Part 19 (2/2)

2.

At the water's edge Eric found Stranger crouched to examine what looked like a scorched path burned into the ground in a neat ring about the moat. 'Enough heat to melt the rocks. Our new friend did this, didn't he?' she asked as he stepped out of the water.

'Yes. Can you sense him nearby?'

'Never him; he goes unfelt. But ...' She looked at the horizon and he saw excitement on her face, which she quickly masked. 'Stones. There don't seem to be many here. Let's try over there, near the woods.'

There were occasionally villagers around, come to stare at the tower. They'd learned a healthy respect for the dangerous mage who had boiled its waters and sent a Tantonese patrol away, shrieking in pain. Now a young girl, alone among the trees, ducked out of sight of Eric and Stranger. Eric pretended he hadn't seen her.

'Here's some,' Eric said, finding a few smooth pebbles at his feet and stuffing them in his pockets. But when he stood Stranger was no longer with him. She did not answer his calls.

He went to where he'd seen the girl. 'Hey there. I see you, hiding behind the bush there. Come out, you're safe. I'm no scary wizard. Did you see where she went?'

The girl emerged and pointed to her left.

'You look frightened,' he said. 'What's the matter?'

'A dragon's in there,' she whispered in an awed voice.

'What? A dragon? Are you sure?'

'I'm going to ask the wizard to kill it. Will he? He's your friend. Can you make him?'

'If by wizard you mean Loup, the most dangerous thing about him is his breath. Why would you want the dragon killed?'

'It killed some people in our village. My friend Shalinta's parents. She's alone now. We are looking after her.'

The dragon killed them, or did Shadow? he wondered. Aloud he said, 'That's very sad. Can you take me to the dragon? Quickly, I need to see it. Then I'll speak to my wizard friends about it.'

'Do you promise?'

He nodded solemnly. She led him in through the same part of woodland Gorb had hunted game from earlier. The trees were s.p.a.ced a good distance apart, another of those little hunting playgrounds made (it seemed) especially for human convenience. It wasn't far before he caught sight of Stranger's green dress ahead, and a larger shape looming before her. There was a sonorous musical note, not obviously speech at first.

Adrenaline shot through him as another miracle revealed itself among the horrors: a dragon! A living dragon, as real as the trees.

The village girl evidently did not find the sight miraculous. She ran. The beast glanced up at the sound of her quick feet crunching leaves. Eric ducked out of sight and crawled closer, quietly as he could, s.h.i.+elded from the dragon's sight by a thick trunk with a fan of bush at its base.

The dragon was bigger than a horse; its scales of many sparkling shades tended toward the green of the woods. Its build was sleeker than the smaller drake's, which seemed clumsy and bulky by comparison. This was no mere animal; it was beautiful, he thought, a higher being, its mouth shaped up in a slight permanent grin, the power about it as real as heat about a fire. He wished he were close enough to stroke its head, which was lowered as though in supplication to Stranger.

She stood before it with her arms crossed. Eric could hear her weeping.

'There are no more fitting words, in all the poetry of your kind or mine, than these: I am sorry,' said the dragon Dyan, its voice like a deep woodwind instrument. It peered up at her with big beautiful eyes. The way its wings were spread flat on the ground to either side of it seemed to convey shame.

'The answer is no!' said Stranger.

'And yet you remain here to speak with me. I use no magic on you now, O Hathilialin, Great Beauty. Find forgiveness for me! Draw it from the memory of love, if love has truly left you.'

'How you cheapen the word. You want something. So you return.' Her voice wavered with tears and anger. 'Ride me like a mule again! You left me to die in that village where the air was bad. You have not even asked what happened. The wolf found me while you were gone.'

'Has he hurt you?' the dragon said in a harder voice. A ripple of bright red pa.s.sed through its scales.

'Don't pretend you care about that now,' she said.

'Great Beauty, who I freed from the cavern's cruel claws. Great Beauty who I saved! I have not forgotten the flow of your moods. There is a secret inside that you long to tell. Tell it to me! I ask you, Great Beauty, using no arts or devices. Instead I offer freely a secret of my own in the hope you will reciprocate. And it is a warning to take care. Do! There is another dragon free.'

Stranger was shocked to silence for a moment. 'Another dragon? No!'

'There is. I felt it, days ago in these very woods. It was watching me. It came upon me by surprise, as I ... as I sought you out so desperately. I'm nervous. I am frightened. There were not supposed to be more. I do not know who sent it. I know nothing of it at all. The moment I felt it near, I fled quicker than the wind. I have sought it ever since, fearing it would come for you, but can find no trace. It hides from me with great skill. It may watch us now. Indeed I feel that something does.'

'Why has it come?'

'To watch me.' Dyan lifted his head and gazed about the woods, eyes gleaming. Eric ducked away from what felt like a searchlight beaming about him. The colour of Dyan's scales s.h.i.+fted from green to deepest blue as he crept closer to Stranger. A thick fallen branch split under the weight of his feet. 'I have not done my duty. I have been lax, idle, have been ... indulging myself. Swimming with you in lagoons, soaring the skies. It is so different here now! You have no idea the beauty of this place, after being in Takkish Iholme so long. But Tzi-Shu is angry. It was surely she, or Sha, who sent the new one to spy. If they deem I have failed them, I am doomed when they descend. I must go now to World's End, naked and openly, if you will not come and hide me in your great beauty.' The dragon sighed, a low piping note that sent s.h.i.+vers down Eric's back. Dyan said, 'Things must have moved too slow for them. After uncounted years, with so little time left to wait, they have discovered impatience.'

'What will you do?' said Stranger with fear in her voice.

'I will go to where the stoneflesh wait to cross. Two G.o.ds prevent them. I will try to-'

'No!'

'I must. I want this no more than you. My freedom is enough. I don't need theirs. But if I am being watched there is no choice. I will be careful. I will not battle them, don't fear! And I will return for you. I swear it.'

Stranger was crying again. 'You have no idea how much you hurt me,' she said.

'Never again! But, Great Beauty, I must act. If only I knew the other dragon's mind. Will you share yours with me?'

Stranger lowered her voice and Eric had to risk crawling closer to hear the end of her story. '... the girl has it. Or more likely, it has her. It has fused to her neck and won't come off. It was surely made for the Pilgrim. The wolf contemplates her murder to remove it, but the charm will protect her. Vyin made it.'

'Vyin!'

'I'm sure it's his touch I see upon it.'

'Do the humans know the artefact's function?'

'I guessed some things, but keep my guesses private. It's not easy. The wolf hates me; the half-giant has keen eyes. The charm must be for the being they call Shadow.'

The dragon crept closer. 'So, he has been made real. What have you learned of him? What are his powers? Is it as Sha guessed?'

'I have not learned much at all. The Pilgrim and he are linked somehow, but he knows less than I. Shadow cannot come close enough for the charm to do its work, whatever that work is. The tower prevents him.'

<script>