by Linda McNabb
‘Your dragon took him,’ he argued, stepping closer and leaning in so that his face was quite close to Rem’s. She didn’t even flinch. She knew she could beat him in a fight if she had to.
‘It wasn’t my dragon,’ Rem pointed out and then flicked her gaze over to where StarFire had just risen over the trees. ‘That’s mine.’
The youth looked from her to the dragon and back. ‘Why else would you be here? I demand you give him back.’
The swish of a blade being withdrawn from its sheath made Rem take one step back and she perched on the rickety fence that surrounded the graveyard.
‘Now then, Waide,’ Eagan said, stepping forward to intercept the youth holding the large sword. ‘There’s no need for any of that. That’s a fine looking sword. Is it your father’s?’
One of Rem’s eyebrows rose at that. How did the old man know this boy? Did he also know the young child that Seth’s dragon had abducted? Things were getting more interesting by the minute. She touched the pommel of the sword that was visible over her shoulder. ‘I have a sword too and mine’s even bigger.’
Waide’s gaze flicked over to the tended grave and he swallowed hard as he adjusted his grip on the sword. Then he looked at Eagan as if remembering something suddenly.
‘I know you,’ he said and narrowed his eyes as he looked at the old man. ‘I remember you from last winter when there was that trouble in the market. You and Seth bring nothing but trouble!’
Eagan shook his head a little too quickly. ‘No, no. I had nothing to do with your brother being taken.’
‘Seth tried to kill my unborn baby brother last winter and now he came back to steal him. He probably killed my father too,’ Waide said and a frown deepened on his young brow.
‘Your father died recently?’ Eagan asked. ‘Was he ill?’
‘He fell from a cart, but Seth probably caused it,’ Waide insisted stubbornly.
Rem felt her defences rising again at Seth being blamed for things he had nothing to do with.
‘My father was one of the newly re-formed West Warriors. It’s up to me to take his place,’ Waide said indicating the sword.
By now StarFire was hovering overhead and was listening to the conversation as he lazily back-winged to stay in place. ‘I sensed blackness within the boy who claims to be master of my fellow dragon. Something akin to the night-shadows.’
‘Where will I find Seth?’ Waide asked as he brandished his sword again. This time it wasn’t at Rem, but at the distant marshes in the direction that the black dragon had gone.
‘Somewhere south of the marshes,’ Eagan replied. ‘He was heading in that direction.’
Waide looked back at them all, nodded once, and then hurried off towards the marshes.
‘You can’t cross them for three weeks now,’ Eagan called out to the youth. ‘The mists will drive you mad in a matter of hours.’
Waide’s step faltered then he straightened his back and continued walking without looking back.
‘I guess we need to go find Seth,’ Rem suggested. She didn’t think it would go well when they found him, but she needed to find out why he had taken a night-shadow and then a young child.
‘I will take you,’ StarFire said instantly. ‘I wish to see the nature of this blackness within him and the unusual life within the child.’
Rem nodded her appreciation.
‘Peiter, bring Waide back,’ Eagan told him. ‘We can’t let him go into the marshes.’
Peiter hurried off and came back a few minutes later with Waide who struggled against the guard’s strong grip.
‘I would like to be there to see what we can do for the child, if anything,’ Eagan said, looking at the dragon for an invitation.
‘I will take only three,’ StarFire replied haughtily.
Rem looked at the others and shrugged. She didn’t care who else came but she was going.
‘If we leave Waide behind he will just head off into the mists,’ Eagan pointed out.
‘I will walk the long way around back to High Gate,’ Peiter offered as he looked at the dragon with a distaste that showed his fear of the creature.
StarFire slowly descended and waited until the three of them were on his back, then took off without warning, as if to show that he was definitely the one in charge.
**
It was quiet when Seth woke up. He licked his dry lips and automatically went to massage his shoulder as he opened his eyes. He paused as he realised that the shoulder that MoonFlame had cut with her claw no longer hurt. He rotated his arm fully and grinned when he felt no pain. The child must have healed all his injuries while he slept. Now he just had to return Caden to his family and find Rem, then he could get on with his life.
