The Dragon's Egg

by Pauline M. Ross

  Zarin opened his mouth to protest, but the lady raised one hand. “I can deal with this. Commander, I know how much work is involved in an accusation of sorcery. The endless investigations, the different departments who must be alerted, and then there is the risk to your own people. I would relieve you of all that. Give these people to me, and all that tedious trouble goes away. I can deal with them safely, you know that.”

  The commander chewed a lip, frowning. “A great many people have seen them performing magic tricks.”

  “Pfft. Peasants, mainly. A few of your own guards. And who can say what they truly saw? You know how rumours fly. You have done everything that is proper, you have examined these four and I daresay you have found no hint of sorcery. Look at them, anyone can see that they are harmless. You have no magical abilities, do you?” she said to Zarin.

  “I? Indeed not, Lady.”

  “None of us has any magic in us,” Garrett said, rather loudly.

  “There you are,” the lady said. “You have discharged your duty, Commander, and I will take them off your hands now. Come along, follow me.”

  Turning, she made for the door. Zarin, Dru and Garrett made to follow her, but the Lath stood motionless. Zarin stopped, gazing at him.

  “Friend?”

  The Lath swallowed. “I… I do not want to go with her. The priest at the Temple of the Secret God said he would take me in, as an initiate. I want to go there.” He turned to the commander. “I can do that, I think? If someone is willing to befriend me, you will let me go?”

  The commander’s mouth flapped open once or twice. He looked to the captain, who shrugged and nodded.

  “Well… I suppose so. You would need to be processed, but if the temple will take you… I do not see why not.”

  Zarin’s stomach twisted. “Friend?” he whispered. “You would abandon your faith, your friends… me? For people you know nothing about?”

  “You heard him,” the Lath said, with a nod towards Garrett. “It is all a lie. Everything I was taught, everything I believed – all a lie. My whole life is a lie, a complete and utter waste.”

  “Not so! Think of the good you have done, helping so many people. Think of the comfort you have brought people – have brought me. Do not abandon me, not after all we have been through together!”

  “I must. There are truer faiths out there, and I want to learn. I like being a priest, Friend. It is my calling, but I must follow a God people believe in and respect. Besides…” His face lit up with enthusiasm. “I wish to attain this sublime state of spiritual exaltation they spoke of. How glorious that would be!”

  Zarin’s throat was too choked to say more. He simply nodded once, patted the Lath on the arm and turned back to where the lady waited, with Garrett and Dru.

  “Good,” she said. “That is settled, then. Let us go.”

  She swept majestically past the expressionless guards, with Garrett, Dru and Zarin trailing in her wake. The commander said nothing as he watched them go. The captain smirked.

  Zarin had to trot to keep up with the group. They went down by a different route, on tight staircases and narrow corridors, down and down. There were no chandeliers here, no gold paint, no ornamentation, just plain painted walls, unmarked doors and thin strips of matting on the floors, each level identical to all the others. Eventually, there were no more windows, just lamps, but still they went down, as if into the bowels of the earth.

  Then more corridors, twisting and turning until Zarin’s head was spinning. Or perhaps he was too heartsick to care where they went. Every time the others disappeared round a corner ahead of him, he had to half run to catch up. The prospect of being left behind and lost in these featureless passages was terrifying. He was gasping for breath, heart hammering, when he turned one last corner and almost collided with Garrett.

  “Do keep up, Zarin,” he said, grinning idiotically.

  They stood outside a door, no different from any of the others. “This is my court,” the lady said, in her soft voice. Then with some kind of flat key she unlocked the door and ushered them inside.

  The other side of the door could not be more different. Softly coloured lamps cast a gentle glow over pale wooden floors and panelled walls painted with delicate scenes of nature. From the entrance hall, arches revealed glimpses of other rooms, filled with polished furniture in elegantly simple styles, and pale rugs and cushions.

