Longfang

by Mark Robson

  The thought that he was acting like the cringeing girl hardened his resolve. He grabbed the orb and quickly wrapped it over and over in the cloth before stuffing it down into the base of his saddlebag. Shuffling everything else around in the leather bag, he buried the bundle under as many things as he could. His fingers trembled as he fumbled with the buckles.

  ‘Well done, Pell,’ Shadow said smoothly. ‘Let’s go. The griffins will have released Segun and his men from the valley by now.’

  The conditions were little better than they had been when they landed. The wind was still whipping the snow through the air and visibility was very limited, but Pell could feel that Shadow was stronger after her rest. He could feel her confidence through the bond. No sooner had they launched into the darkening sky than she began to use her ability to silence the sound of her wing-beats.

  Pell felt safe sitting on Shadow’s back inside the unnaturally silent bubble. The light faded fast and the wind tugged at his clothing with cold fingers, but the silence had a strange way of taking the sting out of the wind’s bitter chill. He also perceived something of the strange echo navigation sense Shadow used when flying at night. Even though her vision was limited, he was confident she would not crash into anything. Much like a bat, she was perfectly at home flying blind in the dark.

  It was hard to keep track of the passage of time. Shadow did not want to risk following the others directly, as this was likely to put them in the path of their pursuers again. Instead she stayed amongst the mountains, threading through valley after valley in a zigzagging route southwards before finally turning left and heading for the edge of the mountain range. Once they were clear, they turned south, paralleling the line of peaks and flying on into the night.

  ‘I’ve located Elian and Aurora,’ Shadow announced suddenly.

  Pell was relieved. He was freezing cold and desperately tired. He wanted to find shelter, have a hot drink, eat some food and catch a few hours of sleep. If Elian had stopped, then so could he.

  ‘Where?’ he asked.

  ‘Not far,’ Shadow replied, her voice encouraging. ‘They are holed up in a small wood just ahead and to our left. Hang on tight. We’re going down.’

  ‘Great. How did you find them?’

  ‘I didn’t. Aurora sensed me coming. She has given me directions. We should be there in less than a minute.’

  Pell was so relieved it hurt inside.

  ‘Are the girls there as well?’ he asked.

  There was a pause and Pell could feel Shadow reaching ahead with her mind.

  ‘I don’t think so,’ she said eventually. ‘If they are there, Fire and Fang are hiding their minds from me most effectively. I can feel no trace of them.’

  Pell decided it would be a relief if they were not there. Kira brought out the worst in him. Everything she said seemed to spark him to anger. And Nolita was no less annoying. Her cringing fear and maddening little rituals drove him to distraction. All that hand-washing! It beggared belief that she was a dragonrider at all.

  They descended steeply, adjusting their course to the left and dropping down into the darkness. Pell could not see a thing. He felt, more than saw, the ground approach. An instant before Shadow adjusted the angle of her wings to arrest their rate of descent, his buttocks clenched instinctively and his stomach muscles tightened in anticipation. Shadow back-winged to a gentle landing. Falling snow brushed at Pell’s face with tickling gentleness as it fell in a thick swarm around him.

  ‘Where are they, Shadow?’ he asked aloud. ‘I can’t see a thing.’

  ‘In the trees just ahead,’ she replied. ‘No more than about fifty of your paces, I’d say.’

  ‘I can’t even see the trees,’ he grunted. ‘Shall I get down, or can you get to them with me on your back?’

  ‘I suggest you get down,’ Shadow said. ‘The pines are quite thick. I will have to squeeze between the trees to reach them.’

  Pell knew from past experience that trying to get in amongst densely packed trees on a dragon’s back could be uncomfortable. In this light he would not be able to see the branches coming. At least if he was on foot he could feel his way through the needle-laden boughs.

  Stiff with cold, he slid down Shadow’s left flank and landed with a thump into the ankle-deep snow. The shock of landing transmitted through his legs and up his back, carrying a ripple of pain that highlighted just how cold-soaked he was. He grimaced as he straightened up, rubbing briefly at his thighs and lower back before taking his first careful steps forwards.

