbertz, Linith, Merryne, Katz. Then there was Borouni, Ulula, Deena and Adillique. Then came Serysse, Earth, and finally Taraqa.

  On the next panel, Jade saw the drawing of Eigots that had been misused. Some of the people had stolen Eigots, wanting the magic of Dragon-Gods for themselves. When these Eigots hatched, they were malformed and twisted. They sought to consume and destroy. Jade shivered as she saw the image of the Yrax she had faced carved into the wood.

  The Dragon-Gods ignored the Yrax, casting them outside the realm of the Dragon-Gods, banishing them to the Betwixt—the space between the worlds they had created.

  This part of the story, Jade knew well. Her eyes flicked quickly over the next panels. The Yrax were not content to live in the Betwixt. They gnawed at the fabric between worlds, drawn by the essence of life and dreams.

  The Yrax found the barrier to the world of Serysse. The Lady Serysse was a young Dragon-God, new to slumber. A beautiful Dragon-God, perhaps the most beautiful, the Lady Serysse dreamed and created a world of unparalleled beauty. The Yrax amassed in number, gnawing at the barrier until they broke through and started to devour the world of Serysse.

  The Lady Serysse was pained by the devouring, as Her creations were as much a part of Her as a leg or a tail. But the destruction and chaos of the Yrax continued and the Lady Serysse dreamed defensive dreams, doing everything She could to defend Herself against the Yrax attack, to save Her world and Herself at the core of it.

  In desperation, the Lady Serysse called out to Her brother and sister-Gods for help.

  Jade stared at the next panels, confused. These stories were not familiar. The story she’d learned was that Our Lady Taraqa had dreamed of a people, the Taraqans, who would fight against the Yrax, to protect them all. She’d learnt Our Lady Taraqa was the noblest of all Dragon-Gods, sacrificing Her own creations for the good of the Dragonverse.

  But these panels showed all of the Dragon-Gods dreaming together to create the winged people, before gifting them to Our Lady Taraqa.

  The next panel showed the Taraqans, or Travellers as they were now known, fighting the Yrax, driving them from the devastated, dying world of Serysse and back into the Betwixt. The Lady Serysse did not survive and the world remained a graveyard and a warning.

  The next and final panel was missing, an obvious gap on the wall. Jade briefly wondered where it was.

  She racked her brain to remember what the last panel might depict, but the end of the tale had always been about the Travellers driving back the Yrax. Then they had returned to Taraqa to build the clifftop Temple to Our Lady Taraqa and pledged their honour to protect the Dragonverse.

  A booming voice invaded her thoughts, distracting her from the panels.

  Come, daughter of Taraqa, and look upon the face of your Dragon-God.

  Jade stiffened, then she slowly turned around. She’d just heard someone else’s voice in her head.

  It is I, daughter of Taraqa. Come and look upon Me.

  Jade opened her mouth and closed it again. She stared at the stone slab, seeing the little statue standing in the coals. As she watched, the bright blue dragon slowly—regally—turned its head to look into her eyes. It blinked.

  You may call Me DivineOne, until the time comes for Me to take a name and go into My slumber.

  Jade shook her head, but the vision of the moving Dragon-God statue didn’t go away. The voice permeated her mind. It couldn’t be real, could it? And yet, Jade felt compelled to speak.

  “DivineOne,” the words rolled off Jade’s tongue like an echo. She blinked as DivineOne stretched, lengthening its neck to give her a haughty stare. Its tiny, black eyes connecting with hers—Jade could not look away. Was this real? Was this the embodiment of the stories and myths she’d long ago stopped believing? A real Dragon-God? Her hands shook as she curled her hand around the pendants on her neck-chain.

  The servant-Loraya says you know the son of Taraqa?

  Son of Taraqa? “You mean Axel?”

  DivineOne hissed a tongue of flames from His mouth. His name is of no importance to Me. You will tell Me where It is.

  Jade leaned her head to the side, not understanding. She couldn’t utter a word.

  Tell Me! DivineOne flicked his tail back and forth, agitated. I demand to know where the Eigot is!

  Jade’s mouth dropped open. Eigot?

