Dragonlove (34 page)

They should find Yukari near the pools beneath the archway. The Dragons believed that the pools had magical properties–physical restoration would have been perfect, but these were pools used by Dragon-seers and mystics seeking to penetrate the mysteries of the present and future.

That meant no healing, unless Yukari as a Blue-coloured Dragon had healing powers like Qualiana’s.

Hualiama brushed through a veil of jinsumo blossoms which hung right down to the ferns, dusting her shoulders and hair in creamy, aromatic pollen, to find herself standing on the shore of a set of interlinked pools which were exactly the colour she imagined Yukari might be. The still pools called to her spirit with promises of serenity. So alluring was the call that Lia pictured the stillness of death, and shivered. Beautiful, but undeniably creepy.

She asked,
Do you sense her?

Nay,
said Grandion.

Hualiama wandered down to the shore, peering into the clear waters. An unusual mineral deposit turned the stones of the pools aquamarine blue, making a startling contrast to the dark ferny banks, so that for a moment, the Human girl imagined she looked downward into the sky. Vertigo tugged at her senses, but Grandion pinched her shoulders lightly with his forepaw, a steadying touch.

Without speaking but in constant communion with each other, she led the Tourmaline Dragon around several pools, before finding a small animal path that led deeper beneath the archway, to a wider pool completely undisturbed by water trickling from above. Here, the illusion of sky was nigh-perfect. Hualiama stepped up onto a blue boulder, the better to peer down into the water. Odd. The stones were a more regular size here, making a pattern she could follow with her eyes, suddenly picking out the crook of a massive foreleg and the edge of a wing …

Mercy! Oh, G-Grandion!

L
unging forward, the
Tourmaline Dragon snaffled Lia roughly off her perch as the ground shifted, transforming into the knuckle of a Dragon’s paw. The girl’s eyes rolled wildly before settling upon the skull-spikes of a Dragoness rearing out of the pool, her crushingly vast muzzle cracking open to vent a chuckle that melted Grandion’s bones. Never in his life had he imagined such a venerable Dragon Elder! Her size! Her presence! The purity and power of her Dragon fires! Before her he felt as a newborn hatchling, soft with yolk as he broke the shell for the first time, and trembling, beheld his shell-mother.

You’ve found Yukari, little ones,
rumbled the Dragoness.

Bowing his muzzle to the ground and arching his wings in a gesture of the deepest deference, Grandion said,
The most sulphurous greetings of Fra’anior be thine, noble Dragoness. I am Grandion of Gi’ishior, shell-son of Sapphurion and Qualiana. My companion is–

Hualiama Dragonfriend, Princess of Fra’anior,
she chirped,
and I befriended an Ancient Dragon who was twenty times your size, Yukari. You don’t scare me.

Disrespecting an Elder! Grandion’s fires howled his dismay. Catching Lia about the waist with an angry squeeze of his claw, he snarled,
Don’t you dare cheek your elders and betters, hatchling!

Peace, Grandion,
said Yukari, unaccountably amused by the Human’s antics.
We females play deeper games than you imagine. Come. Of late, the Island-World’s winds communicate much strangeness to my nostrils. You’ve travelled far from your Cluster. What do you seek of old Yukari?

Healing for my sight,
said Grandion.

Lia added,
I seek to help my Dragon, but I do wish you’d return to see Akemi, mighty Yukari. She misses you.

To Grandion’s shock, Yukari thrilled the heavens with her bugle, causing the waters of her pool to ripple in response, and the nearby dragonets to break into trilling, happy song. She was awesome. Dragons grew all their lives, albeit more slowly as they moved out of their fledgling years into adulthood. Sapphurion, measuring one hundred and thirty-two feet from wingtip to wingtip, was the largest Dragon Grandion knew–though not the oldest. Yukari had to be double his size. Her fangs stood like lances in her jaw, and the magnificent sweep of her hindquarters made him weak-kneed.

Then he beheld her eyes through Lia’s sight, and Grandion had a further shock. The Dragoness was blind!

If Yukari could not heal herself, what hope was there for him?

I was wounded young.
The great Dragoness’ thoughts, redolent with notes of experience and potent magic, fired his mind.
In those days, the Eastern Dragonkind believed that a Dragon born with the power of Seeing could never attain their full potential unless they were blinded. So, my eye-fires were snuffed out by my shell-parents’ talons.

Grandion bowed mentally, chastised and sorrowful.

How is it that pictures of me form in a blind Dragon’s mind?
Yukari asked.

Hualiama is my eyes,
Grandion replied, suddenly aware that Yukari could read his thoughts like an open scroll.
She is my Rider, my friend, my rescuer and the fires of my soul.

