Dragons and Destiny (32 page)

Vanlya shut her
eyes.

: The Boton has
come :

Her mind-voice
was filled with dread.

: The Boton?
:
queried Niaill and Taraya but Vanlya did not answer.

: Inalei comes
:

: Inalei?
Who is Inalei? :
asked Niaill of Taraya but she did not
know.

: Inalei of
the Avuzdel :
Vanlya supplied the information.

Niaill had
forgotten that his and Taraya’s inner thoughts were not their own
at present. With an inaudible snap, Vanlya severed the
mind-link.

Inalei
appeared, a heavyset Lind with a nondescript colour pattern.

Niaill and
Taraya waited in silence as Inalei and Vanlya had a long telepathic
conversation, Inalei looking over at Niaill and Taraya every so
often.

“The Susalai
must be told,” he said at last.

: The
Susalai, who or what is that? :
Niaill asked Taraya but Taraya
did not know that either.

Inalei closed
his eyes and Niaill realised that he was initiating a mind-send of
a great distance. Taraya confirmed this but she did not know what
information was being ‘sent’.

Niaill and
Taraya continued to wait. At last Inalei opened his eyes and turned
to Niaill and Taraya.

“I have spoken
to Hansei, the Susalai of the Avuzdel,” he began, “and with the
speaking has come permission to both ask and to answer the
questions.”

“Okay,” said
Niaill, “you’ve spoken to this Susalai, what does it all mean?” He
and Taraya had after all, been waiting a good number of bells. “Who
is the Susalai?”

“The Susalai is
the overall commander of the Avuzdel,” Inalei answered.

“But I thought
that was Susa Gsendei,” said a confused Niaill, “my brother Danal
and his Lind Asya are serving with the Avuzdel.”

“There is the
Avuzdel and there is the Avuzdel,” replied the enigmatic Inalei,
confusing Niaill more. “I know of Danal and his Asya. You wish me
to explain?”

“You’re going
to have to so that I can make some sort of sense of all this,” said
a rueful Niaill, “and take it slowly, my brain is in a whirl
already.”

“The Susas of
the Avuzdel are under the command of the Susalai and do his
bidding.”

“Susas? Not
Susa? How many are there?”

“I have been
given permission to tell you and Taraya only. Vanlya knows but even
the Gtrathlin knows only of their existence, not what they do.”

“May the other
Eldas learn of this as well?” Vanlya enquired.

Inalei nodded,
“but one else, yet.”

“The Avuzdel,”
he began, “has been in existence for a very long time. There are
two types of Avuzdel, the one you know of and the one you do not.
The three Susas of the Avuzdel are part of what we call the Daki.
They are responsible for keeping the lands safe and to stop the
fighting between the Lind and the Larg getting out of paw. This is
the Avuzdel. When humans arrived, you also became part of their
duty, to stop the war between the northern and the southern
continent from escalating out of control.”

“But who, where
are these three Susas?” asked Niaill.

“Gsendei you
know. He is responsible for this continent. There is another on the
other two.”

“In the south?”
asked a surprised Niaill.

“Especially in
the south,” agreed Inalei, “and please do not interrupt so often
because I have a great deal to tell you.”

“Sorry,” said a
contrite Niaill.

“Susa Gsendei,
Susa Maddei and Susa Zaoaldavdr, all three report to our
Susalai.”

Niaill
gasped.

“And you are
right to be surprised Ryzcka Niaill, Zaoaldavdr is the Susa of the
Avuzdel of Larg. He is a Larg. All three Susas and their Avuzdel
have worked for generations to keep Lind, Larg and Human from
destroying each other. Controlling the latter has taken a great
deal of time and effort. Now, before I go on, do you have any
questions?”

“Plenty,” said
Niaill, “but they’ll wait. I want to hear the whole of it. The Daki
has three sections, one in Largdom, one in Vadath and one on the
other northern continent. I understand. Go on.”

“The other part
of the Avuzdel is the Raki. The members of this have an extra duty
and one most secret. Apart from the Susas, the rest of the Avuzdel
know nothing of this. I am a member of the Raki. We also report to
the Susalai, but directly, we neither have nor need a Susa. There
are not that many of us you understand. We Raki look for the Boton,
in all three continents. You and Taraya have found it.”