  Zarin had barely taken it all in when a whirlwind descended on them from further inside the apartment. He had a confused impression of smiling faces, and voices all talking at once. More Tre’annatha, all women, all confusingly alike. But the lady shooed them away again, and led the three of them through arched doorways to a room with everything blue – walls, floor, ceiling, even the lamps when lit cast a blue light.

  “This is our guest room,” the lady said. “The water facilities are behind that curtain there. You will find a variety of clothes behind this curtain. You may choose any you wish. I will bring food and drink in a little while. Until then – rest, and make yourselves at home.”

  She would have left, but Garrett jumped in front of her. “Thank you! But – who are you? What should we call you?”

  Zarin had wanted to ask the same thing, although he would have phrased it more delicately, had he dared. But Garrett’s rough approach worked surprisingly well. The lady smiled, dimpling quite charmingly.

  “I am Hanni. You are welcome here.”

  ~~~~~

  Dru found books on a shelf, and settled down to read, while Garrett prowled around the room swishing curtains aside, and poking and prodding. Zarin slumped into a chair, too dispirited to care much about their surroundings.

  After a while, Garrett plumped himself down onto the floor at Zarin’s feet, crossing his legs neatly. He was agile for such a muscular man.

  “Well, we are just as much prisoners here as we were in that evil holding cell,” Garrett said cheerfully. “No windows, and the only door is locked.”

  “Door?” Zarin raised an eyebrow. “There is only a curtain across the arch where we entered.”

  “And behind the arch is a very solid door, which was not there when we came in. There are no handles or locks visible on this side of it.”

  Zarin lifted one shoulder indifferently. “Does it matter? We do not wish to escape. This lady will help us get to the homeland.”

  “She may or she may not. We have no idea what she’s planning to do with us. We don’t know what any of them have in mind, come to that. The original processing business – who knows what that was about? Or the men in the stiff uniforms who were so polite to our faces, but then they poisoned us, and maybe they just wanted to take us out to sea and drown us. And now this lady – we shouldn’t be fooled by the fact that she looks just like the Guardian, Zarin. She is still a stranger, in a city we know nothing about, whose intentions towards us are unclear.”

  Zarin could not summon the energy to care. He ran a hand across his face, rubbing his eyes, which felt as gritty as if he had passed through a sandstorm. “We will find out soon enough, I daresay,” he said tiredly.

  Garrett rested a hand on Zarin’s knee. “I’m sorry. It must be a blow, to lose your friend so suddenly. I know how much your religion comforts you.”

  But sympathy from Garrett, of all people, was too much to bear. The man had never believed, even in his own Gods, let alone the Seven. He had always taunted Zarin for the staunchness of his faith, and now he had destroyed it – or at least sown the seed of doubt. The purity of Zarin’s belief was stained and imperfect now.

  “I do not want your pity,” he said with dignity.

  “Not pity, old man. Just the hand of friendship. We’ve known each other a long time, you and I, and I know you’ve never liked me – no, there’s no need to deny it. I don’t mind. I’ve never much cared whether people like me or not. But we’re in a difficult place now. It’s like when men go into battle, they set aside all their personal differences and fight side by side. They can be at each
other’s throats normally, but put them up against an enemy and all that’s forgotten. They watch each other’s backs. That’s what we need to do now, because nobody else is going to.”

  “You want me to watch your back? I am no fighter, Garrett.”

  “I know, and I don’t mean it in a real sense. But there’s only us left. Shakara’s gone, Mikah’s gone, the Lath has gone. Drusinaar is in her own little world. So it’s down to you and me. Look, we have no idea what Hanni wants, and we can’t afford to relax our guard. Will you help me? You’re book-learned, you know about a lot of things, about places and customs and what’s allowed. Will you tell me anything that might be useful? At least set aside our personal differences until we’re safe.”

  “Do you think we will ever be safe? With – her?” He nodded to where Dru sat engrossed in her book. “Whatever is in her is wild and uncontrolled. She is dangerous, Garrett. She needs help – the homeland.”