  The fifty paces felt more like five hundred. He had to feel his way into the darkness, taking each blind step carefully for fear of a branch in the eye, or of stepping into an unseen hole. The dim light from Elian’s hidden fire was not visible until Pell was little more than ten paces away from where Elian was sitting. He had cleverly built it on the far side of a fallen tree, in the crook between the trunk and one of the larger branches. It was tucked almost underneath, which restricted the light, but ensured that the heat would all reflect outwards in a specific direction.

  All Pell could see of Elian was his head and shoulders over the fallen tree trunk that blocked his path, but he could tell that the younger boy was scanning the darkness, looking for him.

  ‘Evening, Elian,’ Pell said, trying to sound casual. ‘Nice spot you’ve found here.’ In his own ears his voice sounded hard and clumsy as his cold lips struggled to shape the sounds.

  ‘Pell! Come on over. I’ve been waiting for you,’ Elian replied, sounding relieved to hear Pell’s voice. ‘Have you seen the girls?’

  ‘No, I was going to ask you the same. Did the other night dragons follow you?’

  ‘If they did, they didn’t catch up with us,’ Elian said, watching Pell climb awkwardly over the fallen tree. ‘Ra told me Fang deliberately stayed to draw them into a chase and keep them off our backs. How about you?’

  Pell hunched down next to Elian and stared into the tiny flickering flames. He held his hands out, warming them as the pause grew into an uncomfortable silence. A series of loud cracking noises announced the arrival of Shadow, pushing through the pines and snapping the branches she couldn’t squeeze past. Pell could see her red eyes glowing in the darkness. He felt comforted by her presence, but was still unsure how to answer Elian’s question. It was hard to know where to start. Feelings of guilt and remorse returned in force, churning deep in the pit of his stomach.

  ‘We met one of the night dragons,’ he said eventually.

  ‘What happened?’ Elian prompted, his tone cautious after the awkward silence that had followed his previous question.

  ‘Dragon and rider are both dead.’

  ‘Oh,’ Elian said softly. He fell silent, leaving the obvious question unasked.

  Pell turned to look at the boy from Racafi, but Elian did not meet his eyes. Did the boy really think that he and Shadow had deliberately killed a fellow dragon and rider? It appeared that way. Indignant, Pell blurted out the truth.

  ‘The orb killed them.’

  The words hung in the air.

  ‘The orb?’ Elian asked, his voice rising with surprise and his eyes finally turning to meet Pell’s steady gaze. ‘How?’

  Pell told him. In halting snatches, he described the pull of the orb and the strange arrival of the small host of animals. To begin with the words came slowly, but the more he spoke the faster the words came, until they tumbled from his mouth like a waterfall. Vivid memories flashed through his mind’s eye as he relived the horror of the orb’s power. Elian sat in silence, his jaw slowly dropping as Pell reached the terrible climax of his story.

  ‘Gods alive!’ he breathed as Pell fell silent. ‘And I thought the first orb was dangerous! We need to get that thing to the Oracle’s cave – and fast!’

  ‘I agree, except for one thing,’ Pell said.

  ‘What’s that?’

  ‘There can’t be any we this time. I’m going to have to do this alone.’

  Chapter Five

  White T
error

  Kira had always been proud of her woodcraft skills, but in Racafi she had never had to deal with cold like this. Her hands felt worse than useless. They were clumsy lumps of flesh on the ends of her arms. Her fingers felt weak and stiff and she had lost all dexterity. Muscles throughout her body ached with the fatigue of deep cold. Tears of frustration began to well in her eyes. She blinked rapidly to prevent them escaping.

  ‘Damn, damn, damn!’ she cursed as she threw her flint and steel down in frustration.

  It was almost dark. The snow was still falling heavily and the temperature was dropping fast. For all her skills and knowledge of survival learned in the Racafian savannah, she could not get a fire to light. She knew that to stop trying now was to invite the cold embrace of death. Tired though she was, and angry at her inadequacies, Kira could not give up. Quitting was not in her nature.

