Isla wrapped herself around me as the tears came. Deep, racking, sobs that tore at me and consumed me.
She held me like that as the despair flowed over me, dragging me down, down, down into a dark and starless night.
***
It was night when I woke. My head ached and my throat was raw. Scruffy was curled up next to my feet and Isla lay beside me, her hand still holding mine as she had been when I had finally drifted off to sleep.
A tapping noise. That was what had woken me.
I shifted my head away from the pillow and turned so that an ear was in the air.
Tap, tap, tap.
There, it was coming from the window.
Isla stirred as I slid my hand from hers. I sat up and made my way toward the window. Light from the main room illuminated mine enough that I was able to navigate around the furniture. Deirdre must have lit the candles while we slept.
‘What is it?’ Isla’s voice was still full of sleep.
‘I’m not sure.’
This time the tapping was more insistent. I pulled opened a window and looked out.
Turos’s head moved up and down in time with the strokes of Lance’s wings. ‘It’s time,’ he said.
I reached out towards Emerald but she wasn’t there. ‘She’s gone,’ I gasped.
‘We’ve hooded her,’ he said. ‘You wouldn’t be able to block her pain.’
‘What is it?’ Isla asked.
‘It’s Emerald.’
She nodded once and then hopped off the bed. Pulling her hair back and braiding it deftly as she walked towards me. Scruffy followed her, jumping into my arms as I bent towards him.
‘Give him to me,’ Turos said, holding out his arms for Scruffy.
I shook my head. ‘I’ll hold him.’
‘No,’ he said. ‘You’ll be holding me. It’s a tight flight in, and Lance is going to have to manoeuvre sharply. You can’t do both.’
I stared into his eyes, unwilling to give up Scruffy. If anything happened to my little familiar I would be…just like I had been that afternoon. Just like I still was.
Lost.
‘Promise me,’ I said, desperation making my voice tight. ‘Promise me nothing will happen to him.’
‘He will be safe with me.’ It was the first serious thing he had said since we got to Millenia.
Scruffy barked and wiggled in my arms, reaching towards Turos.
‘Fine. But I’m not happy about this.’
‘I apologise. I should have stopped for the basket you use to transport him but Lance is insistent we hurry.’
Lance threw his head from side-to-side and fire curled out of his nostrils.
I scrambled up onto the window ledge and leapt across onto Lance’s head, timing it with a downward stroke of his wings. Turos reached forward, holding out his arms. He took Scruffy and then helped me step down onto Lance’s neck to sit behind him. I slid back to make room for Isla.
‘Hang on,’ Turos yelled over his shoulder.
I was about to make a smart-arse reply about how I had been riding a dragon for years when Lance launched himself forwards. I felt myself rock backwards and just managed to grasp Isla’s waist. I let out a gasp as I grabbed onto the leather straps in front of me.
Sure, I had ridden a dragon for years, but this was something else. Lance was fast. Much faster than he had been on our trip here. Much faster than Emerald, and I found myself wondering if she had been holding out on me.
We screamed through the sky, the glow of the volcano growing rapidly in front of us. I expected Lance to land on the plateau below the rim of the crater but instead he aimed for the solid mountain below, and to the side of it. I dug my nails into my palms around the leather straps as a dark hole became visible.
A tunnel. And while I was still contemplating the fact that there was no way that tunnel could be wide enough for a flying dragon, Lance gave one more mighty beat of his wings and then tucked them in by his sides.
We shot into that tunnel like a rabbit down a hole as darkness closed around us. A silent scream filled my lungs as Lance twisted through a corkscrew and then navigated a hairpin bend. Then we were heading straight down into the bowels of the earth.
It felt like forever that we fell through the darkness, but it was probably only moments before Lance whipped through another bend and straightened out. Soft light illuminated our path as the tunnel widened enough for Lance to spread his wings. And then the tunnel widened further until it was a vast cavern.