His mind returned to the cat’s reaction earlier and Seth wondered how he would get the child away from the night-shadow. He turned to see if Caden was still asleep and a sudden fear sliced into him. The child wasn’t there, nor was the cat. A quick glance at the metal bars told him the cat had not left that way. The only other possibility was the open roof and his heart sank. Had the night-shadow taken the child with him or had Ryker been in while he slept?
It was almost evening and the sound of wings flicked his attention to the still-open roof. Seth watched MoonFlame slowly descend and land on the stone floor. The black dragon glanced around the room and then looked at Seth.
‘Where is the boy?’
‘I don’t know,’ Seth replied as he stood up. ‘You go. You are free. I need to find Caden before I leave.’
‘I agreed to return the child and I will remain with you until then. A dragon’s word is binding. I only left before so that Ryker would not see me as a threat or realise that you had the backing of a dragon.’
Seth felt a wave of relief. The dragon would help him – but first he had to find the child. He picked up the staff that had lain next to him and tucked it under his belt. He had no chance of seeing Neras again if he didn’t return Caden to his family.
‘I saw Ryker heading for the village which is why I returned. The child was not with him,’ MoonFlame told him.
Seth’s heart sank a little further. It would have been tricky getting Caden from Ryker but not as difficult as finding the night-shadow. It was obvious that the night-shadow had never really been a prisoner in the castle. He could have left at any time but why he stayed was something Seth didn’t understand, and what he wanted with Caden was a bigger worry.
‘Then we’re going hunting for the night-shadow,’ Seth said and took hold of the scaly hide and threw himself onto the back of the black dragon.
MoonFlame did not argue as she launched out of the roof and they circled the grounds a few times. Seth had no idea what they were looking for as the dragon did yet another slow pass around the edge of the castle grounds.
‘I cannot feel its presence nearby,’ MoonFlame said.
Seth felt hope fade then something caught his eye. It was a trail of flowers that should not be blooming this late in the evening.
‘They went that way,’ Seth said as he pointed towards a bushy glade.
MoonFlame went closer and Seth saw one huge paw mark in the soft ground. He didn’t need a good sense of direction to know where the cat was heading. The huge mountain range loomed against the sky as the dragon rose above the trees. The night-shadow was heading for home!
‘Surely it will need to go back to High Gate and go through the pass,’ Seth muttered to himself.
‘There is another one at South Gate.’
Seth grinned, despite the dire situation they were in, as Neras appeared on top of the dragon’s head.
‘You were right, I shouldn’t have taken the child,’ Seth said quickly, just in case his friend vanished again before he had the chance to apologise. There was something a little different about Neras but Seth couldn’t work out what it was. ‘We need to find the night-shadow before it crosses back to the east.’
‘It will be long gone,’ MoonFlame said, taking a direct route to the sma
ll stone fortress in the distance.
‘We have to find it,’ Seth insisted.
‘We have company,’ Neras said. The young wizard was facing backwards and pointed. Seth turned and held onto the dragon’s scales to keep his balance. He expected to see Ryker chasing after them in his carriage, or Oran floating up above the trees to find them. Instead he saw a white dragon, with three people on its back, flying across the countryside. One of them had to be Rem and he wasn’t ready to face her yet though, not without Caden.
‘Keep ahead of them if you can,’ Seth said. It didn’t appear as if they had spotted MoonFlame yet and the dragon dipped lower into the tops of the trees. Seth bent in low against the dragon’s back and they skimmed the treetops until the white dragon was out of sight.
‘They will find us,’ MoonFlame pointed out. ‘It is only a matter of time.’
‘Well let’s hope we find Caden before then,’ Seth muttered, more to himself than anyone else. He gulped at what fate awaited Caden and wished he had chosen death instead of delivering the boy to Ryker.
