For three days Farn and Tika journeyed north from Broken Mountain. The weather stayed clear but frost spiked each blade of grass when they woke just before dawn now. There had been no snow yet in the valleys, but white shawls covered the higher slopes. They had met no other Dragons, only skysingers and hoppers, feeding on the cloud bushes and starberries. Once Tika saw a solitary high drifter, floating effortlessly, his eyes on hoppers far below him. There were a few bell trees now, among the taller and more slender tapisi.
Farn’s strength had greatly increased since the flight to the Gathering Place with Kadi. They landed at midday but not because Farn needed to rest. Tika found she had to walk for a while, stretch her legs and arms after sitting still for too long on Farn’s back.
It was the fourth evening and they had stopped earlier than previously. Tika was cramped, and trying to think of a way of exercising her limbs whilst on Farn’s back, which would not interfere with his flying or unseat herself. Farn was tired of a diet of hoppers and said he would try to find a volu, for supper.
Tika jumped, and stretched, and ran up and down between a tapis and a rocky outcrop. As she turned from the rock for the third sprint, she felt hands, human hands, grab her. One hand was over her mouth and the other viciously tight on her upper arm, holding her hard against a leather overtunic.
Her heart seemed to stop, then leaped into high-speed pulse as she twisted and struggled. Whoever held her, spoke roughly to her but she could not understand his words. Why oh why had she put her sword with her cape and bundle by the tapis while she did her stupid exercises?
She reached up and back with her free hand and caught an ear. She held on as tightly as she could, digging in to the flesh with her nails and tugging downwards. Her mind was quite clear after its first instant of panic, and she called quickly to Farn, telling him what was happening to her. She was also thinking furiously – who had hold of her, was he one man or one of a group of hunters? Or one of a band of Fighters?
The question was answered for her as she was spun around and pushed violently towards a group of men. They were dressed as Fighters, but none she recognised. They all had stripes of colour across one cheek, indicating they were of a Lord’s band. Hoarse voices called out as they encircled Tika. She half understood a word here and there, but could not make any real sense of their speech.
‘Use your mind,’ Fenj’s words whispered in her memory, and she probed carefully into the mind of a Fighter who kept aloof from the taunting roughness of the rest of the men. She was immediately submerged in a confused jumble of feelings and thoughts: jealousy, irritation, boredom, petulance. She realised she could understand his mind where she could not understand the vocal speech of these men.
This one was the supposed leader of the Fighters. They fought for a Lord Jal-Sidar, who ruled a town, many leagues west. They had been raiding into another Lord’s territory but had little to show for many days hard riding on the speedy fengars most Fighters preferred. Now the leader watched as these boorish fools played with a peasant brat. They were not reliably obedient to all his orders so he unwillingly left them to have their fun now.
As he glanced at the men, pushing Tika to and fro in their midst, Tika felt his sudden, stupendous shock even as she saw his widening eyes and gaping mouth. She laughed aloud, disconcerting her tormentors. Those facing the same way as their leader showed similar dismay, one even dropping flat to the earth and covering his head with his arms. She laughed again as she turned, knowing what she’d see. Farn was marching steadily from the tapisi towards them, his wings raised, his prismed eyes flashing sapphires. He came to a halt a short distance from the Fighters.
Tika walked past men now rigid with terrified disbelief, and stood against Farn’s belly as he reared upright. Then he belched. Fire flared from his nostrils, singeing the turf at the Fighters’ feet. They were rooted to where they stood it seemed. Farn belched once more and as one, the gang turned and fled, wailing, beyond the outcrop of rock.
‘They did not harm you Tika?’ Farn asked with concern.
‘No, just scared me at first. Can you hear their mind speech?’
‘No,’ said Farn after a while. ‘I hear a babble but I can make nothing of it that could be called speech.’
‘They have just reached the place they left their fengars. I think they were looking for hoppers for their supper and found me instead. Their minds are a shrieking muddle.’ Tika laughed, rubbing Farn’s long neck affectionately. ‘Thank you. You were extremely good at sending them on their way!’
Smoke was still trailing delicately from Farn’s nostrils. ‘Of course.’ He said it automatically, adding: ‘Why did they hold you? Did they want to harm you? Do you know these two-legs?’
Tika hesitated. ‘They caught me because I was here. For their sport I suppose. No,’ she concluded, ‘I did not know them but it is how Fighters behave towards many people like me.’
Farn turned back to the tapisi. ‘I’d caught a volu, and a hopper when you bespoke me. I dropped them a little way through the tapisi. Will those two-legs return?’
‘No. They are leagues away already. When they reach a farm or a town, they will tell of Dragons here. They will be laughed at.’ She thought for a moment. ‘Or if they are believed, many more Fighters will come here for the fame they would win by killing a Dragon.’ Farn looked alarmed. Tika said quickly, ‘We will tell this to Seela, and she will warn her Treasury. You go and fetch our supper – I will bespeak Kadi so that she can tell Broken Mountain Dragons to watch for two legs in the mountains now.’
