Soul Bonds Book 1 Circles of Light series (2 page)

As Tika watched Farn flying after Krea, she realised Kija and her other children had vanished beyond the high rocks. She felt appallingly alone suddenly, exposed on the open ledge. She followed Farn’s attempts to copy Krea’s movements precisely, and only as both Dragons returned to the cave did she realise how close to panic she’d become. She could see no way down from here – the ledge jutted out over a sheer drop of several hundred arms she guessed. There was no way around the sides of the cave and certainly no footholds down from there even should she get round the overhang.

Krea instructed Farn on adjustments he should make in his practice flights and sent him back and forth across the rocks. When he landed panting slightly and stumbled towards Tika’s outstretched arms, Krea called a halt. ‘Both of you go back further into the cave,’ she instructed. ‘I will fetch food quickly, before darkness comes.’

‘Flying is wonderful Tika,’ Farn murmured. ‘Why can you not fly?’

‘Because I have no wings,’ she retorted snappishly.

His eyes flickered, the prisms glinting blue and silver in the deepening darkness. ‘You can, you can! You can ride on my back!’ He purred his strange chuckling laugh at her. ‘On my back,’ he repeated. He yawned mightily. ‘And I am so hungry.’

‘Krea will bring food soon,’ Tika soothed him while her mind blazed with the idea of herself, Chena, slave pet of the Lord of Return, seated on the back of a great Dragon in flight across a vast sky.

Chapter Two

Krea kept Farn and Tika at the cave for four more days. Farn practised his flying powers until he was trembling with exhaustion. Then he curled against Tika and slept deeply. Krea spent some time away from the cave, returning with meat for Farn – usually two or three hoppers rather than the large wapeesh. Krea discovered, after some considerable probing, that Tika could eat meat only if it was burnt. This mystified the honey coloured Dragon, but she obligingly belched fire over one of the hoppers. When she turned to give the scorched meat to Tika, she was bemused by the way the two legs had shrunk against the cave wall. Fear emanated from her in great waves.

Krea left the meat and removed herself from the cave. She soared high into the evening sky, coiling higher and higher as she pondered the small one’s reaction. She called on a short distance range for Kija, but clearly she and her children had already travelled far.

When Krea returned, she found most of the burnt meat had been eaten and Farn sniffing at the remains with a disgusted curl to his lip. Tika seemed calmer although Krea felt a continuing hint of nervousness from the two legs.

‘Why were you so afraid Tika?’ Krea asked gently. Before Tika could reply Farn interrupted:

‘Because two-legs don’t make fire.’

‘We do. We do make fire. Just – not quite the way Krea did it.’

‘Aah. So how do you make fire?’ Krea asked.

‘It takes a while. We use stones – flints –, which make a spark when you bang them together. Usually, if a fire goes out, we borrow a little piece of fire from someone else’s.’

‘That sounds complicated,’ Farn said, and he sat up and belched. Krea moved surprisingly fast for her size as a few flames flickered from Farn’s mouth and nostrils. He belched again, and choked. It sounded to Tika as if Krea was as near to anger as she’d so far witnessed. Farn closed his mouth, and hiccoughed as tears and smoke streamed down his long snout. Tika hugged him, mopping his face and murmuring sympathetically to him.

Krea settled herself and remarked, mildly enough, but leaving no doubt that she meant each word: ‘You will not attempt any tricks such as fire-making Farn, until I have instructed you thoroughly.’ Her eyes glowed softly as she waited for his agreement.

‘No Krea, I’ll only do things when you have shown me the proper way.’ He gave a mighty sniff. ‘But when can I fly with Tika on my back?’ His eyes began to sparkle blue lights again although a little moist still.

‘Not for a while,’ Krea replied. ‘You must wait until your growth is sufficient and you can carry her safely.’

‘Will we have to stay here until then?’

‘No. I had thought that tomorrow we would leave and start our journey into the Ancient Mountains. If we wait too long we will be late for the Gathering. I will carry Tika to begin with. Now rest, both of you. I will teach you many things as we travel.’

In the first paleness of dawn the two Dragons and the human child stood at the edge of the high cave. Tika shivered and immediately Krea enquired: ‘Are you cold?’

‘A little,’ said Tika, ‘but I’m nervous too,’ she added honestly.

‘I have wondered how you heat yourself. We of the Treasury can regulate our body temperature to a certain extent.’

Tika plucked at the fabric of her green shirt. ‘We wear clothes. Thicker ones and as many as we can in the winter.’

Krea registered surprise. ‘I thought that was a deformity of your own hide,’ she exclaimed. ‘Where can we find you more of these “clothes”?’

