Shadow (7 page)

The ethereal white-grey mist muffled the rhythmic whooshing sound of the dragons’ wingbeats. We could be anywhere, Nolita thought, her mind racing. The rain caressed with a touch like the
finest silk across her cheeks and forehead. Gradually it beaded, moistening her lips and running into her eyes. The other dragons, even when flying in close formation, were blurry ghostlike
figures: gigantic sinister shadows – the stuff of her nightmares.

Seconds dragged into minutes. Minutes sapped the energy of hours. And every instant Nolita felt sure would be her last.

‘We’re there.’

Firestorm’s announcement coincided with an abrupt change of wingbeat rhythm that nearly threw Nolita from the saddle. The dragon suddenly reared in the sky as a grey wall of rock loomed
ahead of them. To Nolita’s amazement, just three rapid wing-beats slowed them sufficiently to allow them to land softly on the ledge directly in front of the Oracle’s cave.

‘How on Areth did you manage that?’ she gasped in amazement.

‘I cheated,’
Firestorm admitted with a mental chuckle.
‘The Oracle draws dragons who have a reason to visit it, but I refined the instinctive pull by seeking ahead
with my mind for the Guardians. The dragons who stand watch at the entrance to the Oracle’s cave with their riders were content to allow me to use their minds like a homing beacon. It was
this, combined with my memory of the terrain, that got us here safely.’

‘Next time you decide to get clever, I’d appreciate it if you’d let me in on your tricks, Fire,’ Nolita muttered through gritted teeth. ‘I was convinced I was going
to die from the moment we emerged from the gateway. Flying is frightening enough when I can see what’s going on.’

‘Sorry, Nolita,’
he replied, contrite.
‘I was concentrating so hard on where we were going that I hadn’t noticed your discomfort was greater than
usual.’

Fang and Aurora had also landed beside them. Kira and Elian were already dismounting, so Nolita forced her fingers to release their death grip on the pommel of her saddle. She grabbed the orb
from her saddlebag and carefully slid down Fire’s side to join her companions on the ledge. They moved quickly forwards into the mouth of the great cave, with the dragons following close
behind.

Once again the Guardians stepped out of their alcoves on each side of the tunnel, but as soon as they saw the orb in Nolita’s hands they ushered the party forwards. The great cavern where
they had encountered the Oracle last time seemed a shade darker than Nolita remembered, but as they descended towards the wall around the vast, circular, well-like chasm, she decided it must be her
overactive imagination. There were just as many torches lining the walls as there had been during their previous visit. It was most likely the aftereffects of flying through the whiteness of the
misty cloud.

The party reached the wall that surrounded the Oracle’s great pit and they stopped. There was a breathless air of anticipation in the chamber, but nothing happened. No swirling smoke. No
sign of the Oracle. Heartbeat after heartbeat passed, but nothing happened.

‘Great! What are we supposed to do now?’ Nolita muttered.

Tembo’s eyes were quick to focus on Husam as he sensed the man straighten up. His friend’s strangely-coloured eyes had gone distant.

‘They’re back,’ Husam breathed, the words barely more than a whisper.

A chill ran down Tembo’s back. It was like looking at a physical echo of Kasau, the strange dragonhunter who had suffered an untimely death a week before. Kasau had led their now scattered
party of hunters northwards through Racafi and halfway across Orupee in pursuit of two rare dragons.

The authorities restricted hunters to killing rogue dragons – those causing trouble to human communities. The hunting of dragons that had found their dragonriders was strictly forbidden,
but Kasau had convinced their party that the potential riches to be gained from a successful hunt in this case outweighed any risks. Tembo felt it unlikely that Kasau had been motivated by wealth.
He did not seem bothered by material possessions. The man had been unusual in many ways, not least in his possession of instincts unlike anything Tembo and Husam had ever seen before. Strangely,
since Kasau’s death, Husam was beginning to mirror those instincts and abilities.

There had been an unnatural edge to the slim dragonhunter these past few days. Ever since that fateful night attack on the dragons had resulted in Kasau’s death, Husam had been different.
It wasn’t just the visible change in the colour of his eyes. His personality had changed as well. He was colder, and less impulsive.

Tembo had asked him about this, but Husam carefully avoided answering. He claimed he did not feel any different, but this was an open lie that both understood was his way of saying
‘Don’t ask me about it.’ If Husam had not been such a good friend for the past two season rotations, Tembo would have left him and made his way home to Racafi. Whatever had
happened to Husam the night Kasau died, it had affected his friend deeply.

There were times when Husam spoke and acted like his old self. During these moments it was as if nothing had happened, but those times were growing less frequent every day.

‘What do you want to do?’ Tembo asked cautiously.

‘We’re not ready to hunt them,’ Husam replied thoughtfully, fingering Kasau’s dragonbone spear. He had retrieved it from the meadow the day after the dragons had left,
along with several dragonbone spear tips. ‘We need more men. Some of the other hunters are still in the vicinity. It’s time to begin gathering our own hunting party, Tembo.’

Tembo was relieved. He had wondered for a moment if Husam would announce some crazy plan for the two of them to try to kill the dawn dragon on their own. The dragon was far from being an easy
target since it had teamed up with three other dragons. Aside from the dangers associated with illegally hunting a dragon that was partnered with a rider, the combination of powers possessed by the
four dragons made for a formidable form of prey.

It was unusual for dragons to team up, particularly dragons of different types. Tembo had seen groups of up to three night dragons flying together and had once seen a pair of day dragons, but he
had never heard of a day and a night dragon working together before. The two types of dragons and their riders were reputed to have been on the verge of war for centuries. Add to this the two less
common dragon types – the dawn and dusk dragons – and this was by far the most unusual group of dragons he had ever come across.