  “We’ll find her the help she needs, somehow. But we need to work together, to be on the same side. Can you do that?”

  “I can try,” Zarin said.

  “Good. Once we’re safe, you can despise me as much as you like.” And Garrett grinned idiotically.

  Zarin rolled his eyes. But something niggled. “Wait – you said something about poison. No one poisoned us.”

  “Yes, they did,” Garrett said. “That strange drink they gave us before they took us to see the commander? That was a kind of poison. It suppressed magic.”

  “What? What are you talking about?”

  “You wouldn’t have noticed,” Garrett said with an impatient sweep of one arm. “But I noticed. There was something in the drink that suppressed my – ability.”

  The very idea of Garrett having some kind of magical ability was too much for Zarin. He began to laugh, first a low chuckle, then something fiercer, close to hysteria. He could not believe it, such a thing was quite impossible… and yet, Garrett had never been a liar. He had many other flaws, but Zarin could not recall an outright lie.

  “Really, Zarin, what is so funny about it? How did you think I managed to win so often at bones? It wasn’t just skill, you know.”

  Zarin sobered up abruptly. “That is typical of you. The Gods give you a magical gift, and what do you do with it? You use it to cheat.”

  Garrett shrugged. “If the Gods played any part in my gift, as you call it, I’m sure they don’t care what I do with it. It’s not as if they gave me healing powers or the ability to improve the weather. All I can do is look through other people’s eyes, and there are few uses for that kind of talent, and even fewer legal ones. So don’t go all pious on me. You’d have done the same in my place.”

  “I most certainly would not! Not everyone has the morality of a— Well, never mind. So Dru’s magic is suppressed, too? Then she cannot unlock the door for us?”

  Dru looked up from her book. “Probably can.”

  “Really?” Garrett said. “But you drank the poisoned stuff too.”

  “Yes. But my ball got rid of that.”

  “It did? How?”

  “I asked it to,” Dru said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

  “Can you get rid of the poison in me?” Garrett said.

  “Maybe.”

  She put down her book and pulled the glass ball from a fold of her wrap. At once, it began to glow, lighting up the room and casting a soft halo around Dru. She reached across to Garrett and, taking his hand, spoke a few words in the old language. Zarin had never learned it – what was the point when there were no books written in it, and no one left alive who spoke it? But now he wished he knew more than the few words that every scholar learns. How fascinating it would be to know exactly what she said, the words of the spell. For that was what it must be, a spell. The ball flared even brighter for a moment, then slowly died away. Dru released Garrett’s hand, and gazed at him expectantly.

  His face creased into a pleased smile. “Drusinaar, you are a wonder.”

  She smiled back, and even gave a tiny giggle before covering her mouth with her hand.

  Gods, but she was getting more normal every day. Although in other ways, of course, less normal. Far less normal, Zarin conceded. He wasn’t sure that he quite liked Dru’s increased powers with the aid of the glass ball. They seemed almost limitless. Fire, water, metals – and now healing powers. He knew enough of magic to realise how rare that was, a very advanced application. Yet for her, it was easy.

  There was no time to try the lock, however, for Hanni returned with a trolley laden with food and drink for them.

  “There,” she said in her soft voice, so like the Guardian. She beamed as if she had performed some clever trick. “Refresh yourselves. I shall return in a little while to take you for the first of your tests.”

  Zarin jumped to his feet. “Tests? But what about the homeland? Are you going to help us get there?”

  She turned her sweet face to him, her expression blank as the wall. “Oh no. Certainly not. You are mine now, and I have no intention of letting go of you.”

  19: The Testing Room (Garrett)

  We ate. It was simple food – fruit, risotto and some kind of sticky cake. There was no wine, only water to drink, but it was cool and refreshing. Even Zarin tried a little of everything, although without much enthusiasm.