‘I suppose only in a town, but I have no money to buy anything.’

‘Money? No, do not try to tell me now,’ Krea said hastily. ‘A town is your name for your strange caves on top of the ground?’

‘You mean houses. Lots of houses together make a town.’

Farn had been listening intently but he now interrupted to point out he was most eager to begin their journey, and the sky was light already, and were they going to stay here talking till noon? Krea stared hard at Farn and he stared equally firmly at the sky.

‘Come Tika, lie on my back and hold fast where my wings grow from my body. That’s right – not so tight – I will not let you fall.’

‘Come ON!’ Farn urged, and lifted from the ledge.

Tika had her eyes tight shut for the first minutes but was aware of barely any motion. Perhaps Krea had only moved forward, perhaps they were still inside the cave. She opened her eyes and could only stare.

They were flying! SHE was flying, on the back of a Dragon! She looked back to see the cave but already they were over the circling peaks rimming the plateau and the cave was gone from sight.

They flew directly towards the rising sun and Krea did not call a rest until nearly midday, by which time Farn was very tired. They flew above more bare and wind-twisted rocks, plateaux and occasional deep gullies. They kept fairly low, seeming to skim the very highest crags and Tika understood this was for both her benefit and also for Farn’s.

After several hours of flying over this barren landscape, one or two gnarled tapisi trees appeared, clinging to rocks and bent as low as bushes by the wind. Obviously, this whole area knew seasons of fierce weather, Tika realised, and she guessed they were lucky at the relative gentleness of the present wind.

Gradually the number of tapisi increased and the surface of the ground was faintly furred with sparse green. Krea kept them in flight until a thin silvery ribbon indicated a watercourse. She slowed and turned into an easy glide, landing smoothly at the side of the stream. Farn landed beside her, his exhausted muscles making his whole body shiver.

Tika slid from Krea’s back and helped Farn to the water where he drank deep and long. Tika was herself drinking the icy water when she heard Krea: ‘You have done well hatchling. I am most pleased with your endurance. We have covered a better distance already than I had hoped for so we will remain here till next dawn. Rest while I seek food.’

Farn sank onto the short grass beside a tapis and began rubbing his forefeet under his armpits. Tika watched, gradually understanding he was getting oil from glands there, which he then worked over his wings. ‘My wings must stay supple,’ explained Farn. ‘The hide can crack if it becomes dry, then I might not be able to fly.’

Tika helped, stretching out the wings as Farn kneaded and smoothed in the oil. She rubbed some of the oil down Farn’s neck and spine and the upper length of his tail, amazed as ever by the way the scales grew in such an orderly way. Each one overlapped the next like a Lord’s armoured coat, yet so pliant and warm. Except for his wings and what Tika thought of as “hands” and “feet”, his whole body was turquoise scaled. His feet, with four toes bare of scales, were covered in smooth, darker blue hide, as were his hands and wings.

Dragon hands had three “fingers” and an opposable thumb from which the tips of retractable talons could be seen. Farn’s head was drooping onto his chest with weariness when Krea landed with meat. She had a volu for Farn and an already scorched hopper for Tika. The volu disappeared inside Farn in less than the time it took Tika to eat the much smaller, but very hot, hopper. Farn groaned with satisfaction and stretched out on the grass, his head on Tika’s leg. Within seconds he was sound asleep.

‘I think we have travelled enough for Farn today,’ Krea said softly. ‘He has done well but he is still too small yet for prolonged journeying.’

The pale honey coloured Dragon also stretched herself on the grass, her eyes half closed.

‘Tell me of yourself Tika,’ she said gently.

What was there to tell, Tika wondered? The Dragons had rummaged through her memories several times she thought so what more did Krea need her to tell?

‘I would know how two legs live. Do you have Clans as we do? Why do you live in one place all the time? Tell me of your Clan, Tika.’

‘I am – or I was – slave born. My mother was a slave captured in a raid by the Lord and his Fighters, from a tribe far north. I think my mother was damaged when she was caught, at least, I remember her as being weak all the time. She died when I was nearing my third Cold Season.’

Krea hissed quietly. ‘What is a “slave”, child?’

‘A slave is someone taken by force from their home and who must then obey their owner in all things.’

‘You own each other?’ Krea’s eyes whirred as she concentrated on understanding Tika’s strange words. ‘We of the Treasury own only ourselves. I cannot understand this at all.’