As they travelled, over hills now rather than mountains, they watched for any signs of two legs below them. Farn’s vision was acute, while Tika searched with her mind. Time passed quickly as she tried to untangle the melange of the different “voices” she heard – the odd, scolding, repetitive comments of a bushytail as it reminded itself where it had already stored nuts for the coming Cold Season. She heard the quiet thoughts of a shaggy honeyfinder as she sought a snug place to outsleep the Cold.
Tika was amazed to find so many of the small feathered ones communicated with each other although it was a fairly simple enough form of speech. She was even more taken aback when a great eyes realised a stranger was in his mind and spoke directly to her, enquiring what she was doing. She apologised for her rudeness and explained she was a two legs and had only just discovered mind speech. The great eyes hurrumphed testily and went back to sleep, his mind firmly closed.
‘Farn, do you communicate with all creatures except two-legs?’
‘I think we can. There is not a great deal to talk about with many of them, but we can if we choose.’
They were gliding down to land beside a stream that was nearly a river for their evening halt. Farn drank and then went off to find food for their supper. He was gone only briefly, returning with a volu and three hoppers. He sprawled on the grass eating the volu and watching Tika. She still walked up and down, bringing her knees high to loosen calf and thigh muscles.
‘Farn,’ she asked, ‘can you talk to trees, or rocks, or stars?’
Farn was silent for so long Tika knew he was searching through the memories given to him at his hatching. She continued flexing her legs and arms as she waited.
At last he said, ‘I’m not sure. There’s something to do with trees from a very long time past. It isn’t relevant now anyway. It seems trees do, or did, talk, but very, very slowly, so mostly we gave up trying to speak with them.’
Tika came to a standstill in front of him. ‘So all things can talk? So all things must be able to think.’ She sat down and hungrily reached for a scorched hopper. She’d eaten half of it when another thought struck her. ‘Does a hopper know you are about to kill it?’
‘Dragons kill because our bodies need meat. We kill very quickly, usually before the volu or whatever, is even aware of our presence. We send calmness to their minds as we kill them to help them safely beyond.’
As they continued to the Sun Mountains, Tika thought hard of this ability
to mind speak. Of how her life had changed so dramatically. A life which she’d believed ended when she ran away from the town of Return. She had truly thought she would die of hunger, of falling among those high crags, or of being eaten by some hungry beast. And now she found herself on a silver blue Dragon’s back, treated with respect by others of the Dragon Kin, setting forth on an important search.
She hoped Seela would have far more information to give her than Fenj had done about that last. It was difficult to believe that the Chena who, for fourteen Cold Seasons, had been a slave, held in contempt and abused by most of the Lord’s household, was now this Tika, soul bonded to a Dragon.
On the fifth day of travelling, the Sun Mountains appeared as a bump on the horizon, looming ever higher the closer Tika and Farn approached. As they rested on the sixth evening, Seela mind spoke them both.
‘Welcome to the Sun Treasury! You have made a swift journey Farn. With so much strength in your wings already, surely you will be one of the mightiest when you are full-grown!’
Tika laughed as Farn stretched fully upright, looking extremely pleased with himself. She felt Seela’s amusement as Farn had the grace to look a little ashamed of his pride.
‘Tomorrow,’ Seela told them, ‘fly the length of the valley beyond the pass where you are now resting. I will await you at the end of that valley. Sleep well!’
They flew next day, through the valley as Seela had directed. To begin with it was narrow, set deeply between soaring rock walls. Gradually it began to widen until the rockfaces were many leagues apart. They passed over a long lake, its waters a strange blue tinged with brownish red, then continued up the valley over the river which fed the lake. At last the terrain narrowed again and began to rise.
Soon after midday, Farn said: ‘She is there – on a ledge of that peak.’
Tika looked where Farn indicated but could see only a purple speck, her vision being far inferior to Farn’s.
‘Seela!’ called Farn. ‘We are come. May we land at your cave?’
‘Be welcome, bonded ones. Food and friendship await you.’
As Farn spiralled lower to approach Seela’s ledge in a gentle glide, Tika had the opportunity to study this new Dragon. Seela was as massive as Fenj, but she was a deep purple rather than black, with dark blue tints shimmering over her scales. Her eyes flashed, pale mauve sparking with a deep gold within them.
Farn landed and as Tika slipped from his back, he stood erect and greeted Seela formally. Unsure of how she should act towards such a Dragon, Tika let fall her bundle and stood straight beside Farn. Her left hand on her sword hilt and her right flat over her heart, she bowed to Seela and repeated Farn’s words: ‘The Golden Lady keep you safe through all the Seasons.’
