Shadow

by Mark Robson

  Firestorm did not say anything, but she knew he had felt her presence in his mind. The bond now carried a flavour of welcome. A shudder ran down her spine. Despite the silent welcome being offered by the dragon, she recoiled from the idea of crossing again.

  The temperature was dropping fast as they climbed through a small gap in the clouds. Her last glimpse of the shadowy, patchwork landscape below was one of strange tranquillity. The steady beating of Firestorm’s wings and the whisper of their passage through the air were the only sounds audible. When she considered the horrors of the war below and the terrible weapons with which it was being fought, it was hard to reconcile the peaceful image with the reality.

  Nolita did not have to be warned of the imminence of dawn. It was obvious. In the moment that the swirling grey vortex appeared ahead of them, she fought down the flash of panic with the ease of regular recent practice. They plunged into the swirling void, the gut-wrenching twist and the sense of weightlessness now familiar enough to be more uncomfortable than terrifying. Emergence into the air amongst the mountains of Orupee was more frightening.

  On her last visit here the wind across the mountaintops had subjected Nolita and the others to dangerous turbulence and vicious air currents. This time the air was smooth, but filled with a murky mist of rain that offered a different kind of danger. Nolita could see the ground directly below, but horizontal visibility was limited in all directions to no more than a few dragon lengths. At the speed they were flying it would be easy to fly into a cliff-face before being able to react to its presence.

  ‘Can we slow down?’ she asked.

  ‘Not easily,’ Firestorm replied. ‘Dragons are not too good at hovering. Our wings are not well suited to that sort of flying. We can do it for a second or two in times of need, but it takes vast amounts of energy. Our wings are better suited to cruising at high speed.’

  ‘Well, can we descend, then? It looks clearer down there,’ she pointed out.

  ‘We can try, but it won’t be any better,’ Fire told her. ‘It’s an optical illusion, Nolita. If we go down, we will increase the likelihood of running into a ridge, or an outcrop of rock. At least up here we just have mountain-tops to worry about.’

  ‘Just the mountaintops! You’re not filling me with confidence, Fire. How will we find the Oracle’s cave?’

  ‘I’m going to make a guess.’

  ‘Guess! Are you mad?’ Nolita’s voice cracked on the last syllable.

  ‘No, not mad,’ he assured her. ‘Just very confident of my guesses. When we flew along this valley last time, I memorised some of the landmarks and their relative positions. It’s a habit. All dragons do it to one degree or another. I happen to be quite good at it.’

  Nolita’s stomach churned as she squinted into the misty rain. Having experienced a momentary flash of the dragon’s mind, she could well imagine him memorising landmarks. However, the idea that he could reference those landmarks with sufficient accuracy to safely navigate the treacherous path she remembered was simply not believable.

  Visions of looming cliffs filled her mind. If they did hit a rock wall she had no illusions of her chances of survival. A dragon was tough – maybe Firestorm would have a chance. She would have none. The valley floor was many hundreds of spans below. No human could survive a fall like that. Her hands clenched yet tighter around the pommel of her saddle.

  The ethereal white-grey mist muffled the rhythmic whooshing sound of the dragons’ wingbeats. We could be anywhere, Nolita thought, her mind racing. The rain caressed with a touch like the finest silk across her cheeks and forehead. Gradually it beaded, moistening her lips and running into her eyes. The other dragons, even when flying in close formation, were blurry ghostlike figures: gigantic sinister shadows – the stuff of her nightmares.

  Seconds dragged into minutes. Minutes sapped the energy of hours. And every instant Nolita felt sure would be her last.

  ‘We’re there.’

  Firestorm’s announcement coincided with an abrupt change of wingbeat rhythm that nearly threw Nolita from the saddle. The dragon suddenly reared in the sky as a grey wall of rock loomed ahead of them. To Nolita’s amazement, just three rapid wing-beats slowed them sufficiently to allow them to land softly on the ledge directly in front of the Oracle’s cave.

  ‘How on Areth did you manage that?’ she gasped in amazement.