Tika sighed. ‘Well, I was born a slave because Mother was a slave. But I look like her – she had dark hair and green eyes and most of the Lord’s people are fair, with blue or brown eyes. So the other children always picked on me or blamed me for any trouble.’ She felt Krea struggling to feel the exact meaning of her words.

‘I had work to do, cleaning houses, clearing stones from the gardens, and sometimes when the Lord was home, I was summoned to be his play pet.’ Tika paused. ‘I have had my fourteenth Cold Season and the women said I would soon have to be his pretty. I’m not quite sure what I’d have had to do but I had an idea. I didn’t like it. So I decided to run away.’ She looked straight into Krea’s glowing eyes and finished: ‘I would rather have died on the mountain than live as a slave-pretty to the Lord, and be passed on to his Fighters when he tired of me.’

Tika fell silent and Krea also was silent, thinking of what Tika had told her and trying to comprehend. ‘You say you have been fourteen Cold Seasons in this world, and I understand you to mean this Lord would mate you soon? Is this the usual age for two legs? How long do you live? We of the Treasury are barely adult by the time fifty Cold Seasons have passed. None speak at a Gathering until they are of that age – indeed even then it is considered rash. Usually we say nothing there until a hundred Seasons have matured us to a little wisdom.’

Tika gaped. ‘I think the Lord is near forty, and he is considered getting old. Erm, may I ask how old you are Krea?’

‘Why, I have seen more than seven times a hundred Cold Seasons small one; I am well into my middle years now.’

Tika’s mind could scarcely grasp what she was hearing. Quietness settled over them as both considered what they’d learned of each other.

The afternoon passed in this quietude until Farn awoke. ‘I’m hungry,’ he announced.

‘There are hoppers nearby, see if you are able to catch some for yourself. I will seek elsewhere and will be maybe a longer time away. I will return as soon as I can.’ Before Farn or Tika could ask questions, Krea was rising and moving fast towards the nearest peaks.

‘Do you know how to hunt?’ asked Tika.

‘Of course. Hunting methods are one of the things we learn in the locking bond when we hatch,’ Farn replied.

‘But you locked with me,’ Tika pointed out. ‘And I know absolutely nothing about hunting.’

Farn’s eyes flickered green fire then he said with some relief, ‘Well I do know how, the memories are there.’ He looked at Tika. ‘You stay here and I will fetch us some hoppers.’ He marched importantly across the grass towards the more numerous tapisi, then slowed to a stealthy tiptoe. Tika suspected she could well have a long wait for Farn’s return with food.

The sky had indeed darkened enough to allow a few stars to shine when Farn reappeared. With some difficulty he carried four hoppers. Tika ran to him as he emerged from the tapisi.

‘How clever!’ she exclaimed. ‘How did you catch them so quickly?’ She took two hoppers from one of his forelimbs and two from his mouth. He spat out clumps of fur then raised his head to its full height.

‘Quite simple really. I ate the first one I caught. Shall I scorch one for you Tika?’

‘Go on then, but do be careful, Krea hasn’t taught you the proper way.’

Prudently, Tika moved slightly behind Farn as he pushed one of the hoppers away from the others. He inhaled deeply, and belched. A gout of fire shooshed from his mouth, searing the fur from the hopper. He turned the hopper over, belched once more and another jet of flame shot forth. He looked proudly at Tika, his eyes rather watery, as smoke wreathed from his nostrils.

‘Oh very good,’ applauded Tika. ‘You really can do it!’

‘Of course,’ Farn replied rather smugly, although he had to clear his throat for a while.

After they’d eaten, they settled again by a tapis, and Tika asked Farn if he knew why they had to go to this Gathering. Eventually he said, ‘The memories tell me there is a Gathering around the time of the beginning of the Cold. It is when all give an accounting; new children are shown and accepted into the Treasury. If any have died, the song of their life will be told.’ He yawned. ‘They were very good hoppers didn’t you think Tika?’

‘Oh yes,’ she laughed, wrapping her arms round his slender neck. ‘They were wonderful and mine was so well done!’

Tika woke before dawn. She could just make out the large bulk of Krea’s body lying beyond Farn. She hadn’t heard her return last night and she had stayed awake until the stars had moved quite noticeably in their paths across the sky. She had so many things to think over, so much had happened in so few days, she hardly dared believe it was all real.

Now she was awake again after what felt like only a brief sleep and Krea was back. Krea stretched and turned to Tika. ‘I found some more hides for you,’ she said, sounding pleased with herself. Tika wriggled free of Farn’s wing and went to Krea’s side. Beside the Dragon was a heap of material. Tika lifted it, untangling it to discover two blankets, a pair of trousers and an enormous pair of frilly underbeneaths.