  “I don’t know anything about any Eigot,” Jade said. DivineOne let out a roar of frustration and Jade jumped as a flash of pain seared through her mind, before the Dragon-God released her.

  Loraya stumbled forwards, her fingers flicking quickly. She and DivineOne again engaged in an intense conversation. Jade drifted away, holding her head with one hand. She came to stand next to the carved panels again, jumping when Namaje put a hand on her shoulder.

  “You like?” she asked, pointing to the panels.

  “Is this panel being restored?” Jade asked, pointing at the space where a panel should be. Namaje gave her a strange look.

  “This. Stolen. You know.” Namaje said. She pointed to Jade’s hand.

  Jade pulled her hand away, shaking her head and Namaje frowned.

  “Can you tell me about it? The last panel?” Jade asked, without any real hope that Namaje would be able to find the language to do the story justice. Namaje gave her a long, hard stare.

  “Cannot tell,” Namaje said.

  Jade sighed, though she’d presumed as much. She was curious as to what the last panel would tell. Suddenly Namaje reached out towards Jade’s face. Jade jerked her head back. “What are you doing?”

  “Cannot tell,” Namaje repeated. “Show. Show.”

  Before Jade could ask, she felt the leathery touch of Namaje’s hand on her cheek. Almost immediately, a picture formed in her mind: a carved wood panel, the last in the series. It depicted a Dragon nest, with three Eigots resting in it, surrounded by fire. The depiction was familiar, though Jade wasn’t sure where she’d seen it before. Without knowing how, Jade knew this was the final part to the story. These three Eigots were the last of the Dragon-Gods. A small group of Premyan women worshipped and protected them.

  “You see?” Namaje removed her hand and raised an eyebrow at Jade.

  “You did that? You put the picture in my head?” Jade put a hand to cover her cheek where Namaje’s palm had rested a moment before.

  “Not picture. Memory,” Namaje replied. “Last wood. Last Eigots. Dragon-Gods make Taraqa people. Now nevermore Eigots.”

  “You mean because the Dragon-Gods made the Travellers, they will never breed anymore Eigots? No more Dragon-Gods?”

  Namaje shook her head. “Nevermore.”

  Jade looked back at the panels in front of her, seeing the missing one in her mind’s eye. She could hardly believe these were more than stories, but DivineOne stood on a stone slab in this Temple. Jade realised with a start that the polished stone in the second depression was an Eigot. She turned to look at it as it gleamed yellow.

  “That’s it, isn’t it? An Eigot?” Jade asked Namaje, turning to see her frowning again. Namaje looked sideways. Loraya and DivineOne had ceased their silent conversation and were now focused on Jade too. Loraya nodded at Namaje, flicking her fingers.

  “What’s going on?” Jade asked.

  “No game. You tell now,” Namaje said.

  “I don’t know—” Jade started.

  “You have message.” Namaje grabbed Jade’s wrist and pointed at the pendant with the knotted string on it. “You tell!”


  Jade shook her head, looking from Namaje to her charm. “What message? I don’t know what you’re talking about. This—”

  Jade’s words were cut off by the feel of a cold blade at her throat. Loraya breathed into her ear. “You no know? Where you get Magnus message?” She grabbed Jade’s wrist, ripped off the pendant and ran her fingers over the knots. Jade looked at it, blinking as she took a moment to understand what she’d just said.

  “You know my father?”

  You are the spawn of Magnus Gariq? The booming voice of DivineOne spoke directly into her mind again. Vaguely, she wondered if Loraya and Namaje heard him as well. The blade did not leave her throat, but wasn’t pressed as tightly as before.

  Jade nodded. “I’m Jade Gariq.”

  Magnus sent you with his response to My message. Why do you waste My time with these games?

  “I don’t know anything about a message. Papa—” she gulped as the blade pressed harder against her windpipe. “—is dead. I inherited the bracelet.” Jade’s words came out in a rush.

  DivineOne hissed a tongue of fire. His tail snaked back and forth in agitation. Magnus is dead? Tell Me.