‘I’ll go and start looking, Husam,’ he said. ‘How long do we have?’

‘Not long this time,’ the slim hunter replied, his eyes going distant again. ‘But they’ll be back, and next time they will separate. We’ll get our chance, Tembo,
but we’ve got a lot of work to do if we’re to be ready.’

How
does
he know that? Once again Tembo was tempted to leave. He could walk away on the pretence of looking for other hunters and just keep walking, but he knew he would not do it.
Despite all his misgivings, he felt a sense of responsibility towards his friend. They had watched one another’s backs for a long time. He could not bring himself to abandon Husam now. His
friend’s behaviour was a mystery, but as with all such puzzles, there would be an answer.

My biggest problem, Tembo thought, is that, though I need an answer, I can’t even decide on the question.

Chapter Six

‘You’d better land, Shadow. I’m not feeling too good.’

It was not an easy admission to make but, if Pell had learned anything from his recent experience, it was not to push past the boundaries of sense. He had been lucky once, and he must not push
his luck. Having a dragon brought no guarantees of safety – very much the opposite. Flying was a dangerous business at the best of times.

Pride had forced him back into the saddle far earlier than was wise. He was still unsteady on his feet, his body ached all over and he had little strength in his arms and legs. However, the
Great Quest to restore the Oracle was more important than a few aches and pains. He had told the others to expect him back with the orb within two weeks. Failure was not an option. Shadow had
protested, but he could tell she was not wholehearted in her arguments. She wanted to press onwards as much as he did.

‘I’m on my way down,’
Shadow responded, instantly ceasing to beat her wings. They entered a shallow glide.
‘Would you like me to find a village, or would you
rather we camped out tonight?’

The thought of a bed was tempting, but Pell had given more than half of his money to the widow and her daughter. He had enough left to pay for a night of lodging in an inn, but not much more.
And they did not have time to stop at a town to earn money.

He sighed, resigned to the idea of an uncomfortable night.
‘We’d better camp,’
he told her.
‘See if you can find somewhere close to running water. I’ll
need to drink a lot for the next few days. My father taught me that drinking water was very good for speeding the recovery from injuries and my water carrier doesn’t hold
much.’

Shadow’s head twisted from side to side as she scanned the countryside ahead for a suitable landing place. Dipping her wing a little to the left, she turned gently northwards a few degrees
and continued her glide. Pell trusted Shadow implicitly. She was consistently successful at locating good places to stop.

The ground was getting closer. Pell guessed they were about five hundred spans up – high enough that everything still felt unreal, but low enough to pick out a reasonable amount of detail
on the ground below. The terrain looked flat from this height, but he knew from previous experience of this region that it was actually gently rolling. Villages were sparse, but the land was
fertile and people who had settled here were mainly self-sufficient.

As they descended lower, more detail became clear. Where cows had been white and brown blobs in the fields before, now they clearly had legs and heads. At about the same time as he began to pick
out legs on sheep, the animals on the ground started to become aware of Shadow. Herds of cattle and sheep scattered as they passed overhead, spooked by the danger posed by the presence of a top
predator.

Pell sensed Shadow’s pleasure in the response she commanded. She was not hungry enough to want to hunt yet, and she would not take a farm animal by choice. Shadow genuinely preferred to
hunt those animals that roamed free. If given the choice, she was most likely to eat a deer or a wild goat. Deer were plentiful in eastern Orupee, so she would have no problem finding tasty
food.

At about fifty spans above the ground, the treetops suddenly seemed to leap upwards towards them. It felt as if they passed a strange transition point where the ground stopped being a
multicoloured carpet and sprang into three-dimensional reality. The final moments before they swept down to a gentle landing at the edge of a tree-lined stream brought the familiar rush of
adrenalin to Pell’s stomach.

In those final moments before touchdown everything appeared to accelerate and the surreal world of the air gave way to the hard reality of the earth. It was those few heartbeats as Shadow
decelerated to a speed at which her legs could take over and run them to a gentle stop that always set Pell’s heart racing. If she landed too fast, her legs would not be able to run fast
enough and Shadow would nose-dive into the earth with potentially disastrous consequences. Slow down too much, and her wings would no longer create enough lift to keep them in the air, resulting in
a rapid vertical drop. It was a fine line, but one that Shadow trod with apparent ease no matter how hard the wind tried to fool her.

The conditions today were benign, with a light breeze and a flat landing surface. Pell would have found it easy to relax and enjoy the final rush and running stop but for the pain throughout his
body. As they came to a halt, he groaned and immediately eased his right leg over to join his left so that he could slide gently down to the ground.

Reaching up, he grabbed the water carrier from where it was hooked onto the saddle. It was a hot afternoon down here at ground level. The sun was making its descent towards the horizon, but the
ground was still radiating the heat it had soaked up during the afternoon and Pell felt sweat begin to trickle down his back from the moment he dismounted. He took a long swig from the carrier and
replaced the stopper before shedding his jacket and over-trousers.

He squinted at the reddening sun. Dusk would not linger tonight. He did not have long to build any sort of shelter. Just the thought of work brought another groan to his lips.

‘Don’t worry, Pell. I’ll shelter you tonight. If I curl up into a circle, you can sleep in the middle under my wing. You can’t have a fire there, but you should be
warm enough. My body will provide sufficient heat.’

‘Thank you, Shadow,’
he replied aloud. He leaned against her side and rested his cheek against her scales.
‘Thank you so much.’