  Poor Zarin! He’d brought the priest with him to protect himself from my heathen ways, and now he’d been abandoned to the godless. And the priest switching allegiance on the flip of the bones like that – I’d have put him down as a man who’d have gone to his funeral pyre protesting the truth of his phony religion. But every day brought more surprises, seemingly, each more startling than the last.

  Then we waited patiently for our latest captor to return.

  “Shall we see if Dru can unlock the door?” Zarin had hissed at me, as soon as Hanni had left us alone again.

  “No. Wait till night time. But honestly, even if we can get out of this room, we have a whole moundrat’s nest of corridors to find a way out of. And we still have nowhere to go, and no one in this gods-forsaken city to call on for help. Let’s wait and see what the Tre’annatha lady has in mind for us. She’s keeping us fed and alive for the moment, which is promising, don’t you think?”

  Zarin grunted.

  Hanni returned after a while, although how long we’d waited, or what hour of the day it was, I couldn’t guess. I rose respectfully at her entrance, still blending her in my mind with the Lady, and so did the others, although Zarin looked at her balefully.

  “It is time to begin the tests,” she said, in her calm way, undisturbed by his rudeness. “Who will be first?”

  By the Nine, but she was like the Guardian! It gave me the shivers every time I saw her. I tried to suppress it, but I felt an instinctive urge to trust her, to rest my faith in her just as I did with the Lady. I had to consciously remind myself that she was a stranger, whose motives were unknown and possibly hostile.

  And who knew what these tests were about?

  “I will go first,” I said before anyone else could answer, but nobody argued with me.

  Another long walk through featureless corridors. Hanni walked in front, her gown swishing from side to side with each step. She wore the same full skirts I’d seen on other women in the city, but her bodice was more draped than theirs, almost hiding her womanly shape. A drift of perfume followed her, something floral. Soap, perhaps.

  There was a confidence in her that unsettled me. We were alone down here, and she knew nothing about me. She was a slender little thing, only about my height, and even without a weapon I could wring her neck with my bare hands without breaking a sweat. And she had no idea what magical powers I might have. For all she knew, I could be a fire-thrower, like Drusinaar.

  Of course, for all I knew, she could be a fire-thrower, too. Maybe that was the reason for her confidence. So I padded along behind her, almost silent in my soft new clothes and silk slippers, but not once did she look round to check that I
was still following.

  We went up several levels, and then into a bare little cell with plain white walls and no furniture beyond a beaten-up wooden table, some chairs of similar style and a heavy cabinet against one wall.

  “Sit,” she said, waving me to one of the chairs. She pulled up another on the opposite side of the table, but then went to the cabinet. Opening the doors, she began moving things around inside, although I couldn’t see what. “Ah, here it is.” Triumphantly, she produced a metal box marked on the side with symbols, or writing, perhaps. Unintelligible to me, anyway.

  Placing the box on the table, she sat opposite me. “This will not hurt in any way. I am going to find out a few things about you, that is all.”

  I’d heard that sort of statement in the past, shortly before everything turned into the Great Chaos of the Ninth Vortex, so I wasn’t exactly reassured. But she was such a gentle creature, it was hard to be afraid of her.

  She opened the metal box, and I laughed out loud when I saw what she pulled out. Of all the things she could have had hidden in there, that was the very last one that I’d have expected.

  A glass ball.

  “You recognise this?” she said, setting it on a stand so it wouldn’t roll about. I nodded, still smiling. “Then you know how this works,” she said. “Place your hand on top and hold it there until I say you may move.”

  It was true that I knew how the ball would react. I’d tried Tella’s ball twice. Once, casually, when I’d seen it sitting on a shelf and picked it up to look at it more closely. Tella had screeched, and snatched it from me before the colours had settled. But I’d crept from my bed in the middle of the night to try it again. It seemed such an innocuous thing – just a sphere of glass filled with swirling colours – yet Drusinaar could do so much with hers. These balls were full of magic, that was the truth of it, magic that I couldn’t see or use, but Drusinaar could.