‘When I returned to the Oblaka, Finn Rah was near death, her lungs badly weakened. I had the strongest compulsion to keep the pendant hidden. Finn didn’t notice it when I arrived with it round my neck. The Kooshak who tended her, Sarryen, she saw it but made no comment.’
Babach fumbled under the stack of pillows until he’d extracted a small brown leather pouch. The effort made him breathless and the woman who’d brought them to him came forward with a mug of water. He sipped gratefully.
‘When the child arrived, Finn was somehow healed. Sarryen vanished. Finn said she was a dedicated Kooshak, and had probably gone back out into the countryside to help wherever she could.’
He drank more of the water and stared into Tika’s eyes. ‘I couldn’t find her. I am a dream walker. She was a student of mine long ago. I should have been able to reach her. She is dead.’
‘At Finn Rah’s order?’ Tika asked quietly.
Babach closed his eyes. ‘Or the child’s.’
Tika glanced round the room. Dog, Shea, Sergeant Essa and Shivan leaned against the wall beside the door, listening with interest. She turned to the leather pouch lying on the bed cover. Loosening the thong around it, she tipped the pendant out. The four by the door came closer to see it.
The back half of the egg shaped pendant was obsidian, the front filled with a clear, bright yellow material. A black speck seemed to float within the yellow. Tika lifted it by its gold link chain and held it out to Babach.
‘You should wear it now,’ she told him. ‘It may help you recover faster.’
He took it from her and slid it over his head. Shea squeezed between Konya and Sket.
‘If you show me how you braid your beard and get those pretty beads in the braids, I’ll teach you snap-the-rat,’ she offered.
Babach regarded her solemnly. ‘I believe such an exchange could not be bettered, and would be most interesting as well.’
‘After you’ve had a rest,’ said the woman who was clearly his nurse.
They saw shadows under Babach’s sunken eyes and the pallor returned to his cheeks. Tika got off the side of his bed. ‘We’ll visit again later,’ she said, smiling at the woman. ‘When we are permitted.’
Babach snorted.
‘Oh,’ he called as they reached the door. ‘That bird. Hag? I’ve never seen her before. Where is she from?’
Tika spun back to stare at the old man. ‘Hag? Hag’s been here? When?’
Babach nodded. ‘Early this morning. She was rude to everyone, me included. Then she went off to talk to Kija. She said Kija was her dear friend, but she would prefer to talk to you. Unfortunately, as she was so very busy, she couldn’t wait for you to get here.’
Tika was already sprinting back along the corridor, through the large room and skidding out of the door. She looked across the open ground between the building and the water. Storm dived and cavorted some way out over the lake, Farn tumbling and twisting in pursuit. Brin reclined on the grass nearer the building, watching them with amusement. There was no sign of Kija.
‘Brin,’ Tika hurried to the crimson Dragon. ‘Where is Kija?’
Rosy prismed eyes gazed down at her affectionately. ‘She said she had to travel somewhere. She thinks we ought to wait here, with these nice people. Perhaps she just wants time alone, to grieve for Kadi.’
Tika didn’t believe a single word.
Chapter Five
Kija flew fast, slightly east of due north, following Hag’s directions. She expected to reach her goal late the next day. It grew colder the further north she travelled – spring had scarcely begun to touch the areas around either the Oblaka or the Menedula, and in these more northern lands the snows were only just beginning to thaw. The Great Dragons could regulate their body temperature to some extent and Kija knew she would not have to combat the cold for too many days.
Brin’s words to Tika were, in fact, partly true. Kija did wish to be alone for a while, to remember Kadi and to consider what she might confront the next day. She chose to rest briefly when the moon was high, and she lay along exposed rocks on the side of one of the hills that were now becoming mountains. She lay motionless, watching small creatures, barely woken from their long winter sleep, creeping hungrily among the old leaf litter piled around the trees’ roots.