Crystal stalactites glistened like chandeliers as they reflected the light cast by small pools of lava. Warmth rolled over me in a wave and sweat broke out all over my body.
Dragons, lying lazily beside large eggs, were scattered across the floor of the cabin. Lance flew over all of them till we reached the far end of the cavern, then he back flew with his wings till we landed gently beside Emerald.
She lay on her side, curled into a ball and she wore the metal helmet she had had on at the trial.
‘Help me get it off her.’ I slid down one of Lance’s legs and trotted towards her. She rolled a huge eye at me and then squeezed it shut tight as her whole body spasmed.
‘You won’t be able to take the pain.’ Turos shook his head.
I stalked towards him and grabbed the front of his shirt with both hands, twisting my fists into the fabric. ‘Take. It. Off,’ I hissed, staring into his eyes.
He must have seen the violence brewing because he tugged my hands free and said, ‘Don’t say I didn’t warn you.’
As soon as the helmet left her head her agony became mine. A whimper left my lips and Turos lifted the helmet back into the air.
‘Don’t you dare,’ I rasped as I staggered towards her.
Another spasm wracked her, the flesh of her abdomen rolling like an enormous wave toward her tail. I dropped to my knees and clutched my stomach, waiting for the worst of it to pass before I crawled the last few metres to her. I placed a hand on her stomach and rubbed in a circle. Her mind calmed its chaotic wailing at my touch.
Izzy?
I’m here.
It hurts.
I know. Oh boy did I know. We will get through this.
Scruffy pushed up against her on the other side of me and Isla took up station at Emerald’s head. Lance settled beside her and placed a wing over her.
Waves of agony crashed over me, each one lifting me up and depositing me a little further from my sanity. I lay on the ground next to her and concentrated all my energy on the movement of my hand on her stomach.
Sweat beaded on my body as the spasms increased in length and intensity, coming closer and closer together.
For a moment I thought maybe Turos was right. Maybe I couldn’t do this. But the thought of putting that heavy helmet on her, of making her go through this alone stopped me from calling out to Turos. I couldn’t do that to her.
‘How long?’ I gasped. I looked up at him through sweat-drenched hair.
‘A few hours. Maybe more, maybe less. This is an unprecedented case. No dragon has held onto an egg for as long as this before.’
I closed my eyes and let out a moan in time with Emerald. I knew that whatever I was going through, had to have been ten times worse for her. It was her body that was contorting and bucking as it moved the egg closer to its release. I was just feeling a shadow of her pain.
I felt movement behind me and then Turos lay down behind me. He slipped an arm around me pulling me against his chest as he ran his other hand through my hair, smoothing the damp tendrils back off my face. He reached past me and laid his hand beside mine on Emerald.
‘Easy there my beauty,’ he whispered, his lips moving the hair away from my ear. ‘We’ll get through this yet.’
Blackness pressed in from all sides. Pain became my world. It was all I knew. All I had ever known. It felt like I had lived my whole life in that cavern, floating in a world of pain. I had no knowledge of my name, no knowledge of anything other than the feel of something tearing out through my flesh and b
ones.
I felt it building. The end was coming I knew. I just didn’t know how it would be. Didn’t know if I would still exist outside of this.
One last push. One last spasm. A great cracking and popping. Emerald’s bellow blocked out my shattering scream, and then it was over. Instead of pain there was nothing.
I stared up at the cavern ceiling, trying to work out why there were stars there, and then I closed my eyes and sank inside my head.
4
The Chosen
Soft murmurs woke me. I lay beside Emerald, my hand still pressed to her side. Scruffy lay curled up against my chest, but the feel of Turos behind me was gone. For one guilty second I wished he was still there. Then I shook myself and sat up.
Emerald lifted her head and gazed at me with sleep-laden eyes. There it is, she said, nodding her head toward where her tail wrapped around an enormous egg.
Great Dark Sky. That came out of you?
I could feel her amusement in my mind.