“Is Taraya
right? It is dangerous?” asked Niaill.

“The Boton is
the Summoner of Death,” Inalei announced in a melodramatic
voice.

Niaill gulped.
Why do I feel that I’ve suddenly landed in the middle of an epic
fantasy?

Having
delivered his bombshell. Inalei continued in a more normal voice,
“Niaill and Taraya, I must ask you some detailed questions about
your finding of the Boton. First, how long do you think it has been
here?”

“Quite a
while,” Niaill answered, “the undergrowth around it was pretty
dense.”

“There were
signs of old burning,” added Taraya.

“So there
were,” agreed Niaill.

“Do you think
the Boton was there before the burning?”

“Inalei, I
don’t know. I didn’t take much notice, I was more concerned with
covering the thing up and getting here.”

“No matter,”
said Inalei,” the next question is relating to what it was doing.
It was flashing blue?”

“Yes it
was.”

“A steady
single long flash with big gaps or quick flashes and smaller
gaps?”

“The second,”
answered Taraya.

“A sequence of
five and a fairly smallish gap,” answered Niaill at the same
time.

“That is not
good news,” pronounced Inalei and he shut his eyes as he initiated
another long distance conversation.

His eyes
snapped open.

“We must alert
all the Avuzdel, not just the Raki,” he declared. “The Nahoko come
and we must find them.”

“Nahoko?”
queried Vanlya. She looked as confused as Niaill was.

“Five of them
there must be. They must be found. The Avuzdel must scour the land
and find each and every one.”

“What do they
look like?” asked Taraya, “and where?”

“Round they
will be and also blue flickers. I am ordered to find them at all
costs, find then cover over and guard so not to alert who has sent
them.”

“Who has sent
them?” interrupted Niaill. “What is all this about?” He looked at
Taraya and Vanlya, “I don’t know about you two but I’m getting way
out of my depth here.”

“It will become
clear in time,” promised Inalei, who it has to be admitted didn’t
sound as if he understood the last part very well himself.
“Meanwhile Niaill of Vadath, you must read what Tara and Kolyei
left.”

“What they
left?” asked an overwhelmed and confused Niaill.
All I seem to
be doing here is asking questions.

“They are here
safe,” announced Vanlya. “We of the Gtratha have kept them safe for
many lives of Lind and Human.”

“It is time to
give them to the one who will read them,” said Inalei.

“Me?” squeaked
Niaill.

“You Niaill of
Vadath. They contain many secrets so read them very carefully.”

“It is
the
Tara and Kolyei?” queried Niaill, “the authors of Tales
of Rybak and the Histories of the Lind? That Tara?”

“The same,”
answered Vanlya. “You have read the Tales and Histories?”

“All of them.
They wrote the history text book we read as children as well.”

“You must now
read about the things that she and Kolyei did not write in the
books.”

So what I
suspected when I was younger was right
. Niaill had always
believed that there were gaps in the history textbooks and in Tara
and Kolyei’s other writings.

“The Susalai
tells me that the knowledge they contain is important, may be vital
to our survival,” added Inalei.

“Survival?”
exploded Niaill. “I
still
don’t understand. How can this
Boton and these Nahokos threaten our
survival
?”

“As I said
before, it will become clear in time. First though, Taraya will
lead me and some others to the lian where the Boton is so that I
can inspect it and you Niaill will remain here and read.”

Vanlya led
Niaill deep into the cave to a natural shelf at the very back,
passing some strange objects on the way which she ignored.

“These are
they,” she said and Niaill reached up to take the oilskin packages.
There were some old papers underneath but they crumbled to dust as
he touched them.

As Niaill
opened the last of the four oilskin wraps that which had remained
hidden for so long lay revealed. There were four hardback volumes,
three large and one much smaller. The latter looked as if it had
once had a red cover but the others were brown and looked as if
they always had been brown.

“These are the
originals? Actually written by Tara Sullivan?” marvelled Niaill
reverently. He was almost afraid to open them.