She considered Hag. She realised the great Raven held immense power, but she didn’t think Hag was really aware of her terrifying capabilities. At their first meeting, she had dismissed Hag as a conceited, obstreperous bird, but she had now reached the conclusion that, child though she was, Shea had been correct. Hag was lonely. Kija now understood that old as old as she herself was, to Hag she was still a child. She couldn’t begin to guess the Raven’s age.
Hag had spoken, although not in specific detail, of her children, and in Gaharn Kija knew Hag had scolded the Merigs for their lack of respect. Hag had told them she was the mother of all black feathered ones. Could she be, Kija wondered? Kija suspected that Hag could be close to madness brought on by her long, long life and yes, her loneliness.
Kija wasn’t sure if the Dark Ones understood Hag: they knew of her power but they didn’t seem to treat her with much dignity. When Hag had spoken to her, early this morning, Kija felt that Hag believed Tika was truly her friend. So Kija had spoken kindly to the bird, and to her surprise, received far more information than she had expected.
A movement below distracted her from her thoughts. A tall lean grey wolf stepped clear of the crowded trees. His pale eyes stared round, then lifted to the rocks where Kija lay.
‘No harm to you, little brother,’ Kija murmured to his mind.
The wolf blinked, and disappeared.
Rhaki hummed as he pottered around his cave. He’d been astonished by how quickly he’d made a routine of his days. He was also somewhat bemused at just how contented he was. His predecessor’s notebooks and maps gradually engrossed his attention, and whole days passed uncounted. He had used far seeing powers to examine the land in his immediate vicinity, mostly at daybreak. The buildings he’d first seen on a map had proved to be deserted and he found no signs of human life within a radius of perhaps three leagues.
Rhaki was happy with that. He estimated that he’d had about half of the winter season getting used to his new situation, and he hoped he could remain uninterrupted for a good while yet. He had been alarmed, almost frightened, when he first found there were gaps in his memories. The name Cho Petak was clear, but events surrounding that name were hazy.
He remembered living in a City called Gaharn, that he had a sister called Emla. He had no memory of a black tower he’d constructed in the far west of Sapphrea. And he would have been shocked if he’d been able to recall any of his experiments in the Stronghold. Rhaki wondered if his memory had been damaged accidentally when the stranger had dragged him from his refuge and crammed him into this body. Or had it been done on purpose? That stranger had never returned and Rhaki had a deep certainty that he never would.
Rhaki had the sense that somehow this was a second chance he’d been given, and he intended to take every advantage of it. He tidied away the maps he’d been studying and swung the kettle over the fire to make tea when he heard a clattering in the outer part of the cave. He frowned. He’d been warned that a wolf or a bear might visit, but all he had seen had been a single, bright blue bird chattering at him from the fir tree beside the entrance for the last few mornings. In his thorough search through the several caves he had found nothing remotely resembling a weapon. Now, he went to the heavy leather curtain which served as a door and pulled it aside. He could only gape.
The entrance was filled with an enormous bulky shape, which blocked the light. Uncomfortably close was a long scaled face with a faceted eye bigger than his fist. The eye whirred lemon, yellow, gold, with white and red flashes, and Rhaki felt as though his mind and body had been turned inside out, shaken, and restored to its proper state. His knees buckled, his eyes closed and he fought against a wave of nausea. Then he felt calmness spread
ing through him and he risked opening his eyes a fraction. The large shape, the face, and the eye were still there. He swallowed and managed to lock his legs so that he’d stay upright. He opened his mouth and a voice spoke inside his mind.
‘I am Kija of the Dragon Kindred. And you are Rhaki. But not.’
The flashing colours in the eye so close to him calmed, and settled to a buttery gold. His visitor’s head craned past his rigid body and peered into the inner cave. There was a certain amount of rustling, scraping and huffing, and Kija managed to recline in the entrance. Rhaki saw that his visitor really was a Dragon. He had only the vaguest memory of seeing Dragons fly among the mountains west of Gaharn. His sister, Emla, had been interested in them he seemed to recall. The Dragon’s head was set on a long muscular neck, and as she turned to face him again, he saw two small triangular scales set high to the sides of the huge eyes. The scales flattened, and Rhaki guessed they protected a different type of ear to those of most creatures.