  ‘I cheated,’ Firestorm admitted with a mental chuckle. ‘The Oracle draws dragons who have a reason to visit it, but I refined the instinctive pull by seeking ahead with my mind for the Guardians. The dragons who stand watch at the entrance to the Oracle’s cave with their riders were content to allow me to use their minds like a homing beacon. It was this, combined with my memory of the terrain, that got us here safely.’

  ‘Next time you decide to get clever, I’d appreciate it if you’d let me in on your tricks, Fire,’ Nolita muttered through gritted teeth. ‘I was convinced I was going to die from the moment we emerged from the gateway. Flying is frightening enough when I can see what’s going on.’

  ‘Sorry, Nolita,’ he replied, contrite. ‘I was concentrating so hard on where we were going that I hadn’t noticed your discomfort was greater than usual.’

  Fang and Aurora had also landed beside them. Kira and Elian were already dismounting, so Nolita forced her fingers to release their death grip on the pommel of her saddle. She grabbed the orb from her saddlebag and carefully slid down Fire’s side to join her companions on the ledge. They moved quickly forwards into the mouth of the great cave, with the dragons following close behind.

  Once again the Guardians stepped out of their alcoves on each side of the tunnel, but as soon as they saw the orb in Nolita’s hands they ushered the party forwards. The great cavern where they had encountered the Oracle last time seemed a shade darker than Nolita remembered, but as they descended towards the wall around the vast, circular, well-like chasm, she decided it must be her overactive imagination. There were just as many torches lining the walls as there had been during their previous visit. It was most likely the aftereffects of flying through the whiteness of the misty cloud.

  The party reached the wall that surrounded the Oracle’s great pit and they stopped. There was a breathless air of anticipation in the chamber, but nothing happened. No swirling smoke. No sign of the Oracle. Heartbeat after heartbeat passed, but nothing happened.

  ‘Great! What are we supposed to do now?’ Nolita muttered.

  Tembo’s eyes were quick to focus on Husam as he sensed the man straighten up. His friend’s strangely-coloured eyes had gone distant.

  ‘They’re back,’ Husam breathed, the words barely more than a whisper.

  A chill ran down Tembo’s back. It was like looking at a physical echo of Kasau, the strange dragonhunter who had suffered an untimely death a week before. Kasau had led their now scattered party of hunters northwards through Racafi and halfway across Orupee in pursuit of two rare dragons.

  The authorities restricted hunters to killing rogue dragons – those causing trouble to human communities. The hunting of dragons that had found their dragonriders was strictly forbidden, but Kasau had convinced their party that the potential riches to be gained from a successful hunt in this case outweighed any risks. Tembo felt it unlikely that Kasau had been motivated by wealth. He did not seem bothered by material possessions. The man had been unusual in many ways, not least in his possession of instincts unlike anything Tembo and Husam had ever seen before. Strangely, since Kasau’s death, Husam was beginning to mirror those instincts and abilities.

  There had been an unnatural edge to the slim dragonhunter these past few days. Ever since that fateful night attack on the dragons had resulted in Kasau’s death, Husam had been different. It wasn’t just the visible change in the colour of his eyes. His personality had changed as well. He was colder, and less impulsive.

  Tembo had asked him about this, but Husam carefully avoided answering. He claimed he did not feel any different, but this was an open lie that both
understood was his way of saying ‘Don’t ask me about it.’ If Husam had not been such a good friend for the past two season rotations, Tembo would have left him and made his way home to Racafi. Whatever had happened to Husam the night Kasau died, it had affected his friend deeply.

  There were times when Husam spoke and acted like his old self. During these moments it was as if nothing had happened, but those times were growing less frequent every day.

  ‘What do you want to do?’ Tembo asked cautiously.

  ‘We’re not ready to hunt them,’ Husam replied thoughtfully, fingering Kasau’s dragonbone spear. He had retrieved it from the meadow the day after the dragons had left, along with several dragonbone spear tips. ‘We need more men. Some of the other hunters are still in the vicinity. It’s time to begin gathering our own hunting party, Tembo.’