As they approached South Gate Seth could see the guards below were in a panic. They had not yet spotted the dragon so he assumed that the night-shadow had already been and gone. Then one of the guards looked up and pointed at the jet black dragon heading their way. He nudged a fellow guard and yelled something. Most of the guards just stopped dead in their tracks and stared. Seth doubted their training had ever covered what to do when a dragon was flying directly towards the compound.
‘Can’t we just fly over the mountains?’ Seth asked, as he would rather avoid going near the guards. He had managed to control his temper, and any destruction, for a while now but he didn’t want to risk harming the guards.
‘They are too high,’ MoonFlame replied without hesitation. ‘The memories of my ancestors are clear and more than one has died in an attempt to cross the range. You would also die as there is no air to breathe so far up.’
Seth had no argument for this logic and took a long, deep breath to slow his heart rate as much as possible.
‘At least try not to crush any of them when you land,’ Seth suggested as the dragon descended at a rate that had Seth gripping the soft scales for security.
‘They will move,’ MoonFlame said calmly.
And move they did. The guards all fell back a dozen paces when MoonFlame touched down in the centre of the pass. Seth glanced around and saw that it looked very similar to the pass up at High Gate, a narrow access leading up to a canyon with a blank rock wall at the end.
Seth looked around at the guards a little suspiciously. Not one of them had moved. Most of them had their swords drawn, but the tips were on the ground. Then one of them dropped to one knee and bowed his head down low, using his sword to remain balanced.
Seth slipped off MoonFlame’s back and the large dragon turned carefully at the entrance of the canyon so that she was facing most of the guards. Why hadn’t they attacked? Then Seth realised how stupid he had been. The night-shadow was the enemy and the guards saw the dragon as their saviour. They weren’t scared of the dragon; they were pleased to see her.
One guard detached from the rest of them and hurried towards Seth. He stopped and bowed low a few paces away then spoke. ‘I am Havan. Did Eagan send you? We had hoped he would send a dragon once word of the attack at High Gate reached us.’
Seth did not reply for a few seconds. He wasn’t used to being in a position of respect or importance. For once the people around him seemed pleased, even grateful for his presence.
‘I am Seth. I am… chasing the night-shadow that came this way,’ Seth said, nodding as if to emphasise that he was telling the truth. They didn’t need to know that he was the reason the night-shadow was in the south in the first place and that he was responsible for Caden being in danger.
‘We saw it stole a child,’ the man said and shook his head sadly. Seth assumed he was of equal rank to Marrik as he wore a similar uniform. ‘We tried to stop it, but feared hitting the child so could not use our arrows.’
‘They would not have had any effect,’ Seth told the guard. ‘Nothing harms the night-shadow.’
‘If only the child had rolled off to the side we could have caught him but he appeared to be hanging on quite tightly. No doubt he was terrified by the speed at which the creature was travelling. The night-shadow raced through here faster than our best guards could stop it. I arrived at the wall-walk just as it reached the canyon. It didn’t even pause as it threw itself through the wall. One second it was here and the next it was gone.’
Havan walked past the dragon, only checking once as he did to see if MoonFlame was going to object, and hurried over to the wall.
‘It vanished right here,’ Havan said. He tentatively touched the seemingly solid rock with one hand, and grew visibly pale as his hand sank into the wall, then backed off several steps as if unsure if the creature would reappear.
Chapter Seven - Beyond the Canyon
‘We will follow the night-shadow,’ Seth said, trying his best to make it sound like he was their saviour rather than the cause of the problem to start with. ‘I will retrieve the child.’
Havan looked astonished and grateful, which made Seth feel even worse about his deception. The guards all bowed in appreciation and support.
Seth couldn’t stand the adulation any longer and headed for the wall. He whispered at MoonFlame as he walked. ‘Are you coming with me?’
‘I said I would help find the child,’ MoonFlame said simply.