  The command was simple and powerful. Jade found herself recounting everything: the way she had found her father, the news from Neve about the manner of his death, the certainty that the killer was on Premye. When Jade finished her story, she watched DivineOne, who stood still as a statue, a faint plume of smoke curling from its nostril.

  Long seconds passed as Jade held her breath, waiting on DivineOne’s response.

  Release her.

  DivineOne’s thought was a command, and the knife immediately dropped away from Jade’s throat. She exhaled in quick relief.

  Show her.

  Before Jade could object, Namaje pressed her fingertips to Jade’s cheek. Her mind was immediately assaulted by a barrage of images. She jerked backwards at the impact of the memories as they poured into her head. She saw brief glimpses—snippets—of images and experiences. She saw what had happened, but also heard and smelt and felt everything. It was so strange that Jade wasn’t sure she captured it all. It was too much, too soon, too sudden.

  She pulled backwards again, but Namaje held her fast. The memories kept coming.

  Jade stood on the sand by the Premyan Portal, a salty spray on her skin, looking up at the Temple that towered over the beach. It was so grand it put the Ingresston Temple to shame. Adorned with gold leaf and precious stones, the Temple cast a long shadow over the shoreline. The same site where the Traveller Squadron was now camped.

  She felt fear as a flock of Taraqans looted the Temple. They carried off exquisite tapestries, carvings, jewelled statues of the Dragon-Gods.

  Abruptly that scene fell away, replaced with a scene of bloodshed and death. Taraqans fought Taraqans, dead bodies lay on the beach. Premyans fired blow-darts into the sky, before being captured themselves, lifted into the air and then dropped, joining other mangled, broken bodies on the ground.

  The memory changed again, and Jade was labouring under the sun, taking the Temple apart brick by brick, until nothing was left.

  Then she was standing in drenching rain, waiting to go into a squat hut. When her turn came around, she shuffled into the hut and prostrated herself in front of a nest of three Eigots. She joined the chorus of a strange whistling song; praise to the Lady Premye for honouring them with the care of the last three of Her young.

  The music abruptly stopped and Papa appeared—a young man venturing into the Premyan rainforest, discovering the Temple. He sat with Premyans, looking at the nest of three Eigots in wonder. He swore a pledge.

  Then she was crouched in a treehouse, her eyes drawn to movement near the Temple. She was afraid. Something was wrong. The movement was not Premyan. She ran confidently along the branch, watching the hut-Temple. Then, she let out a high-pitched scream. There were wings on that figure. A Traveller. It carried something red. Her cries brought others, but it was too late. She ran to the edge of the branch, eyes fixed on the Traveller. Another Premyan was quicker, throwing herself at the figure who ascended into the skies with a few beats of his wings. The woman stretched out, desperate to catch the legs of the rising Traveller. Her hands closed, grasping at nothing. She was falling. Falling.

  Jade gasped as the memory ended with a jolt. She opened her eyes, shaking, unaware that she had even closed them. Namaje had removed her hand from her cheek, and stroked her hair.

  “Did she survive?” Jade asked Namaje, but the expression in her eyes told her the answer.

  Who was the Traveller?

  Jade tried to picture the Traveller from the memory she’d just seen, but he had been cloaked in darkness, lit only by a flash of the moonlight before disappearing behind clouds. In the memory, she’d been overwhelmed by feelings of rage, shock and grief. All Jade saw was a man with a tattoo on his shoulder.

  A Traveller with a tattoo. So we told Magnus in the message.

  Loraya held up the bracelet.

  “That’s the message?” Jade asked.

  “Knots,” Loraya said. “Tell story. You no read?”

  Jade shook her head, taking the charm back from her and ran her fingers over the knots.

  “Then why come?” Loraya asked.

  “To find Papa’s killer,” Jade said. “Papa could read this?”

  Magnus Gariq has been a Member of the Order of the Three for most of his life. He was in regular contact with us.

  Jade’s mouth dropped open. Papa had never breathed a word about this. She’d never even known he’d visited Premye. “He never mentioned it.”

  Membership of the Order of the Three requires complete secrecy. He swore to give his life for the protection of the Eigots.