  Tembo was relieved. He had wondered for a moment if Husam would announce some crazy plan for the two of them to try to kill the dawn dragon on their own. The dragon was far from being an easy target since it had teamed up with three other dragons. Aside from the dangers associated with illegally hunting a dragon that was partnered with a rider, the combination of powers possessed by the four dragons made for a formidable form of prey.

  It was unusual for dragons to team up, particularly dragons of different types. Tembo had seen groups of up to three night dragons flying together and had once seen a pair of day dragons, but he had never heard of a day and a night dragon working together before. The two types of dragons and their riders were reputed to have been on the verge of war for centuries. Add to this the two less common dragon types – the dawn and dusk dragons – and this was by far the most unusual group of dragons he had ever come across.

  ‘I’ll go and start looking, Husam,’ he said. ‘How long do we have?’

  ‘Not long this time,’ the slim hunter replied, his eyes going distant again. ‘But they’ll be back, and next time they will separate. We’ll get our chance, Tembo, but we’ve got a lot of work to do if we’re to be ready.’

  How does he know that? Once again Tembo was tempted to leave. He could walk away on the pretence of looking for other hunters and just keep walking, but he knew he would not do it. Despite all his misgivings, he felt a sense of responsibility towards his friend. They had watched one another’s backs for a long time. He could not bring himself to abandon Husam now. His friend’s behaviour was a mystery, but as with all such puzzles, there would be an answer.

  My biggest problem, Tembo thought, is that, though I need an answer, I can’t even decide on the question.

  Chapter Six

  ‘They Are Fools.’

  ‘You’d better land, Shadow. I’m not feeling too good.’

  It was not an easy admission to make but, if Pell had learned anything from his recent experience, it was not to push past the boundaries of sense. He had been lucky once, and he must not push his luck. Having a dragon brought no guarantees of safety – very much the opposite. Flying was a dangerous business at the best of times.

  Pride had forced him back into the saddle far earlier than was wise. He was still unsteady on his feet, his body ached all over and he had little strength in his arms and legs. However, the Great Quest to restore the Oracle was more important than a few aches and pains. He had told the others to expect him back with the orb within two weeks. Failure was not an option. Shadow had protested, but he could tell she was not wholehearted in her arguments. She wanted to press onwards as much as he did.

  ‘I’m on my way down,’ Shadow responded, instantly ceasing to beat her wings. They entered a shallow glide. ‘Would you like me to find a village, or would you rather we camped out tonight?’

  The thought of a bed was tempting, but Pell had given more than half of his money to the widow and her daughter. He had enough left to pay for a night of lodging in an inn, but not much more. And they did not have time to stop at a town to earn money.

  He sighed, resigned to the idea of an uncomfortable night. ‘We’d better camp,’ he told her. ‘See if you can find somewhere close to running water. I’ll need to drink a lot for the next few days. My father taught me that drinking water was very good for speeding the recovery from injuries and my water carrier doesn’t hold much.’

  Shadow’s head twisted from side to side as she scanned the countryside ahead for a suitable landing place. Dipping her wing a little to the left, she turned gently northwards a few degrees and continued her glide. Pell trusted Shadow implicitly. She was consistently successful at locating good places to stop.

  The ground was getting closer. Pell guessed they were about five hundred spans up – high enough that everything still felt unreal, but low enough to pick out a reasonable amount of detail on the ground below. The terrain looked flat from this height, but he knew from previous experience of this region that it was actually gently rolling. Villages were sparse, but the land was fertile and people who had settled here were mainly self-sufficient.

  As they descended lower, more detail became clear. Where cows had been white and brown blobs in the fields before, now they clearly had legs and heads. At about the same time as he began to pick out legs on sheep, the animals on the ground started to become aware of Shadow. Herds of cattle and sheep scattered as they passed overhead, spooked by the danger posed by the presence of a top predator.

  Pell sensed Shadow’s pleasure in the response she commanded. She was not hungry enough to want to hunt yet, and she would not take a farm animal by choice. Shadow genuinely preferred to hunt those animals that roamed free. If given the choice, she was most likely to eat a deer or a wild goat. Deer were plentiful in eastern Orupee, so she would have no problem finding tasty food.