I sat up further and Isla looked over at me from where she sat cross-legged next to the egg. ‘I can see it,’ she said. ‘I mean him or her.’ She pulled a face and turned her gaze back to the egg.
I peered back through the muted glow of the cabin to where the nearest Queen lay with her tail wrapped around her egg.
‘Is it my imagination, or is this egg bigger than the others?’
‘Not your imagination,’ Isla said. ‘Turos said it was at least twice the size of the largest egg he had ever seen.’
I could feel Emerald’s contented pride at Isla’s words.
‘Where is Turos?’ I said. ‘And where is everybody else?’
‘He’s gone to inform the Dragon Masters of the successful laying of the egg. And apparently this,’ she waved a hand between Emerald and me, ‘is not normal. Queens are not allowed to bond for this very reason. Well that, and the fact that once a Queen starts breeding she lives here, helping the others with their eggs. She only leaves to mate.’
That’s what Emerald had meant at the trial when she had said she wasn’t ready to give up her freedom.
‘But Emerald did bond. So she can’t stay.’ I wasn’t letting them keep my dragon trapped here. Not if she didn’t want to be.
Isla only pulled a face which made me worry about what else had been said while I was asleep.
I stood slowly, stretching out crinkled muscles before walking towards the egg. Isla was right. The egg shell was translucent in the light of the cavern. Inside the egg a little shadow moved. As I watched, it did a full somersault, waving its little wings around to stop.
Emerald let out a rumble. He is going to take after his father.
You know it’s a boy?
The first egg is always a boy.
‘It’s a boy,’ I said to Isla.
‘Ooooooh,’ she cooed to the egg. ‘Aunty Isla can’t wait to meet you, little man.’
How long till he hatches?
A week. Give or take a day.
I settled down across from Isla to stare in awe at the acrobatics of the baby dragon.
Turos and Lance returned a couple of hours later. ‘Sorry we took so long,’ he said as he slid off Lance with a basket in one hand. ‘I brought food.’
I waited as patiently as I could while Turos pulled out a loaf of bread, a block of cheese, and a knife. He handed me a flask of water while he cut the bread and cheese into chunks.
I grabbed some bread before he could hand it to me and bit into its soft flesh, letting out a groan as I did. It was still warm.
Lance’s jaw was wedged open with an enormous chunk of meat. He placed it gingerly in front of Emerald and nudged it toward her with his snout. She let out a pleased rumble and grasped it with her front claws while she tore a chunk off of it. She chewed twice, swallowed, and then ripped another chunk off.
Turos handed me a piece of cheese and said, ‘The first riders will arrive soon.’
I shoved the cheese into my mouth and angled my head to the side waiting for him to elaborate.
‘They will try and bond with the egg.’
I swallowed, opened my mouth to ask a question but decided instead to shove more bread in. I was still too hungry to not be chewing.
‘So soon?’ Isla was making a much daintier meal of her bread and cheese.
‘It is normal for the males to be bonded from birth.’
‘How does it work?’
‘They will come in order of seniority and take turns touching the shell. The dragon will choose its rider.’
‘That simple?’ I swallowed the last of my bread and held my hand out for more.
‘That easy.’ Turos carved another chunk off the loaf and handed it to me.
We had barely finished our meals before the first of the hopeful riders turned up. A dragon so blue I was reminded of bright summer days, swept towards us with a number of riders on his back. He waited for them to dismount and then he and his rider immediately departed.
Turos nodded as the men approached the shell. ‘Ritto,’ he said. ‘Dragons’ luck to you.’
Ritto nodded back and then stopped in front of the egg, staring reverently at the little creature inside. Then he reached out a hand and rested his palm against the shell.
I wasn’t sure if anything was meant to happen, but if it was, then Ritto wasn’t the chosen one.
He held his hand there for a minute before bowing his head and stepping backwards. Disappointment etched his features.
In that short period of time another dragon had deposited more riders. They formed a loose line, according to their rank, and one-by-one they approached the egg.