But the eyes commanded his attention as the voice spoke in his head again.
‘Emla is a friend.’
‘She is?’ Rhaki spoke aloud and in some surprise. Could this Dragon have read his thought?
‘Well of course I did,’ the Dragon snapped. ‘Many of us use mind speech but we have found most of you humans cannot do so.’
‘Oh.’
‘Your memories have been tampered with.’
Rhaki would like to sit down but felt that would put him at a complete disadvantage, so he leaned against the wall as casually as he could manage.
‘How do you know me? I mean, Rhaki?’ He paused. This was not straightforward.
The Dragon huffed, her breath forming a cloud of vapour in the chill air, uncomfortably similar to smoke.
‘Your mind is Rhaki. I do not know who occupied the body you now use, but it was given to you voluntarily. I would have killed you if it had been otherwise.’
The tone was calm, dispassionate, but Rhaki believed the words utterly.
‘Do you remember others?’ Now Kija sounded curious. ‘What of Ryla, Nesh, Iska, Cho Petak, Bark?’
Rhaki frowned in concentration. ‘Bark was a friend from my childhood. The other names sound familiar but,’ he shook his head. ‘The memory slips away as I try to reach for it. Cho Petak is a bad name.’
‘Have you felt him here?’
‘No. I have felt nothing since I woke here. I can reach some power but I have enjoyed being alone.’
Kija remained silent, watching this man who looked old, as humans judge age. Forgetting his dignity, Rhaki slid down the wall and sat hugging his knees.
‘The one who pushed me into this body, he said I had family, to whom I owed reparation. You seem to know me – what have I done?’
Kija’s prismed eyes whirred darker for a moment as she studied the man before her. Then she sighed. This was going to be a long, painful, evening.
The sun was above the mountains to the left of the cave when Rhaki staggered outside next morning. He had only slept briefly, just before dawn. His mind had reeled at what the golden Dragon had told him and, even worse, shown him, through pictures from her own memories. He had wept at the horrors she’d described to him, unable to disbelieve what he learnt: the information snapped into places where there had been only gaps in his mind too neatly to be coincidence. When the first shock had subsided a little, he had been astounded by the Dragon’s compassion, and finally he had fallen asleep to the sound of a gentle crooning song.
Now he stood, swaying slightly with emotional exhaustion, in the empty entrance to his cave and wondered if it had all been a terrible dream. He stared out over the gently greening valley, a view which he had already grown fond of. Then he saw the sun flash on golden scales and the massive Dragon wheeled high above the valley’s end. She turned in a lazy glide and he heard her voice in his mind again.
‘You have not slept long Rhaki. Are you sure you are well?’
Rhaki was shaken again to feel tears well into his eyes at the kindness in the mind voice. Why should the Dragon be so gentle when the crimes he had committed against her own family were so horrendous? He watched, his tears drying, as Kija drifted lower and landed smoothly beside his fir tree. And his decision was made. Kija settled into a reclining position and folded her wings against her back. Rhaki returned her steady gaze and drew in a deep breath.
‘I will travel to these people, and I will begin my service to them. I do not believe I can ever find forgiveness for what I have done.’
Kija lowered her head. ‘As you wish.’ She looked out over the quiet landscape. ‘Another day or so will make no difference Rhaki. Pack what you wish to take. I will conceal your cave for you when we leave, so all will stay safe until you return.’
‘We?’ he asked in surprise. He had thought he would be trekking on foot until he found a town at least.
Kija’s laugh pealed aloud, ringing round the hillside.
‘I will take you, when you are ready.’
Rhaki went back into the cave and looked around its crowded smallness. He’d found several packs his predecessor must have used for many different reasons: a couple had clearly been used to carry fish. They were still richly pungent. He intended to take the notebooks and the maps, nothing else besides a change of clothes. He sniffed one of the shirts and wrinkled his nose. If the Dragon wasn’t in a hurry, perhaps he should do some laundry.