  ‘Why can’t you breathe fire like Firestorm?’ she muttered at Fang, glaring at her dragon with accusing eyes. ‘I bet Nolita isn’t cold. Even if she hasn’t got wood to burn, he can always heat the rock for her.’

  Her dragon did not respond with words, but she felt his love and concern flood through their special bond. The sensation triggered instant feelings of guilt.

  Fang had hatched from his egg in the twilight time after the sun had set, but before true night had fallen. As a result he had grown into a dusk dragon and developed the unique camouflage abilities of those rare dragons born between sundown and darkness. He could no more become a day dragon than he could change the colour of the sky.

  ‘Sorry, Fang,’ she added through gritted teeth. ‘That was uncalled for. I didn’t mean it. I just . . .’

  She could not finish the sentence. Her brain felt as frozen as her limbs. With a groan she bent down and recovered her fire-starting materials and resumed her efforts, striking showers of sparks again and again across the tinder and kindling. Every time she sprayed the stars of light across the tiny pile of sticks, dark shadows leapt, teasing the corners of her vision. Tall trees loomed over her, crowding together like giants poised to stomp and crush. With increasing frequency she found herself looking around for signs of danger, but there was nothing to see. The black pillars of the tree trunks stood solid and motionless.

  ‘What’s the matter, Kira?’ she asked herself aloud through chattering teeth. ‘You’ve been alone in the woods lots of times. Besides, you’re not alone. You’ve got a dragon to protect you from . . .’

  What? What was it that she felt she needed protection from? If the night dragons came close, Fang could conceal them both with ease. No normal predator with any sense would come near them, so what was it that had her so on edge? The atmosphere felt heavy with black menace. All was silent. But there were no burning eyes watching her out of the darkness. She could not see or hear anything moving.

  ‘I’m getting paranoid,’ she muttered.

  ‘No, you’re not,’ Fang said. ‘I sense it too, but I don’t know what it is that I’m feeling. I thought I felt something before we landed. There is something bad about this place. I think we should go.’

  ‘I’m too cold, Fang,’ she told him stubbornly. ‘I need to warm up before we go anywhere. I don’t think I’ll be able to stay on your back unless I get some blood circulating through my hands and feet.’

  ‘Well, whatever you’re going to do, make it quick.’

  Suddenly it all became clear to Kira. The nervousness she was feeling was not her own. It was Fang’s. Her dragon was transmitting his discomfort into her mind through the bond. The thought that this huge powerful creature might be afraid of a spooky old forest made her snigger. She could not help herself. It built inside her, bubbling up with irresistible momentum and before she knew it, she was giggling like a little girl.

  Fang turned his head and fixed her with a hard stare.

  ‘There is nothing funny about this place, Kira,’ he said firmly.

  ‘Yes there is,’ she countered. ‘What’s funny is you! I never realised dragons could be afraid of the dark.’

  ‘I’m not.’

  ‘Then what are you afraid of?’ she challenged. ‘I can feel your fear, Fang. I thought it was me getting the jitters. Now I know it’s you. It’s like Nolita and Firestorm, only in reverse.’

  The sound was barely more than a whisper, but with mind-boggling swiftness, Fang struck. His jaws snapped open, revealing his vicious rows of inward-curving teeth. The prominent longer fang for which he was named flashed towards her so fast that she barely had time to register what was happening. Her reaction was to suck in a sharp breath with which to scream, but before she had a chance to utter a sound, Fang’s head whipped straight past her and he bit down into the snow.

  As he lifted his head again, Kira saw something pale and long, wriggling and writhing in his jaws.

  ‘What the hell’s that?’ she gasped as she began to make out details.

  The creature was long and segmented like a worm, but it was as thick as her arm. She could see no eyes, but even in the deepening darkness beneath the trees Kira could make out the mouth full of jagged, icicle-like teeth. Whatever it was, the creature was hideous.

  ‘Ice worm!’ Fang said, his voice in her mind now alive with fear. ‘Get on my back. Now! You must get out of the snow. Come on!’