  Jade looked at the pendant she’d inherited from Papa. He never mentioned anything to her, maybe to anyone. She realised with a start that he would have had to lie on all the Portal Logs, every time he went to Premye. For a man like Papa, who’d always held his honour as the highest virtue, it must have been hard. Or maybe, she hadn’t known him as well as she thought. Suddenly she wasn’t sure what to think.

  Had he meant her to have this message? If so, what did he want her to do with it? Jade thought of her recurrent dreams of her father.

  “What does the message say?” Jade asked.

  Loraya ran her fingers deftly over the string attached to the charm, without more than a glance at it.

  “Help. Red Eigot stolen. Male Traveller with shoulder tattoo. Escaped this night. Demand safe and quick return. Lifeprice required.”

  “Lifeprice?” Jade asked.

  “Traveller die. Keep dying if Eigot no return.”

  Jade’s mind spiralled back to that morning at the Ingresston Temple. She’d overheard Papa talking about lives being lost. Taraqan lives…

  “This is why you’ve been killing Travellers?” Jade asked, remembering Michael’s body lying on the beach and she clenched her fists.

  The Eigot must be returned. Nothing else is of any importance.

  Jade clenched her fists again, tension spreading through her body. She remembered Michael’s sparkling eyes, the way he had helped her. His advice saved her life even after his death and his life was deemed to have no importance? Jade opened her mouth to speak when she felt a hand on her arm. Namaje squeezed it, her eyes speaking a warning. Jade clenched her teeth with the effort of keeping her mouth shut. She took several steadying breaths before she’d mastered herself enough to reply.

  “How do you know it hasn’t just been broken?” Jade asked. “Maybe someone was too afraid to confess.”

  Loraya and Namaje laughed.

  DivineOne hissed sparks. The only thing that can break an Eigot is the Dragon-God inside it.

  “Oh,” Jade said. “Well, why would a Traveller steal an Eigot?”

  Stupid girl. DivineOne raised himself onto his haunches, stretched out his wings and flicked his tail. Jade got the impression he was sneering at her as another plume of smoke curled from his nostril
. What have Travellers ever wanted? Power. Glory. Treasure. To usurp the Dragon-Gods and rule the Dragonverse.

  Namaje squeezed her shoulder again, but this time Jade ignored her. “That’s not true. Travellers give their lives to protect—”

  They reward themselves richly with plunder.

  “The law—”

  Silence! DivineOne roared sending a shudder down Jade’s spine. An Eigot contains all the magic a Dragon-God will ever do. Whoever has the Eigot can use that magic for their own purposes.

  Jade swallowed, blinking slowly. Neve’s words at Force HQ came back to her: “I think your father was killed by magic.”

  Magic. First Neve’s preposterous suggestion; now a live Dragon-God told her a Traveller had stolen an Eigot to use its magic. Jade was almost tempted to laugh out loud at the suggestion—except that it wasn’t funny.

  Nothing about this was funny.

  Papa was dead. Michael was dead. Six other Travellers were dead. All connected by a stolen Eigot. She thought again of the dreams she’d had of Papa, begging her to finish what he’d started and release him. Did he want her to release him from this oath? Was that what he’d been trying to tell her? Did he want to finish this cycle of death? To wash his hands of the blood?

  Jade swallowed. “I don’t know who the Traveller is.”

  DivineOne let out a roar that shook the foundations of the temple. Jade shivered. You seek Magnus Gariq’s murderer. I seek My brother-Eigot. Find the Eigot and you will find your killer.

  18

  Jade perched on a branch leaning against the outer wall of Namaje’s tree house. She held a now-cold cup of bitter tea and stared out at the canopy. She’d crept outside to feel the crisp night air on her face, but was blind to the stars peeking through the canopy at her. With one hand she fiddled with Papa’s pendant, which she had looped onto her neck chain after Loraya had returned it.

  There was too much going on inside her head to appreciate the beauty of this place. For one thing, the force of DivineOne’s thoughts inside her mind left her feeling foggy and dazed—either that or experiencing Namaje’s memories. Her insides churned in a tumult of emotion—waves of anger, grief and frustration—but she wasn’t sure how much of it was her own and how much of it was inherited from the incursions of the Dragon-God and the Premyan healer into her mind.