The next day, Rhaki stood outside his cave, a single large pack on his shoulder, and watched the gold Dragon work power. The open face of the entrance to the cave became sealed over. Rock, looking as weathered as though it had stood there forever, was netted with winter killed ferns and ivy. Kija moved away and crouched low.
‘Climb between my wings. You will not fall.’
Rhaki did as he was told. He felt powerful muscles tense and then they were aloft. Although Kija flew slowly to begin with, the air whipped into Rhaki’s face, icy against his cheeks and chin and causing tears to blur his vision. He let go of Kija’s shoulder with one hand and pulled the collar of his jacket up as far as he could. He found that by squinting, he reduced the watering of his eyes, and suddenly he saw they were already over the deserted buildings just beyond his valley.
He twisted to peer back towards his cave, but it was already too distant to make out. As Kija sensed Rhaki growing more confident with being on her back, so high above the ground, she increased her speed, powering southwards. She didn’t fly nearly as fast as she had on her way to Rhaki and landed before sunset in a tiny clearing which had been made by the fall of an ancient tree during the past winter. When Rhaki slid from her back, his legs gave way and he felt amusement pulse from Kija’s mind.
‘There are few animals around here yet,’ she said. ‘Light a fire, you will be cold this night.’
Once his legs returned to working order, Rhaki collected pieces of the fallen tree and piled them on a clear piece of ground. Then he stared at his heaped sticks helplessly. He felt amusement ripple from Kija again.
‘Move away a little.’
He backed a few paces and the Dragon spat a small gout of fire at the wood, which blazed up fiercely. Rhaki felt his face stretch in a smile.
‘I don’t think I’ve ever lit a fire,’ he said ruefully.
‘And you certainly didn’t light that one,’ Kija retorted. Then her laugh rang through the little clearing. ‘And you didn’t bring a pot to make your drink either!’
She clearly found the situation deeply entertaining, although by the time dawn arrived, Rhaki yearned for a warming mug of tea rather than the ice cold water he’d scooped from a spring.
‘We could reach the lake where I left my friends by tonight, but we will halt again and join them tomorrow.’
Rhaki didn’t pay too close attention to Kija’s comment.
He was growing tired though as the sun dipped out of sight and Kija’s flight curved down again. Rhaki peered over her shoulder as they came lower and saw the glow of a fire, its flames reflect
ing in the water of a small pool close by. He felt an overwhelming surge of panic. Who could be down there? He wasn’t ready to face people after all. He couldn’t do it.
‘Yes, you can.’ And Kija swept down to land a short distance from both fire and pool.
The daylight had nearly gone, down below the trees, and Rhaki only glimpsed two or three figures standing near the fire. He slid carefully from Kija’s back and was grateful that his legs didn’t buckle this time. He pushed his collar away from his face and straightened his shoulders. He found his legs were shakier than he’d have wished but they carried him towards the blaze of the fire.
Something moved to his right and he faltered, seeing another Dragon, half the size of Kija, with scales of silvery sapphire. He stopped completely. Kija had shown him this Dragon, in pictures from her mind. The Dragon reclined, apparently relaxed, but his eyes flashed. Rhaki swallowed and turned back to the two figures closer to the fire. He saw a man, about the same height as Rhaki now was in this new body. The man had a hand on his sword hilt and his gaze was hard, his posture tense. He stood close to a small girl.
No, Rhaki realised. A woman. His eyes met hers and widened in astonishment. Her eyes were vivid emerald green, but where there should have been white surrounding them, there was gleaming silver. He staggered, feeling his mind being ripped inside out again, and fell to his knees as his head spun and his stomach roiled. Gradually the dizziness faded and he raised his head to find a bowl thrust under his nose. A man’s voice roughly suggested he drink some tea, and Rhaki took the bowl gratefully. When he’d drained the bowl, it was taken from him and a hand caught his arm in a firm grip, pulling him upright then leading him to the fire. Rhaki saw that the Dragons had moved closer, their great bodies forming a wall behind the man and the woman.
‘I have seen your mind,’ said a cool clear voice, and Rhaki looked into those strange green and silver eyes.
Perilous Shadows: Book 6 Circles of Light Page 6