Seth took a deep breath and tried not to cringe as he felt his face sink through the image of the rock wall. He closed his eyes briefly and when he opened them he was in a quiet pass leading deeper into the mountains. MoonFlame had not followed and Seth paused to wait for her. After a dozen, very loud, heartbeats Seth retreated back through the rock face to find her.
‘I thought you were coming?’ he said, looking at the confused faces of the guards watching.
‘I cannot pass through the barrier,’ MoonFlame said, looking equally as confused and tipping her huge black head sideways as she stared at the wall.
‘What do you mean you can’t go through?’ Seth asked, stepping through the illusion of rock and back again. ‘It’s not a real barrier.’
‘That may not be, but there is a real one just beyond it. One put there by someone from the other side,’ MoonFlame insisted.
‘Really? How far in?’ Seth asked as he wondered how they were supposed to follow Caden if they couldn’t get through the pass.
‘Only a dozen paces, no more,’ MoonFlame replied. ‘I can feel it from here.’
‘There’s definitely something there,’ Neras agreed.
Seth headed back into the illusion and counted out a dozen paces. He saw nothing different. It was a wide pass through the mountains. He looked closely at the dust and rubble that had fallen from the walls over the years and saw a set of paw prints. A gust of wind blew down the pass and stirred up the dust, obliterating one of the prints. Yes, these had to be very recently made!
He took a dozen more steps and came to a sharp bend. Had the dragon meant a dozen dragon or human paces? There was a huge difference. He paced out yet another dozen as he rounded the bend but felt no barrier or impediment to his progress.
‘I don’t see anything, do you, Neras?’ Seth asked, and dropped his voice as he spoke for it echoed down the pass.
‘We have gone past it. It is near the bend.’ Neras said, floating back and looking confused. ‘I don’t know why it let us through.’
Seth turned and went back towards the rock face entrance to the west. It looked like a dead end from this side as well and he had to keep reminding himself that it wasn’t real. He couldn’t hear anything from the other side as he approached the solid-looking wall and held his breath as he stepped through.
‘I didn’t find a barrier,’ Seth said as MoonFlame sat patiently waiting for him. ‘Neras could feel it though.’
MoonFlame tipped her head to on
e side again as she stared at the wall thoughtfully. ‘It is there.’
She began to walk forward and her head and front legs disappeared through the wall. Seth hurried to join her and caught up as the dragon’s tail vanished out of sight. MoonFlame stopped near the bend and looked back at Seth.
‘I cannot pass through,’ she said, and tried to walk forward but her feet kept sliding backwards as if she were pushing against an invisible wall.
Seth hurried forward and put his hand out to find the wall. He was sure it hadn’t been there before. He walked closer and closer and then past the dragon’s head. There was no wall. He was several paces in front of the dragon now, yet MoonFlame continued to push against an invisible barrier.
‘I cannot come with you,’ MoonFlame said and hung her head in shame. ‘I promised to help return the child yet I cannot do so.’
‘Wait here for me then,’ Seth suggested. ‘When I return with Caden I could do with a ride back to Merra.’
MoonFlame nodded and sat back on her haunches as if she intended to wait right there. ‘If I find a way to break the barrier I will come and find you.’
Seth nodded and turned to hurry along the pass. Neras drifted next to him as if he wasn’t keen to go too far ahead. There was no sound except the soft footfall of Seth’s feet on the dusty ground.
‘What if we come across a whole pack of night-shadows?’ Neras asked with a nervous wobble in his voice.
Seth just shrugged. He was more concerned that they wouldn’t find any at all. He glanced down to look for paw prints but the wind had scoured them away.
**
Eagan hoped he was wrong. They were heading the same direction as the black dragon and he felt a chill run through him as the marshes sped past underneath the white dragon. Why hadn’t he thought of it before? He knew Ryker and Oran were still around somewhere but it had been over a hundred years since he had seen them and there had been no evidence since then of them causing any trouble. But this was definitely trouble and more than likely caused by them.
‘How will we know when we’re near Caden?’ Waide asked, scouring the landscape below as if expecting to see his brother any moment.