By the time Seela had heard all they had to tell, stars were pricking the sky. Farn was unable to conceal his yawns and Seela sent him deeper into the cave to sleep. A comfortable silence grew between her and Tika, eventually broken by the two-legs.
‘Fenj said you knew more than he of the Lady’s wishes for us?’
‘You are to meet the other two-legs who is bonded,’ Seela told her. ‘It is a male Nagum, bonded to the first born daughter of Hani. Hani is unusual in that she is shy, she keeps to herself. She mind speaks to some of us in this Treasury but is overwhelmed by social Gathering times. She stays mostly at the farthest edge of our range. We knew she was brooding three eggs and she bespoke me when the hatchings began. She has spent one moon cycle teaching her first born and the bonded one all she can and has left them now to take her other hatchlings to her usual Cold Season place further towards the dying sun.’
‘A Nagum?’ Tika’s mind was churning. Nagums were characters from tales such as the ones she’d heard involving Dragons. A picture formed of a two legged creature, hunched and deformed, with a snouted face, wild eyes, fangs and talons.
‘No, no, no,’ said Seela testily. ‘That is a Linvak. Nagums are a shy and gentle tribe concerned with plants and flowers.’
Tika tried to grasp these new ideas. How many tribes were there of whom she knew nothing? Were there stone men and giants too?
‘Try to concentrate please,’ Seela moved restlessly. ‘There are many tribes in this world indeed, of whom you seem totally unaware. Some may appear strange to your eyes, as many do to ours.’ (Tika had a feeling Seela was being a touch personal with that remark.) ‘However, as we have learnt, so must you – not to judge others, especially just on their appearance.’
Tika had by now controlled her thoughts and Seela calmed herself.
‘The Nagum Mimnan and the bonded first-born Ashta, are on their way here. I have bespoken both of them, so they are prepared. I believed Nagums to be shy creatures, and a daughter of Hani’s could also be as timid as her mother. I trust the Lady had her reasons for choosing this pair for her task. I see you wear a sword – I cannot imagine a Nagum knowing how to use one.’
Tika kept her mind blank lest Seela see that she also had little idea on the correct use of a sword.
‘Join Farn now and sleep easily while you may. I will stay here.’
‘Do you not need to sleep Seela? I noticed Kadi and Fenj were always awake whenever I roused in the night?’
‘We need very little sleep as we age, small one. Indeed, as we draw closer to the beyond, why waste the time we have left in sleep? But you and Farn are extremely young, and still growing, so – to sleep with you!’
When Farn and Tika woke they found fresh meat waiting and Seela in the same place as when they’d slept. She told them Ashta and Mimnan would arrive during this day. Her pale mauve eyes shone softly. ‘The Lady would meet you soon.’ The prismed eyes began to whirr as she continued. ‘No one has met the Lady in the flesh for a great many cycles. She speaks only in our minds now. There was a time, long since past, when some of the Kin were regularly admitted to her presence.’ Seela was clearly becoming concerned. ‘There have been changes, alterations, in the pattern of the world, but I now fear we may have deliberately ignored some of the warnings. If the Lady is to meet you, things must be further awry than we believed.’ She rustled her wings in agitation. ‘Last night, Fenj told me other Elders have been warned by the Lady. A bad time is at hand and She says we must instruct the Treasuries to keep close to their Gathering Places. We must seek back through the memories, for such a time we have witnessed before says Emla.’
Farn flew Tika from the ledge to a swift flowing stream that poured from the heights. Seela had said the Sun Mountains were rarely as cold as the Ancient Mountains. The snow-caps on their peaks never came far down their slopes. But already, at the close of this Gathering Season, the white lace was drifting lower, as they could see.
Farn was eager to meet another young Dragon bonded as he was outside the Dragon Kin. He had felt a slight oddity in his position with others at the Gathering Place. Tika was more apprehensive. Despite Seela’s words, she still retained the images of Nagums from tales told in long dark evenings.
The two wandered along, up the streamside, till they reached the place where it gushed from high in the mountain wall, frothing white as it fell. The force of its fall had gouged a basin where the water swirled then made its escape to tumble on down through the rocks. There was little vegetation, a coarse grass scattered thinly, lichens and mosses clinging to the water splashed sides of boulders and a very few starberry bushes.
Farn found a hopper colony, which provided him with a snack. Dabbling his hands in the snowcold stream, he asked over-casually, ‘It hasn’t been difficult to find Seela. Do you think this journey the Lady wants us to make will be much more difficult? Or dangerous?’
Tika draped her arm round his neck. ‘I think it’s all going to get very difficult. Fenj and Seela both feel worried to me. If THEY are worried, I think we will be scared stiff.’
Farn reluctantly agreed that that was what he had begun to suspect, but before more could be said, Seela spoke in their minds.
‘Come to greet your companions! Ashta and Mimn
an are here.’
Chapter Seven