More dragons came and more men queued and the afternoon turned into night. Well I guessed it did by the fact that my stomach started rumbling again and Turos dished out more bread and cheese. Lance returned with more meat for Emerald when they were down to the last few candidates. These didn’t look old enough to be shaving.
The dragon masters stood in a half circle off to the side, observing the proceedings. As the queue shortened and the number of boys dwindled I could hear them muttering amongst themselves.
The last applicant approached Emerald’s egg, a look of glee on his face. He stretched his hand out confidently as he claimed the egg for himself. His palm came into contact with the shell and I waited for something, anything that would tell me a bond had been formed.
A minute later he dropped his hand and stepped back, looking over toward the Masters. ‘It’s a dud,’ he said, his face screwing up in disgust. ‘A stupid, useless dud.’
He drew back his foot as if to kick the egg and everything happened at once. A snarling growl came out of Lance’s mouth as the boy’s foot headed towards the egg.
Stop him, Emerald screamed in my head.
Turos and I threw ourselves towards him, trying to stop him before he shattered the shell, but we were too far away.
Isla, however, had been sitting on the other side of the egg. She threw herself over the top of it, landing just in time to prevent his foot from connecting with it. Instead, it buried itself deep into her abdomen.
She let out an, ‘Oooff,’ as she wrapped around his foot like a rag doll, soaking up the blow that was meant for the egg.
I howled in rage and threw my hand out at the boy. He flew into the air, tumbling over-and-over before landing at the feet of the Masters. They seemed surprised to see him there, blinking around in the gloomy light as if trying to work out where he had come from.
Lance snorted, flames shooting out of his nose as he fixed angry eyes on the now trembling child. He pulled himself up so he towered above the boy, opening his mouth to roar.
‘Easy, Lance.’ Turos placed his hand in the air. ‘No harm was done.’
It occurred to me that he was talking out loud for the sake of the Dragon Masters, I wondered what conversation he was really having with Lance.
‘There, there,’ Isla cooed. She knelt beside the dragon egg, her arms wrapped around her middle and tears tracking down
her face. ‘It’s okay now.’
As we watched, she let go of her stomach and reached a hand out towards the shell. ‘Aunty Isla won’t let anything happen to you.’
The instant her palm came into contact with the egg, a million streams of light shot out of the shell. They raced across the cavern, bouncing off stalactites and chasing away the shadows.
Isla closed her eyes, a blissful smile on her face as her body swayed from side-to-side. The light returned from the far end of the cavern, forming one gigantic beam as it raced towards Isla.
I thought it would burn her when it made contact with her skin, but instead, it lit her up from the inside out till she glowed like the setting sun. She threw her head back as the light swirled around her and the egg. And then, just as suddenly as it had started, it stopped. The light sucked back into the egg and Isla sagged beside it.
‘Hello Arthur,’ she said to the egg, and then she collapsed onto the ground, one hand still pressed against the shell.
***
‘You could have warned me.’ I looked up at Turos from where I knelt beside Isla.
‘Warned you about?’
‘What was going to happen.’
‘Believe me, if I’d have known, I would have warned you.’
‘Then this,’ I gestured between the egg and Isla, ‘is not the norm?’ That would explain the hissed conversation amongst the Dragon Masters and their rapid departure.
He shook his head and sat down beside me. ‘The biggest reaction we’ve had before this was a bubble of light.’ He looked at Emerald and then back to where Isla still touched the egg.
We could see the shadow of the baby dragon, the tip of one wing pressed up against the inside of the shell where Isla’s hand rested.
‘But then none of this is normal.’ He let out a sigh and scratched the side of his nose. ‘It makes me wonder if anything will ever be normal again.’
I quirked my head to the side and frowned. It didn’t seem like the events of today, or indeed the past two days, were enough to illicit that reaction. ‘Something else has happened?’ It was the only possible conclusion.
He pulled a face. ‘I’m tired and over reacting.’
Faery Revenge Page 6