  At about fifty spans above the ground, the treetops suddenly seemed to leap upwards towards them. It felt as if they passed a strange transition point where the ground stopped being a multicoloured carpet and sprang into three-dimensional reality. The final moments before they swept down to a gentle landing at the edge of a tree-lined stream brought the familiar rush of adrenalin to Pell’s stomach.

  In those final moments before touchdown everything appeared to accelerate and the surreal world of the air gave way to the hard reality of the earth. It was those few heartbeats as Shadow decelerated to a speed at which her legs could take over and run them to a gentle stop that always set Pell’s heart racing. If she landed too fast, her legs would not be able to run fast enough and Shadow would nose-dive into the earth with potentially disastrous consequences. Slow down too much, and her wings would no longer create enough lift to keep them in the air, resulting in a rapid vertical drop. It was a fine line, but one that Shadow trod with apparent ease no matter how hard the wind tried to fool her.

  The conditions today were benign, with a light breeze and a flat landing surface. Pell would have found it easy to relax and enjoy the final rush and running stop but for the pain throughout his body. As they came to a halt, he groaned and immediately eased his right leg over to join his left so that he could slide gently down to the ground.

  Reaching up, he grabbed the water carrier from where it was hooked onto the saddle. It was a hot afternoon down here at ground level. The sun was making its descent towards the horizon, but the ground was still radiating the heat it had soaked up during the afternoon and Pell felt sweat begin to trickle down his back from the moment he dismounted. He took a long swig from the carrier and replaced the stopper before shedding his jacket and over-trousers.

  He squinted at the reddening sun. Dusk would not linger tonight. He did not have long to build any sort of shelter. Just the thought of work brought another groan to his lips.

  ‘Don’t worry, Pell. I’ll shelter you tonight. If I curl up into a circle, you can sleep in the middle under my wing. You can’t have a fire there, but you should be warm enough. My body will provide sufficient heat.’

  ‘Thank you, Shadow,’ he replied aloud. He leaned against her side and rested his cheek against her scales. ‘Thank you so much.’

  It wa
s unnecessary to say more. Shadow knew his thoughts. She could sense his feelings of love and gratitude. He stayed close for a few seconds before pushing himself upright and stumbling across to the stream to see what the water was like.

  Walking was agony. Spikes of pain originated all up his back. His legs felt weak and the muscles in both his legs and arms burned as if he had overused them, though he had done little other than sit in the saddle.

  He reached the stream. The water was shallow, fast running and clean. He took another swig from his water carrier and then knelt down next to the brook and laid it with the open neck into the flow. It filled quickly and he tasted from it again. The fresh water was cool and refreshing, but rather than making him feel more awake it pushed him closer towards sleep.

  All of a sudden he began to feel dizzy. Jamming the stopper into the carrier, he staggered to his feet and took a few crazy steps back towards Shadow. The dragon blurred and the world spun out of control. He was falling, or was he? He could no longer tell.

  He did not feel the impact of the ground. Nor did he notice his dragon approach and encircle him with her body. The sun dived below the horizon and dusk gave way to night. Shadow tried touching his mind with hers a few times, but he was totally unresponsive. If she had not been familiar with the feel of Pell’s mind when he was in deep sleep, she might have panicked, but she could tell his unconscious state was due to exhaustion rather than as a result of his injuries. He pushed himself hard. She respected that, but she knew she would need to watch him closely, or risk losing him for ever.

  ‘I didn’t wait centuries to have you burn out in a few short seasons, Pell. Sleep,’ she ordered him. ‘Sleep well, dragonrider. The orb will wait a little longer.’

  For the next few days Shadow flew faster than she had ever flown before. Not because she felt driven by the Oracle’s quest, but because she knew it would minimise her rider’s need to spend time in the saddle. With mighty sweeps of her great wings she drove them at a tremendous pace over Eastern Orupee, across the sea to Isaa and on towards the great mountain range that harboured the enclave of the night dragons. Pell was grateful for every rest stop that Shadow made. There was an unspoken understanding between them. The pace when they were airborne was furious, and even resting at night had a similarly intense air about it.