“Yes indeed.
Tradition tells us that she and the great Kolyei compiled them and
left them with us for safekeeping. When they left what you humans
call Vadath, when she and Kolyei were old and tired, she went west.
When she passed through she told us that we would be told when to
show them to the person who was to read them.”

Niaill leafed
through the closely written sheets of what he presumed was the
first volume. “The pages are remarkably well preserved,” he noted,
“paper.” He felt it between his fingers, “but it feels peculiar,
not like ordinary paper. Not all of the volumes are like that, the
later ones are more like the paper we know. That is brittle, not
like the first.” He tugged at one of the sheets. “It seems to be
impregnated with something to make it tear resistant and durable.
Our ancestors knew many things that have now been forgotten.”

He opened the
cover of the volume which was made up of the strong paper. “This
will be the first that was written,” he said as he looked at the
words, “yes, it says Volume One.”

He turned the
page, “ah, a message from Tara and Kolyei. Will I read it aloud?”
he asked Vanlya.

She grinned at
him.

“I would like
to hear what my ancestor had to say,” she said, surprising Niaill
with her comment.

“Kolyei is you
ancestor?”

“Yes he was,
please read.”

Niaill
began:

‘
Kolyei and
I hope these words I now pen will never be read; that the paper
they are written on will crumble into dust but Jim Cranston put his
trust in me a long time ago and now, thirty-five years on, I
complete this, the charge he put upon us.

I and my Kolyei
are leaving these volumes of notes with our old friend Afanasei,
the present Gtrathlin of the Lind who promises that he and those
who come after him will keep them safe from prying eyes. Please use
the knowledge you will learn within these pages with due caution
and only use if you have dire need. Of course, I have forgotten, if
you are reading them there must be a dire need.

Much of the
information I have written down in the pages that follow will be
known to you as long as my stories in the Tales and the Histories
(they will probably be long forgotten) are still in circulation but
others you will read about for the first time.

As you will
see, there are three volumes and each has an index at the front
referenced to the page numbers. I have marked with a star the ones
that have been used in the Tales and Histories; the others were
deemed too dangerous or inappropriate to be included. It is these
unmarked ones you must peruse first.

The smallest
volume belonged to a friend of mine and was given to her for
safekeeping by her father shortly before his death. I don’t know
how much use it will be but I thought it best hidden with the
others.

May the Lai fly
in our hearts for evermore.

Farewell

TS and K’

“I’d better
start with these indexes,” Niaill pronounced, “if you wait a moment
Vanlya, I’ve got pen, ink and paper in my pack. I might need to
make some notes.”

* * * * *

Niaill found
the writings Tara and Kolyei had left behind absolutely
fascinating. Vanlya couldn’t bear to drag herself away either and
insisted that Niaill read much of it aloud. Niaill was glad of the
company as Taraya was away showing Inalei the Boton.

“I think this
bit could be important, it’s certainly not in any of the Histories”
he continued.

“‘…
Captain
Howard of the prison ship Electra did hide the ship’s core, that
which powered it. He and others buried it deep within the sands of
the southern desert for fear that the convicts would find and use
it. Although it is not large, in the wrong hands it could cause a
great amount of destruction.’
She then notes down what she
calls the gridref, don’t know what it means but here it is. Perhaps
you can make sense of it.”

“I have never
heard of such a thing,” said Vanlya but she leant forward the
better to hear what a gridref might be. “What does it sound
like?”

“It is a list
of numbers and letters,
‘9649E 2713S’
.”

“It means
nothing,” said Vanlya, disappointed. “I’ll pass it on to Inalei,
perhaps he knows.”

Her eyes closed
as she initiated contact. A few moments later they opened and
Vanlya spoke again. “Inalei says that he knows nothing about the
gridref but he is very interested about the core you mentioned. He
is on his run back.”

Inalei and
Taraya returned from investigating the Boton. They only stopped for
a quick bite to eat before they appeared at Vanlya’s daga.

“We wondered
what had happened to the core. A long time ago we were sent to look
for it but could not find it,” said Inalei when Niaill had told
them what he had discovered so far.