Yet what is this sadness I sense between you?
the Dragoness inquired.
A quarrel between soul-bonded lovers?

The Tourmaline stiffened at her use of an ancient term. Cautiously, he said,
Not soul-bonded lovers, great Yukari. Hualiama is no Dragoness. We’ve not even spoken of the mystical ascending fire-promises–

No Dragoness?
A vast snort blasted water at the pair of them.

Lia’s tiny hands rubbed her eyes. In a moment, the Aquamarine Dragoness returned to his view. The sardonic expression curling her lip minded him of nothing more than his shell-mother about to rebuke an errant hatchling. Huge as he was, Grandion shrank into a hatchling’s submissive posture. It seemed appropriate.

Grandion, I don’t understand that word she used,
Lia’s broke in.

Soul-bonded lovers? It’s the state of a pair of Dragons who have breathed the sacred fire-promises together,
the Tourmaline Dragon explained, conveying disapproval, outrage and finality of the utterly impossible in the nuances of his reply.
These promises are for Dragons alone–they are oaths made between fire-souls. For there are types of Dragonish love beyond roost-love or mated-love or egg-hatching love …
he trailed off in embarrassment.
Yukari, with all possible respect, I must correct you. Hualiama is a Human–

Piffle,
growled Yukari, rudely.
Hatchling-spit and fireless smoke.

Lia’s gaze darted to Grandion. He saw himself crouched at the water’s edge, an expression of stubborn disbelief crinkling his eyebrow-ridges, never mind the confusion roiling in his belly. He must swallow Yukari’s withering insults. Among the Dragonkind, an Elder’s words were sacrosanct, inviolable. Yet his fires betrayed him, for a smoky fireball leaked past his fangs.

Quietly, the girl explained the Ancient Dragon’s passing on, and her confusion over her growing magical gifts. The Aquamarine Dragoness spoke right over her, as if she did not exist.

Grandion. Smell her.

He protested,
I know how she smells–

HOW DARE YOU DISOBEY!
The Dragoness’ wrath rolled over him like a scalding lava flow.

Pressing his nostrils against the girl’s back, Grandion inhaled hugely. Involuntarily, his tongue flicked out to taste her upper left arm, drawing a quiver from her body to match his own, albeit on a far larger scale. Hualiama’s scent was as he remembered, and so much more. Fire and spice. A staggering richness of mystery. Starsong over moons-lit Islands. She was the bewitching heart of Dragon fires and the tingle of magic upon his scales.

As intricately beautiful as any Dragoness,
he whispered.

Yukari growled in approval,
Nobly done, youngling. Now, hearken to the song of her inner being.

The Dragon’s ear-canals attuned to the eager throbbing of her heart, to the catch-me-if-you-can rhythm of her life.

No, go deeper. Like this.
Yukari’s magic tingled against the scales of his head and muzzle.
Listen with your third heart, youngling.

The Tourmaline Dragon saw an egg of pearlescent white, nestled in the warm sands of a Dragoness’ roost. The egg stood with two others. Where was their shell-mother? It would not do to leave a clutch unprotected. Grandion pressed deeper for the truth of this vision, but it eluded him. A tiny Dragoness-spirit lifted free from the egg and soared away from his presence, coy and fey. Tinkling laughter fell upon him. Suddenly she became that Human sprite who had so entranced a Dragon hatchling with her irrepressible zest for life.

You never wanted to wear clothes,
Grandion told Lia.
You never wanted to be bound or restricted in any way. You sang, oh my wings, how you sang! There were days you spoke nary a word, but your words were dance and your heartsong, Dragon fires.

Standing with them in a shared vision of the past, the Aquamarine Dragoness said,
How do you see her now, Grandion?

She’s as unruly as the wind.

Hualiama’s laughter lingered over both of the Dragons. Grandion knew that Yukari’s wings burned with the sweet fire that the girl’s laughter evoked; it was the whisper of wind caressing Dragon scales in flight, and the magic that burned in their veins and flowed in rivers of golden Dragon blood. Her hilarity was a blood-fever, a power akin to the slow rolling of a storm over his Island, and it sang to the lightning of his Blue Dragon powers. A thrilling battle-readiness surged behind the protective strictures of his fire and lightning stomachs.

Dragonsong,
said Yukari.

Dragoness,
agreed Grandion.

And what of her dreams, Grandion?

Abruptly, his paws returned to the ground, and the soaring sensation vanished.
She claims to dream shell-dreams,
he said, troubled.
What can this signify but Amaryllion’s power, unleashed?