  Initially, Kira could not move. Fang’s panic rooted her to the spot. The crunch as the dragon’s teeth sheered through the ice worm’s plated exterior was horrible. He flicked his head, casting the remains of the worm as far as he could. Where the creature’s body landed, the snow instantly exploded in a frenzy of thrashing, writhing serpentine bodies. The speed with which they moved was electrifying. All the hair at the back of Kira’s neck stood on end.

  Fang pounced. There was no other description for his movement. It was catlike. One moment he was in one place, the next he was leaping forwards. As he landed, the snow to either side of his front feet erupted as pinned ice worms fought to free themselves from under his weight. That they had not been instantly crushed did not go unnoticed by Kira. These creatures were incredibly tough.

  ‘It’s a swarm! Get out of the snow, Kira! Get out of the snow! They’re deadly!’ Fang cried in her mind, his voice carrying a desperate edge. ‘I can’t stop them. There are too many.’

  This time his words got through. Kira’s brain, slowed as it was by the cold, processed Fang’s fear, the speed of the creatures, the danger of the situation and finally forced her cold-soaked body into action. She stumbled the few short paces through the snow and tried to scramble up Fang’s foreleg to the relative safety of his back, still clutching her flint and steel.

  As Kira lifted her trailing leg out of the snow, pain tore through her right calf and she screamed in agony. An ice worm had bitten deep into the flesh and was now dangling behind her as she tried in vain to drag herself higher from the white surface. She could feel its teeth sinking deeper and deeper into her muscle, slicing through her flesh and sending a wave of icy coldness up and down her leg.

  Fang’s head twisted on his long neck and with a touch of finesse she would not have believed possible of her dragon, he twitched the tail of the great worm out so he could catch its body between his teeth. There was another sickening crunch as he sheared the worm in two, but to Kira’s horror, the head end of the creature did not let go of her leg. It thrashed around, tearing her flesh even more, its teeth clamping tighter and tighter.

  Screaming with every scrap of energy her lungs could find, she reached down with her right hand and began hitting it with the flint. The surface of the worm was slippery like ice and hard as steel. Her efforts proved worse than useless. Rather than let go, the worm tried all the harder to bite right through to the bone.

  ‘Heat!’ Fang told her, his voice frantic. ‘Use the flint and steel. Ice worms cannot stand fire.’

  Kira twisted so that she could sit on Fang’s shoulder. Below her the snow was heaving in waves as a multitude of worms attacked from all sides. Despite dozens latching onto the dragon’
s body, he remained motionless for fear of tipping Kira from her precarious perch. Reaching down with both hands this time, she scraped the steel against the flint and sent a shower of bright golden sparks across the worm’s body.

  The dying creature’s response was instant. It could not let go fast enough. It released its grip and fell away from her, sliding down Fang’s foreleg only to be consumed in seconds by the thrashing mass of ice worms below.

  ‘Well done. Now get into the saddle, Kira,’ Fang urged. ‘I need to move. My scales are tough, but this looks like a big swarm. Even a dragon cannot hope to survive long against a sustained attack by ice worms.’

  She turned, wincing as lines of pain shot up her injured leg. It only took her a few seconds, but it quickly became apparent that even this short time might prove fatal. Hundreds of worms had gained purchase on Fang’s body. Having gained a hold with their teeth, the worms had then burrowed back, tail first into the frozen ground and were now holding Fang in place like a web of living ropes. She could feel his muscles bunching and straining as he tried to lift his belly from the ground, but he could no longer move.

  The pain in her leg was forgotten. Her fear was absolute. Worse – she could feel it shared and amplified by her dragon. The snowy carpet under the trees was alive with rippling movement as more and more worms swam through the snow towards them. They were trapped and she could see no way out. Without a miracle, she and Fang were going to die a horrible death.

  It was strange. Normally flying hazards served to increase Nolita’s fears, but the onset of the snowstorm had actually helped her to control her emotions. The dancing white flakes provided a mesmerising show that held her attention and deadened her mind to reality. Perhaps it was because it reminded her of midwinter feasts back home in Cemaria – happy times with family and friends. Perhaps it was the subtle way it played with her vision, never allowing her focus to settle at any one distance. Whatever the reason, Nolita was surprisingly content to be flying on Firestorm’s back this afternoon.