The image in his mind walked upright on two legs. She had no wings. Grandion did not understand the import of Yukari’s lesson. Must he learn to see her differently? Aye, he could. Must he listen with all seven senses? Aye, he would. But the reality of Lia’s humanity could not be escaped. Belief could only convey a creature so far. A Dragon must know what his paws touched, what entered his senses, and what buoyed him across the abyss.

In a profoundly deep voice, Yukari said,
There is blindness no Dragon power can heal, young Grandion, no salve can ease, and no medicament can make well. If you truly would be the noble-hearted son of flame for which you are named, then you must slough off this inner blindness.

Grandion shook at the force of her censure.
My Hualiama is Human!

Yukari ruffled her wings derisively.
Think you I lack sense because I lack sight?

The Tourmaline’s wings half-flared in response to her challenge.
No, but I believe what my eyes have seen. I hear two feet brushing upon stone and gravel. A single heart beats in her chest …

Dragoness!

She has dreams and hopes, but dreams disappear with the dawn, and hope can play us false.
Grandion loomed protectively over his small companion, gathering a trembling body into his talons.
She is a living soul, o mighty Dragoness, and I fear these injurious words. You play on her most inmost fears–

Yukari roared,
GRRRRAAAAARRRGGGH!

* * * *

Dragon-thunder shook the world-within-a-world beneath the archway.

Hualiama laid her hand upon Grandion’s muzzle, quieting his fury. Though both Dragons were blind, they faced each other with their lips curled back to bare their fangs in challenge, their stances matching each other for muscular aggression and their fires primed to a fighting pitch. Gratitude and fear pulsed equally in her veins. Somehow, the aged Dragoness’ insistence on the unattainable had liberated the great-hearted guardian in Grandion, and his attitude moved her more surely than Yukari’s words had roused her grief and despair. The Aquamarine Dragon-Seer had shed no light upon Lia’s state or her magic, but she had broken a barrier of pain and offence which had grown up between Dragon and Rider. Perhaps her Dragon had not realised it yet?

Aye, Yukari played a deep game. A Dragoness’ game.

Drawing a shuddering breath, Lia said,
I’ve dreamed of flying for longer than I can remember, Yukari. The fires of a precious dragonet dwell within me. It must be his earliest memories which stir my soul, for I have these shell-dreams, as you call them, strange dreams of a time before Sapphurion and Qualiana raised me with their own paws. I’m unashamed to admit that I love those Dragons. The truth of the matter is, Yukari, that you See differently to other creatures. I understand that your power can be both gift and curse.

Yukari’s wild, vicious spurt of laughter boiled the water to Hualiama’s right hand.
Oh, now you understand me, little one?

Lia found herself baring her own teeth.
I understand I’ll be whatever you want me to be, if you’ll help my Dragon. If I must be a Dragoness, then may it be so. And aye, I have insight. I know that something of your pain might be healed, if you see Akemi again.

Shoulder to shoulder, she and Grandion confronted the huge Dragoness.

By degrees, the two Blue Dragons began to simmer down, communicating with each other at a level Hualiama could only guess at–instinctual? Magical? The Aquamarine Dragoness’ regard burned upon her without need for ordinary sight, for the power of her inner gaze was enough to arouse Lia’s white-fires, until the pools seemed to burn and breathe the magic she had sensed before. As Yukari’s gaze penetrated her being, Lia stood stock-still, fearing to trust the Dragoness but knowing she must succeed for Grandion’s sake.

Ungovernable indeed,
said the Dragoness, appearing unexpectedly contented.

With that, Yukari fell to a ponderous examination of Grandion’s condition, which soon tested the limits of Hualiama’s patience. Shinzen advanced. Dragonwings marshalled in far off places. Amaryllion had warned of an impending war in which Lia would play a crucial role. Unease drew together in her belly like storm clouds gathering in their battalions, preparatory to unleashing their fury upon the Isles.

Hualiama expended her frustration in exercise and dance. She listened in as the Dragoness spoke to Grandion at inordinate length about Dragon powers and the dampening, stunting effects of long captivity–not just the obvious effects on physiology, musculature and even bone density, but the effects on what she called his inner balance and flow of magical powers. Yukari confirmed what the engineer in Hualiama had long suspected. Dragon flight was magical, not merely mechanical. Blues could manipulate the flow of air about their bodies and over the wing surfaces, achieving greater flight speeds, endurance and manoeuvrability than any other Dragon colour. Kinetic and levitation powers, rare even amongst Blues, could arrest the effects of momentum and gravity, giving a Blue Dragon unparalleled advantages in combat, and even strike an opponent down without need to bloody claw or fang.